Waterdreamer (The Emerald Series Book 2)

by Kimberly James

“Yeah, me too.” My gaze met his and it was like a shared prayer between us. He took my hand and our fingers entwined. I lay my head on his shoulder. We sat there in the quiet for a long time.

  * * *

  Noah and I walked back to the waiting room hand in hand. Thomas looked tired. The wait was wearing on us all. I had no idea what time it was. By the looks of the brightness of the sun outside the window we passed, I guessed it was nearing noon. I’d barely sat down next to Thomas when the phone rang and the nurse called, “Harper family?”

  She smiled warmly at me as I took the receiver. “This is his daughter.”

  I didn’t hear much past, “He’s out of surgery.” I collapsed against the wall, nodding as the doctor filled me in from the other side of the line. I nodded mutely as the tears ran freely down my face. I hung up the phone and stood with my hand on the receiver, eyes squeezed shut. When I turned around, Noah, Thomas, and Maggie waited, faces anxious.

  “He made it. The doctor will be in a few minutes to talk to us, but he wanted us to know he came through the surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.” I wrapped my arms around myself as tears of relief continued to fall. “He’s going to be okay.”

  We celebrated with hugs and more tears, and it felt like the weight of the world had lifted and I could breathe again. The doctor proved true to his word, and within ten minutes he was in the waiting room, filling us in on the details, though the only one that mattered was my dad was alive, and he would stay that way. The wound in his lower abdomen was the least worrisome. The bullet had gone right through and done minimal tissue damage. The one in his chest was the tricky one. They’d removed the bullet, or at least most of it. They’d opted to leave a fragment and the doctor assured me this wouldn’t be a problem. My dad was breathing on his own, and he took that as an encouraging sign. If all went well, barring infection or some other setback, he’d be out of here in a week.

  When he was settled in his room in ICU, I was allowed to go sit with him. The nurse had warned me his appearance might be shocking, and it was. He was still deathly pale, his face swollen, his skin dry. He looked weak lying in his bed and I wanted so badly for him to open his eyes. When he finally did, my own misted as his blinked a few times and finally focused on me. For a few seconds, I sat in my chair simply enjoying the moment of looking at him and his Paul Newman eyes. His smile, when it came, was weak.

  “There’s my girl,” he said, his voice rough and gravely.

  “Daddy.” I made my way to the bed, leaned over and hugged him awkwardly, careful of the oxygen tube in his nose and the IV in his hand. I wiped impatiently at the tears that plagued me. One fell on his cheek and I wiped it away, noticing the shininess in his own eyes.

  “It’s okay, baby.” Was all he managed to say before he coughed, his face grimacing. I poured him a cup of water from the pitcher left by the nurse and helped him take a sip. He laid his head back down as if the act of drinking exhausted him.

  “I know. I’m just really happy to see you.” I let my gaze linger, desperate to banish those images of the last time I saw him that haunted my memory. His body soaked with blood and rain, seemingly lifeless.

  “Me too.” He fumbled for my hand, his fingers surprisingly strong when they squeezed mine. Another good sign. “I couldn’t find you. He didn’t hurt you did he?”

  “No, dad, he didn’t. We can worry about all that later. You just need to get better so you can come home. The doctor said you’re going to be fine,“ I said in answer to the question in his eyes.

  “He said that, huh. Doesn’t feel like it. Getting shot sucks.”

  “Yeah, watching you get shot sucked.” I hoped I never saw or heard another gun for the rest of my life.

  “Well look who’s awake,” the nurse said as she walked in the room. She was maybe a little older than my dad, and I got the impression she ruled the floor. Her name was Rebecca. She did a quick check of his vitals while I stood at the end of the bed where his calves where wrapped in what looked like sleeves that pumped themselves up with air every minute. After she plumped his pillow she said, “I think there’s someone else eager to see you. You up for another visitor?”

  I looked toward the door where Thomas waited in the hall. I’d invited him in earlier to sit with me, but he insisted I should be alone with my dad when he woke up. I motioned him inside. Tenderness flooded my dad’s face and his eyes got all bright with moisture as Thomas made his way over to the bed. Thomas made a choked sound in his throat and leaned over and kissed my dad full on the mouth.

