“I’ll be right outside.” Dakota turned and left the room.
“Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here.” Using a sharp knife, Elizabeth split the shirt down the middle and parted the sides. Anastasia craned her neck to look down, seeing splotches of blue, black, and purple, covered in a thin layer of dirt and dried blood.
“Shit,” Elizabeth cursed. “Honey, I need help, and lots of it. Do you want Dakota or Tony?”
Both men would be furious, but since Dakota had helped her heal on more than one occasion, she hoped he would continue not looking at her like a victim. Tony, on the other hand, considered her a daughter. It was hard to look at someone you felt of as a child and not see a victim.
“Dakota.”
“Okay. Tilly, can you please grab Dakota?” she asked when Tilly handed her a small container with a purple cream inside.
Moments later, Tilly returned with Dakota.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Dakota growled.
Anastasia clenched her eyes shut. Other than what her undergarments covered, the entirety of her body was on display in the bright light of the cottage.
“Anastasia,” Elizabeth said sadly.
“What is it?” she asked carefully, the words making her feel like daggers were stabbing into her chest.
“This is going to hurt, but I have to see how many are broken.”
“How many of what?”
“Ribs.”
Anastasia bit back a scream as Elizabeth started feeling on her side.
“Honey, I need you to stop moving. Dakota, hold her.”
Dakota stepped up to Anastasia’s head and looked down at her. His mouth was pulled into a tight line, and tears shone in his eyes. “I’m so fucking sorry, Ana.”
Elizabeth snapped her fingers to get his attention. “I need you to focus. I have to see how many ribs are broken and make sure there is nothing going on internally, but I need you to hold her still. Can you do that?”
As carefully as he could, he gripped her arms and held on. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her head.
Anastasia closed her eyes.
He felt so warm to her, so incredibly familiar, that some of her heartbreak began to smooth away. This was the Dakota she knew, the Dakota who called her Ana, and drank scotch, and would support her no matter what she chose to do with her life.
This man right here, the one holding onto her for dear life, was the man she loved more than her own life.
No fictional reality crafted by Vincent could create anyone as wonderful as Dakota Parker.
“Aghh!” Anastasia screamed in agony as Elizabeth resumed feeling her sides. She struggled to get away from the pain, but Dakota held on.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered again, and he repeated the words as she tried to get away from the pain.
“There’s one, two,” Elizabeth muttered to Tilly, “three, four.”
Ana sucked in a harsh breath.
“I’m so sorry, Anastasia, but I can’t stop.”
“Aghh!” she screamed again, then focused on Dakota until spots swam in her vision and, soon, the pain stopped.
30
Terrenia
Dakota
Six hours, four broken ribs, some internal bleeding, a fractured arm, and multiple lacerations later, his mother and Tilly finally finished working on Ana.
Dakota stared down at her battered face. They’d wiped her clean of the dirt and dried blood, revealing the bruising and open cuts still marring her light skin. She’d passed out before his mom had finished checking for broken ribs, and it had been a damn good thing she did.
His mother had been forced to perform surgery in order to suture up a tear in her abdomen.
“I don’t know how she is alive, Dakota.” His mother wiped tears and sweat from her face, shaking her head. “I'm glad she is, but I don’t know how. The pain alone should have put her in shock.”
“She’s tough.” The steady rise and fall of her chest were enough to put a bit of his fear to rest, but it did nothing to curb the bone-deep rage that had him wishing he could bring all those Brutes back from the dead just so he could kill them again.
There was a knock at the door, then Carmen and Argento came in with the Brute healer in tow.
“How is she?” Argento asked, approaching Ana’s sleeping form.
“Alive,” Dakota answered.
“I don’t know how they kept her alive, even with her magic,” his mother said, still shocked.
“The stasis would have helped.” The healer moved to stand beside Ana.
“How so?” Dakota asked.
“We use the stasis for those who are injured beyond healing as well, as a way to help them pass peacefully.”
“He was using it just so she wouldn’t die?”
“I do not believe so.” The healer placed his hand gently over her forehead and closed his eyes. “The stasis he used was much stronger than that. It wouldn’t have worked long, though, with the amount of magic in her blood.” He removed his hand. “I can feel it just by being here in her presence.”
“She is very powerful,” Carmen said proudly.
“That she is,” the healer agreed.
“Why don’t you all go and rest? I will sit with her until morning.” Carmen took a seat next to the fireplace, a book in her hand and a cup of what smelled suspiciously like coffee.
“I’m fine,” Dakota said, unmoving.
“Dakota George, let’s go.” Elizabeth squeezed his shoulder gently. “You need rest. We both do.”
“You are just like some of the females in our world,” Argento said. “They are strong and stubborn as well.”
“I will take that as a compliment.” Elizabeth smiled. “Let’s go, son. Thank you, Carmen.”
Dakota shook his head. “I’ll sleep here tonight.”
Elizabeth eyed him. “You and I both know you won’t sleep if you stay in here. You’ll do nothing but pace until she wakes up.”
