Parahuman (Parahuman Series) (5 page)

     After
some time Devan heard Laney speaking with the two younger girls. She had given
each girl a pair of binoculars and was pointing out specific points of interest. 

     Devan
realized he had been keeping alert for the sound of her voice. It was like she
exuded a light and he was a bug drawn to that illumination. Every time he
looked away his eyes were drawn back to her almost involuntarily. He couldn’t
figure out why she was so interesting to him.

     What
was it about her?

     And that
question mechanically had his gaze returning to her yet again, this time to see
her gazing at him. She gave him a wave and a smile and a muscle in Devan’s
chest cavity tightened.

     He
didn’t have time to contemplate the anomaly though as his and everyone else’s
attention was drawn to the sound of hysterical yelling.

    
“Johnny…Johnny!”

CHAPTER THREE

     Laney
might not be able to see Devan’s eyes but she could feel them, and they were
causing a contingent of butterflies to take root in her stomach. She glanced
his way and…yeah, he was looking her way. He stood off by himself over by the
river and looked so alone, so she smiled and waved for him to come over.   

     He
rubbed at his chest and possibly frowned at her. What was with the frown, if it
was indeed a frown?

    
“Johnny…Johnny!”

    
Tearing her gaze away from Devan Laney looked toward Becky and saw her turning
in frantic circles calling Johnny’s name over and over. It wasn’t difficult to
figure out what had happened, and now all the parents had caught onto the
crisis and were yelling for Johnny. Laney’s father raised the whistle that was
around his neck and gave it three loud blows. He had explained to the entire
group before hiking out that if anyone got lost they were to listen for the
sound of whistle and follow it back. It pierced the air and would travel
through the air for at least half a mile.

     “Not
again.” Laney turned to the girl next to her, Jordyn, Johnny’s fourteen year
old sister. Standing next to her was her friend, Hanna, the daughter of the
other couple.

     “Not
again? What does that mean?” Laney asked in foreboding.

    
Jordyn rolled her eyes in typical teenage girl fashion. Laney prayed she didn’t
look that ridiculous when she did it.

     “Johnny
is always disappearing. He’s constantly in his own little world. He’s wandered
off at every amusement park we’ve ever been to; parks, beaches, stores. You
name a place we’ve been, he’s disappeared at it.”

     This
was something that would have been handy to know beforehand Laney thought with
a grimace. You would think if the kid was constantly pulling a ‘where’s Waldo’
that the parents would keep a better eye on him. Hopefully the kid hadn’t gone
too far. Laney’s dad was talking to Becky while looking around the area. He
gave his whistle another three blows.

    
“Jordyn, can I see those binoculars?” Plucking the binoculars from Jordyn’s
fingers Laney began searching the east riverbank and meadow. No sign of him
anywhere.

     “I
saw him by the woods to the west not too long ago.”

     Laney
pulled the binoculars from her face to look toward Devan. Everyone else had
also frozen and given him their attention. He had retreated from the river’s
edge nearer to the woods he was referring to.

     “You sure
about that Devan?” Nick walked toward Devan the parent’s trailing after him.
Laney headed that way as well with the two girls tagging behind her. Hanna and
Jordyn talked in hushed whispers behind her.

     “Man,
he’s sexy, especially in those sunglasses, but he’s just so tall. You would
need a ladder just to look him in the eye.”

     “With
those muscles all he needs to do is pick you up so you can see.”

     Soft
giggles followed that comment. Laney almost did some eye rolling of her own,
but she was able to see why the two girls were so boy struck, she couldn’t
fault them for having eyes.

     “It
was probably about ten minutes ago that I saw him. He’s either gone too far to
hear the whistle or he’s near the river and the sound of the rushing water is
drowning out all other sounds.”

     Nick
nodded his head in agreement and Laney could see the interested awareness
flaring in her father’s eyes at Devan’s observations.

    
However, the father was shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure that I saw him over
that way last.” The father pointed in the opposite direction.

    
Great; two points of focus Laney thought; although, her dad would have split
them up anyway. Laney saw Devan shaking his head looking possibly impatient,
his head turned to the west woods.

