Crack the Sky: Preternatural Chronicles Book 8 (The Preternatural Chronicles)

by Hunter Blain

  “What’d I say?”

  “Virgo…” A hand ran down his face in visible frustration. “I see not a lot has changed in over four decades.”

  His words struck me, not because of how untrue they were but because they reminded me I had lost him.

  I was going to tell him about the armor I had noticed he kept glancing at when he thought I wasn’t looking.

  “If my brother sent you back to this time stream to save Depweg, it must be for an important reason,” Da mused, cutting off my thought before I could speak.

  “Yeah,” I breathed out while removing my beanie and running my hands through my black hair. “Yeah. I got that impression from him for sure.”

  While I looked at the map, I saw Da glancing at my torso again.

  “Da…about the…the ar—”

  “That’s a nice coat you are wearing,” Da interrupted, leaning forward to inspect my trench. “May I see it?”

  A lump swelled in my throat, making it impossible to speak as the situation became all too real to me. Da was about to inspect the coat he had made before…

  Taking off my trench and trying to clear my throat, I handed the material over to him before pretending to inspect the map some more. When I could see his attention was on every stitch and seam of the coat, I quickly wiped at a tear that had slipped free.

  “Exquisite craftsmanship,” Da proclaimed while handing the coat back to me.

  I let slip a single, “Heh,” as I threw the coat back on, the Fae silk squeaking like real leather.

  I stared at Da, who was clearly trying not to let me talk about the armor I was wearing.

  With a click inside my mind, I passed the point of wanting to talk about it and bulldozed right into speaking before my brain could fully catch up.

  “I got this armor…from you,” I said softly as I willed the armor to life.

  Letting my gaze break from my friend to fall to the cross made of his blood and ash, I let my fingers run over it lovingly.

  “You…you saved me, Da. And all of creation.”

  Da didn’t answer, nor did he seem surprised by what I had said. Instead, his lips went a little tighter as he nodded once in a way that was barely perceptible.

  Sensing I would face no more opposition from my friend, I told him everything. How I had disappeared for ten years when escaping to Faerie, and how he had gone there to find me, only to discover Oberon had taken over everything. Then I told him how the boys and I had set up a rescue party to find him in the dungeon, only to figure out we had fallen for an obvious trap.

  “That sounds about right,” Da spoke with a smile that failed to touch his eyes.

  “Yeah, man. It…it was bad. And you made me drink your blood and absorb you after putting the armor on me. It…” I choked up, the room growing blurry as my eyes filled with tears at remembering the sorrow of that moment. “It worked. You helped me save Faerie, and all of creation.”

  “Then I was right to give you my armor. Clearly, I was wise to trust you,” Da said with immeasurable pride injected into his words.

  “I’m sorry,” I sobbed while stepping forward to embrace my friend. “I’m so sorry I let you die, man.”

  We stood that way, frozen in the time of the In-Between. As I wept, Da squeezed me tight, like a proud father might.

  Then an idea came to me.

  Pulling away, sniffling, I wiped at my face and said, “Oh, but there’s good news.”

  Da’s smile touched his eyes this time as he silently urged me to continue.

  “You go down to Sheol, with Uriel, and you two give light to millions who were lost in the darkness.”

  “Do I want to hear the story of how you came to know that?” Da asked with a sigh. “I thought Sheol was only a myth.”

  “No. No, you do not want to hear the story, heh,” I admitted as I wiped my cheeks clean and sniffled one more time, swallowing the tears that had tried to escape through my nose. “Just know your sacrifice helped save millions of lost souls, man.”

  Da nodded as he processed my words.

  “It’s time to save your friend,” Da said after a few moments of silence between us, sensing it was time to do what I had come to do.

  “You’re not coming?”

  “I’m afraid I cannot.”

  “I understand,” I replied in a soft voice. My conscious mind didn’t really understand, but there was something in the back of my mind that wordlessly suggested he was right.

