by S. J. West
“What’s wrong?” she immediately asked. “You’ve looked like you’re walking on eggshells all night long.”
I paced in front of her not knowing exactly how to say what I needed to.
“Brand can tell when someone is lying to him,” I finally said. “It’s one of his powers as an angel.”
“So?”
“He thinks Simon is cheating on you,” I blurted out seeing no other way to say what needed to be said.
“No, he’s not.”
The conviction with which Tara made this simple statement made me stop my pacing and look at her. I could see the doubt of Simon’s fidelity on her face. She suspected what Brand thought might be true but her words completely contradicted it.
“Do you know that for a fact?” I asked.
Her silence only confirmed what her facial expression was telling me.
“He’s going to ask Simon straight out if he’s cheating on you with someone else. It’s the surest way for him to know the truth. I just wanted you to know before he did it.”
Without saying a word, Tara stood up and walked back down to the dining table. Simon was eating his dessert when she walked up to him and said, “Are you seeing another girl besides me?”
I thought Simon was going to choke on the dessert in his mouth. He took a drink from his water glass and cleared his throat.
“Why would you ask me something like that?”
“Just answer it yes or no,” Tara said completely expressionless.
“No, honey. You know I don’t want anyone but you.”
Tara looked at Brand. “Is he telling the truth?”
Brand hesitated for a moment and finally shook his head no, obviously regretting being the harbinger of bad news. Simon looked scared all of a sudden. I watched Tara closely. I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be.
I saw her eyes travel to the fireplace in the living room. Without saying a word, she stalked over to it and picked up the fire poker. I heard the scrape of Simon’s chair as he hastily stood from it.
“Now listen, Tara,” he said slowly making his way to the front door. “Who you gonna believe? Me or him?”
“Him,” she said walking toward Simon with an intense determination I’d never seen in her before.
Before I knew it she ran toward Simon and started hitting him with the fire poker across his back yelling curses at him I’d never heard come out of her mouth before. Simon stumbled his way to the front door and ran for his car once outside.
Tara stood on the front porch brandishing the fire poker like a sword.
“You better run you good for nothing pile of dog crap! And don’t ever let me see you again, or I’ll make sure you regret ever meeting me!”
By the time I reached Tara, she was already crying. She leaned against me as I brought her back into the house and sat her down on one of the couches in the living room. Brand stood back from us letting me comfort her as best I could. I knew he felt guilty for causing Tara so much pain. I would have to try and make sure he understood it was for the best. If their relationship had been allowed to progress much further, I knew it would have been that much harder for Tara to do what she just did.
As it was, I was glad I could be a comfort to her in her time of need. She’d held me so many times over the past couple of years after I lost Will and then again just recently when Brand broke up with me mistakenly thinking I would be safer without him in my life. I was happy to just be there for her and hold her as the sting of Simon’s betrayal sunk in. It was almost like I could hear her heart break from losing someone she thought she could trust and build a relationship with. I knew in time she would find someone worthy of her love and hoped it would be soon.
Chapter 6
It took about thirty minutes for Tara to stop crying. Brand busied himself in the kitchen to give us time alone. I’m not even sure what he was doing to be honest. I was completely focused on Tara and trying to reassure her that everything was for the best and that she was way better off knowing what kind of guy Simon really was before they got too serious.
She finally sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes.
“How come you ended up with Prince Charming and I got stuck with a toad?”
The rattling in the kitchen stopped. I glanced at Brand and saw him smiling down at the glass plate in his hands obviously pleased to be compared to Prince Charming, every girl’s perfect standard for male courtship.
“Your Prince Charming is out there,” I tried to reassure my best friend. “When the time is right for you to find him, he’ll show up.”
“I just don’t understand how I could have been fooled like that,” she said. “I’m usually better at telling if someone’s just saying what I want to hear.”
“I think you did know,” I said truthfully. “You just didn’t want to admit it to yourself because you wanted it to work out so badly. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Brand came into the living room then with a pile of cookies on the glass dish I had seen him holding earlier.
“Have one of these,” he suggested to Tara. “I promise they’ll make you feel better.”
“What are they?” Tara asked, taking one of the dark chocolate cookies off the plate.
“They’re chocolate, chocolate chip with peanut butter and macadamia nuts.”
Tara took a bite out of the one in her hand and immediately reached for another one. There must have been at least a dozen cookies on the plate Brand sat down in front of her on the coffee table, and I think she ate them all up in half as many minutes. Brand brought her a glass of milk to help wash them all down.
“See?” Tara said drinking the last of the milk. “Prince Charming. Knew exactly what I needed.”
Brand took the now empty plate and glass back into the kitchen with a satisfied smile on his face.
There was an unexpected knock on the door. Brand answered it and without a word motioned for our visitor to step inside.
“Hey,” Will said to Brand but quickly turned his attention to me and Tara when he saw us. “I just came by to see if you guys were able to go have those tests started today.”
“Allan is performing them now,” Brand answered closing the door. “We’re going back tomorrow to find out what he discovers.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Will asked Brand.