“I’ll make sure he sleeps,” Carmen offered. “I can knock him out with some magic if necessary.”
Argento laughed again. “Just like the females in my world!”
Dakota shot him a glare that only made the Brute laugh harder.
“Okay.” Elizabeth sighed. “But you’d better get some sleep.”
“Scouts honor.” He held up his middle and pointer finger.
“You were never a boy scout.”
Dakota shrugged and watched as Elizabeth and Argento stepped out into the now bright day. He looked down at Ana and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She may not be out of the woods yet, but he had her back, and that was a huge relief.
“She will be fine if you sleep.” Carmen took a seat in the chair he had vacated beside the bed. “But I won’t tell on you if you choose not to.” She winked and Dakota ran his hands over his face.
“I probably should get some sleep, I just—”
She held up her hand and said knowingly, “I understand.”
“If she wakes up, please let me know.”
“I will, get some sleep.”
Dakota drug a cot over from the other side of the room and laid down. After being away for so long, even a matter of feet felt like too far. After one last look at Ana, he closed his eyes and let the sound of her steady breathing lull him into sleep.
31
Terrenia
Anastasia
Anastasia opened her eyes and squinted at the light shining through the slats of the shuttered windows. The room was quiet, save for the crackling wood of the fire. She turned her head and nearly cried out when she saw Dakota sleeping beside her. His chest rose and fell gently with each breath, and her broken heart began to repair.
“How are you feeling?”
Anastasia turned her head to the familiar voice. The older woman set aside a book she’d been reading.
“Am I dreaming?” Anastasia asked.
“No, not this time.” Carmen smiled and stood to walk toward her. “It is nice to fin
ally meet you in person, Anastasia.” She reached down and patted Anastasia’s hand, and the gesture was so kind, so familial, that it brought tears to her eyes. She really was home.
“How did you get here?”
“Once I finished talking with you, I portaled here from where I was living.”
“Which was?”
She shrugged. “A little here and a little there. I like to move around.” Carmen took a seat near the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“My body aches in places I didn’t even know existed.” She laughed and winced when the movement sent a sharp pain through her ribs. “But I’ll live.”
There was a knock at the door, and Carmen stood to answer it. Anastasia leaned back against her pillow and tried to take a deep breath. The action was freeing, but sent a sharp pain through her chest.
“I’m not sure she’s up for company just yet,” Carmen said softly.
“I just want to see that she’s all right.”
Shane. “It’s okay, Carmen.” Anastasia pulled the sheet up higher on her body. She was wearing a large t-shirt, and it wasn’t anything Shane hadn’t seen before, but it still made her feel uncomfortable.
“Are you sure?” She glanced back at Anastasia, who nodded. “Come on in. Just for a moment, though.” Carmen stepped aside and opened the door wide enough that light from outside shone into the cabin.
Shane stepped inside, his hands in tight fists at his sides. His jaw was clean shaven, his brown hair pulled back at the nape of his neck just as he’d always worn it.
His brown eyes held hers as he made his way toward her and took a seat in the chair beside the bed that her grandmother had vacated. “How are you?” he whispered.
“I’m alive.”
His eyes glistened with unshed tears. She knew he still loved her, but her heart belonged to the man lying on the cot beside her.
“I got in from a scout this morning and Tony told me about—” He ducked his head and pressed his fingers to his eyes. “I can’t imagine everything you went through.”
“I’m all right,” she assured him, with what she hoped looked more like a smile and less like she was hiding pain.
“We looked for you.”
“I know you did.”
“Your face.” He reached out to touch her, but when she leaned away just slightly, Shane dropped his hand. “I, uh, I just wanted to check in on you.” He got to his feet.
“Thank you, Shane. I mean it.”
His mouth turned up in a half smile, and he nodded. “Anytime. We’re friends, Anastasia, and I hope we will always be at least that.”
“Me too.”
Shane left the room and Carmen returned to her seat beside Anastasia. “He seems nice.
She nodded absently. “I haven’t thanked you yet.”
Carmen raised an eyebrow. “For?”
“Saving my life. You told me not to give up. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think I would have been able to come back.”
“All I did was let you know that you weren’t alone. You brought yourself back.”
Anastasia glanced down at Dakota’s face. “He came for me.”
“I told you he would.”
She smiled softly and glanced back at him. “You did.” She tried to sit, but the pain that shot through her body forced her to lie back down. “What did they do to me?”
“The list of your physical injuries is incredibly extensive. We aren’t even sure how you survived.”
“I was their favorite punching bag for a while,” she commented dryly.
“It’s the stasis he had you in that I’m most interested in hearing about. Do you feel like talking about it?”
“Stasis?”
“That’s what Argento called it. He said the Brutes use a stasis state to heal their sick or help them pass on peacefully.”
“I suppose it could work for that.”
“But I imagine that’s not what Vincent used it for.” It wasn’t a question, but Anastasia still nodded in response.
