The turbid water churns. She fights its furious spiral, blindly thrashing and kicking. Salt burns her throat; her lungs ache; she panics. A hand on her wrist. Air!
Jo sat straight up. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. The walls of the cabin wavered in the ever-changing shadows. Lary was sitting on the edge of the sofa. Dove stood beside him, a blanket dripping off her shoulders. For a second, Jo was confused that it wasn’t morning. There was another bang on door—the noise that woke her.
Mike moved to the window. Galen was standing on one side of it, peering at whoever was pounding on the front door. Ben and Drew were at the loft railing. April sat on the edge of the futon, shivering and wide-eyed.
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“It’s Red,” Galen answered, so matter-of-factly, the words didn’t quite register for a moment.
“What?” Mike shoved Galen aside to look for himself.
Jo’s jaw dropped.
Dove’s face lit up. “I can’t believe it!” She let the blanket drop and rushed to the door.
Galen’s expression caused Jo to grab her friend as she went by. “Wait, Dove.”
“Jo!” Dove pulled her arm from Jo’s hand.
“Wait, something’s wrong,” Jo whispered to her.
Mike reached for the door knob. Galen grabbed his arm. “Don’t.”
“It’s Red. Let her in!” Mike glared at Galen. The two men locked eyes.
“It could be a trick.”
“I don’t care!” Mike tried to force his hand to the knob, but his strength was no match for Galen’s. His face burned red.
“Guys, please!” Red’s childlike voice implored them from the other side of the door.
Dove placed her hand on Galen’s shoulder and begged him with melted-blue eyes. “Galen, we have to let her in.”
Jo was surprised that his resolve gave way. He let go of Mike’s arm and raised his hands in surrender. But conflict warred on his face. He backed away, keeping his eyes fixed on the door. And as he moved back, he pulled Jo with him, tugging the bottom hem of her shirt. She didn’t acknowledge him, but she let him do it.
Mike opened the door and Red’s form menaced the doorway. Her face was small and pale, surrounded by wild scarlet hair.
“Red!” Mike yanked her inside and shut the door.
She threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest.
Jo sighed. Her heart was relieved to see Red alive, but she was dismayed to see her wrapped around Mike so tightly.
“We prayed you’d make it out,” Mike said, as he embraced Red, pressing his chin down on top of her head. He winked at Jo. She did her best to smile back, and mean it.
Dove tried to get in a hug, but Red wouldn’t release Mike. She didn’t seem to care about reuniting with anyone else. She kept Mike captive in her arms until he began to squirm. He pried her arms from his sides and moved her back.
April limped forward, reaching for her. “Red, I can’t believe it! We were so worried. How did you find us?”
Red’s wary green eyes lit on April. She threw her hands over her face and wailed, mashing hands and all into Mike’s chest. “Don’t touch me!” She cried.
April stopped in her tracks. Her jaw fell.
Mike held Red, looking at the group, over her flaming hair. He shrugged his shoulders.
Red’s actions seemed a little over the top to Jo, even if she had experienced the trauma of the river. She didn’t seem very happy to have lived through a near drowning and to have found her friends in the middle of nowhere. The Red Jo knew would be telling the great tale of how she had conquered the raging waters. Don’t exaggerate. You’re just jealous, she told herself.
A greenish-yellow eyeball peeked at her from between splayed fingers. Jo was almost entertained as Red move her hands up Mike’s chest and around the back of his neck, all the while glancing sideways at Jo.
Mike’s face flushed a deep pink color. He dropped his arms. “Uh…Red.”
Red turned her head, pressing her cheek against him. Her lips were mostly veiled by her sanguine hair, but Jo saw the deceitful grin on them, and that strange colored eyeball peering at her.
“Hello, Jo-Jo.” Red sneered.
“Red, I’m so glad you’re Ok.” Jo attempted to move forward, but someone had a hold of the tail of her shirt and wouldn’t let her. She stayed put, trying her best to ignore Red’s hateful tone.
