The Other Side Page 12

  Jens smirked as Foss emerged from the house with his hand on the small of Liv’s back. “I think you may have lost your shadow, Loos.” He wrapped a thick comforter around his shivering sister and handed Jamie a flowery blanket.

  “Fine by me. Just be on time, is all I ask.” I noticed Foss’s pupils were dilated. When he passed by me, his cold hand squeezed mine. “No way. I’m not traveling with Foss if he’s been possessed by one of them. Next thing I know, he’s yanking on the wheel and pushing us off a cliff.”

  Jens nodded up to Elsa, who was in the driver’s seat. “Fair point. Trust is pretty thin as it is. Foss, heft it into the second van.”

  The caravan was two vans long. One was full of us, plus Leif and Elsa, and the other was packed with Huldras.

  Foss grumbled, but obeyed, following Liv to the second van.

  Jens sat in the backseat and stretched, enjoying the luxury of the extra space. “That leg of yours looks like it needs to be elevated, Mox. Come back here and prop it up on the seat.” He patted the spot next to him with a sly grin.

  I hobbled back and kissed him. “You must be feeling pretty good about yourself, getting rid of Foss and securing us this make-out bench.”

  “You know? I am. You were right, I needed a full night of sleep. It’s been a while.” His arm went around me as he wrapped us in the third comforter, and we felt like us. The good us, not the bickering version.

  I kissed him, snuggling into his side as we enjoyed the intimacy of sharing a blanket on a freezing winter day. “Say it again. Tell me who was right.”

  “You were, college girl.” His lips stroked mine, and I nearly forgot we were not in a private room together. “This car ride could never be long enough, now that we’re arranged like this.”

  “Too bad there’s no partition,” I whispered, cozying myself in his arms.

  Jens wiggled his fingers with purpose, as if gearing up to pull a rabbit out of his hat. “What would you do if you were invisible?” he rasped low in my ear.

  The genius of Jens’s invisibility kept us occupied for a good hour under the blanket before Jamie got irritated. “You know I can’t always shut you out of my mind, right?”

  We smartened up when we reentered reality and looked around to find we were driving straight into a snow storm. The drifts were already piled up several feet on the sides of the freeway. The white fluff was whipping at the windshield, creating a narrow field of vision that made everyone nervous. Elsa was clenching the steering wheel like she wanted to choke it, and Leif was biting his lower lip.

  Jens and I put our seatbelts on when a huge gust shook the van, veering the vehicle off the road slightly. Elsa managed to get us back on track, but the crash behind us choked a cry from my throat. I turned around and saw between the white blurs the second van smashed against the steel wall of the freeway, the entire front end crumpled like cheap foil. “They crashed! Stop the car!” I yelled to Elsa.

  She pulled over too slow for my liking. My heart pounded as I ripped the seatbelt off me and made for the door.

  Jens placed his hand on my shoulder. “I got it. You’re barely upright. You guys stay in here. I’ll get them out. Just make as much room as you can for them, alright? Their car ain’t going nowhere.”

  Jens hopped out of the van in his snow boots and proper winter attire with Leif and Elsa. I could tell Jamie wanted to help, but the cold and his many injuries kept him in his seat. “Lucy, come sit up here with us. Let’s try to give them the back.”

  How we were going to fit six Undrans in the back, I’ll never know. I obeyed, aiming for the floor, but Britta scooted onto Jamie’s lap to make room for me and Jens.

  One by one, banged, dazed and frozen Huldras and their mates made their way to our car. I was in charge of letting them in, while Britta and Jamie tried not to freeze. They huddled together and shivered as a single unit. It would have been sweet, could I not feel his pain at the chill through the bond.

  Inga was a darker-skinned Huldra I wasn’t too familiar with, but when she came to the car on Leif’s arm, my heart went out to her. She had a cut on her arm from a shattered window and was crying as I helped her inside. “I’ll take a look at it once we’re all settled,” I promised. “Liv, could you find the green bag in the trunk? It’s got my first aid kit in it.”

  Liv had none of her previous swagger and obeyed immediately, producing said bag a few minutes later. “It was Pesta’s Mouthpiece,” she choked out through her tears. “Had to be. The car was gunning straight for us.”

