“What do we do?”
“We need a car,” he said. “Mine’s about two blocks…” Another gunshot echoed, followed by a howl and tinkling glass. “...If we can make it. Let’s go!” He dragged her after him by an arm.
After a second, Vivian ran beside him. “Okay. Okay. My car is closer. This way!” She sprinted ahead, dark hair slicked to her skull, keys glimmering in her right hand as they passed a streetlight.
They raced to the clinic parking lot, and lights flashed on Vivian’s little blue car as she unlocked it with the fob. She hopped in and flung her bag into the back. Hayden ran around to the passenger side and clambered in. He slammed the door shut just as the smaller werewolf loped into view from the backside of the building.
“Go, go, go!” he shouted. Vivian’s little car shuddered to life as the movie monster hit the passenger door. The car rocked. Vivian let out a shriek and threw the engine into reverse. Hayden got an up-close view of froth coated canine teeth before a clawed hand smashed the glass, sending a web of cracks through the window pane.
Vivian accelerated backward, pulling away from the lycanthrope and onto the street. She skidded to a stop, eliciting a honking rebuke from a passing SUV, and shifted to drive. The wheels slipped on the wet asphalt for a gut-wrenching second before catching.
Hayden spotted the alpha taking aim from the sidewalk. He summoned a shield on his right arm to cover Vivian and himself as best he could in the tight confines. The car picked up speed, and they cruised away from the pursuing creatures. Gunfire rang again and the rear passenger windows both shattered. Another shot thunked off the car body.
“OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod,” Vivian squealed.
Hayden let the shield drop and glanced back to see another car pull onto the street from the clinic parking lot. Alpha ran along next to it for a second, then hopped up and slid in through the window. He disappeared behind the headlights. The chase car’s engine revved, and it picked up speed, growling closer.
“Uh. Problem.”
Vivian didn’t take her eyes off the road. “What?!”
“They have their own ride, and it’s faster than ours.” A shape leaned out of the chase car window again. “Get down!”
He flung himself across the car and called up a new shield on his left arm. The rear window exploded inward as two more bullets tore through the glass. Hayden caught one impact on his shield, but another bullet tugged at the outside edge of his right arm and kept on going to bury itself in the dash. Sparks and chips of hot plastic stung his face and neck.
Vivian shrieked again, and the car weaved right, then left, tires slipping as they took a hard corner.
Hayden hissed through clenched teeth. His right arm burned, badly, and something warm dripped down his forearm. Nothing for it then.
“Get us out of here!” He clambered over the center console into the back seat, scraping his hands on the glass shards, and summoned his armor. Light rippled from his head to his feet, and rune etched metal appeared in its wake.
“I’m trying!” Vivian yelled. Another gunshot cracked through the air.
Hayden gritted his teeth. “I’m going to keep us from getting shot, but you have to get us away from them.”
“How? You’re the superhero!”
“You can see the future! Dial the oracle phone and lose them!”
“It’s not a cell phone! I can’t just make it work!”
“Well, figure it out!”
“Stop yelling!” Vivian sobbed. “I’m freaking out!”
Hayden growled but forced himself to take a breath and focus. He gripped Vivian’s headrest to stabilize himself as the car bounced and swerved. He stretched out his right hand and projected a half-dome shield. Sculpting it to fit the busted rear window, he flattened and lengthened it sideways to wrap around and cover the rear passenger windows as well.
The sound of wind and rain fell away, and the snarling engine of the pursuit car was muffled. Immediately, Hayden’s construct rippled as a bullet flattened against the shield. Vivian pulled her car through a right turn.
“I can’t hold this forever. You have to find a way to shake them, Vivian.”
“I can’t!” Hayden glanced back to see Vivian shaking her head, tears streaking her face in the rearview mirror. “I don’t even know how I do it. It just happens!”
Hayden cursed. He let go of the headrest and reached out to her. “Hold my hand.”
Vivian’s reflection was confused. “What?”
“Just grab my hand!”
