And what was I on? Given the look of the room, the roundness, and the fact I was on a raised dais in the middle?
I was the main attraction.
No thanks.
I managed to slip off without landing on my ass, but holding on to the…what was this? A couch? A closer look and I had been lying on a sort of settee, covered in new bedding and clean pillows. This was in stark contrast to the rest of the place. And as I looked harder I saw greenery growing around the columns and coming through the cracks.
"This looks like a temple." My voice sounded very small in the room.
"It is, it is," came a deeper voice.
I managed not to squeak as I turned and saw a man standing to the side of one of the columns. He was in the shadows and I could make out his outline. He was hiding, but not very well. I licked my lips and stood, my hand on my belly. "Did you bring me here?"
"Yes, yes. This is a safe place. Can't kill you here."
Well…that was a load of information I didn't know how to process. I slowly nodded. "I see. So you saved me?"
The man bobbed his head. There was something familiar about him.
"Did you take me out of the hospital?"
Again, he bobbed his head. Then, "He would have killed you there. But I know, yes, yes, I know. I've seen it all. Here, I see the past, the future, the could be, and the what if."
That's when I recognized him. Or rather his voice. I cleared my throat. "Solomon…you can step out. I'm not going to hurt you. In case you haven't heard, I'm human now."
He moved and then stepped back, and then finally moved out into the light, wherever that was coming from. It wasn't a bright light, but it was enough. "I, I know. I know. You're in preparation."
He was looking at my stomach. I kept my hand on it. I had another cramp, but kept myself upright. Yeah, I was in preparation all right. For babies.
But he obviously saw my face and came forward, then stepped back. He looked frightened, as if he wanted to help and didn't know how. He was also dressed really weird. He wore part of a hospital gown, like a doctor wears in surgery. And he still had on the hat. The mask hung around his neck. His beard had grown long and was unkempt, and his hair stuck out from under the cap at odd angles. Before, he'd always kept his appearance neat and well groomed. Whatever had happened to him in the Dragon's Eye had taken its toll.
He didn't have any pants on, that I could tell, and his legs and feet were dirty. I could see his bare footprints in the dust on the marble floor.
"What do you mean by preparation? To have a baby?"
He shook his head. "Too many answers. Don't know which one to use."
Okay then. I pursed my lips. "So…where are we?"
"Here."
"Where is here?"
"Where he can't hurt you. Either of you. Two of them."
That didn't help. I took a step away from the center couch and he took a step back. "Solomon, are you afraid of me?"
He shook his head, but he wasn't getting any closer.
"So…who is it you believe is trying to kill me, or hurt me?"
Solomon's lips thinned and he leaned his head to the side. "Names are flagged. Information travels even from here, through here. Traps everywhere. He's trapped, you know. Trapped inside the wires. I tried to get him out, but the spiders, they were coming."
I blinked at him. Sweet Lady. I had no idea what that meant. I could guess, but… "When you say he's trapped in the wires…wait…information travels…are we in Cyberspace?"
"No," he said sharply. "Not my purview. That's his. Because his. But he doesn't understand what he's done. Won't listen. Too far gone."
I reached up and ran my fingers through my hair. They snagged on a tangle. Great. I probably looked as disheveled as he did. Getting through his garbled information… I didn't see a door in or out of this round room, so I needed to figure this out. "So we're not in Cyberspace."
He shook his head.
"But I'm safe. Are you safe?"
"For now. But the Baron's mighty mad."
"Isn't that a name?" I knew it was a title, and given where I lived, if anyone ever said the Baron, I always assumed they meant Samedi.
"Title. But he already knows he's got him. The Baron's strong, but not when his information is scrambled. All in pieces. It's all in pieces." Solomon held his finger to his ear and then made circles in the air. "This one's crazy."
So…was he talking about himself or someone else? "Solomon, can you tell me who is crazy, who scrambled the Baron without giving a name?"
