Midnight Ruling (12 page)

“Nora!” Cooper grabbed my arm again.

“Listen,” I hollered over the storm. “He must have been flung back, like me. He could be hurt.”

“Nora!” Cooper shouted again to make me look at him. “The lightning,” he said, eyes frightened. “It
hit
him.”

I stopped trying to shake him off. The words repeated in my head, echoing until they began to absorb—slowly.

The white flash that’d blinded me was lightning. It made sense. Confusion masked logic as I sorted out the details as sanely as I could. He went without me. The ceremony worked, but not for me. What went wrong?

“The lightning hit him,” I repeated out loud and glanced past Cooper to the dark stain in the earth.

“Yeah,” Cooper said, relieved when I spoke to him. “I thought it hit you, too.”

It was supposed to!

I stood, unmoving, unable to think of what I should do. The Midnight Ruling didn’t work for both of us. Did that mean I had to find another way? Maybe I had to do it again? I’d moved just before it struck. Did that ruin everything?

Cooper glanced over his shoulder as Joel jogged toward us, his shorter legs tangled in the tall grass. “Let’s get to the damn car already! It’s freezing.”

“But Aidan…” I started.

“Was hit by lightning,” Joel said loudly as if he didn’t believe it himself. “I saw him and then he disappeared.” To Cooper, he shook his head. “I checked around the perimeter. I can’t see him anywhere. I never thought I’d see something like that in my life.” He almost smiled but wasn’t able to. If he did, I was certain I would’ve lost it. “Anyway, come on, I found Claire,” he said as if this ended the discussion.

“Claire Weatherbe is here too?” I snapped. “What the hell are you all doing here?” I felt my hands ball up into fists as Joel rolled his eyes.

“Not the best time to talk,” he said, pointing to the sky, the rain drenching him thoroughly.

“Yeah, come on, Nora,” Cooper said. “We’ll drive you home.”

“Like hell we will,” Joel snapped, his dark eyes targeting me.

“Joel!” Cooper spun. “Her friend was just killed.”

I was shaking my head when the idea struck. What if he was killed? What if Aidan wasn’t transported to the Demon’s Grave? I didn’t know what a lightning strike could do to a body, but I was certain it wasn’t powerful enough to obliterate flesh and bone.
No, no
, I assured myself.
He’s still alive. He’s not dead.

My mind left it at that. I wouldn’t allow it to trail further into the “what if’s.”

“…were up to something freaky, you saw it,” Joel was arguing. He was at least a head shorter than Cooper, but he was packing more muscle. The rain suctioned his shirt to his broad shoulders and defined pecks. If I didn’t hate him, I might have admired him.

Towering over Joel, Cooper was yelling, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Come along and leave the bitch behind or stay, I don’t care.” Joel turned his broad back to us and started to walk away.

Cooper ran up behind him and shoved his shoulder to make him face us.

Already emotionally charged, I ran up to them to stop a fight if one were to break out. I needed a plan, not a brawl.

Claire popped out of the trees again. Her eyes were wide, her red hair was matted to her shoulders, and her nipples protruded from her shirt like spears. She grabbed Cooper’s arm and screamed, “Let’s go.”

The shrillness stopped Joel from taking a swing with a fist the size of a grapefruit.

“Not without her.” Cooper never took his eyes off of Joel.

“Yeah, yeah,” Claire said dismissively. “Let’s just go.”

“What? Didn’t you just see…?” Joel began, stopping at Claire’s piercing stare.

“It’s freezing out here, and we have to go to the police.” She pointed behind her. “It’s my car we’re going in anyway. What I say goes.”

“No police,” I blurted, drawing everyone’s attention.

Claire pointed at the clearing but didn’t look. “You’re friend just evaporated in a lightning strike and you don’t want to go to the police?”

“She’s right. We should take her to the hospital instead,” Cooper interjected.

“No hospital!” I snapped, frustrated with these morons. They shouldn’t be here in the first place. I turned away, gripping my temples in an attempt to collect my scattered thoughts.

I could always get Aidan’s car keys from the wheel well where we’d hidden them. Then I could weigh the options without these stupid people. The grave dirt was gone, but I might be able to find where it’d been dropped…reuse it. Somehow, I doubted that would work. But I could also go back to the cemetery, get the supplies, and wait until tomorrow at midnight.

