She cried and smiled at the same time, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside. She closed the door and led him to the couch. They sat down next to each other, their faces only inches apart.
“Are you alright?” she said. “I haven’t been able to sleep. I went over to your apartment, but you weren’t there. The doctor wants to run more tests on you because some of your X-rays didn’t come out right. And the police want to talk with you, too.”
She looked down at her hands and then at Merrick.
“Why did you leave me?” she asked.
He studied her face before answering.
“I was confused. I had to get away and figure out what was happening to me.”
He looked up at her.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you, but…I tried to make the lightning come again,” he whispered.
Her hand caressed his cheek.
“You’re not the reason that lightning hit that man. Maybe it was fate or destiny or something, but you’re not responsible.”
“I tried to make it happen again,” he said, “but it didn’t work.”
“I think you need some rest. I’ll call in sick tomorrow, and we can both go back to the hospital and clear things up with the doctors and the police. I’m just glad you’re here and that you’re safe.”
“There’s nothing to clear up,” he said. “I feel fine. I don’t need to talk to anyone. I just need you right now.”
“Both of the men who attacked us are dead. You can’t just forget that it happened.”
She expected a look of surprise on his face, but instead she thought that she saw a slight grin.
“I told them you were with me the whole time,” she said, “and that all I remembered was a storm, but they weren’t convinced.”
Looking at Merrick’s perfect physical condition, Mona wasn’t sure if she was convinced anymore either. Something besides his body was wrong—the way he was acting, so uncaring about the police and about people dying. He wasn’t behaving like the Merrick she knew.
“Maybe we should go to bed,” he said.
“I think I’d like some tea first, to help me relax. Do you want some?”
“That sounds nice,” he said.
He raised his eyebrows and grinned.
Mona went into the kitchen and filled two mugs with water. She placed them in the microwave, punched in the time, and hit the start button with a shaky hand.
Merrick hated tea.
He either had brain damage, was joking with her, or the man sprawled out on her couch, kicking off his shoes and unbuttoning his shirt, somehow wasn’t Merrick at all.
She watched as he dropped his long-sleeved shirt to the floor. His lean, muscular shoulders showed through his tight T-shirt. It didn’t matter whether Merrick liked tea or not—this was no joke, and no amount of brain damage could have made him into an Adonis overnight. She didn’t understand how, but this man wasn’t her boyfriend.
She flinched as the microwave timer beeped, then she steadied herself and finished making the tea. The man watched her as she walked into the living room and set the mugs down on the coffee table coasters.
He took her hand and gently pulled her toward him. He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but instead she heard a strange noise like the sound of a match being struck. She wanted to pull away, but she was drawn to the stranger in front of her.
She searched for a glimpse of Merrick behind his cold eyes but found none.
He brushed her lips with his own. She felt his breath on her cheek before he lightly kissed the inside of her neck. Merrick had never touched her like that before. Her fear mixed with excitement.
His kisses made her eyes roll back into her head, but she tensed as he reached behind her and traced his fingers down the small of her back and beyond.
She pushed him away from her before he could go any further.
“Who are you?” she said.
He grinned that annoying grin again, then he let go of her and waved his hand almost imperceptibly. She heard another noise like the crackling of fire, and it felt like an invisible hand had released her throat.
She tensed to run, as she mentally practiced closing and locking her bedroom door with one flowing motion, but the man raised his hand as if to warn her that fleeing was not a good idea.
“My name is Eudroch,” he said. “I deeply apologize for the confusion, but if you lived in my world, you would know that people and things are often much more than they appear to be.”
“I think that’s pretty obvious in my world, too.”
“I had to be sure of your devotion to my brother, Merrick, before revealing myself,” he said, picking up his cup of tea and taking a sip. “As I said, I’m sorry for the deception. I hope you didn’t find it too…distasteful.”
Merrick had never mentioned a brother, but regardless of this man’s relationship to Merrick, he was still a stranger, and he had no right to do what he had done. Her hand flew across the couch to slap his face, but it hit an invisible wall of air just inches from making contact.
His gaze never left her eyes as he calmly took another sip of his tea.
“Such fire. I see why my brother chose you. Your enthusiasm may be useful in the future, but until that time, please try to control your temper.”
She didn’t like his reference to their future together.
“I only ask that you listen to what I have to say. Simply put, Merrick is in immediate danger, and I need your help finding him.”
Her instincts and her brief experience with Eudroch told her not to trust him—but there was no doubt that he and Merrick were related, and she wanted to find Merrick as much as he did.
“I know you have no reason to trust me right now—that you feel deceived,” he continued in a soothing voice. “But, we must put our differences aside for Merrick’s sake. We have to find him before…”
“Before what?”
“Before the traitor tries to kill him again.”
“If Merrick’s in danger, we should call the police.”
Eudroch chuckled and set down his cup of tea on the coffee table.
Mona picked up his mug and placed it back on the coaster as she tried to make sense of what was going on.
If someone were trying to kill Merrick, then that could explain why they had been attacked in the alley. But no one would have any reason to kill him—at least as far as she knew.
