“It’s not possible,” she whispered. “It just isn’t possible.” Her gold eyes searched his eyes; confusion warred with fear in their clear depths. “Your burn . . . how . . . how have you healed like this?”
She snatched her hand away, more fearful than ever before.
Pain pierced him, wrenching his stomach and knotting in his chest until he could barely breathe. Erin’s fear twisted inside him.
No! He was stronger than that. He could take the pain. This weakness was only because the Sacred Stones had drained his strength. Still, he needed her. “Erin, don’t fear me,” he gasped.
She shook her head, pulling farther away. “What are you, Jared? How can you heal like that?”
He exhaled through gritted teeth and clutched his fist to his chest. With the pain came a hungering need to taste her Chosen blood. It, too, was sharper than ever. He had to touch her, he had to ease himself, or he would sink his teeth into her soft flesh.
He shut his eyes against the fear in hers and tried to draw from all that he knew was good and true, but faltered. All he could think about was satisfying his desire for her blood. The empowering glory of it, the heady intoxication of—
“Jared?” Erin whispered.
He felt her hand cover the fist he’d pressed to his heart, and the pain ebbed. He trembled.
“Lie back,” Erin urged. “And let the doctor take your temperature.” He complied, letting go of everything but Erin’s hand as he shut his eyes and focused on the ease her touch brought. The doctor urged something into his mouth and under his tongue. He concentrated on breathing, on letting Erin’s touch help him fight the Tsara’s poison for what little time he had left.
He was no longer a warrior. He could not stand alone. He needed her.
Erin couldn’t believe what her own eyes saw. The charred and oozing skin from yesterday morning was now smooth, pink scar tissue, as if weeks had passed rather than a mere day. And the doctor was right. Now that the burn had healed, it could be readily seen as the branding from something with strange markings on it.
Her hand in Jared’s trembled with the strain of her emotions. There was something else difficult to believe as well. Whatever caused the deep agony that gripped him, her touch had the power to help him. Just as he’d eased her migraine in the cave, she had some strange sort of power to do the same for him.
She tightened her hold on his hand, and he riveted his gaze to hers. The blueness of his eyes and the need in them pierced through her, wrapped tightly around her heart and jerked her to him. Though it seemed impossible, she knew they were deeply connected in a way she could not explain.
The digital thermometer beeped. Dr. Batista looked at it, gasped, then shook her head. “This machine is broken. I’ll be right back.” She set the thermometer aside, and Erin blinked at the flashing red numbers. One hundred and fifteen degrees.
Erin had a strange feeling that there was nothing wrong with the machine. That the reason Jared’s temperature was so high was because he wasn’t a normal man.
“Annette!” a man shouted from outside of the room. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on? I just spoke to Em, and she bit my head off! I don’t need this right now. Slater has a dead man on Forty-four and a burned-out car over in Winder, and the Rangers have hikers fleeing trails, screaming zombies have invaded.”
Jared rolled from the examining table, fluidly moving into what Erin could only describe as a fight-ready stance. He pulled her behind him.
Straining to see over Jared’s shoulder, Erin found Dr. Batista standing in the middle of the doorway with her back to them. “We’re in here, Sam.” She groaned before adding, “Anybody tell you that you’ve got the stealth of a jackass? Why did you speak to Em?” Turning, she shook her head apologetically. “I called the sheriff,” she said, meeting Erin’s gaze directly. “Emerald believes you two are beings she’s supposed to help from the spirit world, and we all know that isn’t true.”
Chapter Eleven
Dr. Batista didn’t even turn back to face the sheriff as he entered the room. Close-cropped black hair and a military bearing told Erin this lawman didn’t give either himself or anyone else an inch. There was a harshness to his appearance that made him as rugged and dark-looking as a mountain at midnight.
The doctor kept her puzzled gaze on Jared, looking like she wanted to put the thermometer in his mouth but thought better of it at the moment. “Sam,” she said, “meet Jared and Erin. This is Sheriff Sheridan.”
