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Tara hopped onto the passenger seat and looked at him as if to say, What are you waiting for? He didn’t need the cat to tell him twice. He hit the road and looked back only to check on Sorrel, who still hadn’t stirred at all. What had his family done to her? He shuddered to think of all the possibilities.
The back roads were lined by trees and punctuated by towns with populations less than five hundred people. They all looked the same: a gas station, a small white church, and pickup trucks parked at each. By the looks of it, Eric could have stayed shirtless and not have been out of place at all. Even so he made sure to draw as little attention to himself as he could, and that included driving the speed limit, though he wanted nothing more than to race to his destination so he could get Sorrel cleaned up and attend to her wounds. He kept reaching behind the front seat just to touch her to make sure she still existed and breathed. When he wasn’t doing that, he was checking the rearview mirror to see if they had been followed.
By early afternoon they had made it to Blue Ridge. Now came the tricky part. He needed to find a place for them to stay and regroup. There wasn’t any way for him to check into a hotel—using his credit card would be a fatal error, and he only had about a hundred dollars of cash on him. He hated to, but he was going to have to use his “gifts” to secure a place for them. He was doing it for Sorrel, he told himself. Surely that made it okay. There was no other way to protect her. She could never go home until his family was dead.
Eric had seen signs on their drive for cabin rentals near the Toccoa River. He decided those were his best bet. He only hoped they would have one available during the busy summer season. The town was crawling with what looked like tourists. He took the turnoff for the cabin rental office and thought about a good story he could use for his coercion.
When he pulled up to the office, the first thing he noticed was a “Closed for Lunch” sign in the front window. Of course. He was about ready to swear when he noticed an older man and woman on the front porch punching in a code on a large lockbox. From it they pulled out some paperwork and a key. Perhaps a key to a cabin?
Eric took the sunshade for his car and laid it over Sorrel. Tara gave him the evil eye; nonetheless, it was better than someone seeing a half-naked, unconscious woman lying in the back all covered in blood. “Sorry,” Eric whispered before exiting the vehicle.
The happy couple were dressed to enjoy the outdoors as they stepped off the painted white porch and greeted Eric with friendly hellos.
“You wouldn’t know when they’ll be back from lunch, would you?” Eric pointed at the office.
“I’m not sure,” the gentleman responded. “However, if you’re looking to rent a place here, we were told we got the last cabin for the next week.”
Eric’s jaw clenched, but he kept his cool. He eyed the friendly couple, their Rolex watches, and their luxury SUV. He reasoned they probably had great insurance policies and enough money to recover if, let’s say, they happened to have their vehicle confiscated for a noble cause. And they could surely find another place to stay for the weekend. Before anyone could interrupt them, Eric took them both by the hand. The woman giggled and swatted him, but the man tried to pull away, ready to throw a punch. Eric was quick—he connected with them and, using the energy he had built up inside of him, pressed his will upon them. He spun a tale so tall you’d need an extension ladder to make it to the top of it. In the end, though, it worked. The man handed over the keys to his SUV and the cabin, and as an added bonus threw in their cooler full of food. He even helped Eric get Sorrel’s luggage in their car. Eric then made them think Sorrel was luggage. Sometimes his powers frightened him.
When it was all said and done, the man and woman drove off in Eric’s old sedan with instructions to abandon it at a junkyard after discarding the license plate and to never tell a soul about it. They wouldn’t remember Eric or Sorrel, or even that they had planned to spend the next week here. Eric wasn’t a total monster: he’d instructed them to book a trip to the Bahamas, which they’d agreed was a splendid idea. While Eric felt awful about it all, he didn’t have time to dwell on it.
