Chapter 31: Chapter Thirty-One

I could hear the emotion in Nik’s voice as he spoke. As furious as I was at him, I couldn’t help but feel overcome with compassion. Not that long ago, I’d been in the exact same position as him, reuniting with my best friend after he’d been through untold trauma. Only, unlike Nik, my best friend had wanted to be found.

“Elliot. Please. Just say something,” Nik pleaded for the umpteenth time through the phone.

Elliot stayed crouched high up in the trees. All I could really see of him were the whites of his wide eyes. The rest of us stood around looking uncomfortable, unable to meet one another’s gaze. This was a painful thing to witness. I couldn’t begin to imagine how bad Nik must be feeling right now.

“We need you,” Nik continued. “And we want to help you. You can’t stay in the mountains forever.”

Still, Elliot remained mute and motionless. He clearly had a pretty stubborn temperament, which might be a necessity of being a friend of Nik’s. Either that or he was so scared shitless he didn’t even believe his own ears.

“Keep talking,” I said to Nik on the other end of the phone.

Hopefully Nik could coax Elliot out of the trees somehow. Otherwise I sure as hell didn’t know what to do.

“Elliot, I’ve been hurt,” Nik said. “I was stabbed, man. I could really do with seeing you.”

My insides clenched. I knew Nik’s injury was worse than he was letting on. He needed hospitalization, not a goddamn ancient Elkie healing balm.

In the trees, something seemed to have shifted with Elliot.

“He’s moving,” Juniper whispered through the side of her mouth.

There was a soft thud that told us Elliot had jumped to the ground. But still, he held back, clearly not daring to come any closer.

“Tell him we want to help,” Juniper instructed Nik.

“My friends are there to help you,” Nik said. “Because I’m too sick to do it myself. Please, just come to the phone and tell me you’re okay.”

Finally, Elliot took a step toward us. There was a small amount of moonlight coming in through the trees. As Elliot took his next step forward, his face fully emerged.

Those wild, frightened eyes I’d seen before seemed even more hollow now. His already pale skin looked entirely bloodless. He’d visibly shrunk, clearly lacking the skills needed to kill enough animals to maintain anything resembling a healthy body weight.

“Nik?” he croaked.

Through the phone, I heard Nik let out a long sigh of relief. “Hi Elliot.”

Juniper pressed the button to turn off the loudspeaker and held the phone up to Elliot. “I think this should be a private call,” she told him.

Elliot hesitated. Then, reticently, he reached forward and plucked the phone out of her hands. He retreated into the darkness. All we could hear of him now were his hurried, hushed words.

The rest of us exchanged sad glances. What a sorry state of affairs this whole thing was. How many lives Geiser had ruined in his campaign for power.

“Now what?” Birch asked.

“I guess we wait,” I told him with a shrug.

“Wait?” he moaned, letting his bow drop with a disappointed sigh. “I should’ve gone on the Gus mission. You guys had way more fun.”

Juniper set up a fire. It was cold now that we’d stopped moving, and we had no idea how long it would take Nik to appeal to Elliot to help us. Not that we had an abundance of time to waste. The election was fast approaching.

“Does anyone know the time?” I asked, hugging my knees to my chest beside the campfire.

“4:00 AM,” Aaron told me. “Aren’t you exhausted?”

I hadn’t slept properly for days. But somehow I’d kept going. Probably from adrenaline. I was going to have a hardcore crash once this was all over. My poor little adrenal glands.

“Yeah,” I replied. “But I won’t be able to sleep until this is over anyway.”

Retta squeezed my hand. “Do you think Nik will be able to convince Elliot to speak?” she asked. I could hear the lack of conviction in her voice.

I nodded but I felt less than confident. Elliot had been reluctant to even show his face to us. Hell, he’d played dead like a frickin’ opossum in an attempt to get us to give up on him. What were the chances that he’d agree to announce to the sun community of New York City that their golden boy William Geiser had framed him for murder?

Just then, Elliot’s voice from the trees became raised. He was shouting.

“I won’t!” he screamed. “I can’t go back! They’ll kill me!”

I shot Retta a look. “I think we can take that as a no,” I said, answering her question.

I leaped to my feet as it dawned on me what was happening. Our last hope was about to bolt.

“You’re not gonna like this, kids,” I said, “but we’re gonna have to grab him.”

“What?” Juniper cried. “We’re not kidnapping him, Theia!”

But Birch was up on his feet already, rubbing his hands together with excited glee. “Leave this to me.”

“No!” Juniper cried, too late; Birch had streaked off into the forest.

“Sorry,” I told her sheepishly.

She just shook her head with frustration.

We followed after Birch until we heard the sound of a scuffle up ahead. When we caught up to him, we discovered Birch was pinning the frail Vanpari down with the whole weight of his body like a wrestler in the ring.

“Got him!” he cried, evidently thrilled with himself.

Well, it might not have been the most sensible way of doing it, but at least now we could take Elliot back to the house, feed him, clean him up, and give Nik the chance to persuade his friend to help us face to face.

But as the first mourning doves began to sing in the dawn of election day, I couldn’t help but worry we might already be too late.