“My guess is that our government wants to avoid national panic.”
I was stunned it had been kept secret from the public for so long. “It could have been prevented if someone cared enough to do something for these poor people.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” He angled the car toward a deserted gas station on the corner. “But from what I’ve seen, it’s too widespread to stop. Some cities have even rounded them up to segregate them from the rest of the community. The hordes of Berserkers either killed each other or starved to death.”
I stared down at the basket of food in my lap and no longer felt hungry. “I had no idea.”
“I didn’t think you did. Few people do.” Ian drove into the open garage bay and parked the car over a hydraulic lift, its engine still running. “I need to check something.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The brakes feel mushy. Could be the pads.”
The last thing we needed was for the brakes to fail and cause a crash that totaled the car. I’d be screwed without transportation. “Can you fix it?”
“If the parts are in this garage I can.”
I peered out the window, expecting a crowd of Berserkers to storm the car. We were tucked into the shadows, not visible from the street. Even so, I didn’t feel safe.
Ian must have noticed my tension. “They have enough sense to stay out of the sun. We’re okay for now.”
I blinked over eyes that felt covered by sandpaper. “Good, because I’m not sure I can keep my eyes open much longer.” I yawned and added, “I just need a short nap until the storm comes. My energy is way low. Can we keep the air going?”
He patted the dashboard and checked the voltage meter. “The dial is still in the green. We should be fine running the engine for a couple more hours.” He grabbed an apple and a sandwich from the container in my lap.
My stomach growled, begging for food, but the call to dreamland was much stronger. The hum of the fan blowing cool air in my face was like a lullaby that soothed away all conscious thought.
I heard ringing, like a phone, and figured I must be dreaming. I roused from my doze with the instinctive need to make it stop. Where was it coming from?
Ian’s hand grabbed a black, rectangular object from a cubby in the console.
“Satphone.” He turned the ringing phone over in his hands.
Someone was trying to reach Nichol. “You should answer it.”
He stared at the tiny screen that lit up with a name. “Charles Jaginski.”
I blinked as adrenaline chased away my need for sleep. Widening my eyes, I said. “Maybe he’s a friend of Nichol’s.”
“Let’s find out.” Ian pressed a button with his thumb. “Yeah,” he said into the phone, his voice sounding generic and a touch higher than normal for him. I tried to remember what Nichol sounded like. I think Ian got pretty close.
“Nichol, I’m in.” The curt male voice spoke through a speaker in the car’s dash.
Ian looked at me and shrugged, so I motioned for him to keep going. “Yeah?”
There was a brief pause, and then, “I know you’ve gone rogue, man. The scene at the base is bullshit. I’d rather do business with you than with these jarheads. I have a bead on some Kinetics here in Wyoming we can nab and sell. Deal?”
So Nichol wasn’t the only scum in the bottom-feeding pool.
Ian paused, his disgust palpable. “Yeah.”
“What’s wrong with you? You never talked much when we were partners, but I need more of an answer than ‘yeah.’ I’m putting my ass on the line for you.”
Ian coughed but didn’t reply.
Jaginski sighed. “Every time we talk you’re like a different guy. I think you’re touched in the head, becoming one of those Berserkers. Maybe doing business with you isn’t such a good idea. I’ll wrangle these Kinetics on my own.”
Ian hesitated before finally grunting something I couldn’t make out.
The man on the other end said through gritted teeth, “That’s how you wanna play it? Fine. I’m juicin’ up my rig and keepin’ these Kinetics for myself. One’s a geokinetic and the other is pyro. What do you think of that, asshole?”
If anyone could tell us about the Kinetic program, it would be this guy. I grabbed the phone from Ian, but he wrestled it out of my hands. He looked furious, his scowl pinching his brows so close together they’d become a single ridge. Shaking his head so hard I was afraid he’d break his neck, he mouthed the words, “Don’t speak. He’s a slaver.” I bit my lip to stop myself from talking.
