Matt Archer: Redemption (22 page)

God, Fire wasn’t a fire-breathing lizard. It was a lizard made of flames.

“Jesus,” I whispered. No wonder Lanningham said flamethrowers wouldn’t work. “Tink? What do we do? If we throw the knives, how will we ever get them back?”

Get the monster wet?

“And then what?”

Give me a minute.

“We don’t have a minute.”

Trees caught fire wherever the beast walked, and as it drew closer, its shape became more clear. If you combined an iguana with a triceratops head and a bat’s wings, you’d come up with this creature. Its bony head had two horns that glowed like red hot pokers, and its clawed feet dug up piles of dirt with each step. The canopy overhead was probably the only reason it didn’t fly at us.

I jogged over to Will and he spared me a brief glance before turning back to the beast in the trees. “Wondered where you got off to.”

“Let’s just say Jie wasn’t entirely human.” I shrugged when his eyebrow raised. “But we can talk about that later. Any thoughts on how we handle this? I’m guessing ordnance is useless and the flamethrowers would only make it happy.”

“We need to drive it into the lake.”

“How are we going to do that?” I asked. Yes, it was the obvious thing to do, but a fire-made monster would have no desire to take a dip in autumn chilled water.

“We’ll convince it to go.” A slow, cold smile spread across his face and his expression was mischief incarnate. “With live bait.”

I burst out laughing. Wrong place, wrong time, but this was
funny
. “Don’t think the irony of this moment escapes me, man. This is punishment for all the times I sent you in to flush Bears out of the woods.”

“Sure is.” He was laughing too, even as the creature drew close enough to heat the air around us. “Ready?”

“Only plan we have,” I said. “See you on the flip side.”

This
is the plan?
Tink asked, sounding doubtful.
One of you is going to end up burned.

I edged away from the team, making sure I was conspicuous to the monster. Its head followed my movements. Good. “I go along with your crazy ideas all the time.”

They aren’t crazy if they work.
She sighed.
What do you need from me?

“Other than power?” I glanced at the creature. It took a step in my direction. “Flight. Not yet, but soon.”

She groaned.
You’ll have to go on less power for now, then.

“Whatever.” The beast was actively following me. Will, however, had melted into the trees, nowhere to be seen. We were ready.

“Hey, hothead!” I yelled. “Only you can prevent a forest fire!”

Not funny,
Tink snapped.
You shouldn’t agitate it.

She was proved right about two seconds later, as the monster tore through the copse like a raging rhinoceros. I had to run hard, using every bit of speed and agility Tink could give me to stay ahead of it. We plowed through the forest, the scent of burning wood following close behind. Every once in a while I’d get a glimpse of water rippling between branches, but the vegetation became a maze, like the very trees were trying to keep me from the lake, and I could never find a path that let me break through.

It wasn’t natural. Something was keeping me from the water’s edge.

The thing’s breath was scalding my back. It had to be only a few feet behind. I didn’t dare take my eyes off the trail for fear I’d crash into a tree trunk and end up trampled and cooked for my trouble. Sweat rolled down my torso and into my eyes, and my ankles ached from cutting and turning.

I ducked a huge branch, wincing when it cracked as the monster passed it. No way was a simple tree branch going to knock this thing out, not even one as thick as my thigh. I had to find a way to slow it down.

Up ahead, an ancient spruce fanned out with dozens of low branches and handholds. Water danced behind it. Urging my body into a burst of speed, I leapt onto the lowest branches and scrambled halfway up the trunk. I knew I couldn’t wait around—the monster would drive its shoulder into my tree, tip it over and stomp me where I landed.

In touch with my inner squirrel, I skittered along thick mid-tree branches to jump into a fir, then to another. Beyond them was a clearing that lead down to the water.

The tree shuddered under my feet, and the world shifted as it creaked, then fell. I leapt as hard as I could, landing in a roll. My shoulder shouted in pain, but I forced myself up after getting a split-second glance of the monster only feet away, its head lowered to gore me with its horns.

I pounded toward the lake, screeching like a banshee, and tumbled into the shallows without grace.

