The Watchers (36 page)

What should have taken us twenty minutes was
accomplished in a few short minutes as the trees flashed past us on
the dark road. The dim moon was just starting to brighten the dark
horizon, only to slowly become obscured by the clouds boiling
rapidly across our valley. The slow march counted down the time we
had left to utter disaster.

At the proper road, Jackson made a sharp turn
to the left, Margaret close behind. Dirt flew up, choking me as we
raced down the winding road. A tall bridge dwarfed the dirt road,
and I felt a sense of déjà-vu. This was the spot. Margaret pulled
up next to Jackson, and they both cut their engines. The sound of
the dark water and the chirping of crickets were the loudest things
in the night against the rushing water. I got off the motorcycle
and looked to the water’s edge for any sign of Amanda.

Alex clambered off Jackson’s bike as well and
immediately fell to the ground. Retching horribly, she heaved and
threw up. Jackson waved me away, reaching down to touch Alex’s
shoulder.

“It’s probably motion sickness. I’ll take
care of her. Go find that girl.”

I ignored Jackson and started towards my
friend, my sister. She caught my eye and waved me away. Her eyes
told me she was fine, that we were wasting time. I hesitated then
decided Alex knew her body better than I did. She would tell me if
it was serious. Hating that I was leaving her, I started searching
in earnest for Amanda. Margaret went one way along the river bank,
and I went the other. As I searched near the eerily silent water, I
got a sinking sensation we were too late. I had failed. Not only I
had let Amanda down, but we were wasting time looking for her when
we could be rescuing Daniel. I walked the edge of the river, trying
to temper the panicked thoughts, and called Amanda’s name over and
over again.

The others had faded from view when I
heard Amanda’s voice in my head.
This is
it. He hasn’t even bothered to look for me. No one cares whether I
live or die, so why not just die? I’m sorry, God. I’m
sorry.

“AMANDA!” I yelled. I didn’t know where the
thought was coming from, but she was seconds from doing something
desperate.

There wasn’t an answer to my call, only a dim
flash of white from the top of the bridge I was headed toward.
Seconds after I saw the flicker of light, I heard a splash in the
sluggish water.

I was running toward the water before I could
register what had happened. I dove into the river without thought,
the icy water instantly chilling me to the bone. I swam as fast as
I could toward the ripples of her wake, feeling I wasn’t moving at
all against the current. I treaded water for a second where she had
landed to get my bearings. I didn’t see a body rise to the surface
of the dark water nor was the water carrying her downstream. That
meant she was still under the water. Sucking in a ragged,
emotionally charged breath, I dove down.

I cut down through the water as quickly as I
could, my eyes stinging from the cold. The water was murky and
deep; deeper than I had thought. I couldn’t see more than two feet
in front of me. If she had moved downstream, I would never find
her.

Luckily, she hadn’t. A dim shape appeared
below me in the water, materializing in front of me in a mirage of
surreal, absolute reality. I swam closer and saw Amanda floating
like a rag doll in the brutal current. Her pale skin and dark hair
drifted eerily around her face in time to the water rushing past,
her body all but immune to the current. I sliced through the water
and grabbed the arm that floated uselessly above her head, eager to
get her back to air. I tugged as hard as I could but she only moved
a millimeter – if that. Something was wrong. I tugged again and a
large rock fell out of her pocket. Air bubbles surged out of my
mouth as a string of expletives escaped me. She had filled her coat
pockets with rocks. She had made sure she wouldn’t rise to surface
and accidently survive.

I dropped her arm and muscled my way down to
the bottom. Every inch was a struggle against simply leaving her to
the watery depths of this hellhole, so that I wouldn’t join her in
death. I worked at her coat, struggling with the heavy wool fabric.
Her pale face kept drawing my eyes. Was she already dead? Was I
rescuing someone who didn’t want to be saved? Would it even matter
if I managed to get the jacket off?

It did matter. It mattered to me.

