by Arlene Webb
Chapter Eighteen
Tulsa, Oklahoma sprawled below, marking them halfway to Cleveland.
At the San Diego airport, Aaron’s friend had been pleasantly surprised over a mystery woman. Frank knew Aaron hadn’t dated since Sarah died. Frank grinned, winked like a delighted co-conspirator, and proper procedures be damned. Aaron escorted a disguised, alien-angel past the employee gate.
After he’d second guessed David’s preflight check, Aaron pulled the block from behind the wheel of the red and white single-engine. They’d hopped in for perfect flying conditions. The exhilaration never faded for Aaron, no matter how many times he flew.
He especially loved take off. In a euphoric groove, functioning at his peak—fuel selector set on both tanks, carb heat pulled to cold, throttle open at low rpm, electrical system on, ignition switch flipped. He’d taxied to the runway, adjusted the carb heat, set the altimeter, and waited.
His luck held, clearance radioed after an unheard of five minutes. Throttle pushed to full power, airspeed indicator passed fifty knots, and he’d eased back on the control wheel. Reduced flaps, pitched the wings at a positive angle and they were airborne into the wild, wish it were green, yonder. Ninety-degree turn, then level at five thousand feet.
The “life is good” feeling stayed with him, and a strong tail wind pressed 150 knots to 160. They’d flown beyond the sand dunes of Yuma, with a flurry of police activity in the Arizona desert below them.
Normally, David would be in the copilot seat, begging Aaron to let him pilot. This trip, the kid sat quiet in the back, Jade curled under the blanket, fetal position, and her head in his lap.
Thanks to the continuous tailwind they touched ground in Tulsa, only two and a half hours past Phoenix. Jade and David remained in the plane while Aaron refueled. Back in the air, he watched the sun sink behind them and hit speed dial. Evan sounded drained. Close to midnight in Cleveland, Aaron encouraged him to get some sleep.
With the throttle pushed to the max, they cruised well past the normal seventy-five percent power range, yet the engine ran smooth. He’d never forced an engine to maintain this velocity—224 knots. The normal cruise speed for a Cessna Sky Hawk hovered around 170. David snored peacefully behind him, and although Aaron felt nervous, his communion with the engine was absolute. Surely he’d detect a hitch or sluggish feel—precursor to an engine stall.
A burn run of two thousand and twenty miles traversed further into virgin territory for Aaron, and the jittery feel in his limbs warned him he seriously pushed his own engine. He wished Jade would sit up front, talk with him, but he feared to ask her. The night sky surrounded them, but the instrument panel glowed in red-white-blue patriotism.
It was 2:30 AM when they approached the runway in Cleveland, Ohio. Aaron pulled the throttle back, adjusted flaps, held the nose up, and made a kickass landing.
Their footsteps echoed through the deserted airpark as they hastened to the car rental, Jade clinging to Aaron. He’d requested a vehicle with global positioning. A guy thing, he wouldn’t rely on this particular female despite her photographic memory.
Minutes later, Aaron drove through an unfamiliar city and glanced in the rearview mirror. David quivered with excitement while they sped through neon green lights.
What in God’s name am I doing? They’d come this far, now wasn’t the time to second guess, but he’d better be the best superhero dad ever, before Sarah found a means from the great beyond to strangle her idiot husband. Aaron curved for the Chagrin Falls exit and floored it through the traffic light. No need for the chromophobic angel beside him to watch the evil yellow turn bloodcurdling red.
He cleared his throat. “Listen carefully, son. If something happens, head for the police, no discussion. Dig my gun out and hand it up here.” Frank had taken the licensed weapon in the overnight bag through security. Aaron had never fired the revolver before, other than target practice. Hopefully, he never would.
He zipped through the empty lanes, one hand on the wheel. And it was goodbye to Jade’s sunglasses; he set them on the dash. As he expected, those gorgeous eyes shone with anxiety. “You okay? You seem so worried, I mean, more than normal.”
“Malcolm’s dead, and I’m afraid. I’m sorry. I don’t understand any of this.”
“Shh, we’ll figure it out.” Aaron tugged the scarf off, unfastened the barrette, and loosened her hair. A brush of his fingers against her cheek, and he pulled her against him.
The house looked identical to its suburban, upper class neighbors—except this house with its neatly mowed lawn sheltered secrets no human ever dealt with before. The rental engine quieted in the driveway, parked next to a pickup truck.
