Monica, Xander and I exchange quick, anxious glances while Isabel talks herself into considering what we are asking. It can go either way at this point and I’m fearful she’s going to turn us away, when she opens the door wider to let us pass. I remain unmoved, unsure of the invitation she’s appeared to give when her eyes find mine. “Save my sister, Jesca.”
I try not to focus on the parts of Corinna that scream “comatose.” Try to remember her before she was taken by Sam––the old Corinna. I keep my eyes clear of the cords, wires, tubes, and the sound of oxygen being pumped through the respirator. Her hand resting on her stomach is a safe bet to not see all the trauma, but instead, it stirs my own when I see the bracelet. The gift to her from Isabel. The one that lay on the bloodstained mattress before Sam sent her to Sonde. I breathe out, an attempt to release the memory as I replace it with the remembrance of my returning it to Isabel when we got to the Kyoto safe house. I look over the bed at her now, as she stands on the other side of Corinna, watching my every move. Monica joins her for support as I vigilantly rest my hand over Corinna’s. Xander stepping up next to me and placing one hand on my lower back and the other over Corinna’s is a necessary action for his part in this, but I’m not prepared for the current it sends through me––a synthesis of powerful energy and rousing emotion. A signature entirely him and one I might never find immunity to. My breath catches as I close my eyes and concentrate on finding passage into Corinna’s head.
***
A void. Darkness. Silence. That is what I’m faced with as I try to maneuver, will myself to find something that belongs to Corinna’s mind. Is this what happens when your mind is stripped clean of any memory? A vegetative state?
“I’m here with you.”
Comfort washes over me as Xander’s voice echoes its presence with me in the empty space. Suddenly, small shards of light dance in and out of the obscurity. What was that? The light dances again. “Do you see that Xander?”
“See what?”
“Nothing.”
Maybe its brainwaves. Her trying to come back. I center my thoughts on the memory of Corinna and I lying on the beach––that memory is the most vivid to me right now. The shards of light expand, becoming wave-like. It is brainwaves. “I think it’s working!” I think to Xander.
“I see the waves now. Keep doing whatever you are doing.”
The light keeps gliding in and out, but more prominent now, filling my entire line of vision. Coloration begins to take on parts of the waves, a vivid yellow and dull burnt orange with the tone of flesh slowly coming into focus. The orangish red hair is the first object to reach pinpoint focus––Corinna. She’s lying down, leaning on her hand, elbow propping her up as the features of her face sharpen. I’m not prepared to hear her laughter. The same laugh she had in Florida. Enveloped in the sound, her lips start to move––she’s talking, but I can’t hear her. It’s muffled and wonky, like I’m trying to listen to someone speak under water. “Xander,” I think his name, wondering if he’s hearing her the way I am.
“I can’t hear her. Focus harder Jes.”
Unable to look anywhere else, except at her smiling face, I’m not sure what has her attention. Who’s she smiling at?
A man’s hand suddenly comes into view, grazing her cheek as it skims down against her neck. The touch silences her as her smile lessens, becomes more seductive.
Corinna’s voice pierces the murky echoes in my head with volume that was absent before, “What are you doing?”
Is she talking to me?
All of a sudden, I feel the touch run along my own neck, the pad of a thumb brushes in a circular pattern at the base of it where it meets my collarbone. Both the newfound sound of her words and the sensation I’m seeing and feeling overwhelm me, sending my pulse racing. But why? Why do I feel the seduction she’s experiencing? A seduction, an arousal deep inside of me, not far from the one I’ve experienced with both Nate and Xander. More so with Xander and my encounter before the intersection. And I’m totally losing focus as I think of my own feelings. Wait, are they even my own?
“I think you know what I’m doing Ms. Caine.”
I know that baritone voice. It’s Sam.
“That night, when Michael brought you here, I felt a switch turn on in me. Something so powerful, so strong.”
I damn myself for letting Sam’s come-hither voice send coils of desire through me, wishing I could escape them but knowing deep down that this is a memory of hers that holds importance. Corinna’s memory of Sam isn’t warped, painful, or torture. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but all I feel now is lust, obsession and a sexual tension.
