Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light

by MaryJanice Davidson

  Do you know what it was like?

  The voice in her head purred with certain victory. She couldn’t see her sister but knew she was close.

  To grow up where I did?

  Jennifer gasped for breath and struggled to her knees. The sound of something climbing on the sedan behind her motivated her to shuffle away a few feet. Then the sounds of claws on the asphalt warned her of something right behind her. Darkness curled around her. This is it. I’ll be whispering like Mom, “No daughter.” Dad, I’m so sorry you’ll find me like this.

  Everything there survives by sucking the life from something else.

  Evangelina loomed over her.

  There was so little left in that barren world when my brothers and I arrived. What a feast we must have seemed! What—

  The sudden sound of an engine accelerating surprised them both. Jennifer turned just in time to see her predator knocked back by two tons of metal and a screech of tires. Like an explosion, Evangelina burst into five screaming pieces, casting black swirls across the pavement around them.

  Before Jennifer could piece together what happened, Susan was out of the assault sedan, wielding a tire iron and shrieking at what was left of Evangelina.

  “Stay away from my friend! I’m not afraid of you anymore!”

  “Susan!” Jennifer panicked for a moment—she hasn’t been gone long enough to make it back to Dad! But then she saw the device hanging from her friend’s belt, and realized what Susan must have understood once she had driven away for a while and her head was straight. Jonathan Scales was reachable by phone at the hospital. So he’ll be here, maybe in fifteen or twenty minutes. He’s flying as fast as he can.

  Susan Elmsmith.

  Evangelina was plainly disoriented from the hit.

  Friend of…Jennifer Scales. Goes to our geometry class.

  One of the silhouettes on the ground wriggled and twisted into a new form—the shape of Gerry Stowe. His beautiful face was bruised, and there was blood in his golden hair. He looked up at the iron-wielding Susan, freezing her in surprise.

  We do not need to fight, you and me.

  “Gerry?” She almost dropped the tire iron. “How did you get here?”

  “Susan, no! He’s not our friend! He’s—”

  Gerry staggered to his feet, palms up. He didn’t even seem to see Jennifer. “Wait! I can…I can stop this. I can…I can be a friend. Like I was at your school. I can tell Sister…”

  Get her out of the way!

  The other four pieces of Evangelina were rapidly recovering, moving toward each other and reforming into their more powerful outline.

  Get her out of the way or we will kill her.

  “No, we don’t have to—” but the boy’s protests were swallowed with the rest of him as Evangelina wrapped him in darkness and then advanced upon Susan.

  Back on her feet, Jennifer ran at them both. “Susan, get back in the car!”

  She took a claw in the teeth and fell back to the ground, but this gave her friend the time necessary to climb back into the sedan.

  The engine revved and the car leapt forward, but this time Evangelina was ready. She hopped over the car, twisted to face up, and clung to the deep contours of the cement roof. Untrained and surprised, Susan drove right past her—and into a bright yellow support pillar.

  “Susan!” Jennifer screamed as she watched the air bag deploy in the sedan. It caught her friend’s flailing head, but blood still splattered onto the driver’s side window.

  Over the still-running engine, she could hear Evangelina slither and advance behind her. Jennifer had no time to check on her friend. She rolled out of the darkness, spotted the parking ramp railing and the wide-open evening beyond, and scrambled for it.

  She cleared the railing right before the predator pounced for her. She felt the vast shadow pass over her as she plummeted toward the earth, flexed herself into the proper shape, and then sailed on dragon’s wings a foot or two above the ground.

  Her thoughts went to Susan, Eddie, and Skip just quickly enough for her to decide to pull Evangelina away from them.

  I will follow you, sister. I have no interest in your friends, and I don’t need them for bait. You cannot outrun me.

  “Sure of that, are you?” Jennifer whispered, straining her wings and rocketing away from the ramp. Glowing headlights raced beneath her on Interstate 494. “You’ve never seen me fly, sis.”

  She could feel Evangelina taking wing and pursuing her.

  Your friends are loyal.

  She could feel the creature’s doubt, could almost put it in words: Here, once again, a Scales was leading danger away from loved ones.

  “Oof!” Evangelina slammed into her so hard, she spun into a stalled car on the shoulder of the highway. The highway Susan hated because of all the cars. Oh, boy. All the cars.

  People don’t see us, her grandfather’s voice reminded her from long ago. She felt a chill at the memory of that day, up at the cabin, as she first learned about her dragon heritage. They don’t see what they don’t understand.

  And, in fact, beyond this single car there were no wrecks. Nobody was honking. The drivers were all staring west through their windshields. Or yakking into cell phones. Or eating salad out of plastic bowls precariously balanced on their steering wheels.

  Jennifer clawed over the car wreckage and scrambled along the highway shoulder. Come on, you. I’ve got plenty left.

  Your youth is intoxicating. And tasty, no doubt.

