The sounds were woven into her dreams: leaves chattering, the shushing of wind through pine needles, a faraway flow of water. The air wafted warm against her skin, saturated with the smell of grass and pine. Jo took a deep breath. Her eyelids fluttered until she could finally keep them open. She was looking up at depthless water-blue sky.
With great effort, she rolled herself up into a sitting position, pushing a mangled mess of hair out of her face. She surveyed the scrapes and cuts in her flesh and the small hole in the top of her leg, clotted over with a black crust of blood. All at once, the injuries stung and the leg wound pulsed with pain. Her hands had curled inward and there was a sharp hurt when she stretched them open. She worked to gather moisture in her mouth and lick her dry, salty lips.
Mike! He was lying on his side a few yards away. She crawled over to him and carefully rolled him onto his back. His blonde hair fell from his face, uncovering the bruise the vampire, Jon, had stamped there. His face was scratched and mottled with dirt, but his flesh had the pink pallor of life in it.
She scanned his body. His once-white T-shirt was brown, ripped and spattered with dried blood. “Mike…Mike.” She patted the skin on his jaw. He moaned and his lashes lifted, revealing the aqua color underneath them. She brushed his dirty hair from his forehead.
“Jo,” he whispered and tried to smile.
She took his hand and pressed it to her lips, closing her eyes and thanking God.
“Are we dead?” He asked her.
She grinned and pushed a short breath through her nose. “I don’t think so.”
She helped him sit up. He shook his head vigorously and dust and grass rained from his hair. He and Jo sat together, cross-legged, and quiet, gazing out over the sunlit clearing.
The colors of the land had been restored. Jo’s eyes collected every hue of green and every fleck of orange, lavender and lemon yellow. Where the green land cut off, the blue sky began. The colors were as crisp as the air and as bright as the sunshine. There were no vampire remains, but also no Dove, no Lary, nor April or Drew…and no Galen. Her heart sunk.
“What happened?” Mike asked her.
Jo shook her head. Her gaze drifted downward into the grass beside her knee. Pictures of white light, a man in dazzling blue armor, a golden sword flooded her mind’s eye. It must have been a dream. It had to have been. Finding Galen would prove it. But a heavy sorrow lay in her chest. Deep inside, she knew the truth.
“Are you Ok?” Mike asked. He was trying very hard to see into her eyes. He placed his hand on her shoulder.
She hadn’t thought about it—how she ‘was’—but now she did. Her lower lip began to quiver and her throat tightened. Mike moved closer to her and started to slide his hand around her back. “I’m Ok,” she told him with a raspy, dry voice. She leaned away from him and tried to get up.
It was a struggle, for both of them, but he stood up first, and finally, she had to let him help her. Looking at his bruised face, she saw in his expression that she had bruised him another way. “Are you all right?” She asked him.
“I’m good,” he said solemnly. He turned and searched the ground behind them. “Lary was right here.” He stared at the spot where his friend had gone down.
Jo shuddered. “Lary, please don’t be dead.”
“I ain’t dead yet.”
Jo whipped her head in the direction of the voice. Dove and Lary walked out of the trees. Dove was holding him up. The skin around his wrists was shredded from the chains. The wounds on his chest were crusted with dried blood and outlined with reddened flesh. His shirt was shredded and barely hanging on his shoulders.
Jo ran to them. “Dove!” She embraced her friend.
Dove didn’t say a word, but hugged Jo tightly. Jo pushed her back. Her brown hair, too dirty to shimmer with the sunlight now, was tangled and full of pine needles and grass, like Jo’s, and her cheeks were blackened with dirt and streaked where tears had run down them.
“Man, I thought you were a goner!” Mike smiled and held Lary by his shoulder, with one hand.
Lary shook his head. “I don’t know what happened. I remember falling and the lights went out. Next thing, it’s daylight, and I look up and see this beautiful face.” He smiled at Dove with moist eyes and caressed her matted hair with his hand, causing the chain on his wrist to swing back and forth. Dove blushed.
“Dove, I couldn’t figure out what happened to you,” Jo said to her.
“I was pulling Lary out the way,” she explained. “Everyone was fighting the creatures.” Her gaze dropped into the grass. “I’m sorry I didn’t help you.”
Jo grabbed her hand. “You did the right thing.”
“So…what did happen?” Lary asked.
“Hey, Guys.” Mike’s somber tone urged them to follow his gaze. “Come on,” he said and took over for Dove in helping Lary walk.
April’s small form was kneeling by some shrubbery. Jo fell to her knees beside her. “April, are you all right?” She lifted a frazzled braid and placed it on April’s back.
April looked up at Jo with watery eyes. She sniffed in the mucous running from her nose. “I think I’m Ok,” she managed to say, wiping the wetness underneath one eye with her shaky hand.
Mike and Jo helped her to her feet.
“Oh! Are you guys Ok?” She reached out for her friends’ arms, as they circled around her, touching each of them. She glanced at their faces and whimpered, “I can’t find Drew.”
Jo scanned the bushes and underneath the trees though she wasn’t just looking for Drew.
“Where’d you see him last?”
April sighed. “A vampire was attacking me and Drew tried to stop him. I guess the sun came up. There was this incredible light—like the sun exploded.” She searched her friends’ faces with bewildered eyes. “I don’t know what happened after that.” Her lips trembled.
“It’s Ok, April. Take it easy,” Mike soothed her, rubbing her back. “We’ll find him.”
The leaves on a barberry shrub twitched and rattled violently. Dove grabbed Lary’s arm. Jo searched for a weapon. April clung to Mike and he moved in front of her. She gripped his waist with her hands and peeked around his arm at the agitated bush.
Drew’s head popped out of top of the shrub and everyone jumped.
“Drew!” April cried.
He blinked rapidly, his tongue sputtering between his lips. A leaf out flew of his mouth. “Ow!”
Jo laughed along with the others. Mike reached for Drew’s hand and pulled him up. His clothing was shredded from thorns and his skin was poked and bleeding.
When he was clear of the bush, they each took turns hugging him—everyone but April. She stayed back behind the group, just watching. Now she limped towards Drew. Jo and her friends parted like the Red Sea.
Drew's blinking eyes were filled with uncertainty as he watched April approach. He flipped his shaggy hair from his face and shifted on his feet.
When she reached him, she lifted her hands and draped them over his shoulders. Drew’s eyes widened.
Everyone gawked as April rose on her tiptoes and without a moment’s hesitation planted a short, sweet kiss on his lips.
“Thank you, Drew,” she said to him.
He turned several brilliant shades of pink and gazed at her, wordlessly.
Jo grinned and looked at Dove, who was smiling ear-to-ear. On the other side of Dove, Mike came into focus. He blushed and winked at her. She threw him a quick grin.
Dove leaned over and whispered, “I think she’s seen him in a different light.”
“Yeah,” Jo answered back. A great pain swelled in her heart.
Chapter 42