Before I got too far from the clearing, I felt a strong arm wrap around my waist.

The thunder clapped, drowning my scream and tickling my throat with the vibration.

Here it was. The earth was about the swallow me whole and Damien would drag me and…I peeked over my shoulder…me and Cooper down to the Demon’s Grave.

All at once, the world began to spin as my first attempt to kick back had me swept off my feet and spinning. Cooper caught me and pinned me to his chest, my head still twirling with whatever maneuver he tried. I could have been upside down and I wouldn’t have known.

“Nora,” Cooper said. “Come with us.”

Struggling madly, I couldn’t loosen his grip. I didn’t want to go with them. They shouldn’t have come. What if their presence messed up the entire ritual and it wasn’t me?

“You can’t drive right now. You’re acting crazy. Come with us. It’s okay. You’ll be safe,” he assured me, his voice attempting to be gentle over the roar of the weather.

What to do? What to do?

I glanced over my shoulder, peering past Cooper to see the dark spot in the grass again. I felt a lump in my throat and a wormy mass of emotions rising from the depths.

I couldn’t save them. And now Aidan was gone. Wasn’t I supposed to be the target, not him?

The Erebus wants you. He always wanted you.

The heaving gasp for air made me feel the hot tears melting with the rain, and I couldn’t stop it.

It wasn’t until Cooper told me to take deep breaths that I realized I was hyperventilating.

He held me, wrapping me up easily in his height, but he wasn’t Aidan.
Aidan, what have I done?

Cooper helped me through the trees until I saw Claire’s Chrysler 300 behind Aidan’s rusting station wagon. There was no way a college student could afford that thing; it must belong to her parents. I did my best to compose myself. The last thing I wanted was for them to see me frazzled.

It was hard directing my thoughts away from the Midnight Ruling.

Claire had towels placed over the leather seats as Cooper held the back door open for me. He slipped in beside me, forcing me to scoot over.

Sitting in the middle, with Cooper close, I didn’t want to move away from him. He was the only heat at the moment. The car warmed but not fast enough. I realized I shook so violently I couldn’t hold my hands or legs still no matter how hard I concentrated.

I kept my eyes down, and the car was drowned in silence as Claire started down the dark road. It was more of a grassy, overgrown path than a road. The rain pelted the car, her windshield wipers zipping back and forth at their quickest speed.

“I have a test tomorrow.” Claire broke the silence, her voice acidic. She didn’t seem to be speaking to anyone in particular. “I won’t be able to study at all. It’s almost one in the morning.”

“How was I supposed to know they were all freaky with the voodoo?” Joel growled in the passenger’s seat.

I flinched. “What the hell were you doing out there anyway?” I felt feisty enough to handle Joel. My emotions were still charged—raw but charged. It wasn’t just the cold making me shiver.

“I should ask you the same thing,” Joel shot back.

“Yeah!” Claire echoed, her eyes catching mine in the rearview mirror.

I grit my teeth together. “You followed us and we’re the freaks?”

“Yeah.” Joel twisted in his seat. “We saw you two on the ground and chanting and cutting away like you’re some stupid cunts from
The Craft
.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” I said, not sure why I bothered. Plus, I’d liked that movie when I was younger. Who was he to judge?

Stunned, Joel stared at me. Whatever he expected from me, that wasn’t it.

It was Cooper that said cautiously to those in the front seat, “The ground
did
start to shake.”

“I thought the clouds were talking,” Claire whispered. She adjusted her hands on the wheel; her manicured nails were dirty.

“That was an earthquake and lots of thunder,” Joel recovered. “Coincidence. You two were out there throwing your mumbo jumbo, and obviously someone didn’t like it. Struck one of you dead.”

Joel never would have struck me as religious. You learn something new everyday.

“Basically, you killed your friend,” Joel said.

I reacted like a coiled spring.

Attacking a guy who was four times my size and muscled enough to join the WWE wasn’t exactly smart. But I wasn’t working with smarts; I was working with rage.

