Do it, Casey. Already, he could feel the silver sliver of himself, a Casey that he recognized, going dark, starting to slide away, being pulled under full fathom five. Do it, Casey! Do it now, open the door, save her while you still can and before he comes back, before …
“Do it.” The words were clumsy in his torn mouth. Swallowing back blood, he pawed at the locks, his bloody fingers awkward, but the pain kept him focused a few seconds more. There was a thunk as the locks disengaged. In the next second, Rima was scrambling inside on a wash of frigid air, another scream from Tony, and the stink of gasoline.
“Something’s coming.” Her voice was thin and tight. She wrestled with the handle, her hands in their wool gloves slipping over bare metal as she muscled the door shut. “Something’s out there!”
“What? How close?” Still panting, Casey brought his good fist down on the master lock, then felt around for the flashlight. Thumbing it on, he worked his aching jaw, grimacing at a lancet of pain. His cheek was already swelling, going to be a hell of a bruise, and someone tell him just why had he risked his neck for this girl; why had he been hitting himself? You’re going as crazy as she is. Sucking blood from his torn knuckles, he spat out copper and a gasoline fug. “Did you get a look at it?”
“No. But I heard it. It’s … big, and Tony …” Her back was rigid, and she seemed to be quite careful to keep some distance between them. She flicked him a quick glance, her eyes raking his face, lingering on his jaw. “Listen, Casey, what just happened to you, I—”
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sudden movement, and then something flew into the car, smacking the metal shell with a meaty thud. Startled, Casey jerked his flashlight to the window—and screamed.
“Tony!” Rima shrieked. “Tony!”
ERIC
A Night Coming On Fast
ON THE PORCH, as that horrible scream went on and on, they all stared at the handset he held in a death grip. Before the shriek had even fully died, Eric was shouting into the unit: “What’s happening, what’s happening? Tony? Casey? Casey?”
“Jesus,” said Bode.
All the reply he got was the scream again, louder and so full of terror, Eric felt the sound working its way inside to ice his blood. Beside him, he heard Emma gasp.
“Eric,” she said. “Oh my God, that sounds like Tony.”
“Yeah, I know.” Heart pounding, he clicked off the handset’s volume and jammed the unit back into his parka. Whirling on his heel, he plunged down the porch steps. God, Casey, Casey! “Stay here, Emma, just stay here!”
“No! No, Eric, wait, wait!” Emma stumbled, the deep snow on the porch snagging her boots and dragging at Tony’s space blanket. Staggering, she clutched the railing before she could take a header. “Eric, you can’t go alone!”
“Emma.” He snatched up his helmet. “They’re in trouble, and I’m not staying here. My brother is out there!”
“And no one is saying you shouldn’t go.” Flinging off Tony’s space blanket, she floundered down the steps and grabbed his arm. “Of course you should. They need help, but so do you. It’s crazy for you to go alone. Let me come with you.”
“No way, Emma.” Tightening his helmet’s chin strap, he drilled her with a ferocious glare. “You’re already hurt.”
“But I can help. I’m fine. It’s just a hit to the head. Please, let me come with you.”
And here was the hell of it: he didn’t want to leave her. How can this be? We just met. Eric could feel the tug-of-war in his chest, the need to go a claw, the desire to stay a knife ripping at his heart. “Emma,” he said, exasperated. He grabbed his hand back before he could touch her, afraid that he’d give in to this new and raw emotion because what he wanted … what he needed … Swallowing around a sudden lump, he pushed back on the impulse to hold her close, crush his mouth to hers. What is this? Why do I feel this? What is this? It was the sort of thing you read in bad teen novels; he didn’t believe in this crap. The only person he’d loved in this world—ever—was Casey. But now there was this strange girl that he could imagine knowing better, wanted to be with … and he had no more time to wonder about this.
“Please,” he ground out, “please stay here. I need to know that you’re safe, and you won’t be if you come. I can’t help my brother if I have to worry about you, too.”
“I’m not a doll,” she said. “It’s not like I’m going to break.”
“But you’re not real fit to fight either.” It was the big kid in the olive drab BDUs, Bode. “It’s not a girlie thing. You look ready to chew nails, but you’re already kind of banged up.”
Eric saw her jaw set. “So you going with him?” Emma fired back. “Or are you just hassling me and going to let him walk into this on his own?”
“Emma, no,” Eric said, although he thought Bode was one kid he’d like to have with him in a fight. “It’s one thing to ask for help with a stuck car. Whatever’s going on out there, it’s not their fault, or their problem.”
“Yeah, what he said.” It was the twitchy, narrow-nosed guy, Chad, on the steps. “We don’t know what we’d be walking into.”
“And that’s a reason to do nothing?” Emma flung back. “You guys are soldiers, for God’s sake!”
“Gee, thanks for that intel. I was kind of wondering where I got these funky clothes. Now tell me something I don’t know,” Chad said. “Anyway, I’m on leave.”
“Yeah, but”—a swift sparrow of uncertainty flitted through the sky blue of Bode’s eyes—“come on, Chad. You really going to let this guy walk into God knows what by himself?”
“You know, guys, I don’t have time for this. I’m going,” Eric said, stabbing the sled’s ignition. He looked up as Emma stepped to block his way. “Emma!” he shouted over the engine’s throaty roar. He cranked the throttle, blasting out a loud vroom-vroom, but she wouldn’t budge. “Get out of the way. Move!”
“Not unless you take me with you!” she said.
Don’t you think I want to? Please listen to me; please let me protect you from whatever is out there. “You can’t help!”
“I know you’re trying to protect me,” she said, her words an eerie echo of his own. She covered his hand with hers. Her eyes were intent and so strange, with that one tiny golden flaw in her right eye and the rest such an alien cobalt blue it was as if he were staring into a night coming on fast. If you didn’t know better, you might think eyes like that existed only in dreams. “But I don’t want anything to happen to you either,” she said. “You shouldn’t go alone.”