She clutched at him, hand trembling against his palm. “Think of the visions. I’ll hold on as long as I can.”
“What are you…?”
Hayden reached for the Axiom and flooded his world with fire.
Chapter Nineteen
Arclite’s hand tensed in Vivian’s, and the visions welled up behind her eyes. Everything went brighter. She braced for the blinding white light.
It never came.
Instead, the feeling stopped short, like a wave breaking on a sandbar. It still rushed around her, but the force was vastly lessened. Vivian looked around in wonder.
Everything had translucent after images, as though she was looking at double or triple exposed film. Except, they weren’t lagging behind reality. They were ahead of reality. Sounds were distorted, echoing, and overlapping in a weird simultaneous doppler effect.
She peered through the cracked windshield at ghostly images of her car stretching ahead down the road as she approached a light. The images split at the intersection, turning left, or right, or continuing on. The left image ended in a T-bone collision. The right had a blown tire and was in the process of rolling onto its side.
Vivian accelerated and took the straight path, rifling through a red light. Behind her, another car leaned on the horn as he passed through the intersection and would have creamed her had she been going any slower. The pursuing muscle car swerved around the traffic and hurtled through the intersection after her.
Vivan gasped and realized she was smiling. This was how it was supposed to be. This was what she was for.
Driving awkwardly with one hand, she managed to pass a slowing van by ducking around it on the wrong side of the road and threading back in just ahead of an oncoming truck. She jerked the wheel left to avoid the opening door of a parked BMW. The muscle car plowed through shortly afterward, tearing the door from its hinges.
Gunshots continued to sound. She flinched away from a hit a split second before the driver’s side mirror exploded from a strike. She had to get away. But how?
Arclite’s arm spasmed, and he grunted in pain. Vivian focused on the road and the future.
Another intersection appeared, but she couldn’t see which way to go. She had to see further, to know more. She tightened her grip on Arclite’s hand and...pulled somehow. The world grew lighter, almost daytime bright, and the future images extended, overlapping further.
She fought to parse it all out, wading through a sea of competing possibilities. Her car crashed, bullets threw Arclite into her chair, she saw a pedestrian flung through the air. Which one? Which one saved them?
Arclite collapsed with a strangled cry, and the shield disappeared. His hand pulled from her grasp and Vivian fumbled after it. As soon as their contact broke, the wave of visions receded.
“No, No, NO!” Vivian yelled, hands clenching around the steering wheel, knuckles white, as the last of her vision faded out.
Hayden woke to the pain curling him up in the floorboard of Vivian’s back seat. Glass crunched and scraped under his armor, and he was glad of the cheek guards on his helmet. Slowly, he sat up, only to have more gunfire cause him to duck reflexively back down.
“Vivian?” Hayden pulled himself into a crouch. He tried to summon a new shield, but holding Axiom for so long left him completely drained. A construct stuttered over his arm like a busted neon light, but the effort made his head spin, and he let it collapse. A traffic light zipped into view ahead. He stood, holding the headres
ts of the front seats and trying to shield Vivian with his armored back.
“Vivian? Are you okay?”
In answer, Vivian slammed her breaks.
The sudden change threw Hayden forward over the center console, nearly sending him into a cartwheel over the front seat. The car slid several feet through the intersection, tires protesting, before jerking to a stop. Hayden was knocked back into the rear seats. His knees buckled, and he sat on the glass-covered upholstery.
“What are you doing?!” he screamed. Vivian had her eyes closed, and both hands strangled the wheel. Hayden spun to look out the gaps in the rear window. The muscle car barreled straight towards them. A blonde guy in the same scrubs as Wile E. leaned his head out the window and took aim. Cold hatred flashed in the young man’s eyes.
He didn’t see the delivery truck until it slammed into the side of the muscle car like a wrecking ball.
Metal crunched and squealed, glass was flung from the vehicles in a flickering spray, and both truck and car spun out of the intersection on the wet asphalt to smash into a sedan parked along the cross street curb. The truck’s horn let out a steady drone with the sedan’s alarm blaring rhythmically over it. None of the people in either vehicle moved.