Before I could even scrap his skin with a nail, Cooper grabbed my shoulders and flung me into the back seat again.

“He’s not dead!” I shouted before I could stop myself.

Claire’s hateful gaze in the mirror softened dramatically. “Maybe the hospital first,” she said in a gentle tone, not meant to belittle me, but I took offence all the same.

“I’m not crazy, and he’s not dead,” I hissed. “Lightning wouldn’t do that.”

Joel cracked a smile but didn’t say anything.

Cooper looked away from me, embarrassed.

“Lightning would have left a body, idiot,” I spat at Joel. He was the only one left who would make eye contact with me. “No police, no hospital. Just pull over and I’ll walk home.”

“You heard the woman,” Joel cheered.

Claire made it to the highway but wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

“Just…” Cooper cleared his throat, his body smashed against the door instead of leaning near me. “Take her home.”

“What?” Claire snapped.

Joel was nodding. “I don’t really feel like hanging out at the cop shop and answering questions about some devil worshipper.”

The tension in the car didn’t diminish the rest of the way into Leland. Claire and Joel argued about going to the police or taking me to the hospital. Joel, being the persistent jerk that he was, won.

I didn’t like Joel one bit, but at least he won. I needed time to figure things out.

Cooper kept staring out the window. I could see his stony expression in the reflection and pushed myself over in the car to the other side, behind Joel. The warm car reduced my shaking to compulsive twitches.

Claire finally asked where I lived, and I told her the address.

I had requested her to drive into the alley, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to me. I was the crazy girl who had just lost her friend; I might as well be contagious.

Oh Aidan, where are you?
I asked the sky through the streaking rain. I thought about a lot of things, letting them jumble and circle each other. I remembered we’d forgotten Aidan’s backpack and all the supplies for our supposed trip.

This was a mess. A damn mess.

Despite my suggestion, Claire pulled up to the front of the house.

All the lights were on inside. This wasn’t good.

I flung the door open, and as I shut it, I realized Cooper was getting out of his side as well. “What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Walking you to the door,” he said, affronted.

“You’re not my date.” I wanted to shove him back in the car. Maybe he could hit his head on the way back in.

“No, but I’m not going to let you run off,” he said. Then it dawned on me that he didn’t trust me at all.

“Where would I go?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

Despite the words, he grabbed my arm in a grip that meant business.

I tried to create a resistance. Not because I was going to run, but because I wanted to anger him. I was fuming because not only was I vilified by these people, they were treating me like a disobedient child.

My sluggish walk didn’t slow Cooper down; his grip was tight enough to make me want to cry out. It took a lot of my energy not to.

I trailed behind him, letting him ring the door bell.

The door opened before the echo of the doorbell waned, and my mom stood rigid in her house coat, expression hardening upon seeing me. I could see my dad behind her. He promptly hung up his cell.

Both of them being up at 1 a.m. could only mean they’d realized I’d escaped.

I was in a lot of trouble.

The arguments were blistering.

My mother was so furious she raised her hand to strike me at one point, and I would have let her, but she caught herself mid-motion.

My dad wouldn’t look at me while Mom raged. Mona peeked through the railing on the second floor. She’d been told to go to bed at least three times and still crawled back out, each time lower to the ground. The little voyeur.

Cooper was able to witness at least a quarter of this before my mother finally grabbed her own hair and shouted, “who the hell are
you
?”

Taken back, Cooper recovered with a stutter. “C-C-Cooper Mesick, ma’am.” Looking somewhat wounded at her questioning stare, he continued, the fear reaching his voice. “I brought your daughter home.”

“And what was she doing out with you?” Mom demanded, fists propped on her hips.

“She…” Cooper glanced at me for help, but I wasn’t feeling all too grateful and stared back. I still felt my arm throb from when he’d pulled me to the house.

Cooper cleared his throat, obviously regretting his decision. “She was out with Aidan Birket. It was late and raining…a, uh, thunderstorm was going on and…”

This was getting painful to watch, even though he deflected some of the anger from me.

“Aidan’s car broke down,” I intervened finally. Cooper jolted as if I jabbed a stick into his ribs.” Cooper and his friends picked us up.”

“Why were you out?” My mom’s glower shifted focus.