Jagged Embrace

Chapter 8 - Maeve

Maeve peered out the vehicle window and rubbed her eyes. Ander had woken her up early and said they needed to get on the road to make it to where they were going. She was relieved he was going to let her do something other than lie in bed, even if it was just to ride in the SUV. He continued to monitor her vitals, check her cognitive functions, and do simple hand eye coordination tests. It was a little over three days since the attack, but she felt better. He wouldn't believe her and told she'd been very confused, so he needed to continue the tests.

Thankfully, Will told them he'd need to check her on the way because Mason had assigned them another mission. Maeve yawned in the back seat. They bickered about her and what to do with her on the highway. She was tempted to yell at them and have some say in their discussion, but her eyelids grew heavy and she passed out.

"Hey sunshine, time to get up," Will said. His baritone voice had a note of amusement.

She opened her eyes. They were outside of another motel, but she didn't know what state they were in or where they had traveled to when they left the last place. Will draped his arm over the open door, peeking at her with a grin. In the distance, she watched Ander carry their bags into the room.

"Did I sleep the whole way?"

"Yeah, you wanna eat? We grabbed food."

She stretched her arms and nodded. He waited until she scooted to the edge of the seat and offered his hand to her. He'd never done that before. She hesitated, but then slipped her palm into his and stepped out of the vehicle. He didn't move, and she almost bumped into him. She felt heat in her cheeks as she tried to avoid crashing into him.

"I'm not gonna bite you, at least not right now," he teased, and winked at her.

For a moment, she was frozen. Trapped by his steely, smoldering gaze, it reminded her of before and made her wary. His expression changed, the levity disappearing. Her stomach tightened.

"Look, I... shouldn't have reacted the way I did about you seeing shades. It was shitty. I get you don't know why you can see them." He averted his eyes.

"Will, I-" she started.

"I was being a bastard. I'm an asshole a lot of the time," he said, still looking away. He swallowed and turned his stormy eyes back to her. "But I could've lost you and you'd think I didn't care, and I do."

Maeve couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. Was it real? Or was she still asleep in the back of the SUV? "Are you apologizing to me?" her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, I guess I am," he said awkwardly.

She struggled not to smile, but she understood he rarely acknowledged his wrongdoings, let alone apologized for them, and it made warmth spread through her. "Thank you." She planted a kiss on his cheek. "We should eat." She slid her hand into his.

********

"So, what do we think it is, again?" Maeve asked and bit into the cheeseburger Will had chosen for her.

"It is difficult to be certain, but based on the recent sightings, it has been called the Jersey Devil, or variation of that creature. Some have even claimed it is the Mothman from West Virginia that migrated here," Ander replied.

"Wait... Jersey Devil, that isn't real though, right? And Mothman? I mean, he never hurt anyone, just flew around and freaked people out?" Maeve had another bite.

She tried to recall what she and her cousin Wynne had seen or read about either of those creatures. Both were considered urban legends and not real except to the people who claimed to have seen it. The mothman was a insectoid creature with wings and red eyes and the Jersey Devil was a odd monster from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Maeve remembered she and Wynne laughing of the bizarre combination of a kangaroo-like creature with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, wings, horns and a tail. At the time it seemed more like a child's drawing than a real creature.