Parahuman (Parahuman Series) Read online

  Grabbing a sandwich, an apple, and a water Devan walked over to the water’s edge to get a better look at the river. The section here was narrow and the water was rushing by rapidly, crashing against the rocks and sides violently as it moved around the bends.

  After some time Devan heard Laney speaking with the two younger girls. She had given each girl a pair of binoculars and was pointing out specific points of interest.

  Devan realized he had been keeping alert for the sound of her voice. It was like she exuded a light and he was a bug drawn to that illumination. Every time he looked away his eyes were drawn back to her almost involuntarily. He couldn’t figure out why she was so interesting to him.

  What was it about her?

  And that question mechanically had his gaze returning to her yet again, this time to see her gazing at him. She gave him a wave and a smile and a muscle in Devan’s chest cavity tightened.

  He didn’t have time to contemplate the anomaly though as his and everyone else’s attention was drawn to the sound of hysterical yelling.

  “Johnny…Johnny!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Laney might not be able to see Devan’s eyes but she could feel them, and they were causing a contingent of butterflies to take root in her stomach. She glanced his way and…yeah, he was looking her way. He stood off by himself over by the river and looked so alone, so she smiled and waved for him to come over.

  He rubbed at his chest and possibly frowned at her. What was with the frown, if it was indeed a frown?

  “Johnny…Johnny!”

  Tearing her gaze away from Devan Laney looked toward Becky and saw her turning in frantic circles calling Johnny’s name over and over. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what had happened, and now all the parents had caught onto the crisis and were yelling for Johnny. Laney’s father raised the whistle that was around his neck and gave it three loud blows. He had explained to the entire group before hiking out that if anyone got lost they were to listen for the sound of whistle and follow it back. It pierced the air and would travel through the air for at least half a mile.

  “Not again.” Laney turned to the girl next to her, Jordyn, Johnny’s fourteen year old sister. Standing next to her was her friend, Hanna, the daughter of the other couple.

  “Not again? What does that mean?” Laney asked in foreboding.

  Jordyn rolled her eyes in typical teenage girl fashion. Laney prayed she didn’t look that ridiculous when she did it.

  “Johnny is always disappearing. He’s constantly in his own little world. He’s wandered off at every amusement park we’ve ever been to; parks, beaches, stores. You name a place we’ve been, he’s disappeared at it.”

  This was something that would have been handy to know beforehand Laney thought with a grimace. You would think if the kid was constantly pulling a ‘where’s Waldo’ that the parents would keep a better eye on him. Hopefully the kid hadn’t gone too far. Laney’s dad was talking to Becky while looking around the area. He gave his whistle another three blows.

  “Jordyn, can I see those binoculars?” Plucking the binoculars from Jordyn’s fingers Laney began searching the east riverbank and meadow. No sign of him anywhere.

  “I saw him by the woods to the west not too long ago.”

  Laney pulled the binoculars from her face to look toward Devan. Everyone else had also frozen and given him their attention. He had retreated from the river’s edge nearer to the woods he was referring to.

  “You sure about that Devan?” Nick walked toward Devan the parent’s trailing after him. Laney headed that way as well with the two girls tagging behind her. Hanna and Jordyn talked in hushed whispers behind her.

  “Man, he’s sexy, especially in those sunglasses, but he’s just so tall. You would need a ladder just to look him in the eye.”

  “With those muscles all he needs to do is pick you up so you can see.”

  Soft giggles followed that comment. Laney almost did some eye rolling of her own, but she was able to see why the two girls were so boy struck, she couldn’t fault them for having eyes.

  “It was probably about ten minutes ago that I saw him. He’s either gone too far to hear the whistle or he’s near the river and the sound of the rushing water is drowning out all other sounds.”

  Nick nodded his head in agreement and Laney could see the interested awareness flaring in her father’s eyes at Devan’s observations.

  However, the father was shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure that I saw him over that way last.” The father pointed in the opposite direction.

