We tumbled away from the Pocket Space. Jessica's tiny cry of grief was the last thing I heard before the odd bubble world and cloaked figures vanished completely.
We had all made our choices.
34
Lyra
Light snowflakes struck my face as we burst out into a wooded area, the night sky overhead clouded by a gentle snowstorm. My stomach sloshed with nausea from the portal usage. I stumbled halfway into a tree, stopping myself just before my nose hit the frozen bark. My breath fanned out in front of me. From what I could see, it looked like we’d landed back in the Sierra mountains. I hoped we weren't too far from the town of Greenspring, but it was hard to tell in the night.
I focused on the creature in front of us. It had a slight head start, but something about the teleportation process had slowed it down. Its injury may have something to do with it. I wished we could just let it go, but it was the key to our plan, and that awful scarred woman had stabbed it. If there were any more people in the Pocket Space, we could only get to them if we could use the Ghost. We needed to capture it and bring it back to the Bureau for medical attention. The creature had started out as our enemy, but it had become our greatest hope of rescuing the humans trapped in the Pocket Space. Even Jessica.
That woman infuriates me beyond belief. Those people are going to come back to haunt us, I'm sure.
I strained to listen as I pulled myself back into the rough trail of newly mowed-down shrubs. Loud thrashing sounds echoed through the forest down the path. My team lay scattered around me. Bryce huffed as he fell against a tree, and Kane was unconscious, from the looks of it.
"Sike, help Bryce," I said, and glanced at Kane. Roxy was holding him up.
Dan was cradling his face in his hands, his knees shaking. He was shivering terribly without a coat. "Chandry, take Dan."
"On it," she chirped. She draped her long-sleeved outer shirt over his shoulders, leaving her still comfortable in the short-sleeved blouse she had on beneath, since vampires naturally ran warm. Dorian and Cam flanked our sides in case anything more than the Ghost was out in the forest tonight. I waved the others on, seeing that everyone was relatively safe and sound after our landing. The monster was crashing its way through the forest, leaving behind a sour trail of blood. Arlonne and I fought our way through the underbrush in pursuit, Cam helping us cut through the path with a small machete he still had from our camping equipment.
If we lost the Ghost, we might not have another shot at the Pocket Space. It wasn’t like we would find another creature like it; it seemed to be unique.
Roxy still had the device that Joseph had designed on her person. I doubted we would need to incapacitate the Ghost, but it was nice to have. Cam had strapped Sike's scanner to his chest, and it was bleeping wildly, telling us to continue forward.
"I can tell which way to go, thanks to the branches," Arlonne snarled at the little machine as we rushed forward. The scanner was annoying.
"If it portals, we've got to know," I reminded her. Breathing was a lot harder after an intense battle, and the regular heavier gravity of the Leftovers had returned in full force.
Colin hissed as the scanner showed the Ghost slowing down. It was growing weaker with every passing second. Blood smeared the crushed bushes in front of me, and a weak groan greeted me from the other side. A small sliver of a clearing showed above the bush. The monster had collapsed into the dirt, from the sounds of it. We pushed our way through the leaves. Blood got onto my hands, but I ignored the sticky sensation.
First, we glimpsed the creature in all its terrifying glory. Its scaly white skin was marred by black blood. It stared at us, red eyes halfway open. The scales suddenly disappeared as it turned invisible, and we stilled. Roxy whispered that its hot breath was still visible. Indeed, the cloud of steam floated into the air in a strangely peaceful way.
It might escape while we couldn't see it. I hated to do this, since the creature was already weak, but…
"Roxy, we have to use the device," I told her, ignoring the dubious look from Colin. "We need it visible."
Roxy sucked in a breath. "Okay." Stepping forward to fire at the creature, she held the device out and struck its skin. She immediately yanked it away as the creature came back into sight. We could capture it now.
"Hey," Cam blurted. His squirrel friend, Finn, darted down his leg and hopped up to the creature. Finn sniffed the beast and looked back to us with wide eyes, as if to ask us what was happening.
The creature let out a terrible, soft moan. Its pale body shook. It was nearly luminescent as it finally collapsed before a large pine tree and curled beneath the lowest branches, breathing shallowly and quickly. Colin moved beside me, daring to go a bit closer to the monster.
The Ghost stopped moving. Colin leaned down next to it and then glanced back at us over his shoulder with sad eyes. He shook his head. The beast’s breath could no longer be seen in the air. I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. The Ghost was dead. We hadn't meant to kill it, but that scarred woman had put the beast on death's doorstep. My hopes fell like a ton of bricks. Colin released a sad sigh, upset to see the creature go.
The creature's body morphed into white light and then