“Not this time Will,” I answered, not wanting the news to come from Brand. I didn’t want Will to think Brand was the one who didn’t want him to join us. “Allan asked that we not bring you to his home.”
Will seemed to accept this answer a lot better than I thought he would. I could only assume he had expected it.
“That’s all right. Just let me know what he finds out when you can. What happened to you?” He asked Tara seeing her puffy, watery eyes.
“She found out Simon was cheating on her,” I answered, wanting to spare Tara from saying the words out loud.
Will sat down beside Tara and put a comforting arm across her shoulders.
“You’re better off without him then,” he told her. “Don’t waste your tears on a fool.”
“I just need to stop thinking about it,” Tara sighed. I hated seeing her so dejected.
“Well, come on then,” Will stood and pulled Tara to her feet. “I’ve got just the place to forget about stupid ex-boyfriends.”
“Where are you taking me?” Tara asked excited and worried about Will’s plans at the same time.
“Somewhere you’ve always wanted to go. Just keep a hold of my hand. See you guys later.”
And they were gone.
“Where do you think he took her?” Brand asked taking me into his arms and nibbling on my neck. How did he think I could answer coherently with him lighting every nerve in my body on fire?
“I have no idea,” I said wrapping my arms around his back enjoying the sensations his touch always ignited in me. “But I hope they won’t be back for a while.”
“Mmm, me too,” Brand said finding my lips with his.
I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted him to keep going.
There was a loud knock on the front door. “Hello?”
We both let out a sigh of frustration at the sound of Malcolm’s voice.
With a growl, Brand lifted his weight off me and practically stomped to the door. I couldn’t help but giggle at him. He was like a bear that had been awakened before the end of winter. He yanked the door open.
“What do you want, Malcolm?” Brand asked tersely.
“I did what you asked,” Malcolm said stepping across the threshold, ignoring Brand’s openly hostile glare. “You can’t imagine what a pain it is to have to knock when I know you’re both in here.”
I quickly stood from the couch and kept my back to Malcolm as I hastily re-buttoned my shirt. When I turned back around, Malcolm was taking in my disheveled appearance with a critical, unpleased look on his face.
“Did I interrupt something?” He asked innocently, knowing full and well what we had been doing.
“What do you want, Malcolm?” Brand asked again, trying his best to contain his irritation with my friend.
I didn’t think it was possible but I loved Brand even more in that moment. I knew Malcolm got on his nerves, sometimes intentionally and sometime unintentionally, but he suffered through it all for me. He knew how much I cared for Malcolm and how much I wanted us all to get along. The effort he was making for me was never plainer.
“I just came by to tell you they removed everything from the clearing today. I thought you might want to know.”
“It could have waited,” Brand grumbled.
“Well, I’m not going to lie. I wanted to see Lilly too,” Malcolm said leaving Brand’s side and walking over to me. I guess I had a few stray hairs sticking out from my head because Malcolm gently smoothed them down for me. His hand traveled down my left arm and took my hand. The smile he had on his face soon vanished as he felt what was on my ring finger. He looked down at it.
“What’s this?” he asked confused.
“Brand asked me to marry him last night and I said yes,” I explained hoping my news wouldn’t hurt him too much.
“When are you supposed to be married?”
It was the first time I had ever seen Malcolm look worried.
“Not until I finish school.”
“Thank God,” he said under his breath. I was sure Brand hadn’t been able to hear it. He was still standing by the open door eagerly awaiting his chance to throw Malcolm out of his house.
Malcolm let go of my hand not wanting to look at the ring any longer. “Will said you were supposed to take Lilly to see your friend to do the genetic profile today. Who was it?”
“Allan Westwood,” Brand answered.
“Allan?” Malcolm asked surprised. “Does he still refuse to leave his house?”
“Yes.”
“Did you at least take Lilly to the London Eye while you were there? I would hate to know Allan’s house was the only place she went to on her first visit to London.”
“That’s where I proposed.” I could tell Brand felt a small bit of satisfaction telling Malcolm this and it seemed to have the desired affect.
Malcolm kissed me on the cheek and walked back to the door. “Let me know what Allan finds out,” Malcolm said to Brand. I heard Malcolm say something low to Brand but it was too soft for me to make out what it was exactly. The only words I heard were ‘four years’. The look of irritation on Brand’s face quickly turned to the expression he used to hide his true feelings behind, completely unreadable.
“See you tomorrow, dearest,” Malcolm turned to me and winked before walking out the front door.
Brand calmly closed the door and stood there for a moment staring down at the door knob his hand rested on but not really focusing on it.
“What did he say to you?” I asked, worried now by Brand’s continued silence.
My question seemed to break the trance he was in. He finally looked at me.
“I’d rather not say, if that’s ok with you. He’s just jealous.”
Brand came to me like a broken man and hugged me close. I wasn’t sure what was wrong. I did the only thing I could think of to make him feel better.
“I love you,” I said, hugging him as tight as I could.