  Rebecca raised her eyebrows at me in amusement. “Doctor should be here in a few minutes,” she said, patting my arm on her way out the door.

  “You look horrible,” my dad said to Thomas. “I like the beard, though.”

  “The past twelve hours have been hell,” Thomas said, and I couldn’t agree more. A hell I never wanted to visit again.

  My dad’s eyes skated over Thomas and landed on me. “Caris, as happy as I am to see you, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “I’m staying with you.” I shook my head, ready to dig in my heels. I wasn’t going to let him kick me out.

  “I’ll recover faster if I’m not worried about you getting sick. Please, Caris. After what happened to your mother, I won’t risk it. Go home.” His voice was growing weaker. He was obviously already worn out from our visit. “Please.”

  “I’ll stay with him, Caris,” Thomas said. “He’ll be well taken care of.”

  “If I have to call Noah in here to drag you out, I will,” he said. It wasn’t so much his threat that caused me to comply, it was the stress I heard in his voice. He’d keep fighting me on this to get his way, and he needed his strength for a bigger battle.

  I walked over to the side of the bed and kissed his forehead. “I want frequent Snapchats, and I’ll be sending Maggie in on a regular basis to check on you.”

  “I think I can handle that,” he said, his eyes lingering over every feature of my face. “You be safe.”

  Safe. It was hard to believe in safe right now. “I love you, Daddy.”

  “I love you too, baby.”

  By the time I walked out the front doors to the hospital, my tears dried up. Noah waited beside his Bronco with his mom and Marshall.

  “How is he?” Mrs. Jacobs asked.

  “He’s awake and ornery enough he kicked me out.” The sun worked over my already dry skin, the usually soothing heat aiding in my discomfort.

  “Orneriness is always a good sign.” She touched my cheek. It nearly cracked under her fingers. “You need to swim.” Her concerned eyes tracked to Noah. “You both do.”

  “Yeah, that sounds really good right now,” I said through my parched throat.

  “Why don’t you let Noah take you home and get the things you’ll need and come stay with us for a few days,” she offered.

  “I don’t want to be an imposition. You’ve done so much already.” I made the feeble protest more out of courtesy. I didn’t want to face my house alone.

  “I insist, and I’m sure Noah will too. Now go. Marshall will take me home.” She gently pushed me in Noah’s direction. He was unusually quiet and lethargic and it was if he were using the Bronco to hold himself up.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Jacobs.” I intended to hug her neck but my arms didn’t make it that far, so I hugged her waist. “You too, Mr. Shaw, and tell Erin thanks.”

  “I hope you don’t mind, I called the school. They’ll be sending your assignments home with Erin for a few days until you’re ready to go back.”

  “That was really thoughtful.” I was in danger of tearing up again but oddly they never came. My eyeballs felt like sandpaper. Noah opened the door for me, and I slid in the front seat in a daze. I tried to focus on Noah as he walked around the front of the Bronco, but he remained a mirage. The slam of his door came from far away. The Bronco lurched under the pressure of his foot and we pulled from the parking lot. My head lolled to the side. Now that I was able to think about myself, I rea
lized just how drained I was. My arms and legs felt like lead, my head fuzzy and full of cotton, as was my mouth. Swallowing seemed impossible.

  “Water deprivation,” Noah said, pressing his foot on the gas pedal. His skin was so dry it flaked. His eyes didn’t have their usual spark and his arm trembled under the act of steering. His hair even looked brittle. He suffered too, all because he stayed with me. The depth of his loyalty both inspired and scared me.

  I tried to reach for him, but I lacked the energy to lift my arm.

  “Hurry.”

  Twenty

  Once we got to my house, Noah had to carry me. I stepped out of the seat and fell right on my face, scraping my cheek and bruising my elbow on the concrete. My legs refused to hold me up, and I lacked the strength to break my fall. I would have laughed but I didn’t have the energy for that either. And worse, Noah was in no better shape, but he scooped me up and carried me through the sand. He stumbled twice, almost dropped me once. Through sheer determination, Noah got us to the water and we sank into the gulf fully clothed. At first, all we could do was float. My skin bloomed, pores opening up like I was a drain. After a few minutes of sponging, we eased our way deeper.

