Chasing Lightning

by D M Fike

  The SUV bumped along, its width the same length as the road itself. With no shoulder, the vehicle had no room for error as it spun down the rutted path. On our right, trees arranged like a natural fence, allowing almost no visibility beyond one or two trunks deep into the woods. The left offered a steep drop down into the creek below, barely visible now in the waning light. A tinge of motion sickness lodged in my throat. I quashed it by concentrating on breaking the handcuffs.

  I had no intention of holding a conversation with my captor, but after a few miles, he became a chatty Cathy. “So where are you from?”

  Oh, no. We were not doing this. “Europa.”

  “Is that a town?”

  “It’s an icy moon of Jupiter.”

  He sighed. “Stop acting like a nutjob.”

  I gave him my best shocked expression. “I thought believing in monsters made me crazy.”

  He shrugged. “People believe in a lot of strange things. My mother used to tell me stories of creatures that lurk in the forest. That doesn’t mean she’s insane.”

  “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Something snapped on the cuff. For an exciting moment, I thought I’d broken one of the chains. When I pulled my hands apart, though, I could tell I’d only loosened it. Still, I was making progress. I redoubled my earth pith on the same weak spot.

  Vincent kept glancing at me now and again in his rearview mirror. “I have to be honest, you don’t act like the profile at all.”

  I couldn’t help it. I snickered. “I tend to fall flat of most people’s expectations, but thank you for pointing that out.”

  “I meant of a poacher,” Vincent added in exasperation. “Do you always have to be so snarky?”

  “I don’t know. Do you have to be such a pig?”

  I could tell I’d crossed a line as his grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Don’t you ever…” he began, shifting his focus away from me back to the road.

  When he didn’t finish, I asked, “Don’t I ever what? Call it like I see it?”

  He didn’t respond.

  The SUV drifted slightly toward the left, giving me a dizzying view of the forested slope. It wasn’t as steep as before, leveling out several yards below, but there was still a very deep drop-off not far from the road. The vehicle’s tires skimmed off the shoulder for a terrifying second before bumping back up again, Vincent driving in an unwavering straight line.

  “What the hell?” I yelled. “Keep your eyes on the road!”

  He did, but oddly so. His pupils seemed transfixed on something farther ahead. A burst of fear exploded in my gut as I followed his gaze.

  Mommy cockatrice stared at us like a deer in the proverbial headlights underneath a halo of tree branches. She easily had several feet on Daddy, her head lacking the curled horns of her mate. As her airplane-sized wings flew out like a cape from her squiggling spine, her throat bobbed up and down, sending gunfire-level decibels of clacking snapping through the forest.

  We were going to crash right into her.

  I averted my eyes before they locked with hers. “BRAKE!” I yelled at Vincent, but I knew he couldn’t. He was already frozen in his seat. Our only chance was for me to get out of the handcuffs. I thrust the rest of my earth pith into it, praying it would be enough to set me loose.

  It did the trick. The handcuffs snapped. I raised my sore arms from behind my back at the same time as the cockatrice dove out of the way of our runaway vehicle, slinking back into the forest. Vincent regained immediate control of the SUV, hands jerking the wheel to the right.

  It was too late.

  We sailed off the forest service road down a mild incline. We could not have been going more than 20 miles per hour, but it still sent us rolling side over side as the hill steepened. Vincent had fortunately done me a solid of strapping me in, otherwise I’m not sure I’d be alive to recount the tumble. It felt like a roller coaster. The vehicle did several 360° turns, hair flying in my face. Then we hit something hard and jerked to a stop. I smacked my hand against the grate, jamming my thumb. I heard a loud pop as an airbag deployed.

  Then nothing as the vehicle swayed to a stop, somehow back on its wheels in an upright position.

  In the oddly calm aftermath, the horror of what we’d just been through hit me like a freight truck. The interior light had flipped on, likely due to damage sustained by the car. My palms slapped around for door handles, but there were none in the back of the police vehicle. Up front, Vincent slumped over the steering wheel’s airbag, unmoving. A rough trunk of spruce had slammed into his driver’s side door, shattering his window and bending the frame itself into an irregular convex shape.

