by Alyssa Dean
He arched sharply under her. There was a tremendous burst of energy, and she contracted with a million sparkles of sensation, collapsing upon him while he groaned in his own ecstasy.
Faye lay there for a few minutes, listening as his raspy breathing evened out. Then, very slowly, she lifted her head.
He appeared to be asleep. His eyes were closed, his lips curled into a small, contented smile. "Kent?" she whispered.
He didn't move.
Faye carefully detached herself from him, and slowly replaced her clothing. This could very well have restored his power, she assured herself. It just might take a little time to work. Even if it didn't, she felt better now, better able to deal with what she might face.
The wind howled outside the shed. Faye quickly rearranged Kent's clothes, then cuddled down onto him. "You are a Wizard," she told him. "You are my Wizard, and you were definitely worth waiting for." She lay her head on his chest, realizing she'd done exactly what her mother had warned her not to do. "I love you," she whispered into Kent's ear. She pressed a final kiss to his lips, and his eyes flashed open, then closed.
A key scraped in the lock, and the door opened. "Come, Alfaye," purred Joseph Collingswood. "It's time to see if this formula of yours really works."
A helicopter was close by. The sound of it slipped into Kent's consciousness, tangling with the desperate blasts of concern Avril was transmitting. Cut it out! he ordered. I'm fine!
He opened his eyes, and discovered that his surroundings disagreed. Apparently he wasn't all that fine. He was in a shed of some sort, and it was very dark and very cold. Someone must want to keep him here, because his left wrist was handcuffed to a set of wooden shelves. He ordered them undone, but they completely ignored him. What the hell?
Memory returned to him in swift, painful flashes. The drug! Collingswood! Faye! Oh, Lord, they had Faye!
Everything else came back to him, as well. His complete helplessness, her frantic theory on how to restore his power, the hot, desperate passion of being with her. He dropped his head into his free hand, groaning aloud as he realized the circumstances. He was still trapped here, still as helpless as before. Faye would be in some panic now. She'd know he wasn't a Wizard. She'd know the situation was totally unsalvageable. Damn!
He took a long breath of cold air, and tried to remember exactly what she'd said. Miller's pond. Collingswood was testing Mozelle at Miller's pond, and he was taking Faye with him! Kent had no idea where Miller's pond was, but even if he did, he couldn't do anything!
He'd contact Avril. She'd do something. She could call somebody. A foggy remembrance slid into his mind. He'd been in touch with her before, through the hazy grogginess of that drug. That's why she was so worried now.
At least Collingswood had been mistaken about the drug. What had Faye said—something about him being a poor chemist? She must have been right. Kent felt much better now, his mind clearer and sharper than it had been since Norton's garage. Perhaps that was due to Faye's presence. He sniffed the air, catching her sunshine scent; sensing, too, the lingering sparkle in the air from their lovemaking. "I love you," she'd whispered. He could still hear those words, and, if she were here, he might just say them back to her. No, that was impossible. A Wizard didn't fall in love. Then again, he wasn't a Wizard, was he? If he was, he wouldn't be in this mess. He gave the manacle on his hand a furious glare. If only this thing was gone…
A hard, cold tingle of energy sprang from his body toward his shackle.
Then, as easy as taking a step, as amazing as the first time he'd made it work, as simple as thinking the thought, the metal bracelet around his wrist opened.
Miller's pond, Kent thought desperately. M-I-L-L-E-R… Ah, forget it. It was too hard to transmit something that specific, especially while he was running full speed through this forest.
Fortunately, the forest seemed really anxious for him to make good time. The wind pushed at his back with forceful encouragement, and whipped in front of him to clear leaves and twigs out of his path, almost as if it were as frantic as he was to rescue her.
Frantic was exactly how Kent was feeling. He knew his chances of finding Collingswood at Miller's pond were slim at best—after all, the Alchemist was in a helicopter, and Kent was on foot. However, he could get there before dawn—before Mozelle was activated—and he could get Faye out of the danger zone. He could do that. It would be close, because dawn appeared to be less than an hour away, but he could do it. He had to do it.
