With a scream I gave voice to my fear and rage as I launched myself at Heath, knocking him aside a moment before the Raven Mocker reached him so that the creature struck me instead. I didn’t feel any pain then, just an odd pressure against my skin, starting at the top of my left shoulder and slicing across the upper part of my chest, above my breasts, all the way to my right shoulder. The force of the blow spun me around in a half circle so that I was still facing the Raven Mocker as it flew past us and then dropped to the ground on its terrible human legs.
Its blood-colored eyes widened as it looked at me. “No!” it cried in a voice that could belong to no sane being. “He wantssss you alive!”
“Zoey! Oh, God, Zoey! Get behind me!” Heath was yelling at me as he tried to scramble to his feet, but he slipped on the icy pavement that had somehow turned a wet red. He fell hard.
I glanced at him and thought how weird it was that even though he was right next to me it sounded like he was yelling from way down a long tunnel.
I didn’t understand why, but...Blood? Is that what’s all over the pavement? That’s odd. With a mental shrug I disregarded the pooling blood and shouted, “Wind, come to me!”
At least I thought I shouted. What really came out of my mouth was barely a whisper. Thankfully, wind is a good listener because the air instantly began to swirl around me.
“Keep that thing on the ground,” I said. Wind instantly obeyed, and a lovely mini-tornado engulfed the grotesque birdman, causing its wings to be useless. With a terrible screeching sound the thing tucked its useless wings against its back and began to trudge toward me, ducking its mutated head against the battering of wind.
“Zoey! Shit, Zoey!” Heath was suddenly beside me. His strong arm was around me, which felt really good because I was thinking that I might want to fall over.
I smiled at him, wondering why he was crying. “Just a sec. Gotta finish off that thing.” Wearily, I turned my attention back to the birdman. “Fire, I need you.” Heat was there, warming the swirling air around me. Then I used the finger of the bloody hand I was still holding upright and I pointed it at the thing that was getting closer and closer to Heath and me. “Burn it up,” I commanded.
The warmth that had been surrounding me changed tempo, going from gentle heat to a column of consuming flame. It followed the direction of my pointing finger and of my will, and it plowed into the Raven Mocker, engulfing it in an angry yellow flame. The air was filled with the awful scent of roasting meat and burnt feathers. I thought I might puke.
“Oh, ugh. Fire, thank you. Wind, before you leave, could you please blow that nasty smell away?” It was so strange that I thought I was saying all this stuff really loud, but my voice was actually coming out as a weak little whisper. The elements obeyed me anyway, which was good, because a wave of sickening dizziness washed over me and I was suddenly slumping against Heath, unable to hold myself upright anymore.
I tried to understand what was wrong with me, but my thoughts were all muddied, and for some reason knowing exactly what was going on didn’t seem very important.
Way off in the distance I heard running feet, and then I was looking up at Heath’s tear-streaked face as he yelled, “Help! We’re over here! Zoey needs help!”
Next thing I knew, Erik’s face had joined Heath’s. All I could think was oh, great, they’re going to start growling at each other again. But they didn’t. Actually, Erik’s reaction when he looked down at me started to make me feel kinda concerned, in a detached, only vaguely interested way.
“Shit!” he said, and his face turned really pale. Without saying another word Erik ripped off his shirt (which was the cool black long-sleeved Polo he’d been wearing at our last ritual), making buttons pop all over. I blinked in surprise, thinking that he looked really good in just his little wifebeater T-shirt. I mean, seriously, he has a hot body. He dropped down on the other side of me.
“Sorry, this is probably going to hurt.” Erik balled up his shirt and pressed it against my chest.
Pain did slice through me then, and I gasped.
“Oh, Goddess! Sorry, Z, sorry!” Erik kept saying over and over.
I looked down to see what was making me hurt like that and was utterly shocked to see that my whole body was drenched in blood.
“Wh-what—” I tried to frame a question, but the pain mixed with the increasingly strong feeling of numbness made it difficult for me to speak.
“We have to get her to Darius. He’ll know what to do,” Erik said.
“I’ll carry her. Just lead me to this Darius guy,” Heath said.
Erik nodded. “Let’s go!”
Heath looked down at me. “I have to move you, Z. Just hang in there, okay?”
I tried to nod, but the movement ended in another gasp when Heath picked me up and, clutching me to his chest like I was an overgrown infant, he ran, slipping and sliding, after Erik.
The trip back down into the tunnels was a nightmare I’ll never forget. Heath rushed after Erik through the basement. When they got to the metal ladder that led down to the tunnel system, they paused only for a second.
“I’ll hand her down to you,” Heath said.
Erik nodded and disappeared down the hole. Heath walked to the edge of it. “Sorry, babe,” he said. “I know this must be awful for you.” Then he kissed me lightly on my forehead before he squatted and somehow passed me to Erik, who was standing below us.
I say “somehow” because I was busy screaming in pain and I wasn’t really paying close attention to the logistics of what was actually going on.
Next thing I knew Heath had dropped lightly to the tunnel floor and Erik handed me back to him.
“I’m going to run ahead and find Darius. You keep following the main tunnel. Don’t take any of the turnoffs. Stay where it’s best lit and I’ll come back to you with Darius.”
“Who is Darius?” Heath said, but he was speaking to empty air. Erik had already sprinted away.
“He’s lots faster than I thought he was,” I tried to say, but a weak jumble of words was all that whispered from my mouth. And I noticed the lantern that I was sure had gone out right before I’d climbed up into the basement was lit again. “That’s weird” was what I meant to say. Instead, I barely heard myself mumble something that sounded like “Thhhhat’s weeeer” over the pounding of my heart in my ears.
“Shhh,” Heath soothed as he started out as quickly as he could without jiggling me so badly that he made me scream again. “You stay with me, Zo. Don’t close your eyes. Keep watching me. Keep with me.” Heath kept talking and talking, which was really annoying because my chest hurt really bad and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and go to sleep.
“Gotta rest,” I murmured.
And hers, “No! There’s no resting! Hey, let’s pretend like we’re in that Titanic movie you used to watch over and over again. You know, the one with Leonardo DiStupio.”
“DiCaprio,” I whispered, irritated at the fact that after all these years Heath was still jealous that when I was a kid I’d had a crush on Leonardo. Or as I liked to think of him, “my boyfriend Leo.”
“Whatever,” he said. “Remember how you said if you’d been Rose you would really never have let him go? Okay, well, let’s do a little reenactment. I’m the gay-looking DiCaprio and you’re Rose. You have to keep your eyes open and on my face, or you’ll have let me go and I’ll turn into a huge gay Popsicle.”
“Dork,” I managed.
Heath grinned. “Just never let me go, Rose. Okay?”
Okay, it was a stupid reenactment, but I’ll admit that he hooked me. It had driven me crazy since the first time I’d seen the movie (and bawled my eyes out—and I do mean one of those shoulder-heaving, ugly snot cries). Stupid Rose says she’ll never let him go, but then she does. And why couldn’t she have scooted over and let Leo/Jack get on that floating board thing with her? There was plenty of room. So while my foggy mind circled round and round that heart-wrenching scene from one of my favorite movies, Heath held me tight in his arms and ran.