Solomon turned and put his back to me…and I was right. No pants. And his gown was open. That was an image I wasn't going to recover from fast, so I looked away until he turned back to me. "Perfume. Grape juice. Dancing. Music. Old times."
I frowned. Again, more information than I knew what to do with, and none of it made sense. Though, the mention of grape juice made my mouth dry. "Perfume. This person wears perfume. Women wear perfume and she dances to old times?"
"No, no." And he put his hand to his neck and then pantomimed putting something on. Like he was splashing something…
"Aftershave?"
He pointed to me. "No names. No information. But I can see the right information. I have to wait for all the pieces to be brought together, then I can free him." He shook his head as he focused on me, his eyes very wide. "Then there will be revenge. And justice. All the Goddesses are one. All the Gods are the same."
Okay. I had to admit, I wasn't sure what the hell was going on. "Solomon, can I go home? I have to find my husband."
"No!" He ran at me, but never reached me. He stopped a few inches away. I was freaking out… "No, you stay here. He can't kill you here. See, see—" He ran to the wall in front of us, between two columns, and disappeared.
WTH?
I moved a bit slower, picking my way through the statue debris, and reached the wall. With a little hesitation, I reached out and my hand went through it. So I stepped forward and found myself standing in what looked like a courtyard. Only this one wasn't all destroyed, but living and lush. There was a center fountain with lots of green shrubs and plants and flowers everywhere. There was a painted sky above and lots of chaise loungers.
And there was a smell.
What was that smell?
Solomon came barreling out of the green and I stepped back. He stopped. "You shouldn't be in here! Go back to the safe place!"
"What?"
He grabbed my arm and pulled me back through the wall. We were back in the destroyed room and his grip was a bit tight. "You have to stay here. Please… Here, he can't hurt you." And he let me go and looked at my belly. "He can't. But the God Mother… " And then he ran back through the wall.
I went after him, but this time the wall didn't give and I smashed into it. After swearing a lot, I put my hands over it and tried to find an opening. I went around the entire room, but didn't find that doorway out. Nothing. I was trapped.
And I really had to pee.
ELEVEN
"I swear," the nurse said, as she pointed at Crwys, "it was you. Only you were wearing different clothing." She grabbed a stack of forms and flipped through, then pulled one out. "You signed your wife's release."
Crwys took the paper and stared at the form. That was his signature. But he didn't sign it.
"Detective…" Another man in a white shirt and black pants appeared to his and Tas's right. "We've got it pulled up for you."
Levi came in at that moment and followed them through a series of doors to a room with several monitors. There, the man in the white shirt sat down and hit a button. A recording played on all the monitors. It was from a camera looking over the same desk they'd just left. And right there was Samantha in a wheelchair, a blanket thrown over her. She wasn't moving.
And beside her was Crwys, talking to the nurse he'd just met for the first time. He watched in horror as he signed something and then waved, and for an instant, it wasn't him. There was a flash and then he and Sam were gone.
"Can you back that up," Levi said, "and play it frame by frame where that glitch happened?"
The man in the white shirt nodded and he rolled the recording back, then edged it forward to that spot. The four of them watched as it painstakingly went through each frame until there was a blinding flash in one, and then in the following frame—
"That's Solomon," Tas said in a quiet voice.
"Yes, it is."
"Who's Solomon?" the man in the white shirt asked.
Levi put his hand on the man's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "No one you need to remember."
Crwys and Tas left the room, followed by Levi. They met up in the waiting area and formed a small circle. Crwys started to say something, but Levi shook his head and then nodded to the elevator. They didn't speak until they were back outside and standing by Crwys's Mustang.
"What?" he said.
"I didn't want to talk in there, given what Arden said earlier." Levi put his hands on his hips.
"You heard that, back at the crime scene?" Tas said.
"He's got that Vampire hearing," Crwys said. "Ashur was tuned in."