  “Well, then we should get out of here right quick.” I fished through my bag and called out commands, grateful no one argued with me in their stunned state. “Liv, make room in the trunk for me and Jens. Pile up the bags on one side so we don’t sit on them. There’s just no room for Foss in here.” I pulled out my small first aid kit and hoped there was enough antiseptic in there to help everyone who needed it. “Inga, take your coat off and give me your arm.” I looked to her husband, whose lap she was sitting on and nodded. “I forget your name.”

  “Reg,” he reminded me in his deep timbre.

  “Right. Hold her arm so it doesn’t move around.”

  He nodded. Inga had help getting her coat off, but her thermal shirt was touching the wound. “Reg, it’s real deep!”

  I held up my hands as she whimpered. “I got it. Close your eyes and think of England.”

  “What?” she asked, then she howled as I ripped the shirt off the caking blood. The gash was far bigger than I anticipated, but I tried to keep my voice light to avoid her freaking out. There was still a shard of the window embedded in her dermis. Her human husband (who kinda looked like an older version of Usher) covered her eyes with his palm and held her still as I wedged it out, singing “Come On, Get Happy” by the Partridge Family to cover over my nerves. The blood was coagulating in spots, but not enough for me to feel comfortable sewing her up just yet. I tried not to barf when she shivered and a whole mess of red and pus oozed out near her elbow.

  Reg cooed soothing words to her while the freaking out around us ensued. I finally managed to clean, sew and bandage her wound, and her husband made quick work of warming her up.

  “Is anyone else hurt?”

  A couple complained of whiplash, a few had bumped their heads, and all were sore, but no one seemed terribly beyond repair. Thank goodness we had only been crawling along at a few miles per hour. The cold descended upon us, so Elsa started up the van when she hopped back into the driver’s seat.

  Foss, Leif and Jens were still not back, and I began to worry. “Elsa, what’s taking the guys?”

  I looked up toward the front and realized Elsa had tears streaming down her face. She shook her head, and my heart dropped into my stomach.

  “Everyone, pile up and make room.” I turned and spoke low to Elsa. “Is Foss very hurt? What does he need?”

  Elsa wiped an icy tear away and sniffled her response. “His head was bleeding pretty badly. He was unconscious when I came back here. I think it was his head that broke the window.”

  I was sweating and freezing all at once, my adrenaline kicking into high gear. “Change of plans. Liv, grab as many bags as you can and shove them under seats. I mean it. I need the trunk as cleared out as we can get it.” I gripped the handle and slid the door open, introducing ice and buckets of snow to the car. “Bundle up, kids. I’ll be back.”

  22

  Staying Alive

  Leif and Jens were trying to extract Foss from the van to no avail. He was large, which was one problem, but every time they tried to move his head, it started bleeding. Then they would release him to reposition, and the blood would freeze to the door. It was a vicious cycle, and both were too crazed on adrenaline to really see the problem.

  I climbed into the second van and placed my hand on Leif’s shoulder. “Get the bags,” I said, motioning to the trunk. “I got him.”

  Leif nodded, knowing he had reached the pinnacle of his usefulness, and was starting to freeze over
.

  “Lucy, get back in the other van!” Jens barked. “You don’t need to see this.” He tried to edge Foss’s head off the wall, but as soon as the blood flowed, it froze him more to the steel of the car through the broken window.

  I ignored Jens and climbed as gracefully as I could to Foss’s head. I used my hot breath to add a little warmth to the frozen area, ready with my coat sleeve to catch any blood that oozed out as I pried his cranium off the steel. Inch by inch, it worked.

  Jens let out a cry of relief when Foss’s head detached from the iced-over car. “Careful, now,” I warned, holding my glove up to him. “Watch his neck.”

  Jens dragged Foss gently while I positioned his head for optimum damage control. Leif finished with the bags and offered his assistance in getting Foss into the trunk, where I climbed in atop him.

  Leif shut the two of us inside while he and Jens boarded the van. Elsa had no use for her rearview mirror as she drove at the pace of a snail. Everyone and everything was stacked to the brim.

