by Dale Mayer
“It’s expensive to travel by boat too,” Samson said, “so it’s not really a cost issue. Maybe it’s more an accessibility issue. If I make myself more accessible, then more people will want to be here.” For every excuse he gave, he couldn’t stop the dryness in this tone.
Stefan howled. “And then there’s people like me. We don’t need anything else in order to get where we want to go.” And, just like that, Stefan disappeared.
Samson studied the space where Stefan had been, thinking it was almost akin to being hung up on again.
“I’ll do it.”
He twisted the other direction. In the doorway he saw Whimsy, leaning against the frame. He studied her for a long moment. “Do what?” he asked cautiously.
“I’ll try to contact whoever talked to me earlier. But I don’t know if I should try right away. I’m still not very strong nor fully recovered.”
Chapter 10
She didn’t know where her bravado came from, but she felt like she needed to do something. “Although, given the timing, it might need to be now,” she said, “because I’m going back with you, and I don’t think it’ll work from any other location.”
“No, not likely.” He shook his head. “Not likely.”
She nodded. “It only makes sense. That’s where I was when I came in contact with whatever it was. And do we know that it’s mammal?”
He shook his head. “For all we know, it could be aliens,” he said, his grin flashing.
She chuckled. “Considering alien just means something we don’t know or understand, it doesn’t say a whole lot.”
“Is that what you meant though?”
She shook her head and sat down on the chair beside his desk. “No. I was wondering if it was another person. Like Jamie. Somebody else who gave an early warning system. For all I know, ten dead people are under there whose spirits have come together to form some sort of protective guardianship so nobody else dies. Especially since I think I’ve heard my dead father speak to me.”
He looked at her, then started to laugh.
She shrugged irritably. “Okay, make fun of me. The fact of the matter is, you haven’t explained any of this very clearly at all. So how am I supposed to know what’s going on?”
“I’m not laughing at you,” he said, “or at your idea. More at the fact you blindsided me with a concept I hadn’t considered.”
“Well, it’s hardly a concept worth considering at this point either.” She gave him a funny look. “I understand spirits are out there who like to help people, but I highly doubt a group of them is trying to stop people from drowning.”
“I don’t make judgments anymore or set up artificial limitations,” Samson said. “More and more things happen in this world that are completely unbelievable. Just consider what I now know of the things which Stefan can do. And I understand Dr. Maddy is similar, even examining Jamie from a distance as we speak.” At that point, words failed him.
She smiled. “I think that’s what makes us grow. We sit in a nice little comfy bubble until something happens, and it bursts, forcing us to look outside of it. In your case, you’ve been forced to look outside because of your brother, and that brought in all kinds of new avenues to explore. In my case, I drowned. What I haven’t seen is any sign that my fiancé is alive and well. And that’s very concerning.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry for that. Your friends did make it back, but I don’t know about him.”
“He was an experienced sportsman,” she said, “so he should have survived. But, if he came after me, then I can’t be sure of that, but maybe whoever saved me saved him too.”
“If they did,” he said, “they sent him to a different location to be picked up.”
She shuddered at the thought. “Just the way we’re talking about this …”
“I know,” Samson said. “I’ve been talking about these things a lot longer than you have. But it’s still no less weird.”
She chuckled. “That’s a good word for it.” She looked around his lab. “Your office is set up for multiple people to work here. Do you get many students or other scientists in?”
“I did for a while, until my brother lived here. Once he came, and things went a little bit awry, I stopped bringing other students in. I keep getting requests because it’s a very unique research station.”
“Who owns the island?”
He gave her a quirk of his lips. “I do.”
“The whole thing?”
He nodded. “I got it from an old mariner himself a dozen years ago.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “Is he dead?”
He nodded.
“Did you ever consider he might have something to do with this weirdness?”
Samson frowned. “It’s possible. Now I realize nothing is really impossible, but I don’t think it’s probable.”
She watched him for a long moment and then shrugged. “If you say so. Do you mind if I put on a cup of tea? I alternate between shaking with chills and then get hot again.”
“You’re still sick.” He stood. “If you overdo it, you’ll just get sicker.”
“But I’m healing every day.” She kept her voice calm and easy. “And, as you know, I’m doing much better. I’m not as cold as I used to be.”
He snorted. “Good thing because I couldn’t get you warm at first.” He got up and put on the teakettle.
She watched as he plugged it into an outlet. “I don’t understand how the power works here.” She studied the outlet. “Don’t you have to turn on a generator or something?”
“I have solar and battery backups,” he said. “I do have a generator for when those run down or if the weather is bad for too many days in a row.”
“So you just plug it in, and it takes the power from batteries?”
He nodded.
She stared at him in delight. “So you really don’t miss much of the modern conveniences out here, do you?”