Levi nodded. "And agrees with Arden. No one knew about her coven member, except whoever was listening in on her. And if they're using Cyberspace this way, then names will cause flags. According to Iv—to your friend, someone was looking for your wife's medical records. And look who shows up to impersonate you and get her out?"
"You can't honestly believe he's responsible for all this?" Tas said.
"Think about it." Levi held out his hand. "He's got the ability to do it. He's got the knowledge, given his expertise in folklore. The fact he's insane because of his experience where he shouldn't have been…it sounds like it's scrambled it all in his head. He's gone crazy."
"Yeah, but even he said the same thing Iv—my friend said," Crwys said. Talking without names was going to get annoying pretty fast. "That he's going to kill her. Now if we think my wife is the her, who is the he? I doubt he was speaking about himself in third person."
"He might have been."
Crwys shook his head at Levi. "No. Did Ashur ever figure out the smell? At the crime scene?"
"No. It was just familiar. Like something old. A memory. It'll come back. Ashur's sure." Levi rubbed at his lips. "So let's just speculate it's not crazy guy. But he's involved."
"It's just a hunch—" Tas flinched and put her hands on the hood of the Mustang. Then she actually grabbed it to keep herself standing.
"You okay?" Levi asked.
Crwys felt a slight ping as he watched her. He put his hand on his chest and he felt dizzy. "Did…what was that?"
"I don't know," Tas said. "It's like someone was in the Eye—"
The two of them stared at one another. Crwys said, "He wouldn't take her there, would he? If she looks where he did—"
"Oh naw…naw, naw. You two get in the car before you—"
But it was too late. Crwys and Tas were already traveling inward, to the Dragon's Eye. To anyone watching the three of them in the parking lot, Tas and Crwys would wink out of existence, leaving only Levi standing at the Mustang.
Crwys had intended to travel into the center of the connection between the God Mother's monsters, expecting to once again see the dusty and long unused corridors. But when he looked around, now standing once again in his original form, he found himself in the atrium's center and it was alive!
"This is wrong, Apollo," Artemis said as she appeared in her green robes beside him. "These are Lethe's quarters."
Lethe's? Panic set in again as he called out, "Sam!"
He heard an answer, muffled, and he called out again. And again, he heard someone.
"The right…Lethe's bedroom!" Artemis said.
The two of them ran down the hall to what looked like a solid wall, their sandals crunching on the debris of a millennium of misuse. Crwys put his hand on the wall and felt the vibration of Sam pounding on it.
"How is she inside of Lethe's room?" Artemis said. "Lethe is dead. I know this to be true."
"Is that why the room is sealed?"
"Yes. Lethe is gone. In truth, this room shouldn't even exist."
"Well, it does. Help me get her out." He started pounding on it, kicking it, but it wasn't giving way. "Sam…are you all right?"
"I think so," came her small voice. "I went through this wall before, with Solomon. I can't get through it now."
"Solomon?" Tas put her hand to her neck. "He was here. In the Eye?"
"I don't understand any of this," Crwys said. "I think it's time we had a long talk with Mother." He started moving to the right as his hands slid over the surface until…he felt air. He looked at Artemis, and with a shove, the wall gave.
Stumbling in, he collided with Sam and pulled her into his arms. She felt so warm and so alive against him that he started kissing her. The top of her head, the tops of her ears, everywhere he could. It wasn't until he felt something between them that he stepped away and saw the bulge. Reality hit him. "Oh, Sam," he said.
And she was staring at him. Wide eyed. Then, "You look really, really different." She reached up and touched his chin, then moved around him to slide her hand down his long black braid. "Is this what you used to look like?"
"These were our human forms," Artemis said as she stepped through the wall.
Sam turned and dropped her jaw at Tas…Artemis. Then she looked back at Crwys. "What is this place?"
"You're in the Dragon's Eye."
She took a step back. "But…that's not possible. Solomon went crazy when he came here. Am I gonna go crazy too?"
"I don't know," Artemis said. "Have you seen him?"
