Creatures of Snow (25 page)

“
They’re out there!” She
pleaded to him, pointing out into the street, “They were after
us.”

He shoved her out of the way and drove his
club into Sky’s belly. Sky’s shout from the electrocution was cut
short by the club end slamming into his temple.

“
Stop!” She screamed,
diving for the officer’s arm.

“
He’s being controlled
Sara, don’t hurt him.”

She stopped, but held her fist at the ready,
“I don’t know, Sky. He doesn’t look like those thuggers did. This
guy knows what he’s doing.”

The officer laughed, “You
think that’s the best I can do, girl? Those mindless puppets back
there, those were just for fun.”

“Are there people on the
transport?” Sky straightened, hardly affected by the blow to the
head.

She glanced up through the windows, “No, and
no driver that I can see.”

“I’m done playing with
you, boy. I don’t know how you’re still alive, but I’ll make extra
sure this time.”

Sky’s whole body went rigid, but it wasn’t
out of fear. “Try.” He opened his eyes, his mouth pulled down in
anger.

“Stop it!” She ran for
Sky, but the officer’s elbow slammed into her nose. The next thing
she saw the night sky as her back hit the ground. She heard nothing
but a subtle ringing in her ears and waited impatiently for feeling
to return to her body. It was only a second, perhaps two that she
lay there, but in those seconds she swore the sky went grey and it
felt like the breath was being pulled from her lungs.

Sara bolted upright, blood pouring from her
nose and her head pounding. She didn’t know what she expected to
see, but it certainly wasn’t Sky helping the officer to his
feet.

She stumbled a few steps closer, unsure of
what to make of them, were they both under the control of whatever
it was that had followed them there?

“It’s okay Sara, it’s over
for now.” Sky stepped in front of the officer who was obviously
dazed.

“I don’t believe you.” She
saw the lectro club on the ground, but that didn’t mean much, there
was no doubt the officer still had countless weapons under those
rags.

“
I don’t know what
happened,” Sky helped the officer down onto the bench. “But we need
to get out of here.”

Sara bent down quickly,
never taking her eyes off the two of them and snatched up the club,
“Why would it just be over?”

“I don’t know,” He shook
his head, “Maybe this guy fought him off. What? Don’t look at me
like that, it’s possible.” He wrapped one of the thick blankets
around the shivering officer. “I think he’s in shock or
something.”

“
What about you, how do I
know he hasn’t taken control of you?” She edged her way toward the
transport.

“
I don’t know. Ask me
something only I would know.” He straightened and backed up a step
once he noticed her pointing the weapon directly at him.

“Fine. What was the first
thing I said to you?”

“
I have no idea.” He
shrugged almost instantly. “Ask me something easier.”

“All right, it’s you. Come
on.” She jumped up the steps of the transport. Inside the driver
was passed out between the seats, snoring away.

“
You think he’ll be okay?”
Sky gestured to the officer, “I feel bad just leaving
him.”

“
He’s fine.” She snapped,
shaking the driver roughly. “We need to worry about
ourselves.”

Sky pulled the glass door closed and stared
out into the night. “Where do we go?”

“
Didn’t you have any sort
of plan when you came here?”

“
Me?” The driver asked
sleepily as he sat up rubbing his eyes?

“Not you.” Sara pulled him
to his feet, “Get up, we need a ride.”

“Sorry about that.” The
driver yawned. “I don’t know what came over me. Don’t tell anyone,
okay.” He peaked past her out to the officer still staring blankly
at absolutely nothing.

“
I wouldn’t worry about
him.” Sara pushed him towards the controls.

“To the Havens, what
happened to you?” The driver finally saw them. Sara couldn’t
imagine how awful they must have looked. “You’re dad’s going to
have a heart attack, I knew I shouldn’t have brought you here. Are
you all right?” The driver was talking straight to Sky.

“He’s not home, and I’m
fine. It’s not my blood,” He lied, but then did the most peculiar
thing and lifted his sweatshirt to reveal a bloody stomach with no
wound. “But her nose might be broken, so we need to get into the
city.”

A flash outside the window
drew her attention away from them. The dull illumination from
inside the transport made it hard to see past her own reflection,
but she saw something - a white mask bobbing through the darkness,
coming straight at them.

“
We need to go. Now!” She
pushed Sky down into the seat and put herself down beside him,
blocking his view.

“You got it, little lady.”
The driver revved up the engines and the noxious fumes of
combustible emission rose to meet her nose.

“Where to?” He asked. They
still had yet to move.

“Anywhere, just go.” Her
eyes searched the darkness outside, the pull of anxiety drawing her
out of her seat.

“
All right.” The driver
shrugged as the vehicle lurched forward. “But I need some direction
sometime.”

“We can’t go to my house,”
Sky tenderly touched his temple, his eye was starting to swell
slightly as the black and blue mark spread out down the side of his
face. “Maybe Lee, he lives near me, he’d let us stay with him I’m
sure.”

“That’s fine.” Relief
washed over her as the tiny streetlight that marked the transport
stop disappeared out of view. She didn’t realize how bad she was
shaking until she felt the pressure of Sky’s hand tightly grip hers
to steady it. “What was all of that?” She finally asked once she
found her voice again.

Sky glanced up at the
driver and shook his head slightly, “I’ll explain
later.”

“
We got to tell somebody.
I mean, that was ridiculous.” She glanced down at his blood soaked
shirt. It had looked so real. He had bled for Haven’s
sake.

“I sent Con a message
before I came. Roland and Zeph, they were supposed to be taking
care of this.”

“We’ll they’re not doing a
very good job.” She leaned back into the seat, her body aching now
that the adrenalin was wearing thin. “You’re so stupid.” She
whispered and closed her eyes.