“I can’t exactly run to the corner store to get a bag of chips and a bottle of pop.”
“Good. You shouldn’t have either of those anyway,” she said.
“I go to the mainland every other week,” he said, “although I’m looking at changing that.”
“Great,” she said. “Personally, if I had a chance to stay out here all the time, I would.”
“It’s isolated living,” he reminded her.
“It is,” she said, “but it’s back to nature in the best way possible.” She wandered over to the glass doors. “Did the dogs come in?”
She turned when he didn’t answer her. Instead of looking out the window, he stared off in the distance with an odd look on his face, as if he communicated with the dogs.
She stood and walked closer. “Are you doing what Stefan does?” she asked in awe.
He gave a slight headshake and turned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m asking if you’re communicating with the dogs like Stefan does.”
“Stefan can communicate with the dogs in a very different way,” he prevaricated.
She fisted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “This is hardly a time to not tell me the truth.”
“Lots of secrets are here,” he said, imitating her posture with one of his own. “You won’t learn them all.”
“But I want to,” she said. “I’ve been opened up to a world I had no idea existed. No way I can just walk away and ignore it.”
“Then you’ll have to do it from the mainland. Join a psychics auras group,” he said with a half smirk.
“That won’t work,” she said. “Not only that, I don’t think I can get away from the fact that I’m connected to Jamie somehow.”
He stopped. “What did you just say?”
“I think I’m connected to Jamie.”
“Why would you think that?” he asked, his voice harsh as he took a step toward her.
She studied his body language and realized it was fear more than anything. “Why does that scare you?”
“Answer the question,” he snapped.
She could see that again Samson’s fear had nothing to do with her as much as some problem with Jamie. “Isn’t that him calling out?” she asked softly. “I hear this high keening moan all the time. And somebody calling out, Help me.”
At her words, the color drained from his face. He turned to stare off in the distance.
“It is him, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “but that is often how he communicates with me.”
“I think that’s how he communicates with everybody apparently,” she said, “or at least everybody who can hear him. In this case, it’s you and me. And that’s a scary thought.”
“It is but also reassuring,” Samson said. “I worry, when he’s calling out to anybody who will listen, that he’ll reach somebody who will go after him just to shut him up.”
“I hadn’t considered that,” she said. “But you’re also not telling me about the dogs.”
He turned to look at her. “Forget the dogs.”
“I have no intention of forgetting the dogs. Those dogs saved my life. Not only do I feel indebted to them, they’re animals I would love to spend time with. And I have a very soft heart when it comes to animals.” The look on his face didn’t make her feel better though. As if he didn’t want her to have anything to do with them. “You know you seem so very normal in so many ways,” she snapped. “And then you act so bizarre that I don’t know what to make of you.”
At her words his expression turned to astonishment. His body language relaxed, and he chuckled. “I am many things, and I don’t expect you to understand who I am after a few days of being here.”
“Let me stay.” The words flew out of her mouth, surprising both of them.
His jaw dropped, and then he slowly shook his head. “No, that would be a bad idea.”
“Why?” she asked, now standing in front of him. “You know the stuff I need to learn.”
“I’m not your teacher,” he said.
“I can help. I can try to communicate with whatever it was communicating with me.”
“It’s too dangerous,” he said.
She shook her head. “That’s a cop-out.”
“No,” he said, “I’m looking out for your safety. I hardly helped save your life in order for you to lose it with the folly of this nightmare.”
“It’s not folly,” she said. “Besides, you need to get your brother back here again.”
“I’m trying,” he said. “I still have to go to the mainland, and you’re going back with me.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I do have to let people know I’m okay. I also need to know what happened to my fiancé.”
“Speaking of which,” he said, “you still don’t appear to be too bothered about him.”
The guilt she’d been trying to ignore slipped into her soul. “I know,” she said, her voice low. “And, believe me, that bothers me terribly. But it’s like he’s not really there. There’s no emotion tied to his existence. I have no attachment to him. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if I saw him die, and I’m just protecting myself, or whether this truly is how our relationship was. I can’t imagine how cold and uneasy that might have been.”
“Or it was defensive,” he said. “Maybe you were scared to be alone, and he filled that need.”
“That sounds calculating,” she snapped. “And I don’t want to believe that’s who I was.”
“Then don’t,” he said. “This event has changed a lot of things.”
“And it means I need time to sort through who I am now,” she said. “It feels like everything up until this first moment here has been a lie. And I can’t go on after this in the same way.”
He shook his head. “You can’t stay here. When I go back to the mainland, you return to your life. You’ll have to figure out what’s happening with your fiancé, your university, everything. It’s your life, not my life.”
“I get that,” she said, her tone mutinous. “But why can’t I come back?”
*
“I’ll be bringing my brother here.” He fell silent. “He can be dangerous, uncontrollable. He has these outbursts.”