  Nodding my head, I looked down at the ground and said, “Okay.”

  Letting my gaze drift from the floor and up my body, I stopped on the cross. Letting my fingers graze across the surface, I let my gauntlet vanish as I let my fingertips feel every contour of the cross that had become every bit a part of my armor.

  “You know, Da,” I said with a bottom lip that trembled. “You won’t always be here…but you’ll always be with me.”

  “Sounds like something I would say,” Da said with a smile that was a little too knowing. “Now go. Save Depweg.”

  I pulled us out of the In-Between and was about to shift to where Depweg would one day build his home when I turned to Da and asked, “Because this is a different time line, people won’t remember anything I tell them, right?”

  “That’s right. People won’t remember what you tell them, John,” Da acknowledged.

  “Good!” I said before grabbing the air, focusing on the site of Depweg’s future home, and shifting.

  After John disappeared, Da waved a hand over his work desk, making it shimmer, until a regular dresser replaced it.

  “No, people won’t remember what you tell them, John,” Da said under his breath as his heavy gaze fell to the floor, deep in thought. “But angels will.”

  27

  John

  A surge of relief washed over me as I saw Depweg’s cabin sitting right where I was accustomed to it being. From somewhere behind the home Depweg had built by hand came the sound of dogs in the kennels. Apparently, he had rebuilt his home exactly as it had been before.

  With a smile and a small whoosh of air from my overwhelming relief, I took a step forward, ready to embrace my buddy and take him home.

  Something grew in the pit of my stomach like an eager seed nestled deep into damp, nutrient-rich soil.

  My eyes scanned the cabin, and relief was choked by the budding vines of dread as I realized Depweg’s home was exactly as it had been before.

  “This isn’t my Depweg,” I mouthed as my head became light, forcing me to bend at my waist and grab both of my knees.

  Shame came over me for not knowing when Depweg had built his home. After our time in Germany during World War II, Depweg and I had spent several years together. We had each found a comradery with the other person who wasn’t affected by aging like mortals were, not to mention there weren’t many supes who shared our moral compass. So naturally, we’d gravitated toward one another.

  It wasn’t until the early ’60s that we had parted ways, with Depweg not having a plan to where he would go while I went toward Asia.

  After making my way through Vietnam, Malaysia, and hopping on a boat to the Philippines, I eventually found myself in Indonesia by 1965. That’s where I met Da, and everything changed.

  Lifting myself up to once again stare at Depweg’s cabin, the dread vines growing from my stomach took hold of my brain, and I burst into the air with an explosion of dirt and grass.

  My feather-coated wings came to life as I clenched my jaw and oriented due north.

  Flapping with a vigor that required substantial power, I reinforced the bones and joints of my wings and dashed toward Nebraska.

  An idea came over me, and I nearly slapped my own forehead for not considering shifting there instead. But then, I remembered I had never actually visited Grand Island and didn’t have an image to focus on. I also wasn’t confident that I could simply keep my friend’s face in my mind while shifting, fearing that I would go backward and appear at the cabin again, putting me further b
ehind in both time and distance.

  Jose was probably already close to Depweg’s place. I didn’t know what he intended to do, but the fact he was a were-pire strongly suggested he had made a deal with Samael or Ulric.

  My mind flashed to when Jose had told me that an angel had sent him to Germany when I had discovered him. Then all of his words played back through my mind, and I understood.

  “How could I have missed it?!” I exclaimed between gritted teeth as I flapped with enough celestially enhanced preternatural power that I neared the sound barrier.

  A flock of birds passed just below, flying in the opposite direction, and I all of a sudden remembered the rules of this stream of time. One of them could have crashed into me and potentially ended my unlife.

  An idea came to me, and I squinted as far into the distance as I could before grabbing the air and shifting to where I saw.