“Mind telling me what this is about?” Sam drawled, his voice deceptively more relaxed than the keen edge of his gaze.
The doctor’s office door open and slammed. “Nett! Bleedin’ hell! What the devil did you ring him for?” Emerald steamed into the room, green eyes flashing.
Dr. Batista sucked in air. “Because this has gone far enough. You’re not just scouring ancient stones for a spirit to help. You’ve picked up a practically naked man and a battered woman and brought them here all by yourself.”
“You’ve mucked up the day. I don’t need Sam breathing down my neck.” Emerald’s burr thickened with her irritation.
Dr. Batista shook her head. “You don’t understand, damn it. Anything could have happened to you. Anything…” Her voice trailed to a whisper.
Emerald sighed. “Luv, I’m not Stef. And we don’t know anything yet about where she’s disappeared to, so let’s not be assuming the worst yet.”
“Em, I can’t believe like you. Not after six months. People don’t just disappear. My sister didn’t just disappear. Not without something bad happening.”
“No,” Emerald said.
“Yes,” interjected the sheriff. “You picked up strangers off the side of the road and told nobody what you were doing. Something could have happened to you today.”
Emerald shot a glance of apology toward Erin, then settled a fiery glare on the sheriff. “Samuel T. Sheridan! I’ll not have you insulting—”
“No, you listen. You should have called me or Annette on the phone we gave you and informed us where you were and that you were picking up hitch-hikers. I’d have been there in minutes.” The sheriff punctuated his words with a fierce scowl. “Whether you like it or not, Annette is right. And you could have been dead wrong!” Then the lawman narrowed his steely gaze at Jared. “Who are you, and where are you from?”
“Jared Hunter, from Eden,” Jared said, his arms folded over his chest and his broad shoulders resolute.
Erin groaned.
“Eden where?” the sheriff asked.
“In the east—” Jared said.
“East of here,” Erin added, angling herself from behind Jared to stand at his side. “I’m Erin Morgan. Jared is from the Lake Eden area, near Black Mountain, North Carolina. We . . . we’ve had everything stolen. His clothes and wallet, my purse. Everything.”
“Where? When?” the sheriff demanded.
“Nowhere,” Erin said, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind. “My parents live in Nowhere, and we went to visit them. It’s about two hours—”
“I know where Nowhere is,” the sheriff said impatiently. “How and when were your things stolen? You’ve reported it, of course.”
“No.” Erin swallowed a huge lump in her throat. Just how deep was she going to dig her own grave? “I was too embarrassed to make a report. We’d stopped at a lake to . . . um . . . swim and didn’t lock the car. When we got back to it, our stuff was gone. We were on our way to Lake Eden to fix that problem.” Since this was the Fourth of July weekend, Erin figured it would take the sheriff a day or so to expose her lie.
“Where is your car, then?” the sheriff pressed.
“We ran off the road last night and . . . got lost in the woods looking for help, then found the stones on the mountain.”
“So your car is on Spirit Wind Mountain?”
Erin rubbed her temple with her fingertips and sucked in air. The lies were getting more and more complicated. And she was beginning to feel dizzy. Why not
just tell the truth about everything that had happened since she found the bodies in the lab? Then what? They’ll contact Cinatas. How could they not? And she didn’t have proof. . . yet. She wasn’t ready for anyone to call Cinatas. “Yes, it may be. Off the road in a ravine.”
“Color, make, model? License plate number?”
“Two thousand four navy Tahoe,” Erin said, rattling off her New York license plate number and her driver’s license number. “I’ll have to look at a map after I rest and try and figure out where we lost it.”
The sheriff let a long pause hang in the air, then eyed Jared again. “You don’t say much.”
“There are more important things to attend to than your questions,” Jared replied.
Erin thought smoke would rise from the sheriff. Even from across the room, she saw his angry flush and the agitated tic in his jaw. “What is your driver’s license number?”
“He doesn’t drive, and he lives with me in New York,” Erin said.
The sheriff’s glare hardened. “Then why were you going back to Lake Eden?”
