Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

members, we’re easy.” Annabel shrugged, but the faint humor faded and her dark eyes
     went very somber. “Keep that dagger close, honey, just to be on the safe side. You
     know how to handle yourself.”
    Riley shivered. It was the first time Annabel had indicated she thought something
     was amiss as well. That moved Riley’s fanciful notions from ridiculous right back
     into the realm of reality. Her mother was always calm, always practical. If she thought
     something was wrong, then it was.
    A bird sounded in the forest on the riverbank, the noise traveling clearly across
     the open water. To lighten her mother’s suddenly troubled mood, Riley cupped her hands
     around her mouth and repeated the call. She didn’t get the delighted laughter she’d
     hoped for but her mother did smile and pat her hand.
    “That’s totally freaky how you can do that.” Don Weston had left off slapping at bugs
     and was now staring at her like she was some carnival sideshow. “Can you imitate anything?”
    Despite her dislike of the man, Riley shrugged. “Most things. Some people have photographic
     memories that let them remember anything they see or read. I call what I have ‘phonographic’
     memory. I can remember and repeat virtually any sound I hear. That’s one of the reasons
     I went into linguistics.”
    “That’s quite a talent,” Gary Jansen remarked.
    “Isn’t it?” Annabel slid an arm around Riley’s waist. “When she was little, she used
     to imitate crickets chirping inside the house just to watch me go crazy trying to
     find them. And heaven help her father if he slipped up and used language he shouldn’t
     in front of her. She could repeat it perfectly, right down to the pitch of his voice.”
    Riley’s heart dropped at the sorrow and love in her mother’s tone. She forced a little
     laugh. “I was also good at mimicking my teachers, the ones I wasn’t particularly fond
     of,” she volunteered with a small, mischievous grin. “I could call from school and
     tell Mom just what a wonderful student I was.” Now her mother did laugh, and the sound
     filled Riley with relief.
    To Riley, Annabel was beautiful. She was of medium height, slender, with dark wavy
     hair and darker eyes, flawless Spanish skin and a smile that made everyone around
     her want to smile. Riley was much taller, with bone-straight blue-black hair that
     grew almost overnight no matter how many times she cut it. She was very curvy, with
     high cheekbones and pale, nearly translucent skin. Her eyes were large and the color
     was nearly impossible to define—green, brown, Florentine gold. Her mother always said
     she was a throwback to a long-dead ancestor.
    To her knowledge, her mother had never been sick a day in her life. She had no wrinkles,
     and Riley had never seen a single gray hair on her head. But now, for the first time,
     Riley saw vulnerability in her mother’s eyes, and that was as unsettling as the crackling
     in the air signaling a coming storm. Riley’s father had died only two weeks ago, and
     in their family, husband and wife rarely lived for very long without one another.
     Riley was determined to stick close to her mother. She could already sense Annabel
     pulling away, becoming more despondent by the day, but Riley was determined not to
     lose her. Not to grief, and not to whatever was hunting them on this trip.
    Early morning had seen the last of the main river; the two boats were now traveling
     up a tributary toward their destination. In the reed-choked waters, the ever-present
     insects were getting worse by the moment. Clouds of bugs continually assaulted them.
     More rushed toward the boat as if scenting fresh blood. Weston and Shelton both went
     into a frenzy of cursing and slapping at exposed skin, although they both remembered
     to keep their mouths firmly closed after eating a mouthful of bugs. Ben Charger and
     the two researchers endured the insects stoically, following the example set by their
     guide and the porters.
    The locals in their party didn’t bother to even slap at the bugs as the pearly cloud
     descended en masse. Riley could see the boat ahead and they were even closer to the
     shore, yet as far as she could tell, the bugs hadn’t attacked anyone aboard. Behind
     her, Annabel let out a soft startled cry. Riley spun around to find her mother completely
     enveloped in the cloud of insects. They’d abandoned everyone else and every inch of
     Annabel’s body was covered with