Kelley Armstrong: The Calling

“His heart’s beating fine,” I said to the pilot. “Just have someone waiting at the pad.”

I refastened the mayor’s seat belt, then started moving back toward my seat. I don’t know exactly what happened next. My gaze was on Nicole, who looked terrified. I think the pilot grabbed for me. Or maybe he just reached out to get my attention.

Daniel yelled “No!”

That’s all he did. I’m sure of it. Daniel shouted and the pilot snapped forward. His head cracked against the instrument panel, and he crumpled in his seat.

“Wake him up!” Hayley shouted. “Someone wake him up!”

Daniel and I shook the pilot. The helicopter dropped a couple of feet and we stumbled. Corey ran over.

“Help me get him out!” he shouted to Daniel as he grabbed the front of the pilot’s jacket. “I can fly it.”

“Based on what?” Sam appeared at his side. “Video games?”

Corey scowled. “You got a better idea?”

“Yes.”

The boys pulled the pilot out of the way and dumped him in the narrow gap behind the front seats.

Sam slid into his spot, grabbed the throttle and the control stick, then planted her feet on both pedals. The helicopter stabilized and began to rise, but listed to one side.

“You have to get her level,” Corey said.

“No, really?”

He reached for the control stick. Sam swatted him aside.

“Do you know helicopters? Or just planes? Because they’re not the same.”

The helicopter leveled for a second, then started to spin.

“Sam doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Hayley said. “Stop her.”

“She’s keeping us in the air,” I said.

“Everyone else?” Daniel said. “Sit down and put on your belts. Now.”

Hayley and Nicole obeyed, but Corey hovered at the front, wedged between Sam and me.

I reached for the radio and put on the headset. It took some fiddling to get the radio going, but we had a shortwave at the park, so I had some idea how to operate it.

“SOS!” I said. “Helicopter out of Salmon Creek. Pilot unconscious. Repeat, helicopter pilot unconscious.”

I stopped transmitting and listened. Static.

“SOS!” I said. “Emergency situation. Helicopter over Vancouver Island. Pilot unconscious. Repeat, pilot unconscious !”

The helicopter dropped again.

Corey bent to look at the control panel. “You need to—”

“I’m working on it!” Sam snarled.

“Here, let me—”

I didn’t see what Corey did, but the helicopter pitched to the side, hard and sharp. Corey fell onto the mayor. Kenjii barked, claws scraping the floor as she slid onto the unconscious pilot.

Sam swore, her hands shaking as she reached for a lever. “Everyone sit down. Just sit down!”

The helicopter lurched again and Sam’s hand hit something. A crack and a rush of air. Nicole shrieked. This time, Hayley joined her.

“The door!” Corey said. “Holy hell. The door’s open!”

“Everyone hang on!” Daniel yelled. “Maya, grab Kenjii!”

I lunged for the dog’s collar and, just then, I heard a gasp. Everyone was yelling and wind rushed through the half-open door and I shouldn’t have heard anything. But I heard that gasp.

“Rafe!” I screamed.

As I turned, I saw a blur of motion. Rafe, his eyes opening as he sailed across the floor of the helicopter. Out the open door.

IDIDN’T THINK. I shoved Kenjii into the safe nook between the front seats and scrambled toward the door as the helicopter jolted again, righting itself.

Daniel lunged for me and missed. Wind rushed in through the open door. I could barely breathe, barely see. Then I saw Rafe’s hands gripping the bottom frame.

Rafe’s hands slipping from the bottom of the door.

I dropped and grabbed his wrists just as he lost his grip. As he fell, I shot forward. I kicked wildly, trying to hook something with my legs. Then someone caught my foot and I stopped with a jolt.

I didn’t need to look back to see who had me. The same person who’d had my back since we were five. Daniel.

“Corey, get over here!” he shouted.

The helicopter lurched, and I slid again, Daniel still holding my ankle. My hands were locked around Rafe’s wrists, his around mine. Then Corey caught my other foot, and the helicopter leveled off.

I could hear them shouting inside. Their words came in fits and starts, sucked away by the wind roaring past my ears. And in those first few seconds of confusion, I didn’t really even understand what had happened. I could hear the wind. Feel the wind. Taste it even. But it took a moment for me to crack my eyes open and realize I was hanging outside the helicopter.

Hanging outside the helicopter.

The earth bobbed and whirled below us, trees and rock and water spinning into a blur.

“Don’t look down!” I thought it was Daniel, but then realized Rafe was staring up at me.

“I’ve got you!” I shouted.

He smiled, this weirdly calm smile. “I know.”

“Just hold on!”

“I am.”

“We’ll get you down.”

“It’s okay, Maya.”

His voice was as strangely calm as his smile. My heart was thudding so hard I could barely breathe, and he just kept smiling up at me, his gaze locked on mine. Calm washed through me, slowing my heart, as if I was feeling what he did, an oddly disconnected peacefulness.

“It’s okay,” Rafe said again. “They’ve got you.”

The helicopter spun, whipping us around. Pain shot through me as Rafe’s weight almost wrenched my shoulders out of their sockets, and my hold on his wrists broke. Corey lost his grip on my leg. I heard him shout and Daniel shout and the girls join in, and I kicked, trying to get my leg back up where someone could grab it.

The helicopter tilted again. I started to slide, Daniel sliding with me. And I knew we were going to fall. Rafe, me, Daniel, we were all going to fall.

“Hold on!” I shouted to Rafe.

“It’s okay,” he said, and I wasn’t even sure he spoke aloud, didn’t see his lips moving. “It’s okay.”

He let go.

I clawed the air, screaming.

I didn’t even see him drop. The helicopter banked and I caught only a blur of treetops spinning past and when I looked around, there was no Rafe. No sign of him at all.

Corey and Daniel dragged me back into the helicopter. Someone got the door closed. I don’t know who. I was crying and shaking so hard I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t think.

As I huddled on the floor, I felt Daniel behind me, his arms around me. Kenjii pushed onto my lap, and I buried my face in her fur, gripping handfuls and sobbing against her.

It took a moment before anything else penetrated, but when it did, I heard Sam and Corey arguing, Nicole crying, and I felt the helicopter jerk and shudder, and I remembered where I was and what was happening. I couldn’t break down now. No matter what had happened, I couldn’t break down now.

I pushed my dog away, patting her head, and staggered to my feet. Daniel rose with me, his hand still on my arm.

“Maya.”

“I’m…” I’m what? Fine? Good? Okay? No. I’m not. I’m absolutely not . I took a deep breath. “We need to land.”

My voice shook. My whole body shook. I could hardly breathe, it hurt so much. But I squeezed up to the front of the helicopter. Sam glanced over. She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

“He might be okay,” Nicole said. “He might—”

“He’s not,” I said. “We all know he’s not.”

I couldn’t even hope Rafe had survived because that would mean I’d have to think about it—about him and what just happened and if I did, I’d curl up in a ball on the floor again.