     The
parents having a direction in mind headed that way without delay. Her dad
yelled out to them.

    
“Becky, Lon, hold up! You just can’t run off, you don’t know the area and
you’ll only get yourselves lost too.”

     Both
parents stopped, but Laney could see that they could barely restrain themselves
from running into the woods. The father looked both angry and worried, while
the mother was on the verge of tears.

     “I am
not just going to sit here and hope for my son to come back on his own.” Lon
said angrily.      

     Nick
walked up to Lon and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “I don’t need more
people getting lost in these woods. I’m going to send Laney to the west and you
can go with me to the east. One of us will find him and bring him back. I’m
going to leave the whistle with Becky; keep blowing it every minute so Johnny
can find his way back. And please just stay here, don’t go running off. Give me
one second.” Nick handed the whistle over to Becky, then grabbing Laney’s arm
he began to drag her away from the families.

    
“Devan, can you follow us, please.” Nick called over his shoulder. 

     Once
out of earshot of the families Nick turned to address both Laney and Devan.
“Laney, you follow the river to the west while I go to the east. If either one
of us spots him we’ll use the two-way’s to contact each other.” Nick turned to
face Devan. “Devan, I would like Laney to have backup with her; can you do
this? If you want you can think of it as a test of your abilities.”

     “Yes,
I can do that.” Devan responded.  

    
“Laney is in charge. This is a serious situation, so you will follow her lead.”
Nick’s expression became severe. “If you really want this job I don’t want to
hear…”

    
“Dad,” Laney interrupted, with a conciliatory smile. “Don’t worry about Devan.
He’ll be fine.”

     Nick
scowled at her interruption. She scowled right back at him.

     “I
have no problem following her lead.” Devan was looking back and forth between
her and her father, his brow furrowed.    

     “Head
out then, and stay together. Get back to me in thirty minutes if there’s no
sign of him. If we haven’t found him in an hour we need to call in the Rangers
and some volunteer rescuers.” Nick turned away to head down the east riverbank
with Johnny’s father beside him.

     Laney
headed in the opposite direction. Glancing at Devan beside her Laney observed
him gazing into the woods. That wasn’t altogether strange; they
were
supposed to be searching the forest, but his gaze wasn’t sweeping the terrain.
Instead, it was concentrated in one specific area; like he had something in his
sights. Laney peered in the same direction but didn’t see anything but trees.
Glancing back up at Devan Laney saw that his focus remained consistent.

     “Do
you see something?” Laney asked.

     The
fixed gaze immediately began to circulate the area before settling on her.
“No.”

     Laney
frowned. Something seemed off, but she wasn’t sure what it was.

     “Are
we positioning ourselves near the river?” Devan asked, abruptly.

     “That
would probably be a good idea. It alarms me to think that Johnny might be
playing by the river and could accidently fall in.”  

     Devan
jerked his head her way abruptly, a possible incredulous look upon his
face…those glasses really needed to go…but then went back to looking into the
forest just as swiftly. “Yes, that is a real possibility.”

     Laney
called out Johnny’s name as her eyes traveled the landscape. “There’s a chance
he might have just gotten lost in the woods.”

     “I
think we should stay near the water; it’s the greatest concern.” Devan pressed.

    
Laney’s eyebrow rose marginally at his forceful tone, and because his gaze kept
straying and lingering in that one particular area…by the river. Laney couldn’t
shake the thought that he was seeing something that was indiscernible to her.

     “I
wasn’t altering our course, just putting other options out there.” Laney
assured him. She took note that her vocabulary seemed to be expanding in his
presence. He may not be a chatterbox, but when Devan did speak if sort of made
you feel juvenile in comparison.

    
Further conversation was suspended as they searched and called out Johnny’s
name. About twenty minutes into their retrieval mission Laney was starting to
get slightly anxious about the passing time with no sight of Johnny when one of
Devan’s yells was abruptly cut short.