  I pounded on the metal grate between us. “Vincent!”

  He didn’t move, but the vehicle shifted, a teeth-scratching metal-on-metal sound. The SUV tilted precariously toward the left, no longer level with the ground. I couldn’t see out the window with its spiderwebbed cracks, so I drew a sideways S and released a little air pith. To my horror, the car rocked dangerously, inching more to the left. As shards of glass fell, it afforded me the heart-stopping view of a precarious thirty-foot drop down to the creek.

  The tree we’d hit was the only thing keeping us from falling to our deaths. And even then, it was the worst kind of balancing act as the car rotated on this makeshift fulcrum point.

  I scrambled over to the right side of the car, hoping it would distribute enough weight to force all four tires back to the ground. The degree of slant lessened, but I remained higher off the ground than I should have been. I searched frantically for a way out of the vehicle and found another stress fracture in the right-side window that would allow me to escape.

  But what would happen to the SUV once my body mass exited the vehicle?

  “Vincent!” I yelled again, my voice wavering. I noticed an angry streak of blood near his temple. I couldn’t tell how injured he was, like if a branch had punctured him somewhere. My panic kicked it up a notch, and I began to hyperventilate as I imagined he might already be dead.

  Then he moaned, his eyes fluttering open. “What?” he breathed.

  I swallowed the mounting saliva in my throat. “You’re alive!”

  Vincent processed the airbag and crumbled dashboard. “We crashed,” he stated. Then, before I could warn him, he shifted in his seat and the vehicle wobbled against the tree.

  “No sudden moves!” I ordered. “We’re on the edge of a cliff!”

  Vincent rotated his neck and grimaced when he saw the Precipice of Doom. “Shit.”

  “Yes, we’re in a deep pile of it.” I agreed.

  He grabbed his police radio, but it did not so much as crackle static back at him. “It’s dead.”

  “Just like us if we don’t get out. Can you make your way to the passenger seat?”

  He half nodded, but then focused on the dangling chain from my wrist. “How did you break those cuffs?”

  “Focus, Garcia!” I snapped. “You can’t bust me if you’re dead. Can you get to the passenger side?”

  He squirmed from the waist down. “I think so.”

  “Good. Do it. Slowly.”

  Vincent pushed his back up into his headrest, inching his right leg out from under the steering wheel. He shoved that heel firmly on his seat, then attempted the left leg. I expected it to go as smoothly as the first, but several minutes passed by with no progress other than occasional grunts.

  “Something wrong?” I asked, mouth dry.

  “It’s stuck.”

  “Get it unstuck,” I said. “Just don’t…”

  He jerked his knee upward, the sudden motion causing him to let out a soft cry of pain.

  “…yank it,” I finished lamely. I waited for us to plummet to our deaths, but fortunately, the SUV remained stable.

  “The ankle’s sprained,” Vincent said through gritted teeth.

  “Can you still use it?”

  “I’m gonna have to.” He squatted on the driver’s side seat, taking several deep full breaths. Then he
bore his full weight on his injured left foot and grimaced as he threw his right leg over the center handbrake. The worst part over, he pulled his left side to safety, landing with a thud on the passenger seat.

  His clumsy climb caused the SUV to rock. My fingertips dug into the smooth plastic of the back seat as we wobbled, probably only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity until the car maintained its balance again.

  “Be careful!” I hissed.

  “Sorry,” he said. Then he glanced out the right-side window. “We have another problem.”

  “What? Is something out there?” I peered frantically out the window, half expecting mommy cockatrice again.

  “No, it’s about us getting out of here.” Vincent’s dark eyes pierced mine. “We need to jump out at the same time.”

  “Yeah, I know that,” I replied, miles ahead of him mentally.

