The Complete Lost Children Series

by Krista Street

  That’s probably why I’m feeling this way. It’s from remembering my ability.

  Flint took a deep breath. His energy relaxed, no longer feeling like a punching bag. Of course, it didn’t have to be that way. One thing I had mastered was how to diffuse other’s energy so it didn’t affect me so much. If I concentrated, I could control Flint’s cloud, keep it pushed back.

  I hadn’t known that until now.

  I thought about all of the times over the past few months when those steady pushes and waves off Flint barreled into me. How at times it had taken my breath away from its sheer force and heat. I hadn’t known then that I could stop it.

  “That’s definitely going to make life easier.”

  “And more interesting.” He grinned. “Remember that time you knocked over the salt shaker on the table?”

  I laughed. I’d done it as Jet sat down for lunch. He hadn’t known that I was working on my ability. He’d jumped up, practically shrieking when the pepper shaker knocked over next.

  Flint chuckled. “He started raving about poltergeists, saying one had taken up residence in the cabin.”

  I laughed harder. “And I didn’t tell him until the next day.”

  “He barely slept that night. He was convinced the “spirit” was going to smother him in his sleep.” Flint chuckled more loudly.

  I fell back on the bed, clutching my sides. “I’d completely forgotten about that.”

  My words were like water dousing a fire. Flint’s grin vanished. He was quiet for a moment, his eyes hard. “That’s right. We forgot everything because of Conroy.”

  His energy picked up again, but I let it wash over me, like the bow of a ship pushing through waves. His energy dispersed around and behind.

  I sat up. “But we remember now.”

  He pushed a stray curl behind my ear. A muscle clenched in his jaw. “I forgot about that night at the cave. The night we first made love.”

  I fingered my bracelet. “That was the night you gave me this, on my eighteenth birthday.”

  His eyes darkened. “It’s been a long time.”

  Even though we’d been together for the last two months, we hadn’t had sex. In a way, I’d liked that. It built the suspense, heightened everything since we were still building toward the final show. But now, knowing we had been doing it, for years, in fact, was . . . weird.

  I knew every inch of his body, every way to drive him crazy. I knew that the spot behind his left ear was more sensitive than the right. That he loved when I ran my hair along his chest while I trailed kisses down his stomach.

  Flint moved closer. His thigh brushed mine. That sparse contact sent electricity racing along my nerves. “It’s been a very long time.”

  My breath quickened. “Months.”

  “I never thought I could go a day without having you when we first started.” He kissed me softly. “I thought I’d go crazy from seeing you across the room and not being able to touch you.” He trailed a finger along my thigh.

  I closed my eyes and tilted my head back.

  “I soon learned I had to wait, that sometimes we couldn’t get to the cave for days at a time. And in that time, I learned how to drive you crazy with just a look, or a soft kiss on the neck when I brushed your hair back, or how you liked when I bit your upper lip in a quick kiss.”

  I pulled him back on the bed with me.

  “You especially loved when I’d tease you.”

  He slid out of his pants. The sound of my jeans unzipping came next. I lifted my hips as he shimmied them off me.

  He bent down and kissed me, and using his fingers, he proved exactly how much he remembered pleasing me.

  When he finally withdrew, I opened my eyes. His pupils were dark and dilated. Pent-up longing and need shone in them. I felt like a puddle of liquid honey.

  “You were on the pill at one point,” he said.

  When I turned eighteen, Father gave me birth control, like he gave everyone else in the house some form of protection.

  “Do you know when you last took it?” he asked.

  “No.” I still felt like liquid warmth in his arms.

  “Until you’re on birth control again, we’re not doing it.”

  Sighing, I closed my eyes. “I know.”

  My head pounded again, but I tried to push it away and focus on our auras. Our power was so strong right now, as it always was whenever we fooled around.

  Using what I could remember, I harnessed the clouds around us. I worked them together, concentrating deeply and groaning at how much effort it took. Slowly, it formed into a ball, but just as that ball became complete, something in my mind snapped.