  Noah recovered much quicker than I did. He’d had the chance to swim during my party, but it had been nearly twenty-four hours since the gulf water touched my skin, and I was surprised how fast my body seemed to shrivel in the prolonged absence of the water. Possessing way more energy than I did, Noah swam with exuberance, acting like a dog who’d been tied up too long. I was just too tired to do anything but coast, physically and emotionally replete.

  Reluctant to leave me behind, Noah swam up to me. His eyes had regained their usual brightness, and he took my hands and threaded my arms around his neck, swimming deeper with me on his back. Our passage through the Deep was silent with the long fluid undulations of his body under mine, his hair tickling my hands and cheek. The quiet sensations banishing the effects of last nights events, at least on my body. I thought the healing of my mind would take much longer. Eventually, my arms slipped from Noah’s shoulders and we made our way back to shore.

  When we got back to the beach, Athen was waiting for us, his face downcast, like a man that failed. I knew without asking they hadn’t found Sterling and probably wouldn’t. My uncle would get away with attempted murder.

  I turned to Noah. “Can I talk to Athen alone for a few minutes?”

  “Sure,” he said, squeezing my fingers before he dropped my hand. “I’ll go see what I can find for us to eat.”

  “You know if I had been a different kind of young man, one more like him, things might have turned out differently,” Athen said, his eyes trained on Noah’s retreating back. It was hard to believe, watching Noah make his way to the house, that an hour ago he’d been so weak and on the verge of collapse.

  “Maybe sometimes things happen the way they’re supposed to,” I said, having a hard time regretting the decisions Athen had made. He’d told me once he couldn’t regret what he’d done to my mother because of me and in that same vein, how could I regret Athen’s choices or my mother’s when it had given me my dad?

  “And a lot of times good grows out of bad,” he said, the expression on his face softening like it always did when he looked at me.

  “So what good comes from my dad being shot? Did you catch him?” I hugged my arms to my chest.

  “No. I’m sorry.” He must have been out here a while. His skin was dry, his hair partially so. Pieces of it blew on the wind.

  “How is Sol? Is he okay?”

  “Yes. He’s still looking.” His eyes held no hope. “I heard Patrick came through the surgery and woke up. That’s good news, Caris. I can only imagine your relief.”

  “Yeah. I got to see him. He made me leave the hospital. Said it wasn’t safe.” Which was almost laughable.

  “He’s a good man. I mean that sincerely,” he said.

  Any response I might have clogged my throat. Yes, my body had recovered, but my mind remained fragile, my emotions on a cliff’s edge.

  “If I’d had any idea what Sterling intended to do, I never would have let him anywhere near Patrick. I need you to know that.”

  Athen had reason to hate my dad even more than Sterling but oddly enough, it hadn’t occurred to me to blame him. Or think he was in any way to blame. The blame lay with me. It lay with Sterling.

  “I should have seen it,” I said, shaking my head at my stupidity. At my desperation to only see the good in people, especially family. Some people just weren’t good. “There were clues. I just didn’t understand.” My voice cracked, eyes finding his as if he could make me understand the workings of an evil mind. “That someone could be that vindictive. He meant to kill him. Right in front of me. After all his talk of family and loyalty. He was in our house. He sat across the table from my dad.”

  Now that it was over the dam broke, the stress of the last forty-eight hours rushing down my face, spilling in the sand at my feet. I hiccuped once, trying to stem the flow, but it was no use. Athen closed the space between us. His arms came around me and I let him pull me into his solid embrace.

  “Shhh. It’s over.” His hand ran down the back of my hair. “Patrick is going to be fine. Sterling can’t hurt you.”

  I found little comfort in his words, mostly because I didn’t believe them. When I was able, I asked, “How can you be so sure? If he finds out he failed, what then?”

