Intuition: The Premonition Series (47 page)

My body leans towards Brennus’ instinctively because the coldness of his touch is more soothing than the heat of Russell’s body. Brennus speaks soothingly to me in Gaelic while he works to dislodge my hand from his neck. He shifts me into Russell’s arms, being careful not to trip the grenade that Russell is still holding in his hand. Gently Russell cradles me in his arms and I feel his body relax a little when I settle against his heart. But, before Russell can back away, Brennus reaches over and touches Russell’s face with his hand, running his strong, pale fingers over Russell’s golden sun-kissed skin. Russell stills, taking his eyes off of me to look up at Brennus.

“Give me da grenade” Brennus orders, gazing into Russell’s eyes. My heart nearly stops as Russell’s hand twitches. I hold my breath because if the Gancanagh skin affects Russell, then he is dead where he stands once they get the grenade away from him. My stomach wrenches, but I’m no longer aware if it’s from the poison in my blood or the fear that Russell will obey Brennus.

“Touch me again and yer gonna eat this grenade. Yer not my type,” Russell utters with a twist of his upper lip as he slowly begins to back away from Brennus. “He’s a creepy one, isn’t he?” Russell asks me as he quickens his pace backward.

“You’re just going to let him leave with her?” Alfred says from the corner of the room where he has been hiding from Russell. Alfred can’t believe the turn of events and to have me snatched away from him again seems to be doing bad things to him. He looks twitchy and crazed.

“I will get her back,
aingeal,”
Brennus says without a hint of doubt as he shadows Russell and me until we reach the middle of the hall. He stops there and watches our retreat. Brennus, illuminated now by the roaring fire next to him, clenches his fists as the firelight dances in hypnotic patterns over the planes of his face.

Alfred, hopping mad, literally begins to jump up and down while ranting about the incompetence the Gancanagh have shown throughout this entire situation. Russell shifts me in his arms, ignoring Alfred completely as he focuses on getting us out of the sunken pit we are in. I put my arms around Russell’s neck as he turns his back on the Gancanagh. I can see Brennus and the others over Russell’s shoulder. I have to rest my chin on his shoulder because I’m having trouble holding it up. Russell is hurrying to the entrance of the cave, but Brennus doesn’t move as he calls to me saying,
“Mo chroí
…a gift for ye, before ye go.” And then my heart nearly stops when Brennus says, “Kill him.”

In an instant, the Gancanagh fall on Alfred like a pack of hounds on a cornered fox. Alfred’s flesh is being torn from his body while his screams of agony echo off the walls of the cavern. The feeding frenzy is heightening my senses, as the smell of Alfred’s blood assails me, causing my mouth to water. Digging my nails into Russell’s back, I try to keep from struggling against him as the darkness within me is urging me to join the family behind me.

While Gancanagh continue devouring Alfred, my gaze shifts to Brennus. He is watching our retreat with longing and need in his eyes. I can’t stop the slow smile that creeps to the corners of my lips as I gaze back at him. I’m sure that I look as evil as I feel as I raise my shaking fingers to my lips. I touch them gently together, and then turning my fingers, I blow Brennus a kiss to thank him for what he has just ordered done to Alfred. Raw desire shows on Brennus’ face in response.

Russell, reaching the wall of the cave that we will need to scale to get out of the mine, whispers in my ear, “I need yer help, Red. Can ya hold onto my neck and the grenade while I carry ya up this wall?” he asks with uncertainty and anxiety etched on his face.

“I don’t know…pain…” I say, panting and trying to remain as lucid as I can in order to help him, but the evil darkness is growing in me and I’m afraid of what I’ll do if he hands me the grenade.

“Well, I can’t leave ya down here, so do yer best. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll see ya in the next life… and I love ya, Red… God, I love ya so much,” he says, squeezing me tight in his arms and burying his face in my neck. “And I’m sorry it took me so long to come for ya,” he breathes against my ear. He’s in pain, too. Maybe it’s as bad as my own.

“I love you too, Russell. Give me the grenade. I won’t drop it. I promise,” I whisper through my clenched teeth, beating back the pain. Russell hands me the bomb, waiting only long enough to be sure that I have a firm grip on it and that my arms are wrapped se-curely around his neck, before he begins to climb the wall.