Aaron swung Jade out of the car, wrapped his arm around her, and beckoned David to follow.
Unlocked front door. Perhaps Cleveland was a less violent city than the average, but more likely an overwhelmed young man had neglected to slide the deadbolt. No yellow monsters lurked in the foyer, and Aaron lowered his revolver. Filled with fake confidence, he gestured David in and closed the door.
He’d never investigated a murder scene before, let alone one of a being from God knows where, maybe near Tralfamadore. Aaron, aka Billy Pilgrim, girded his loins and headed, angel and son on his heels, to locate a dead, blue man—so it goes.
In the master bedroom, the guy sleeping on the bed could only be Evan. Aaron clasped his shoulder. Evan blinked up, childishly confused. An older version of David, woken from a nightmare and relieved the stranger’s hand on him felt human.
Not an adult, a damn teen. A frightened kid, his battered, bruised chest revealed by his unbuttoned shirt. Evan’s face was damp. He’d been crying as he slept.
“I’m Aaron. Sorry to wake you. The door was unlocked.”
“God, I’m glad you’re here. And I’m more glad you’re not yellow… Malcolm! I have to check on him.” Evan struggled to sit and gasped. Damaged ribs would have stiffened while he slept.
“You forgot to mention the broken ribs and the fact that you’re a teenager.” Aaron thrust his revolver in his hip pocket, grabbed a pillow, and eased Evan down against it. “What else didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m almost twenty. Just a year or so.” Evan’s voice hardened with that defiant whine teens do so well. “Forget about me. What should we do about Malcolm? What if that blue bleeding started again? Oh God, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”
Sweet chocolate-brown eyes widened, and Evan’s sharp intake would make crushed ribs howl. His jaw dropped, and he appeared speechless. Did his injuries lead the teen to lose his train of thought?
Nah. Evan couldn’t breathe, but it wasn’t from the hurt in his chest. Behind Aaron, enormous eyes of radiant light peered with emerald fear, not yellow fury, and Evan’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Wow,” the teen gasped, “you’re too beautiful to be real. Are you gonna try and kill me? Jane’s unbelievably gorgeous too, but you…you’re another angel? I’m dead? Seriously?”
Jade slammed herself into Aaron, and he wrapped his arm around her. “Why would I harm you?” she whispered. “You’re already very hurt. But this Malcolm’s really dead?”
Evan rubbed his eyes as if he thought she’d disappear and pushed himself off the bed. “God, no. He can’t be dead.”
Aaron pried Jade loose and reached for the wobbly teen. Evan shrugged his hand off and stumbled for the bathroom.
In the tub, Malcolm’s eyes were closed. Navy-blue hair cut military style, pants on, shirt off. The gauze wrapped around his pale face surely hid more injuries. Hard to see the body in such dark blue water filling the tub to the brim. Jade was in her usual state, on the verge of collapse. Aaron sighed and picked her up. If she’d only hold it together. Bad enough he had a teen, a child, and two dead colors relying on him.
“Jade, please, another meltdown won’t help.” Aaron carried her from the adjoining bathroom to the large bed. Damn. He was fatigued and frightened, but so was she and that was no excuse for him losing patienc
e. It couldn’t be easy discovering another like you, smashed to a pulp in a tub. “Sorry. Don’t worry. I’ll figure this out. David, come sit with her.”
Continue his stare at a male corpse or hold an angelic living female? No contest. David hurried to take Jade’s hand. He sat too close and asked the billion dollar question. “Can’t you do something? You know, maybe, if he’s not dead, like you healed me.” She looked at David with those apprehensive eyes and shook her head.
Evan couldn’t take his attention off her. The distracted young man seemed to barely notice Aaron’s examination of broken swollen fingers. Aaron gently released Evan’s hand. “I’ll remove the bandages and check him out closer. Then I’m getting you to a hospital.”
“No. I won’t leave Malcolm,” Evan said. “This is my fault. You know, she was kissing him…well, not really. More like biting off his lip and sucking the life from him, when I tasered her.” A clipped sob and the teen spit out his fear. “You think I killed him too, don’t you?”
“I don’t know anything, yet.” Aaron pulled the blanket out from under Malcolm’s head. No rigidity—good. Not breathing—debatable. Ice water soaked Aaron’s arms and his shirt. Surprising how easily the tall man lifted. Two hundred pounds minimum, but Malcolm’s corpse carried like a snoring David. Supernatural, celestial light, no mass to them, what the hell?
