CHAPTER 51
Jennifer
By the time Jennifer
and Eddie had finished chasing the helicopter to the hospital, a
convoy of fire trucks and ambulances were rushing into the parking
lot.
It was a moment of
enormous relief for them all, not least Elizabeth, who was openly
happy to see her daughter alive.
“Got most of them
down without a scratch,” Jennifer was proud to report. “But
Evangelina is still on the prowl. We might want to get back to Skip
and Dianna.”
“Agreed.”
The two of them,
Susan, Gautierre, and Catherine returned to the bridge . .
.
. . . where Skip was
thawing in Dianna’s arms.
“Dianna!” Elizabeth
surged forward, but caught herself as she realized what was
happening. “Dianna, what have you done?” “What none of the rest of
you had the guts to do.” The sorceress was crying, and her son’s
features were paling. Spiderwebs of black poison were streaking
across his face, chasing the crystals of ice away. “I told you we
had to stop him, but none of you would do it. You gave me no
choice. I had to do it myself. I had to kill my own son.” She
buried her head on Skip’s chest, sobbing. Far, far away, the sirens
of fire engines and ambulances wailed.
Elizabeth knelt next
to them and looked for a pulse in Skip’s wrist, then throat. Dianna
did not try to stop her—in fact, she smiled.
“Still trying to save
everyone, Doctor? How heroic. He’s past your help—the dose I had to
use on him is beyond anything you can cure.”
“We don’t know that
until we get him to the hospital. From there, they can chopper him
in to the Twin Cities. Jennifer, help me get him on your
back.”
Jennifer wanted to
hesitate, but she didn’t dare. She stepped forward—
“You’re too late.”
Dianna gently let her son’s body fall to the ground and got to her
feet. Venomous tears had burned dark tracks on her cheeks, and
Jennifer could not tell where the woman’s pupils ended and her
irises began. “It’s my fault. I should have stayed with him. I
shouldn’t have left him with his father.”
Elizabeth examined
Skip’s body, but did not attempt any resuscitation. He was bleeding
venom from his pores, and his pale skin was already starting to
burn.
“I’ve lost him, just
like I lost Jonathan . . . like I’ve lost everyone.”
You still have me, Mother. You lost me, but you found me again.
“Look who’s back.”
Jennifer steamed at the sight of the shadowy shape that reappeared.
“Thanks for all your help back there, by the way. Nothing like
trying to get those choppers landing safely while you were blowing
them up. I really appreciate all that.”
You’re welcome.
“Evangelina.” Dianna
tried to smile. “I’ve failed you worst of all. I abandoned you to
death, and death never really left you. It still seeps from your
scales. You can’t help yourself. I’ve tried to show you better
worlds, better places . . .”
Jennifer looked at
the sky. “Um, Mom.”
“Hang on, honey.”
Elizabeth was closing Skip’s pretty green eyes with a single hand
and murmuring a prayer.
The monstrous form of
Evangelina dwindled into a slender woman. Her expression was
confused, and she tried to approach Dianna.
Mother. Please don’t cry. I’m still here.
“Mom, seriously. Look
up. Check it out.”
The sorceress stepped
back. “I can’t do anything else for you, Evangelina. Please don’t
ask me. There’s nothing I can do. I’ve failed both of you. Skip has
already come to this awful end, and now you face the
same.”
“Folks, if you could
just tilt your heads slightly up and check this out . .
.”
“Maybe not tonight,
maybe not for months or even years—but you are doomed, and damned.
I did that to you. I’m so sorry.”
Please stop apologizing, Mother. It upsets me.
“WILL EVERYONE PLEASE
STOP TALKING AND LOOK UP AT THE MOON?”
They looked
up.
The sliver had become
a more prominent crescent, and it was leaving a trail of virulent
green in its wake. Even the dark side was pulsing with
color.
“Why isn’t the moon
fixed?” Susan asked. “Skip’s dead. So is Andi.”
“It’s like I told
you,” Dianna told them. “He exists up there as well. Destroying him
down here is not enough. We must do it again.”
“How much time do we
have?” Elizabeth asked.
“None. We have to do
it now. In fact, I’m surprised we’re still standing.”