The monster followed me.

Not daring to believe my luck, I struck out swimming as hard as I could. The thing howled as its foot sizzled in the water, but it didn’t stop coming. As its fire died out, I caught sight of a black, scaly hide. Even without the ability to roast me whole, it still had weight, horns, claws and teeth.

And it was tall enough that it could touch the bottom of the lake.

Half-paddling, half-walking, it chased me toward the middle of the lake. The cold water quickly chilled me to the bone and it got harder to stay afloat, let alone make headway. I was fully dressed, wearing all my gear, and tiring fast.

Where the hell was Will?

“T-tink?” I said, my teeth chattering. “This isn’t g-going to work. F-fly me out of here.”

I’ll refrain from the “I told you so” lecture until later
.

Life tingled in my limbs and I rose out of the water, dripping. I pulled my knife free of its sheath, thinking I’d land on the creature and be done with it—Will’s kill or not. Then it rose to meet me, its giant bat’s wings pelting me with cold air and water droplets.

Crap, I’d forgotten it could fly.

Worse—now it was on fire again.

I zoomed back toward the trees, hoping to get lost in the copse where it couldn’t follow. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that it could fly
faster
than me, and a searing heat clamped onto my left ankle. I screamed and tried to yank my leg back, but it held on with flaming claws. My wet pants smoldered and I could feel my skin cooking underneath.

The monster dragged me to the ground just short of the trees. Without letting go of my leg, it said in a voice like loose gravel, “So weak. Too easy, no matter what the Dark One said.”

I shuddered as the heat from its body blasted mine. The only reason I hadn’t caught fire was because I was wet, but not even that would protect me for long. I struggled to lift my knife, but it pressed its other foot to my right shoulder and I screamed again as the cloth melted against my skin.

Then, out of nowhere, a black dart slammed into its eye. The monster roared and let me go. I curled into a tiny ball of distant pain as Will stalked by, his face like death. He slipped my knife from my hand, growling, “Need to borrow this.”

The creature had stumbled back toward the water and I fought to stay conscious to watch Will drive it far enough into the lake to extinguish its fire. Without the flame, it looked vulnerable, tired. Overmatched.

With one swipe, Will slashed my knife’s blade through its throat and red-orange blood sizzled on the water’s surface.

Then I passed out.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Sir … Take him back?”

“Where? He’s … Get the captain … ”

I panted in shallow breaths, agony lacing every cell in my body. My world had been reduced to the burns on my ankle and shoulder, a universe of pain, and I went in and out of consciousness. Each time I came to, I silently begged to black out again.

“Tink?” I whispered. She would help.

No answer.

Had she abandoned me? I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to let the darkness take me.

“Go for Kelly … Cut them off …”

“What happened out there!” Johnson, shouting. “Why didn’t he have cover?”

“False trail … Got turned around … Swear the forest
moved
, sir
.
” Will, sounding hoarse and near to his breaking point. “I don’t know how.”

Hands passed over my face, light as a feather and cool. Muddled, I wondered if Ella had found me. Even though moving was a lesson in torture, I reached into my pants pocket to touch the St. Christopher medal, needing its grace and hers.

It was gone.

I’d been forsaken by everything.

“Hold on, son,” a soft voice said. “I know it hurts.”

My eyes fluttered open and there was Dad, his face gray and pinched. I blinked back tears. “Burned.”

“I know. I know you are,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. They’re second degree, but we can treat them out here.”

From the way my skin screamed, I thought the beast had seared me to the bone. “Hurts.”

“Kelly,” Dad barked, turning into scary Officer Archer in an instant. “Morphine. Now.”

“He’ll lose consciousness again,” Kelly said, a shadow in my peripheral vision.

Dad rested a hand on my head. “That’s the idea.”

A pinprick later, I went under for good.

* * *

“So, you like fire?” The Dark One asks, his voice so frostbitten it burns.

Despite his coldness, despite a blinding dark, I can feel heat. “Do what you want to me. Just let my sister go.”

He laughs. “There had to be three, Matthew. And so there are.”