Mike pushed Red back again. She slowly turned to face the group.
“Red, are we happy to see you.” Lary was shuffling over to join the greeting party, clutching the material at the front of his shirt in an effort to hide the blood stains on it. His gold cross dangled down one side of his chest.
Red’s eyes sparked with revulsion; her body stiffened. She shrunk back against Mike.
Lary stopped dead in his tracks.
Red glanced at each face. Her abhorrent expression instantly morphed into a sympathetic one. “Lary, you’re hurt,” she said to him with a soft voice. “Please, go sit down.” She moved her hand in a motion to shoo him away.
Mike took two steps away from Red. He seemed confused by her behavior. But did he, or anyone else, notice what Jo did? Red’s hair was voluminous and deeper than the cinnamon color Jo remembered. It’s just the light, she told herself. The ruby waves cascaded in thick layers down the front of Red’s shirt—beautiful, for someone who crawled out of a river. Her cheeks were paper thin and white with no freckles. Also a trick of the light.
Jo wondered what Galen was thinking. She looked back at him. Galen’s eyes pointed at Red, like silver lasers.
Dove took this moment to hug Red, who did not reciprocate. “I’m so thankful you’re Ok.” Dove smiled and rubbed her hands up and down Red’s arms. “Sheesh, your arms are like ice. Let me get you a blanket.” Dove reached down for Jo’s.
“I am very cold,” Red spoke weakly. Her eyelids fluttered and she wavered and collapsed. Mike caught her.
Dove checked her pulse. “Poor thing. She must be hypothermic. That would account for her strange behavior.”
Everyone agreed.
“Yeah, sure,” Jo commented.
April told Mike to take her to the futon, but he wanted to keep her close to the fire. Ben was feeding it more wood and it blazed up and poured heat back into the room. Mike sat down cross-legged with Red in his lap.
Jo had to admit, the girl did indeed look diminutive and pitiful, deathly pale. She picked up the blanket that had covered her and Mike and knelt beside him. She laid it over Red and draped what she could over his shoulders.
“Is your wrist Ok?” She asked him. It was the arm that was holding Red’s head to his chest.
Mike smiled at her. “It’s all right. Thanks, Jo.”
She looked down at Red’s pallid face and back up to Mike’s eyes, sleepy and watery-red.
“Get some sleep,” she told him.
“I will,” he promised.
“Let’s all get back to sleep,” Galen said, moving out of the kitchen and heading to his chair. No one argued.
Ben and Drew headed to the loft, commenting on what a miracle it was that Red was Ok. Dove joined Lary back on the sofa. April lay back down on the futon. “This is so great, huh, Jo?”
Jo tucked her blanket back around her. “It’s wonderful.”
“Hey, how did I get to the futon before?”
Jo smiled. “Drew.”
A quick, little grin puckered April’s lips. “That was sweet.”
Sitting back down in front of the window, Galen studied Red sleeping in Mike’s lap. He twisted his mouth and his brow wrinkled. He heaved a sigh and laced his fingers behind his head, propping his foot up on the window sill, staring out into the night.
Jo grabbed her towel and lay on the floor several feet behind Mike. She covered herself with the towel and used her bent arm as a pillow.
The fire wood crackled. The room was warming up from the cold night air that had snuck in with Red. Jo’s body heat began to fill the empty
spaces under the towel, but the hard floor was pressing into her hip bone. She tried to relax and shut her mind down—to stop thinking about the vampires and Red’s fantastic return. It’s a good thing. It’s a great and wonderful thing. But it was hard on her heart, staring at Mike’s back, knowing Red was lying in his strong, warm arms. Right back where we started.
Jo took a deep breath. Her gut rumbled and a dull pain tormented her empty stomach. Lunch by the swimming hole seemed like days ago. But morning would come soon. The pain receded. Sometime between listening to the firewood pop and Ben snore, she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 25