  He gave me the kind of look Guntram liked to cast when I couldn’t master a sigil. “Only someone from the outside can open the backseat door. You’ll have to break the window and climb out.”

  “Okay, fine, sure,” I said, raising one hand, clasping my air charm in the other. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Wait!” Vincent cried. “You’ll tear your hand open smashing the glass.”

  I almost choked. “Dude, I’m not going to punch the window. I’m not that stupid.”

  “Then how will you break it?”

  I pointed my finger at him and slowly drew a sideways S. “Like this.”

  At the last second, I moved the digit to the window. A sudden gust of wind flew from my fingertip at a crack in the window, blowing it clean open. The shards flew out like sparkles onto the forest floor outside.

  Vincent’s jaw fell open. “How did you…?”

  But the action had cost us our balance. The SUV protested with a metal wail as gravity took a toll.

  “JUMP!” I yelled.

  I hopped out the window at the same time Vincent threw open the passenger side door. I drew a long string of spiraling Ss to create a wind gust, large enough to help me sail over the broken glass I’d just created on the ground. That put me yards away from the SUV as it whipped around, losing its tentative equilibrium with the tree. Vincent scrambled away from the vehicle in a crab walk, narrowly missing the bumper smacking him in the head as it skidded down into the ravine. We heard it careen and smash until the car finally hit rock bottom with a sickening thud.

  “Well,” I said, getting to my feet and brushing the dirt off my clothes, “that was fun.”

  Vincent found his flashlight on his belt, turning it on to point up at me. “You…” he whispered, “that wind… I…”

  “Yes, I used wind to break the window. Would you have rather I cut up my arm?”

  “But how?”

  I flung my arms out in exasperation. “Magic! It’s magic, you idiot! How do you think I knocked you over with wind the last time we met? Through the sheer force of girl power?”

  “I just thought I tripped,” he mumbled, the flashlight drooping in his hands.

  I slapped my hands on my face, dragging my cheeks away from my eyeballs. “I can’t even with you right now.”

  He leaned his head back, scrutinizing me so intently that I let my hands fall back at my sides. His expression was so intense, it warmed my insides. I blushed as he refused to break eye contact with me. It felt intimate somehow.

  Why couldn’t I look away?

  “So,” he drawled out slowly, “you’re a wizard.”

  “A shepherd.” Whoops. I probably shouldn’t have blurted that out. Time for damage control. “I mean, yeah, a wizard. That’s it.”

  You could just visualize the wheels spinning in the poor guy’s head. “And you protect the forest from the monsters normal people can’t see? Like whatever just froze me and caused us to crash?” He still didn’t sound like he fully believed it yet, but he was getting there.

  I nodded, for once unsure of what to say.

  Vincent leaned his torso forward, preparing to stand. “Then I really should ask you some questions about all those dead animals.”

  I went slack with disbelief. We were back to this again? “I’m sorry. I just saved your life!”

  “You did. Thank you. I owe you.” He winced as he tried to put weight on his bad ankle, then eased back into a resting position. “But it sounds like you know a lot more about what’s going on with the poachers than I do. And I need answers.”

  “You need answers?” I repeated, voice rising. “I’m busting my ass, trying to locate my augur before he gets mauled by a chicken lizard—a feat which I may already be too late for—and you’re worried about filing a police report?”

  “What’s an ‘augur?’” Vincent asked.

  I no longer cared if I accidentally spilled every last shepherd secret. I marched over to that good-for-nothing park ranger, stomped my foot so close I nearly crushed his finger, and demanded, “Tell me where the seals and sea lions are.”

  He glared at me in defiance. “I can’t.”

  “You can and you will.” I pulled on my fire pith and drew a cross with a long horizontal line. The tip of my finger lit up like a matchstick, which I poked toward Vincent’s face. “It’s a matter of life and death for someone I care about.”

  Vincent turned pale at my magic, but he held his ground. “I’m sorry,” he said, the flames dancing in his pupils, “but we can talk back at the office.”

