Laura Jo Phillips (11 page)

“Can you show me now?” Saige asked, her eyes again shining with excitement.

“I am afraid that our alter forms are far too large to fit into this vehicle,” Faron said, enjoying her reaction. 

“Really?” she said again, her eyes widening.  “How big?” 

“About twice as high as you are tall,” Dav said. 

“Wow, I can hardly wait to see that!  Please promise that you will show me as soon as we get wherever we’re going,” Saige pleaded, her smile so big that Faron noticed for the first time that she had two cute little dimples in her cheeks. 

“Of course we will,” he said at once, certain that he would never be able to deny her anything so long as she smiled like that.

“I can hardly wait!”  She was all but bouncing up and down in her seat she was so excited.  Dav and Faron were having fun just watching her.  Even Ban was taking quick looks over his shoulder at her as he drove.  They were all smiling and chuckling along with her, her happiness was so contagious.

Without warning, Saige froze.  For a long moment she didn't move or even seem to breathe.  She lowered her head, placed her hands in her lap, and began breathing in and out, slow and deep.  Faron asked her if she was all right but she did not respond, and he remembered she had done the same thing when they had entered Jackson's office.  Dav and Ban both frowned, Dav leaning forward as though to reach for her, but Faron held up a hand to stop him.  He shook his head, wanting Saige left alone for the moment.  She was obviously concentrating, almost meditating, as she focused intently on what appeared to be a relaxation technique.  Several minutes later she took a long, deep breath and blew it out.

When she raised her eyes again she looked exhausted.  As much as Faron wanted to understand what had just happened, he sensed now was not the right time for it. 

“I think you should lie down and rest now,” he suggested.  She only nodded her head wearily and started to lie down on the seat.  Faron reached over and pulled her into his lap, frowning at how limp her body felt.  Dav opened the compartment beneath the seat and pulled out a couple of blankets and quickly spread one over the seat.  Faron laid her down on top of the blanket and reached down for the pillow, tucking it beneath her head as Dav spread another blanket over her. 

“Thanks guys,” she said softly, her eyes already closing.  “I'm sorry, just a little tired.”

“There is no need for apologies,” Faron said softly.  “Sleep now.  We will finish our talk another time.”  Faron ran his fingers through her short, silky hair as he studied her carefully.  Her breathing seemed fine, though her color seemed too pale.  She did not have a fever or any other sign of illness that he could detect. 

He shook his head, again wishing he could kick himself.  The woman had been through hell over the past few days, had only just been rescued from a small box a few hours earlier for star's sake.  And he was wondering why she was tired?  Fool.

He tucked the blanket carefully beneath her chin, and bent down to kiss her lightly on the forehead.  “Sleep easy beautiful one,” he whispered.  “We will watch over you.”

Chapter
7

Captain Graey checked the time again.  The past two hours had dragged by unendingly.  He stood up and began pacing back and forth across his stateroom, idly wondering if the carpet would need replacing by the time this bloody trip was over.

While he paced, he went over the Lobo’s visit in his mind.  He thought perhaps he’d pulled off the bumbling idiot captain act, but he wasn’t sure.  Those Lobos were sharp, and that bit he’d done when asked about his refusal to return the ship to Jasan had been pure spur of the moment panic on his part. 

Lucky for him that they’d gotten distracted by something in that first woman’s compartment.  Otherwise he had no doubt they would have seen right through him.  Even so, he had a feeling that once they had time to think it over, they’d be looking at him more closely.

One thing he found puzzling was that the Lobos had obviously not scented the Xanti in either of the compartments they had checked.  He knew for a fact that the Xanti had been in both compartments.  Because of that, he had briefly considered showing the Lobos the wrong compartments.  In the end he had not dared.  While he was relieved that they had not scented the Xanti, he did not understand how it was possible and that worried him.

He abruptly decided that it was time to quit gambling.  If he did that, he had more than enough money to live in comfort.  This would be his last trip.  When he got back to Earth, he’d put in for retirement and find some nice, quiet planet to live out his days on.  And it for damn sure wouldn’t be Jasan.

But first, he had to make that bloody call.  He didn’t want to do it, but he knew that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have to worry about either his retirement or his bank balance.  A fool might believe that there was no way for the Xanti to learn about the call the Lobos had made from his vid terminal.  But Certus was no fool.  He only acted like one when it suited him.  Somehow, someway, the Xanti always found out everything.  If he delayed making the call even by a few minutes after it was safe to do so, there would be hell to pay. 

He checked his watch again and realized with a start that at last the time had come.  He sat down at his desk and took a deep, calming breath.  Then he reached out with trembling fingers and typed in the code he’d memorized two years earlier, but hoped he’d never have to use.  The sight of Za-Queg’s image filling his vid screen made cold sweat break out on his forehead.  But this time he did not reach for his handkerchief to mop it off.  Instead, he opened his mouth and repeated every word of the conversation he had listened to between the Lobos and the Bearens.

“Willy, you awake?” Frank whispered as softly as he could.

“Yes,” Willy replied just as softly.  “Where are we?”

“We’re in the trunk of a damn ground-car on our way to hell,” Frank replied morosely.

“What does that mean?” Willy demanded, his voice not quite as soft as it had been before.

“It means that Lucky is dead and we are on our way to see the High Prince of Jasan.”

Willy absorbed that for a few moments.  “Any ideas on how to get out of here?” he asked hopefully.

Frank rolled his eyes.  He was not an idea man, and Willy damn well knew it.  He didn’t even bother to respond.

There was a long silence broken only by the occasional sound of a ground-car whooshing by.  “I wonder if there’s a catch inside this trunk,” Willy whispered.  Frank thought about that.  Not a bad idea, he thought, but Willy was the one nearest the end so he’d have to check.  He quietly told him so.

