Meridian. Part 30

"That's fair. You're a top negotiator." He shrugged like we were trading baseball cards.

I closed my eyes and visualized my bedroom at home. Tens leaned against the window frame and faced me. "I don't like this."

"We don't have a choice. I tried to kill him. I can't."

"I'm not leaving you to him."

"You have to. It's either h.e.l.l or both of us working for him, and one is more than enough.

Tens, I'll figure it out, but if you're dying, you need to go to Auntie. Your family will be waiting."

"I love you. I'm supposed to protect you."

"You have. I can do this because of you. I have to save my parents and Sammy."

Tens nodded sadly, moving to kiss me, I didn't feel his lips against mine, because blinding light filled the cave.

"You can't behave, can you, old man?" A rich voice echoed off the walls, its accent one I found familiar.

I leaned over Tens and peered up at a huge man dressed in combat boots, old army surplus fatigues, and a long black leather trench. Aviators covered his eyes.

"h.e.l.l's bells."' Perimo paled and eyed the gun just out of his reach. His eyes darkened to black pits, and the light in the room spilled toward the pitch-black of his outline.

The warrior laughed. "You no think a gun touch me, do you?"

I blinked. "Josiah?" 'Ello, missy. Sorry I be late."' He peeled off his sungla.s.ses and the light that streamed from his eyes almost blinded me. "Put these on. Cover the Proc's eyes too.

Your family be fine. I'll see them next, 'kay?"

I slid the mirrored gla.s.ses onto my face, nodded, and laid my arm across Tens's eyes.

173ani "Ha-ha, just seeing if you're paying attention. Guess you are." Perimo tried to scurry away.

*"You be goin" nowhere."'

Perimo turned to face Josiah, drawing up to his full height. "I'll extinguish your light, Sangre. There are more of us. An army trained in the modern world. I'm only following orders. You don't know whom you're messing with."

"No, you don'. You been messing wit souls for too long. Free will is sacred, Nocti, and you break that rule too many times."

"My friends will carry on with or without me. I've started a revolution. You don't know whom I work for -"

"Enough. What chase darkness, Meridian?"

"Uh, light?" I answered.

"That be right. Light it up!" Josiah raised his arms and I lowered my head as rays of pure white light poured out of him.

I heard Perimo scream and I lifted my head to catch a glimpse.

He sucked up light, agonizing as if it burned. But slowly the blackness lightened, degree by degree, until his outline began changing. Inch by inch, he was erased.

I stayed crouched over Tens long after the screaming ended and the light flickered back down to normal.

I raised my head at the gentle touch on my head and dog kisses on my face.

"Luz, luz. Okay?" Senora Portalso held my face and peered into it.

"Josiah?" I glanced around, but the only thing he'd left were his sungla.s.ses.

"No Josiah," the senora answered quizzically.

"Hi, Meridian, let me have a look here." I recognized the senora's daughter. "I'm a doctor.

Remember?"

I gave her s.p.a.ce to examine Tens. "I think he was poisoned. I think he's dead -"

"Has he been in the woods a lot? Making trips up here?"

"I guess, yes." I watched the senora empty one of the bags she carried, while her daughter took Tens's temperature.

"Any muscle pain or aches? Headache? Has he had this rash long?"

"He mentioned his back hurt, and he definitely has a rash. He rubbed his temples a lot and light hurt his eyes."

174ani "Do you know if he's been bitten by a tick?"

*"A tick?"

"That's a no."

"Would I know that?" What the h.e.l.l did a tick look like?

"Not necessarily, but it's highly likely we're dealing with Rocky Mountain spotted fever."

That didn't even sound like a real disease. "Is he going to di -"

"No." Senora Portalso turned to me and shook her head violently. "No fiebre."

"He should be fine with antibiotics." I watched the senora spread supplies on a clean towel.

The doctor deftly inserted a needle into Tens's arm, and handed her mother an IV bag to hold up. The senora turned to me and shooed me toward the other bags she had brought.

'Comida. Eat." She pointed, "I think I'd do what she says." The doctor drew blood from Tens's other arm.

I dove into the food, not realizing how famished and drained I was. All the adrenaline left me wasted. Saffron rice, tortillas, and hard-boiled eggs. Chicken in three different sauces and strips of steak. I chewed and swallowed as fast as I could, barely able to take my eyes from Tens's furrowed brow.

"Meridian, Tens will be just fine. We'll stay with you tonight to make sure. The surrounding land is crawling with FBI agents and search teams scouting for you."

"Oh my G.o.d. I'm so sorry. You should leave -"

"Stop. This is nothing. Someday maybe I'll tell you about all the patients who come knocking on the back door in the middle of the night."