The car jerked into motion, and Hayden turned to see Vivian easing back up to speed. He climbed back into the front seat and dismissed his armor. He clapped a hand over the leaking wound in his right tricep and focused through the fog of pain and exhaustion.
He looked over at Vivian. “You okay?”
She snorted a laugh and smiled slightly. “My car is totaled, my hands won’t stop shaking, I feel like I’m going to throw up, and I need to find a new doctor. I’m fine. You?”
Hayden leaned back against the headrest. “Minor gunshot. It’s nothing.”
“We should get you to a hospital!”
Hayden shook his head tiredly. “Too many questions. I know someone who can help. Get on the Perimeter and head toward West End.”
“Okay. If you’re sure. Um...” Vivan bit her lip, then glanced over at him. “Thank you. For saving my life, I mean.”
Hayden smiled at her. “Well, you helped.” Vivian blushed. “Seriously, you held it together really well.”
“No,” Vivian said, eyes welling up. “I...I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t been there.” She went quiet for a moment, and tears fell before she wiped them away, sniffling.
“God, I feel so stupid. Crying ‘cause you saved me! And I don’t even know your name. I mean, I know what you look like, and what your powers are, and even how you take your coffee. But I don’t know your name.”
Hayden smiled tiredly and leaned over to offer his non-bloody right hand. “Hayden.”
Vivian wiped her palm on her pants leg and took his hand in her own. Her hand was slender and cool. “Vivian Hale.”
“Nice to meet you, Vivian.” Their eyes locked for a pair of heartbeats. Hayden’s pulse quickened. Then he released his calloused mitt and leaned back in his seat.
They rode in silence for a few blocks. Road noise and soft, cool rain wafted in through the broken windows. As they approached a turn, Hayden noticed a few pedestrians giving their car funny looks.
“Vivian? Just how attached are you to this car?”
Chapter Twenty
“Hayden? We’re here.”
Vivian had to shake Hayden awake. He blinked and looked around blearily. Vivian thought he looked pale, but it was hard to tell in the single cabin light of her car. It took a second for his eyes to focus.
“Good. Let me knock.”
He creaked open the passenger door and hauled himself to his feet unsteadily, hand still clasped over his right arm. Vivian eyed the red-black stain covering the seat and followed nervously.
The house was old, though well-maintained, and must have been considered a palace at the time it was built. Two stories, with double chimneys and a wraparound porch overlooked a manicured lawn with ancient trees and prim shrubs. Vivian could see another building of some sort peeking out around the home from the expansive backyard. A light burned in the back of the house.
She followed Hayden along a simple brick pathway and up a flight of steps to the porch. Hayden plodded up to the door and knocked. The door swung open immediately, revealing a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark hair. His face was swarthy and carried deep worry lines that deepened further as he caught sight of Hayden. He pushed the screen door open as well.
“Hayden? What happened?”
“Hi, Deckard. Sorry to drop in. I got in a gunfight with a werewolf. But don’t worry, she hit him with a truck.” Hayden chuckled, then his legs buckled and his eyes rolled back into this head.
The man caught him before he could fall and scooped him up in a fireman’s carry. Vivian gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. Hard green eyes landed on her.
“In,” he commanded. Vivian raced inside. The man called Deckard rushed past her in the hallway. “Close the door!”
Vivian shut the solid oak door and scurried down the hall, past a formal sitting room, into the living room. Deckard placed Hayden on the large table, shoving chairs out of his way.
“Are you a doctor? Can you help him?”
Deckard hissed through his teeth when he saw the bullet wound. He peeled back Hayden’s eyelids, checked his pulse, then looked over at her.
“Stand by the couch and be silent.”
Vivian moved to comply, trying to keep Hayden in sight. She caught herself chewing a finger and hugged herself instead. Deckard ripped Hayden’s sleeve open wider, exposing the chunk of his upper arm that was a bloody mess. The older man placed his palms flat on the table, closed his eyes, and bowed his head.
