In a few minutes I was refreshed and re-clothed and walking down the stairs to the entrance hall. Eric waited for me by the door with a bemused look still in his eyes. “Ready for another fun night?”
I snorted as he opened the door for me. “Why not?”
A fresh cool evening breeze danced over us as we made our way to the car. Jenkins emerged from one of the dark shadows behind a tree and intercepted us. “Sir?”
Eric stopped us and turned to his old charge. One look at the elderly man was enough to wipe the humor off his face. “What is it?”
Jenkins jerked a thumb over his shoulder and pointed at the gate. “Something’s been prowling about the gates since it started getting dark. I haven’t been able to get a good look at it, but the shifty thing isn’t friendly.”
Eric nodded. “Thanks for the warning. We’ll take care to mind the road until we reach the city and mind the barrier should anyone try to slip onto the grounds.”
Jenkins inclined his head a little and slipped back into the growing shadows. I caught Eric’s eye as we resumed our walk to the car. “Does Gandra know where you live?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Eric confirmed as he took the driver’s seat while I took co-pilot. “And he suspects that all the roots lead in this direction, but I hope he hasn’t confirmed it.”
“You mean he found one of the bushes?” I guessed as Jenkins reappeared for a moment long enough to open the gates and close them behind us.
He stared ahead and pursed his lips. “Exactly.”
I leaned back in my seat and sighed. “And now we have that bunny running around dooming who knows how many people and leading the roots on a wild hare chase.”
The corners of his lips twitched upward. “I couldn’t have said it better-”
I stabbed a finger at the road ahead of us. “Look out!”
We had reached one of the gentle corners along the driveway where the view of the highway would be visible. That’s when a dark figure leapt out of the shadows and landed in the middle of the road. I prepared for a hard braking, but Eric stomped on the gas. My ancient vehicle picked up some speed and careened toward the figure.
“What the hell are you doing?” I screamed as I whipped my head to Eric’s tense face.
The figure leapt over us a second before the car struck it, and I watched a snake tail fly out of view over the top of the vehicle. There was a crunch of metal as they landed on the roof, and the ceiling became slightly depressed where their feet slammed into place.
Now Eric slammed on the brakes and my seatbelt cut into my chest as I was flung forward. The air was knocked out of me and one of my flailing hands hit the dashboard, but I was in better shape than our ‘passenger.’ The thing on the roof was sent flying onto the road and landed in a heap in the headlights as dusk slipped into night.
The creature rose up, and my heart skipped a beat when I recognized the deadly face of a serpent skinwalker. The creature flexed his claws and hissed at us with his forked tongue. His tail beat against the ground and a faint bit of dust rose up which floated behind him like dirty fog.
Its hiss was followed by others, and I whipped around to see two other snaky figures loom out of the darkness behind the vehicle. The red brake lights illuminated their scaly flesh and sharp talons. The pair of serpents leapt onto the back of the car and climbed onto the roof. Their exuberant bouncing caused the ancient latch on the trunk to spring open, blocking my view of everything behind the car.
Eric grabbed my uninjured hand and gave it a yank to catch my attention. I whipped my terrified eyes to him, and his steady ones looked back at me. “Stay in here.”
“But-”
He didn’t wait for my arguing but flung the door open and leapt out of the car. His cloak fluttered out behind him and blocked the whole door for a moment. One of our slithering foes leapt off the roof and I glimpsed them through the rear driver’s side window. They tried to grab Eric, but he swiped his clawed hand and the creature let out a roar as blood splattered against the window.
The other skinwalker moved about on the roof. I rolled down my window and leaned my head out, so I looked up at the sky. The whipping tail of the serpent dangled only a foot above me. I wiggled my arms out and clapped my hands together. The powerful appendage thrashed in my hold as the serpent turned its horrible eyes on me. Its tongue flicked out a moment before it yanked the tail up, flinging me partly out of the car.
I slumped over the door and crashed to the ground. The serpent spun around and leapt down at me. I flung up my arms and my cloak billowed out around me. The floppy cloth wrapped around me, and the ends whacked my foe in the face. The skinwalker growled and jerked back out of reach of the cloth.
I sat up and at the same time grasped some of the loose dust from the road. The serpent opened its mouth to snarl at me and I threw the loose clod into its face. It let loose a scream and stumbled back into the side of the car, its clawed hands clawing at its face.
Eric had managed to cut deep gashes into his foes, and they leapt out of the way of his fast swipes. One of them swung a fist at his face while the other dodged around him and over to their blind companion. He grabbed the other’s hand and tugged him into the woods.
Eric dodged the blow from his final foe, who stumbled past him and fell on all fours on the ground. The serpent quickly leapt over the top of the car and slammed the trunk shut as Eric gave chase. They both slid down the rear, but the serpent scuttled into the forest, leaving Eric and me alone again.
I whipped my head to where the serpents had vanished. “That was… fast.”
Eric joined me at my side and frowned at the final serpent to flee. “Suspiciously so.”
I looked up at the battered and slightly bruised Eric. “Why do those skinwalkers want to help Gandra end the world, anyway?”
He brushed himself off, and as he did so the damage to his skin healed itself. “To them, Gandra is their god. They think they’ll be at the head of the line when a new world is reborn.”
A soft, chilly breeze wafted over us. I wrapped my arms around myself, and my cloak seemed to do the same. “So should we go back to our regularly scheduled program or go back to your house?”
“The schedule, otherwise, our ‘client’ will have words with us,” he reminded me.
I stuck out my tongue as we both slipped back into the car. “For someone who’s as old as time, he doesn’t have much patience.”
Eric flashed me a mischievous smile. “I doubt he’ll admit it, but he probably has a soft spot for the rabbit.”
I snorted. “I’d love to hear the nickname of death’s bunny. ‘Mr. Fluffers’ has a nice ring to it. Or maybe ‘Mort.’” That last suggestion received a barking laugh from Eric as we bumped down the last quarter mile of driveway and onto the paved road. I grinned at him. “You should make that noise more often. It suits you.”
His humor softened into a retrospective expression as he stared at the road illuminated by the headlights. “It’s been quite a while since I had reason to laugh.”
His words brought to mind the short conversation I’d had with Vanar in the bedroom. I tilted my head to one side and studied him. “Jasper said you had more friends than you put on. Was he lying?”
A bittersweet smile slipped onto his lips. “Exaggerating, maybe, but most everyone I meet eventually dies. That fact makes it a little difficult to want to get close to someone.”
“But you’re close to Jenkins, and Jasper isn’t going to die soon,” I pointed out as I stabbed a finger at myself. “And I’m not going anywhere. And then there’s Morpheus and Nyx. You’re, um, acquaintances with them, and they’ll be around a lot longer than us.”
His face seemed to grow heavy with care. “I hope so…”
I clapped a hand on his shoulder which nearly drove us on the shoulder. “Chin up! We’ll get this chore done for old Scythe Breath and we’ll get back to hunting for those roots.” He frowned and opened his mouth, but I reached over and pressed a finger against his lips. “And no argument. Okay?”
A faint smile appeared on his face, and he pressed a light kiss on my finger. “Let’s see about this job.”