  Success! I had just traveled a few miles in the blink of an eye while keeping my momentum and limiting my exposure to deadly avian creatures with the audacity to fly. Pfft, feathered assholes…

  Gabriel came to mind, warning me of abusing my shifting ability before fully understanding how it worked.

  Mars interjected itself into my thoughts, and I had to allow a portion of my focused brain to ponder on how I had dragged both Michael and myself there. I mean, clearly, I had never been there before.

  In answer, images from my phone came flooding into my mind, showcasing how many videos and pictures of Mars I had looked at. This also included actual footage of the surface of the planet.

  Did I dare try shifting to Grand Island, Nebraska, without having a clear image in my head?

  With a degree of foolish, desperate hope, I lifted my left hand and opened my phone, only to be met with the same No Service that I had seen before. There would be no internet for me to even use, as Al Gore hadn’t invented it yet. At least one that would be accessible by cell phones.

  With a bark of frustration, I narrowed my eyes on the horizon, willing myself to see further than I ever had before, and shifted.

  After a few minutes, I crossed the Red River, which meant I was passing from Texas to Oklahoma.

  Using my eidetic memory, I opened up the map Da had placed on the table and plotted where I probably was.

  Turning a few degrees to the west, I continued my hybrid method of travel that utilized both flying near the speed of sound and jumping forward several miles by shifting as far as I could see.

  From how far up I was, I could see Tulsa off to my right, and knew I was on the right path.

  Turning several more degrees to the west, I mentally notated that Wichita, Kansas, would be my next marker.

  A few minutes later, I saw the city coming into view almost directly in front of me, and I turned several degrees to the east until I was flying basically due north again.

  Grand Island was going to be harder to spot than a big city like Tulsa or Wichita.

  A jarring thought came to mind, and my brain nearly vapor locked as I mentally asked myself a horrifying question: How was I going to find Depweg once I got there?

  Unlike Jose, I couldn’t sense where my best friend was, and would have to resort to relying predominantly on my eyes and brain for verification. My eyes I wasn’t worried about…

  Jumping several miles through the air took a lot of focus, as I was wary of Gabriel’s warning. So the times I took to dash through the sky using only my wings, I dared a few moments to think about my plan of action.

  Jump. Think while flying. Repeat.

  “Okay,” I said out loud to better organize the whirlwind of thoughts and ideas, “Why Grand Island?”

  Jump.

  Zooming in on the image of Da’s map I held in my mind, I could see several portions of green that I thought indicated state or national parks. I might be wrong, but I at least knew it probably meant trees and stuff.

  Jump.

  “Knowing Depweg, he would 100 percent have a house surrounded by nature.”

  Jump.

  The sun was beginning to descend behind the edge of the world, at least from how high up I was.

  “I just need to start on the outskirts of town. Maybe…maybe look for kennels or something?”

  Jump.

  “He’ll probably have a small, efficient cabin he made himself. Yeah.”

  Jump.

  “What about Jose?”

  I glided as I thought about the question, unable to muster the strength to flap or the concentration to shift.

  The sun was more than halfway gone, and I could see several miles to my right where darkness was sweeping toward the west.

  “What about Lolth?”

  I knew that if the Shadow goddess had found Depweg, that it was entirely possible she was lying in wait for me to arrive. Or he was already dead.

  Shaking my head, I abolished the thought, reinforcing the notion he was still alive by how Jose had acted when I pulled us out of the In-Between. Surely, if Depweg were dead, then Jose wouldn’t have felt his presence, right? Right?!

  “DEPWEG!” I bellowed as I resumed jumping through space, pressing my luck and opting to shift more and more rather than alternating between jumping and then flying again.

  Jump. Jump. Jump. Jump. Jump.

  From how high up I was, my armor suggested we were leaping through space at fifty-mile increments. It shouldn’t be long before I reached my destination.

  “Shite!” I screamed in Irish as I quickly dive-bombed out of the way of a single prop engine plane that was zooming right at me.