  I screamed, wrapping my hands around my head. My headache exploded. Stars shone in my gaze as another scream of pain ripped from my mouth.

  “Lena?” Flint pushed up, pulling me to him. “Lena!”

  His face faded in and out. I clung to him, pulling him toward me before I whispered, “Get Father.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Flint was off me and out of the room before I could blink. Somehow he managed to throw a blanket over me in the process. I moaned and cradled my head. Pulling myself into a ball, I turned on my side. The pain in my head was excruciating. It felt like my head would explode.

  “Galena?” Father’s voice sounded.

  A dip in the mattress told me he’d sat down. Gentle hands gripped my wrists and pried them from my head. “Galena, tell me what’s wrong.” His voice was quiet yet firm.

  “My head . . .” I moaned. “My head hurts so badly!”

  Father’s grip tightened for the merest second before he let go and gently pushed hair from my eyes. I could barely make out his features. My vision wasn’t right.

  He felt along my skull and then down my neck. “When did this start?”

  “It’s hurt since I woke up.” I winced when he touched the base of my neck.

  Flint reappeared on my other side. “It’s hurt since you woke up?” His voice rose.

  I winced.

  “I’m sorry, babe.” Flint turned to Father. “Do something!”

  Father ignored Flint and kept probing me. When he realized I had nothing on under the covers, he stood.

  “Please wrap her in the blanket.”

  Father turned just long enough for Flint to shimmy my panties back on and secure the blanket around me. I moaned again. The movement made everything throb.

  “I’m sorry, babe . . . I’m trying to be gentle.” Flint’s tone and fingers shook. “She’s dressed.”

  Di appeared behind Father. She wore pajamas, and her hair was mussed. “What’s going on?”

  “Lena?” Jacinda’s voice called from the doorway.

  “Everyone, please stay back,” Father said. “Except for you, Diamond. I’d appreciate your assistance.”

  I opened my eyes to see fuzzy figures in the doorway. Everyone seemed to be awake. I wasn’t sure if Flint had woken the entire house on purpose or accidentally.

  Di picked up my arm and felt my pulse. “Her heart’s ticking along pretty fast. Lena, what’s hurting?”

  “Um . . . my head . . . it hurts. It’s pretty bad.”

  My vision cleared just long enough to see Di and Father share a look. In that second, my insides grew cold.

  “But I’m going to be okay, right? It’s just a bad headache.” I winced when a particularly hard pounding hit.

  Flint took my other hand while Di continued to feel my pulse. He kissed the inside of my palm and smoothed the hair from my forehead. “Of course, it’s just a headache. You’re going to be fine. Right, Conroy?”

  Father’s face tightened. “Bring her up to the study. My supplies and equipment are there. I need to check a few more things. Hurry.”

  Flint lifted me and hurried behind Father and Di. Everyone parted when he carried me out the door. Jacinda whimpered, and from what I could see, Mica’s brown eyes were red. She stood numbly. It looked like she’d been crying.

  The twins stood with their
arms at their sides. Both looked like they tried to smile but only ended up grimacing when I passed. Only Amber was missing.

  Flint followed Di and Father up the stairs and down the hall.

  Father waved at a chaise lounge in the office. “Set her there please.”

  Flint gently lowered me. My head touching the chaise made me cringe.

  “How quickly has the pain grown?” Father pulled something from a bag.

  I tried to watch but my lids kept closing. With every passing second, I grew more tired.

  Father placed something around my arm. “Diamond, count her respirations for me.”

  A pumping sounded. Whatever was on my arm constricted. A hiss followed as the constriction eased. I opened my eyes. Father was taking my blood pressure.

  Father whipped the cuff off my arm. “Her systolic pressure is two-hundred and twenty.”

  “Respirations are twenty-two. She’s tachycardic, her pulse is now one hundred and forty.”

  Di stood and joined Father. I vaguely became aware that everyone else had moved to the doorway again. Flint still hunkered by my side, his eyes rimmed with worry.