"He brought me here. He said someone wouldn't kill me here. That I was safe." She rubbed her belly.
Crwys shook his head and put his hand on her belly. "No. You're not safe until we get this removed."
"What?" Sam took a few steps back. "You want me to abort our child?"
Artemis stepped between them and took Sam's hands in hers. "No, Sam. That's not it. That's an egg growing inside you. And it's going to get bigger. Much bigger."
Sam blinked. "An egg?"
"Yes. Can you imagine how big a Dragon's egg can get? But don't worry, once it's removed, it should be viable."
"But who…" Sam looked really pale and went to Crwys. "Who is going to remove an egg from me?"
Crwys looked at Artemis. She smiled. "I can. But not here." She looked at Crwys. "Get her to Gypsy Gardens. I'm going to look for Solomon. See if he's still here."
He agreed and took Samantha in his arms. He kissed her nose. "We're going to have a baby."
She sniffed. "You're not mad?"
"No. Not as long as we can raise him or her together. We’ll have to keep an eye out for any crazy, but…” He smiled at her. “I love you, Sam. I can't live without you."
And the Dragon's Eye vanished around them.
TWELVE
Sam
When I awoke, I was still in Crwys's arms, but we were in one of the rooms at Gypsy Gardens. This place had become a haven for me, and for my coven.
My family.
I lay on my side, curled up against him. He was naked and his eyes closed. He was as beautiful as he'd always been, but I still saw the remnants of the dark-haired young man with the intense stare and the long ponytail. I put my hand on his chest, and to my surprise, he raised his hand and placed it on my protruding tummy. I swear I was bigger than before. The skin was so sensitive to the touch. It was like he'd touched a bruise.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"No, no. It's okay." I looked into his amber and fire eyes. "So, it's okay that we're going to have a baby?"
"It's okay, but I am curious how it happened." He smirked. "Not the mechanics, Sam. I thought you were on birth control. Does it not work with Dragons?"
"I don't know. I haven't missed a pill since we got married. I don't know how it happened."
His expression darkened and he traced my lower lip with his finger
. "Ivan has been communicating with us."
"He's okay?"
"He's still in a coma. But he's here in the manse. What he said didn't make any sense at first, but I'm starting to put a few things together and I don't like what I'm seeing."
I made a face. "You're gonna have to fill me in."
Now he looked embarrassed. This was not an expression he did well. "I know, and I'm sorry I've been keeping you from what's been happening."
"You think you're protecting me."
“Of course. I’m your husband.” He kissed her forehead. “It’s my honor.”
“But what are you protecting me from? I know what Ivan was doing. I know about the DDoS attack. But what I don’t know is what they were after.”
"My assumption is that the attack was way to keep Ivan busy while someone got into your personal computer. They accessed all your records, including your medical files."
"Medical files? I don't keep files there."
“No, but you keep your passwords there. Remember?”
I groaned. He was right. I downloaded this thing that would keep passwords for me for stuff ‘cause I was always forgetting. I tried writing them down in a book and lost the book. "Well…shit."
Crwys kissed my forehead. "Ivan went after them and he didn't come back. But he has been trying to tell us something. And Arden thinks he's doing it as cryptically as possible. No names. Nothing that can be tracked or traced in Cyberspace."
"Not sure what you mean."
"Think about it. A month ago, someone accesses your computer and possibly gets into your personal information, everything needed for medical records. Date of birth, social security and so on." He arched a brow as he moved a shock of hair from his face. "I don't think it's a coincidence that a month after that intrusion, you're pregnant."
"Uhh…I'm pretty sure I understand how the birds and the bees work, Crwys. I didn't get pregnant because of a hack."
"No. But Arden's had your birth control examined." He sat up and looked down at me. "One of her people also checked your medical history at the hospital. Your prescription got re-routed to a doctor named Stephen Anderson."
Elemental Tears: An Urban Fantasy Series (The Eldritch Files Book 8) Page 8