Indigo eyes searched the Kentucky blue skies methodically. Alik craned his neck out the window concentrating so deeply he didn’t feel the crick forming in his neck. Sweat kept trying to form at his hairline only to be whisked away by the force of the wind pushing against him. The SUV sped down the four-lane highway in east Kentucky chasing the echo of a helicopter that had flown five-thousand feet above ground-level an hour ago.
The others in the car had taken turns trying to help by negotiating actual roads that ran as close as possible to where Alik was catching glimpses of the chopper in the sky. Creed needed all the help he could get since he was driving like his life depended on it. Of course in his mind, it did.
“There,” Alik said, pointing to what looked like another ordinary blue patch of sky to everyone else. “The chopper was there. They’re heading more southeast now.”
“The Appalachian Mountains aren’t too far off. Tracking them over that may prove,” Evan swallowed his worry hard, “tricky, Alik.”
“One thing at a time, Ev.”
“What’s that?” Sloan nearly jumped out of her seat pointing to something so far in the distance that no human’s eyes would have seen anything but a whole lot of blur.
“Where?” Cole asked. He peered over the small girl’s shoulder to see where she was pointing.
“Way out there. I saw an explosion against that black mountain.”
“Which black mountain? They’re all black over there!” Cole unbuckled his seat belt and crawled into the back of the SUV, careful not to step on the very sick coydog, but determined to see what Sloan had seen.
“What the hell is going on back there?” Creed barked over the roar of the wind gushing in from Alik’s open window.
“Sloan saw an explosion against the side of a mountain,” Evan explained.
“Are you sure, Sloan?” Alik asked, never taking his eyes off the chopper in the sky only he could see.
“Yes, I can see some smoke or dirt pluming now,” she said, eyes still attached to the faraway scene, afraid if she looked away, she would lose the pinprick mark where the explosion took place in the dimming evening light.
“What do you want to do, Alik?” Creed asked the guy whose directions he’d been following explicitly for the past hour.
“What do you feel?” Alik asked. He continued to watch the sky as he spoke with the soldier beside him.
“I think you need to tell me something pretty quick. The sun is setting and…”
“That’s not what I mean, Creed. You and Meg—you have this special connection. If anyone can feel which way to go, it’s going to be you.”
“Wait, you’re leaving this huge decision up to the guy who only learned how to feel emotion yesterday?” Cole chided. Feeling completely out of control gave a sharp edge to his voice.
“Shut up,” Farrow snapped at Cole, knowing in her heart Alik was right. Creed needed to do this.
“What do you want me to do?” Creed shrugged, eyes darting from the road to the side of the mountain as Sloan’s sharp, gray eyes kept vigil.
“First, pullover so you can concentrate,” he suggested. “Farrow, looks as if we need your driving skills after all.”
Creed indulged Alik and pulled the SUV to the side of the road. As he walked around to climb into the back, he took a long gaze at the scenic beauty bathed in waning sunlight. It paled in comparison to the girl who held his heart in her hands. Sighing deeply, he grimaced at the thought that now the girl wouldn’t even recognize him on the street.
Farrow sat in the driver’s seat awaiting orders. “Just keep following this road for now,” Alik directed, his indigo eyes squinting more from the dimming light than from the wind whipping past them as she accelerated back onto the deserted highway.
“Okay Creed. Just think about her. Remember the way she look at you,” Alik coaxed.
“Oh, jeez,” Cole muttered only to get a sharp elbow into his ribs from Sloan.
“Hush,” the tiny doctor scolded.
Ignoring everyone around him, Creed closed his eyes and immediately conjured up the image of the girl whose face he would paint on the side of every building if he had that talent. Her large, catlike eyes—so full of emotion—sparkled back at him.