She finished sending basic commands to his brain stem and started repairing the rest of the wound. She worked on the skull next. There was so much damage she plunged into an entirely new area of healing as she tried to coax the bone into regenerating.

And it did.

Slowly, very slowly, the bone began to grow back over the jagged holes left by the bullet. Tears blurred her eyes. She didn't know if she cried from grat.i.tude or grief. She wiped her face on the rough sleeve of the poncho.

The last thing she did was focus on the skin at his scalp, both entry and exit. She didn't take a real breath until the wound had sealed over. Then she slumped.

Nicholas formed in front of her again. She looked up at the ghost, her eyes raw.

Yes, he said.

Chapter Twenty-one.

AFTER RETRIEVING JERRY and Jamie's blue and white cooler of water bottles and packaged snacks, Michael untied the cords that held the two boats together and pushed away from the smaller one. He shoved a water bottle at Jerry, who looked sh.e.l.l-shocked.

"Drink," he said.

The older man obeyed. His hands shook.

Taking the helm again, Michael accelerated away. In the back of his mind, where he kept a tally of estimates, he guessed they probably had been stationary for around five minutes. "The simplest thing will be if you and Jamie come back to the island with us."

"No," said Jerry. "Thank you, but we need to get to Sara and make sure that she's all right."

Sara, Jamie's mother, lived and worked in Muskegon. Michael's jaw tightened. Jerry was right to be concerned. He thought through their options, came to a decision and turned toward Charlevoix. Jerry lived roughly twenty minutes outside of the city, traveling by car, but they could reach it a lot quicker by boat.

"Here's what we're going to do," he said. "We'll get close enough to Charlevoix that I can swim the rest of the distance into the docks. You'll pilot out to deep water. I'll get my boat and meet up with you. Then you and Jamie can take this one. I have weapons, money and a sat phone." He nodded to the black canvas bag that he had set in the corner. "You can go to one of our safe houses and wait there until you hear from us. You're not his main focus. He's too busy to spend too much time searching, if we make it difficult enough to find you. And in a week or two, we can hope that it won't matter anymore."

Jerry's gaze focused on the bag. "Sara's probably on her way home from work at the bank. I need to call and tell her not to go home."

"Keep the call brief. Don't explain or identify yourself by name. She'll recognize your voice. Just set a place to meet. Make sure it's somewhere that you are both familiar with, but don't mention it by name or talk about directions. Then hang up."

Jerry knelt and dug through the bag until he found the phone. Then he paused as he held it. "What about Charlevoix? Won't they be watching the ports?"

"They are," said Michael. "But they should be focused on watching the sh.o.r.e. They won't be expecting me to swim in alone underwater. I'll slip onto the boat and take it out before anybody notices."

Probably. Projecting the null s.p.a.ce would help with his chances. It was always a matter of weighing risks.

Jerry called his daughter. Michael tuned out of the brief, frantic conversation. Instead he thought about what was happening below. Mary hadn't contacted him or surfaced, which meant that Jamie was in a bad way but hopefully salvageable. With luck, she would be done with healing him by the time they had to split up.

If he were a kind and generous man, he would give Jerry and Jamie his sleek, fast cigarette boat.

He wasn't a kind and generous man. He had helped to rescue them from certain death, and he would give them a fighting chance. That would have to be good enough.

The late afternoon was beautiful on the lake. The silver-topped sapphire water looked limitless, as did the sky. Violence and gun battles seemed a lifetime away, whereas he knew better. They were never a lifetime away. They were always in this lifetime. He carried them with him wherever he went.

When they were about a third of a mile out from the city, he said, "This is as close as we should get. Take the wheel and head out exactly due west. Keep the speed steady, but don't go too fast or do anything else that might call attention to you. If I don't catch up with you in a half an hour, go straight to the island. Understand?"

Jerry nodded, his craggy face determined. "Just get back to us in a half an hour."

"I will." He unlaced his combat boots and toed them off. Then he took several deep, rapid breaths, held the last one and dove over the side.

The water was bitingly cold. He ignored it and swam hard, keeping the null s.p.a.ce firmly around him. After a few minutes, his body temperature spiked from the exertion, which made the cold swim much easier to tolerate.

The psychic realm felt as unsettled as it had yesterday. Things ghosted along the periphery of his senses, and he felt creatures roaming up ahead. After swimming roughly half the distance, he eased to the surface for a fresh breath of air and a quick look around. He adjusted his course to aim straight for the docks and slipped underwater again.

He rented a slip for the boat in the Charlevoix City Marina under a fict.i.tious name. The slip lay close to the marina exit. While he was certain that watchers had been stationed at Charlevoix, their job was made more challenging by the fact that the day was so sunny and beautiful.

Traffic was heavy on the water with all kinds of pleasure craft. The most dangerous part of the swim was making sure that he kept well below the hulls and propellers of pa.s.sing boats and Jet Skis.