A burst of energy flooded through me at the
thought, giving me strength. With a final heave, I pulled off her
jacket. She rose slightly in the current and started drifting
downstream. I grabbed her around the waist and kicked off. My chest
was tight, my lungs burning with the need for air. Dim moonlight
danced on the surface of the water teasing me with the distance I
had to go. Would I make it? I kicked harder. Seconds passed. Then
more seconds. Was I close? Would this be the way my adventures
ended?

We broke the surface just as sadness at dying
started to take root in my stomach. I gasped for air and pulled
Amanda’s head above the water. She didn’t react to the air. I
looked around for land, knowing I had to work fast to get her
breathing again. I couldn’t see the bridge anymore. Thick trees
obscured the road I had been following. Every bone in my body
hurting from the cold, I swam toward the shore. It only took me
moments, but between Amanda’s dead weight, my cold fear, the river,
and the dark clouds closing in overhead, it felt like an
eternity.

Heaving with the effort, I grabbed hold of
the low, thick turf and muscled my way onto the shore. I dragged
Amanda onto the bank beside me, knowing I only had moments if I
wanted to save her. I started pushing on her chest in time to what
her normal breathing should be, and hoped that if fate did exist it
was my destiny to save her.

Water gushed out of her mouth in response to
my touch. Her eyelids fluttered uselessly. After what seemed like a
gallon of water poured out, she started to cough. Her body
convulsed with each cough. She coughed up more water then fell
silent. I bent down and listened for breathing. It was rough but
even. She was alive.

I looked around for something to cover her
with. All I had on me were wet clothes, which wouldn’t do much
beyond making her wetter. I cursed my lack of foresight. Not
knowing what else to do, I pulled Amanda into my arms. I wasn’t
much above hypothermia myself, but I had to do something to warm
her. I listened hard for any thoughts, trying to make sure she
hadn’t suffered brain damage. Her thoughts were sluggish and ill
formed but logical. She was okay; as okay as a person could be
after such an ordeal.

We sat on that brush covered bank for several
minutes listening to the sound of water sloshing past. Amanda’s
mind tried to understand what had happened; why she wasn’t dead.
Her thoughts boiled with overwhelming primal emotions and fears. My
thoughts were focused on trying to locate the others. Had they
abandoned us to search for Daniel?

Amanda’s eyelids fluttered, her wet face
contorting with pain and sadness. A thought overrode all her
emotions and she found the words. “Daddy?” she whispered in a
scratchy voice, her eyes still closed.

“No, it’s Clare.”

She started crying, and I knew she had hoped
her father had loved her enough to come find her. It was the one
thing she had been clinging to all day. He would know she had come
here. This had been their place. He had brought her here as a
child, had talked to her on that very bridge she had jumped off.
But, her father had stopped caring. That thought hurt more deeply
than the idea that suicide was an acceptable alternative to a life
which, from her viewpoint, looked pretty bleak. I held her
tighter.

As waves of empathy poured through my body
for her, I wondered again where my reinforcements were. It didn’t
make sense. They would never just leave us, even if they found
Daniel. Not like this. So, why weren’t they here helping me? Or at
least making sure I hadn’t died? Come to think of it…why hadn’t
they helped me when I was in the river? They would have seen and
heard Amanda fall better than I did. Unless….

“My, my, I
am
disappointed. I thought you would be much
harder to catch than this. They were making such a game of it, too.
To think the old man’s plan actually worked!”

I looked up at the new voice, fear pounding
in my veins. The voice was familiar in a way that made my skin
crawl. While I had never seen the woman’s face before, her black
eyes, her deadly nature, and certainly her voice, were as familiar
as my nightmares. It was ‘Lady’ Cassandra, the Seeker who had
searched for me for two years. Her blonde hair rippled in the wind
pushing the storm along. Her face, which was round and girlish, was
lifted in bleak amusement. As I stared into her midnight eyes the
rain started.

“No more water…” Amanda said half delirious.
Her eyes opened briefly then she passed out again.

“What do you want?” I asked more bravely than
I felt.

I refused to look away from those eyes, which
so eloquently spoke of death. The woman laughed, causing the hairs
on my neck to rise in alarm. There was no helping that response.
Her laugh signaled that horrible things were coming my way.