  Unfurling my wings as the aircraft passed safely overhead, I shuddered at the thought that the plane would have obliterated me in much the same way as the dog chasing the squirrel.

  Looking around, I recognized a relatively small town, and flew toward it at a downward angle.

  As I approached sight of the main road leading to the area, I curled my wings around me and shot like an arrow, only to unfold them as I neared the ground.

  A big green sign indicated this was Grand Island, and I breathed a sigh of relief. That was, until I remembered I had no idea where Depweg was in this small town that all of a sudden appeared to be the size of Texas.

  Looking in the distance toward the southeast side of town, I mentally pulled the scene around me and shifted again, effectively jumping the several miles instantaneously.

  Letting my wings give me flight, I hovered a few hundred feet above the ground, desperately searching for a big neon sign that read Depweg Here with an accompanying arrow.

  To my chagrin, there wasn’t one, leaving me to search the entire area of Grand Island, Nebraska, using only my God-given senses.

  As if on cue, the sun fully dropped behind the horizon, leaving the night to swallow everything I could see.

  Nothing would stop me from getting to my best friend. Not the goddess, Lolth, and sure as shit not the were-pire, Jose.

  “I’m coming, Depweg,” I promised the wind that whistled past my ears. “I’m coming.”

  28

  Depweg - Grand Island, Nebraska, 1990

  “Getting dark out. Time to come inside, JD,” Depweg called out to his son, who was playing with the first of hopefully many canine rescues: a golden retriever JD had named Pancake for some reason.

  “Aw!” JD groaned as he stopped running, lifted his face to the sky, and let his head and arms dramatically bob back and forth as if disconnected from the rest of his body. “Five more minutes, Daddy!”

  To add icing to the cake of playful delight, Pancake dropped to the ground with his hind legs fully extended and tail about to create liftoff with how hard it was wagging.

  “Five more minutes,” Depweg agreed with a chuckle before adding, “But not a minute more. Your mom is making chicken.”

  “But I don’t like chicken,” JD called back as he began running from Pancake, who had given chase once more. “Can we have steak?”

  “No,” Depweg answered before shutting the screen door, leaving the pair to run aro
und in the ample backyard that backed up to a heavily wooded area.

  The house wasn’t handmade like Depweg would have preferred. Instead, Meli had wisely used the surplus of money pulled down from the slaughterhouse to build their dream home.

  She had done better with the funds than Depweg could have done on his own. All of the appliances were brand new and top of the line, while the kitchen had been custom designed by her. The floors were tiled and tough enough to survive JD’s claws as he sped from room to room.

  He had to admit, even though it wasn’t a traditional cabin, it sure beat a shipping container buried underground.

  Walking to his mate, Depweg wrapped thick arms around Meli’s waist and rested his head on her shoulder while gently kissing her neck.

  In answer, Meli set down the oven mitt and lifted a hand to caress Depweg’s hair.

  The pair started moving back and forth as if slowly dancing to music that wasn’t there. Only the sound of JD and Pancake playing in the backyard could be heard.

  A feeling Depweg didn’t recognize swelled somewhere in the recesses of his mind, giving him pause as he explored the new sensation.

  “What is it?” Meli asked softly, feeling Depweg go completely still and his face go lax while his eyes focused on nothing. “What?” Meli asked again, more urgently this time at seeing her mate act in a way that unnerved her.

  “Something’s…” Depweg started to say as he stood up straight, letting his words slip into silence as he focused on the feeling in his head that was growing more in strength with each passing second.

  In a flash, the unknown feeling inside Depweg’s mind bloomed into an instinct that he had never felt but understood on a primal level.

  “Daddy!” JD screamed at the top of his lungs as Pancake shrieked in pain.

  “JD!” Depweg yelled at the top of his lungs while his body sprinted to—and then through—the screen door with Meli right behind him.

  Pancake—Depweg’s first rescue for his new canine sanctuary—was lying motionless in the grass, crimson spreading through his golden fur.