Also, he belatedly realized, it was Friday of Memorial Day weekend. All of that conspired to work in his favor.

He stayed low in the water until he reached the slips. Then he surfaced underneath one, alongside a metal railing. He had come in close to his boat, just three slips away.

The rest of the maneuver went as smooth as b.u.t.ter. When he reached the correct slip, he climbed up the railing and eased over the side of the boat. He untied it, started the engine and accelerated gently out of the marina. The whole thing took less than three minutes.

When he reached open water, he increased his speed until he traveled at a carefully sedate pace. The wind sliced through his wet clothes, cooling him rapidly from the heat of his swim, until his body tightened into a miserable knot. The farther out he maneuvered from the other craft, the faster he accelerated, until he hit over 120 mph and the boat skimmed along the top of the water with a high, smooth growl.

The sight of land slid away behind him. He adjusted his course to travel at a slight northwestern angle while he scanned the horizon. With Jerry's trajectory, they should come in sight soon.

They did. As soon as he spotted a likely speck on the horizon, he headed straight for it. The speck grew rapidly. Soon he could make out identifying details on the other vehicle.

He didn't relax until he knew for sure it was them. Then the tight snarl of tension between his shoulders eased. He grew aware all over again of how cold he had become. Shudders wracked his body. He kept extra clothes, plus other supplies in the tiny cabin s.p.a.ce below, but he didn't want to stop until he had reached the others.

Jerry had been keeping an eye out for his appearance, because the other boat slowed to a stop as he came closer. He shifted down and approached them slowly. Jerry left the cabin to catch the ropes that Michael tossed to him. Together they hauled the two boats close together. Michael leaped aboard the other boat.

"Your lips are blue," Jerry said with a frown.

The other man started to shrug out of his lined jean jacket. Michael waved at him to stop. "I have clothes I can change into in a minute. We need to finish this and separate."

Mary and Jamie sat close together on the deck. Jamie had a blanket wrapped around his broad shoulders, and Mary had her arm around him. Her face was smudged from recent tears, but she looked calm enough.

Michael was pleasantly surprised. She had found some way to wash some of the blood off of Jamie. His clothes were still b.l.o.o.d.y, but his face and neck looked somewhat cleaner. So did his long, dark hair, which spilled loosely down his back. Dark hollows etched the skin around Jamie's eyes, and the rich copper tone of his skin carried an ashen hue, but he looked a h.e.l.l of a lot better than he had earlier when he had been covered in blood and unconscious.

Jamie lifted his head and met Michael's gaze briefly. Michael paused at the power and intelligence in those dark, too-old eyes. He had underestimated the younger man.

That was good. That meant Jamie would be a real a.s.set to Jerry and his mother with the challenges they would face over the next several days.

Precious time was ticking away. Michael said to Mary, "Ready?"

She nodded, turned to Jamie and they came together.

Michael had intended to turn away and sort through what he would give to the other two men, but the sight of Jamie and Mary's tight embrace held him in place. Jamie put a hand at the back of Mary's head, closed his eyes and bowed his greater frame around Mary's shorter, slender body.

"I have no words for what you've done for me," Jamie said, very low. "Simply no words."

"Not everybody gets a second chance," Mary said. "It was the right thing to do. You can do this. It'll be hard, but it's going to be okay. Remember, be sure to protect your head for at least a couple of weeks. It's going to take a while for the bones in your skull to finish regenerating."

Michael's eyes narrowed as he listened to them. What was the right thing to do, and why would it be hard?

"Poor kid's been rattled since he came to," Jerry muttered to him. "Near death experiences can do that to a body."

Jerry's words brought Michael back to his purpose. He knelt in front of his canvas bag and pulled out an envelope of cash, two handguns and printed directions to one of their safe houses. He handed everything to Jerry.

"This house is in northern Illinois, about a half an hour outside of Joliet," he told the older man. "It's quiet and rural. You should pick up supplies at one of the strip malls just after you exit I-80. There's a thousand dollars in the envelope, which should be more than enough for five to eight weeks of food for all three of you, if you're frugal. You'll have to figure out transportation once you reach land. Don't use your IDs to rent a car."

"I understand," said Jerry. "We'll get there."

"You have a cell phone?"

"Yes. Astra has the number."

"Good." Michael grabbed his combat boots and shoved them into the bag. Then he grabbed four bottles of water from Jerry's cooler and shoved those into the bag as well. He zipped it shut and straightened. "We will call you when it's safe for all of you to return home again."

He didn't bother with any further instructions. If they didn't call Jerry, it meant that they had failed. Jerry, Sara and Jamie would have to figure out the rest of their lives on their own.

Mary and Jamie joined him. She gave Jerry a hug, while Michael looked at Jamie. He said, "Look after your grandfather and your mom."

Jamie's young, sensual face set into uncharacteristically hard lines. "I will."

