Beautiful Souls (29 page)

    
              The killer, camouflaged in the body of Leo’s mom, neared the front row of trees to the woods.

     “
Ha!” I heard Leo yell to Sebastian, the galloping hooves quickening behind me.

    
              “Let’s go!” I kicked my heal into Cleo’s side one last time, knowing I couldn’t handle the speed, but I couldn’t tolerate the image that flashed across my mind of the evil person --- Wizard --- fulfilling their attempted escape.

    
              Leo was nearly side by side with me now as the killer approached the first few trees at the entrance of the woods.

    
              “Faster!” Leo urged me.

   
              “She’s gonna get away, Leo! We can’t catch up to her in time before she runs into the woods! What should we do?”

    
              “I’m not losing her, not this time,” he said, gritting his teeth.    

    
              “Should we get off and run after her? Follow her? We could fly. I don’t think anyone would see, not if we’re in the woods.” I racked my brain for ideas.

    
              “Hang back a minute,” Leo stopped me, putting his arm out to have me bring Cleo to a halt. “Let’s see which direction she’s headed. Any visions, Bec?”

    
              “No…none.” I still couldn’t figure out why my visions came and went at random. Not one of my Wizard family members had been able to pinpoint my visions’ origins or their triggers.

    
              “She’s going to the river, I think. Get over to the road and we’ll ride down to the gravel pits. We’ll bypass the woods and cut her off where the woods and river meet up,” Leo explained, angling Sabastion’s lead toward the road.

    
              I pulled on Cleo’s lead, guiding her toward the road as well. Leo and I picked up the same break-neck speed again, more desperate and determined now than ever. The frantic clip-clop of hooves against packed gravel resonated in my ears, and the heavy breathing escaping from both horses continued to keep me aware of the intensity of our racing pace.

    
              The sun had risen higher in the cloudless, blue-gray sky. It’s pinkish rays blinded my eyes between shadows, but I barely noticed. I only had the killer’s lingering image in my sights; the killer masquerading as Leo’s mom. How insanely difficult it must be for Leo to chase down his mother’s murderer wearing the very same face that cared for him throughout all his life.

    
              We approached the gravel pits just minutes later, and slowed our pace to accommodate the thin dirt path that led the way to the river. Leo and I covered the distance as rapidly and quietly as possible, jumping a fallen tree trunk lying in the path, but I couldn’t hold on. I slipped from the slick arch of Cleo’s back to her side, barely holding my grip on the lead. The horse continued to clatter on, following Sabastian and Leo while I fought to regain my upright position.

    
              The river was a mere hundred yards before us now, and I could see the shining tips of tiny rapids glistening through the brush that lined our dirt path.

    
              Leo reached the river first, tied his horse around a tree camped permanently at the water’s edge, then helped me down from my horse and tied her up as well.

    
              “I’m pretty sure she took the path that ends just over there. Let’s walk downstream, then we can hide in the brush 'til we hear her coming and we’ll ambush her.” Leo’s eyes filled with a glinting revenge.

    
              I simply nodded then followed silently until Leo picked out our stake-out sight. He chose an area where we could hide behind a few leafy trees, shrubs, vegetation, and a large boulder that would hide our bodies.

    
              This would be Leo’s show from here on out. It was his mom who died, her killer we were stalking, and his needs and decisions would determine this sadistic Wizard’s future. I was merely a willing pawn in the scheme. I’d do anything and everything within my power to execute Leo’s plot for revenge. His mother’s killer would inevitably pay for their wicked ways. They would pay for what they did to Leo, his mom, and me.

    
              I hunched over and hunkered down on a piece of washed up river wood, making myself a place next to Leo. He was leaning against the back of the boulder focused on the woods ahead, and more specifically the path exiting the trees.

    
              Leo turned to me with a softened look in his eyes. “Thank you for being here with me.”

    
              Before I could respond, he lunged toward me, taking me by surprise. Leo’s lips hit mine, hard and passionately, as he tangled his hands in my hair almost violently. I groped his solid, sweaty back with my frantic and trembling hands. The kiss lasted for what seemed like minutes. What were we doing? Full-on make-out

session while we stalked his mom’s killer? Really? But I couldn’t help myself. It had been so long since Leo and I had spent any real time together, and many months worth of attraction and need had built up to this moment. Certainly ramped-up, teenage hormones had been responsible for more insane interludes than this one.

                   “Ow,” I mumbled when he bit my lip.

    
              “Sorry. Kinda four months of pent up attraction, anger, and frustration coming out all at once,” he grinned.

    
              “That’s okay,” I giggled, wiping my lips.

    
              He smiled, then gently kissed me once more. “I missed you.” Leo smiled his crooked smile I loved so much.

    
             
God, I’d do anything when he flashed that smile.

    
              “I missed you, too.”

    
              A faint crackling noise sounded straight ahead, and we crouched lower into our hiding place as light footsteps inched cautiously out of the woods, exactly where Leo predicted they would. We turned instinctively toward the noises, and there she was.

    
              “You still know how to shield?” Leo whispered, shutting one eye with a wink.

    
              “Definitely,” I answered, winking back flirtatiously.

    
And with that, Leo was off.

                                
 
Chapter 13.

Friend  or  Foe

friend

/frend/

Noun

A person whom one knows and with whom one

had a bond of mutual affection, typically

exclusive of sexual or family relations.