“So’s this your
girlfriend?” The driver asked above the roar of the transport,
glancing up into his halo screen to get a look at them. “Nice to
see you share the same interest judging by all the blood.” He
chuckled.

“
Who is this guy?” Sara
pulled up her lip into a snarl. “And no, I’m not his girlfriend.
Just his unfortunate comrade.” She shook her head and retracted her
hand from his grip.

She didn’t look over at him, but could see
in the drivers halo that he was looking at her with a mix of anger
and wounded pride. “What a mess.” She snarled. “Why did you even
come out here?”

“I thought…I wanted to
warn you.”

She laughed and scooted
farther from him on the seat. “Warn
me
? That guy was after you, not me.
If anything you
put
me in danger!”

She was expecting him to shrink back and
feel sorry for himself and maybe offer her up an apology, but
instead he gritted his teeth and stared with a look that could have
set fire to the floor.

“Think whatever you want,
but you’re wrong.” He growled and stood up. “You didn’t see what I
saw! You didn’t hear what I heard!” He screamed at her before
storming off to the back of the bus.

“
Better watch that one.”
The driver nodded. “He’s a bit of a live wire.”

She sneered, “No
kidding.”

“He means well, most of
the time. Just never had much control over that temper.”

Funny thing to say. It was
the first time she had ever actually seen him get mad.

“
Who are you anyway? Just
a nosy transport driver?” She crossed her arms and slouched down in
her seat with a pout.

“His dad and me go way
back, fought in the Small War together. Good man, his father. Well,
guess he’s not a man is he.” The driver glanced up to the halo,
watching her, “An Iko, that one.”

Sara’s heart fell into her stomach. His dad
was an Iko? Did that mean that Sky-

“It was nice of him to
take in those brothers. First time I ever heard of one of their
race adopting humans, and after what happened to their mom, well,
it was just a really great thing to do. She a real sweet gal too,
their mom, a researcher over there at REALM, until she went a
little coo-coo and you know, had a bit of a self inflicted accident
if you know what I mean.” He went on.

“
I can hear you, you
know.” Sky shouted up with annoyance. “She doesn’t need my life
story.”

“Why not?” The driver
shouted back, his tone still light. “You never tell it. It’s good
to give people a little perspective on who you are. Maybe they
won’t judge you so much by your sour face and weirdo
clothes.”

She looked over her
shoulder to see Sky scowling out the window, picking furiously at
the glue that held it in place.

“
He used to be a cheerful
kid. Always laughing and goofing around.” The driver looked
soulfully over his shoulder for a second before turning back to the
road ahead. “Makes me sad you know. Growing up’s tough.” He
sighed.

She wanted to scoff, but
found herself nodding in slight agreement. With a loud sigh she
stood and made her way grudgingly towards the back of the
bus.

“Stop sulking, you’re
making me sick.” She slammed down into the seat next to him. “Just
because you have a sappy back story doesn’t give you the right to
walk around like you’re broken and wounded all the
time.”

“I don’t. That’s just what
you choose to notice.” He slid away from her as much as he
could.

“Why did that guy try to
kill you? He said that he was surprised you were still alive,
why?”She punched him in the shoulder after each question. He better
have an answer for her this time. “And don’t tell me you’ll tell me
later. You tell me now. This guy already knows everything about
you, why not let him know a little more.”

“
I don’t want to put him
in danger.” He mumbled to the window.

“Too late. He’s
transporting us. That’s probably reason enough for anyone to assume
he’s in just as much danger as we are right now.”

Sky sat up a little straighter and looked
worriedly to the front of the transport.

“
Who’s after
you?”

“They called him the Man
of Mist. And he’s not after me, he’s after you. He’s looking for
information on the Book of Nine, which you are supposed to have
since you’re a True Blood and that some history was passed down to
you or something. I don’t understand the details.”

“Well he came to the wrong
place. I don’t know anything. I wasn’t old enough to hear the
passage rite before my parents were taken.”

“So you don’t know
anything.” Sky looked partially relieved. “Does anyone
know?”

Her stomach twisted in
guilt. Had she really just abandoned her uncle to save her own
skin? At the time it had seemed like the right thing to do.
“Maybe…what did this Man of Mist say to you?”

She saw a flash of his
blue eyes, but only for a moment. He went back to staring out at
the nothingness of the desert. “Awful things.” He whispered and
could hide the small shiver that shook his body. He clenched his
fist and set his jaw. “But it doesn’t matter. You’re safe now, and
if we can just make it to morning, we can find Roland and he’ll
know what to do.”

“He wants you dead, why?”
She demanded again.

His gaze kept itself
steady out the window, “Last night he broke into my house, I got in
his way and he tried to kill me.” He shrugged a bit, like it was a
boring story he was tired of telling, “But, I survived and he’s not
the kind to leave loose ends. That’s all there is to that side of
it.”

“So this isn’t the first
time you’ve miraculously healed yourself.” It came out with more
sarcasm than she intended, and she certainly didn’t mean to reach
over and poke his side.

He flinched away from her,
his anger replaced by that tiresome fear, and then she noticed the
bruise on his face was nearly gone.

“I don’t know what’s
happening to me, okay. I haven’t been right since last night.” His
voice came out soft and shaking. “I know that guy stabbed me, but I
hardly felt it.” He shook his head and poked at the seat in front
of him. “Roland did some weird medical stuff to me earlier after I
passed out, so I was sort of thinking maybe it was from
that.”

“Maybe.” She would like to
know what kind of medicine he was practicing, “That’s possible.”
She shoved him gently, mainly to get him to stop fidgeting. “I’m
sorry for saying those things to you. You’re not stupid and you’re
not weak.” He wouldn’t look at her, which was good, that way he
couldn’t tell she was lying.