     Laney’s
gaze swung Devan’s way at once, thinking he’d seen something. They had drifted
about ten yards apart, but Laney could see him clearly. Devan’s stride shifted
from relaxed to fixed as he stared ahead at something.

     Suddenly,
he shot forward at a dead run.

     “Devan!”
Laney shouted in alarm, but he was gone.

     Laney
blinked in astonishment. In fact, he’d been there one second and then vanished
in the next. How in the heck did he do that? Laney promptly dashed in the
direction she’d seen him go but saw no sign of him. Her backpack was cumbersome
and thumped against her back as she ran slowing her down, so with a split
decision to either lose Devan or catch up with him, she ditched the pack.
Sprinting as fast as she could Laney still wasn’t able to see any sign of
Devan. That he had disappeared so fast was…unbelievable. 

     Very
uncomplimentary names were rolling through Laney’s head as she huffed it around
trees and over fallen branches and then she heard Devan’s voice bellow up
ahead.

    
“Down!”

     His
yell was followed by a ‘crack’ and a ‘thud’ that echoed through the woods, and
a few seconds after that an unimaginable sound ripped through the forest and up
her spine.

    
“Growwwllll…”

    
Laney’s heart tripped and her feet stuttered. She had only ever heard that
sound once in her life, and she would never forget it. 

   
Mountain lion!

   
“Aaahhhh…Aaahhhh…Aaahhhh…”

     That
sounded like Devan, but it wasn’t the sound of someone being attacked, instead
it sounded like he was trying to scare the animal away. Survival instructions did
say to appear bigger and louder than the predator. He would certainly be
bigger, but would it be enough? 

     Laney
tried to make her feet move faster, but she had already been running flat out
for what seemed like forever. Laney considered herself in shape, but she only
had so much in her. God, she hoped Devan and Johnny were okay. She told herself
Devan was way too big for a mountain lion to bother with, but Johnny wasn’t. Her
heart was pounding overtime and not just from the sprint through the woods.

     The
growling and yelling continued and after what seemed like forever Laney was finally
able to see some colors besides greens and browns up ahead. Black and yellow
were becoming discernible. The black was from Devan’s shirt and Laney
remembered that Johnny had been wearing a yellow t-shirt.
Crap
! The
mountain lion must have spotted Johnny and the easy pickings of a small meal.
Laney started shouting along with Devan hoping that the lion would be scared
off at the prospect of an additional threat. Her screaming came out fractured
as she was having some difficulty both breathing and running by this time.

     As
Laney got closer she was able to see that Devan had taken up a protective
position in front of Johnny. He was waving his arms and yelling while Johnny
huddled behind him clinging to one of his long legs. A quick inventory revealed
no signs of blood, at least on the
backs
of either of them.

     Staggering
up next to them gasping for breath and wheeze-screaming Laney was just in time
to see the rear end of the mountain lion fleeing off into the forest.

     Laney
bent over with her hands on her knees doing her best not to hack up a lung.
“Is…every…one…o…kay?”

     Still
clutching Devan’s leg Johnny twisted toward Laney wide eyed and grinning. “That
was so cool. Devan came out of nowhere jumping over me and then there was this
lion and it was growling at us and it had the biggest teeth I ever saw and I
was sure it was going to attack us but then Devan started yelling and waving
his arms and scared the lion away…it was the most awesome thing I ever saw.”
Johnny leaned back to look up at Devan, an expression of adoration on his face.

     Laney
was able to inflate her lungs a little during Johnny’s long winded run-on
sentence. She straightened up to face Devan holding the stitch in her side. He stood
with his arms out to his sides staring down at Johnny attached to his leg with
an expression of puzzled discomfort on his face. He actually looked like he
might begin shaking his leg any minute to dislodge said attachment.

     A
smile started to curve Laney’s mouth at his affliction but froze half formed as
Devan’s face rose and focused on her. A face free of sunglasses. Laney was
struck speechless.    

    
Johnny wasn’t. “Wow, I’ve never seen yellow eyes before,” he exclaimed.

    
Those
eyes could never be called a plain yellow. They were an amazing golden yellow
with large dilated pupils. They were incredible!