“Hopefully, nothing is broken this time?”
“No, just a knot on the head it seems.”
“Yes, it does look that way. Okay, let’s check it out and get you back home.”
“Dr. Cicero, how is Cassi?” Thomas asked tentatively as the doctor began to attend to his head injury.
“Not very well, I’m afraid. She is very old and has suffered major heart failure. Even if she recovers, I’m not certain she’ll ever make it back to a place where she has any true quality of life.”
“Is Kara still with her?”
“Yes. She insists upon spending the night with her in her room. I tried to get her to go home and rest, but it’s probably best that she doesn’t. From what I understand, it’s been a tough night for everyone. She might be best off right where she is.”
“Perhaps so. Listen Doc, would he be okay if I just stayed down here somewhere tonight? I don’t want to bother Kara, but I would like to be nearby if something happens.”
“Hmm, Aaron didn’t say anything about that,” Dr. Cicero replied, looking uncertain about the request.
“I won’t be any trouble. I promise.”
“Well, you do look a little worse for wear. I’m a bit concerned about you getting home safely. In fact, I should probably take precautions against you having a concussion. You might be best off down the hall in the observation room. It’s just a few doors down from Cassi. You’ll be sure not to bother the other patients or their guests, right?”
“You have my word on it.”
“Very well. Don’t get me in trouble, son.”
“I won’t, Dr. Cicero. I won’t.”
He finished stitching up the cut that had formed when Thomas was hit with the bat – though it had already started to heal – and gave him some pain killers to take for the headache, if he felt he needed them. Of course, Thomas knew he wouldn’t take them. He didn’t want to be out cold if anything happened.
A few minutes later, Thomas was climbing into a hospital bed in a small, overnight room. He lay there staring at the ceiling, wondering how Cassi was doing and how Kara was holding up. He wanted to go to her, but he had promised, and it might only upset her again. He hoped she would have calmed down by the morning so he could talk to her.
It felt like it took forever for him to fall asleep, but he was startled awake some hours later by the sounds of running down the hall and someone shrieking. He almost fell out of the bed and hit his head again as he scrambled to get up in the darkness, forgetting he wasn’t in his own bed. Opening the door, he saw Kara standing in the hallway with her hands over her face as she watched whatever was going on inside the room. Forgetting his promise to Dr. Cicero, he ran to her and looked inside.
Cassi was flanked by Dr. Cicero and two nurses. The nurses were partially blocking his view, but he could see and hear the monitor as it indicated a flat line. They were trying to get her back from the edge as she began to slip over it.
“Clear!” Dr. Cicero said, producing two paddles he had been preparing on the other side of the table. Kara gasped as she watched Cassi’s frail body jump as the paddle made contact with her chest. The nurses were shouting out numbers and adjusting the drip on her IV. It seemed to all be going on in slow motion as the doctor shook his head and flipped a button, putting the paddles aside as he solemnly shook his head.
“Time of death, oh-four-twelve,” he told a nurse before turning toward Kara. “I’m sorry, Kara.”
Kara turned, apparently so engrossed in what was happening that she hadn’t even realized he was there. She ran directly into him and stopped, looking up at him with a stunned expression. He expected more anger and moved to get out of her way, despite how much he wanted to be with her right now. Instead, he was surprised when she reached for him, pulling him close to her as she sobbed silently against him.
“I’m sorry, Kara. I’m so sorry,” he told her, smoothing her hair with his hand.
Looking over her into the room, he saw Dr. Cicero shake his head at him, no doubt a silent reprimand for breaking his promise. Then, he motioned for him to take Kara away. Thomas assumed it was so they could move Cassi without it upsetting her further.
“Come on, Kara. There is nothing more you can do here. She’s lived a very long life and is at rest now.”
Kara nodded and moved away, letting him put his arm around her and walking her down to the observation room where he had been prior to the racket having woken him up. They climbed into the bed, curled up together, and lay there, him letting her cry in his arms until she fell asleep. He used the remote and turned off the last of the lights, laying there in the darkness next to her until the morning when a nurse came in to wake them up.
Making their way out of the Council building as the day dawned around them, they went to his house, avoiding the scene that might still be partially present at her house until Aaron could finish cleaning up her yard completely.
“I’ll have to get ready to make arrangements for her,” Kara told him wearily.
“Not for a while yet,” Thomas told her. Let’s lie down and get some more rest first. We’ll get up in a bit and take care of whatever you need to tend to for Cassi.”
“But the restaurant…” she began to say.
“Still has a closed sign on it from yesterday morning and will be fine for now.”
Kara shrugged, looking sadder than he had ever seen her. She followed him to his bed, and they curled up together, not even bothering to get undressed.
Chapter 14
They lay there in the darkness, her tiny body draped across his. She was quiet, but he could feel her tears as they fell down her face and landed on his chest. For a while, he said nothing. He let her get it out of her system without disrupting her, or making her talk about it. After it seemed to subside a bit, he leaned down to kiss her on the forehead.
