GAME ON - GoM 2

7

Like an echo, the red light waned away and the golden glow stopping it flowed back into the house.

Tom and Claire didn't move, blinded in the darkness that fell on them. Until he grabbed the girl's hand and led her to the clearing. She just followed, trying to not trip and fall.

At the clearing they found Thames kneeling down by Alex. She lay sprawled on the scorched grass, completely out.

"She's alive," Thames said, not looking away from her. Tom let go of Claire's hand to run to them. "Can you carry her, Tom?"

Before he finished asking, Tom had already lifted Alex in his arms. Claire noticed Thames was having some trouble to stand up and hurried to help him.

"Gregory!" she cried when the priest faced her.

His clothes were burned, just like his face, his hands, his arms. Looked like there wasn't an inch of good skin left on him. Even his eyelashes, his eyebrows, part of his hair was gone. He managed a weary smile, resting a hand on Claire's shoulder for support.

"Royals," he panted. "They like to go big."

Claire glanced back. Tom was out of sight, surely already halfway to the cliffs with Alex. In the shadows filling the clearing, she spotted the shape of a body. Coal black. Scorched.

"Good riddance," she said, helping Thames to the woods.

"Yeah, for a while."

"He ain't dead?"

"If killing the Duke of Hell was so easy."

"You're right."

They made their way slowly through the woods.

"What I don't understand," Thames murmured. "What happened to the seal? How come it didn't go off?"

"It did. But the Cross restrained it."

Thames paused to face her, and Claire could tell the man was astonished. So she told him what she'd seen. Thames didn't say another word for the rest of their slow way to the cliffs. Surely he was trying to digest the information. Claire didn't know why, but even being so worried about Alex, for some reason she felt light, almost happy. And not a bit tired, as if she'd just waken up from a long, comforting nap. She was pretty sure it had something to do with all that pure, clear energy swelling through her when Alex channeled.

When they reached the cliffs, she helped Thames to rest against a rock and looked up. Tom's dark figure showed up at the shoulder of the road.

"Claire! Hurry!"

"Tell him to go," Thames said, exhausted. "It's gonna take me a while to get up there."

"You go, Tom! See you at home later!" Claire shouted.

Tom didn't bother to answer, and a moment later they heard the Yukon rocket away toward town.

"Now what, child?" asked Thames. "I don't think I can walk all the way back."

"Markus' yard must be full of cars. I can borrow one and take you back home."

Thames studied Claire, faking shock. It'd taken only the threat to Alex's life to bring up in the girl an unexpected skilled warrior that had just faced up to the very Duke of Hell with a daring smile on her face.

"Good Lord, child! Who are you!"

"Claire Corban, truly yours. Shall we?"

Thames let out a weary chuckle and allowed the girl to help him up to his feet again. But they had only taken a couple of steps when they heard a truck coming from town that squealed to a sharp stop.

A moment later, Father Jason called out from the top of the cliffs. "Claire! Father Gregory!"

"Down here, Father!" Claire replied."

"I'm coming down the Sandy track!"

Claire guided Thames back to the south as the Ford Ranger went away that way too. Soon they heard it ahead of them.

"You know? I think the Cross was protecting us," said Claire. "That's how it felt, anyway. Is it possible?"

Thames sighed, forcing himself to take every step. "I don't know, Claire. I've never heard of anything like this. But no one's ever seen anything like what happened here tonight."

She smiled. "Well, I like to think it was protecting us."

"Then do. It's a comforting idea."

"Is she gonna be okay?"

"Alex? I don't know, child. I'm sorry I'm out of answers tonight. But be sure I'll do everything I can to heal her."

"Can you heal her soul?"

"I certainly hope so."