  I growled and extinguished the flame. “I’m done!” I declared to the forest. “This is what I get for trying to reason with jerks who like to taser first, ask questions later.”

  “Hey!” Vincent called as I followed the crushed vegetation his SUV had created back up the hill. “Where are you going?”

  “To find Guntram,” I called behind my back. “With or without you.”

  Vincent made a series of groaning noises as I stalked away. I knew he would never be able to catch me with his injury, but when he gave out a sharp cry, I whipped around. He had fallen to his side, face scrunched in pain. He saw me pause and yelled, “I can’t get up.”

  I waved at the various pockets on his belt. “Call for backup.” I turned to leave.

  “All my communication equipment’s in the car.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “Even your phone?”

  “Yep.”

  I whipped around. “If I help you up the hill and call for help, will you tell me where the pinnipeds are?”

  Vincent’s tone hardened. “No.”

  That did it. I made an exaggerated circle with my arms toward his beautifully athletic, but currently useless, man body. “Then good luck with all that.”

  And I left that loser to fend for himself.

  CHAPTER 15

  I MUTTERED LOW under my breath the entire hike back up to the forest service road. The balls on that guy! He shoots me, he tasers me, he locks me up in the back of his vehicle, then he acts like it’s no big deal when I save his life.

  It would serve him right to rot out here in the middle of the woods. I told myself shepherds generally had an indifferent attitude toward humans anyway. They were creatures of Nasci, yes, but they also weakened her spirit with all their consumerism and overuse of natural resources. We generally left them to fend for themselves, and no one back at the homestead would bemoan the loss of one guy. Besides, Vincent could use a good dose of Mother Nature right now.

  All my arguments felt empty as I climbed up to the road. No amount of logic would allow me to just walk away from him. I couldn’t leave him to die, as much as he deserved it. I cursed as I backtracked down the incline, my fingerflame lighting the way.

  He had propped himself up against a tree by the time I returned. His worried expression melted into surprise when he recognized me. “I thought you’d gone.”

  I came between him and the tree, letting him use my shoulders as support to stand. “Don’t tempt me,” I muttered. “C’mon.”

  It took several steps for us to get into sync, and even then, trudgin
g back up the hill took forever. I had to maneuver us over rough terrain, sometimes pulling, sometimes pushing him upward while he continued to lean on me. He tried putting more weight on his bad foot, but it was clear it wouldn’t cooperate. It must have kept him from talking because he remained quiet the entire time, his lips strained in a thin line.

  I remained silent too, but not because I couldn’t speak. I just didn’t trust myself not to say more incriminating things. And if I were honest with myself, I also didn’t want to form any more attachment than I already had with this park ranger. He got under my skin for some reason, and it would probably be best if I just left him alone.

  When we made it back to the road, I powered up my phone again, relieved when it showed a few bars of service, even this far out. I handed it to Vincent, who dialed a number from memory. In the stillness of the dense trees, I could hear every word of the ensuing conversation. He told a dispatcher that he’d totaled his official vehicle in an accident and injured himself. He gave them our approximate location. The dispatcher told him an officer was on patrol nearby. Help would be there in ten minutes.

  We stood there awkwardly afterward. Vincent tried to give me back the phone, but I told him to keep it. I certainly couldn’t use it anymore. Then neither of us knew what to say. Vincent kept glancing at me, but I refused to look back.

  Finally, he asked, “Aren’t you going to go?”

  I shook my head. “The monster is still out there. I kind of doubt she’ll come after you, since she finds animals much more delicious than people, but you never know. The way my day’s going, she’ll circle back. I’m sticking around until help arrives.”

  “And then?”

  I shrugged. “Then I’m back looking for my augur. Hoping he’s still alive when I find him.”

  Vincent fiddled with the flashlight in his hands. “So, he’s a shepherd, like you?”

  I stifled a groan. Vincent wouldn’t forget who we were anytime soon. Me and my big mouth. “Yeah, he’s one of the good ones. He took me in at a time when a lot of people believed I was useless. A lot of people still do.”