  Great; two points of focus Laney thought; although, her dad would have split them up anyway. Laney saw Devan shaking his head looking possibly impatient, his head turned to the west woods.

  The parents having a direction in mind headed that way without delay. Her dad yelled out to them.

  “Becky, Lon, hold up! You just can’t run off, you don’t know the area and you’ll only get yourselves lost too.”

  Both parents stopped, but Laney could see that they could barely restrain themselves from running into the woods. The father looked both angry and worried, while the mother was on the verge of tears.

  “I am not just going to sit here and hope for my son to come back on his own.” Lon said angrily.

  Nick walked up to Lon and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “I don’t need more people getting lost in these woods. I’m going to send Laney to the west and you can go with me to the east. One of us will find him and bring him back. I’m going to leave the whistle with Becky; keep blowing it every minute so Johnny can find his way back. And please just stay here, don’t go running off. Give me one second.” Nick handed the whistle over to Becky, then grabbing Laney’s arm he began to drag her away from the families.

  “Devan, can you follow us, please.” Nick called over his shoulder.

  Once out of earshot of the families Nick turned to address both Laney and Devan. “Laney, you follow the river to the west while I go to the east. If either one of us spots him we’ll use the two-way’s to contact each other.” Nick turned to face Devan. “Devan, I would like Laney to have backup with her; can you do this? If you want you can think of it as a test of your abilities.”

  “Yes, I can do that.” Devan responded.

  “Laney is in charge. This is a serious situation, so you will follow her lead.” Nick’s expression became severe. “If you really want this job I don’t want to hear…”

  “Dad,” Laney interrupted, with a conciliatory smile. “Don’t worry about Devan. He’ll be fine.”

  Nick scowled at her interruption. She scowled right back at him.

  “I have no problem following her lead.” Devan was looking back and forth between her and her father, his brow furrowed.

  “Head out then, and stay together. Get back to me in thirty minutes if there’s no sign of him. If we haven’t found him in an hour we need to call in the Rangers and some volunteer rescuers.” Nick turned away to head down the east riverbank with Johnny’s father beside him.

  Laney headed in the opposite direction. Glancing at Devan beside her Laney observed him gazing into the woods. That wasn’t altogether strange; they were supposed to be searching the forest, but his gaze wasn’t sweeping the terrain. Instead, it was concentrated in one specific area; like he had something in his sights. Laney peered in the same direction but didn’t see anything but trees. Glancing back up at Devan Laney saw that his focus remained consistent.

  “Do you see something?” Laney asked.

  The fixed gaze immediately began to circulate the area before settling on her. “No.”

  Laney frowned. Something seemed off, but she wasn’t sure what it was.

  “Are we positioning ourselves near the river?” Devan asked, abruptly.

  “That would probably be a good idea. It alarms me to think that Johnny might be playing by the river and could accidently fall in.”

  Devan jerked his head her way abruptly, a possible incredulous look upon his fac
e…those glasses really needed to go…but then went back to looking into the forest just as swiftly. “Yes, that is a real possibility.”

  Laney called out Johnny’s name as her eyes traveled the landscape. “There’s a chance he might have just gotten lost in the woods.”

  “I think we should stay near the water; it’s the greatest concern.” Devan pressed.

  Laney’s eyebrow rose marginally at his forceful tone, and because his gaze kept straying and lingering in that one particular area…by the river. Laney couldn’t shake the thought that he was seeing something that was indiscernible to her.

  “I wasn’t altering our course, just putting other options out there.” Laney assured him. She took note that her vocabulary seemed to be expanding in his presence. He may not be a chatterbox, but when Devan did speak if sort of made you feel juvenile in comparison.

  Further conversation was suspended as they searched and called out Johnny’s name. About twenty minutes into their retrieval mission Laney was starting to get slightly anxious about the passing time with no sight of Johnny when one of Devan’s yells was abruptly cut short.

  Laney’s gaze swung Devan’s way at once, thinking he’d seen something. They had drifted about ten yards apart, but Laney could see him clearly. Devan’s stride shifted from relaxed to fixed as he stared ahead at something.