She’d hung herself in her lies, and everybody knew it. How long could he arrest her and Jared for suspicious behavior?
Bravely inserting her petite self between them and the sheriff, Emerald planted her hands on her hips. “Enough of it now. They’ve done no harm. I’ll take them to get clean and to rest, and anything else you’re wanting to know can wait.”
“What?” the sheriff asked, incredulous. “You aren’t taking them anywhere, and especially not to your place. You don’t know anything about them.”
Emerald sighed softly. “I know who they are, Sam. I’ve been expecting them for a long time. That’s why I had Silver Moon built. It’s for them to stay in. And I know them better than anyone who’s rented it while I’ve waited.”
Erin’s scalp tingled. A woman had built a place just to house people from the spirit world her crystal had told her to help?
“Good God, woman!” the sheriff exploded. “For someone so smart, you can be so clueless. These people aren’t otherworldly beings. You heard it yourself. They are from—” He glared at Jared. “Lake Eden or New York. I don’t give a shit what your crystal ball says.”
Though it went completely against Erin’s interest, she was beginning to agree with Sam.
“That’s going too far, Sam,” Dr. Batista interjected.
The sheriff raked his hand through his crew cut. “You can’t have it both ways, Annette. Do you believe Em or not?”
“That’s not at issue here. I’m worried about her safety, no matter where these two people are from. Don’t attack her crystal.”
“Thank you,” Emerald said, affecting a determined resolve. “I’ll not be abandoning what I came across the sea to do. So unless you’re arresting them without cause, they’ll be staying at Silver Moon.”
The sheriff continued to glare at Emerald, and she at him. The air between them crackled with frustration and sizzled with something too passionately volatile to touch.
“If they don’t check out, they’re mine.” He swung his hard gaze back to Erin and Jared. “I better find you when I come looking, because I can guarantee you don’t want me to have to hunt for you…for any reason.
Erin gritted her teeth. Unless she’d heard wrong, the law had just told them not to leave town.
His departure left a ringing silence that Emerald broke first. “I’ll be remembering this, Nett.”
Dr. Batista sighed. “If you thought I was in danger, you’d do the same.” She turned her dark gaze to study Jared. “First, we need to work on your fever before anything else.” She patted the examination table. “Sit here for me.” After popping the thermometer in Jared’s mouth, she said, “How long have you had it?”
“Since yesterday,” Erin said, turning her mind to what had to be done next, which was get what they came for and then decide if they were going to stick around for the sheriff or not. She had a feeling that having him hunt for her would be much worse than facing him when he didn’t turn up any record of a Jared Hunter in Lake Eden.
The thermometer beeped, Dr. Batista glanced at the readout and gave a puzzled frown. After changing the sterile tip, she stuck the thermometer in her mouth. “It’s working,” she mumbled when it beeped. Changing the tip, she took Jared’s temperature again.
“One hundred and fifteen,” she declared. “What’s wrong with this thing?”
Emerald clapped her hands together, creating a light tinkling that oddly made Erin think of fairy or angel wings. Emerald drew a seemingly satisfied breath before speaking. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s pairfect! He’s pairfect. What greater proof do you need before you’ll believe? No mortal man can be that hot.” She winked at Jared. “Temperature wise, luv. Not to be cheeky, but I couldn’t resist.”
“Em,” said Dr. Batista, closing her eyes in exasperation. “Be serious. An elevated temperature doesn’t prove a thing other than this man has an abnormal medical condition that stretches the upper limits of what is traditionally considered possible.”
Two days ago, Erin would have said the same thing. It was a perfectly logical answer, grounded in reason. And the fact that Erin didn’t think of it, but had immediately considered that Jared was who he claimed to be, showed her just how far she’d strayed. Between last night and this morning, she’d come to the realization that Jared Hunter was very different and could very well be the spirit being he claimed he was. She also couldn’t turn away from him. He needed her, and she had to do whatever she had to do to keep them together until she figured out why he was here.
“Time will tell, luv. My bet is that is his normal temperature. For now, I need to get them to Silver Moon before the dragon returns.”