David tugged Jade aside, and Aaron settled the body on the bed. Malcolm’s chest had been severely beaten, multiple ribs crushed. Aaron ran his hand over the limp, right arm. He felt at least three breaks, and he could see bone jutting through muscle. Malcolm’s left arm had two deep, green-crusted bite marks. His skin color was white with a pale blue tinge where it hadn’t blackened with bruising.
There’d been no teenage exaggeration. Someone, something, had done a number on this guy. Aaron took his pocketknife out, opened it, and cut through the gauze wrapped around his mouth and head. Thankfully, no fluid dripped from the jagged lip gash, but Aaron was at a loss. Whether or not Malcolm needed to breathe, the injuries looked too severe for survival.
Evan broke the heavy silence. “What do you think?” The teen clasped the dead man’s leg, as if sheer willpower could bring 475 nanometer back.
“That I should check out the weapon he made. Where’s Jane? Put ice on her lately?”
“No. I keep worrying she’ll eat my brains. She’s in the laundry room. Laugh—I don’t care, but I dumped salt in the doorway. Will you come with me? Maybe they should stay here.” Evan stared unabashedly at Jade again.
David stared back. “My name’s David. Go on. I’ll watch over Malcolm and Jade.”
A sweet boyish smile filled Evan’s face. “Hey, David. Nice to meet you. You know—you could go with your dad and leave me with them. I wouldn’t mind.”
David grinned, blushing. “Don’t think so.”
Evan shrugged and stepped closer. “Worth a try. God, she’s…Jade, you’re so beautiful. And I thought Malcolm was cool.” Evan’s smile disappeared as Jade shivered into David.
The teen drew back. “I’m sorry. Is it me, or does all the blue bother you? Maybe you need a drink. Malcolm wanted water when he was upset, and after the first time that yellow…thing tried to kill us. What’s wrong?”
“I’m alone,” Jade said. “I don’t know why I am or how to fix…Aaron?”
In the time it took for Aaron to sigh, Evan spoke up. “You aren’t alone. We’ll help you.” The teen didn’t dare inch closer, but he dived, head first, into the protector role. “Don’t fear me. I’d never harm anyone…er…except, I did kill Jane. And Malcolm, because I didn’t listen to him. Sorry. Are you afraid of Malcolm? He only yells a lot. I don’t mean loud. He kind of lectures sometimes. Well, all the time, but he’d never hurt anyone.” Evan turned to Aaron. “It’s gonna be okay, right?”
“Let’s concentrate on Malcolm and Jane.”
Evan allowed himself to be led out of the bedroom as his worries tumbled free. “Got that revolver ready? Blow her head off if she opens her eyes. Or give it to me. Killed her once. Why not twice? You didn’t tell me Jade was so hot. And I thought Malcolm was like, you know, a man angel.” A shallow inhale, fighting battered ribs, and Evan continued. “He’s really stingy with the info. I don’t know if he and the yellow demon came here together, or he calls her Jane Doe because she was in a morgue.”
The homemade weapon lay on the kitchen floor.
In the room off the kitchen, Aaron stepped over the line of salt and swallowed hard. A young, budding killer had put a slender, naked woman, trussed with blue rope, in the utility sink.
Fear flooded Evan’s expression. “You gotta trust me. Shoot her if she opens those flickering eyes. We need to get Malcolm back before we even consider reviving her. She’s seriously dangerous. I really like it when she’s dead.”
Aaron tore his gaze from the beauty in the sink. “I’ll give him a jolt, see what happens.”
The traumatized teen surrendered the taser with a heartbreaking sigh of relief. On the way back to the bedroom, Evan didn’t refuse Aaron’s hand under his elbow.
No reason to delay. Aaron nodded at terrified green and relied on the twelve-year-old. “David, take Jade and move into the doorway. Evan, you back away, too.”
Everyone in place, Aaron studied the taser, and triggered it to Malcolm’s shoulder. The muscular body jerked. Skin color flashed pale blue and then stabilized a deeper blue.
Malcolm’s eyes flew open. Radiant beams of sapphire pulsated greenish, then yellowish. He arched up on the bed. Adam’s apple bobbing—was Malcolm choking?