  They passed me my kit, but I was at a loss. The skin on the left top part of his scalp was partly missing and partly crystallized from the icy weather. There was no making sense of his head wound at my level of inexpertise. “Hospital!” I commanded. “And crank up that heat, girl. I can’t get him warm.”

  Jamie’s blanket was passed back while Jens Googled different head wounds and how to treat them. Shockingly, none that matched Foss’s came up. He was unconscious, and I was in full-on panic mode. I straddled his torso, moving the bags so they were up against the trunk door for added insulation from the cold. “I need another blanket!” I sobbed when his skin was still ice on my wrist. I ripped off my gloves and felt for his pulse.

  There was nothing.

  My fingers were nearly numb, so I used the back of my hand instead after wrapping the second blanket around him, making sure not to move his spine.

  Nothing.

  “I need someone with warm fingers!” I cried, tears streaming down my face as I began CPR.

  Not Foss. Not Foss. Not Foss.

  “What’s going on, Loos? How is he?” Jens asked, breathless from his rescue mission.

  Gala offered her hand that at least had sensation still in it to feel for Foss’s pulse. She shook her head. “I can’t feel anything.”

  “No pulse!” I beat the rhythm of Staying Alive into Foss’s sternum, crying and begging him to wake up. “Please, Foss! Open your eyes, you stubborn jerk! The one thing I ask of you! Please!” I screamed, and then I paused my rant to breathe into his mouth as I pinched his nose.

  My fingers were ice, but they worked feverishly. “I told you I didn’t want you here! I said you wouldn’t survive in my world, but I didn’t mean this! Grow a heart, you ass!” I pumped into his chest, but still felt nothing.

  For six minutes, I worked on him, sobbing when Jens coaxed me with tears in his voice to let him go.

  “No!” I screamed. “I can fix this! I can fix him. Just get us to the hospital!” I begged, pumping and puffing in my steady rhythm.

  “We’re not too far, Lucy,” Elsa called back. I could tell that she was crying, too.

  I gave up trying to feel for Foss’s pulse. Gala tried again and again, but found nothing. “Your hands are still too cold,” I reasoned. “It’s there. I know it’s there!” My tears splashed down onto Foss’s chest. “I would feel it if he was dead.”

  Not Foss. Not Foss. Not Foss.

  Jens, Jamie and Britta were silent out of respect for what they assumed was Foss’s passing. The others did their best to look away and give me my moment of insanity as I tried desperately to birth a heart inside a man who never had one to begin with. It was my constant battle with him, and I was not ready to lose just yet.

  I pumped and breathed and pumped and breathed until Elsa pulled into the emergency entrance of the hospital. Jens trotted out in a manner too slow to be urgent, but I kept my pace. My arms weary, but determined.

  When Jens opened the trunk, bags fell out, but I held my rhythm. “Keep doing CPR!” I commanded the medics, stumbling out after them. I hobbled behind the gurney as we flew inside.

  One of the nurses held up her hand to me as Foss was taken to a partition with paddles. “Family only,” she insisted.

  Without hesitation, I pushed past her and shouted, “He’s my husband!” My heart pounded and my ribs felt like they might burst. I watched in horror when Foss’s enormous chest jumped off the gurney when the paddles jolted electricity through him.

  In the movies, I recall there being three or four zaps before the heart started beating again. I think Foss knew that my nerves could only take one burst.

  His heart beat on the monitors, and I exhaled, light-headed from all the CPR.

  My adrenaline ebbed as a cry of relief burst out of me, and I passed right the smack out in the middle of the emergency room.

  23

  Jamie’s Sleeping Bag

  If you ever decide to pass out, I recommend doing it in a hospital. That is, unless you’re supposed to be dead and flying under the radar.

  I awoke several hours later in the van, which was chugging along at a labored pace, due to the incessant weather beating down on us. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in the empty trunk of the van, snuggled up next to Jamie, who was on his back staring up at the roof of the car in the blue sub-zero sleeping bag we shared. My mouth was dry and tasted funny, like I’d alternated sucking on pieces of metal and cotton. I sat up, but my whole body was cross with me over the tiniest movement. My hand was on Jamie’s chest; I’d been cuddling him during my nap. It felt weird and a little dirty.