“He crafted a fake life for me, one where just about every dream I’d ever had came true. I was a writer, married to Dakota.” She reached down and placed her hand on his shoulder, reassuring herself he was real, then she glanced up at Carmen, her eyes starting to water. “We had a daughter, and she was… all of it was amazing.”
“He must have used some of your memories to craft this alternate reality.”
“Probably. It wasn’t until the end that I realized anything I thought about or said was being used against me. Fake Dakota called me Anastasia, and when I said something about how the real Dakota never used my full name, things changed.”
“What was the goal of it? Do you know?”
“He kept trying to get me to admit I didn’t have power, and that I needed to press the ‘delete’ button on my book to remove myself from the fake memories.”
“Your book?”
“Yes. In this fake world, I was a writer who only wrote about Terrenia and magic and Brutes.”
Carmen’s brow furrowed. “That’s strange. If you were fighting the stasis, it’s possible he wanted you to give into it so you would no longer be a threat. But I don’t understand why he’d leave you alive in the first place. It’s not like he could have used your power or turned you to his side.”
“He’s fucking crazy.” She managed to raise an arm and pinch the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ease the new blooming pain spreading in her head.
“Undoubtedly.”
For the first time, Anastasia noticed the silence that surrounded them. It was the middle of the day—shouldn’t there have been some noise? Children playing? Fighters training?
“Where is everyone?”
Carmen nodded. “They were getting fairly noisy out there while they waited for you to wake up, so I shielded us from the noise.”
Anastasia gaped at her. “How did you do that?”
The other woman shrugged. “I’ll teach you one day.”
“Where did you come from? How did you get here?”
“We’ll talk another day, and I promise I will fill you in on everything. For now, you need rest.” Carmen pressed a hand to Anastasia’s forehead. The warmth of her touch eased some of the pain, and her eyelids grew heavy. “Sleep now,” Carmen whispered.
Anastasia closed her eyes.
32
Dakota
Dakota sat up and stretched. His body was cramped from the small cot, but overall, he felt energized. It was the best sleep he’d had in weeks. He looked over at Ana, who slept soundly.
After pressing a kiss to her forehead, he rose to his feet and stepped out onto the porch.
Carmen greeted him with a smile. “Morning.”
“How long was I out?”
“Since yesterday morning.”
“Damn.” Dakota yawned and stretched again. “I suppose I was tired.”
Carmen nodded and held out a thermos. “Coffee?”
“You been holding out on me, Carmen?”
“Perhaps I just don’t want my secret getting out.”
“It’s safe with me.” He took the thermos from her, and poured some of the steaming liquid into the lid that doubled as a cup.
“Gregory used to bring me some from time to time. He spent so many years searching your world for her.” She gestured to Anastasia.
“Why did Vincent choose Seattle?” Dakota set the thermos down on the table beside her chair.
“Truthfully, I’m not sure. My guess would be that Seattle has something he needs, although I wouldn’t even know where to begin figuring that out.”
Dakota nodded and took a drink. “This is phenomenal.”
“Fan of instant coffee?”
“Not usually, but after not having it for weeks? It’s even better than a cup of Seattle’s finest.”
Carmen let out a laugh. “Good.”
“So, any change?” he asked, breaking the silence that had surrounded them.
“She woke up briefly, but I pu
t her back to sleep with a mild spell. She needs to heal, regenerate her magic.”
Dakota nodded. “I can’t believe what he did to her.”
“I fear there’s more to the story, too. We won’t know everything until she wakes up.”
“How could he do this to her? His own family?”
“Another mystery. I only met Vincent a handful of times, but I never would have thought him capable of this.”
“But you saw him in the vision?”
“I saw darkness in the vision, a man with no face destroying worlds and laughing while the occupants fell at his feet. When Vincent began his quest for power, we discovered he was the man. He had to be, after all.”
“But you saw her beat him?”
“I saw her win. Don’t give up hope, Dakota.”
He nodded and continued drinking. The village was just starting to stir, and a group of Fighters made their way toward the gate to take over for the night shift.
Was there ever going to be a day when they didn’t have to worry about an attack sneaking up on them in the night?
“Morning.” Tony greeted them with a wave and stepped up onto the porch. The older man’s greying hair was pulled back today and secured at the base of his neck with a cord. His eyes were hard this morning. Guess we’re all a little on edge.
“Morning,” Dakota said.
“How is she?” Tony leaned against a beam holding the roof of the porch up.
“Sleeping soundly.” Dakota took another drink. “She’ll be fine.”
He nodded. “Shane said he spoke with her yesterday.”
Dakota glanced at Carmen, who raised her hands in surrender. “She told me to let him in and he was only here for a few minutes.”
He swallowed the bite of jealousy that stabbed at him. He had never been a jealous person before, but the idea that Shane had spent the last five years getting to know the woman Ana was now irritated him.
“Green is not a good color on you… doesn’t match your eyes.” Carmen winked, and Dakota’s irritation deflated. It was impossible to feel anything but happiness in the woman’s presence.
“I’m going to get started on this morning’s training.” Tony’s voice was deeper than usual, and grated with a thick layer of pain.
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