by I. T. Lucas
Something wasn’t right.
David scooted away. “She was very beautiful.”
“I bet. But she wasn’t more beautiful than me.” Between one blink and the next, Sari was on top of him, straddling him between her thighs and smiling evilly. “Tell me that I’m more beautiful than the priestess.” She gripped his wrists and pinned them over his head.
Something was definitely not right. He was having another damn nightmare, and it was time to wake the hell up.
Except, as much as he struggled to force himself awake, nothing happened. He was stuck in the nightmare.
David had plenty of experience with those. The only thing to do was to let it play out.
“You are much more beautiful than she was. There is no comparison.”
“Liar.” As Sari smiled, her fangs became visible, but they were not the tiny ones he remembered. They were long, sharp, and dripping venom.
Damn. It was getting worse.
Frantic to end the nightmare, David willed himself to wake up, but it was just as ineffective as trying to get his hands free from Sari’s powerful grip. It was like her hands were iron shackles banded around his wrists and nailed to the ground.
“Let me go.”
“Never.” Her form changing before his eyes, her auburn hair turned black and elongated, her soft eyes turned hard, and her pink lips turned bright red.
“Ayesha,” he whispered.
His teenage dream specter was back, and the evil sorceress had glamoured herself to look like Sari.
“Missed me?” She leaned down so her face was scant inches away from his. “You belong to me.”
David knew that if she kissed him, it was game over. She would suck the life out of him. He had to fight her off. Thrashing, he tried to avoid her lips.
“Your struggles only excite me more.” She transferred both his wrists to one hand, her fingers elongating into talons to encompass their girth. “Hold still, and it will go easier on you.” She gripped his chin with the hand she’d freed and smashed her mouth over his.
He struggled against her hold, but it was no use. She was sucking the breath of life out of him.
32
Sari
With a sigh, Sari closed her laptop and turned to Steven. “I have to go to the office for a few minutes, but I’ll be right back.”
“No rush. Take your time.”
Right. He and Bridget kept saying that, but Sari chose to ignore them. Except, teleconferencing with a board of directors couldn’t be done from David’s patient room, or even the waiting room next to it.
“I cleaned up your office,” Miranda said as she came in. “It’s ready for broadcast.” She looked Sari up and down. “I’m glad that you showered and changed into something semi-decent, but you need a little makeup.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a small cosmetics bag. “Let me fix you up a bit.”
“There is no time.” Sari kept on walking.
Not giving up, Miranda trotted behind her with the bag in hand. “At least put some lipstick on. You look like a zombie, and you are going to scare the board members.”
After two sleepless nights, Sari didn’t look her best, but she didn’t care. There were more important things than looking good for the board of directors of one of the clan-owned companies.
Except, appearances were important, and her job was to inspire confidence. If she looked all frazzled, they would assume it had something to do with their enterprise and start worrying.
“Fine.” She took the tube from her assistant, smeared a little color over her lips, and handed it back.
Propping her cell phone against a stack of files that was out of the camera’s view, she made sure she could see David throughout the conference call. The nurse was with him in the room, and Sari wondered where Steven and Bridget had gone. Willa was an experienced nurse, but she would have preferred for at least one of the doctors to be with David, especially while she was gone.
They were probably in Steven’s office. Bridget had said that David needed to be watched constantly, so there was no way both of them had gone to have lunch.
“Did you eat anything?” Miranda asked.
“Nothing since breakfast. Can you call Ojidu and tell him to bring me a sandwich to the clinic after the conference call?”
“I’ll do that.” Miranda looked at the phone propped against a stack of files. “You’d better mute it.”
“Can you do that for me?” Sari opened the file for a quick reminder of what was about to be discussed. “But not all the way down. Just enough so the mortals can’t hear it.”
When everything was ready, and everyone was on Sari’s computer screen, she plastered a smile on her face and joined the call. “Good afternoon.”
As usual, the discussion droned on forever, with every board member having to voice his or her opinion and make suggestions. It was damn difficult to keep her eyes on the camera and pretend as if she was interested in what everyone had to say.
The quick glances she’d been stealing at her phone’s screen hadn’t gone unnoticed, and the faces of several of the board members reflected their displeasure. They had all made time to be there, and they wanted her full attention.
“We can save two percent if we shift production…”
The alarm was barely audible, but as Sari’s eyes shot to her phone, she saw Steven and Bridget rushing into David’s room.
Her heart dropped like a rock into the pit of her stomach.
“Excuse me, but I have to go.” She terminated the call and jumped to her feet. “Miranda! Tell them there was an emergency.”
Breaking into a run, she made it to the clinic in less than a minute. “What’s going on?”
Spreading her arms wide, Willa blocked the door to David’s room. “You can’t go in there. David stopped breathing and they are putting him on a ventilator. We are so lucky to have one on hand,” the nurse kept blabbering nervously. “Steven ordered it in case we needed it for one of the humans who work here occasionally. Who would have thought that we would need it for a transitioning Dormant?”