“Oh, yeah,” Willy said.  Frank rolled his eyes again.  And everyone thought
he
was dumb.

Willy fumbled around for a while but evidently didn’t find anything as the trunk did not suddenly fly open.  That was a thought that Frank spent a few moments on.  What if the trunk did fly open?  What were they going to do? Leap out of a speeding ground-car?  He shook his head. 

“I think there’s bugs in this trunk,” Willy whispered.  Frank heard the man shifting around and grunting. 

“Why do you say that?” he asked as he felt a small burning sensation in his shoulder. 

“Feels like something bit me on the shoulder,” Willy replied, his voice no longer a whisper.  “Burns like hell,” he added.

The burning sensation on Frank’s shoulder grew worse.  “I guess I got bit too,” he said as he tried to rub his shoulder against the floor of the trunk in an effort to ease the burning.  “What the hell kind of bug burns when it bites?” he asked.

“Why ask me?” Willy snapped.  “Do I look like a bug expert or something?” 

Frank heard Willy shift around some more. 

“Damn it hurts,” he said, not even bothering to keep his voice low now.  Frank’s shoulder had begun to burn enough that he was no longer listening to Willy anyway.  The burn seemed to be spreading, getting larger and larger until he felt as though his entire back was on fire.

“What the hell?” he thought as he tried to rub his back against the floor again.  Is there some sort of poison bug on Jasan that burns you up when it bites? he wondered. 

“Damn!” Willy yelled suddenly, startling Frank so much that he tried to sit up and banged his head against the trunk lid. 

He shook his head once, then forgot about the pain in his head as the burn in his back seemed to double, then triple.  He opened his mouth to scream, but Willy beat him to it, emitting a long high-pitched squeal.  Frank thought briefly that Willy sounded like a pig.  Then Frank began screaming right along with Willy, and never thought another thought again.

Chapter
8

Faron heard the voices in the trunk and did not, at first, concern himself with them.  The voices quickly grew louder, and then became yells.  At the same moment that the yells became screams, Faron caught a faint whiff of burning flesh.  Without even thinking about it he threw himself full length across Saige's sleeping body and held tightly to the seat beneath them.  A split second later the trunk of the ground-car exploded into flame, tossing the ground-car into the air where it flipped over twice before landing upright at the edge of the road with a spine jarring crash. 

Faron scooped Saige into his arms and kicked at the side door with all of his formidable strength.  The door flew off with a harsh screech of tearing metal.  Faron leapt out and ran several yards away before pausing to lay Saige carefully on the cool grass a short distance from the burning ground-car.  He spent one precious moment checking to be sure she breathed and was not bleeding or otherwise in immediate need of attention before turning back to the ground-car for his brothers. 

The ground-car was nearly engulfed in flame by the time he reached it, but he entered it anyway and snatched up Dav’s broken and unconscious body before leaping out once more.  He laid Dav down near Saige and returned to the burning vehicle for Ban. 

Ban was conscious, but trapped between the seat and the steering wheel and injured too badly to muster the strength to free himself.  Faron did a partial shift into his loboenca and jumped over the burning car.  The moment his feet touched the ground on the driver’s side he was already grabbing for the door handle.  He pulled the door open and reached through the flames separating himself from his youngest brother.  Grasping the steering wheel with both hands, he jerked hard, wrenching it free.  He tossed it aside and reached back through the flames for Ban.  He grasped him by the shoulders and yanked him out of the car so hard that they both flew backwards several yards, landing hard on the pavement just as the fuel tank exploded.  Faron threw his body over Ban’s and raised his arms to cover his own head just as a large piece of metal slammed into his back.  He had one fleeting moment to hope that he had saved Saige’s life, and then he thought no more.

Saige opened her eyes and saw Dav's burned and bleeding face inches from her own.  She gasped in horror at the sight, unable to comprehend what was happening.  She sat up in time to see Faron leap over the burning ground-car, but the flames and smoke were too thick for her to see much after that.  She heard yelling and crashing sounds, and saw what she thought was Faron trying to pull Ban from behind the wheel of the ground-car.  Though she could not see them clearly, she could sense them.  She knew that Ban was badly injured, and that Faron was intent on saving him. 

She was just starting to get to her feet, intending to run around the burning vehicle to help Faron, when an explosion knocked her flat on her back.  She squeezed her eyes shut against the blinding flash of fire and turned over quickly to place her face down into the grass as the burning air singed her skin. 

A few moments later she lifted her head cautiously to see that the car was still burning, but not nearly as brightly.  She glanced over at Dav, but he was still unconscious, and she had no idea how Faron and Ban were.  She tried to stand up, fell, and tried again, the need to know what was happening with all three of them growing in her to the point she could think of nothing else.  When she fell to the ground a third time, she desperately reached for them with her mind.  She gasped as she sensed Ban and Dav slipping away from her, and Faron beginning to grow distant as though he meant to follow them.  Everything in her screamed against the idea of losing them.  She did not understand her own feelings, but she knew that if they died, she would not long survive the despair of it.

Again she struggled to get to her feet, this time determined to succeed no matter what.  The moment she was standing up she took off running as fast as she could force her legs to move, ignoring the pain in her knees and ankles, her only thoughts for Faron and Ban. 

She gave the burning ground-car a wide berth just in case it blew up again, so it took her longer than she’d hoped to get to the far side of it.  When she did, the first thing she saw was Faron lying protectively over Ban, a large chunk of metal across his back.  Saige ran forward and grasped the hot metal with both hands, but she could not budge it no matter how hard she tried.  Giving up on moving the metal, she knelt down beside Faron and saw that his eyes were closed, but he seemed to be breathing.  She prayed that he was still breathing.