“You can’t always be afraid for him,” she said gently. “I get that he’s unstable. I get that he has fits and outbursts. I went through that with my sister. But that doesn’t make him dangerous.”
“But he could be.” He shook his head. “No. You can’t be anywhere around him.”
The teakettle whistled just then. He made a pot of black tea as he stared at the teapot. The last time he’d used it, he realized, he had been with his brother. Jamie loved tea. Mostly herbal teas but the occasional good old English cup of tea in the afternoon appealed to him too.
“He’s not that dangerous,” she insisted.
“You can’t talk to him or about him,” Samson said harshly. “You don’t know anything about him.”
“Then tell me,” she said. “Anybody who can do what he does, … I would be pleased and honored to get to know.”
He shook his head. “He’s not something for you to study. He’s not some odd specimen for you to get to know. He’s my brother. I have to protect him.”
“Are you protecting him or yourself?” she asked softly. “Do you use him as a barrier to keep the world away? Are you so engrossed in your work that you live the life of a hermit? Or is it his work?”
“Our work dovetailed,” he said, glaring at her. “You don’t know anything about it.”
“I know you’re here studying marine mammals and tectonic plates. I know something strange is going on around this part of the world, and you’re trying to figure it out. I know your brother somehow, with his odd abilities, must have connected to whatever is going on here. And he was trying to help you. Your research took a side trip as you realized what you’d stumbled into. But your brother is unstable, and your work can’t go forward without him.”
He glared at her, hating her assessment of what happened because she was right in so many ways. And his work was damn important. All of his work was important. But finding out about the ocean ripples, where the probably man-made waves were coming from and trying to stop them—to protect the marine life—was too important to stop. But could she help?
“What is that? A personal assessment of me and my life?” he said in a scoffing voice. “Not good enough. Half of my life is in a boardroom back on the mainland.”
“You run a marine research company,” she said with a clipped nod. “And you have money. That’s why you own this entire research lab and the island. And you’re trying to protect whatever is going on here.”
“I don’t know what is going on here,” he roared. “Neither do you. You just arrived. This is all new and different for you, so you’re like a child in a candy store. You want more, more and still more, because, all of a sudden, so much out there is potentially available for you to learn from. But it’s not that easy, and it’s not right.”
“I’m not a child,” she said. “I know this is all new, and I know I’ve been through an incredible experience, and I’m so damn grateful for my life, but you can’t blame me if I’ve had a complete paradigm shift.”
“No, I don’t blame you. Because I’ve been through it myself. But I’m not here to help you learn more about what you want to learn about. I’m here for my research and my brother. That’s it.”
He poured two cups of tea, hating to feel the tension inside him. She might be able to help in a big way, but it was dangerous here, and this wasn’t her life. She had a fiancé somewhere. It didn’t say much about her that she was willing to walk away from everything she had before and start something completely different now. He wanted her to stay in the worst way—and that meant she was dangerous. To him. To his work. To Jamie.
That bothered him. He needed her to be free of her fiancé. Because she was ignoring that part of her life didn’t mean he could.
“You need to go back and sort out your engagement,�
�� he said. “That man deserves to know what happened and why you don’t give a damn about him anymore.” He looked up to see her wince. His voice softened. “It’ll all look and feel very different when you get back home again. I’m not saying you can’t ever come back, but I am saying you need to go home and take care of business.”
She watched him hopefully.
He held out her cup of tea. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going back to work.” He walked to his lab and closed the door firmly behind him.
He sat down at his desk, feeling a shakiness inside he hadn’t expected. Just the thought of her leaving was upsetting. And he didn’t know on what level. It seemed to be on all levels at the moment. He didn’t want her to leave. She felt right here. She felt right with him.
But she wasn’t his. She belonged to another man. Another man he had to let her go back to.
Just then his brother’s voice called through his head.
We need her.
“Maybe,” Samson said to the room at large. “Maybe you do. I don’t.”
His brother’s voice whispered through his mind. Liar. You know I can read your mind.
“Stop reading my mind,” Samson cried out in frustration. “That’s always been a problem with you. You never respect boundaries.”
And you respect too many boundaries, his brother warned. You could lose something very precious if you let her go.
“I have to let her go,” he snapped. “She doesn’t belong here.”
She does, indeed, Jamie said. She belongs there just as much as you do. But you can’t see what’s before your eyes.
“She belongs to another man,” he said. “I never poach. You know that.”
Jamie chuckled. I do know that, and that’s because your honor and integrity are always part of the mantle you wear, identifying who you are as a person. But she has to come to terms with who she is now, versus who she was.
“She’s still the same person,” Samson snapped. “It’s not that easy.”
No, Jamie said, it’s not that easy for her either. But you need to take her home. She needs to deal with her life. But, if you think that’s the end of it, you’re wrong.