pretty crazy, hey?”
I slid into the passenger seat as Xavier started the familiar purring engine and pulled out onto the highway. His body seemed to relax behind the wheel of the car, flowing more easily. He looked so beautiful with the worry wiped from his face. I could stare at him for hours — his strong arms, the outline of his sculpted chest, his hair falling across his eyes, strands glowing golden in the predawn light. His brilliant turquoise eyes were half closed as he let the Chevy leach the tension from his body. His foot nudged the accelerator and the car responded with an obedient growl. Xavier never drove fast with me in the car; he was too conscious of my safety. But in this moment he was completely free and I knew he needed this time to himself in order to regroup. The car glided around a bend in the road, shadowed by the cedar trees that lined the highway. Up ahead the left side of the road fell away, with nothing but jagged cliffs below. Picking up speed on the open road, Xavier rolled down his window and flicked the radio on. The station was playing the biggest hits of the eighties and the chords of “Livin’ on a Prayer” rang out into the air. The song about a couple whose struggle to survive hard times was especially relevant to us.
Xavier’s mood seemed to lift a little as he mouthed the words and tapped the steering wheel in time with the beat. But outside, an unnatural wind was blowing up, scattering leaves across the highway and down the cliffs on the opposite side. I knew something was wrong — the presence of evil had followed us. I had to warn Xavier to go back. It wasn’t safe for him out here alone. He needed to be close to Ivy and Gabriel so they could protect him. But how could I let him know that?
When the song ended an idea suddenly hit me. I focused my energy and used it to interfere with the radio frequency. The sound broke up until it was just an irritating hum. Xavier frowned and fiddled with the dials, trying to tune the channel. I concentrated on gathering my strength and called out his name. Then out of the blue it was my voice he heard crackling through the speakers.
The shock of hearing my voice almost caused Xavier to swerve the car off the road. He recovered in time and slammed on the brakes. The Chevy screamed to a halt in the middle of the deserted road.
“Beth? Is that you? Where are you? Can you hear me?”
“Okay,” Xavier said. “I do. Just keep talking.”
Xavier shifted the car into gear and made a U-turn. I breathed a little easier as I sat curled in the passenger seat with my knees up. Once he was back at the motel he would pass my message on to Ivy and Gabriel and they’d know what to do. As Xavier drove my attention was drawn to the discarded gum wrappers and an empty soda can on the car floor. It was so unlike him — he was usually obsessive about car maintenance. I remembered once how the new GPS he’d installed in the Chevy had left a ring on the windshield. It bothered him so much that he dragged us to the auto shop to find a plastic holder to stick on the dashboard. The memory made me smile.
“Beth, you still here?” Tapping into the radio waves had left me drained, but I summoned whatever remnants of energy I had left to create friction in my fingertips, which I ran lightly over his cheek, a feather-soft caress. I saw the hairs on his arms stand on end.
“Do that again.” Xavier smiled.
We weren’t far now from the Easy Stay Inn. The landscape was becoming more familiar and we had almost left the sharp cliffs behind. I had just given myself permission to breathe easy when something unexpected happened. The Chevy lurched and then accelerated straight past the turnoff, leaving the low rectangular facade of the motel behind.
“What the hell?” Xavier looked around. “Beth, what’s going on?”
The car seemed to take on a crazed purpose of its own. Xavier’s foot slammed repeatedly on the brakes, but they refused to respond. The steering wheel was locked. I slid over to the driver’s side to help him but my attempts to will the car to stop were in vain. Suddenly, I glanced up and saw in the rearview mirror two eyes like glowing embers staring from the backseat.
“Don’t do this, Jake!” I pleaded. The car was now veering crazily from one side of the road to the other. Xavier’s efforts to steer it back on course were futile. The car continued to crash forward, branches lashing out across the windshield, stones crunching under the wheels.
My heart stopped when I saw what we were heading for. Jake was maneuvering the car away from the woodland and toward the rocky escarpment. A couple of times the Chevy teetered so close to the edge I was sure it would tumble right over and smash against the cliffs. Dust rose in clouds impairing Xavier’s vision, but there wasn’t much he could do other than press his back against the seat and wrestle ineffectually with the wheel.
I turned and saw Jake sitting calmly in the back. He was smoking a French cigarette and blowing smoke rings out the window.
He was playing a game with us.
30
Guardian Angels
“STOP!” I begged Jake. “
The accelerator hit the floor and the car lurched drunkenly as if it were being steered by a blind man. The cliffs fell sharply away to the right and there was nothing but a fine metal railing separating the road from the devastating drop. I needed to manifest — even if only to tell Xavier what was happening, to see if there was some way I could get him safely out of the car. But fear crippled my concentration. It’d require every scrap of energy I had left to appear to him and even then I wasn’t sure I could do it.
Suddenly I caught sight of his hands gripping the steering wheel. I saw my promise ring and the trademark leather wristband he always wore. I knew the feel of both by heart. Those hands had held mine so many times; they had comforted me, fought for me, protected me, and anchored me to the world of the living. I remembered the moment I first saw Xavier sitting on the pier. He’d looked up at me, the light of the setting sun picking up the golden strands in his honey brown hair. I remembered thinking his eyes held so much depth. I’d wondered then who he was and what he was like, not expecting I’d ever see him again. The memories flooded back to me. The two of us sharing chocolate cake in a booth at Sweethearts — he’d looked at me as though I were a puzzle he was determined to solve. I remembered the way his voice deepened when he was roused from sleep, the way his lips felt against the back of my neck. I remembered his smell, his fresh clean scent like the woods on a summer day. I remembered the way the crucifix around his neck glinted when the moonlight caught it. I knew everything about him and every little detail was sacred to me. I realized then that our subliminal connection could transcend any physical barrier.
Without any warning I manifested right there in the passenger seat. Xavier nearly yelled out in shock, and his ocean eyes widened while Jake pushed his face between the two front seats.
“Hello, darling,” he said darkly. “Thought I’d find you here. Bit of car trouble I see.”
“Beth,” Xavier whispered. “What’s happening?”
I realized suddenly that he couldn’t see Jake. He had no idea what was going on.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Beth, I can’t do this much longer.” His voice almost broke. “Where are you? I don’t know what to believe anymore and I need to get you back.”
“Oh, boo hoo!” Jake whined from the backseat. “She’s mine now, tough break.”
“Shut up!” I snapped and Xavier looked surprised. “Not you,” I clarified quickly. “Jake’s here with us.”
“What?” Xavier swung around, but to him the backseat looked empty.
