Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
I yelled and tightened my grip on Lula and Abbi, Lorde pinned between us all, bracing for the hammer’s blow.
Time slowed. I wondered if Lula had thumbed the stem on the magic, time-stopping watch she wore.
But she couldn’t have. Even with her inhumanly fast reflexes, there wasn’t enough time for her to do anything more than reach for me.
The hammer struck the hood of the truck.
The truck and the whole dang world rang like a bell.
Sunlight blinded me.
Blue sky filled our windshield.
The storm was gone, as if it had never been there.
The truck was still, the engine dead.
We were in the middle of the road, not far from Eunice’s house. The hunter’s SUV several blocks ahead of us.
“What the hell was that?” I yelled.
Abbi squirmed against my grip. I leaned back into the seat, dropping my arm. But not before squeezing Lula’s once. She swallowed and nodded, acknowledging me.
She didn’t look away from the window, her eyes wide with adrenalin.
“Thor,” Abbi shoved at my arm again, and I moved it fully away from her. “He took the storm away. See? There’s no storm. He did this.” She waved her hands a little erratically at the world around us. “I told you. I told you he was good.”
“He hit us with a hammer,” I said. “Fuck. Just…” I mopped my shaking hand across my face, “…fuck.”
“He hammered the storm away, Brogan,” Abbi said, like I hadn’t heard her the first time. “Not us, the storm.”
“God storm,” Lula said. “That was not natural. If he didn’t call it up, who did?”
“I don’t want to find out,” I said. “Not while we’re sitting still.”
She swallowed. Her hand shook, but she started the truck. Silver’s engine (thankfully) kicked over on the first try and we rolled up next to the hunters.
“Well holy hickory hell, Gauges,” Pamela said when I rolled down my window. “How many gods hate you?”
“Too many. You still on for this? No hard feelings if you want to tap out now.”
“Don’t even think we’d leave you stranded. Family helps family. Stick tight and keep a weather eye. I’ll get us there.”
Elmer stuck his hand out the window and slapped the top of the car. “Let’s go.”
Pamela eased back onto the road and Lula’s hand found mine. “There are wipes in the glove compartment,” she said.
“For?”
“Your head. You’re bleeding.” I forgotten she’d said something about it after I’d been knocked on my ass. But now that she mentioned it, the headache growing behind my eyes made sense.
I fumbled with the glove compartment and pulled out the package of damp wipes. I dabbed one at my forehead, and Abbi shifted on her knees.
“Here. You’re missing it.” She took the wipe and scrubbed it firmly from my jaw to my temple.
I grunted at the pressure, but she didn’t let up. “Turn your head so I can see where the cut is.”
I did as she ordered. She poked at my hair, then hit a spot that sent stars across my vision and electricity down my spine.
I jerked and cupped my hand over the wound. “You don’t have to stick your finger through my head.”
“I need to clean it. Right Lula? I need to clean the cut.”
“Brogan, let her clean it.”
“For the love of…” I leaned back toward her and dropped my hand. “It’s just a scrape.”
Abbi was a little gentler when she parted my hair and dabbed at the wound, but it still smarted.
“Maybe stitches?” she said. “I…I don’t know doctor stuff. I can heal it though, but I need my mortar and pestle and Hado and magic. Can I do magic?”
“No,” Lula and I said at the same time.
“When we get to the hunter’s place,” Lula said. “You can use magic. Maybe. For now, a clean cloth or some napkins and put pressure on the wound.”
“I can do it,” I said.
“Me.” Abbi smacked my hands away from the glove compartment. “I want to help.”
The helplessness she felt was clear in her tone. She knew just how vulnerable we were out here where every god in existence seemed intent on tearing us off the face of the Earth.
I patted the edge of the seat, telling Lorde to hop down onto the floorboards. She jumped down and turned a circle, right in front of the glove compartment.
“Wait, no,” Abbi said. “Lorde, your big fuzzy everything is in the way!”
Lorde woofed at her and panted happily.
“Move, move,” Abbi said, trying not to laugh.
I patted the seat again and Lorde jumped up and draped herself across my lap. “Who’s a good girl?” I said, scratching behind her ears.
“Too much tail!” Abbi sputtered as Lorde wagged it right in her face. “Lorde!”
“You’re the good girl,” I said.
“Brogan! Now I can’t reach your cut.”
“Sure, you can.” I turned my head. “Stretch.”
Abbi made an exasperated sound but draped herself over Lorde and pressed the cloth on my head.
The cab of the truck wasn’t really made for more than two, and with a large fluffy dog, a large man (me), Lula, and Abbi all shoved into it, it was downright crowded.