He pulled away from me just enough to look at my face as if searching my eyes, almost expecting to see some doubt of my feelings for him there.
“I know,” he whispered. “I love you too.”
“Then stop looking so sad.” I cupped his face in both my hands, bringing his lips down to mine. It was all the prodding Brand needed to find his way back to where we left off before Malcolm’s interruption.
We spent the night at Brand’s house. While I was taking my bath the next morning, I wondered where Will and Tara had phased to the night before. I could only assume Will had spent the night helping Tara forget about Simon. I was curious to know where he had taken her though. When I stepped out of the shower and toweled off, the steam in the room was making it hard for me to see. I went to the small window by the vanity and opened it.
It was a beautiful late September day. The sun danced across the surface of the calm lake waters. The sweet sound of birds singing wafted through the window as a gentle breeze off the lake helped dissipate the steam in the room. It was an almost perfect morning. I quickly changed into the set of clothes I’d brought into the bathroom with me and set about drying my hair with a towel.
The buzzing of a bee next to my ear first alerted me to its presence. As it flew past my face, I saw it was a yellow jacket. I swatted at it trying to get it to go back out the window but it nimbly avoided my hand. Before I knew it, the bee stung me on the side of my neck and promptly flew out the window. I looked in the mirror to see how bad the bite was. I could see the puffy red spot where it bit me and watched in horror as it bulged into a large black polyp which soon disappeared like it had been completely absorbed by my body. Once it was gone, you couldn’t see any indication that I had been bitten at all. There was no trace of the yellow jacket’s bite.
I felt the first effects almost immediately afterwards. My vision blurred and my head felt like it was about to explode off my shoulders. The last thing I remembered was hitting my head against the tub at my back as I fell unconscious.
Nothing made sense after that. I felt completely paralyzed. I couldn’t hear, see or feel anything around me. I had no concept of time. There wasn’t anyway for me to measure it. It felt like I was locked inside a dream with no way to wake up. I wanted to cry but couldn’t even find a way to do that.
After a long, long time, I finally saw Malcolm appear to me. He stood out like a beacon in the darkness of my mind. I wanted to run to him and ask him what was going on but knew I didn’t actually have a physical form to do such a thing with.
“Lilly?” he asked. “Are you here?”
I wanted to yell to him that I was here and to keep talking to me but I couldn’t.
“Listen, I’m not even sure this is working but I had to try. We have you in the hospital. You’re in a coma.”
A coma?
“Dearest, try to tell me what happened. I pray you can see me now. I’m trying to share a dream with you. Honestly, I feel a bit stupid at the moment but I had to try something. We can’t figure out what’s wrong with you. Brand found you lying on the floor of his bathroom a few days ago.” The look of anguish on Malcolm’s face told me the situation was worse than I could have imagined. “The doctor’s here say you only have a few more days to live if they can’t find out what’
s wrong. They’ve run tests but can’t figure out what’s causing the deterioration.”
Deterioration? What was he talking about?
“What ever is in your system is slowly shutting down all your organs. Brand and Will are out now trying to find a way to cure you before it’s too late.”
I wanted to yell to Malcolm about the yellow jacket sting but couldn’t find my voice. There had to be a way to communicate with him and let him know what happened. But how?
“Dearest, please, find a way to tell us what happened. I know you can do it. You have some of our abilities. Try to use the dream one to show me what happened,” he pleaded.
I could see Malcolm was close to tears. It was then I truly understood how dire my situation was. I tried to concentrate my thoughts and swim to the surface of my consciousness. Every time I thought I could feel a way to communicate with him, I fell even deeper into the darkness of my subconscious. Eventually, Malcolm faded from my mind and I was left alone again.
I don’t know how much time passed until I saw Brand appear. Unlike Malcolm who simply appeared against a black backdrop, Brand recreated the moment he proposed to me on the London Eye. He stood alone in the glass bubble so handsome in his tuxedo. Everything was perfect except for the dead look in his eyes. I wanted to run to him and tell him everything would be all right.
“Lilly, come back to me,” his forlorn voice broke my heart to hear. I wanted to run into his arms and erase his pain. Why did I have to be the cause of so much heartache to my friends, my loved ones?
“You have to find a way to tell us what happened,” he pleaded. “I can’t lose you. I need you.”
I tried to yell and tell him what happened, tell him how much I loved him in case it was the last time I ever saw him. Why couldn’t I say something? I tried to think of some way to communicate. I decided to concentrate on the yellow jacket, the cause of the situation I found myself in now. If I couldn’t speak in the dream, maybe I could project a picture of the reason I was in the state I was in. Maybe it would be enough for him to figure something out.
I saw Brand hang his head in complete hopelessness. My heart ached to be with him, to feel his body against mine one last time. I concentrated even harder on the image of the bee whose sting had propelled me into a coma. A buzzing noise filled my head. I saw Brand’s head snap up at the sound. My image of an oversized yellow jacket hung in the air in front of him. I couldn’t hold it for very long but it seemed to be long enough for him to get the message.