  “Bite me.” She sensed her sister’s movement—could she learn to anticipate the other, just as Evangelina anticipated her? Yes, she could. She took to the air just in time to hear a claw smash the pavement behind her. Triumph at the near miss made her almost dizzy. Her shape streamed over the rapid traffic. “Can I ask you a question, sis? I mean, you’ve been studying languages in this world for a while, I gather. So how does ‘fat, slow cow’ translate into your own world’s language?”

  She quickly realized she had spoken too soon. A blinding pain struck the middle of her back, and then another claw struck her belly as she spun off a car that had to be going at least eighty miles an hour. The car skidded into the ditch and screeched to a halt. Regaining her flight sense, she just barely cleared the bridge that jumped out at her. She heard Evangelina curse.

  “A lame try,” she sang, almost meaning it. She turned sharply as Evangelina followed her under the bridge and led her back. She wanted to check on the car in the ditch—was the driver all right? Yes, it appeared so. She hoped Susan and the boys were still all right, too. Maybe I should go back for them.

  Again, she felt Evangelina’s confusion…go back for the reckless girl? For the impulsive boys? For the random driver she didn’t even know?

  Why?

  “I can’t explain this to you while you’re trying your best to kill me,” she hissed with forked tongue. “But if you spared my mom, maybe part of you does get it. Have a small chat with yourself, why don’t you?”

  She arced through the air, turning a circle like the coolest roller coaster at Valleyfair, and headed back to the mall parking lot. Dad will be looking for me there.

  He will be too late to save you, even if he could. And then I will finish him.

  “Yes, yes. Your master plan. Your twelve-point plan for avenging…I’m sorry, could you explain this again?” Jennifer whipped past cars going the other way, saw the lights of the parking lot loom ahead, saw the bright yellow Ikea sign flash by on the left. “How does hurting people get your life back?”

  I don’t want…I don’t want a life back.

  But Jennifer heard the pause. More important, she heard Gerry’s voice—not the voice of Evangelina, but the voice of Susan’s friend—arguing in that short space.

  He wanted a life. He saw a future. Were there others inside who did?

  No dissent! We finish…we finish this!

  But there was dissent, and it was growing stronger. She heard the voice of Martin Stowe joining Gerry’s, and then the voi
ces of two others—Angus and Rune, she guessed—pushing the dissent away, supporting their sister.

  She soared into the western parking ramp, deftly maneuvering between the cement fixtures and parked cars on the Colorado level. There, a few rows away, was Susan’s car, still crashed against the pillar and Susan was…there she was! Her friend was sitting up with the door open and holding a cloth up against her nose.

  She’ll be okay. She’ll look after Skip and Eddie.

  That was all she needed to see. Sensing the confused voices closing in behind her, she darted for the open air outside the confines of the ramp. With a surge of confidence, she saw her mother’s eagles—her eagles—flying directly at them both. In an instant, she knew exactly what to do. As soon as she was clear of the ramp, she pulled up sharply, waited for the hulking shape of Evangelina to emerge beneath her and engage the large birds…

  …and morphed back into a girl.

  Without wings, she dropped like a stone onto her sister’s scaled back. In one smooth motion, her daggers were out of their sheaths and into dark flesh. The stabs were deep—far deeper than she had managed at the cabin, and close to the spine.

  Evangelina convulsed, knocking Jennifer off without her weapons—and in midair. She shifted quickly back into dragon form and lifted herself to the top level of the parking structure. Alaskan huskies stared at her from the shiny directional signs, and she saw a few small, strange corpses in the center of the ramp—some of the otherworldly creatures overwhelmed by her earlier battle shout. They had fallen—and she was sure, so had Evangelina. She lit onto the pavement with the blood pumping in her ears.

  I did it! I won!

  A tangle of black legs and wings surged over the railing, quick as thought, and knocked her down. Evangelina backed off long enough to split again—the large outline of Angus Cheron pulled away briefly, reached behind him, and pulled the blades out of his own back. He howled in pain but held the daggers firmly as he plunged back into the shadow surrounding his merged siblings.

  This is not over.

  And like that, the monster was standing tall again, rearing up on hind legs, and screaming loudly enough to shatter the glass in the car windows nearby. She drew forth two new front legs—two incredibly long and sharp front legs, not unlike the limbs Jennifer had when she morphed with her weapons drawn.

  Time to go, Jennifer urged herself. She tried to get up, but Evangelina pounced on her and held her ankle down with a back leg. The weight twisted the muscle and pinned Jennifer—she could hiss and squirm, but she couldn’t get out from under. Once again, shadow clouded her vision, and she could feel the sticky breath of imminent death.

  No escape, sister. You lose.

  Blood dripped off her sister’s body and onto her chest, but Jennifer knew the wounds were not keeping Evangelina from finishing her work. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced her mother’s words to the front of her mind. There is always hope. Dad will come for me now. He will save me.

  Evangelina’s scythelike right front leg came down through Jennifer’s right bicep.

  The agony was incredible. Jennifer screamed.

  Again.

  Somewhere in the darkness, Jennifer heard the second weapon come down.

  “Stop, child!”

  The predator paused, blow held in midair, thoughts and memories suddenly swirling. Through her, Jennifer could feel the presence of someone new—someone vital.