“Nichol? What the hell’s goin’ on?” Jaginski sounded suspicious. He was no idiot. It took him barely a second to figure it out. “Shit!” Then came a click followed by dead silence.
“Damn it,” Ian said, a sneer curling his lip. “If Nichol’s SUV has a GPS tracking device, it’s only a matter of time before his ex-partner finds this car and discovers us.” Ian rolled the window down to toss out his apple core. A blast of hot air shot inside before he got the window closed again. It smelled like dust and metal and old motor oil. “If the GPS is here, I’ll find it.”
“Charles Jaginski and Sam Nichol are anything but friends. You heard what he just said. He thinks Nichol is crazy. It’s possible Jaginski’s nothing like his partner.”
“Come on, Sarah. He’s a slaver like Nichol. He just said so himself.”
“Not necessarily. Could be extortion.”
Ian snorted. “And that’s better? I’ve never met the guy, never heard a word about him from Nichol. But birds of a feather...”
“The enemy of our enemy is our friend.”
“At least he’s in Wyoming, which means he’s five or six hours away.” He twisted in his seat to look at me. “Where does this Suzie-Sunshine-who-loves-everyone attitude come from?”
“I don’t love everyone.” And I certainly wasn’t feeling much love for him at the moment. “My mother raised me to see the good in people and to think of my glass as half full, not half empty.” I wanted to add something about how his pessimism made him so lonely, but that would hit a nerve that was better left untouched. “You’re missing out on getting to know people who can help you.”
“I don’t need help.”
“Yet you offer it all the time.”
He hadn’t shifted his gaze away from me since we’d started this conversation, and even now he gave me a look so intense it felt as though he read every thought inside my head.
“Can I ask you something?”
He broke eye contact and made a show of rechecking the gauges on the dash. After a few seconds, he said, “Okay. Shoot.”
“You could have taken Nichol’s car and left town, gone anywhere you wanted.” I watched him for a change of expression, but he switched his attention to the sandwich he was unwrapping. “Why didn’t you?”
Laying the uneaten sandwich in his lap, he sighed and peered out the window at a rack of dirty tools mounted on the wall. “Maybe I finally found what I was looking for.”
“And that is?”
He focused on me again. “A place to call home.”
Chapter Ten
Why had Ian turned the engine off? The heat inside the car woke me from my nap. I opened heavy eyelids to gaze at Ian, who leaned back against the seat with his eyes closed. His chest rose and fell in the slow rhythm of deep sleep, and his profile revealed a straight nose with nostrils slightly flared, full lips relaxed and chin angled downward. Such a peaceful picture, and yet I sensed the tense soul inside him that longed for the normal life he must have once had. I wished he could have it back. I wished we all could.
The clock on the dash said thirty minutes had passed. A bundle of nerves at the base of my spine let me know the sun storm was close. I could almost taste the sparks. I grasped the door handle with one hand and reached for Ian with the other. As much as I hated to disturb him, I didn’t want him waking up to the blaring scream of my alarm.
“Hey, it’s time,” I told him as I pushed open the door. Just as I swun
g my legs out, Ian yelled, “Stop!”
Instead of solid ground, my feet met empty space.
When I slipped off the seat, my legs kicked the air and one arm flailed as the other clutched the door handle. Looking down, I realized the car had been raised by the hydraulic lift and was now poised about ten feet up in the air. I could drop without hurting myself, but when I glanced up again, I saw Ian’s hand reach for mine. My fingers sought his and just as we were about to touch, someone’s hand grabbed my ankle.
Bony fingers dug into my skin and tugged, but the effort was too weak to dislodge me. Ian got hold of my forearm and pulled. Another pair of hands gripped my other leg. I felt like a rope in a game of tug of war.
“Ian!” I yelled.
“Damn it.” His grip tightened. “I was afraid this might happen. That’s why I lifted the car.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did, but you must not have been as awake as I thought you were.”
