Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) (11 page)

“I would,” Charli said, avoiding getting elbowed in the face by her amorous twin.

Penny rolled her eyes. She knew she should be happier for Charles. He seemed to have really found a girl that he really liked. I guess she knew how it felt now to have been replaced by someone, or something,
who
was so much more than she could ever be. And there was always that lingering suspicion that Thomas couldn’t really love someone that was just merely human.

“Um, can we get back on topic?” Penny asked.

“The
Rakashashai
,” Thomas said, putting his hand on Penny’s, “are a race of shape shifting warriors. Some of them,” he shot a glare back at Charli, “engage in human eating practices…occasionally.

“Can we define occasionally?” Charles asked peaking over his girlfriend’s head.

“Yes. When they are offended by a human…only then and only that or those humans will be eaten. It’s not like they raise human cattle.”

“Good. So we don’t have anything to worry about then,” Penny said settling back into her seat.

“Just don’t piss them off,” Thomas said, smiling.

Penny drifted off to sleep. She would need all the energy she could muster when they hit India, which wasn’t for another day at least, unless Thomas continued to drive two hundred miles an hour the whole way there. Her unwelcome dreams visited her again in her sleep.

“Penny,” Thomas said, rubbing her shoulder, “you’re having that nightmare again.” Penny opened her eyes to see Thomas’s hurt expression. Thomas knew that Penny’s nightmares were about him.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” Penny said, rubbing her eyes sleepily. “They’re not your fault.”

Thomas sighed and looked away. “I never envisioned myself so terrifying that I would give my girlfriend nightmares,” he joked, but Penny could tell that her dreams really bothered him. “We’re coming up on a human pit stop. You and Charles need to get some food.”

“And Lorelei?”
Penny asked looking back at the Nixie curled up on Charles’s lap. Both she and Charles were fast asleep. Charli looked out the window vacantly. Penny couldn’t tell if she was paying attention to her and Charles, deep in thought, or just spacing out.

“I guess we can get her some fish food,” Thomas said, stifling a laugh.

Penny giggled. “I’m still not sure what that was that I ate at her house that first time.”

“Don’t look at me,” Thomas said. “For once I have no idea. I’m not even a novice in
Nixen
food.” Thomas and Penny both chuckled as they remembered her
antics after she tried to eat the spicy fish.

“Hey Chuck,” Penny yelled into the backseat. Charles jerked away, but the mermaid just snuggled deeper into Charles’s chest like she wasn’t ready to wake up from a pleasant dream. “We’re coming up on a food stop.”

“Great I’m starved!” Charles tried to stretch his arms, but he was pinned down by Lorelei.
“Where are we?”

“
Pakistan
,” Thomas said as he turned off the highway into a gas station.

Charles continued to nudge Lorelei until she woke up. “We’re going to stop honey,” Charles said, kissing her on the top of her head. Penny tried to not let her stomach turn. She knew that she and Thomas were guilty of the same thing.

Penny got out of the car and stretched her legs. The goblin’s car was not the roomiest, but it was rather speedy and with a vampire driving, they had made it from Ireland to Pakistan in less than twelve hours. That was definitely a new record. Since Penny and Charles had chopped of their hair, no one had followed them.

Penny used the bathroom and then got herself a drink from the cooler in the store. She walked up to the clerk.

“That’s quite some car you got there,” the clerk said, taking her money.

“Yeah, it’s an experimental model made by some friends,” Penny said, taking her change. She walked out of the store and hopped back in the car. “This car attracts a lot of attention.”

“I know, but I really like it,” Thomas said, caressing the steering wheel. “Plus, the Brotherhood will be gone soon and it won’t matter if it attracts attention or not.”

“I guess you got a point there,” Penny said. She buckled her seat belt and opened the bottle of coke.

Charles, Lorelei, and Charli piled back into the car and Thomas sped off into the night again.
They had traveled through the day and i
t was dark, so Penny knew that they would probably be approaching their destination soon.

“How much further?”
Charles asked. Penny was just about to ask the same question. She was tired of riding in the car. She was tired of being chased all over the world. She wanted to stay put for more than a couple days.

After another hour or two on the highway, Thomas turned off on side road and drove for a few more minutes before he turned onto dirt roads. The trees became thick all around them and Penny lost her sense of direction. Thomas seemed to be following some preprogrammed GPS deep in his mind. She looked back at Charli to see if she had any idea of where they were going, but Charli looked just as lost as she did.

“You do know where we are going, right?” Charli said, leaning into the front seat. The trees towered over them ominously.

“Yeah, it’s just ahead,” Thomas said, pointing in a direction that only he knew. “You
,
me
and Lorelei will have to leave the car and make the rest of the trek on foot.”

“What about me and Charles,” Penny asked.

“You two need to stay in the car,” Thomas
replied. The car reached the end of the road and Thomas turned the engine off, but left the keys in the ignition. “I think it would be better if we approached them without humans.”

“Why does Lorelei get to go?” Charles said, pouting in the back seat.

“She’s proof that we have additional races,” Thomas said.

“Don’t you need proof about the defector?” Penny said.

“Yes, but that will come after we have made initial contact,” Thomas said. He got out of the car and opened up the door for Lorelei. “It will be a sealing of the contract. Don’t worry. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.” Thomas kissed penny on the lips.

“Hours?”
Penny and Charles asked in unison.

“Look, the goblins packed plenty of snacks and the car is a technological marvel. Watch some movies, eat some popcorn, whatever,” Thomas said walking off into the night.