Suddenly, the image of Corinna fades into darkness and I’m left feeling stripped of a fulfilling need that only the bond between them can give me. How is that even fucking possible? It’s like I’ve been given a full dose of illicit drugs and developed an instant addiction to what is driving Corinna’s and Sam’s apparent bond. Or bondage. Gah! I can’t believe I just thought that.
“You thought it for a reason.”
Xander’s thought reminds me of his presence and I’m utterly embarrassed by the direction my thoughts swayed with him here in my head. Instantly, I feel guilt for having succumbed to Sam’s seduction over Corinna, which somehow spilled over into me. An apology teeters in my mind, but Xander responds before I can get it out. “Don’t Jes. You can’t help experiencing what she has. In a way, it’s good. You are getting to her.”
Suddenly, I feel warmth cover my mouth, stopping my breath. Lips. His lips. Sam’s. Oh shit, he’s kissing her and God, I am kissing him back! What the hell? I want to call out to Xander, let him know how wrong I think this is on so many levels, but I find myself drawn into the kiss, moving my lips against his without any control of myself. The touch of his hand drawn to my breast as I feel the mystic weight he bears press against my body. Wait, he’s lying on me?
The waves of light return, the color taking hold––stark white shirt, loosened tight, the tan of his skin, then the steel blue of his eyes. As his face hovers over mine, Corinna’s voice rises from me. “I want to go with you.”
Her voice is in me? What is going on?
“Jesca.”
My name is barely a whisper as Sam’s smirk softens and his eyes stare into mine––shit, I mean Corinna’s. “It’s too dangerous.”
His few words are filled with tenderness. A trait that I don’t know Sam to have.
“No, it isn’t. I can’t be here alone. I need to be with you.”
Again, the words come from me, but they aren’t my own. But the need, the addiction, I feel it entirely.
His lips rest on mine again, but only for a moment before pulling back, “And risk losing you completely? No, I won’t do that Corinna. I’ve just found you. I can’t risk losing you.”
The tears that run down my cheeks aren’t mine either, but I feel the emotion behind them just as strongly as if they were. My throat constricts, but somehow her voice finds passage over my lips. “It’s a bigger risk for you to be out there, enslaved to him.”
What? Enslaved to who?
The darkness lifts a little and I see the shards of light drawing the silhouette of Sam’s face, encompassing everything Corinna has me desiring. I want to pull back, knowing this isn’t my fantasy, my desire, but Corinna’s comment has me resisting my urge to withdraw from the man that murdered my mother, killed Xander’s parents and took Ezra and Nate from us into that wormhole. Or did he? As I continue to look into his eyes, his searching mine and Corinna’s, the lines between who Sam is in her mind and who he is in mine begin to blur. I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but what if Sam wasn’t the hand behind my mother’s murder? What if he never killed Xander’s parents? What if he wasn’t in control as he tried to pull me into the wormhole with him? What if he was truly enslaved?
Like a curtain has been lifted from my eyes, the pos
sibility becomes fact, but I’m not sure if it’s my own belief or the one that encompasses Corinna’s mind.
Sam’s whisper dances on my lips as he holds my gaze, softly brushing the tears from my cheeks as he mutters, “I don’t want to risk anything happening to you, Corinna.”
“Jesca, you’re too deep.”
I push away thoughts of the menacing voice trying to reach me as the sound of her name being said by him tugs at my heart. “There’s no risk if I’m with you.”
Pushing against the binds Corinna and I have formed, I break free from what is her desire and fulfill my own, finding his lips and pulling him down to me.
Sam’s lips move against mine feverishly, setting my whole body on fire. And even though I want to deny everything about this, how Sam Crest has taken over my desire, I can’t fight the addiction. I don’t want to.
“Jesca! Corinna has taken over! She’s in your head! Come back!”
Xander’s voice is a hum beneath the waves of rapture coursing through me as Sam’s hands slide skillfully down my body. NO! Corinna’s body! I have to pull back, but how? The firmness of his hand kneading my breast and Sam’s hardness rocking between my legs, the desire that Corinna holds—it’s gotten to me and I can’t see or feel anything else!