When we reach the top of the wall, Russell sits on the side of it, pulling me up over the edge. He takes off the belts that were strapped to his chest, dropping them back down into the hole. Then, he reaches for the grenade that I’m holding in my hand.

“No!” I say fiercely, holding the grenade as tight as I can in my hand so that he won’t take it away from me and drop it down the hole.

Looking stunned, Russell’s hand comes up to cover mine as I clutch the grenade. Staring into my eyes, I think he sees something in them that scares him because he shivers, and then he scowls at me just as fierce. “Ya got that Gancanagh’s poison in ya right now, so I know ya don’t really mean to let those cold, creepy freaks live. Not after what they did to ya—to all those people who have gone down there and never gotten out.”

As I’m shaken by what he says, he uses the opportunity to pull the grenade from my hand, dropping it instantly down the hole. He doesn’t hesitate, but uses all of his angel speed to scoop me up off the ground and run with me out of the mouth of the copper mine and into the darkness of the overcast night sky. The ground shakes beneath us in vibrating tremors as the grenade explodes, detonating all of the other grenades that had been thrown down there before it. Clouds of smoke and debris spew out of the hole in the ground. He carries me past several lifeless bodies of Gancanagh that I recognize as being the sentry guards who had caught me on my prior escape attempt.

Russell continues to run through the hills and down the mountainous terrain. We pass through dense maple and oak trees that shroud the graceful slopes. It’s all rushing by me in a blur as my head lies against Russell’s chest. Reaching a clearing, I see a silver shape ahead of us that is as familiar as the shape of a lover to my mind. It’s Reed’s car, the Audi R-Eight, and I can’t wrap my head around how Russell has come to be driving Reed’s car…unless Reed’s dead and no longer needs his car.

Before I can ask Russell any questions, he is shoving me into the passenger side of the car and slamming the door shut. Getting in the driver’s side, he starts the car and slams his foot down on the accelerator. “How did you…” I begin to ask him feebly, but I have to stop as the smell of the interior of the car hits me. It smells just like Reed and leather. The scent is so wonderful and gut wrenching, that I turn my face toward the leather seat to get closer to the smell of the one I have loved like no other. As the scent overwhelms me, I writhe in pain from the agonizing need to crawl back to the cave behind us. It’s a need that would have me give in to my desire to drink the blood of the one who has just professed to love me, and no other, for eternity.

Shrinking against the seat, I hold on tight to it while Russell tries to gain control of the car as it fishtails and skids down the dirt terrain of the old road we are on. The road leads away from the copper mine—away from the family that desperately wants me back.

“Damn, I knew there were more ways out of that hell hole,” Russell growls as he sees the cars that need no headlights come into view behind us. Sweat seeps down his brow as he shifts the car into a faster gear, burying the needle when we skid onto the paved road that winds away from the hills behind us. “I thought I had disabled all their cars before I went in, but I guess I missed a couple. They’re like a nest of ants with all of their tunnels going clear through those hills,” Russell says. Then, he has a massive shiver, like his flesh is crawling at the thought of the Gancanagh. “They shouldn’t be able to catch us, Red, they’re in SUVs and this car has some balls,” he reassures me. The Gancanagh, making it to the pavement behind us, rapidly lose ground to the Audi’s engine and aerodynamics.

So many questions are running through my mind, but I’m incapable of asking any of them. Curling up into a ball, I pant as my fever causes scary hallucinations to skip through my consciousness. Russell is talking to me, but he sounds like the old VHS tape I had when I was really little. I had a favorite movie with princesses that I used to play over and over, until one day, the tape jammed in the machine, causing the princess to speak in a dark, deep voice that sounded like the devil had possessed her and all of her fairytale-land friends.

A part of me is attempting to rationalize what is happening to me, equating my reaction to being bitten by a rattlesnake. But then, I glance over at Russell and see his face distorting and shifting in twisted patterns of flesh. I press myself against the door of the car, getting as far away from him as I can in the tiny space. When my eyes focus on the passenger window, I shy away from it, too. Sharptalon ravens fly against the glass, attacking us. Their black wings beat the windshield like mallets, striking it with shrill cries that scream, “Nevermore.”

