Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy (32 page)

I looked dubiously at the empty road. It'd be a while before we'd see a vehicle which could help us out.

"Do you have a cell phone? Maybe we could phone someone who could arrange a lift."

"We didn't bring a cell. Aric figured it was too risky. He didn't want anyone tracing us. But as it turned out, they knew anyway." He paused, swaying from one foot to the other, and peered out at the roadside.

"How do you think they knew?"

"Someone had to have told them."

"Who?"

"That I don't know. We'll have to talk about it with Aric when we get out of here." His voice was grave. The idea of a spy in their midst had obviously been worrying him.

I thought on the people who knew we were headed for Canada. There weren't many. Saul and Ellen, Jomi, Olaf, Marcus and Phil. Surely none of them could betray us - could they? There had to be another explanation, but I couldn't think of any.

"We'll talk about that later." Aric's voice startled me in the darkness. I swear he almost appeared in an instant, he was so fast. Relief flooded through me.

"It's all pretty dense around here. There's a gap in the woods about five miles down the road. Not quite wide as the cab, but we'll have to make it fit. Unfazed by the dark, he rummaged around in his backpack and pulled out some clothes, changing into them quickly and discarding his old bloodied rags. He handed me a new sweater and I donned it gratefully.

Back up at the road, Aric and Olaf inspected the rear of the semi. The tires were set in double formation, and both tires on the right side had been blown. The rims were now bare and mangled after being scraped along the tarmac.

He scratched his head thoughtfully. "We'll have a hell of a job trying to drive this five miles. We'll probably end up in a ditch."

Aric bent to study the rims. He ran a hand down the side of the trailer. "I'll hold it up as you drive. We'll try to get it to balance."

I gaped at him, astounded. What was he - Superman? Superhuman speed and strength? However evil they might be, the Innaki sure knew what they were doing when creating the perfect human.

Aric walked with me back to the cab and hoisted me in as the step rail had been torn from the side in the gargoyte fight. He hauled himself up after me.

"Well, move over then," he said with a grin as he hovered over my lap.

Confused, I shuffled over to the middle seat "Aren't you going to be holding up the trailer?"

He laughed. "Who do you think I am? Superman?" he said, parking himself in the passenger seat. "I'm not going to hold it up physically. I can do it with wyk." Putting his arm around my shoulder, he turned to Olaf. "Ready?"

The semi's engine roared to life on the first try, and Olaf patted the steering wheel affectionately.

"She's got guts, this one. Never lets me down." He jammed the gears into first and hit the gas.

"Come on old girl, one more trip and then you can have a nice long rest." The cab shuddered and moved off slowly, a clunking sound coming from the back.

"Higher Aric. It's best if she's level."

"Sorry." Aric stuck his head out the door and concentrated on leveling the trailer. I heard the axles creaking, and the weight of the cab seemed to shift.

"Better?"

Olaf nodded. "Let me know when we get to the spot you found."

The two of them were silent for the remainder of the short journey as they both concentrated on the task at hand. We didn't see another vehicle at all. Finally, Aric, who'd been scanning the woods at the side of the road, leaned forward, and held up his hand.

"Stop, here." He pointed to the blackness. I couldn't see anything.

"There's a big ditch between the road and the woods. You won't be able to drive in."

The shoulder of the road was perhaps only a few feet across. A guardrail stretched out along the side of the road and the 'ditch' on the other side was so deep and steep it may as well have been a canyon. It'd be impossible to get the rig through there. But Aric was full of surprises and I had no doubt he'd find a way to get it done.

Quickly repacking our backpacks with a few essentials, we decided we'd leave most of the stuff we'd packed behind in the rig's cab as we didn't know how far we'd be walking. We assembled with our stuff at the roadside.

"Right, how do you want to do this?" Olaf leaned over the railing and squinted into the darkness. He was having as much trouble as I was coping with limited night vision.

"I'll have to float it over I guess."

My admiration for his abilities increased ten-fold. How much did a rig like that weigh? And he was going to attempt to float it into the air, across a ditch and into the forest? This wyk stuff was amazing.