“I missed you so much,” she told him weakly.
“I missed you, too,” he replied.
“Do you think it was like this for them? Do you think they missed each other this much and were still too stubborn to find a way to be together?”
“Probably. I mean, if you think about it, Cassi’s father was the problem between them, but when he passed and her mother was already gone, there was no reason for her not to go to him.”
“I know. I have thought about that. I wanted to ask her, but I was afraid it would have only stirred up more horrible memories. She was already so distraught. I used to walk in on her in the kitchen, and she’d be just staring into space with a look of such hurt on her face. She’d always play it off like she just lost her train of thought. Now, I know she must have been thinking about him. I don’t think there was ever a day when she didn’t.”
“And to know now that her son was right there under her nose the entire time. You’d think her instincts would have told her, would have revealed him to her, even if he chose not to reveal himself.”
“I think she did know. After she found out who Tio was, she told me that perhaps she had known all along and, like him, was just too afraid to say or do anything that might cause a problem for him. She said that he used to come in all the time to eat and to talk to her. He never talked about his father to her except to say he had been a wonderful man and very loving, but had died too soon.”
“So, in their own way, they had a bond. It was just an unspoken one. I’m glad for that at least,” he said.
“Me too. At least it was something to console her,” Kara replied.
“And you? How are you doing?”
“I hate to lose her. She was a wonderful woman, a good employer, a friend.”
“She was more than that. She was your grandmother… with many ‘greats’ ahead of that title. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many,” he said, perplexed.
“I know. I would have to sit down and figure it out like a set of ‘begats’ from the Bible,” Kara agreed.
“That could take quite a while,” he said.
“I suppose so,” she said, ref
lecting again.
“You had much the same relationship with her that Advik had. She saw you as family, whether she knew you might be or not.”
“Are you saying you think she knew all along?”
“I don’t know. I’m just saying that it is possible, and perhaps she was just content to let things be as they were,” he said.
“Perhaps, but why send us on a wild goose chase if she knew what we were looking for was right there?”
“I don’t know, but I suspect that Cassi was a huge believer in letting fate take its course. She might have thought it better for us to discover it on our own. She might have known that the path would somehow lead us back to the village and maybe even to one another.”
“That sounds like a lot of chances,” Kara replied.
“Maybe, but it is possible, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. Things have gone how they were intended, and I can’t complaint about where I’ve ended up. Can you?”
“I wouldn’t dare. I’ve seen how you are when you’re angry,” he teased, causing her to laugh aloud for a moment. “Ah, I got a little laugh, at least.”
“That you did,” she replied, pulling closer to him.
Thomas pulled her up closer, leaning in to kiss her as they lay there in the near darkness. He felt her body respond to his, pressing closer against him and returning his kiss. Soon, they were lost in one another again, pushing everything else to the side as they reignited their passion for one another.
Raising herself above him, she began dragging her soft hair down the length of his body, letting it tickle and tantalize his skin as it fell against him. Moving back and forth, she feathered it lightly against his skin, following along behind it with tiny kisses until he pulled her back up to him to kiss her again. Her small form lay on top of his, pressing into his flesh with her warmth.
They became entangled in a heady kiss, trying desperately to drink one another in. Thomas watched as she raised up again and lowered herself onto his fierce erection, slipping down the length of him as she impaled herself onto him and began to slowly rise and fall upon his rigid staff.
“I love watching you on top of me,” he told her, admiring the way her small, but ample breasts bounced up and down with her body. He adored the way she bit her lip when his cock penetrated her in just the right way to hit all her sensitive places.
“What do you love about it?” she asked breathlessly, punctuating the question with a small grunt as she ground her hips downward to take him in to the hilt.
“I love the sounds you make, the way your body moves, the way you feel. I love everything. I love you,” he replied.
Kara locked eyes with him for a moment, pulling all the way upward until only the tip of his throbbing cock was inside of her. A wicked smile crossed her face as she replied, “I love you, too.”
Her body dropped, connecting with his so forcefully that they both cried out. It was that fine line between pleasure and pain that they both seemed to like, and it was only the beginning of what was to come. He watched as she repeatedly heaved her body upward and then dropped down again, the bulbous head of his cock plunging deep inside her, causing her to wince a bit and then fade into a smile before doing it again. It was slow, but deliberate. It was a bit of sadistic desire mixed with unbridled adoration.
Bringing his hands up to her hips, he slid them further to her waist, holding her on either side and pulling her down onto him tightly as he ground his hips forward, pushing upward, enjoying her yelps of pain each time he hit bottom. He settled in there for a moment before pulling almost completely free again.
“Yes! Harder, Tom. Fuck me harder. Make me scream,” she begged, meeting his powerful thrusts again and again with her own as they slammed into one another with increasing vigor.