I kicked at the feeble hands holding me. Glancing down, I saw two dangerously thin women covered in grime from head to toe. Their skin was so burned that their eyes seemed overly bright within the dark circles that haloed their sockets. Berserkers.
“You took my Johnny!” one of them screeched.
“No!” I kicked at their hands, which briefly fell away only to latch right back on. Who the hell was Johnny? “I didn’t take anyone. Let go!”
“You burned down my house,” the other one said.
My heart went out to them. These confused, wretched creatures were mad with grief. What would they do to me if I fell? Maybe I could outrun them. I considered releasing the car door, but just as I began to relax my hold, there was a sharp pain on my heel. One of them had bitten me!
Panic scrambled up my spine, and I kicked even more forcefully now. A breeze stirred beneath me, gathering in strength and sucking at the air around the women. I heard shouting nearby and guessed reinforcements were on the way. I could hold out against these two, but add a couple more and I’d be done for.
I gazed up at Ian, who was holding my hand, his eyes bright with the power he used to create the mini cyclone. Little by little, he siphoned strength from me to grow the weapon he was creating. The two women screamed in frustration as the cyclone pulled them away from me and carried them outside the garage. Three more Berserkers on their way in stopped when the human pinwheel tumbled past them. They turned and ran as if the hounds of hell nipped at their ankles.
Ian released me, and I fell to the floor.
He dropped down from the other side of the car. “Sarah!”
After helping me to my feet, he wrapped an arm around me to hold me up, his hand sliding up my rib cage and settling just beneath my breast. I could feel his warm skin through the thin fabric of my shirt. If it had been anyone else, I’d have slapped his hand away. But not Ian. I’d come to trust him too much to think he’d want anything other than to help me.
“Will they come back?” I asked.
“Probably.” He held me close, and I leaned into him, comforted by how safe he made me feel. “But not right away. The cyclone scared them enough for now.”
“What do they want?”
“I don’t know, and I’m not sure they know, either. They have little left of themselves but their instinct to survive.”
“We can help them do at least that much,” I said, grabbing up the siren that had fallen out of the SUV with me. I trudged outside, seeing the sun lower in the sky as it prepared to set, but its radiance wasn’t diminished by the late hour. If anything, it was stronger because of the descending storm.
I cranked the siren, not sure if I was warning the Berserkers of danger or calling them out of hiding. If they had the sense to stay under cover during the day, they surely knew the significance of an alert. I gazed up at the blanket of flashing red sparks falling toward us.
I wanted the sparks to touch me, but I also wanted to try something. With Ian.
He stood beside me, watching the sky. I turned to him and said, “Make the wind blow.”
His eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Of course,” he said, his tone deep with wonder. He knew what I was asking without me having to say it aloud. That’s how connected we were. “I’ve wanted to try it before, but I was always too late because the sparks had already fallen.”
“Now you won’t be.” I held out my hand, and he folded his around mine, his fingers warm and rough with calluses. Vines of energy twined where our flesh touched, and I felt their power travel up my arms, across my shoulders and up the back of my neck.
A wind began to form, one that was like the gale that had attacked Lodgepole just the other night. Only this wind was completely under Ian’s control. It felt warm and billowed like silk that wrapped loosely around us. Ian sent it upward, high enough to reach the sparks fifty feet above our heads.
The invisible shield Ian created was also a battering ram that pushed the sparks back to where they came from. We watched as the sparks grew smaller and smaller while returning to the sun that spawned them.
“How high will they go?” I asked.
“Beyond the bubble of Earth’s atmosphere. The vacuum of space will take them from there.”
“I wish you could do this to every storm.” Then no one would ever have to fear exposure to sun sparks.
“I would if you could tell me when they were coming.”
“I can’t foresee them all, though I wish I could.”
“I know.”
Our team approach might be the answer to stopping the deadly sparks for good. My thoughts wound back to what Nichol had said in Black Hawk. Was he telling the truth? I supposed we’d find out once we arrived in Colorado Springs.
