The Undead Pool

“We have only five miles of road,” he said, pushing me forward as Etude looked over the edge at us and extended a clawed foot for me to sort of . . . step into. Past it, the ground raced, grass and rocks a blur. My mind was telling me his foot was safer than a harness, but I’d seen what happened when the huge gargoyle let go of the van.

“Come on, Rache!” Jenks prodded, pulling the hair behind my ear. “Scott did it.”

Scott has a second life to look forward to, I thought, and the mystics in me buzzed about it, wondering how that made a difference. It doesn’t, I told them, scared as I glanced through the front window to be sure there was no turn coming, and then . . . stepped into Etude’s grip.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” I shouted up at Etude’s craggy face, and Bis, his son, went spinning by, enjoying the wind.

The older gargoyle smiled. His thick grip on my waist shifted, the thick pads pressing almost painfully as he gave me a jiggle until my back rested against his leg. “Easy as cake!” he shouted, and with that being my single warning, he spread his wings. The wind snapped them open, and I gasped, my hands clenching the thick claw encircling me as we were yanked into almost a standstill.

“Ow . . .” I breathed. My lower chest hurt, but we weren’t as far back as I had feared. Etude tucked me under him, his huge wings beating as he closed the gap. Ahead in the moonlight, the track ran straight into oblivion, but the bike path veered away. Ivy. Trent, I thought. There wasn’t enough time.

“I’ll get you as close as I can. Scott will catch you,” Etude said, surprising me when he lowered his great head to break the wind. “Ready?”

Oh God . . . I thought, then nodded. Letting go of his gnarled foot was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Just a few feet below me, the train rocked side to side. Scott reached up to touch my feet, then my knees, and finally my waist just under Etude’s claw.

“What happens when you let go?” I shouted.

“Let go?” Etude called.

“Wait!” But it was too late, and Scott’s grip on me tightened as Etude’s fell away. Our balance was off. I clutched at the vampire, my chest hitting his face as he went down on a knee.

“Got you,” he said, voice muffled as the wind whipped over us and the train rocked.

I hadn’t known you could be scared and embarrassed at the same time, and as the roof of the car hit my knees, I forced myself to let go of his shirt. “Sorry.”

“Not at all,” he said, grinning.

I was just in time to see Trent ripped away from the van, his exclamation muffled by wind and the sudden distance. Pulling the hair from my eyes, I looked ahead at the ribbon of gray road. Ivy stood at the door, her expression clear in the dim light, David and Edden beside her. There wasn’t enough time left for her to make it, much less the two men. Etude might not be able to catch up once the van veered off. Ivy knew it as well as I.

“Catch me!” she shouted through her cupped hands, then ducked inside.

“Is she nuts?” Jenks shrilled in my ear, and Scott became three shades lighter.

The van accelerated, and Ivy reappeared at the door, looking back at us. “Ivy, no!” I yelled. “Etude can do it!”

But she was climbing onto the roof as David and Edden protested, the wind ripping her topknot to a long streamer of black. My heart pounded. Trent hadn’t caught up yet, and I wedged my foot under a handhold, slowly standing up against the wind. Scott blocked a tiny slice of the wind, and I looked past him. The bike path was going to turn. She wasn’t going to make it.

Lips set, Ivy inched to the front of the van, turned, and ran for the back.

“Hold on, Jenks!” I screamed, watching, then blinked as a layer of mystics seem to peel off my awareness, swirling thickly within the space of my aura as Ivy propelled herself right off the end of the van, feet still going as she leaped into space.

“Ivy!” I shouted, leaning into the wind, grasping. She was going to make it. She was going to make it! She had to.

“Got you!” Scott exclaimed as she fell into us. We dropped in a sliding tangle. My ankle twinged, and I gasped as my foothold caught and pain stabbed through it. The force of the wind vanished, but still it roared. My hands burned with wild magic. Don’t let go. Don’t let go! Eyes shut, I clenched her arm. We slowly slipped, and then . . . settled. Ivy was safe.