Cursing, I swerved in the other direction, trying to get us back onto the road. The tree almost took off the driver-side mirror, but we missed it by an inch. I manhandled us back into our ruts and expected to see the creature lying in the dirt behind of us. But it was gone.
“It’s over there,” Simon blurted, pointing right again. “Go, go, it’s turning to come back.”
I found the accelerator and we surged forward, my grip on the wheel so fierce nothing would have pried off my hands. In the rearview mirror, the dark figure leaped onto the road, twisting in the air to land in a run-a run headed our way. Those webs didn’t slow it down on land at all. It raced along on four legs, loping like a wolf, albeit a torso-heavy version of one.
“It’s gaining on us.” Simon had twisted in his seat so he could see out the back. “Gotta go faster.”
We were heading toward another bend, and I dared not accelerate. It’d have no trouble catching us if we hurled the van into a ditch. But the image in the rearview mirror had doubled in size. Once we reached the highway, we could outrun it, but here, on these bumpy curving roads?
“Are we getting close to our first turn?” I asked.
When Simon didn’t answer, I risked glancing over at him. The map was on the floor while he leaned halfway out the window, trying to take pictures of our monstrous pursuer.
“Are you kidding? Simon!”
“I’ll look.” Temi grabbed the map.
As soon as we’d cleared the dangerous part of the curve, I leaned on the gas again.
Simon yelped and caught the window frame to keep from falling out. He fumbled his phone and almost lost it.
“I hear riding on the inside of the van is a good idea,” I yelled.
He slithered into the seat, his face ashen.
“Take the left at the fork,” Temi said.
The creature continued to lope along behind us, but it wasn’t gaining ground. I risked a few more glances, trying to get a good view of its head-its face-but it’d grown too dark. It was a shadow moving behind us now, nothing more. I focused on a fresh crack in the windshield for a second. A heavy shadow.
I took the left and Temi directed me through two more turns. We lost sight of the creature after the second turn, but I didn’t let myself relax until we reached the paved blacktop of the highway. When the lights of town came into view, I could scarcely believe we’d made it out without a flat tire-or worse. The cracked windshield seemed a minor price to pay for coming face to face-or fender to face-with that creature again.
“Anyone else think we should stay in the city from now on?” I asked as we drove past the Safeway on the south side of town.
“Yes,” Temi said. “A nice city on the East Coast preferably.”
Simon was busy surfing through his latest photos. Wonderful.
CHAPTER 17
After a hot shower in Temi’s room at the Motel 6, I almost felt like a normal person again. I dressed in clean clothing and stepped out of the steamy bathroom, expecting to join a lively conversation on monsters, swords, and inhuman motorcycle riders. Instead Simon was hunkered on the floor in a corner, his MacBook balanced across his lap as he stole glances at Temi, who was lying on the bed reading a book. I laughed when I recognized the faded cover of Sex and the Single Girl. That would get Simon’s imagination going. I hoped the book represented a lack of other reading materials rather than an indicator of Temi’s usual tastes, but who was I to judge? I read books about vampires, werewolves, and modern-day magic-flinging druids for fun. Oh sure, I threw in a little Camus and Rand when people could see the covers, but my e-reader was full of paranormal smut. Though oddly this week, I hadn’t felt the need for fiction…
“Who’s next?” I waved toward the bathroom. When Simon didn’t move, I nudged him with a foot and made a point of sniffing. “What I meant to say is you’re next.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He shut the lid on the computer and stood up. “Recently washed people are so sanctimonious.”
He grabbed rumpled but clean clothing out of the canvas Trader Joe’s bag that passed for his suitcase and disappeared into the bathroom. I plopped down on the second of the room’s two double beds. Simon and I had plans to flip for it later.
“Thanks for letting us stay here tonight,” I told Temi. “I’m not feeling that safe in campgrounds, woods, tunnels, or any other outdoor abodes at the moment.”
I wasn’t sure the Motel 6, with its large window overlooking the busiest street in town, was all that safe either, but there was always a chance a monster searching for us would get the wrong room. By now, I believed our “predator” was more interested in showing up where Eleriss and Jakatra were and had little to do with us, but one never knew.
“My posh abode is your posh abode,” Temi said. “Though you have to go to the front desk and pay an extra three bucks if you want wifi.”
“I’m sure Simon has already found a workaround for that.” I waved toward his Mac.
I dug out my own laptop. It was time to do some research. I had blood to find a lab for, a sample of a weird foreign language that needed a program to analyze, and-
My phone bleeped. A message from Autumn flashed across the screen. Ah, I might have an answer to the smudge on my arrow too.
You say this came from an animal?
I texted her back: It came from… something ambulatory. Have you seen the news? About the Prescott killings? And the L.A. ones before?
Let’s talk. Where in Prescott are you staying?
Motel 6, Room 210. Did you drive down here?
“We might have some more information on the creature,” I told Temi.
“I’m not sure I want any more information on it,” she said, “or to see it again. I don’t suppose you’d like to return to estate sales tomorrow? I think I can work up more interest for pawing through dusty boxes now.”
“Losing your enthusiasm for this diversion?” If I were smart, I’d lose my enthusiasm and suggest leaving town, but it would be hard to let go of all these clues without investigating them thoroughly. I wished the monster would disappear-or someone would figure out a way to kill it-so I could focus on the riders, their language, and their artifacts.
The phone bleeped again. Be there in twenty.
Thanks. After a moment I added, I don’t suppose you know a serologist in Prescott who can come too?
I didn’t get a response to that. Either Autumn was driving and couldn’t text or she had no idea how to respond to such a random request. I opened up my laptop to search for a language analysis program. I found something that could listen to digital files, but the price put it out of reach. I had a feeling I was going to have to send this off to someone in the linguistics department at ASU. I wished more of my old instructors and friends weren’t disgruntled with me. Still, I remembered a couple of professors who’d probably be so intrigued by the challenge that they’d forget their disappointment in my career choice. I needed Simon to make me that mp3 file first though.
“Don’t worry,” I told Temi. “This is temporary. Besides, I don’t think monster hunting would be a viable career. It takes a whole team of specialists to get anywhere.” Though technically the language sample wasn’t from the monster; it was from the… whatever our riders happened to be. “It is more interesting than what we usually deal with on a day-to-day basis, I admit. Though I’d never thought of our business as boring. Not like cataloguing rocks anyway.”
“Your friend-or is it boyfriend? — seems quite taken with the entrepreneurial potential in it all,” Temi said.