Tears welled up in Vivian’s eyes. Was Hayden dead? Oh, God! She couldn’t breathe.
A ring of glowing symbols burst into being around Hayden’s body. Curls of heat-less golden flame rose from them, a pyre of radiance.
Vivian’s eyes went wide. Archon.
Deckard lifted a hand and held it, motionless, an inch or two above Hayden’s arm. Light drifted toward his palm, bending and twisting like fire hunting oxygen. Deckard brought the rippling tendrils down, covering the torn flesh with his hand. The glow of the light intensified until Deckard held a tiny star.
Vivian watched the tableau, entranced. Deckard stood over Hayden, mouth moving silently, sweat beading on his furrowed brow. Eventually, the shining light dimmed, fading out to a dull orange glow before disappearing entirely.
Deckard straightened and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm. He turned toward Vivian. “Grab his legs and help me move him to the couch.”
Vivian complied, swallowing. Hayden was short but solid, and she struggled with the dead weight of his legs. Deckard supported his neck and upper body without apparent strain.
They shuffled from the table to the couch and laid Hayden down as gently as they could manage. Deckard propped the boy’s head on a pillow. Hayden’s color was better. He breathed steadily and the ragged wound in his arm had been replaced by a thin silvery scar.
“Will he be okay?”
Deckard nodded. “He’ll be fine, but he needs rest. The question, young lady, is what do we do with you? Come with me.”
He led her down a hall to a different room and flicked on the lights, revealing a study, complete with massive desk and overstuffed chairs. He stood next to one of the chairs and motioned for her to sit. Vivian sat. Deckard then seated himself in the other chair and faced her.
“What is your name?”
“Vivian. Hale, Vivian Hale.”
“Do you understand who I am?”
Vivian swallowed. “Archon.”
The man nodded. “I am. And you must know, Ms. Hale, I cannot allow that secret to become common knowledge.”
“I know. And I would never tell anyone! The only reason I’m here is because Hayden got shot.” Tears threatened to overwhelm her as the night’s events replayed in her mind. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave, and
you never have to see me again.” She stood.
“Sit, Ms. Hale.” The words were gentle but implacable. She sat back down. Archon’s face mellowed into a tired smile. He dug a handkerchief from a pocket and held it out to her. “Thank you for bringing Hayden here. You saved his life.”
She shook her head, accepting the handkerchief. “He saved me, sir.”
“Tell me, how do you know each other?”
Vivian smiled slightly and wiped at her tears. “Well, it’s funny actually. I thought he was insulting me…”
Exhaustion pressed Deckard into a chair. He’d sent Vivian to a guest room. With people out to kill her for what she knew, it wasn’t safe for her to return home. Just as well. She seemed trustworthy enough, but she now bore two dangerous secrets.
And her powers. “Prophecy is peril,” his teachers had warned so long ago. It had been centuries since Deckard had met an Oracle. They seldom ended well. If Vivian did not gain control of her powers soon, then the visions would start to overwhelm her. Madness and death would follow shortly.
The clock ticked gently in the silence as Deckard pondered that thought.
Hayden still slept peacefully on the couch. Healing didn’t take much of the Axiom’s energy to accomplish, but it required absolute control and precision. He’d nearly lost his hold on the Axiom twice while operating on Hayden’s arm. The danger to the boy, the fear of what could have happened, and the intrusion by this girl into his life made Deckard feel every year of his centuries.
The questions whispered to him. Why now? Why not five years ago, or fifty? How much time did he have?
Pointless, empty wonderings. It was happening now. He had the time that he had and much more urgent questions to answer.
Someone wielded Atlantean sorcery to kill. The goal seemed to be to awaken the Worm, and they’d used Shard as the key to it all. But the energy gained, even from several human lives, would never be enough to breach the walls between worlds. The very essence of reality rebelled. It would take months, maybe years to harness that much. It would take…
The Last Archon Page 8