Who indeed?
No one had mentioned anything about the transition causing breathing problems, and according to Steven, David didn’t have asthma or any other underlying lung problems. After the thorough physical Steven had given him, he would have known that, right?
Had Syssi experienced breathing problems? Kian had only said that her transition had been difficult, but he hadn’t elaborated.
Damn, she should have asked more questions and educated herself better before letting David attempt it. How could she have been so irresponsible with the life of her mate?
That was the problem with trusting something as elusive as the Fates. It was fine to have faith, but it was even better to back it up with science.
Pacing like a caged animal, Sari managed to choke down the sobs, but the tears found a way to escape her eyes.
Tilting her head heavenward, she chanted silent prayers to the Fates. Please, sweet merciful Fates, don’t take him away from me. Please…
33
David
David was dying. His lungs were deprived of oxygen, making his struggles to dislodge Ayesha feeble and ineffective, the light was dimming, and his brain was giving out.
It was time to accept the inevitable, take stock of his life, and say his mental goodbyes to his loved ones before the light was snuffed out completely.
His mother and sister would be sad, but since he hadn’t been a big part of their lives, they wouldn’t miss him all that much. They would mourn for a while, and then they would go on living their lives.
David regretted not making a greater effort to spend more time with the only family he had left. If he somehow survived this nightmare and woke up, he vowed to do better.
But his biggest regret was leaving Sari and the life they could have had together. He refused to accept that this was the end and that he would never get to be with her again.
If reincarnation was real, he v
owed to return to her.
After all, she was an immortal, and she would still be there for his next round, unchanged and just as beautiful as she was now. If he died today and was reborn tomorrow, in twenty-something years, he could return to her as a man. That was not a long time for an immortal, a blink of an eye in the span of her never-ending life.
Wait for me, he implored. I’ll find a way to come back to you.
“Don’t go! Don’t you dare leave me!” It was Sari’s voice, and it wasn’t in his head. “Fight, David.”
He opened his eyes, expecting to see Sari, or perhaps Ayesha, but both were gone, and all he could see in the darkness was a brightly illuminated doorway.
Endless love and peace waited for him on the other side. If he made it past the doorway, all his worries and struggles would be over. It beckoned to him…
“David! Stay with me!” Sari sobbed.
I’m sorry, my love, but I have to go. I promise to return to you.
As his spirit detached from his body and floated toward the light, a thin tendril remained attached, tethering him. Looking back at it, he realized that it would take only a light tug to sever the connection, but David hesitated. What if the tether was Sari?
The sound of the door slamming shut had his spirit head turn sharply toward it. A silhouette floated in front of the closed door, framed by the light seeping through the seams.
“You are not going anywhere, David. It’s not your time yet.”
He would have known that voice anywhere. “Jonah?”
His brother’s form solidified. “Surprised to see me?”
“You’re damn right I am. How many nights have I stayed awake, begging you to make an appearance? And you come now? When I’m ready to join you?” David floated toward his brother. “Let me pass.”
“I can’t do that.”
“I’m dead, Jonah. Let me through.”
His brother’s ghostly hand slammed on his chest, pushing him back. “You’ve always been whiny, weak, and so damn self-righteous. You are not dead yet, but you will be if you don’t fight.” He gave him another shove. “Fight, damn it. Don’t accept death when you have so much to live for. Do you want to devastate your mate? How will she go on without you?”
As David turned to look down at his body, he didn’t expect to suddenly see everything so vividly.
The darkness was gone, and he could easily read his vitals on the monitors. There was a short redhead with Steven in the room, but it wasn’t the goddess. She wasn’t wearing a doctor’s coat, but the efficiency of her movements indicated that she was a physician.
They were putting him on a ventilator.
Jonah floated next to him. “As you can see, you are not dead.”
“It’s obvious that you have no medical training, Jonah. Those readouts are bad.”
“I know that you are not flat-lining. Not yet, anyway. You need to hurry.”
David shook his head. “Where have you been all this time? Is there a heaven? Did you make it there? Or are you in hell?”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not in hell.” Jonah shook his ghostly head. “You’ve always had such a low opinion of me.”
That wasn’t true. David had thought the world of Jonah, and his brother knew that. But their teasing banter felt so familiar that he slipped into it as if Jonah hadn’t been gone for the past five years. “It seems like they let anyone into heaven these days.”
“Who said that I’m in heaven?”
“Then where are you?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“We are losing him!” Steven lifted a pair of worried eyes to the other doctor.
Jonah gave him a push. “Get back in your body, David.”
“I just found you. I can’t let go of you yet.”
“You have to. It’s not your time to go.”
“On one condition.” David lifted a finger. “Promise me that you will come to talk to me again.”
“I can’t promise that. It’s not up to me.”
“Then I’m not going back.” David was bluffing, but hopefully, his brother’s ghost couldn’t read his mind.