Mamie screams, each sob timed to the throbbing ache from my burns. I strain and pull, but my body isn’t my own in this place, and I’m left stuck, listening to my sister beg for death.

And this time I couldn’t wake up.

* * *

I came to, groggy and aching all over, sometime after nightfall. I had no idea if one day had passed, or multiple days. Gingerly, I moved my ankle and found it sore but not excruciating. The same with my shoulder. The skin was tight and itchy, but I’d take that over what I’d felt before

As I stretched, my hand bumped something: my knife’s handle. Instantly, a long sigh of relief filled my skull.

I thought those idiots would never get the hint!
Tink huffed.
William was so upset he let that blowhard spirit of his talk over me.

“I’m a little out of it.” I swallowed; my throat was desert dry and scratchy. “What?”

William took your knife to finish the fire creature then he forgot to give it back!
Tink sounded pissed.
It wasn’t until I gave him the headache to end all headaches that he realized what was wrong. I mean, really, how can I heal you when I’m tied to him?

So many questions coming out of that statement, I didn’t know where to start. “Tied to him?”

I didn’t think another wielder could handle me, and it was probably only because of the situation. Well, and I was compliant about it—at
first
—but he stripped you of your blade while you were down. If I’d been able to help sooner, I wouldn’t have let you suffer so long. Sometimes these men vex me to no end.

She rattled off a long string of words in her own language, cursing based on the tone, and I finally understood a little better. Every time I’d been hurt—starting with the time I’d accidentally sliced myself open in Peru—Tink had sped up my healing process. Today was no exception, and I was tremendously thankful, but I also felt guilty. I’d done the same thing to Will in Australia; I’d taken his knife to fight while he was badly injured. We’d have to remember how this worked in the future.

“What day is it?”

“Tomorrow,” a tired voice answered. “A little after midnight.”

I tried to sit up, but Dad appeared at my side and pushed me back down gently. “Not yet,” he said. “You need to rest a while.”

“How long was I out?”

“Nearly sixteen hours.” He pulled a chair closer to my bed.

Wait where was I? “We’re not in a tent.”

He shook his head. “The people in the village are putting us up for the night. We’re in Xing Li’s house. I didn’t think he’d mind.”

I relaxed. A demon had lived here once, but somehow I knew she’d been the only one. The house was clean. No smell of smoke or death, just incense and quiet. Soft lantern light kept the room dim, which was exactly what I wanted after one of my nightmares—enough light to drive away the fear without being too bright.

Out of reflex, I reached into my pocket for Ella’s medal and found nothing. The confused moments at the edge of the lake came rushing back, along with a profound sense of loss. It was like a piece of my soul had been taken away, a hole in the middle of my chest that couldn’t be filled by anything else.

“You okay?” Dad asked, his face lined with concern. Gone was the take charge super-spy, leaving a worried father behind. “Kelly said your burns are healing unnaturally fast, but if you’re hurting—”

I shot him a stricken look. “My medal, it’s gone. I lost it out there somewhere.”

“Do you want me to go hunt for it?”

I didn’t know why it shocked me that he’d offer, but he hadn’t given me many clues about what kind of “Dad things” he’d do to make me happy, other than sniper duty. Once I got over my shock, though, gratitude took its place. He understood, better than anyone else I knew, what that kind of talisman meant. He had his own.

“It’s dark out, but thanks. Maybe it’ll turn up in the morning.” Or maybe it was at the bottom of the lake, being drawn into the river’s current, never to be found again.

I closed my eyes and clenched my fists against a rush of regret so strong it nearly sent me over the edge.

I’m sorry
, Tink whispered.
I know what it meant to you, too. This was a colossal mess.

Yeah, it had been. And I bet a particular person was making himself sick with guilt over it. “Where’s Will?”

Dad’s smile was rueful. “Probably pacing his room. He took your injuries badly. After you blacked out that last time, he got a little out of hand. Stomping around, kicking trees, refusing to let the medic look at his injuries. Captain Johnson had to chicken-wing him and drag him back here.”