Michael climbed into the cigarette boat first and held out a hand to help Mary. They cast off. Jamie raised a hand to them as they pulled away.

Mary looked at Michael with concern.

"You need to change into dry clothes right now," she said.

"I know," he said. He was shaking violently, and he couldn't feel his fingers or toes.

He couldn't fumble the hatch key into the lock, and she had to help him. He ducked his head to enter the small s.p.a.ce and tore out of his wet, freezing clothes. "Be sure to keep an eye out. Let me know if any vessels approach."

"I am," she said from above. "I will."

The minuscule cabin was very simple. It held a bed, with storage s.p.a.ce underneath and shallow cabinets along the walls. He forced his shaking limbs into jeans, woolen socks and his boots, a T-shirt and a sweater and a wind-resistant jacket.

He had expended ma.s.sive amounts of energy over the last two days. He hadn't eaten since earlier that morning before he had gone to bed, and he couldn't remember the meal he'd had before that. Desperate for some quick calories, he opened a plastic storage container that held a box of protein bars and bags of trail mix, and he didn't stop until he had bolted down four of the protein bars.

Finally he was able to slow down. He hadn't stopped shaking, but he felt as if the worst had pa.s.sed. He climbed back onto the deck.

The afternoon had melted into evening. Golden color blazed across the western sky, while the blue toward the east had deepened. Mary sat with her makeshift poncho wrapped tightly around her torso. She looked as exhausted as he felt.

"There's food and warm clothes down below," he told her. He started up the boat again, compulsively calculating again how long they might have been at a standstill. He guessed not quite fifteen minutes. It could have been worse. "It's going to be a chilly ride to the island. You should put on a few more layers."

She nodded, her expression distant as she looked off in the direction that Jerry and Jamie had gone. She asked wistfully, "Do you think they'll make it now?"

He wasn't one for uttering meaningless rea.s.surances. "I don't know. The Deceiver hadn't gone after Jerry's daughter yet. You were able to heal Jamie, which frankly I didn't think was possible when I first laid eyes on him. They've got a fighting chance, which is all any of us can hope for right now."

She turned to look at him, her gaze turning grave. "That wasn't Jamie."

THE TRIP BACK to the island was uneventful and, thanks to their vastly improved boat, as quick as possible.

After retrieving one of his long-sleeved thermal shirts from the cabin, Mary offered only a brief explanation about what had happened, her words slow with exhaustion.

"I can't even describe what I did. It was part of what you did when you taught me how to give energy, and part of what the dragon did when it healed my spirit wound. I . . . fused Nicholas's spirit with Jamie's body."

"It's G.o.dd.a.m.n amazing," he said. They were traveling at such high speed, he could only spare quick glances at her. She did not look triumphant. Instead, she looked incredibly saddened.

"It was a terrible decision, of course." She shook trail mix into one hand. "Brain stem injury. Jamie had died almost instantly, except that his body had not yet shut down. Nicholas had to decide quickly. At first, he didn't want to, but I told him, it wasn't fair for his dad and his sister to lose both of them. And he gave in, I think, more because he thought he should than because he really wanted to. He's hurting pretty badly right now."

"I knew something was different, but I didn't even think to connect it to that." He wiped spray off his face. "You do realize what you did, don't you?"

She just looked at him, her gaze a tired blank.

"Not only did you give a dead man a second chance at life," he told her, "but you might very well have thought of a way to save one of us if we get killed. If our ghosts hang on and the others can find a drone, we don't necessarily have to pa.s.s on to another life. That potentially changes everything, Mary."

Life came back into her expression. "You're right. I hadn't thought that far."

They spent the rest of the journey in silence. The last of the daylight was fading into night when they reached close enough to the island's coordinates that Michael had to slow down. They crept forward at a cautious pace, apparently moving toward nothing but open water, until from one moment to the next, they pa.s.sed through the veil of the null s.p.a.ce that the island projected.

Land appeared before them. The entire island lay not two hundred yards away.

"If I hadn't just seen that for myself, I don't know that I would believe it," Mary said. "Of course, I've been saying that a lot over the last several days."

"I know what you mean."

He eased the boat near to the old pier and cut the motor to coast the rest of the way. Then he released the anchor, and both he and Mary worked to moor it in place.

Together they both looked at the path.

"I don't think I don't have the energy to walk up that hill," she muttered.

"We don't have to." He put an arm around her and steered her toward the tiny cabin. "We can sleep right here."

She didn't object, but she asked, "Shouldn't we let Astra know we're back?"

"She already knows. She knows everything that happens on this land."

He kicked the door shut behind them. The cabin was chilly and in deep shadow as the last of the daylight fled, but the bed was right in front of them and he had plenty of thermal blankets.

He helped her to undress, and then she turned and helped him. With the matter-of-factness of the immensely exhausted, they climbed naked into the bed. He reached out for her, and after only the slightest hesitation, she came readily into his arms.