Lucky Me
Chapter 104
One question, just this one.
How was I supposed to help save the world if I was broken down on the side of the highway?
That's right! I was broken down on the side of the road with the engine smoking and two of the most cheerful passengers in existence.
Julie and Mr. Logan.
Yes, this was a sadist's dream.
"I can't believe this!" Julie grouched. "Is this your idea of a bloody joke?"
"Oh, yes," I purred, lifting up the hood. "I always thought it would be just so funny to be stuck with you in the middle of nowhere with no witnesses." I was pushing the words out through clenched teeth by this time.
The glare off of Julie's sunglasses from the sun blinded me enough so I couldn't look her in the eye.
I studied the mangle of wires and big black contraptions underneath the hood and then came to a stunning conclusion. I had no idea what I was doing. Mr. Logan took my spot as I checked up and down the long stretch of empty road for something with four wheels.
No such luck with either the cheapo car I had nor anyone else's cheapo car coming down the road.
"I thought you people kept mobiles in cars," Julie reasoned.
"Not in the older models. Scott only started that after he broke down."
"So let me get this straight, instead of putting cell phones in the older and more likely to break down cars-he put them in the new and less-likely-to-leave-you-stranded-with-the-Brit-from-the-seventh-pit cars?" Julie glared at me. I rolled my eyes at her.
"Yup, that's Slim's logic fer ya." He pulled out a cigar and began to chew on it like beef jerky. After ten minutes, Mr. Logan slammed the hood and lit his cigar. "Looks like we're goin' to be walkin'."
"Wot the hell do you mean walk?" Julie was going to be hysterical by the end of this trip.
I smiled at that thought.
"Walk. Invented by the first man to get to point A to point B." Mr. Logan replied, giving her a level stare. Julie opened her mouth to say something else. "And we are going to because no one knows where we are, we can't contact anyone 'cause neither of you got yer phones and so help me if you say one more word I'm going to knock yer scrawny butt out and throw you over my shoulder."
Her mouth snapped shut and I chuckled darkly as Mr. Logan took off into the woods.
"Yes! I planned this all so I would know what hell was like! Thank you!" I put a hand on her shoulder, "thank you so much, Satan." I then tagged on some obviously fake laughter just to get her nerves pulverized. "Now return to the pits from which you came." I jerked away from her and stomped after our leader.
"Summers." Mr. Logan gave a growl to punctuate his point.
Julie grumbled something under her breath but with a pointed look from Mr. Logan, she didn't repeat them any louder.
Did I forget to mention how we ended up in this mess? Oh that's simple. Well, maybe it's not simple but I was sure at some point in time I might actually chuckle at it. I'd chuckle at it like an insane person as I through a puppy into the microwave (I might actually end up crazy if these random acts of pointless annoyances kept happening). Yes, it was that bad and yes I'd have to be that out of it to actually find this humorous.
I had gone on an anti-guy kick which was a bit stressful considering I lived on the guys' wing. Every guy who came around me, I growled and glared at. When they got too close I started on my various rants on reasons guys must have been the true mutant, the real hiccup in the genetic evolution.
Why? Heck, wasn't that obvious?
I cried. I cried long and hard because that moron who I made that moronic confession to didn't even say anything. That's right! I waited about an hour in my room after my blurting out that I loved him, but all I heard him was him passing by my door to go to his room. He never stopped by mine to check to see if I was okay or anything. He did nothing. Not-a-thing! A day later when I saw him and he smiled at me and said, "hey, Kookie," I made a scientific conclusion that: Men. Were. Stupid. Have your heart ignored and see if you were fluff and bunnies instead of claws and skunks.
That still didn't explain how I made it out in the middle of the woods with the nastiest tempered on earth and Mr. Logan. I was getting there. Okay, so I was basically radiating a tangible air of "Guys suck" and was itching to either runaway or beat the living crap out of something, stand over it, point and laugh manically.
To prevent me from getting into any type of trouble and destroying half the mansion along with me, Dad mentioned that maybe I should drive around. When I asked if he would be oh so willing to pay any tickets I got or be responsible for the massive property damage which I wanted to do, he withdrew the idea with a smile and sighed.
I was able to nab a set of keys from the very guarded key box by the garage and snuck through the cars trying to figure which car the magic key would open. It was a Ford car with duct tape holding up the front bumper I didn't care, as long as the stupid thing started.
It did, I left.
At the school gates, I found a rather stern looking Mr. Logan. I slammed on the breaks and waited for him to make a move. My stolen car whined, I was not so anti-guy as to think that ramming a car into Mr. Logan's gut would do anything but severely annoy him.
"Where ya goin', kid?"
I grumbled under my breath. I didn't want to have company and I dang sure didn't want male company.
"Out." I yelled back.
"Got yer license?"
Two seconds ticked by….ooops. Guess I forgot something.
Muttering profanities under my breath was the only thing I could do as Mr. Logan opened up the passenger car door and slid in.