Malcolm pushed off the bed in a powerful lunge.
Jesus—no! David fell, thrust aside by a shoulder smack. Malcolm lifted and crushed Jade against his chest, her scream stifled by his hand. He strode backward with her in his arms.
“Malcolm.” Evan gasped. “What’re you doing?”
Aaron dropped the taser and yanked the revolver from his pocket. Fury steadied his aim. David scrambled to his feet and obeyed Aaron’s frantic gesture to get further away.
“What have you done?” Malcolm snapped at Evan. “And, oh my, my, my, what sweetness have you found me.” Malcolm released Jade’s mouth and wrapped his fingers in her hair. He wrenched her head back, his mouth swallowed her scream.
He struck my son. Aaron could, he should, but he couldn’t yet squeeze the trigger. Didn’t mean he was helpless. He ran to grab a blue arm. “Let her go.”
Malcolm yanked free like Aaron was a schoolgirl. The sharp blow to Aaron’s gut barely registered, drowned out by the awareness he’d dropped his revolver as he slammed across the room.
David screamed, “Dad!”
Aaron felt his shoulders collide with the closet door, and he crumpled. It wasn’t his life flashing in front of his eyes as he searched for the weapon, but the brief life of his son.
Malcolm jerked his lips off Jade and pivoted toward David running for Aaron.
“No! He’s just a kid.” Evan jumped, too late to catch David.
His feet finally under him, bitter regret Aaron hadn’t blown Malcolm’s head off became heart pounding relief. The brutal man halted.
Caught in Malcolm’s glare, Evan froze his reach for Malcolm while Aaron clasped familiar flesh and thrust David behind him. Where was the damn revolver—there.
Malcolm jerked Jade by her hair, away from his chest. She gagged, sobbed, and spat yellow droplets onto the floor.
Aaron stopped the tremble in his arm. His aim would be perfect, except Jade blocked a mark that wasn’t a killing headshot. Malcolm could take bullets elsewhere and then break her neck.
“Back off.” Malcolm snarled at Evan. “What’d you do to me?” That blue-green-yellow light pulsated over Evan’s chest. “Oh my. Look what that bitch did to you. Your injuries are worse. Why didn’t this one help you?”
Before Evan could answer, Malcolm’s scowl locked on Aaron. A vicious kick struck his hand. Aaron’s revolver went flying—again—and the jolt that spasmed up his arm
meant his wrist wasn’t sprained but broken. God, why oh why didn’t I leave David at home?
He still had one good fist, and he hurried to use it. Malcolm dropped Jade to the floor. Aaron’s arm went numb, caught in a powerful vice. The scent of sweet, pure frost hit his face.
“Stop,” Malcolm snapped. “Before I kill you. This isn’t right, and I’m sorry. Don’t touch me again. Please. That clear? Never. Touch. Me.”
The freezing grip on Aaron disappeared, leaving his arm anesthetized past his broken wrist to his fingertips. He’d never felt as helpless in his life as he fell, thrust toward David.
Jade shivered on the floor. “Aaron, make him stop.”
God help him, did she think he wasn’t trying?
Malcolm scooped her up, and shook his head at Aaron as he struggled to his feet. “If you do as she whines, I repeat, I may kill you.” He strode backward with Jade to collapse on the bed. He sat, Jade on his lap. A harsh sob blew from his lips. “I’m not right. I ask again. What’d you do?”
Evan gaped at Malcolm. “I don’t—”
“Aaron, last warning. You’ll go down before you gain the weapon. And this time you’ll stay down. Retreat by the child.” Malcolm’s rough voice sent chills through Aaron, and he halted his third attempt for his revolver.
Finally, Evan moved. The teen, experienced in killing psycho super-beings, grabbed the taser from the floor. “I’ll zap you, Malcolm. How do I know what I fuckin’ did? I’m sorry.”
“Tsk-tsk. Inappropriate language. What’s wrong with you?”
“Er…sorry. Tell me what’s wrong with you. Please!”
Malcolm’s glare deepened. “Idiot. Can’t you see I’m off balance? Power surges out of control.”
Evan inched closer. “Don’t hold her so tight. You’re hurting her.”
“I-I don’t mean to.” Malcolm loosened his grip to cradle Jade. Her eyes closed, a yellow droplet hung on her lip. Malcolm wiped her mouth and kissed her again.