“I can’t get out!” I think hoping it’ll reach Xander, but I’m left with no response as my mouth moves again, spilling Corinna’s concern. “I don’t trust Michael, Sam. He’s keeping something from us.”
Sam pulls back just enough to look at me and run his hand along my forehead and down the side of my cheek gently. “Corinna, I have to do this.”
The hard hatred I should possess for Sam Crest has been wiped as I wonder what is driving the pressured look in his eyes. I can’t deny my perception has been shifted by Corinna. He’s following through with plans because of a motive, but for what or who?
As he searches my eyes, I can see he wants to tell me something––tell Corinna something––but he doesn’t speak, rather he thinks. “Corinna, I know that he is using me to open the veil between our universe and another. There is something beyond the veil that I must do. I did some things a long time ago that are irreconcilable.”
The hazy void that filled my head before I reached Corinna begins to threaten, as Sam’s face loses its clarity, slowly becoming transparent. I feel a cerebral tug, then Xander’s muffled voice, “Jesca, focus on me.”
Sam’s voice begins to fade in and out. “ They—haunted me for a very long time—hoping—my chance to make right—what I have done wrong. He wants me to take that girl, Jesca.”
His saying my name seems to lessen Corinna’s hold on me suddenly, and I feel Xander’s presence again. I feel myself pulling away from Corinna, but I hold on the best I can as Sam continues to speak. “I would to spite Ezra, but I have no intention to. I need Michael to—”
Sam’s face slips into the darkness taking hold in my mind’s eye and his words are replaced with Xander’s voice. “Jesca! Listen to me!”
Shit, no, no, no! I need to hear the rest of this. What does he need Michael to do?
Sam’s voice fractures and fades, just like his form disappeared into the void. Damnit!
Forcefully, I’m yanked out of Sam’s dissolving embrace.
***
I’m breathless, blinking wildly and staring at Xander’s firmly planted hand on top of mine and Corinna’s, the other gripping my side like he’s holding on for dear life. Isabel and Monica are staring at me wide-eyed, while both Xander and I breathlessly make eye contact. “You were pulled too deep,” he says swallowing hard as he shakes his head. “She was taking over, finding her own consciousness.”
I nod and ask him urgently, “Did you hear everything? What Sam said about me?”
He nods, not breaking contact with me. His words defy what I think is his understanding, “It was her perception Jes.”
“What? Xander, you don’t understand. I felt his essence. Felt his emotion. I was experiencing—”
He interrupts me and looks between Monica and I as he speaks, “You were experiencing Corinna Jes, not Sam. It’s the way she sees him.”
“No, it was him.”
His frustration with my defending what I saw has him at the end of his rope as he raises his voice, “It wasn’t! You were feeling all of the things, seeing all of the things because of their fucking link. That’s what it does! That’s what Nate and I saw when we got into Sam’s head before the intersection!”
I shake my head and pull my hand out from under his firm grip. “You’re wrong.”
Xander wipes his mouth anxiously with a free hand, and then places both of his hands on his hips. “I think I know my fucking traitor of a step-father better than you, even if you’re wrapped up in the seduction he had you in!”
I snap back, “He didn’t have me in a seduction!”
Xander rolls his eyes and turns away from me, just as I feel the cold grip wrap around my wrist paired with Isabel’s shocked words, “Oh my God, Corinna?”
In a flash, Monica has lunged toward Corinna with a needle full of fluid she must have held hidden behind her the whole time––her safeguard for me. I take hold of Monica’s hand before she can plunge it into Corinna’s arm. “Hold on!”
Corinna uses her grip on me as an anchor as she pulls me down to her.
“She’s not going to let go!” Monica says urgently
Still, I keep Monica from sedating her as I look into her eyes––Corinna’s eyes. It’s her. “It’s okay!”
Isabel is just as panicked as Monica. “No Jes, she’s attacking you!”