"Are you sure you want to be in this car?" I huffed.
As he rolled down the window so he could continue to puff on his cigar, he smirked at me. "I got a healing factor kid, I ain't scared of your driving."
I took that as a challenge.
After the gates shut behind the piece of junk I was driving, I took a left, and then I turned into the proverbial dewinged bat from hell. With a foreknowledge of the back roads and their lack of cars at this or any time, I ignored all traffic signs and all curve signs.
I actually made the 'invincible one' put on a seat belt! Not to mention, he let quite a few four letter words be grunted.
"I said I had a healing factor, kid." Mr. Logan reminded me. "I don't know what the hell your thinkin' drivin' like this."
"I'm thinkin' I see Julie." Yes, a speck on the horizon about a mile from us, was Julie standing out like a cheerleader in the middle of a Goth fest. "And I'm also thinking she'd be worth ten points if I hit her."
"Kid."
"Okay, fifteen, but no more. She's too thin to even make a decent speed bump."
"Kid."
I looked over at him, he was giving me a distinct 'alpha-male' look and I sighed and slammed on the brakes. The sharp, bat like squeeee the wheels screamed, made Julie jump into the ditch and Mr. Logan's cigar slammed into the windshield.
Snarling, he glared at me and then the cigar and then back at me and promptly started to grumbled about females not knowing the worth of a good smoke.
"Wot the bleedin' hell are you daft Yank?" Julie screamed at me as she picked up her glasses that had fallen a few feet from where she jumped into the muddy ditch. "You tryin' to give me a fledging heart attack?"
I smiled, "If it helps."
Her fires flared around her as she opened her mouth to throw something back at me. Mr. Logan, once again, came to the rescue. "Get in, Julie, before someone thinks yer goin' to set the woods on fire."
"Smokey says that's bad." I tacked on. I got two glares but Julie did as told and got in the back seat. We drove for another thirty minutes before the car busted.
So there, now you know how I ended up a helpless and innocent victim in the middle of the woods with grumpy-dee and grumpy-doo.
If I didn't stay angry and agitated, I was going to start feeling sorry for myself.
Oh, about the 'saving the world thing', Julie mentioned getting a call on her cell phone about getting back because the X-Cites were going on a mission ASAP. Unfortunately when I scared the tea and sugar out of her, she dropped the phone in a puddle and the poor thing wasn't water resistant.
"Not very fun, being in the forest, so far from home, is it?" That voice. Oh, no.
How the heck did the voice find me all the way out here?
Shifting my eyes from side to side, trying to find some trace of his eerie eyes, I was disappointed not to find anything. I flexed my claws as I dropped behind the group. Mr. Logan was smoking like a train and Julie was trailing behind him with her 'I-will-press-the-big-red-button' expression etched on her face.
That devil was here somewhere.
As proof, a laugh filled my ears. I growled. Not a half hearted 'grr' but a deep throated warning that was meant to ward off any would-be attackers. I drew my upper lip back unconsciously to let my canines be visible.
"You can't scare what you can't see." He said solemnly. "Let me pose a question to you. Who do you think is the most likely to win, the most powerful or the most manipulative?" I swung my eyes forward, realizing that I had lost the rest of the group due to the little intrusion.
"What are you getting at?" I snarled, slipping into an attack mode.
"You've been hunted before and by that savage man but always with the sole purpose of not getting caught." I could feel the malice in his start to thaw the melancholy "But what if fortune was to up the stakes?"
That's when I heard a rumble from behind me-a deep, lethal sounding roar that would translate in the animal kingdom as 'run'. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as six shinny slivers of metal became visible.
"Now you have to run for your life," he pointed out, his voice becoming softer, though no less hard.
I took his advice.
"Julie!" I screamed as I leapt around, over, and under things. I couldn't hear Mr. Logan, but I knew he was back there. He was the perfect killer really, stealth, brute force and pure, clean skill. I didn't even have to think or wish for my skin to go black as I went running madly into the forest because the tree branches reached out and grabbed it off of me.
Soon, there was a big black beast (me) being chased by a grizzly bear on steroids. And where the heck was Julie?
Trying to find the skinny girl, I completely ignored what was in front of me until it was too late and I was hissing in pain. Staggering backwards, I narrowed my eyes as Mr. Logan-gone-feral stood in front of me, hunched over and snarling.
The grip on my arm tightened as I tried to make the bleeding stop. He only nicked me. Though I could take this as a good sign that he hadn't completely lost his mind, I remembered him telling me once that it was easier for him to follow the scent of fresh blood. It was thicker and hung in the air longer.
If I had my wings still, I thought bitterly as I kept my eyes trained on him, I would have just flown from this entire mess.
"Mr. Logan," I was bleeding and pretty badly considering it was only a nick, "It's me, Kerry. Kookie, Summers, whatever."
He only howled and launched at me again.