  Suddenly, he shot forward at a dead run.

  “Devan!” Laney shouted in alarm, but he was gone.

  Laney blinked in astonishment. In fact, he’d been there one second and then vanished in the next. How in the heck did he do that? Laney promptly dashed in the direction she’d seen him go but saw no sign of him. Her backpack was cumbersome and thumped against her back as she ran slowing her down, so with a split decision to either lose Devan or catch up with him, she ditched the pack. Sprinting as fast as she could Laney still wasn’t able to see any sign of Devan. That he had disappeared so fast was…unbelievable.

  Very uncomplimentary names were rolling through Laney’s head as she huffed it around trees and over fallen branches and then she heard Devan’s voice bellow up ahead.

  “Down!”

  His yell was followed by a ‘crack’ and a ‘thud’ that echoed through the woods, and a few seconds after that an unimaginable sound ripped through the forest and up her spine.

  “Growwwllll…”

  Laney’s heart tripped and her feet stuttered. She had only ever heard that sound once in her life, and she would never forget it.

  Mountain lion!

  “Aaahhhh…Aaahhhh…Aaahhhh…”

  That sounded like Devan, but it wasn’t the sound of someone being attacked, instead it sounded like he was trying to scare the animal away. Survival instructions did say to appear bigger and louder than the predator. He would certainly be bigger, but would it be enough?

  Laney tried to make her feet move faster, but she had already been running flat out for what seemed like forever. Laney considered herself in shape, but she only had so much in her. God, she hoped Devan and Johnny were okay. She told herself Devan was way too big for a mountain lion to bother with, but Johnny wasn’t. Her heart was pounding overtime and not just from the sprint through the woods.

  The growling and yelling continued and after what seemed like forever Laney was finally able to see some colors besides greens and browns up ahead. Black and yellow were becoming discernible. The black was from Devan’s shirt and Laney remembered that Johnny had been wearing a yellow t-shirt. Crap! The mountain lion must have spotted Johnny and the easy pickings of a small meal. Laney started shouting along with Devan hoping that the lion would be scared off at the prospect of an additional threat. Her screaming came out fractured as she was having some difficulty both breathing and running by this time.

  As Laney got closer she was able to see that Devan had taken up a protective position in front of Johnny. He was waving his arms and yelling while Johnny huddled behind him clinging to one of his long legs. A quick inventory revealed no signs of blood, at least on the backs of either of them.

  Staggering up next to them gasping for breath and wheeze-screaming Laney was just in time to see the rear end of the mountain lion fleeing off into the forest.

  Laney bent over with her hands on her knees doing her best not to hack up a lung. “Is…every…one…o…kay?”

  Still clutching Devan’s leg Johnny twisted toward Laney wide eyed and grinning. “That was so cool. Devan came out of nowhere jumping over me and then there was this lion and it was growling at us and it had the biggest teeth I ever saw and I was sure it was going to attack us but then Devan started yelling and waving his arms and scared the lion away…it was the most awesome thing I ever saw.” Johnny leaned back to look up at Devan, an expression of adoration on his face.

  Laney was able to inflate her lungs a little during Johnny’s long winded run-on sentence. She straightened up to face Devan holding the stitch in her side. He stood with his arms out to his sides staring down at Johnny attached to his leg with an expression of puzzled discomfort on his face. He actually looked like he might begin shaking his leg any minute to dislodge said attachment.

  A smile started to curve Laney’s mouth at his affliction but froze half formed as Devan’s face rose and focused on her. A face free of sunglasses. Laney was struck speechless.

  Johnny wasn’t. “Wow, I’ve never seen yellow eyes before,” he exclaimed.

  Those eyes could never be called a plain yellow. They were an amazing golden yellow with large dilated pupils. They were incredible!

  Unfortunately, Laney wasn’t given time to be sucked deep into their awesome depths because Devan looked away quickly, but not before an expression of alarm skittered across his face; a face that was wholly striking without the glasses concealing it.