  Father?

  The claws released her, and Jennifer saw Evangelina turn around. Jennifer rolled to the side and looked up. Jonathan Scales stood there, indigo scales shimmering under the lot’s lights. His reptilian features looked sick for what he saw before him.

  “Dad! Be careful! Evangelos…I mean Evangelina…I mean, he’s a she! Or, um, actually, a she and four he’s.”

  “You hurt, ace?”

  “Um…hard to say.” Jennifer scanned her twisted ankle, the bruised hip, and the gouge in her arm. Her sleeve was dark and wet. Wincing at the pain everywhere, she looked up at her sister’s seething form. “Help me out, sis. This blood here…is this you or me?”

  “Hang tight, Jennifer. Your sister and I need to talk.”

  Talk?

  Evangelina appeared amused.

  Whatever will we talk about, Father?

  “About the life you spared earlier,” Jonathan spread his wings in what looked more like a bow than anything else. “My wife, Elizabeth.”

  Jennifer felt the memories again move through Evangelina—it was strange to see her mother through her sister’s bitter eyes. She saw the hospital as if from across the street, the doctor walking in the front door on her way to surgery, then their house and the yard where Wendy Blacktooth lay under healing hands. Then inside that house, where a mighty warrior showed mercy, laid down arms, and offered peace.

  Father’s wife is still alive?

  The question came out earnestly, but a rush of anger immediately followed, as if one voice was overriding another.

  “She’s still alive,” Jonathan answered. “There’s still hope.”

  For a few seconds, the stream of thoughts and memories from Evangelina subsided into blank confusion. Her father, feeling it, too, seized the opportunity.

  “Please,” he called out. “Stop what you’re doing. If you have to hurt someone, hurt me. That’s why I came here.”

  Jennifer felt Evangelina’s thoughts flicker briefly to her, and then to the dragon before them.

  You want me to show mercy again.

  “To her,” he agreed, indicating Jennifer. “Not to me. I know what I’ve done—”

  You can’t know!

  She rose up on her hindmost legs and let the gloom spill down toward him.

  You can’t have any idea! Where she left me…

  For the first time, Evangelina let the memory of that other place out onto Jennifer and her father. Jennifer reeled at what she saw, and heard, and smelled there.

  That world—where Mother put us—it was dying. Even as newborns, we could tell. We aged rapidly, learning to see and walk within seconds of our arrival. But there was nothing to see, and nowhere to go. Almost nothing was left to this world. We must have been the first children there in centuries.

  Without wanting to see it, Jennifer witnessed their arrival: A swarm of offspring, half-dragon and half-spider, struggling to make their way in a world full of charred rock, burnt vegetation, and eternal gloom. Only the sliver of an eternal crescent moon gave them any light to see each other and their surroundings.

  I was the eldest, and the only female. My brothers—there were dozens of them—knew this. Their instincts told them to stay close. They sought safety and direction, like a hive from its queen. But we were hunted from the moment we arrived.

  And then Jennifer saw the predators—or what was visible of them. They were too fast to define, other than by their voracious hunger. Her heart beat faster as she saw one coming for her. She squeezed into the smallest crevice she could find, and still the breath and the claws were behind her. She felt brothers torn away from her side, heard their screams, and tasted the scent of their blood on the air. Like an oak tree split again and again by repeated strikes of lightning, she felt her heart break with each loss.

  So many of them died, food for predators that were at death’s door themselves. I could not protect them. I could only hide, and learn, and collect those few brothers who survived. We grew quickly, and adapted.

  Now the vision and emotions shifted. Jennifer felt the hunger of the predator, knew that she was aging rapidly…perhaps dangerously so. Desperate, she smelled prey on the air. Youth. Swifter than a falcon, she was out of the crevice, running a frightened shadow down into the ground, and feeding herself. Every bite of the meat made her feel younger. The world around them was ancient and dying; this was the only way to slow down her own aging and remain alive.

  Hours stretched into days, and then into weeks and maybe years. I don’t know how much time went by inthat place—every feeding made time stand
still, a little bit. The hunt became my life. Sometimes, I wonder. I wonder if my prey…maybe sometimes, they were my own brothers.

  The memories went dark again. Evangelina was on her haunches, claws and wings listless. The dark corona around her head was fading, and her body heaved with sobs.

  I could not protect them. I was supposed to protect them. They had no one else…

  “How did you get out?”

  Her father’s voice was plainly an irritation.

  Does it matter? I came here. To find you. And I did.

  “Yes, you did.” The three of them sat there for a while. An airplane roared overhead, unfolding its landing gear like claws ready to snatch prey from the runway. “What do you mean to do now?”

  What?!

  Memories leaked out again—the murder of Jack Alder, the fatal encounter with Crawford Scales, the assault on Elizabeth Georges-Scales.

  Isn’t it clear why I’m here? Haven’t you figured it out?

  “I know why you started doing what you did,” Jonathan explained. “But I’m not asking you that. I’m asking you: What do you mean to do now?”