Rain Shadow(31)

I spun around. Angel was crying as she raced across the yard toward us. I caught her before she fell headlong into the dirt. “Whoa, what’s wrong?”

She was shaking and crying so hard she could barely catch her breath and then I knew. Something had happened to Gracie. “Where’s Dreygon?” I asked Jericho.

“I’ll go get him.”

“Tell him to hurry,” Angel cried after him. “Gracie’s had a stroke.” I followed her back to the kitchen.

Her aunt was stretched out on the futon. Her arm was hanging limply to the floor, and her mouth and face looked flaccid and pulled down to one side. Angel knelt beside her aunt and placed her hand on her forehead. “We’re going to get you some help, Auntie,” she sobbed.

Once again, I felt helpless. Angel had come to my aid so often in the past weeks, and when she needed me, it always seemed I was incapable of helping her. “What can I do?” I asked, knowing full well it was a useless offer.

Angel didn’t take her eyes off her aunt. “There’s a medication that can minimize the damage if it’s given within a few hours of the stroke.” Her shoulders shook. “I hadn’t checked on her in a while. It might already be too late.” She stood and ran to me. I circled my arms around her. She pressed her face against my chest. “It will take an hour before any ambulance can get out here. If my grandfather even allows it.”

The kitchen door flew open. It was a strange sight, seeing a man like Dreygon Sharpe distraught, but the look on his face could only have been described as anguish. He moved slowly, as if he had weights on his ankles, toward Gracie. I always thought of the woman as Angel’s aunt, but I’d rarely put her in the context of being Dreygon’s daughter. That reality became profoundly obvious as he walked over to the couch. He leaned down and picked up her limp hand. Gracie stirred slightly from his touch. He smoothed his hand over her forehead and for the briefest moment in time, Dreygon Sharpe appeared vulnerable, human like the rest of us. “I’ve called for an ambulance to meet us at the road, but it’ll be at least forty-five minutes.” He looked at Angel for reassurance that Gracie would be all right even with the delay of medical help. Angel’s knowledge of medicine and first aid was impressive, but this went beyond her skills.



“There is a drug they inject with certain strokes that will stop the damage, but it has to be given within several hours of the first symptoms.” Angel had calmed down considerably. She spoke in a measured tone as if she was a doctor giving information to a distressed father. Then her composure melted as quickly as it had appeared. She ran to her grandfather and threw her arms around him. It was the first real show of affection I’d seen between them.

An engine rumbled outside the kitchen door. “That’s Cash with my truck.” Dreygon motioned for me to pick up Gracie’s legs, and he took her shoulders. Angel held open the kitchen door and we carried her to the truck. Angel hopped in the opposite side and cradled Gracie’s head in her lap. Dreygon slid into the driver’s seat.

I came around to his side. “Angel will be safer in the ambulance with her aunt.”

He nodded. I stepped out of the way. The truck tires kicked up gravel as Dreygon turned it around and drove out of the compound.

***

It had been two hours. Cash and Jericho had settled on the table and benches outside with beers. I walked over and pointed at a beer questioningly. Cash nodded.

I picked up the can and sat down. “Any word?” Being without a telephone had been much easier than I thought, especially because the only person I really wanted to talk to had been right by my side every day.

“Nothing yet,” Cash said. The first few weeks Cash had barely said two words to me. We still hadn’t had any big long conversation, but he wasn’t ignoring me anymore either. “We were just talking about the Bent for Hell club and the dead DEA agent.”

It was a topic I’d dreaded. Gracie’s emergency had interrupted Jericho, and I’d hoped the subject would be dropped for now.

Cash looked at me across the table. “I guess they really did a number on the guy. Took them awhile to identify what was left of him. No more teeth apparently.”

I stared down at my beer, knowing full well that Cash was telling me the details and gauging my reaction. I had to keep myself from crushing the can in my fist.

“That sucks.” I took a drink of beer, but my throat was tight.

Jericho looked over at me and now I regretted joining them. “What sucks? That they’re questioning Griffin and his club, or that the guy got so messed up they couldn’t even identify him?”