“You, of course. That’s why I’ve been on this
stupid mission so long and dealt with so many…lesser beings. You
have something we want, well, that Marcus wants. I will get it for
him.”

“Where are Daniel and the others?” I shifted
Amanda in my arms protectively. “I swear, if you’ve hurt them…”

“Oh, that’s sweet! You’re threatening me!”
She leaned forward. “You’ve got spunk. I like that. It’ll make
breaking you all the more fun.”

I stared at her and swallowed hard. What did
she mean? A clap of thunder shook the earth and lightning flashed
across the sky. Cassandra looked behind her, worried. She turned
back and looked over the water. Her round face contorted with
concentration then she smirked and straightened. “Now, be a good
little girl and come with me. If you don’t, I’ll make sure your
friend dies.”

“If I leave her here, she’ll die anyway!”

“That’s a risk you’re just going to have to
take.” Cassandra shrugged indifferently. “Death now or death later,
what does it matter anyway? They’re all weak, useless things. Death
is merciful for them.”

I resisted the urge to get up and offer her
my hand in the form of a fist to the nose. She was beyond evil.
What kind of creature could kill, not because they needed food to
survive, but because they simply wanted to, because they craved the
destruction inherent in taking a life? I glared at her. Her threat
was serious and I hated her for it. She wouldn’t think twice about
killing Amanda, or Alex, or any of my new family.

I sucked in a breath for courage,
knowing what my choice was. I slipped my arm from around Amanda and
laid her back down. Water poured down my face and splashed onto
hers, but she didn’t react.
Just let her
live
, I pleaded silently.

Cassandra, her face triumphant, dragged me to
my feet and marched me through the leaves. Beyond the foliage, an
SUV waited on the same dirt road Margaret and Jackson had parked
on, though I didn’t see them anywhere. Without any preamble, she
threw me in the back. Rough metal dug into my skin as I landed in a
cage commonly used to transport animals. Cassandra grinned as she
locked the latch. “Stay,” she told me.

She hurried to the driver’s side. The wheels
spun a little from the mud as she punched the gas, but it was
nothing to the all-terrain monster. The vehicle rocked over the
thick underbrush and brutal rocks as she cut off-road. My head
knocked into the steel repeatedly with every bump. I held on and
tried to guess where I was going and what was waiting for me. I
didn’t try to come up with an escape plan. I had no intention of
escaping. It was clear what I had to do. I had to deal with this
whole ordeal now and stop the chasing, stop the fear. As I traveled
to the unknown, I went back to wondering if everyone else was okay,
or what had happened to them. Would I see them again? Would my
sacrifice mean anything?

After long minutes of nothing but fear for
company, my captor slammed on her brakes, throwing me forward. I
cursed and crawled to my knees again to look out. We had arrived at
a small concrete structure surrounded by thick pine trees. The
structure was almost completely covered by dead vines and dark
mold, but it was impressive in the fear it instilled in me.

Cassandra came around the SUV and unlocked my
cage. Without giving me time to get out, she grabbed me in a harsh
grip, her nails digging into my arm, and pushed me toward the only
entrance, a rusted metal door. Stumbling over unseen roots and dead
leaves, I walked to the door, resisting the urge to turn and say
something sarcastic. I was pretty sure it would only get me
killed…faster. I put my hand on the rusty handle and pulled,
controlling my trembling with effort. It was raining harder now,
the full brunt of Margaret’s fury unleashed to the world. I
couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me, but the entrance to
the structure was even darker, a black hole in the night. As I
stepped past the metal door, I felt that the earth was swallowing
me.

Cassandra pointed at a barely perceptible set
of stairs that spiraled downward. “Be careful,” she said. “We
wouldn’t want you to snap your pretty little neck.”

She shut the door in my face with a hard
slam. I listened for a moment and heard her pacing in front of the
door. I sighed in relief. She wouldn’t have to guard the door if
she had killed the others. But, if she stayed out there, who was I
supposed to see? The brown-haired Seeker? That didn’t feel right.
From the meeting I had overheard, Cassandra was in control. She had
seniority. She had the power, and more importantly, she somehow had
absolute control over the Nightstalkers. Had someone else been
pulling the strings?