He was only too happy to grant her request, returning to his animal instincts with a caution not to push too far. He knew the dangers of shifting while in coitus, but there was no reason he couldn’t tow that fine line between his human form and his primal inclinations. He growled loudly as he suddenly pulled her upward, tossing her to one side as if she weighed nothing and putting her on her hands and knees.
Kara reached for the rings that hung in the antique bedpost he had fashioned from a door when he was into woodworking and held on tight as he shoved his cock into her from behind, fucking her with wild abandon as she screamed out his name. There could be no fear that he was being too rough on her when she begged for more with every gasping breath.
“Yes! Don’t stop. Fuck me, Tom. Fuck me!” she screamed.
“I can’t hold back much longer. I’m going to come,” he groaned, trying to hold back as long as he could. He wanted to stay inside of her, to hear her begging him to give it to her longer, harder, faster.”
“I’m coming, too,” she moaned, her body quaking with the force of an explosion so violent in nature that she almost pushed him backwards with the power of her release. Come streamed down either side of his cock and dripped down her thighs as he regained his momentum and slammed into her once again, bringing her to several more smaller climaxes before giving way to his own.
“Yes, there it is. I can feel it,” he hissed as his balls contracted and released, letting go of a warm flood inside of her. It dripped from her soaked center and ran down her legs to mix with her own fluids as they collapsed into an exhausted pile on the bed.
“That was so incredible. You’ve no idea how much I’ve missed the way you reduce me to my basic urges,” she told him.
“Likewise, I can assure you, madam,” he laughed as they lay there staring at the ceiling.
“Do you think we will still be like this in a thousand years?” she asked, twirling one of her tiny fingers around in the sparse hair on his chest.
“Hopefully, if we don’t both have to have a hip replacement,” he said.
“I suppose it is a possibility,” she laughed.
“Certainly is with a wild woman like you,” he replied.
“You’re all mine,” she said.
“Yours? I don’t recall selling my soul to the she-devil,” he told her.
“I’ll show you a she-devil if you keep that attitude up,” she laughed.
“I bet you will. I thought you did just a few minutes ago, actually. A hot, desperate she-devil, hell bent on draining me of every fluid in my body.”
“I’ve only just begun. You’ll be nothing but dust, when I’m done with you.”
“I cannot think of any way I’d rather go,” he told her, kissing her on the top of the forehead.
As they drifted off into silence, the events of the day faded into the next, and they fell asleep. Somewhere in the middle of the night, he reached for her to find that she wasn’t there. In his hazy state of half wakefulness, he panicked, fearing that she had run away. What if all of this had been too much for her and she had bolted?
Jumping from the bed, he rushed through the house to look for her, not finding her anywhere. His heart felt as if it might burst through his chest as he grew more anxious by the moment. Finally, he found her in the backyard, just standing there in his old bathrobe, staring up at the stars.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, getting a grip on himself now that he was a bit more awake and cognitive of what an overreaction he had to finding her no longer in the bed with him.
“Just looking up at the stars. Aren’t they beautiful?”
“Yes, they always are. Why don’t you come back to bed, my love? You’ve had a very long day, and we have a lot on our plate for tomorrow.”
“I will soon. I just wanted to get a bit of fresh air. Do you think she is up there? Is she looking down at us?”
“I hope not. I’m naked.”
“Very funny, but you know what I mean. I wonder where people go when they die and if they can truly still remain in the spaces they inhabited when they were alive.”
“I have no idea, Kara, but I can tell you that wherever Cas
si is, she is out of pain and at peace with any choices she once made. She spent thousands of years being remorseful about something she felt was out of her control, and the truth of the matter is, it was always under her control. She was just too frightened to see it.”
“I suppose that is right. Our fears can immobilize us. Look what hers did to her. It robbed her of years with a man she truly loved. Did you know that Cassi was never a widow?”
“What? Of course, she was. The diner belonged to her husband, Mr. Baker, and she inherited it when he died since they had no children.”
“They had no children because they had no sex. Mr. Baker had his own secrets, and one of them was his head chef. There were suspicions, and he asked Cassi to marry him to protect his family name and prevent anyone from taking action against his true love. Cassi declined. She told him she could never remarry as she was and always would be married to another, but she allowed him to say they were married, took his name, and moved into one wing of the enormous house he owned.”
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“She told me. It was the night before you and I left to find Advik and Khalil. We sat down and had a long talk about things, and she told me her story. She said that she felt sorry for Mr. Baker because he couldn’t openly be with the man he loved any more than she could. No one in town knew about Khalil or the baby, so she would have been considered an old spinster in everyone’s eyes. So, they made a deal.”
“But how could he have known she wouldn’t tell his secret?”
“I asked the same question. She said it was because she had caught them together while she was working for him at the restaurant and had said nothing. For years, she had kept it a secret, so when the time came, he trusted her as the one person he knew would not tell a soul about what she knew.”
“What a crazy life she led,” Thomas marveled.
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