Aric stood, legs apart in front of the cab. The night mist swirled in the glow of the headlight. The semi began to rise slowly, the coupling creaking and protesting as Aric leveled the cab with the trailer. He'd lifted the whole thing about five feet above the ground. I could see him shaking with the effort. Maybe he wasn't as recovered as I'd thought he was. At this rate he'd be as weak and ill as he the night I'd taken him to Saul's place. I wasn't about to just stand around and let him do this by himself.

"Wait!" I said. Aric's concentration was broken and the semi went crashing to the ground. Olaf winced.

"Sorry," I continued. "It's too hard for you to do on your own. Let me help."

Aric shook his head. "No, it's okay, I can do this by myself. It just takes some concentration." He turned back to the rig and it rose slowly into the air, but his body was still shuddering with the extreme effort he was putting in. I decided to help him whether he wanted me to or not. I figured it must work just like it did when I sent candy flying across the table at Phil, only on a grander scale. I pictured the rig sliding across the space over the ditch. The semi began to turn, and then stopped at an angle, hanging stubbornly in the air no matter how much I tried to push it across the ditch.

"Lucy, I'm trying to turn it!" Aric was eyeing me in amusement. "If you're going to help we have to do this in sync, otherwise we're just battling against each other."

"Oh!" I lost my concentration and the rig began to fall, but Aric caught it again.

"Okay, let's turn it ninety degrees so the headlight's facing the trees. You'll see the gap as it gets closer. I'll steer. You just help keep it up okay? Don't fight it!"

I nodded and just focused on keeping it up in the air. It glided over the ditch slowly, strangely silent aside from an occasional creak, moving like a giant truck shaped balloon through the air. The headlight fell on the trees and I made out the gap Aric had been talking about. We'd never fit it through there. I presumed he was going to force it.

He moved closer to the rail. My strength was beginning to wane, but I kept up my side of the task. The cab pushed against the trees, and I heard the crack of branches as they gave way. It is hard to describe the feeling. I could feel the resistance of the trees as we pushed the vehicle through, yet it was all in my mind. I shook with the effort. We pushed until the rig was swallowed up by the trees, lodged deep into the woods so none of the rig was showing from the road. Only the glow of the headlight and parking lights could be seen through the brush, and Aric quickly turned those off remotely using his mind, leaving us in complete darkness.

I slumped against the rail. I felt as though I'd run a marathon. I felt the warmth of Aric's body behind me, although I could barely see him.

"Are you all right?"

I pushed the hair out of my eyes. "Yeah, give me a minute. That was harder than I thought it'd be."

"You know you are one stubborn woman." He murmured near my ear. "I could've done it by myself you know."

"You're welcome," I said facetiously, but I leaned my weary head back on his chest. He put his arms around me.

"Sorry... and thank you - for the help," He said, hugging me closer for a moment. He kissed my temple, then released me, giving my backside an affectionate pat. He shouldered my backpack but I insisted on carrying it myself. I could just make out his white grin in the dimness. "We've got to get going," he said. "No point hanging around here all night." Grabbing his own backpack, he took my hand and the three of us headed off along the dark and silent road in the middle of nowhere.

* * * * *

Chapter Fourteen

The rain started as a gentle patter, then, heralded by a low rumble of thunder, big fat droplets turned into a steady downpour which seeped into our clothes, washed the blood from our battered bodies, and set my teeth chattering again. We'd had to run to the cover of the trees for the worst of it, and were standing shivering amongst the damp tree trunks when the only pair of headlights we'd seen in more than two hours appeared in the distance.

Aric dropped his backpack on the ground and studied the rapidly approaching vehicle. "Stay here, I'll let you know when it's safe to come out," he said. Taking off across the ditch to the roadside, he stopped for a moment to yell back to us. "Leave the talking to me!"

We watched as the car's headlights caught his waving figure in the gloom. It slowed down and I was hopeful it would stop, but it sped up again as it passed him, its wheels squealing on the wet asphalt.

Beside me, Olaf cursed and folded his arms against his chest. "Where's the community spirit these days?" he said.

