PARADOX

Jared lay unconscious on his back, his face turned toward me, his thick lashes forming half circles across his cheeks. He swayed with the motion of the truck, like a child sleeping, oblivious of the world around him. His breathing, deep and steady, helped me relax, even if just barely. Blood streaked over his jaw and mouth. I took a dirty T-shirt from the corner to wipe it off, but only managed to smear it. He looked darker. His skin wasn’t as light as it had been, like something had changed.

He was a paradox, I thought, a self-contradiction. He looked so young, so new to the world, but when he touched me, he seemed centuries old. I saw knowledge in his eyes of things no one could know. And my vision. Had it been real? Had that really happened? Maybe he was from another dimension, another time.

The glass between the camper and cab slid open. I looked up. Cameron was trying to keep an eye on the road and me at the same time.

“Climb up here,” he said.

Eyeing the minuscule opening, I gave him my best look of incredulity.

“If it wakes up,” he continued, “we’ll both be in a world of trouble.”

“I can’t fit through there.”

“Give me a break. You weigh, like, two pounds.”

I rolled onto my knees and glanced through the window at the road. We were headed down into Abo Canyon. “We have to get him to a hospital,” I said, panic threading through my words. “Where are we going?”

“Lorelei, please. If you’ll just get up here, I’ll explain what I can.”

“No. Where are we going first?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said with an irritated sigh. His hands, stained with the dark reds of human blood, tightened on the wheel.

“Cameron, just turn around. He could die.”

He frowned into the rearview mirror at me. “It’ll take a lot more than that to kill it.” He looked back at the road, his brows kneading in thought. “I may have to use a chain saw.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “That wasn’t funny.”

“Good thing I wasn’t kidding, then.” He checked his side-view mirror. “Damn it.”

“What?” I looked out the back glass as an eighteen-wheeler bore down on us, so close that all I could see was its chrome grille. The steep grade of the canyon made it difficult for trucks to maneuver through its twists and turns.

“Nothing like a rectal exam by an eighteen-wheeler.”

“Cameron, turn around,” I said, searching the area for a place to pull over. There just wasn’t one, and wouldn’t be for a few miles.

“Look, as soon as we get out of the canyon, I’ll explain, okay? I have to get you to a safe place.”

“Me?” I asked, stunned. “Why me? What’s this all about?”

I glanced over my shoulder. The eighteen-wheeler was struggling with its speed, but it did manage to back off a few feet.

“Would you just quit arguing and get up here?”

I looked down at Jared. Blood had pooled on the blanket beneath his chin. “He’s bleeding really bad.”

“Yeah, that was kind of the idea when I hit him with that board.”

Exasperated, I leaned in through the window to look at him point-blank. He concentrated on the road, but slanted his eyes toward me as I came into his peripheral vision.

He was an absolute mess. His blond hair hung in clumps caked with blood. Scratches and cuts and some rather impressive bruises covered his swollen face. His mouth bled from a deep gash in the corner, as did his right eye.

I had to reason with him. I needed answers, and Jared needed a hospital. “Cameron,” I said, my voice pleading, “why is this happening? Why are you and Jared so strong? Why are you trying to kill each other? And what does any of this have to do with me?”

He squeezed the steering wheel as though uncomfortable with my proximity. After wiping his face across a shoulder, he turned away to look down the side of the mountain. We were coming off the grade. The ground leveled and the truck backed off even more.

As I waited for a response, some kind of explanation, I heard Jared moan again. Before I could ease back into the bed, Cameron reached over with lightning-quick speed and grabbed my arm.

“Gotcha,” he said as he tried to drag me into the cab.

But Jared had grabbed me also. He had hold of my leg and clearly had no intention of letting go. As they played tug-of-war with my body, the thin metal strip along the ledge of the sliding glass window cut into my ribs. A searing pain slashed through me.

I screamed and used my free hand to try to push myself up off the ledge. “Cameron, let go!”

He hesitated, worked his jaw, then finally let go and scanned the area for a place to pull over. In the meantime, Jared jerked me through the small portal. I landed on top of him and gasped as he clutched a fistful of hair at the back of my head. He wrapped a steel-like arm around my waist to lock me to him then eyed me with something disturbingly similar to hatred.

“What did you do to me?” His voice was harsh, raspy. He looked scared, like a little boy lost and alone—and pissed as Hell because of it.

His arm was like a metal vise, making it almost impossible to breathe. I pushed against him, gasped for air. But the more I struggled, the tighter the vise’s crushing hold became.

I cried out in pain for a second time. Lack of oxygen sent the world spinning around me.

I heard Cameron call to me. “Lorelei, hold on!”

Jared wound his fist deeper into my hair and pulled me closer. “What did you do to me?”