  Laney blinked as he broke eye contact with her and realized she was holding her breath, breath that she desperately needed. She sucked in much needed air as small black dots spotted her vision.

  Why would he cover those stunning eyes? Laney knew if she could she would stare into them forever. They were almost hypnotic. If Devan hadn’t looked away she would probably still being staring into them…entranced. A shiver slithered down her spine. Maybe that’s why he wore the sunglasses; he hypnotized everyone who stared at them. Laney inwardly rolled her eyes at her absurdity.

  Devan was looking around the clearing trying ineffectually to detached Johnny from his leg by lifting it and giving it a shake. If Laney had the breath to laugh she would have been rolling; instead, she decided to take pity on him. Kneeling down she pried Johnny off his leg and noticed that her hands were shaking. An all out sprint through the forest with a mountain lion waiting at the finish line will do that to you.

  “Johnny, that mountain lion, didn’t touch you?” Laney asked shakily, giving his body a quick inspection.

  Johnny wasn’t paying any attention to Laney’s words though, his focus remained fixed on Devan. “Man…that was so cool when you came out of the woods and flew right over me. I never even saw that lion and I thought for sure it was going to attack us, but instead you scared it away.”

  Devan had walked away and was bending down to pick something up from the forest floor. Turning back around his eyes were once again covered by those blasted glasses.

  Johnny turned towards Laney, finally acknowledging her presence, and continued his one-sided commentary. “Devan jumped over me and started yelling and waving his arms…” Johnny demonstrated Devan’s actions, “and the lion was growling and clawing at the air…” Johnny switched to the lions behavior, “but the lion was too scared to attack us because Devan is way bigger so it gave up and ran away.” Johnny stopped to take a breath and Laney took this chance to get a word in.

  “Johnny! Are you hurt at all? Did the lion touch you?”

  Johnny’s brow furrowed and rolled his eyes. “No, I just said that Devan ran up and scared the lion away. It was the coolest…”

  “…thing I ever saw.” Johnny and Laney finished simultaneousl
y.

  “Yes, I get that.” Laney threw a grin at Devan who had raised his brows at Laney’s imitation of Johnny’s words. Laney threw her own eyebrow up just to get a rise out of him. Predictably, Devan’s brows arrowed down in response. He was so easy.

  Laney sterned up her expression as she turned back to Johnny. “Johnny, do you have any idea the danger you were in when you took off like that. If Devan hadn’t come along in time that mountain lion could have seriously hurt you.” More like had him for lunch, but Laney didn’t want to give the kid nightmares. “You should never take off in these woods alone. Beside all the dangers there is a very high probability of getting lost…and never being found.” Laney stressed ominously.

  “I didn’t mean to go so far, I just wanted to do some exploring.” Johnny pouted, looking at her with the most sorrowful puppy dog look on his face. Laney had babysat enough kids through the years to know that look. Heck, she had perfected that look herself on her own father so she wasn’t falling for it.

  “Well, your exploring has your parents in an uproar. I would hate to be you when we get back.”

  Johnny’s only comment was an ‘uhg’ sound. Laney straightened up on slightly wobbly legs. That sprint had taken quite a bit out of her. She would kill for water, but would have to wait till they went back for her backpack. Thankfully, she had the two-way radio strapped to her belt buckle, so she could contact her dad with the good news.

  “Dad, you there?”

  After a couple seconds her dad responded. “I’m here. Did you find him?” Even through the radio Laney could hear her dad’s anxiety.

  “Yeah, we found him. We’re headed back.” Laney wasn’t going to go into the details of the animal attack over the radio. Lon could be hanging over his shoulder and Laney didn’t want him freaking out until he was able to see Johnny and know that his kid was alright.

  Laney hooked the radio back to her belt buckle. “Okay guys, let’s get the lead out. There are people on pins and needles waiting for our return. Hopefully we can find my backpack on the way because I’m dying of thirst after that brisk stroll through the woods.”