"Oh." I didn't know what to say to that. Illegal immigrants, maybe? "How did you find us?"

The senora answered in a rapid avalanche of Spanish that I couldn't follow.

Her daughter laughed. "Mama had a dream of you. Said the angels told her to drive to the rocks this way. To bring my supplies. So we got in the car and started driving here from home."

"Because of a dream?" I gasped.

"Mama will tell you dreams are the conduit between worlds and spirits. They're how G.o.d communicates with us."

"But how -"

"We reached the turnoff. We'd driven around all night, but we couldn't find you. We were ready to head home and try again after I'd fed the babies, when your wolf lay down in the 175a middle of the road. She wouldn't move, and when I got out to see if she was okay, she spit ni out my business card. We followed her up here."

*I grinned at Custos and watched the senora feed her half a chicken. Tens blinked his eyes and groaned. He drank half a gla.s.s of water.

"Are you sure he's going to be okay?"

"Yeah, his temp is normal, his heart rate steady. Even the rash seems to be disappearing."'

"The medicine is working, then, isn't it?"

"It doesn't actually work this fast in most cases. I don't understand."

"Los angeles de Dios." The senora patted my head and touched her heart.

"Angels of G.o.d? Maybe. Best explanation I can come up with."'

I wondered if Josiah's light healed as well.

Tens woke up briefly in the night and drank water until I thought he'd explode, then fell back into a deeper sleep. I tossed and turned, finally giving up when the watch turned to four and our guests followed Custos back to their car. Tens was out of the proverbial woods, but we were now fugitives.

I drew out the thick journal. I kept reading the words of my ancestors, memorizing details and repeating dates and times. If I ever lost this book I, too, would be lost. I threw myself into the stories, listening for the unspoken, soaking up the wisdom shared.

"Meridian?" Tens's voice was scratchy and dry.

"Right here." I scuttled over. "How are you feeling?"

"Thirsty. Better." He tried to sit up and fell back with a groan.

"The doctor said to give you a few days of recovery, and by then the search for us should be called off. I was left with strict instructions to call on the satellite phone Perimo left behind anytime, if there was any change."

The phone number my brother had answered at was no longer in service.

"What happened?"

"I'll fill you in later. We have time."

176ani *

Chapter 35.

We live next to you and with you. We are your friends and your neighbors. You may know us by our surnames: Porte, Tussen, Mittlere, Medio, Portello, Castor, Gannon, Lukus, Myer, Orly, Ailey, Wynn, among others. Our first names you might recognize from history or they might belong to a friend: Alison, Ca.s.sandra, Cynthia, Deirdre, Eleanor, Helena, Leann, Noamy, Lucy, Nellie, Ranessa, Leah, and more.

We are s.h.i.+ning just beyond your sight. We will be there when you need us and you will rise.

-Meridian Fulbright, b. 1903-d. 2009 I wrote Auntie's death date below one of her first entries in the journal. It didn't seem right to add my handwriting to that of the dozen or so other authors. I didn't feel as if I'd earned the privilege yet, not really. But perhaps I'd get used to it in time. I wanted to add my own story. My modern version of these lessons. In case. Just in case. Hopefully I'd learn more and know more.

"Snazzy pen." Tens's voice smiled with his teasing.

I was writing with a rhinestone-encrusted pen that made me giggle every time I picked it up.

"My birthday present from Sammy. Josiah left it in my pack when he made his appearance."

I'd found it hours later. I'd saved the newspaper comics it had been wrapped in and the handwritten tag -the only pieces of Sammy I could carry with me.

Tens caught me scrutinizing him and smiled. "See something you like?" He felt good enough to flirt again. I missed the gentle teasing. The heat in his eyes. The kisses I dreamed about.

"Hmm." I grinned back, ready to open my mouth and ask for a kiss.

"So?" he asked. "Look at me." He turned me until we were flush against each other.

I kept my eyes closed, feeling like a coward, but hating to see in his the possibility of what might be.

"Look at me," he commanded again.

I raised my lashes and lost my hold on the fear long enough to fall just a little bit further in love with him.

"We are even. I nursed you. You nursed me. I protected you. You protected me. As of right now, right this minute, we are even."'

"Oh." I didn't understand.

"No obligations. No commands from Auntie insisting I'm your Protector. If you want me, 177a you have to tell me that you want me."

ni *"Of course I want you." I threw my arms around his neck and felt a shudder rip through him. "I love you."

He buried his face in my hair. "Then we do this right. Side by side. We have each other's backs."

"No secrets?"