Kent had expected to find at least one man guarding him, but there hadn't been a soul when he'd left the shed. Then again, in the condition he'd been in, he hadn't been that much of a threat. Still, it was kind of odd.
He pushed his way through the last of the trees, and came to a full, dead stop at the place where Faye's green pickup had been parked.
It was gone.
Of course. Collingswood would have arranged for it to be moved to Miller's pond, if he wanted to implicate Faye. Kent had been half expecting it, but finding his suspicions confirmed was a major disappointment. He gasped in a couple of ragged breaths and headed down the road at a full gallop.
He was just approaching the first sharp turn when he heard the quiet purr of a car engine. He didn't even consider hitchhiking, this would be another of Collingswood's crowd. If it wasn't—too bad. Kent needed a vehicle. Now.
He slid into the bushes beside the road. This car would soon be breaking down—nothing serious, of course; something that could be easily repaired. He ran through a list of possibilities, mumbling them out loud. "Not a tire… I don't have time to change it. Distributor cap, maybe. Or a fan belt…"
Whoever was driving down the road was doing so without the benefit of headlights; the sound of the car's engine the only indication of its approach. Finally it rounded the curve. The motor sputtered, and the car slid to a stop almost directly across from him. He picked up a rock and crept forward.
The car door opened, and a figure got out—a man, who slammed the door with an abrupt, familiar gesture, leaned his back against it, and swore very loudly. "If that's you, Kent, you'd better be able to fix my car in one hell of a hurry. And if it isn't Kent, you'd better come out of there with your hands up, because I've got a gun the size of New York trained on those bushes."
The rock dropped out of Kent's hand as he slowly rose to his full height. "You don't even own a gun," he called out in a voice that shook slightly. He staggered out of the bushes, unable to believe the sight in front of him.
A craggy-featured, scowling-faced, gray-haired man stood beside a maroon sedan, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes cold and angry. "God damn you, Kent," he snarled as Kent neared. "Where the hell have you been? I have told you and told you that you've got to keep in touch if you're going to do any work for me! That means using the telephone, not your sister! She's been calling me on my cellular phone every ten minutes, convinced you're about to kick the—"
"Could you yell at me later?" Kent interrupted. "I've got a bit of a problem…" He rested a shoulder against the car, swallowing.
Dan straightened, muscle by muscle. "That bad, is it?"
Kent was silent for a moment. "And then some," he said, and he was totally unable to control the crack in his voice.
Chapter Eleven
Dan wrapped his fists tighter around the steering wheel, guiding the car through the dim light of early dawn. "Avril told me to hold off going to Salt Lake City until I heard from you. According to her, it wasn't all that serious. Then, today she calls, screaming and ranting that she's picking up garbage from you and something is terribly wrong and I have to find you for her." He sighed and raised his eyebrows. "Well, you know how she is. I already knew this was big-time shit, so I—"
"Thanks for coming," Kent interrupted. "I am more than happy to see you." He ate a couple of macadamia nuts Dan had provided while peering out the window, comparing their location to the detailed area map resting on his knees.
"I didn't come alone," Dan went
on. "Government boys should be down here in a couple of hours."
"What government boys?"
"The ones I notified as soon as I tracked down Collingswood's backer."
Kent checked the map again. "Take the next left. Who's Collingswood's backer?"
"Felix Bristol." Dan shot a knowing look across the car. "You heard of him?"
"No. Can't you go any faster?"
Dan ignored the last part of his statement, probably because Kent had been saying it for the past ten minutes. "Bristol is a weapons broker. Apparently he's given Collingswood plenty of dough to produce this Mozelle stuff." Dan shook his head. "He's a bad one to cross."
"So am I," Kent said savagely. "I'll get Collingswood, but right now, I'm more concerned about Faye."
"The World Environmental Agency folks are pretty keen on talking to her." Dan grunted. He wheeled the car around the turn without bothering to slow down. "They were tickled pink when I told them you'd found her."
