Ethan Eternal

Chapter 4

“Fire and Ice”

            His son was dead, his wife was dead… and unless a miracle occurred in the next few seconds… he was going to follow. Worse than his own demise was the apparent truth that he was going to be responsible for the death of another person he knew and loved. There was no time left to contemplate or dwell. There was no time to think about anything. There only time enough to scream.

            Kevin had almost been killed twice this morning. Debra never had a chance to pull her trigger because they had both been interrupted by a bomb set on a slightly misjudged delay. Fleeing the scene of the burning Chrysler, they had driven to her home… never braking once. In their panic, they also never saw the silver van pursuing them… never knew until this moment that death had only introduced himself earlier. Now they would make his acquaintance in person.

            Kevin shouted to Debra as he dove to the hard wood floor. His warning was late… but not too late. She lifted her eyes from the phone book she had been analyzing just in time to see the massive figure just outside her window rack his 12 gauge shotgun. She stumbled away from the tall living room window as it simultaneously exploded in a rain of watery glass. George had found them.

            They hit the floor hard and it took them each a moment to get a handle on what was happening… but they did… and they didn’t wait for the man to load another shell to see what he had planned next. Kevin grabbed her arm and threw Debra into the kitchen. He crawled as quickly as a man in his position could and followed her through the swinging wooden door.

            As he started to speak to her, that door exploded as well. Debra screamed through the mist of splintered wood… not that either of them could hear it. Both had been rendered virtually deaf by the power of the dual concussions. They could still feel though… and after only a second or two, each detected an unmistakable shudder emanating from the room recently left behind. The pounding grew louder… stronger… until at last… the front door broke free… and a murderous madman entered where it had once been.

            Kevin jumped to his feet and grabbed two large knives from the counter top. Without hesitation, he hurled them at the gaping hole in the kitchen door. The razor edge of a spinning silver blade missed George’s jugular by about 3 inches. The first knife shot past him and buried itself deep in a wooden column across the room. The second blade grazed the great man’s face… taking with it a thin yet significant sample of skin.

            More surprised than hurt, George winced and stumbled back from the kitchen. This gave Kevin and Debra just enough time to gain a solid footing and find the back door. The two fugitives spilled down a short flight of cement stairs and onto the pebble covered driveway behind the house. Behind them, George screamed with animal rage and began chasing them with buckshot.

            Forced to the rain drenched pebbles, Debra and Kevin dodged debris as the wall behind them disintegrated into shredded ruin. Kevin looked back for a split second as he ran. George was not pursuing. Perhaps the wound to his face had been more severe than previously thought. Kevin almost smiled before he turned his sight back in the direction he was running. Debra stood frozen just feet ahead. Kevin skidded to a slippery stop. Something unexpected was waiting for them here… something huge and menacing. White teeth glistened against bared jaws. A mound of muscled flesh seemed to pile up from the ground itself. Grey and black hair stood on end. It could only be a werewolf.

George spit with anger and was about to throw himself through the shattered kitchen wall when he caught a scent on the wind. Normally men do not notice such things… especially in the midst of red blooded rage… but this was a familiar odor to him… and its meaning could not be mistaken. He halted just before breaking through the wall and sniffed… sniffed again. Indeed… he was right. George grinned and began to laugh.

            Colt scared the man and woman pretty bad but that was part of his job. If they weren’t scared, they sure weren’t going to stop and he wouldn’t be much of a police dog if he couldn’t stop suspects. He didn’t think that these were the bad kind of “suspects” as his friend often called them. These were more like the “need help” kind of suspects. He would help them. That was his job… but for now his friend needed Colt to keep them from leaving. There was no mistaking the hand signal. He was a very well trained dog and knew his orders well. Even with the bad man screaming and laughing… and his friend somewhere in the house… Colt would not be afraid. He was a good dog.

            George laughed. He smiled widely with the insanity of an escaped mental patient. The dog was here. That meant that The Ranger was here as well. He knew these two very well. For the past seven weeks, he has monitored this odd team of man and beast… just as they had surely monitored him. They had met before… and not in a casual sort of way…

The last time George had detected the scent of the wet German Sheppard, it had been drenched not in rain… but in the fine spray of industrial fire suppressors. The inferno had been incredible. In fact, George had barely escaped with his own life. He had been fairly convinced that Ranger Perry Long had not survived. He now thought better of this theory… and it pleased him greatly.