So close to her now that Corinna has pulled me onto her, I hear the choking words she’s trying to get passed the vent tube helping her breathe. She’s gagging. I need to get it out. With Monica still firmly pushing against my hand to inject her and Xander trying to pull me back, I knock the needle out of Monica’s hand, freeing one of my own so I can pull the tube out. “She’s trying to speak!”
Xander pries Corinna’s grip from my arm, but I stay with her as I try to shake Xander off me. Monica’s scrambling for the fallen needle and Isabel is staring at me when I beg her, “Help me get the tube out!”
Xander wraps his arms around mine in a bear hold and tries to pull me away but I fight him when all of a sudden Corinna sits straight up in the bed and pulls the vent tube out of her throat herself.
Watching her gag with every inch she pulls out, Monica and Isabel stand frozen as Xander’s grip lessens on me.
Once the tube is free from her throat, she coughs and gasps to claim air on her own as she looks from one of us to the other wildly. As she breathes laboriously, the hoarseness of her voice, cracking and pained should be agony, but it’s a source of light and hope as she looks at her sister. “Isabel?”
CHAPTER 7: ILLUSIONS
Nate
I follow Ezra on the sidewalk, lined with bright orange and yellow leaved trees. An empty park bench is canopied by one crimson-leafed tree––unique among the others. I don’t know what makes me look at the bench, maybe the tree above it. Just then, shards of light conjoin, producing a small fragmented human form on the bench. It doesn’t take long to take full shape––a small boy dangling his legs over the side of the bench. I stop walking and watch him, expecting my eyes to adjust and the phantom image magically to disappear, but the little boy doesn’t instead, he looks at me with the most extraordinary deep blue eyes.
I should follow Ezra. He doesn’t see that I’ve stopped, but I’m compelled to step toward this little boy. As I do, the form fractures and disappears.
“Nate?”
Ezra’s coming back toward me and the smell of something metallic burns my nostrils and the back of my throat suddenly. I try to swallow past the burn as Ezra asks me, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I thought I saw something.”
“Wh
at?” Ezra asks insistently.
The burn in my esophagus is scorching as I swallow and say dismissively, “Something. Hey, I need water. My throat is on fire.”
Ezra’s urgency spikes as he scans the woods, and then pulls me along. “Come with me.”
A spasm rises in my windpipe, forcing me to clear my throat as Ezra pulls me through an opening among a cluster of trees. “Keep clearing your throat Nate!”
The sound of panic in his voice and the way he’s pulling me along has me worried. I try to downplay the sensation, “It’s just a dry throat. I’m just thirsty. I’m okay.”
I watch the back of Ezra’s head as he looks beyond our path left to right, distressed by not finding what he’s seeking. “No, you are not fine. It’s the atmosphere. You’re losing oxygen.”
“What?”
I swallow past the sharp pain and spasm rising in my throat again, an ice-cold flash of fear trails through my limbs as the fear of death by suffocation fills my mind.
I stop walking, bringing Ezra to a halt and bringing him back to me. “Perfect. I’m going to die where ever the hell we are!”
“You aren’t going to die! Well, unless our bodies begin to reject the assimilation to the conditions here.”
Ezra looks up into the sky and breathes in deeply. He puts his hand on his own throat then clears it as he looks back down at me. “Levels of Titanium must be higher here. I can feel a slight irritation myself.”
The calm presence he’s taking isn’t bringing me any peace. “Slight irritation? My throat feels like it’s on fire Ezra!”
He points at my holding my throat as I swallow, then starts walking again, this time nonchalantly. “Some are more sensitive to mild changes in the levels.”
Ezra reaches out and touches a nearby leaf on a shrub. He plucks it and inspects it before tossing it to the ground. “The plant life appears to be similar to ours, so the levels aren’t deadly to living organisms. Shouldn’t be deadly to us. Still need to find water.”
Shouldn’t be deadly? Just need to find water? His initial panic freaks me out and now he’s Mr. Calm? As Ezra walks on, I scurry after him, feeling another spasm rise in my throat. This one blocks my taking a full breath, and then subsides slowly. “It doesn’t feel right Ezra.”
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