Predator (Copper Mesa Eagles Book 1) (10 page)

“Is he still in the bathroom?” she asked.

“I think so,” Zach said.

They frowned, looking at each other.
 

“I’ll go make sure he’s, uh, okay
,”
Zach said. Jules could tell that he was trying to be as delicate as possible.

At least there aren’t any horrible noises coming from there
, she thought, her eyes going to the window with a view of the mesa.

Every time she looked at it, she just felt guilty.

I wish there was some wrench I could throw in their plans,
she thought.
It’s too beautiful to be spoiled, and these guys don’t deserve it. I can’t believe it’s not a national monument, or... something.

Then a small black dot on the mesa moved, and Jules frowned.

Is that one of the eagles?
She thought.
It’s not really moving like an eagle. Can panthers get up there?

Zach came back into the kitchen as she stared out the window.

“He’s not in there,” he said, sounding mystified. “Our cars are still in the driveway, so he’s got to be somewhere.”

He followed her gaze to the mesa, out the window.

“Holy shit,” he said, and ran out the back door.

Seconds later, Jules followed, to find Zach already in the backyard. He had the binoculars in his hand but he was just staring at the small black spot, open-mouthed.

“That’s Seth,” he said.

“Are you sure?” asked Jules, taking the binoculars. She fixed them on the spot, but still couldn’t quite see much more than a blurry shape, moving slowly against the red rock.”

“I’m positive,” said Zach. “Holy fucking
shit
, what is he doing up there?”

“He’s looking for the—”
 

“It was a rhetorical question,” he said, cutting her off. He put his hand on his forehead, then by his sides, then crossed his arms in front of him.

“You can see him?”

“I have good eyes,” Zach said. “Shit, can we get a mattress or something?”

“Does the fire department have a net?”

Zach shook his head. “I doubt it,” he said.

“What about search and rescue? Should I call the Sheriff?”

Still staring at the mesa, Zach suddenly went pale.

“He just slipped a little,” he said. “
Shit
.”

Then he took off running for the mesa.

“How can you even see that?” Jules shouted, then ran after him.

Despite the adrenaline, she wasn’t very good at running. Since living in a trailer in remote areas, she’d abandoned her usual exercise routine, and besides, she wasn’t wearing a sports bra. By the time she half-walked, half-jogged up to the mesa, she was covered in sweat and both breasts were trying to escape her bra in every single direction, so she stuffed them back in as she finally walked up to Zach.

“Oh my god,” she said, panting. “You were right.”

It was Seth, a little more than halfway up the mesa, hundreds of feet in the air. The ledge was barely wide enough for both his feet, and she could see a continual trail of red dust showering down from where he stood.

Oh god, he’s going to die
, she thought, her stomach lurching. The run hadn’t made it feel good, but now she thought she might throw up.

What’s he doing? He can move somewhere else, this isn’t worth dying over.

There was another small shower of dust and rocks, and Jules felt tears spring to her eyes, her heart seizing.

She and Zach looked at each other. Seth’s little brother had gone pale, his mouth open.

“I have no idea what to do,” she whispered.

Zach just shook his head, mouth open, and looked back at Seth.

Don’t fall,
was the only thing that Jules could think, over and over again.
Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall
.

His foot slipped again, sending another shower down, and Jules thought her heart might simply stop.

“No,” whispered Zach, standing next to her. “No, no, put your foot to the left a little—“

Seth slipped again, and Jules clapped her hands to her mouth, her mind racing. She’d never felt so pathetically helpless before in her life.

Then, Seth slipped again, his whole foot sliding off the path, sending a shower of dirt and rocks down.

“The path’s crumbling,” said Zach. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back away a little. “Hold on, man, just come back down—“

Another shower, bigger. Jules’s hands shook.

And then, in slow motion, Seth fell.

