“Melanie Elizabeth, look at me.”
She obeyed. He snapped his fingers and the bodies disappeared, leaving no trace of anything having been out of the ordinary. Her father was calm on the outside, but she could almost see his inner hysteria. “I’ve no doubt you did what was necessary. But did you use your powers in front of Ferdian? Was he present when you took the enemy out, Melanie?”
Reluctantly, she nodded. “Yes. He was going to kill them all, Daddy. He wanted to kill the men and take Peren and Missy somewhere other than where he planned on taking me. I could feel their pain as he used his power to try to steal the air from their lungs. The men he brought were armed with silver bullets and couldn’t wait for a chance to shoot.”
“I know, Melanie. I understand how Ferdian operates. He looks for your greatest weakness and uses it against you. He must have sensed your concern for your friends. Did anything else odd happen? I need to know the details, sweetheart, and I know you’d rather not talk about it anymore, but this is important.”
Melanie’s mind raced with thoughts of what had transpired while Ferdian was present. “He had a big, gold-edged mirror. It came out of thin air, like how Eadan can conjure various things. It acted like a television and it played something with Mom and Elizabeth in it.”
Her father’s face fell. “Did it show you in it to start and then…”
“Morph into Elizabeth’s image? Yes. Why?” She winced as pain shot through her. Every muscle in her body cramped to the point she drew into herself. “Daddy, something’s wrong with my power. It’s clawing at me from the inside and I can’t make it stop.”
Melanie coughed and more blood came up. Her father spotted it and gasped. “Melanie, sweetheart, what’s wrong? What happened? Did he hurt you?”
“Dad, pick her up. I’ll tell you all about it back at the house,” Eadan said, glancing back at the others.
“You will tell me now! What’s wrong with my baby?”
Missy rushed up next to Melanie. “Mr. Daly, don’t yell at Eadan. He’s not trying to keep the truth from you on purpose. He doesn’t want to upset Melanie. She’s already upset enough.”
“Yeah, calling Green ‘Thaddy’ and shooting me right before you take on a room full of bad guys, while wearing a designer dress, will take it out of you,” Wilson said, sliding up next to Missy and touching Melanie’s arm.
“Thaddy?” her father asked. “Did you say Green? As in Dr. Thaddeus Chandler Green?”
Wilson laughed. “Ohmygod, your middle name is Chandler? Ha! Ohmygod, she named her baby doll that. This is great. Hey, why aren’t you talking or moving?”
Melanie grabbed her father’s hand, pushing the pain aside and dropping her hold on Green. “Thad? Is he hurt?”
“Melanie, Thad is dead. I told you that when you were little. He lived a long time ago and is gone now. Do you understand? We went over it hundreds of times. I thought you understood, sweetheart.” He sighed and shook his head. “You weren’t supposed to remember. You were supposed to let that pain go and start again. A clean slate. That’s what I wanted for you. That is part of the reason why I forbid you from using your powers. Why I wanted all things supernatural kept far from you.”
Eadan gasped. “Oh fuck, Thaddy? The imaginary friend? Chandler, the baby doll’s name?” He stared down at Melanie and his eyes widened. “You really are his mate.”
Her father cleared his throat. “Mate? No. Dr. Green is dead. I looked for him after I received the last letter from my sister and found records of his death.”
Eadan tapped their father’s shoulder. “Umm, Dad, uh, Green is one of the I-Ops. You know the ones Missy’s dad oversees. The ones I’m a part of now. The ones I told you are planning a nice little trip to South America that I want to take Melanie on.”
Melanie watched as her father’s eyes swirled with varying shades of the blue spectrum. She shook her head and grabbed his arm. “Daddy, no killing Eadan!”
“I’m not going to kill Eadan. I’m going to kill Dr. Green. After all, turnabout is fair play. He had a hand in taking you…umm, someone close to me once. I think it’s only fair I return the favor.”
Eadan scrambled next to Melanie and blocked their father’s path. “Dad, if you kill Green, then you kill Melanie too. She can’t survive without him.”