Maybe the muggers had been trying to kill Eudroch instead of Merrick. That made sense to her. The two looked almost exactly alike other than their bodies.
It might have even been Eudroch who had abandoned her in the hospital instead of Merrick. That kind of behavior was certainly more in keeping with what she knew about Eudroch so far, and it would also explain why Merrick had seemed so different physically to the doctor and the police—it was the only explanation that made sense.
Whatever the truth was, she wanted Merrick’s brother gone, and she wanted Merrick back. She’d get some sleep and go looking for him in the morning—maybe hire a private investigator to find out more about Eudroch.
“I’ll write down his address if you want,” she said. “I stopped by yesterday, and I’ve called him a dozen times. He’s either not there or he doesn’t want to talk to me. Either way, I’m not going to be of any use to you…besides, it’s late and I have to work tomorrow.”
Eudroch slid closer to her. He reached out to the coffee table, picked up her purse, and handed it to her.
“You’re coming with me now,” he said. “Merrick’s life may depend on you.”
Her instinct told her to doubt anything he said. At the same time, she was starting to consider that he might be responsible for Merrick’s disappearance and might therefore be the only chance she had of finding him.
“I need a few minutes to change,” she said, as she stood up and started to walk down the hall to her bedroom.
She expected him to follow her, but he seemed unconcerned as she locked her bedroom door behind her. She quickly chan
ged into her jeans and a sweater. She looked at her cell phone. She could call the police, but she wasn’t sure how to begin to describe her dilemma—besides, Eudroch could just pass himself off as Merrick again and she’d be tied up answering questions instead of out looking for Merrick. As much as she hated the idea, she might have to go along with Merrick’s jerk of a brother for now—but she wasn’t going unless he told her the truth, and she was going to be prepared in case he tried to get physical again.
She slid open her top dresser drawer and picked out a small canister of pepper spray that Merrick had purchased for her. She slipped it into her front jeans pocket and pulled her sweater down to cover the bulge.
She checked herself in the mirror. Satisfied that her weapon was concealed, she opened her bedroom door and found Eudroch, who was leaning against the front door, his arms crossed.
“Why do you really want me to come with you? I told you I don’t know where he is,” Mona asked.
“You have something that I want…well, really something that Merrick wants.”
“Well, if you want my help, you better come clean with what’s really going on. I don’t trust you, and there’s no way I’m going anywhere until I believe that you’re really trying to help him.”
Eudroch closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
“Let me put this to you in a way that you can understand. If you don’t come with me, Merrick will die. If you do come with me, there is a small chance that you can convince him to do the right thing at the right time. And, if you do that, he might live. Does that feel like the truth to you? Because it is.”
“I stay and Merrick dies. I go with you and he might live? I’m calling the police.”
She reached for her phone, but she threw it across the room when it gave her a painful electrical shock.
“What the hell was that?” she asked, her eyes widening with fear. “Some stupid trick to scare me? What did you do to my phone, you creep?”
At this, Eudroch’s face turned red as he balled his fists until his knuckles turned white. He spoke more words that crackled as if they were alive, and a ball of fire appeared in the air between them, discharging electrical streams to all parts of her apartment. Mona tried to shield her face with her hands.
“Does this look like a trick?” he yelled as the ball of fire hovered closer to her head. “I command the power of fire in all of its forms, and I am not going to ask you again to come with me.”
He whispered into the air, and the fire vanished with a whoosh.
He turned toward the door and stopped, looking back at her.
“The decision is no longer yours to make. You are with me. I hope that is clear.”
He opened the front door and led her outside. As she turned to lock the door with a shaky hand, he slipped his arm around her waist from behind. His hand settled just above the pepper spray in her front pocket. He leaned in and kissed her once on the neck.
She remained frozen in fear as he removed the pepper spray canister and tossed it aside.
“You killed that man in the alley, didn’t you,” she whispered.
Eudroch moved his face closer to hers.
“My brother did that all by himself. It is too bad you were hurt as well, but you really can’t blame him. He’s like a child right now, who’s suddenly discovered that he has the power to make his wishes come true, but who doesn’t understand how or why he is able to do so.”
“Merrick would never hurt me.”
“He didn’t mean to, but he did almost kill you tonight. Right now, it’s not important that you believe me, just that we leave before those police officers over there interrupt us.”
Mona turned her head to look as Eudroch raised his arms skyward. She turned back when she heard noises that sounded like a raging fire punctuated with explosions.
The air around her crackled to life, a gossamer fabric of millions of electric particles. When they touched her skin, it felt like the ants all over again, nipping at her body, but this time she understood their truth.
A low rumble of thunder shook the ground, and the parking lot lit up and smelled of sulfur as dozens of lightning bolts struck all around them. A buried part of her mind panicked, refusing to accept that this could be happening to her again. Mona’s scream was cut short by a bolt of lightning that engulfed them both.