  “She’ll be okay, right?” Flint’s voice grew hoarse. “Right? Di?”

  I wanted to reach for him, to comfort him but I felt so tired.

  Father pulled more supplies from his bag. “Her blood pressure is dangerously high. I believe she’s suffering a side effect from the drug.”

  “What side effect?” Fear coated Flint’s words.

  “Cerebral over perfusion. Abnormal blood flow can result in the presence of severe hypertension. She’s at risk of ischemia and encephalopathy right now.”

  “I thought this drug was safe!” Flint roared.

  Father plunged a syringe into a vial. “No drug is completely safe. This is a very rare side effect. We need to get her blood pressure under control. Then we’ll deal with everything else.”

  “Everything else?” Energy poured off Flint.

  My headache worsened. I moaned and cradled my head again.

  “Diamond?” Father said. “Please take Flint from the room. The rest of you,” he glanced at the doorway, “please wait in the living room. I need to work quickly and must concentrate.”

  Di had to pull Flint from my side. My vision kept swimming in and out of focus. Everything went fuzzy so I couldn’t be sure how she made him leave.

  “Galena? Are you still with me?”

  I mumbled a response. My head pounded.

  “Diamond, draw up the beta blocker. I’ll start the IV.”

  Father grabbed a long thick rubber band. He tied it around my arm. “Stay with me, Galena.” He flicked a vein in my arm. “Please my child, stay with me.”

  THE NEXT HOURS or days were a blurred, pain filled haze. Di and Father stayed at my side. Sometimes when I opened my eyes, Flint was there too. The dark circles lining his eyes had grown black. I tried to squeeze him as he clutched my hand in his large palms, but my lids would grow heavy again and I’d drift off.

  Voices occasionally permeated the fog, like whispered dreams that faded in and out of focus. At times, I didn’t feel connected to my body. At one point, I thought I saw myself below, as if I hovered above everything, gazing down from the ceiling. It was as though I watched TV. I could see the room, the details and hear the sounds. During that strange dream, Di and Father had been frantically shouting to one another as they hurriedly raced from me to various supplies and back. I watched, feeling as light as air as they pumped drugs into my veins while doing compressions on my chest and hooking me up to a strange machine.

  Flint had been in the corner of the room. He’d gripped his hair and sunk to the floor. His face was white as tears streamed down his cheeks. I wanted to comfort him, but I couldn’t move.

  Then, a strange mechanical voice sounded from the machine. Di and Father stepped back before Father pushed a button. My body jumped, my back arching. And then in the next second, I slammed down from above toward my body as if a giant anvil had crashed upon me.

  It could have been hours, days or weeks before I opened my eyes to see sunlight shining through the window.

  Flint’s soft snores and the light bleeding through the bedroom’s large window made me think I had been dreaming. That all of it wasn’t real. That I was still at Hideaway Hills. That everything we’d discovered at the cabin hadn’t happened. That we were still trying to figure out who we were and what happened to us.

  Except Di was in the bedroom too. She lay asleep on the couch. Medical supplies littered the coffee table. And we weren’t in the cabin at the ranch. Colorful, expensive looking artwork hung on the walls.

  Something stuck out from my arm. I groaned when I recognized it.

  An IV cannula.

  The last time I saw that had been after Aaron attacked me. It seemed something bad had happened again.

  It took a few minutes before the memories returned. Most things felt fuzzy but then a sharp image appeared. It was of Flint and me messing around on the bed while my head pounded. That had been right after Father gave us the memory drug.

  The memory drug!

  I nudged Flint. “Hey, wake up.”

  In a flash, his eyes were open and he was leaning over me. “Lena!” His dark gaze frantically searched mine. “You’re awake! Di! Di! Wake up, Lena’s awake!”

  Di mumbled something before sitting up. Her dark hair fell in messy strands around her face. It looked as if she hadn’t washed it in days.

  “Lena?” Her eyes widened. “You’re awake!”