  “Britt?” I called.

  Britta turned around. “She’s awake! Pull over.”

  “I’m not stopping for nothing,” Jens answered. “Hey, babe. How are you feeling?”

  I sat up, casting Jamie an apologetic look for cozying up to him. He sat up next to me and rubbed my back. “How long was she out?” he asked Britta.

  “Six hours. That was some powerful venom, if I do say so myself.” Britta grinned deviously.

  Jamie smiled, cracking his neck to the side. “I’ve never been poisoned by you before. I don’t think I’ll try it again anytime soon.”

  “Huh?” I turned to him, our faces just inches from each other since we were tucked into the same sleeping bag. “Britta poisoned you?” Then it dawned on me. “She poisoned me?” When Britta looked unrepentant, my mouth hung open in utter flabbergast. “Why? Why would you do something like that?”

  Jamie patted my back in a half-hug. “We had to. You never would’ve agreed to leave Foss in the hospital.”

  My nose crinkled in disgust. “Leave Foss?” I slipped out of the sleeping bag and looked around the van that had far fewer bodies and bags in it than when I saw it last. “How could you do that? You left him? I… but he… he has no idea what he’s doing here! He’ll get himself arrested for sure. Turn around, Jens. Turn around!” I shouted up to the driver.

  Jens didn’t even flinch. “Sorry, Mox. We’ve got a lot of road to cover, and Pesta’s gunning for you. I shouldn’t have even let you set foot in that hospital. She’ll be checking that place out for sure after running us off the road like she did. I mean, like her Mouthpiece did.”

  “Tonya,” I spat. “You can say her name.”

  Jens took on a more adult tone. “She’s not Tonya anymore, Loos. I don’t know how long she’s been Pesta’s Mouthpiece, but Pesta feeds on her puppet’s memories and keeps the body functional so her soul can wear the skin and be the person convincingly. When Pesta’s done, her soul leaves the body, and they’re always dead.”

  I put my hands over my ears and shouted, “I’m not trying to hear that! She’s my best friend. Don’t talk about her like she’s not even alive!”

  “She’s not alive,” Jens responded.

  Stupidly.

  It bears mentioning that Jens responded stupidly, and therefore deserved what he got.

  I lunged toward him, ready to hurd
le myself over the seat, but Jamie dragged me back down to the sleeping bag. “Have some sense, Jens,” he chided his best friend. “It’s alright, Lucy. Best not to think about that right now. We’re safe, and there’s been no sign of the Mouthpiece since the accident.” He rubbed my back as I scowled at his kindness like a child. “Foss is still at the hospital. Most of the Huldras that wanted to accompany us jumped ship after the crash. They didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into.” He motioned up toward the middle bench of the van. “We’ve got Elsa and Leif, so we’re good. They’re the best ones anyway.”

  “I can’t believe you left him alone. Was he even alive? Did you think to check? You just abandoned him!”

  Jamie’s back was against the side of the trunk, but there was not really room for the both of us to sit side by side comfortably. He moved me to sit on his lap and brought the sleeping bag up around us, unzipping it like a blanket. “Now, now. Of course we didn’t abandon him. Foss was being taken to surgery when you fainted. He’s alive, but they have to do significant repair to his head.”

  I wanted to take the hand Jamie was rubbing my back with and slap him with it. He sensed this either through the bond or through common sense and removed his hand. “You left him to go through surgery by himself?” I growled through gritted teeth.

  “Foss is one of us, but he’s injured, Lucy. We can’t stop the mission, and we can’t leave him alone, of course. Liv and most of the Huldras stayed with him. Not many places safer than with a team of Huldras protecting you. He’ll get the best treatment and wake up to friendly faces.”

  “But he’ll think I…”

  “He’ll be grateful to you he can think at all. You saved his life, Loos.” Jens spoke up from the driver’s seat. “The doctor said your CPR kept his heart moving just enough to keep his brain from crapping out altogether.”