Бри Деспейн - The Dark Divine

I'd never felt so free.

I almost forgot where I was until Daniel leaned into me. "Almost there," he said. He let go of my hand and slid his fingers up my arm. In one fluid movement, he gripped me tight underneath my arms, and lifted me up off the ground and onto his back. "Hold on!"

I latched my arms around Daniel's neck and wrapped my legs around his almost-nonexistent boy-hips. James giggled and tugged on my hair. I'm sure I did look funny.

Daniel picked up a sudden burst of speed. We shot forward, and I opened my eyes just in time to realize that he was running headlong into the ravine wall. He jumped onto a fallen tree and leaped.

Daniel grabbed at a root, but he barely touched it. He kicked off the wall and flew another six feet up the slope. His feet touched down on a rock outcropping. He jumped again. I slipped on his hips. My fingers dug into his throat. James clung to my arms. Daniel grabbed a tree branch that sagged over the top of the cliff--with only one hand. And then we were up and over the top. Safe.

Daniel jogged a few more paces into the trees and then leaned forward, panting. I slipped off his back, and the three of us went tumbling onto the dirt-packed ground. I lay next to Daniel for a moment, my body shaking with shock and a whole lot of awe. "That ... was ... was ..."

I'd spent two weeks once watching parkour videos online because my art camp roomie, Adlen, had been totally in love with a French free-style runner. But compared to those films, the things Daniel had done today--

while carrying two people, no less--weren't humanly possible.

Daniel looked at me, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight.

James clapped and squealed, "More!"

Daniel drew in a deep breath. "But we're home, little guy." He pulled James out of the sling and pointed through the woods to where my neighborhood's lights called like a beacon in the distance.

James pouted with disappointment, and I felt the same way.

Daniel rolled over onto his stomach, still breathing hard. I fingered the tear in his T-shirt and realized that even though the rip was matted with blood, there wasn't a cut in his skin. Only a long, jagged scar where a bleeding wound should have been. I brushed my fingertip down the warm, pink mark. Daniel started to flinch away, but then he sighed, as if my touch was soothing to his skin.

"How ... ? I mean ... What are you?" I asked. Daniel laughed--a real laugh. Not a snort or sarcastic snicker. He stood up and offered me his hand. "I think it's best if we walked from here," he said, and pulled me to my feet. He picked up James and motioned for us to keep going toward my house.

I frowned. Did he really expect me to just walk away?

"Tell me, please. That was so not normal. How did you do all that?"

"Let's get your brother home first. We'll talk when this is all over. I promise."

"Don't promises always get broken?"

Daniel reached out and brushed my cheek.

James coughed. His breath fogged out of his lips. I was so hot from running so fast, I'd completely forgotten that it was cold. I felt a chill creeping up my sweaty arms, and knew James must be even colder. But I also knew once we passed through the fence into my yard, the magic--the connection--I'd felt while running with Daniel would be gone. And my chance for getting answers might never come.

What if Daniel decided to disappear again?

But I knew James had to come first, so I swallowed my questions and followed Daniel through the woods until we came to the fence behind my house. I climbed through the gap.

BACK IN THE YARD

Blue and red lights flickered from the street, illuminating the patched roof of the house. Beeping and shouting and a lot of movement filled the shadows cast by the light. It seemed like half of Rose Crest, including the sheriff and deputy, had converged on the neighborhood.

"Looks like they organized a search party anyway," I said.

Daniel stiffened as he came through the fence. "I should go. Take James. Tell them you found him yourself."

"No way." I grabbed his hand. "You're the hero here. I'm not taking credit," I dragged Daniel toward the front yard. "Mom, Dad!" I shouted. "We're here. We've got

James."

"James!" Mom pounded down the porch steps.

"How did you ... ? Where did you ... ? My baby." She tried to take James from Daniel.

James squealed and locked his little arms around Daniel's neck. Daniel went pink. But that might have just been the glow from the flashing police lights.

"Daniel saved him, Mom." I touched Daniel's elbow. "I think Baby James is a bit attached to his hero."

"Okay, little guy. Let me breathe." Daniel pulled James from his throat. "I bet you're hungry. You want some turkey and a piece of pie?"

James nodded.

Daniel passed James to my mom. She hugged him so tight he whined, and she kissed him all over his face.

"James?" Dad came up the driveway.

The sheriff followed.

Daniel moved slightly behind me.

The deputy tried to bar our neighbors from entering the yard, but he let Dad and the sheriff pass.

Dad grabbed James and swung him around. He looked at Daniel. "Well done," he said, and wrapped his arm around Daniel's shoulder. "Well done, my son."

"I don't mean to bust up this little reunion," the sheriff said, "but I'll need to get your statement." He looked at Daniel.

"There's not much to state." Daniel shrugged. "I found him wandering in the woods, and I brought him home. He must have knocked over his playpen and decided to go on a little adventure,"

I stared at him. That's it? I guess I didn't expect him to tell the truth--he followed the baby's scent through the forest, caught James midair when he fell off a thirty-foot cliff, and then used his very own superhuman powers to get us out of the ravine--but he sounded so nonchalant. No drama at all.

"That's not all that happened!" I practically shouted. Daniel shot me a wide-eyed look, like he was afraid that I'd tell everyone his secrets--which I totally wouldn't. My mind latched on to the first plausible, but furthest from the real scenario, lie I could think of. "He stopped James from falling in the creek!"

Mom cried and pulled James out of Dad's arms.

I was glad it was too dark for anyone to see the "lie marks" spreading up my cheeks. "Daniel's a hero. He saved James's life." I wanted people to know that truth, even if

Daniel didn't want them to hear the real story.

"And the baby was alone? Uninjured?" The sheriff raised his eyebrows and motioned to the bloody tear in Daniel's makeshift shirt-sling. Daniel and I nodded.

"So how do you explain the blood on the porch?" Daniel's face went blank.

"That's not his job to explain," said Dad. "It could have been anything--probably one of the neighborhood cats. Don't you have a forensics lab to tell you for sure;

The sheriff snorted. "The Rose Crest Sheriff's Department is a trailer behind the Gas 'n' Go. I'll have Deputy Marsh take a sample and send it to a lab in the city. It'll take a while before we hear anything." He looked at me. "And there's nothing more you'd like to add? Nothing else you can remember?"

"Daniel saved my brother's life," I said. "That's all there is to it."

A car whipped into the driveway, scattering a gaggle of spectators onto the lawn.

"Mom. Dad." Jude jumped out of the minivan and pushed through the crowd. Not even the deputy could stop him. "I've brought the cavalry! I've got half the volunteers from the shelter coming to help us--" He stopped. The look of triumph on his face shifted into stony nothingness. I followed his hardened glare from James in my mother's arms to the sight of Dad holding Daniel in a fatherly embrace.

"James is safe," Mom said.

"Thanks to Daniel." Dad squeezed Daniel's shoulder. "James would have been lost without him."