#
Kay raised her teacup in her once delicate hands and sipped cautiously. Her cat, Biscuit, arched its back and rubbed against Kay’s arthritic leg and her pink slipper. Biscuit purred, but not so loud that Kay couldn’t hear some of what was going on next door at Mona’s apartment. Kay had been sitting with her tea ever since that boy Derrick, or whatever his name was, had woken her up, ringing Mona’s doorbell so late at night.
She didn’t like Mona’s boyfriend, even though he seemed to treat her well enough, because he had come between Kay and Mona’s friendship. It had been almost a year since Mona’s last visit—an entire year since she had been sweet enough to personally deliver a letter that been misplaced in her mailbox. When Kay had invited her in, Mona had said that she didn’t have the time because her boyfriend was coming over. Since that day, they never seemed to find the time to talk and catch up on anything that was going on in their lives.
That was fine. She did her part to keep the friendship alive anyway. She knew what was going on in Mona’s life because she cared enough to listen through the walls every day and every night and because she always waited up for Mona to come home…just to make sure she got through the door safely.
Kay didn’t liked snoopy people—always poking their noses where they didn’t belong, but she had been concerned about Mona, and after all, someone had to watch over the girl.
She took another sip of her tea. As it was, she could only catch muffled pieces of conversation, even with her ear pressed to the wall they shared. She heard their muted voices and an occasional thumping of feet as someone walked across the floor, but that was all.
She suddenly heard Mona’s apartment door open. She scurried to her front window and ever so slightly parted one of the Venetian blinds with her index finger. There they were, kissing in plain view right outside her door.
Before she could turn away in embarrassment, her heart missed a beat as the night sky suddenly erupted in a flurry of lightning. A flash of blinding white light replaced where the young couple had just been standing.
Kay was thrown back amidst a deadly shower of glass, as her window imploded, and a column of flame filled her living room.
CHAPTER 10
MERRICK INHALED THE SMELLS of damp soil and fresh wildflowers. He forced his eyes open and shrugged off the last remnants of sleep. He was still lying in Cara’s office bed. By his side, Cara was just stirring. Her hair was disheveled, and her cheeks were tinted pink. She stretched under the sheets and yawned, whispering good morning—her eyes still closed. He brushed the loose strands of hair from her face.
The bed sheet fell away from her shoulder, revealing a perfect teardrop shaped breast. He looked up, and the slumbering Cara was gone, replaced by a wide-awake Mona. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for something in his face.
Merrick sprung to a sitting position as he woke from his dream. It was still dark outside. Light from the moon filtered in through the blinds, dousing the office in soft blue hues. The dark shape of a man stood in the office doorway, just beyond the moonlight’s reach. Merrick checked next to him with his left hand. He was alone in the bed.
Palpable energy from the unmoving figure rolled through the office. Merrick backed across the bed, trying to distance himself from him.
“Your brother is near,” Ohman said. “You must leave.”
Merrick checked his watch. It was almost four in the morning.
“I have to be at work in a little while,” Merrick said.
Ohman stepped into the moonlight and shook his head.
“Your life has been unalterably changed. Nothing will ever be the same—not your job, your friends, or
your family. The sooner you let go, the faster you can grow into what you must become.”
“I have to go to work.”
Ohman grabbed Merrick’s wrists, and pulled him close so that they were staring eye to eye.
“When we are one with Terrada, the Earth Dragon, you must not let go of me for any reason. You will want to surrender to Terrada, to stay with her, but you must not. Remember who you are. You have much to do before you earn the fountain of peace from which you are about to sip. You must concentrate on a vivid memory, one that is unique to who you are. Think of something now. Recall the details and know that they are yours alone. They will keep you whole on our trip. They will help you retain your sense of self.”
Before Merrick could respond, his breath was crushed out of his lungs as if a fist of gravity had mashed him into the floor. Fighting his panic, his mind grasped for a familiar image. Despite his recent feelings for Cara, he pictured his last date with Mona—the way her blouse billowed in the breeze, her faded jeans, her smile and even her frown when he couldn’t tell her what she wanted and needed to hear.
As he thought about her, he found that he was no longer suffocating, although he couldn’t feel himself breathing either. He was surrounded by darkness, but even with no visible frame of reference, he was aware of traveling increasingly faster, at speeds higher than his physical body should have been able to stand. He was vaguely aware of Ohman’s presence next to him, and he struggled to cling to the old man even as he realized that their corporeal bodies no longer existed.
Suddenly, Merrick’s skin was replaced with bark and branches. Then he was a towering, gnarled yew tree, and life was slow and sweet. The yew had gathered many memories through the span of its life—not images, but feelings and tastes and smells, the likes of which he would never expect a tree to possess. He felt contentment when the sun warmed its limbs. The bitter taste of iron from the soil. The foul smell of polluted air. He understood that he was still Merrick, but at the same time he was also one with the tree. Only his memory of Mona and the proximity of Ohman’s essence anchored him to his original self.
He soared down through buried roots, leaving the tree behind. He became soil and rocks, and then he was roots and different parts of thousands of trees and plants. They passed with increasing speed through the ground, sharing briefer moments with each part of the living planet as they traveled.
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