"Let's hope she's here to talk to." Kent tugged Dan's jacket tighter around his shoulders. "I sure screwed this up, Dan. Big time."
"You did okay," Dan said brusquely. "A little overconfident, maybe, but that's your nature." He softened his voice. "We'll get her, kid."
"We'd better." Kent pushed a stray hair out of his face. "I'm not sure I can live with myself if we don't." He knew he was speaking the literal truth. "Turn here!"
Dan yanked the car to the right, and they bumped along a narrow, rutted road, down a steep incline, toward a small, misshapen body of water. It was more a slough than a pond, and its stench curled Kent's nostrils, but filled the rest of him with satisfaction. This must be the place.
The now familiar noise of a helicopter confirmed his suspicions. Collingswood and friends must have decided to stick around as long as possible to watch the disaster they had created. The car cleared the trees, and Kent saw two things: Faye's little body kneeling beside the pond in total despair, and some distance to her left, the blue-and-gray chopper, its blades just starting to turn.
"Back rotary blade!" Dan shouted as he wheeled the car toward the water. "Snap it!"
Kent leapt out of the car before it had stopped moving. The rear blade was spinning so fast he couldn't identify it, but he remembered what it looked like, gathered all his energy, and rocketed it forward. The machine began a huge, back-and-forth shuddering, then the engine switched off. Kent took a step toward it, and Dan's large hand clamped to his shoulder. "I'll handle them."
Kent blinked at him. He had known Dan for some years, but had only seen this man a few times, and had almost forgotten about him. Easygoing, nondescript Dan had transformed into a dangerously lethal creature, who did indeed own a gun as big as New York and who handled it with an easy familiarity, which suggested he'd done this several million times. "Get the girl into the car," Dan ordered as the helicopter thumped to the ground. "I'll put these characters in the trunk."
Kent didn't even bother to watch.
Faye knelt at the water's edge, weeping. She knew something was going on behind her, but she wasn't interested. All she could think about was the terrible, terrible things that were going to happen very shortly, and that there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
She peeked through her fingers at the pond. It was still there—the dusky, moving circles signifying the presence of Mozelle. She had seen them many times before, at first with delight, then, later, when she and her father had realized what they had created, with dawning horror.
That's how she felt now. Total horror, along with the faint comfort that her father was not here to see it. He had given up so much to prevent this from happening, and now, because of her, it was all too real. She had failed to protect his legacy, she had failed to protect her Wizard, and now she was going to have to watch as she failed to protect her world. From around her came the rushing sounds of animals, trying to vacate the area, and a noise on the wind that sounded like her name. But it wasn't the wind calling her. It was… No… Or… ? She felt an arm enclose her, pulling her to her feet. "Faye! Oh, Faye, honey!"
Faye found herself staring into two dark, amber-tinted eyes, while two arms hugged her so tightly her ribs creaked. "Kent?" she asked. She put a wondering hand against his cheek, feeling his face, feeling his warmth seep into her, feeling his exotic scent swirling around them both. "Kent?"
"That's me, babe." He snuggled her into his shoulder, his body trembling against hers. "Oh, Lord," he groaned. "Am I glad to see you!"
It took her a moment to understand. "It worked," she whispered. "Your magnetic field…"
"Is fine and well, thanks to you." He gave her one brief kiss, then began urging her toward a vehicle she hadn't noticed before. "Let's get out of here!"
Faye took a couple of steps, then resisted. "It's too late, Kent."
He stopped and scowled down at her. "What do you mean, it's too late? It isn't dawn yet."
"He put it all in," she whispered. She wrapped herself against him again, sobbing into his shoulder. "Oh, Kent, I'm so glad you're here to be with me, and I'm ever so sorry you won't live through this, but he put it all in."
Kent untangled her from him and peered into her face. "What exactly are you telling me, honey?"