Puzzled, Melanie glanced at her brother and rolled her eyes. “You are such an idiot.”
“Yeah, this coming from a woman who worships shoes.”
“Yes, well at least my shoes are married to someone else.” She glanced behind her at Roi and smiled. “Someone who could kick the living shit out of you.”
Roi laughed. “I like her.”
“You would,” Eadan said drolly. “Put some clothes on, Melanie. That dress barely covers you.”
“Yes, and the dental floss your last little girlfriend had on covered so much more. Bite me.”
“Dad, I’m going to wring her neck!”
“You will not touch her. You will, however, point me in the direction of this Green character.”
Melanie went to comment but doubled over as pain ripped through her insides. Her father was on her in an instant. “Sweetheart?”
“Green! Help her, please! I’m sorry I yelled at you. I was wrong. Please,” Peren called out, dropping next to Melanie. “Mr. Daly, he needs to touch her and Eadan is right, if you kill Green, you kill Melanie. I think you understand how mating works.”
He shook his head. “Peren, tell me she didn’t do it again. Tell me she didn’t marry him again. I can’t lose her again. I can’t.”
“Again? Dad?” Eadan asked. “Mel has never been married before. Hell, we’re excited when she keeps a boyfriend longer than a week.”
Chapter Eight
Green made his way to Melanie’s side slowly, afraid he was dreaming. This couldn’t be real. No. It was impossible. As he glanced down at her, her father looked up at him and shook his head. “Tell me she didn’t do it again.”
“Is she…?” He couldn’t get the words out. So many things overlapped. He didn’t want to believe it was true. The second he realized that it didn’t matter, that he couldn’t let Melanie die, regardless who she was or wasn’t, his entire body burned for the change.
“Did you kill your wife, Doctor?” Medrawd asked.
Green swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes.”
Lukian pushed between Green and Melanie’s father. “Mr. Daly, what Green is trying to tell you is that he blames himself for her death. He didn’t know. None of us knew mortal women couldn’t carry our children. He loved her with all his heart, sir. I watched him sit there, powerless, as she lost her battle with death. They loved each other so very much.”
Medrawd closed his eyes. “Can he fix my daughter?”
“Is she really Elizabeth?” Lukian asked.
Green pushed past him and dropped down next to Melanie. “It doesn’t matter! Melanie, honey.” He cupped her face as she coughed up more blood. “Honey, look at me.”
She did but blinked rapidly. He could sense her pain and wished more than anything to take it from her. Green would gladly suffer to assure himself Melanie was well.
“I can make you better but I need your permission to do something.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You have to give yourself to me willingly, agree to let me claim you as my own.”
A confused look came to Melanie’s face as she curled up into a tiny ball. A whimper broke free from her and Green’s chest tightened. “Melanie.” He bent down and pressed his lips to hers, giving her a chaste kiss. Heat flared between them and he couldn’t help but taste her blood. The animal in him surged forward, ready and willing to claim Melanie for its own. To do what it had never done before, bite a woman, mark her, and keep her for all eternity.
Her power erupted, slamming into him and everyone around him. It knocked Green backward and clear of Melanie’s body. He glanced to his side and found Medrawd reaching for him. The man seized hold of Green’s upper arm and Green thoug
ht for sure he’d attack.
He didn’t.
The second Medrawd made contact with him, the feel of Melanie’s power lessened before fading away. Green blinked and found himself standing in an open grassy field with Medrawd at his side.
“Doctor?”
Green glanced at him. “What’s happening?”
The man stared around at their surroundings and laughed. “Oh, trust her to send us here.”
“What?”
“Melanie Elizabeth.” Medrawd lifted his hands and motioned towards the far edge of the field.
Green’s breath caught as he spotted Elizabeth standing there in a white dress. It clung to her, showing off her form. A form Green had spent one year of his life memorizing. As he stared at her, he couldn’t help but think of Melanie in her slinky silver dress.
He shook his head and blinked.
Medrawd touched his shoulder. “Stop fighting it.”