Despite the gravity of her situation and Emerald’s too-accurate-to-ignore crystal declarations, Erin found herself warming to Emerald. Dragon so accurately pegged the fire-breathing sheriff.
“Come over to my office a moment and let me get the keys to my Mini and lock up.” Emerald motioned for Erin and Jared to follow in her tinkling wake. Erin slipped her hand in Jared’s and urged him off the examination table.
“Wait,” Dr. Batista said. “You’re not going without me.” She picked up the two boxes of sample medication Erin had left in the chair. “I’ll put a bag of medicine together and meet you at your car.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Emerald said. “I’ll be safe.”
Dr. Batista studied Jared, then Erin felt her scrutiny as well. “Maybe so, but I’ll feel better if I do.”
“You can drive my Mini then, and I’ll take them in the pickup. I don’t rightly think he’d fit,” she said, eyeing Jared. “That way I’ll have both cars at the cottage and I can run you back to town after.”
When they exited to the breezeway between the offices, Jared breathed deeply and flexed his shoulders, reaffirming Erin’s feeling that being indoors made him uncomfortable. They reached Emerald’s office and Erin didn’t follow her inside, but stood in the open doorway with Jared behind her. “We’ll wait here for you.
“I’ll be only a sec,” Emerald said, dashing through the open door across the room. Her office had the same setup as Dr. Batista’s, but instead of generic rented furniture, a world of color, texture, and miniature art filled the room, making it almost a tiny forest of the unusual, the unique, and the beautiful.
“I’m ready,” Emerald said, hurrying to the door.
“So how do psychology and psychic readings go together?” Erin asked.
“Not very well on occasion. But a gal has got to do what a gal has got to do to help how she can. I don’t have my license to practice here in the States yet, and even if I did, I don’t rightly think Twilight’s ready for Dr. Ems brand of therapy just yet.” She held up her cell phone. “I keep my patients in Dublin happy and do what psychic reading I can. You need to have one done, but today Megan wants to go with Bethy to the fair, and I can’t let her go alone.”
Erin worried her bottom lip. “You’ve d
one more than enough for us already.” She honestly felt as if she’d intruded far too much upon the woman’s goodwill. Erin also felt the biting sting of her dishonesty. “If you could lend me just enough money to buy a few supplies at the dollar store and then take us to a hotel, we will be fine for the night.”
Emerald shook her head. “Luv, I’m supposed to be helping you now,” she said and then sighed. “The nearest inns are in Arcadia. And”—she bit her lip anxiously—“I’ve already bought everything you’ll need. If the clothes aren’t the right size, the online store will overnight what you need and credit me for the ones I’ve purchased. I know it’s a stretch, but you just need to relax and rest now, because there’s more troubled times ahead.”
“I’ll repay you for all of this,” Erin said softly, touched by the woman’s generosity. “But how did you know we were coming? How did you know so much about us?”
“No need to repay me, luv. By the time we work through everything,’ we’re going to be more than beholden to each other. As for how I know so much, I’ve been seeing you in my crystal for a very long time.”
Dr. Batista arrived, giving Erin no time to question Emerald’s cryptic words. How had she seen them in a crystal, and why would they all be beholden to one another? What were they going to work through?
The four them left the walkway for the parking lot. Erin scanned the area, looking for a black Hummer, a dragon sheriff, or anything else that struck her as out of place. A rusted Dumpster filled with cardboard boxes from the dollar store stood at the far end, and a huge Salvation Army bin with precariously stacked plastic bags peeking from a broken hinged door was next to it. Beyond lay a small grassy field where two hound dogs in the back of a faded blue truck barked at them. Everything appeared to be just as normal as it could possibly be, but it wasn’t, and never would be again.
Erin and Jared loaded into the pickup with Emerald, and Dr. Batista got into a cheery, red Mini Cooper. They left the parking lot and headed west from the traffic light. Erin had expected Emerald’s residence to be a short distance from Twilights main crossroads. Instead, they went a number of miles before leaving the main road then climbed up the mountainside.
Modern Magic Page 156