"He put the whole vial in," Faye gasped. "I saw him do it, Kent. He poured it in, and I begged him not to, and he did, and…"
"Shh. Calm down, now." His hand caressed her back, soothing her as it always had before. "Just tell me. He put all the Mozelle in the vial into the pond. Is that right?"
"Yes, yes. And, oh, Kent, everything is going to die. You, me. The animals, the plants…" She buried her head into him. "Neverdale!"
"Neverdale?" Kent repeated. "It will spread to Neverdale?"
"Yes, yes, it will, and… beyond. Perhaps… perhaps the whole state!"
Kent growled a very unwizardly word, took her hand, and pulled her toward the car. "Come on."
"It's no use," Faye sniffed. "We can't get away. Nothing can get away. The deer… the rabbits… everything is going to die."
"Yeah, I gathered that." He kept going, practically lifting her off the ground with each impatient step.
Joseph Collingswood and his blond companion were being held at gunpoint by an older, gray-haired man whose craggy features showed an intensity that made her shiver.
Kent glanced down at her. "It's okay, babe. This is my… uh… counselor, Dan Stuart. Dan, this is Alfaye Merline."
"A pleasure," Dan grunted. "Now, let's all get in this car and get the hell out of here."
"According to Faye, that's not much of a possibility," Kent said softly. He glared at the Alchemist, who stared at him in stunned amazement.
"MacIntyre?" he snarled. "You can't be here. The drug…"
"Didn't work so good," Kent completed. "Can't say that I'm all that sorry, either."
"You'll be sorry," Collingswood warned. "We'll all die without that helicopter."
Faye clutched at Kent's arm. "The helicopter wouldn't help. I told him he'd have a better chance of survival if he stayed on the ground. I told him if he used that much Mozelle in a pond this size—"
"She's lying!" Collingswood shouted. "She was trying to get me killed, too." He wrung his hands together. "I had to do it. I had to demonstrate… I had to show him that it worked. I had to…" He blinked into Kent's face, and looked more terrified than ever. "Look, MacIntyre, I didn't mean to hurt her, I—"
"You'd better get in that trunk right now," Kent said very softly, very menacingly. "Otherwise, I will probably kill you with my bare hands."
"We'll die anyway," Collingswood growled. "Without that helicopter, we'll never get out of here in time."
"We'll see." Kent took one warning step toward him, and Collingswood hastily climbed into the trunk, beside the big blonde.
"What about the pilot?" Kent asked.
Dan slammed down the lid. "Unconscious in the back." He lifted an eyebrow at Kent. "Now what?"
"I'm thinking about it." Kent led Faye a few step
s away from the car, and faced her, his arms resting on her shoulders while his amber-flecked eyes looked directly into hers. "You once said… uh… that the Wizard had the magic to defeat the Alchemist. Is that right?"
"Yes." She wiped her cheeks with her fingers, sniffing. "But now it's too late. Mozelle—"
"Not necessarily." He swallowed with some difficulty. "This… uh… Mozelle stuff—is there anything magnetic in it? Anything at all?"
"Magnetic?" Faye echoed. She wiped her wet cheeks with her fingers, and tried to find the answer to his question. "Some of the chemicals have magnetic properties, but…"
"And what would happen if the magnetic stuff was separated from the other stuff? Is that possible?"
"It's possible," she agreed blankly. "I don't know what it would do. We never tried…"
"Theoretically speaking, what would happen?"
She shook her head, unable to come up with a coherent thought. His gaze probed hers, calming her, clearing her panic. She took a breath and mentally ran through the complicated list of chemicals, trying to sort out the ones with the strongest magnetic properties. "The vaporization would still take place," she decided. "But I don't think the base reaction would work the same, and—" She opened her eyes, suddenly feeling alive with bright, glorious hope. "Without the copper sulfate, it wouldn't gather the toxins. It would just… go… Oh, Kent, do you really think you can do that?"
His gaze intensified. "I don't know. Do you think I can?"
Faye searched his face for a long moment. "Of course," she answered, and she was absolutely, dead-certain positive. "I should have thought of it before. You're my Wizard. Of course, you can."