Through his laughter, George shouted in a deafening roar.

“Well… Well… Well… I see you survived Montana!”

There was a long pause and then a rusty voice echoed through the wrecked hall of the house.

“Hello George. You want to go quietly this time?”

George smiled.

“Come now Ranger Long… No one… goes quietly.”

“No…” Perry muttered to himself… pistol raised to his cheek… back pressed firmly against the wall just inside the living room. “I recon not…”

Time seems to slow in moments of extreme stress. It does so even more in moments of tremendous violence. Even the rain outside seemed to obey this strange bending of natural law when Perry spun around the corner into the kitchen doorway.

He held not one but two silver revolvers. George admired the symmetry of that… and the gall. He lifted his 12 gauge shotgun to chest level and squeezed the trigger with gentle precision. At the very same instant, two black chambers filled with fire and steel. The air within the room split as weapons glowed and screamed. George dove through the outer wall, firing his massive gun as he did. Perry emptied both guns into the chest of his foe as a haze of chalky dust blew over the hole to the outside world.

George struck the pebbled driveway harder than expected. The force of the fall partially knocked the wind form his lungs. That pissed him off. He fired the shotgun twice more towards the house and then threw the empty weapon away. Struggling to regain his strength from the impact of falling as well as being shot; he jogged through the murky air and across the empty yard.

Perry emerged from the kitchen doorway with his twin guns bared. He glanced in both directions…glanced again… and then waited for ten seconds before stepping down onto the stones below. He whistled sharply. Colt answered. The Ranger waited another moment and then he walked carefully toward the direction of his dog’s familiar yelp.

Kevin and Debra were sitting beside the garage when Perry came upon them. Colt was sitting proudly… but not too proudly… a few feet away.

“Who was that?!” Debra shouted through heavy gasps.

“Did you kill him?” Kevin asked calmly.

“Who are you?!!” Debra begged in horror… Kevin’s calm demeanor clearly disturbing her. She glanced to both men… to the dog… and then back to the Texas Ranger standing boldly above her. His silver star seemed to solidify in her mind that whatever she thought she understood about the death of her sister and nephew was about to be cast into oblivion forever.

Perry looked over her and over Kevin. His eyes were cold and still. His face sent a shiver down Debra’s spine. Kevin too felt this… in fact he always has… every time. The Ranger eyed the squatting man and woman with a suspicious stare… settling his glare on Kevin’s blue eyes.

“I’m sorry about Amanda.” Perry whispered respectfully.

Kevin lowered his stare. “Yeah…”

Debra could not have been more confused. She watched Ranger Long lower himself to her side. His hands were frozen as he took hers and guided her to a stand. They each hesitated for a brief instant… lost inside the air between them… before the tall lawman finally spoke.

“My name is Perry Long Ma’am.  I’m a Texas Ranger.”

“I know…”she murmured in a trance and then added quickly,”I mean... I saw your star.”

They paused again.

More clearly… she continued, “What the hell is going on?”

Perry glanced to Kevin… to his trusted partner sitting proudly… and then met her eyes once more with a fierce and determined stare.

“Ms. Renard… If I tell you… you won’t believe me.”

Debra forced his hands from hers as she replied with coiled wrath, “No. You tell me! Don’t you dare try and tell me what I will and won’t believe. My family… my family… is ripped to pieces…”

She struggled with every ounce of courage that she could find to fight back a flood of unspilled tears. Her voice cracked but did not break.

“Tell me!”

Kevin rose to his feet and spoke with a calm he had not allowed himself to experience in 7 weeks.

“Debra…”

She turned to face her brother-in-law.

“I killed them… I killed them both.”

He paused.

“Danny…”

He began to cry.

“Amanda…”

Kevin lost all strength. He fell to the pebbled ground in tears… caught in the tide of his unleashed grief. Debra followed.

The Texas Ranger turned his eyes away… toward the falling skies… and prayed to a God he did not know… for a peace he did not understand… and for a chance that would never come… a chance to make this right.

George ripped the bullet proof vest off and threw it on the motel room floor. He stumbled into the steaming shower and shivered. The Ranger was becoming more than just an amusement… he was becoming a problem. Soon, he would have to settle their score… once and for all.

(To be continued…)