  “I’m not sure he failed.” He held me away from him, his hands still clutching my arms.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think if he wanted Patrick dead, a single shot to the head would have done the trick. He’s trying to make trouble for us and he’s succeeded,” he said, mirroring Noah’s observations. “And I’m sure a part of him feels justified in what he did. Some might even see it as a show of strength that he would go to such lengths to protect our kind. His tactic will appeal to some and influence the growing debate on whether we need to make some sort of declaration as a species.”

  “What do you think?”

  “Honestly, I haven’t thought about it in many years. But in light of recent events, it bears thinking about now,” he said.

  I had some considering of my own to do. Like whether to tell Athen what Sterling had implied in regards to Jamie. It would ease my conscience to tell Athen. Jamie had been a part of this tribe, and if Athen were contemplating stepping forward and asserting his leadership, he needed to know the extent of Sterling’s treachery. He needed to know what he was up against.

  “Before he…” my voice faltered. “Before Sterling had my dad shot right in front of me, he said something about Jamie. He made it sound like he knew something about Jamie’s accident. That it wasn’t an accident. He called Jamie a traitor and said if Noah wasn’t careful with his alliances, he’d suffer the same fate.”

  Athen’s expression hardened, his whole body reacting to my words, the negligible coil of muscles nonetheless powerful. He didn’t say anything for a long while, taking his time to digest the information. “Have you told Noah?”

  “No. I hate keeping this from him, but Noah would go after him, wouldn’t he? I’m right not to tell him, aren’t I?” I asked, desperate for him to tell me I was doing the right thing.

  “Yes, I think you’re right not to tell him. Sterling could be lying just to scare you. Let me see what I can find out first.”

  I nodded, feeling slightly weightless now that I’d unloaded the burden of the knowledge to someone else.

  “Will you be okay?”

  “I’m going to stay with the Jacobs’s for a few days.”

  “That’s good. You shouldn’t be alone.”

  “Yeah, I guess I’ll go see what Noah’s cooked up for dinner.” And it was getting cool as the sun set and a steady breeze picked up. Now that I was properly hydrated, a hot shower sounded good. And a bed.

  “If you need anything, you’ll let me know?”

  “Yes. And thanks.” I lifted my hand and be
fore I could talk myself out of it, wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him. His arms came around me and his chest rose against mine in a long inhale of scent.

  Safe. Maybe that place still existed.

  I released him and left him to stare after me as I ran back to the house.

  * * *

  I’d never been depressed before. After those crucial first twenty-four hours after my dad’s surgery came and went and it was clear he really was going to recover, the depression settled over me in a way I didn’t expect or understand. I couldn’t eat. Fatigue weighed on me. School was a waste of energy and I endured endless whispers and heated looks. No longer invisible, I was a pariah.

  The night of my Soulfast played over and over in my head, a constant reminder of what almost happened. Why couldn’t I shake it? My dad was slowly getting better. I should be happy. Why was I holding so tight to Sterling’s threats?

  Noah, as usual, continued to be exceedingly patient. We’d been sitting on the beach behind my house for almost an hour, my toes digging into the cool sand. For the first time in months conversation was stilted, and it was all my fault. We should be out in the Deep, but even the water held little appeal. The sun lacked the strength to break through the clouds. The day was cool and gray, the water flat and colorless. A reflection of me.

  “Talk to me Caris. Tell me what’s wrong.” Noah’s hand snaked over my hair, the ends hanging to my shoulders. I hadn’t cared enough to cut it.

  What was wrong? Sterling tried to murder my dad because of me. He implied taking part in Jamie’s accident and the knowledge was a secret twisting in my gut. Sterling made a liar of me. He made a mockery of the bracelet Noah gave me. In the words of the vow that still resided in the chambers of my heart.

  For all my threats to Sterling about what I’d do if he hurt Noah, what could I really do to protect him? My power hadn’t been able to protect my dad. Sterling had listened to my paltry threats then I’d stood complaisant and watched my dad get shot. How he must have laughed at my ignorance. He must still be laughing. He was free and my dad was fighting to get his life back.