  She rushed from the couch to my side. “How’s your head? How are you feeling? Do you remember what happened?”

  “Get Conroy!” Flint said.

  Di’s hands shook. “Of course. Keep her awake.”

  Di rushed from the room. I looked at Flint to explain. Tears streamed down his face. “Lena! Lena!” He cupped my cheeks. Energy poured out of him in rivers. “Lena!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  His eyes widened. “You almost died. This is the first time you’ve been truly awake in days.” He pulled me to him, holding me gently as if afraid I’d break.

  “What do you mean I almost died?”

  He went on to explain what had happened during the past four days.

  “Four days? I’ve been in and out of consciousness for four days?”

  Flint nodded. “We almost took you to the hospital after your heart stopped, but then Conroy and Di got you stabilized. Conroy said he had the same drugs as the hospital, and that now it was just a matter of waiting to see when you’d wake up. If Conroy hadn’t had an AED in the house, you’d be dead.”

  “An AED? Isn’t that used to restart someone’s heart?”

  He nodded.

  Father appeared in the doorway as Flint continued to hold me. Stubble covered Father’s face. His cheeks appeared sunken, as though he’d lost weight, and I wondered if he’d eaten or slept since giving us the memory drug.

  “Galena,” he said hoarsely.

  He approached the bedside before his legs gave out. Kneeling, he pulled me into a hug, a sob escaping him. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room when he pulled back.

  “We almost lost you.” He smoothed the hair back from my face.

  “That’s what Flint said.”

  “Oh, my little, Galena.”

  He pulled me back to him as everyone’s energy in the room washed over me. It was filled with love, pain and relief.

  I knew in that moment how grave my situation had been. I breathed a sigh of thankfulness that I was okay.

  FATHER INSISTED ON taking me to the nearest hospital for a CT and MRI. I knew things were serious when he said that. He wouldn’t risk this trip if he didn’t think it was necessary.

  “What about the no hospital rule?” Because of my unique ability, I knew that areas of my brain would be active that were dormant in a normal person. Father had explained all of this to me when I’d been younger. It was the reason we’d never ventured to hospitals growing up.<
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  “I know, but I want to make sure you don’t have permanent damage. I’m making an exception, but we still need to be careful. Follow my lead in public, keep your face hidden and don’t talk to anyone at the hospital unless necessary.”

  Since the CT and MRI were both outpatient procedures, it didn’t require interacting with more than a few technicians. Father insisted on taking my medical records with him when they were done. He’d review them himself. He wouldn’t leave until the hospital wiped any trace of my having been there. The technicians eyed each other, curious looks in their eyes, but they did as Father asked.

  Back at the indestructible home, Father reviewed the scans on his computer. I sat on a chair by the gas fire and waited for him to finish. Flint paced the room.

  Father smiled when he reviewed the last image on his computer. “No permanent damage.”

  I merely blew an annoying curl out of my face as afternoon sun washed into the study. “I could have told you that. I feel fine.”

  Flint grumbled at that statement and placed his hands on his hips. “Next time Conroy asks you how you’re feeling, you better tell him the truth.”

  Unfortunately, Flint hadn’t forgotten that I initially downplayed my headache, but he was right. I’d learned my lesson.

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  Pulling me up from the chair, Flint held me close. Father discreetly left the study, patting me on the shoulder as he walked by before closing the door behind him.

  “That’s twice that I’ve almost lost you.” Flint’s large fingers threaded through my hair.

  “Perhaps I’m part cat. Maybe I have nine lives.”

  He smiled grimly. “I can’t lose you.”

  My joking vanished. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll be honest about how I’m feeling from now on.”

  “You better keep that promise,” he growled before tilting my face up for a kiss.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I spent the next two days resting in my bedroom per Father’s orders. While the headaches had disappeared, the tiredness hadn’t. It was crazy how the entire ordeal made me so groggy. However, the reprieve gave me plenty of time to reminisce over everything I remembered.