“We’re not transitionists,” I reminded her. “Gemma nearly drained herself at City of the Future, then I did the same at the safehouse, but healers are limited to physical injuries.”
“Put her in the back seat,” Chessie ordered Spin. “You can sit up front with Chance while I do what I can. Hopefully I can repair enough to at least stop her pain.”
“She’s hurting? I— I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell. Ishouldhave known! She’s had nightmares every night!”
Spin’s eyes grew wild and wide, signaling a meltdown was imminent.
“Hey, buddy. Calm down,” I told him. “We knew she was traumatized, but she flat-out refused to go to the Sanctuary with Gina, remember? We did the best we could with what we had.”
“Not good enough.” He shook his head. “Our best wasn’t good enough. Not if she’s hurting!”
“Do what Chessie said, okay? She can help. She’s really good.”
Chessie had climbed into the SUV and now held her hands out like a mother wanting her baby. So Spin set Monkey in the seat, buckled her in, and watched as Chessie wrapped her arms and her power around his lady.
I put my hand on his shoulder and was a little shocked to feel the fine tremors running through him. I didn’t need to call up the empathy, though, to figure out what was wrong with him.
Guilt had him on the rack.
He did or said something in his Spin-typical way, and now he’s ashamed of it. I hope Monkey makes him pay penance for a good long while. He gets away with being a jerk far too often.
Then Chessie’s words sprang into my mind: “Being a jerk is a form of shielding, too, you know.”
Considering how vulnerable a new relationship made you feel, I could guess his anxiety had driven him to be callous with Monkey, and now his conscience was flaying him for it.
That’s penance enough, I guess.
“Come on, buddy.” I squeezed his shoulder. “I’ll drive while you keep watch.”
#
Spin
We had the road to ourselves except for a battered and dirty FedEx truck ahead of us, which sputtered blue-gray smoke from its tailpipe. I kept waiting for Chance to pass it because the gasoline smell coming in through the heater was noxious, but he didn’t. It would have meant breaking the speed limit, and Chance drove like an old lady, even out here in the Pennsylvania boondocks, where there was nothing but forests and steep ridges that rose on either side of the blacktop.
Sighing, I resigned myself to a slow death by toxic fumes and was half-tempted to give in and pass out like both of the girls in the back seat.
Of course, they’re exhausted, Chessie because she slathered Monkey with a ton of power to stop her from hurting so badly, and Monkey because she hasn’t recovered yet from what those beasts did to her…
I told myself to shut up. I wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.
Mercifully, a dark blot in the sky diverted my attention.
I sat up. Whatever it was, it was falling from the clouds at tremendous speed. Squinting a bit, I realized it was a person. I estimated the speed of his fall versus ours and told Chance to stop the car.
“Hmm?” He swiveled his head to look at me. “I thought you’d fallen asleep—
“Stop the car!”
“Whoa! What is that? A skydiver?” He finally saw it, and I braced my hand on the dashboard. “Where’s his parachute? Why isn’t he deploying it?”
“What’s going on?” Chessie’s voice was thick with sleep.
No one had time to answer her. Right as Chance brought the car to a halt, the body slammed into the road in front of the FedEx truck. The driver stood on his brakes, but was too late. The truck skidded and slid sideways—right over the new crater in the road.
We hurried out of the car, and a human male barrelled around the back of the delivery truck. He slowed to a stiff-legged walk as he saw the body embedded in the shattered pavement.
“Good Lord!” He put his hand over his mouth. “Have you ever seen anything like that?”