My half-lidded eyes are blurring in and out of focus as I attempt to maintain my grasp on reality. We drive for an eternity around the inside of a paper cup until we finally shoot out the bottom of it. Lynette and Autumn come floating by riding on the library copier. They are looking in the change slot to see if it contains any money. Sneering at me from outside the car, Lynnette’s cell phone is ringing. She tries to hand it to me through the window of the car. I don’t want to answer it, but it won’t stop ringing. Taking it from her grasp, I hold it to my ear. Keegan’s voice begins telling me all of the ways he is going to tear me apart when he gets back from Hell. Dropping the phone back out the window, heavy air comes rushing in, permeating the interior of the car with the scent of water, indicating that we are near the sea… or, the river.

A cacophony is building in waves of vibrations, beating against my chest, while pine trees race by me in a blur of dark shadows. I rest my head against the seatback, staring outside while Cherubim race alongside the car, smiling at me. One has golden hair that flows and streams behind him from the velocity of his powerful wings. His pale blue wings beat powerfully and his leonine features, intensely beautiful to my eyes, relay a message that I can’t understand fully… something about Brennus and retribution…it is his misfortune to burn for me as others have burned for him.

As I lean forward to ask this angel what he means, he is gone in an instant and everything stops moving. I become aware that I’m sitting next to Russell. We are in the rear parking lot of the small grocery store where we shop for food. It’s the one near our apartment in Houghton. Russell parks the car and I’m trying to listen really hard to what he’s saying, but since his face is melting in waxy streaks, I’m finding it hard to focus on the words. Reaching out to me, Russell attempts to hold my hand, but I nearly scream because the slightest pressure from his soothing caress causes me searing pain.

Leaping out of the car, Russell slams the door shut. He approaches the back door of the grocery store, pushing it in with ease as if it is made of newspaper instead of steel. Agonizing moments elapse as I wait for Russell to come back out. When I gaze over to the empty driver’s seat, the door slowly opens and Brennus’ sleek figure eases into it. With a whimper, I press my back against the passenger door. The handle digs into the small of my back, while I look around hopelessly for a means of escape. Brennus stares at me with mock pity on his face as his teeth
click,
engaging them so that he can pierce his skin. Blood, seeping from deep wells in his wrist, makes my head spin. Reaching out with a shaking hand, I pull his arm to my lips, tasting cold, thick blood that instantly cools the burning in my throat.

I have no control over my reaction as I suck and swallow more and more of the salty, metallic-tasting liquid. But, something begins to happen the more I consume. The voice speaking to me now is not how I remember Brennus sounding. This voice sounds more like Russell’s—the slow, southern twang that he uses when he is trying to get me to listen to reason, or when I’m really sad and he is trying to comfort me.

It takes me a few moments to realize that Russell is in the car with me, not Brennus. Russell’s strong fingers are holding a straw to my lips, allowing me to sip awkwardly from a large, clear-plastic deli container that they use to dispense potato salad. “That’s it, that’s my girl. Yer okay…I got ya…just drink this venison blood and we’ll go. Yer almost done, Red, just pretend it’s a smoothie or somethin’,” Russell says. When the straw starts making a loud, slurping noise, he pulls the cup back from my lips and asks, “Do ya need more?”

“I…” Pain grips me again, but it’s less intense than it was a second ago. Russell pulls another container from the floor of the car, and taking the lid off of it, he sticks the straw in it and holds it to my lips again. I drink the second one as fast as the first.

“More?” he asks when I finish the second deli quart. Reluctantly, I nod my head as he pulls the third one from the floor of the car. “Can ya hold this one while I drive the car?” Russell asks, looking around the lot for threats. “I want to get outta here just in case there is a silent alarm in the store, or…” he trails off, but I understand that he is not comfortable with our position.

I grip the plastic cup between shaking hands, fumbling to get the straw in my mouth again. “Here, Red, never mind,” Russell says, taking the cup back from me and holding it again. I drink it as fast as I can, and when I am finished, he asks if I need more. I’m still in pain, but my anxiety to leave the vicinity of our apartment is more pressing than my need to have total relief from the gnawing pain inside me.