Jules screamed, both hands over her mouth. Zach stared, totally motionless, as Seth’s body flailed, his arms windmilling and his legs kicking as he plummeted. Jules wanted to turn away but couldn’t tear her eyes away from Seth’s body, falling, falling—

Seth twisted mid-air, in a way that Jules didn’t think human bodies should quite be able to twist, and now he was seventy feet from the ground, only a few stories up and still falling.

Something flew away. Where Seth had been falling, suddenly, a giant bird simply spread its wings and flew, swooping down toward the ground and then taking off, away from his clothing, which hit the ground with a light thud.

The bird screamed and kept climbing, circling in the air above Zach and Jules, and then disappeared around the mesa.

Zach and Jules stared at each other, each in open-mouthed horror. Tears streamed down Jules’s cheeks.

Then they ran to where the empty clothes had fallen.

Chapter Eleven

Seth

Flying was exactly like the dream: the wind rushing under his wings, the air against his feathers. The slightest movement made all his mechanics change, but somehow, Seth already knew how to control his flight, like he’s been doing it his whole life. He barrel rolled, then climbed, circled, dove.

It was one of the best feelings he’d ever felt.

Far below, he could see his brother and Jules standing, staring, open-mouthed and horrified, and he felt bad that they’d almost watched him die.

Just a minute
, he thought.
I gotta go find something first.

He wheeled around the mesa and the sun exploded onto his shoulders.

He flew over the mesa a couple of times, then landed, looking around in wonder. He’d never even seen the top of it before, and from there, it looked like he was at the end of the earth, a steep cliff in every direction, the ground rocky and spotted with small, spiny bushes, the whole thing sloping gently to one side.

All I had to do was almost die
, he thought to himself.

Then he heard his mother’s voice, talking to him, clear as day.
 

It’s the girl
, she said.

Seth stood up straight and looked around, searching out the mesa-top for her ghost, for another eagle, for
anything
, but she was nowhere.

What?
he thought, but she’d gone silent.

I guess that’s it. ‘It’s the girl.’ Jules? Not the weird rock in the attic?

Nothing else happened, so he swooped down over the edge of a cliff, circling the cliff sides.

Other eagles — real eagles, he presumed — watched him suspiciously from their holes in the mesa side, and he didn’t go near them, just flew by slowly, wondering how eagles interacted with each other. Was there a bird of prey equivalent of the nod-and-wave?

He circled lower and lower, looking at every side of the mesa, and he was starting to get desperate. He was completely certain that he’d find whatever they were looking for there, but he didn’t know exactly where.

Is it in one of these eagle nests?
He thought.
I don’t really want to get into a fight with another eagle on my first day, but...

Then something flashed in a hole, just for a moment. Seth circled back and it flashed again, then again, and he flew toward the cliff, grasping the edge of the hole with his talons as he folded in his wings.

The flash had been a Coke bottle, and he stood on one foot and nudged it. It looked old, the thick green glass type that they didn’t make anymore, the label completely faded, the bottle itself half-filled with dirt.

Beyond the bottle was a small wooden box, bound by metal straps and locked. Seth hopped forward and pulled at the lock with his beak, but only succeeded in pulling the box along the floor of the hole.

The moment he touched it, that same thrill went through him, ruffling his feathers and making his brain feel like it was sparking.

This is it,
he thought.
Now, how do I open it?

His talons were useless. He was pretty sure he could turn back into a human, but a part of him was afraid that becoming an eagle was a one-time thing, something that could only happen in great distress, and the last thing he wanted was to be trapped near the top of the mesa, completely naked and human.

So he grabbed the small box with one talon and pulled it to the edge. Then he stood on top of it, grabbed it firmly, and took off.

Flying and carrying something was different, and for a terrifying second, Seth thought that he’d miscalculated, the box was too heavy, and he would have to let it go or plummet to his death, but then he flapped his massive wings a few times and found the lift he needed, gliding silently back around the mesa.

Chapter Twelve

Jules

Jules and Zach ran to Seth’s clothes. Jules grabbed his shirt in her hands, staring at it and shaking it out, like something might fall out of it that explained everything. Zach did the same with his pants and then his shoes, turning everything inside out and upside-down as he went through it.