My knees felt weak, and I held on to Ian for support.
Anxiety made his dark eyes even darker. “You needed those sparks.”
I smiled. “Actually, the energy you gave me works almost as well. I’m always a bit shaky after a storm. I worry about taking too much from you.”
“You won’t. I have plenty to give, and I always get it back.”
He did. Time was all he needed to replenish himself. I had to rely on the sun for that.
It was approaching twilight, and if Berserkers lay low in the heat of day, they’d be out in the relative cool of night. I’d rather not confront more than the two I already had. “We have to find a new hiding place.” I wasn’t all that crazy about this dark and stinky garage anyway. “Lower the car and let’s go.”
He hesitated. “About that.” He stepped away from me while folding his arms across his chest. “We can’t take the car.”
Confused, I asked, “Why not? Couldn’t you fix the brakes?”
“Oh, I fixed them good as new, even found the tracking device, not that it matters now.” He looked guarded when he added, “There’s no voltage left. The air conditioner ate more energy than I thought it would.”
My heart dove into my empty stomach. “You mean we’re stuck here?”
“Only until we recharge the battery, but it takes sunlight to do that.”
I peered out at the darkening sky streaked with Night Rainbows. That would be hours from now. Hands held out to my sides and palms up in a pose of surrender, I said, “Fine. Just get the car down, and I’ll help you push it outside.”
He stepped over to the wall of tools and flipped a switch. “The lift is powered by a generator I found. We’re lucky it still works.”
The hydraulic motor hummed and creaked like an orchestra of tortured metal.
“Oh, no.” Ian pulled me away from the lift and backed us up a few steps.
“What’s wrong?”
“The generator’s working, but I think the compressor is faulty. It sounds like—”
The posts holding up the car suddenly dropped into the floor like a broken elevator. The car followed, crashing on the ground with such force it cracked the concrete under its popped tires. The solar panels on the vehicle’s roof shattered, spraying shards of glass in every di
rection. Ian pushed me to the ground and sheltered me with his body.
“Ian?” Heart pulsing in my ears, I slid carefully out from beneath him. He remained facedown on the concrete, and I could see why. The back of his shirt was a bloody mess from glass splinters that had sprayed from the crash.
“How bad is it?” I crouched beside him on the garage floor, my hands shaking as I gently touched his bloody shoulder. “Ian?”
“It just stings a little. I’m fine.”
My breathing quickened, and so did my worry. I checked his back, looking for gaping wounds, but didn’t see any. They all appeared superficial. “Don’t move.” I peered out the open door of the garage in search of lurking Berserkers. We were still alone. “Berserkers aren’t attracted to blood, are they?”
“Blood? Of course not. Why?”
Images from a dozen old horror movies flashed behind my eyes. One of those women had bitten me, so I couldn’t help conjuring up thoughts of zombies and vampires. “Just curious.” I walked through the broken glass toward the ruined solar car.
“There must be a first aid kit inside the car, and I need to get us water.” It took a few hard tugs on the door handle before it finally opened. I grabbed the case of water, then rummaged in the glove box until I found a kit that contained antiseptic, gauze, tape, tiny scissors and tweezers.
Shoved in a corner of the garage were some old packing blankets like the kind movers used to protect furniture. They were ripped and filthy, smelling strongly of motor oil, and also a bit chewed by rodents...or something. But they would serve my purposes. I folded one up to put under my knees, and the other I slid beneath Ian’s upper body. He lay facedown, his arms tucked tight against his sides. He may not have been in much pain now, but he would be. I had to tweeze the glass out of his skin.
I went back to the car and searched beneath the front seat. A man like Nichol impressed me as the self-entitled type, so I was fairly sure he kept his vices close at hand. My fingers encountered something cool and smooth. A bottle. I slid it out into the open and sure enough, a fifth of vodka. Ian would need this.