                  Leo took a flying leap over the boulder. The Wizard turned to run back into the woods, but Leo was already closing in. The killer with his mother’s face fled, grappling for tree trunks, roots, rocks, anything to grasp hold of. But Leo was faster. He had caught her in only a matter of seconds.

    
              I focused all my energy and power on Leo. I felt the familiar shivers and tingles wash over me, reassuring me that my shield was active and in place. The killer held out her palm as Leo dragged her by the ankles, pulling her out of the forest brush. He dragged her fighting, kicking body across the rocky dirt toward the river’s edge. She was screaming horrible, bloody incoherent words I assumed were some type of curse.

    
              Her palm rose and glowed, forming a white ball of flame from the heal of her muddy hand. She aimed and threw. The electric fireball would have hit Leo squarely in the chest; instead, it ricocheted off of my shield that surrounded Leo, exploding with a contrast of shooting sparks as it hit the killer’s right arm.

    
              “Ah!” the killer let out an agonizing screech of pain.

    
              The cloud of dark smoke, from the explosion of the white-hot fireball, began to clear. The killer was left with ragged and frayed holes in the right sleeve of her shirt and blisters on the skin beneath, oozing with sticky blackening blood.

    
              “What did you do to me?” the killer shouted, as she writhed in pain and clutched her injured, bleeding arm.

    
              I remained hidden in my original hiding place, behind the brush and giant boulder, holding my shield fixed around Leo’s fighting body.

    
              “Leo, it’s me!” the killer pleaded desperately. “I’m back, I’m your mother. It’s really me. Please!”

    
              “Shut up!” Leo hissed through gritted teeth.

    
              “Please, Leo! Remember when you fell down the stairs when you were only four years old and I stayed in your room with you, keeping you company that entire day while you rested in bed with your favorite blue blanket? I read you books and we watched Spongebob about twenty times. Remember? Do you remember that, baby?”

    
              “I said shut up!” Leo pulled harder.

    
              “And remember when you were eight and your little league team won the city tournament? The whole team went to the Dairy Bar afterward and you ate two super-sized banana splits. Please tell me you remember, baby? You believe it’s really me, right?”

    
              “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Leo bellowed from the bottom of his gut, but I could see she had gotten to him. He stopped his tug on her legs and seemed to pause slightly considering those memories, then squinted his eyes to shake them off.

    
              The killer plotted this moment perfectly. She counted on Leo’s pause, a momentary hesitation to make her escape. She pulled free from his grip in the blink of an eye. She scrambled her body up into a hunched, standing position, her fingers of her left hand fumbling and searching the waistband of her pants. The killer produced an eight-inch blade from the back of her jeans, and it reflected a blind spot in my vision as the sun’s glare bounced off the shining metal of the knife blade into my watchful, concentrated stare. I must have dropped the shield for no more than a second when the glare interrupted my concentration and sight line.

    
              The killer whipped the knife around her side and threw it as if it were a hatchet. I picked up my gaze once again, just in time to see the final circular spin of the sharp, metallic shine of the knife pierce Leo’s skin. The tip of the blade slid along Leo’s ribcage then repelled backward a few feet, coming to a rest on the ground by the killer’s feet.                   I reinforced the shield in time for nothing more that an inch of metal to pierce Leo’s too vulnerable skin. The blood-red seepage had begun to soak through an area of his dirt-smudged, white t-shirt, and he clutched at his side to investigate the extent of the wound. The cut appeared bad and bloody, but was only slightly more that superficial.

    
              I stood from my hidden position, used what energy remained from holding such a strong shield for this amount of time, then willed a ball of white fire and light to form in the palm of my hand. I aimed for the killer’s head. She caught sight of the flame and reached for the blade still lying on the rocky ground at her feet.

    
              “Becca, no!” Leo yelled.

    
              My fireball sailed over the killer’s bent frame and connected with a tree in the distance, sending off dark smoke and sparks.

    
              “Becca, get back!”

    
              I ignored Leo’s warnings and sent another ball of fire flying, just as the killer winged the metallic blade my direction. I dove to the ground, the knife missing me by mere inches, then glanced onward in anticipation just as my white-hot, electric fireball made contact with the killer’s thigh.

    
              I didn’t think, merely reacted. I had only seconds while the killer was thrown off balance and distracted by her fresh injury.

    
              I scrambled and clawed my way over the boulder, not as athletically agile as Leo had done just moments ago, but relatively quickly and easily all the same. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I needed to get to the killer while she was in this foggy state. I wanted her caught, dead even.

    
              Something caught my eye, poking out from the rocky and soggy ground, and I snatched it as I ran for my target. Muddy earth filled my fingernails from hastily digging the stick out from under washed up river sludge and packed gravel. I fisted the solid piece of wood, held it police-officer-flashlight-style, and expelled every last ounce of energy I held into a full-out run.

    
              Anger boiled inside my pumping organs. The killer shot up as she became aware of my fast approach, and with only a second left to react she sent off one more deadly fireball. It sideswiped my upper arm, and I felt the searing pain of burning flesh on my left shoulder, but I barely slowed. I was too close now, so ready to inflict my revenge that I could taste it. Without hesitation I reared back and flung all my weight and strength through my right arm, yielding my weapon of choice.