“Fighting what?”
“Your mind wants to see what was, what can never be again. Melanie will never be the Elizabeth you remember. She’s a different woman now, stronger in many ways yet extremely vulnerable in others. None of us knew what would happen when we decided to bring her back. We only knew the time had come.”
Green stared out at Elizabeth. Her hair was much longer than he remembered it being. “Elizabeth?”
She ignored him, like he wasn’t even there, and focused instead on Medrawd. “Brother, you made the journey.”
“Journey?” Green asked.
Medrawd nodded. “She has brought our essences forth to speak to us on a plane not our own. Think of it as crawling into a corner of Melanie’s mind.”
He wanted to run to Elizabeth, to sweep her up in his arms and never let her go. In the blink of an eye, she was standing before them. So close, yet he knew without being told that if he dared to touch her, it would all end.
She smiled at Medrawd. “Thank you for answering my call.”
“As if you gave me a choice. Will Melanie remember this when she wakes?”
Elizabeth gave Medrawd a soft look. “You mean if she wakes, brother.”
Shaking his head, Medrawd staggered backward a bit before sinking to his knees. “No, I can’t lose you both. I can’t. She’s my baby girl. My…”
“Medrawd, you’re doing it again. You’re separating us, and that belief only makes it harder for her to fight, to come to terms with me, with who we are.”
He kept his head down. Green didn’t. He stayed paralyzed, watching what he knew shouldn’t be. Elizabeth didn’t even glance in his direction. It was as though she didn’t even know he was there. She dropped to one knee and sighed. “Medrawd, you are the only father I have ever known.”
Medrawd let out a sob and his shoulders shook. “Tell me how to save my baby, Elizabeth. Eadan says she’s mated herself to…”
Elizabeth touched Medrawd’s cheek. “I’m not… Melanie isn’t mated to anyone. They have it wrong. Their thoughts are so loud at times it’s deafening. I can see why they’d assume the mating process had begun. They also suspect she could be carrying another’s child. Some man named Lance. That’s not the case. Melanie is a full-blooded Fae. She can only carry her mate’s child, no exception. Her mate, regardless what lifetime she’s in, is the same. In her case, his soul never left the body she met him in.”
Medrawd let out a choked sob. “Oh gods, that’s why you and Ferdian never had a child. You couldn’t. He didn’t want to listen. He thought you didn’t want one. But he wasn’t your…”
Elizabeth nodded. “Ferdian was never my true mate. It’s not important now. What is important is that Melanie is not with child. She’s not mated, nor is she going through withdrawal. What is happening is difficult to overcome. It’s not a matter of another swooping in and doing what he feels he should to make it right again. While it will lessen the direct effects of what’s happening, it won’t stop it. It will only buy a little bit of time.”
“What do you mean? What’s happening to Melanie?”
“The man she met a few weeks back did the unthinkable. He knocked the protective wall you’d all assured was in place to keep Ferdian from being able to figure out Melanie is me.”
Green drew in a sharp breath at the confirmation.
Medrawd shook his head. “That’s impossible. We made sure to make it so that it could never be removed, that Melanie would be her own person in addition to having your soul.” His breath hitched. “The blood, the fatigue, the weight loss—she’s fighting the merge.”
“Yes, by separating us in her mind at such an early age and then reinforcing it again and again, telling her that her memories were wrong, while necessary to keep her—us—safe from Ferdian, it added bricks and mortar to the invisible line that kept a balance of two lifetimes.”
“I killed my baby?” Medrawd struck the ground.
Elizabeth shook her head and wrapped her arms around him. “No. It had to be done, Medrawd. Melanie is so strong that from day one she was able to tap into residual memories from our past. Had the original safeguards not been in place, Ferdian would have discovered our secret the day she was born.”