Two small feathers fell from Seth’s shirt.

Jules and Zach just turned to each other and stared.

Jules was the first one to speak up.

“You saw that, right?” she asked, her voice wavering.

Zach just nodded.

“You saw something fly out of my brother’s clothes?” he said, like he was trying to confirm.

“Yes,” Jules said, looking back down at his shirt.

She squeezed her eyes shut, then reopened them, like maybe if she did it enough it would be Seth’s body in front of her, not his empty clothes.

She didn’t
want
Seth to be dead. Of course not. That very morning, she’d wondered what their kids would look like, a thought that was completely insane and wildly inappropriate, but she also knew that men who fell hundreds of feet usually hit the ground and died.

This has to be a dream
, she thought.
It doesn’t feel like a dream. Everything is so real and tangible, and I can feel the dust on his shirt, and Zach is right here, talking to me, but it has to be, right?

But people don’t fly away in real life?

“I’m taking this psychology class,” Zach said, still staring at the clothes. “And I learned that men usually start manifesting schizophrenia in their mid to late twenties, though usually they hear voices long before they have a complete break with reality.”

“We must be having the same break from reality,” Jules said.

“Maybe we’re patients in a mental ward together,” offered Zach. “Otherwise, I have no idea what to make of this.”

Jules looked around again, searching for the bird that Seth had turned into.
 

This doesn’t feel like a psychotic break either,
she thought.
Not that I know what that feels like.

I hope Seth is okay, whatever happened.

“My mom had stories about stuff like this,” Zach said, slowly. “Maybe this is some kind of shared delusion that our family members all had, and so it slowly became legend after a while. Sort of like how vampire legends came about.”

“I’m not a family member,” pointed out Jules.

“Maybe you’re not real,” said Zach.

I’m pretty sure I’m real
, thought Jules, but she didn’t press the issue. It wasn’t like she knew what was going on either.

“Do you think he’s coming back?” she asked, still holding the shirt, squeezing it in her hands.

“I have no idea,” said Zach.

“You know the stories.”

Zach just looked at her, and was about to say something, when something else caught his eye.

Jules whirled around.

Coming right toward them was one of the biggest birds she’d ever seen, all gold-brown, and it was carrying something in its talons. She backed away, trying to avoid getting hit, but at the last moment the bird dropped the box in front of them and then landed.

Jules and Zach didn’t move, and after a few moments, Jules spoke.

“Seth?” she whispered.

She knew it was a crazy thing to say, but then again, nothing was really making sense.

The bird — she was almost certain it was one of the golden eagles who lived on the mesa — cocked its head at her, its golden brown eyes flashing.

That’s him
, she thought, suddenly certain.
Those are Seth’s eyes
.

The eagle was enormous, its head almost even with her waist, and its wings had easily been wider than her own arm span. Then it gave a little hop, moving away, fluttering its wings.

“What?” she said, as it hopped from foot to foot, seeming frustrated.

Then all at once, it was like the eagle melted into itself and in a blink, Seth stood in front of them again.
 

The three of them stood there, silently. Seth was totally naked, but that was far from the most pressing issue.

“I think I found it,” he said, pointing at the box.

“What just happened?” asked Zach.

Seth just shrugged.

“Can you do it again?” Zach asked, totally ignoring the box.

“I think so,” said Seth. He frowned as Jules got on her knees, fiddling with the lock.

Then he shrank suddenly, an enormous eagle where Seth had been.

Zach took a step backward, but was more intrigued than afraid.

“Guys,” said Jules. “Someone get a big rock and hit this thing.”

Zach grabbed a big rock, the size of his fist, and slammed it into the box.

“Be careful!” said Jules, afraid he’d break something.

Instead, the lock fell away, and the two brothers knelt in the dirt over the box, opening the lid.

Inside was a sheaf of paper, bound together by twine that fell away when they touched it. His hands trembling, Zach unrolled the papers, careful not to let them be taken away by the wind.