“We have to kill him
on the moon now? How are we going to do
that?” asked Gautierre.
Dianna wiped her
face. “Someone is going to carry me up there. And then I am going
to make a sacrifice, for once.”
Mother. You’re not making any sense. You cannot go to the moon. None of us can.
“I was thinking the
same thing,” Jennifer added.
“You’re both wrong—in
fact, you are exactly the two among us who have the strength to
bring me there.”
I don’t see how that’s possible. I cannot survive without air, Mother.
“Even if you fix that
problem,” Jennifer added, “It would take months to get there, even
at our fastest. We could barely keep up with Army helicopters down
here. Do you have a rocket ship hidden somewhere under that
dress?”
“Speed is not an
issue. Nor is air. The only question would be, which one of you
will bring me. I’ve already decided that one.”
She stepped up to
Evangelina.
I won’t take you. Not if you’re going up there to die.
“Oh, sweet
Evangelina.” Dianna stroked her daughter’s face with both hands,
wiping the black strands of hair aside. “I’m not going to ask you
to take me. Instead, I’m going to give you one last gift, before
Jennifer takes me.”
What do you
Dianna seized
Evangelina’s face and explained, as the younger woman
shrieked.
“I should have done
this when I found you, after all those years you spent in the
darkness. There’s no mother I know who wouldn’t gladly take all her
daughter’s pain away. I am ashamed that it took me so long to do
this. All I can say is, I’m sorry. I wanted time with you. I wanted
the time that had been taken from us. You gave me some of that
time. Now, I return it to you . . . and so much more.”
Evangelina’s scream
became higher, and her eyes brighter. Her hair shortened, and her
skin tightened. Meanwhile, Dianna began to age.
“Am I seeing what I
think I’m seeing?” Jennifer asked her mother.
“Kid, I have no idea
what either of us is seeing.”
Moooooooom!
“I give you the gift
of years,” Dianna said. The creases in her face deepened, and she
gritted her teeth. “All of the loneliness and misery you suffered,
all of the horrible things you’ve done . . . I’ll take it all. You
have a second chance, Evangelina. Use it well.”
The girl’s face—for
it was a girl now, no older than six—remained a reflection of pain.
Her silver eyes sparkled with youth.
Where am I what is this who am when am I am why?
“Just a little
longer, darling.” Dianna’s voice was heavy with age. Her shoulders
were stooping, and she could barely lift the shrinking child into
her arms. The loose clothes Evangelina had worn were now large
enough to be blankets to the infant.
Finally, Dianna
looked up from the wailing cloth bundle in her arms, to the others.
The skin sagged from her cheek-bones, and her eyes were dull with
uneasy, shifting pastels. No one spoke.
Slowly, step by step,
the sorceress shifted toward them. She edged by the earthly corpse
of Skip Wilson, and passed the gape-mouthed Catherine. She paused
when she reached Gautierre and Susan, and reached out with a hand
to the boy’s shoulder. Her nod passed him, acknowledging the giant
black corpse on the other side of the river.
“I’m sorry for your
losses, kid,” she croaked. “Find family where you can. Love them
for who they are. Stay with them, in good times and bad. If you
need guidance . . . look to the family my first husband
built.”
She kept going now,
passed Susan and Jennifer with a slow wink, came to the last in the
group, and held out her infant child.
“Doctor. Please
succeed, where I have failed.”
Elizabeth staggered
back a step. “Dianna. Ms. Wilson. I can’t—this is—”
“We both know who the
difference was, between what Evangelina became and what Jennifer
has become. I have finally done something for her, worthy of your
family. I cannot continue. It is up to you—the only one in this
world whom I trust with her safety.”
“Dianna. I can’t
possibly be the answer. You and I—we just—”
The sorceress
presented the child again, more urgently this time. “Doctor. I
would love to argue this all evening. My other child is about to
ruin this earth. I know you ache for another child. I’m offering
you this opportunity. If you don’t want it, I’ll leave it with
Jennifer, and you can be a grandmother instead.”
Elizabeth took the
baby.
“Thank you.” Dianna
straightened her back and ran a hand through her gray hair.
“Jennifer Scales. I am ready to go.”