Although disappointed, I tried to be little more understanding. "Maybe it was a lone woman in the car? I wouldn't be stopping in the middle of nowhere to pick up a strange man. Perhaps we should show ourselves? They might be more open to picking up a female-"

I fell silent as I watched the car stop dead in its tracks a few hundred feet up the road. It slowly rose into the air, its engine silenced, then floated back to Aric, where it was gently lowered to the ground. I watched as Aric walked to the driver's side and bent to talk to what, I presumed, would be one very shaken driver. After a few minutes he signaled to us to come over. Olaf grabbed Aric's backpack and we ran through the rain to the car where Aric motioned for us to hop in.

"Lucy, Olaf, this is Carole." Aric twisted around in the front passenger seat. "She's kindly agreed to take us to see her brothers. They have a car we might be able to buy." After depositing our backpacks in the trunk, Olaf and I were sitting, soaked to the skin, in the back seat.

"Lucy and Olaf is it?" Carole seemed strangely unaffected by the fact her car had been stopped and floated ten feet in the air. "I'm really sorry to hear about your sister. I hope you get to see her on time."

Olaf and I threw each other a confused glance. I heard Aric's voice in my mind.

I told her we have a sister who's very ill and we're on our way to see her, hitch hiking because our car died.

A sister? Then that would mean...
Then you're supposed to be my brother?

Er, yeah, and Olaf's our father. I'll let him know.

I wasn't sure whether I liked that, the brother/sister thing. I could see Carole already throwing Aric flirty glances from under her long, overly bleached blond bangs.
Why couldn't you just tell her I'm your girlfriend?

Because this will work better if... well, if Carole thinks I'm... available.

I sat up in my seat and nearly spoke out loud, the green monster of jealousy growling inside me.
Available! No way! You have to tell her the truth.

Lucy, trust me, okay? This works best if I can, um, flirt with her.

What works best? Your evil plot to drive me nuts?

He laughed quietly.
The... whispering thing, it's quicker and... more natural... if I can, well, flirt. I can't do that if she knows you're my girlfriend.
I knew he'd cringed at the term 'whispering', even without being able to see his face.

Well, don't whisper too - closely!
I said grumpily, crossing my arms over my chest. I scowled in silence at the back of his head. His muffled chuckle echoed in my brain.

I don't think it's funny,
I sulked.

You have nothing to worry about. I'm -

Carole interrupted him. "So, Aric, tell me about yourself. Where are you from?"

I sat, seething in the back seat as Aric and Carole entered the most excruciatingly lame, flirting exchange, full of innuendo and suggestive glances. My fists clenched and unclenched under my armpits while Olaf peered uncomfortably out of the window at the brightening landscape.

"Perhaps you could come back this way, after you've seen your sister I mean," Carole was saying. "Stay at my place. I could always find a bed for you." She turned her head to wink at him, adding a seductive smile.

I'd had enough. "Right!" I sat bolt upright, but Olaf put a warning hand on my arm, protesting silently with a slight shake of his head. His eyes opened wide in a soundless plea for me to stop.

"Right..." I continued, trying to salvage the situation. "Er, I'm off to sleep." I threw my head back against the upholstery with a thump, cricking my neck. The pain only made me angrier. Leaning over, Olaf whispered in my ear. "Read my mind."

I jammed my way into Olaf's head. My jaw clenched so tight my teeth hurt.

What?
I said, rather too sharply.

Calm yourself down Lucy. If you go off half-cocked now you'll ruin everything and we'll be thrown out of the car on our asses. We need the ride, remember?

I scowled behind closed lids.
He doesn't have to do it this way...

Olaf sighed.
Trust him.
I know it's... uncomfortable for you, but trust him. He knows what he's doing. It's all part of the process.

The 'process'? What process was that - the abduction process? Surely he didn't seduce every person he helped the Innaki abduct. What about the men? Kids? He wouldn't seduce them, so why'd he have to do that now, in our situation?

I hadn't realized I was still sharing my thoughts with Olaf, and was surprised when he answered me.
I guess he just feels it's the easiest, quickest way to go about it in this case
,
he said.
Although,
he added with a wry chortle,
I bet he didn't count on your wrath when he decided to do it. Maybe it would have been easier to do it any other way!