Penny and Charles looked at each other.
Normally no boyfriend would ever insist that his girlfriend spend several hours in a locked car watching movies with her ex-boyfriend. However, the Wolf family was not normal.

“So what do you want to watch first?’ Charles said, hopping into the front seat. He opened up the movie menu on screen and surfed through the selections.

“A stupid, pointless comedy,” Penny said settling into seat. She looked through the bag of snacks and pulled out some chips and a can of homemade salsa. “Do you think that goblins make good salsa?”

In several hours Penny and Charles went through two more pointless comedies, two card games, three rounds of checkers, and half of their snacks, but Thomas and the rest had yet to return or call them with news. Penny was beginning to get worried.

“It’s almost daylight,” Charles said looking at his watch. “They should be back by now.” Charles started up the car.

“Where are we going?” Penny said, buckling her belt. “Thomas told us to stay in the car.”

“So we’ll stay in the car,” Charles said as he eased the auto into the tree line.

Charles moved forward as much as he could in the dense foliage until he came to a small road and then he picked up speed. Suddenly out of nowhere a large figure loomed in the road. Charles ran into it full speed.

Crack! The vehicle smacked into the beast. It tumbled onto the hood of the car and then it vanished into the woods.

Penny's head whipped forward and then slammed backward into the headrest. The vehicle rocked back from the impact.

Breathing difficultly, Penny reached up and brushed a long, blonde hair from her face. Glass from the windshield sparkled across the car and Penny's dark leggings. Her chest ached underneath the seatbelt. Thomas would not be happy that Charles just rammed his brand new car into a mysterious monster.

Penny turned to Charles. His head lay on the dashboard, and his hands were bleeding on the windshield’s broken glass. It didn't look like he was conscious.

A shaky breath whistled out of Penny. A few tears of pain escaped. What had just happened? And what was that thing?

Penny poked Charles. His
seatbelt was nestled next to him unused.

What nutcase would steer into a person, or rather a creature without his seatbelt?
Penny thought.

“Charles?” Penny asked. She poked him in the arm lightly. He didn't respond.
Thomas,
Penny though, panicked,
where are you
?

Movement in the trees drew her attention forward. A dark colored, sinister mass appeared in the car headlights. Penny tried to unbuckle her seatbelt, but her hands shook too badly.

The mass straightened up to its full height. Penny though that it must have been eight feet or more. The creature remained motionless, watching Penny through jagged glass. It came around the front of the car, taking its sweet time.

Penny hit the release switch on her seatbelt, but it would not open. Penny frantically pulled at the belt as the creature came closer to the side of the car. Penny pounded at the buckle and yelled for Thomas.

The creature, which looked like a giant humanoid cat, leaned down to the window so that its head was level with hers on the other side of her window. Penny was glad that there was glass between her and the long, sharp teeth. But she knew it wouldn't last long.

Penny froze.  She thought she was going to die.

A white human hand appeared on the shoulder of the creature and then Thomas
’s
head. Penny thought that Thomas would just rip its head off considering his previous antics when Penny or Charles’s life was threatened. The beast turned around and growled. Thomas on the other hand just spoke softly in an unfamiliar language. The beast turned around and looked at Penny again. His blood red, glowing eyes sent shivers down her spine. Slowly the fire in its eyes subsided and it spoke to Thomas in the same strange tongue.
Thomas stepped in front of the creature and opened the car door.

“I suppose I should have been more specific when I said ‘stay in the car’ shouldn’t I?” Thomas said, pulling off Penny’s seatbelt. “Are you okay?”

“I guess,” Penny replied, still shaking.
“Charles, though.” She looked back at Charles who was still passed out on the steering wheel.

“Little brothers,” Thomas said, rolling his eyes. “Chuck, you lazy bum, get up!”

Charles moaned slightly as if the mere command of his big brother could wake him from unconsciousness. After a couple seconds Charles looked over at Thomas who was now standing at his window.

“If you weren’t hurt I would come over there and slap you,” Thomas said, checking him for any serious injuries.
“Next time I tell you to stay in the
car, that
means stay put.”

Penny looked over at the enormous cat-like creature. She shuddered when it looked at her. She noticed that it was bleeding and cringed further. She guessed t
hat this creature was a
Rakshashai
that they were looking for. And here she and Charles had gone and wounded it.

“Sorry,” Penny said to the creature. It bowed in response.

Lorelei came rushing out of the forest. “
Meinleiblingsmann
,” she said running towards Charles. She took him out of the grasps of his brother and gently fussed over him. “You are hurt.”

“I’m alright,” Charles said, trying to lean against the car.

“What happened?” Charli asked, surveying the scene for the first time.

“Oh no, look at my car,” Thomas said, putting a hand over his mouth. “This, this car was my favorite. Charles!”

“Why are you yelling at your brother; he is hurt,” Lorelei said to Thomas. She dabbed the blood from Charles’s forehead.

“Because he was an idiot and crashed into our friend on purpose,” Thomas said. He patted the front of the car affectionately.

Penny looked at the ground. Thomas had never been angry like this before. He had never been upset with Penny. She felt her gut turn inside of her. She was more panicked and upset now than she was when the intimidating creature was threatening her.

Penny rubbed her hips where the seatbelt had restrained her. “Look, we’re sorry; we really are. You were just gone for so long and I started to worry.”

“And Charles got impatient,” Thomas said, sitting on the front of the smashed car. “How did you two not kill yourselves before I came along?”

“Hey,” Charles said, pushing Lorelei aside. “You know we got along fine before you. We were just plenty happy without you and
your
meddling!”