Falling Light (Game of Shadows #2)(10)

It was hard to leave healing him unfinished, but she did. She concentrated on cradling him close for a few more stolen moments. This might be all the reaction time she got after their recent brush with destruction, so she would have to make the most of it. She rubbed her face against his soft, short, dark hair until the woman approached with her arms full of Gatorade and bottled water.

“There was a snack shop, so I was able to buy plenty,” the woman said.

“You are an angel,” Mary told her. The woman handed cold bottles to her through the window. There were eight twenty-ounce bottles, three of them water. Pleased they had so much of the sports drink, Mary set the bottles on the passenger floor.

“Here’s your change.”

Mary shook her head even as she opened a bottle of Gatorade. Distracted, she said, “Please keep it.”

“I can’t keep your money, sugar.” The woman held her hand insistently through the window.

Mary looked up, her attention caught by the woman’s genuine distress. She glanced around their shabby, cluttered car, then back at the woman, noticing the woman’s expensive clothes and carefully tended appearance. She gave the woman a crooked smile and held out her hand for the money. “Thank you for everything.”

The woman lingered. “My husband thinks your best bet for finding an urgent-care clinic is to go back to Cadillac. You remember passing through? It’s just fifteen minutes south on the highway.”

“Yes,” Mary lied. “I was thinking of Cadillac too.”

The woman glanced at Michael. “Well, my name is Charlotte. My husband, Jim, and I will be over by the picnic tables for another half an hour if you need any more help.”

“I’m grateful for what you did,” Mary said. “There isn’t anything more we need. I’m just going to get some Gatorade down him before we leave. Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome. God bless.”

Mary’s eyes flooded with sudden dampness. She blinked them back as she watched Charlotte and her husband walk away. She had been so braced in survival mode, so busy dealing with one horror after another, that the simple kindness of a passing stranger almost broke her composure. Then she thought of Michael suffering without complaint, rejecting her overture until the car had stopped, and she wanted to yell or hit something.

“Okay, Michael,” she said gently. His heavy unconsciousness had eased into sleep. Even though she hated to disturb him she gave his shoulder a brisk shake. “Wake up. I’m not going to start driving until you get some of this Gatorade down. If you want me to drive, you’ve got to wake up and drink this.”

She felt his awareness surface before he stirred. “How long have we been stationary?” His voice was slurred.

“Only for about ten minutes.” Helpless to resist, she gave in to impulse and pressed a kiss to the hairline at his temple.

He lay sideways against her. He passed his free arm around her waist and pulled her against him, the muscles of his bicep rigid as he held her tight. “You were supposed to keep going.”

Irritation flared. “How was I supposed to do that with you passed out in the driver’s seat? It’s not like I can move you by myself. I know we need to keep on the move. You and Astra don’t need to keep reminding me.”

He let go of her and pushed himself upright. He scanned the scene. He still looked desperately weary, but his gaze was alert. “You talked to Astra?”

“I took a short nap after I healed myself,” she told him, her tone truculent. She handed him the Gatorade and he drank it in thirsty gulps. Then she opened a bottle for herself. It was a black cherry flavor and tasted little better than the sugared water she had forced down at the cabin. She drank it anyway. “She came into a dream I was having. We talked.”

The strong muscles in his neck moved as he tilted back his head and finished the bottle. “What did she say?”

She hesitated as she thought of the frail, elderly body Astra had shown her. Whenever Michael talked of Astra, he seemed to think that uniting with her would be an asset, but Mary wasn’t so sure.

Still, she was unwilling to disappoint him as much as she had been disappointed, so she spoke with caution. “Only that we needed to get to her as soon as we could.”

He glanced at her. “Why would she bother sending you a dream just to tell you the obvious?”

“I—don’t know.” She blinked, startled, for she hadn’t thought to question that. “She dropped out so quickly from the battle. Maybe she was worried and wanted to check on us.”

“Maybe.” His voice was noncommittal. Mister Enigmatic was back. “Are you ready to drive now?”

She remembered that she was supposed to be annoyed. Her truculence returned. “Yes.”

“Good.”

He waited until she got out, then as she moved around the front of the car to the driver’s side, he eased over the bench seat to the passenger side. She slid behind the wheel, adjusted the seat and mirrors for her shorter height, started the engine and pulled out. As she drove past the picnic tables she waved at Charlotte and her husband, who waved back. Michael’s eyebrows rose at the exchange but she didn’t volunteer an explanation and he didn’t ask.

Mary had set his sunglasses on the dashboard earlier. She reached for them and slipped them on. They were too big for her and slid to the end of her nose, but they were better than nothing. The car leaped forward as she accelerated onto Highway 131. Taken aback at the engine’s smooth surge of power, she eased off the gas pedal.