“I do not know for sure, but we will certainly try, Ma Reine.”
“Oh, we can do it,” Ray piped up. “We will get this plane level even if I have to wrestle it to the ground. I’m not letting us burn up in a fiery crash. Not on my watch.”
Land was coming up fast. Ray grabbed on to the handle of the door and pulled.
The pilot’s voice was nothing less than a shriek as he heard the lever flip. “What are you doing? You can’t open the door!”
Jessica, I have to knock them out, Rourke said in my mind. They won’t be able to process what’s about to happen.
Can you fly the plane? I asked.
If the vamps give me a good angle, I can get it down. I’ve flown before, but it’s been a long time.
Let’s have Marcy spell them. I don’t want them hurt if we can help it.
Fine, but have her do it quick.
“Marcy.” I reached out and tapped her leg. Her eyes flew open. “I need you to spell the pilots. Knock them out, quick like a bunny.”
“I love bunnies.” She muttered something and both pilots slumped forward in their seats. “How’s that for quick?”
“Perfect.”
Rourke wasted no time. He had them in the passenger seats beside us in about ten seconds. I rose to help, unbuckling my seat belt. “Secure that one.” He nodded at the copilot.
I reached over and made sure they were both tightly belted. We were quickly running out of time.
Ray hollered, “We’re going out.” He tossed the door open and a rush of air filled the plane. In a blink he and Naomi were gone. The wind howled fiercely, sucking everything not tied down out the door.
I braced my legs and hands against the seats. We weren’t at a high altitude, so breathing wasn’t an issue. Rourke strapped himself into the cockpit and yelled, “Jessica! Buckle yourself in. We’re going to crash in about thirty seconds!”
I glanced over at Marcy. Her face was white as a sheet, but she kept chanting the same spell over and over. “This damn interference is killing my craft,” she moaned as I made a split decision and started for the front of the plane.
Almost immediately the plane began to nose up, slowing our rapid descent. The vamps were making it work. The landing wasn’t going to be close to perfect, but at least we weren’t going to crash headfirst. I took a seat next to Rourke and he arched an eyebrow at me.
“This seat is just as good as any,” I answered as I grabbed the shoulder harness and clipped myself in. “What do we do now?”
“Put your hands on the yoke and pull back with me,” he ordered. “We’re going to help slow the plane down if we can.”
I did as I was told, and with the aid of the vamps, the front of the plane continued to edge upward. But the ground was closing in exceedingly fast. We had only about ten seconds at most. “We’re going to hit soon.” I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. This was likely not going to kill us, unless of course the crash broke all our necks or the plane was engulfed in flames. But even if we weren’t going to die, it was going to hurt like a bitch. Being broken and mangled from a plane crash was a serious injury for any supe.
“Hold on!” Rourke shouted as a sea of marshland, water, and scrubby brush sped in front us, filling the view out the windshield.
“I’m holding!” The yoke broke under my grip.
We hit once… and then bounced like a superball.
My eyebrows shot up as I glanced over at Rourke. “What’s going on?” I asked. We went down again, almost in slow motion, and then bounced up like we were attached to a bungee cord.
“It’s the best I can do!” Marcy yelled from her seat. “Whoever’s messing with us managed to find a way to block the plane from my magic. But they can’t block the entire earth, suckas!”
“Sweet,” I called, continuing to grip the broken wheel in each of my fists. “But at this rate the plane is going to break apart.”
“No it won’t,” Marcy said. “The plane is cushioned from below by a spell. I thought soft and bouncy, and my brain went straight to marshmallows. That’s just how it works when I’m under pressure.”
“So the plane is mimicking jumping from marshmallow to marshmallow?”
“That’s right,” she called, pride in her voice. “It was ingenious, if I do say so myself.”
The plane began to slow to small bounces and I spotted Ray out the windshield. He was in the process of placing his body in front of the nose to try and slow us down to a complete stop. I assumed Naomi was helping him from below.
It was strange to see him out there, almost surreal.
We continued to spring over the small mounds of earth and water until the belly of the plane finally struck something hard.
The plane jerked to a stop, tossing us all forward. Then with almost no preamble, it cracked in half. I glanced back just in time to see Marcy tumble out of the belly of the plane, still strapped to her seat.
There was a splash below.
“I’m okay!” she called. “I broke my fall with a spell. Now I just have to figure out how to get marsh water out of my lady parts.”
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