chapter IV
I DIDN’T HAVE MUCH time to contemplate anything, because Ellie then burst into the room saying something about Michael.
I feared the worst and wondered why.
“Airel, I—wait, where’s Kim?”
“She’s in the shower,” I said. “I know it’s like 3 a.m., but she’s weird. Anyway, why?”
She looked relieved for some reason. “I just like to know the whereabouts of my teammates, that’s all.”
“Some team,” I muttered under my breath. Then I addressed her: “Ellie, what’s going on?”
“I need help.”
She looked so desperate that I was able to suppress my laughter. “With what?”
“I don’t know what to do with him.”
“Who?” I growled, suspecting the worst possible answer; the wrong one. Why can’t she just leave my man alone?
“It’s Michael. I need your help.”
I shot up off the bed and got in her face. “How dare you! You know what, it’s high time I told you off, little missy. How dare you. How dare you! You stay away from him, you hear? Do you hear me? You stay away from him or I’ll—I can’t believe you’re doing this, in broad daylight too!” Never mind that it’s the middle of the night… “Anyway right under my nose, just flaunting your flirting. I’m sick of it, sick of you. I’m warning you…” I stopped in mid-rant because she turned away with a smirk, raised her hands and shook her head. What gall. I couldn’t believe it.
All she said was, “Oh, the irony,” and circled back around to face me. Her eyes were loaded with meaning I couldn’t hope to understand.
I tried to speak but couldn’t.
“Airel, listen closely, because I’m only going to say this once. I have no interest in your Alexander demon boy. At least insofar as it does not directly concern you. And for the record, I’m disappointed.”
“About what?”
“That you’ve not guessed it yet. The intelligence I’d gathered up to now led me to believe you were smarter. Quicker.”
“Look, you don’t have to insult me, too—”
“I’m not, girlie. I’m just trying to help. Will you let me?”
It was just intolerable. One drop of kindness could defuse a nuclear bomb, dag nabbit. I scowled at her but relented. “Fine. But this conversation is not over.”
“As I said: irony. Now, shall we go rescue your silly bloke together?”
Ooo, I hate this. Because now Ellie and I have common ground and it involves the love of my life. Darn you, sissy la-la Aussie electric blue pompom head girl! “What’s he done now,” I asked, the words chafing against me even as I spoke them.
“Um, yeah. You will have to see it to believe it. Unfortunately.” She stalled for a moment. “I don’t suppose this is the best time or place to confess this, but he and I were out and about together earlier. Just the two of us. It was a reconnaissance mission.”
“Go on,” I said through clenched teeth.
“He was concerned about signs of a tail, an enemy observation scheme. We ran them down together, stopped them. But it wasn’t at all what we expected, and that’s why I need you.”
Before I could interject, Kim emerged from the bathroom nude, looking like the bride of Satan’s spawn. “Kim,” I said, “Would you wrap up in a towel or something?”
She simply yawned. “Oh, hi, girls,” she said and walked to the bed and snuggled under the covers.
“Anyway…we’ve gotta run out for a minute,” I said.
No response. Just muffled snores.
“Holy crap, is she out already?”
“Looks to be so, girlie.”
I rolled my eyes. My life was officially ridiculous. Yeah, and things had kinda been skewing that way for a while now. “So what is going on?” I asked again, perturbed that I was still not getting it. It was like my mind had clouded over with a mental cataract or something.
“It’s Michael.”
“Duh.”
“I need you to help me with him.”
“Yes…” I arched my eyebrows.
“Look, it’s easier if you just come with me now.”
I didn’t like that at all. I growled again. “You are the most exasperating person I know.”
“Well, you can either come or not. You’re still making the choices here.”
Yeah, this whole freakin’ thing stinks. I grabbed my room key and led her out the door in a huff.
We approached the park where, I could imagine clearly now, the Bloodstone had changed hands between Kim and Michael right under my nose. He hadn’t told me about it at all. But if he has it, why did he tell me to talk to Kim? She doesn’t have it, he does! I was incredibly worried that he was making some stupid brave decision, some chauvinistic act of noble duty and self-sacrifice to which men are so often and so foolishly predisposed. Hello, hero boy, I don’t need you to rescue me. I just want you to talk to me. It made me even more irritable that he didn’t trust me enough to share the burden of it with me.
“Darn you, Michael,” I muttered under my breath, “what have you done now?”
I looked askance at Ellie walking alongside me. No clues there. Her lips were sealed shut in a grimace of strong determination as she walked through the grass with me.
Finally she stopped and pointed. “There,” she said. It was clear she did not intend to accompany me further.
“Fine,” I said, and walked in the direction described by her index finger. All I could see in front of me was the little roped-off beach area just beyond the trees and grass. There was a dark shape there, but I wasn’t sure…it looked like a boulder to me in the dim light. I looked back to Ellie for confirmation, but she had already turned back. She was probably going back to the hotel for some sleep. What a luxury, I thought. Why is she even here? To stir up all kinds of crap for me to deal with?
I heard a noise from the beach and turned back toward the water. The shape that I had assumed was a boulder was subtly moving. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I groped around for She. Nothing.
Frozen to my place at the edge of the manicured grass, I waited in fear for more information. The shape was human. Maybe. It looked and sounded like someone was bent over, sobbing quietly in the sand. I decided to get closer. The choice wasn’t made with the consent of my awareness; it was pure destiny.
I wagered a further risk: “Michael?” I took a few more timid steps toward the shape.
Then I realized what it was; the bubble of impossibility popped. It’s not one person. It’s two. Drawn out prone in the cold dark of the sand was a second person. The hair on my arms stood erect and my eyes widened, stark. Only one of the people was moving. The other was lifeless.
Please, God, don’t let that be Michael! I thought Ellie had betrayed me, that she had lured him out alone with her and then ambushed, assaulted and killed him with one of her confederates. Who that might have been I had no idea, but that didn’t matter. Then she had come for me, led me here so that I could be done to death as well, and then she went off to kill Kim as she slept. I looked wildly around in a panic.
I couldn’t help but shout in a hoarse whisper: “Michael!” I was about ten feet away from either certain death or the love of my life, and it never once occurred to me to try to call the Sword of Light.
The shape moved, twisted toward me and I saw a face in the dark; a face I knew well. “Michael!” I ran to him, crashed to the sandy earth on my knees at his side and wrapped my arms around his neck. It was him.
I felt his sobs as they racked both of us in heaving grief. He did not return my embrace. I pulled away to see what was the matter. I then saw a thing that would change me forever, just like every little thing I had been made to endure since we had first met, since he had activated me, since we had sparked our intense bond to each other.
It was the face of a child.
Held in Michael’s arms was a boy of no more than about ten years of age. His eyes were pallid and dull in death. Michael’s face was drawn back in overwhelming pain. His sobs came in stabbing spasms as he moaned and cried.
I didn’t know what to do. I had been thrust into a cup of such an impossible admixture of morbidity, pain, love, and sympathy, it felt absolutely crazy to be stirred up within it. It hurt beyond words, but I was with him. I knew that I could do anything, endure anything as long as I had my Michael. It was a fact, so I stayed there with him on that little beach in the darkness as he held the corpse of a boy.
Answers? They would come. I believed that, and it was enough.