“Huh.” Foy nodded. “Then I guess I’ll send her away. Don’t hurt yourself, Christian. Your balance is horrendous today.”
Foy left the room and Christian crawled toward the wall so he could hear more clearly. Just a touch of Dodie in his miserable life, something to remember. One last chance to hear her voice so that it embedded further in his consciousness. Maybe it would stay longer that way. He could remember it until he was eighty years old and he dropped dead with her voice in his ears.
“Hello, Ms. Chase.” He didn’t have to see Foy to know how he approached her. He would have bowed, keeping eye contact the whole time. “My name is Jack Foy. It’s nice to meet you. A friend of Christian’s will always be a friend of mine.”
“Thank you.” Dodie didn’t sound distraught. She wasn’t crying and didn’t even particularly sound as if she had been. He didn’t know how he felt about that. On one hand he wanted her to be okay. On the other, shouldn’t she still be missing him? He would be a nervous wreck if she’d died. Catatonic, unable to lift his head from the bed.
She continued speaking. “So if we’re friends then you can tell me where I can find Christian. Is he here?”
“What?” he whispered.
One of the other black belts walked over and knelt down. “Are you okay?”
“Shhh.” He hushed the other man. Obviously he looked insane. For now he didn’t care.
“What makes you think that? The last thing you saw was Christian’s dead body, right?” Foy didn’t ask questions. He must want Christian to hear the answers.
“No. The last thing I saw was Christian’s dead body twitch to life and then vanish from a room when I stood less than five feet away. I’ve come to believe that one, I am not crazy, and two, you are all really good at what you do. So either Jonah absconded with his dead body or his live one. I prefer to think of him as living. So where is he?”
“Have you been having a bad time lately?” Foy sighed loudly. “It must be hard to be without him.”
“I’m deeply in love with him. Every day for this last month has been spent looking for you so I could find him. I don’t know why you took him away or why he would have left like that. I don’t care. I just want Christian back.”
Now he could hear her pain. Her voice shook and it made his heart clench. His girl did miss him and he had to give her credit. Not everyone could have tracked down Foy. How had she managed to do that? He basically didn’t exist on paper.
“I’m sorry for your pain.”
That was it. Christian didn’t have to be hit over the head to get what Foy did. What had the promise been when he’d been nearly dead? When Foy had given him the choice to come back or not, when the future had been fluid? Not to cause this woman any more pain. Was this what his mentor had meant?
Christian jumped to his feet and rushed out the door before fear of the look he might see in Dodie’s eyes overtook him.
“Dodie.” He called out her name and her eyes met his. She covered her mouth with her hand before she dropped it to her side.
“Christian.” She reached out but didn’t move. “It’s you.”
“It’s me, sweetheart.” His girl looked good. Tired, but healthy. She had dark circles under her eyes yet her cheeks were rosy. “Look. I don’t even know how to explain. I can’t even begin.”
She held up her hand to stop him. “Can we talk? Somewhere else?”
He nodded. “Come with me.”
She took his hand and for the first time in a month he could breathe, for the first time in a month he didn’t wish he’d told Foy to leave him dead. Now he could remember why he wanted to live.
Chapter Thirteen
Dodie’s heart beat so rapidly she thought it might explode. He took her to the back of the karate school. Well, if it could be called that. When she’d pulled up to the place it had looked more like a house, a big giant mansion on the outskirts of Chicago. She’d almost turned around and gone back.
But the anonymous caller had insisted this was the location. She was glad she’d given it a try.
Here he was. Alive. With no hair.
When they reached wherever he wanted to go, which turned out to be a set of rooms that resembled a dorm room, she let go of his hand.
“Just answer one thing for me, Christian.” She had to ask. It was the one doubt in her mind that had kept her up at night. “You didn’t disappear because you were looking for a way to get around having to tell me you had changed your mind.”
“No.” His face fell and he ran a hand through his nonexistent hair. “Never that, baby. I love you. I left because I was sworn to not cause pain and that is what I kept doing to you.” He winced. “You killed a demon because I failed. I died and left you to handle that alone.”
“You died saving me.” She pushed at him until he hit the wall behind him. “You didn’t fail. Don’t ever say that.”
“Dodie, you can only say that to me because you love me. Any objective person would know that I made huge errors.”
“No.” She smoothed the corner of the white T-shirt he wore under his karate uniform. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Can’t you acknowledge it’s possible that your own objectivity about what happened the night you died could be off?”
The night he died. Saying the words while he stood in front of her alive and well brought to an end the surrealness that had plagued her waking life every moment of the day since the night she’d killed the demon.
“I suppose it’s possible.” He reached out to stroke the slope of her nose with his thumb. “I should be dead. I’m not only because of an oath I took. A blood oath. It turned out to be powerful. I guess someone somewhere wants us to continue doing what we’re doing.”
She nodded. “Well, I do, my love. Keep doing what you’re doing. Okay?”
His mouth met hers. “Only if I can come home to you every night.”
“It’s a deal.”
The lights in the room flashed. She really didn’t care. Demons could wait. For now she had Christian.
About Rebecca Royce
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. We’ve just moved from New Jersey to Texas where I am learning to love Barbecue!
I am in love with science fiction, fantasy and the paranormal and try to use all these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action-packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books. In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.
Rebecca welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Strange Days
ISBN 9781419949333
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Strange Days Copyright © 2014 Rebecca Royce
Edited by Rebecca Hill
Cover photography by Syneca and Ryan Jorgensen
Model Axl
Electronic book publication April 2014
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