Still, Abbi made it work, laughing as Lorde pretzeled back to lick her face. “You’re making it hard on purpose,” Abbi grumped.
“Just a little. I can hold it now. How about you give Lorde a pet. She’s worried.”
Abbi dropped back into her seat. She was still frowning, but some of the fear, some of the panic had eased out of her. I could tell by the softening of her hands, the looseness in her shoulders, the narrowed eyes which held no real anger.
“Lorde likes me more anyway, don’t you, Lordey?” she said.
Lorde, the traitor, barked happily, and scrabbled to turn in the small space so she could flop on her back, her head almost in Lula’s lap.
Abbi scrubbed her fuzzy belly and chest and cooed at her.
I glanced over at Lula, and her smile, even though it was tight, told me she knew what I was doing. Knew I was trying to keep Abbi, keep Lula, hell, keep myself calm.
With Abbi fully occupied petting and laughing at Lorde, I did what Pamela had asked and kept an eye skyward.
I didn’t expect every god, or even every threat to come from the sky. But on this long stretch of the Route spooling out before us, it was more sky than earth—sky for years.
Lula sent us hurtling through that sky, following the hunters. We had hours to drive, and daylight to burn.
I just hoped Hado, wrapped around the book, could keep the power and magic of the thing hidden long enough for us to get wherever we were getting without attracting another god.
The miles and hours rolled out, one after the other. The sky remained blue, the car ahead of us kept a steady pace, and by all appearance, it was a beautiful late-summer day.
After a bit, we pulled off for a roadside meal provided by the bags Eunice had sent with us, refueled, and made it to New Mexico in good time.
When the hunters slowed to turn onto a dirt road which was nothing more than two overgrown ruts, the sun had settled in the west, not behind the horizon yet, but heavy and liquid, burning gold.
We rattled down the track for over an hour. Even with the windows up, dust filled the cab, covering the dash, the windows, and us.
We had a quarter tank of gas and two five-gallon cans in the back. It would be enough to get us back to the road, but I didn’t know if it would be enough to get us to the closest gas station.
“How much farther?” I asked, even though neither Lula or Abbi would know.
“There!” Abbi pointed at some random spot in the distance. “We’re going there.”
Lula squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“I can…” Abbi said. “It’s…I can tell. I think it’s pretty old. Well, not old like me, but old.”
“What do you see?” Lu asked.
“They’re turning to it. See?”
All I saw were piles of rocks, which was all there was to see out here except for the occasional jack rabbit, lizard, or red-tailed hawk.
“No,” I said.
“Look better,” Abbi said, frustrated.
Lu slowed the truck, giving the dust Pamela’s car was kicking up extra time to settle. Pamela drove between piles of rocks.
That’s when I could actually see it.
The tunnel was so cleverly hidden with natural camouflage and magic that I would have driven—hell, I would have walked—right past it and not known it was there.
It was just wide and tall enough for a car. Pamela drove into it. After a moment, we did too.
Daylight cut off faster than I’d expected and I blinked, waiting for my eyes to adjust. The magic made it seem like there was only so far a person could wander into the place before the tunnel dead ended.
The darkness felt complete, unbroken for several minutes. Then it shimmered, and lights positioned alongside the road appeared. They were just bright enough, I could see the tunnel was not natural, but man made.
“Military?” I suggested.
Lula nodded. “Lots of old silos and other things out here.”
“It’s the other things I don’t like.” Abbi reached for my hand and held on tight.
Just a few weeks ago, we’d all descended into the caverns in Missouri to fight the Hush. We’d saved Hado, who had been stolen from Abbi and tortured.
But it was Abbi, well, Abbi and Hado on their own, with nothing but her mortar and pestle and moon powers that had sealed those caves.
The Hush would be trapped there, in the darkness for years to come.
I still had nightmares of those caves, those monsters, that fight. Abbi had faced more than me. I knew from the sounds she made in her sleep that she had nightmares too.
She blinked hard, tears pooled in her eyes, but she didn’t look away from the darkness around us.
“Elmer, Pamela, and Josie are good people,” I said. “They fought the Hush with us. They wanted to look after you, remember?”
“I know. It’s just…dark and cave-y in here.”
“Bah. What’s a little darkness? We have a moon rabbit who can shine almost as bright as the sun.”
Her scowl was fierce. “Brighter than the sun. I killed vampires. All of them.”
“Damn right you did.”
Brake lights bathed the space in red, and Lula slowed the truck. Then the SUV rolled to the right and we followed.
Darkness fell away like a magician’s cape.
We were in a brightly lit garage where three other cars were stored. More lights snapped on automatically as the SUV took one of the dozen open parking spaces.