She held Medrawd to her. “He would have taken her and kept her from you. Instead, he terrorized her, always sensing the truth but never being able to put his finger on it. Of course, it helped that at such a young age, any memory she had she assumed was like a movie, a larger-than-life play. She plucked through and found pieces of things no one thought she could. Think about it, Medrawd, she had an invisible friend named Thaddy. A doll named Chandler. A doll she wouldn’t let anyone touch. A doll that, when you took it from her, doing your best to explain she couldn’t take it to school with her, left her devastated for months and months. Do you understand it represented the child I lost? Thad and I had planned to name our son Chandler. That was a memory I did not want her to retain. Yet she did to some degree.”
Medrawd shook his head. “I didn’t mean to drive a wedge between you. I didn’t. She—”
“Was tapping too far into her past life to be safe in this one. She felt the desperate need to hold a baby and hold on to the idea of a man she knew as safe, as someone larger than life who would love and protect her, a man who, in her first life, she did not suspect was an immortal until it was too late.”
Medrawd stared up at her. “Gods, you knew the minute you passed on that Green was an immortal. That’s why Melanie asked for him nonstop when she was little. She knew he was still alive. He’s here, Elizabeth.”
“I know. I can feel him holding my hand right now, in the reality from which I stripped you. I’m lying on the floor and he’s next to me. His heart is big but I won’t let him do what he was trying to do. I won’t let him claim me.”
“You mean Melanie, right?”
She sighed. “Medrawd, you don’t understand—we are one. Melanie and I are the same person regardless if our exterior has changed. I’m the portion of her psyche that she has been raised to believe is her friend Elizabeth, the one who visits at random times when she looks in the mirror or when she’s sleeping. I can understand what’s happening. The part that’s new, the part you think of as Melanie, can’t comprehend the idea of having lived another life and, to be honest, that was for the best. It meant Ferdian couldn’t understand it either, but the minute a man showed up in a bar reminding her of someone she once knew, the walls between the essences began to crumble.”
Medrawd covered his mouth. “She’s doing it to herself?”
“Yes. In the last two weeks, the wall that had been so solid that even I believed for a moment we were two separate beings literally exploded. Power, magik she can’t even begin to understand, is ripping at her system, fighting to keep what was the same. Her inner safeguards tell her that something deadly, Ferdian and the others, will come for her, for the ones she loves if she dares give in, but if she doesn’t, she will die. She can’t be forced to accept who and what she is, has been and will be. It won’t work. It’s something she has to come
to terms with on her own.”
“Green could make her understand, right? I mean, if you’re the same, then she’ll listen to him.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Are you the same man you were four hundred years ago, Medrawd?”
“Yes.”
“Oh really? Then why are you here with me? Shouldn’t you be out creeping into the windows of young maidens you wish to bed before you accidentally stumble upon your mate? Shouldn’t you be out fighting in the Fae wars? Shouldn’t you be with Ferdian? The two of you were best of friends.”
He jerked back. “No! I would never do that. I love Tatiana and have been nothing but faithful to her since the day I met her. And I hate Ferdian with a—oh, okay I get it. You’ve changed, or rather, Melanie has. She won’t listen to Green like you would have. I failed you.”
Elizabeth sighed. “Brother, look at me. You are the only father I have ever known. Do you think I would have allowed myself to be brought back to anyone other than you?”
Medrawd hugged her tight. “How can I help her, umm, you?”
Something rustled in the tree line. Green turned to find Melanie rushing through. She ran straight for Medrawd. “Daddy? Elizabeth?”
Medrawd pushed to his feet and pulled Melanie into a hug. “Fight this, sweetheart.”
Melanie’s brow furrowed. “Umm, Daddy? You’re squeezing too tight.”
“Sorry.” He loosened his hold on her. “I’ll leave the two of you,” he glanced at Green, “to talk.” With that, he disappeared.
It was then Green knew for certain that the women couldn’t see him standing there.
Elizabeth stood slowly. “What is it? What are you sensing?”
Melanie arched a brow. “Anyone want to tell me where we are and why you two were hugging? Better yet, don’t. My head feels like mush right now anyway.” She smiled wide and ran to Elizabeth. The minute she tossed her arms around her the two seemed to merge into one person.
Green gasped.
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