Jonah chuckled. “Of course, I can read your mind. How do you think that we are communicating? I’ll tell you what I can do. I can come as long as you are unconscious.”
“It’s a deal.” David closed his spirit arms around his brother and pulled him against his chest.
Neither of them was corporeal, and the embrace didn’t feel like two bodies connecting, but it felt real nonetheless.
"I missed you so much.”
“I was never far.” Jonah’s ghostly form liquefied and then solidified again next to David’s prone body. “Get in here, now.”
Jonah was right. It was now or never.
“Come talk to me.”
“I promised, and I will.”
As soon as the decision was made, David’s spirit slammed back into his physical body, and then the darkness returned.
34
Sari
It seemed like hours had passed since the alarm had gone off, and the doctors had rushed into David’s room, but Sari’s watch claimed that it had only been minutes.
Bridget and Steven were fighting for David’s life, and all she could do was pray. Regrettably, Sari wasn’t a great believer in the power of prayer. If she were, she could feel as if she was helping in some way, instead of feeling so damn useless and helpless.
When the door finally opened, and Bridget stepped out looking like she’d been to war, Sari’s heart sank to the pit of her stomach. “How is David?”
“Stable.”
The relief turned Sari’s legs into twin soft noodles, and she collapsed onto one of the chairs. “Thank the merciful Fates.”
“Thank Steven and his foresight to get a ventilator.” Bridget sat down next to her. “David’s lungs just stopped working for no apparent reason. It has never happened before to a transitioning Dormant.”
“Are they working now? Or is he artificially ventilated?”
“He’s contributing breaths of his own.”
Sari didn’t know what it meant, but Bridget seemed encouraged, so it must be good.
The door to the waiting room opened, and her family spilled in.
Annani entered with Alena first. Behind them were Kian and Syssi, and the last was Amanda.
“Is David alright?” Annani asked.
“He is stable,” Bridget said. “We had several scary moments, though.”
As Sari’s chin started quivering, her mother spread her arms wide. “Come, my child. Let me comfort you.”
She practically shot to her feet and rushed into her mother’s arms. “I was so scared.”
Annani’s small hands caressed her back as Sari cried on her mother’s slim shoulder. “It is alright, my daughter. Let it all out.”
Amanda and Alena joined them in a group hug. Only Kian stood next to the bundle of females looking unsure.
“Come.” Amanda waved him over. “Sari needs your strength as well.”
He wrapped his long arms around the four of them. “This feels incredibly awkward.”
Chuckling, Syssi joined the group. “How about now?” She put her arms around him.
“Better.”
For long moments, Sari let herself fall apart while her family held her together, shoring her up with their warmth and their strength.
Eventually, her tears dried up, and she took a shuddering breath. “Thank you.” She lifted her head off her mother’s shoulder. “I’m okay now.”
As their arms left her, she swayed on her feet, but Annani’s hand caught her wrist and steadied her. “David is going to be just fine.”
The confidence in her mother’s voice didn’t leave room for doubt, but Sari was too old to trust platitudes even when uttered by Annani. They were meant to reassure her, but no one had a crystal ball, not even her mother.
“I wish you were right, but no one can make that promise.”
Tugging he
r by the wrist, Annani led her to a chair. “I can. I will give David my blessing.”
Sari stifled a sharp retort. “I appreciate the offer.” Sitting down, she chose her words carefully. “I’m sure your blessing will help, but it can’t guarantee David’s survival.”
“Yes, it can.” Annani lifted Sari’s hand and held it in her lap. “Every Dormant I blessed made it safely to the other side no matter how bad their condition was.”
“I’m proof of that,” Syssi said. “And so is Andrew. He was even older than David when he transitioned.”
Bridget sat on Sari’s other side. “As a scientist, I don’t usually believe in blessings and incantations, and yet I’m sure that your mother’s blessing saved Turner’s life. He was not only the oldest Dormant to transition to date, he was also very sick. If his recovery wasn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.”
Sari knew Bridget well, and the doctor was way too pragmatic to offer empty words of encouragement. She’d meant every word.
Still, even though Bridget’s account of Turner’s recovery had been the most reassuring testament to the power of Annani’s blessing, Sari needed more details.
“Did Turner recover right after my mother gave him her blessing?”
Bridget shook her head. “The blessing gave Turner a chance to survive, but he had to fight for it. He was unconscious for a very long time.”
“It must have been hell for you.”
The doctor tilted her head. “It was difficult, but I wouldn’t call it hell. It became my new normal. I basically moved into the clinic and pretended as if that was our new life. I talked to Turner, assuming that he could hear my prattle, and when he finally woke up, he told me that he heard me, and that it helped him a lot. Other people came as well. They sat by his side, some reading to him, others telling him stories from their pasts, and he remembered all that as well.”
“We also held vigils,” Syssi said. “People constantly prayed for Turner. We are going to do the same for David.”