“What’s so important you have to drag me away from Emily?” I demanded.
Derrick didn’t look like he’d slept much more than I had recently. His brown hair was hanging loose and wild and there was a good bit of scruff on his face. He had dark circles under his eyes, too, and his clothes were the same from yesterday. Ever since the plague had broken out, even the healthy people didn’t look all that great.
“We need to talk. Come with me.” He turned around and began walking briskly down the hallway.
I rushed to catch up. “This is all very cryptic.”
“Lucas ain’t comin’ back until tonight, is he?” he asked, glancing over at me.
“No.”
He led us out the front doors of the clinic. “Then you’ll understand soon enough.”
We crossed the icy parking lot and he motioned for me to get into his truck. After he unplugged it from the outlet, he climbed inside and started the engine. There was tension in the air. It was almost stifling to my senses. Whatever we had to discuss, it was serious.
He pulled the truck out and drove us down the road to a small restaurant. As soon as he parked I started to get out, but he put a hand on my arm.
“Wait. There’s something I need to say first.” His voice was gruff.
“Okay.” I waited.
Derrick tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. Then he rubbed at his whiskers. It was getting more awkward by the second, but whatever he had to say I didn’t want to rush him.
“I’m sorry about Felisha,” he began, staring out the window. “It eats at me when I’m awake and asleep, rememberin’ what happened to her, knowin’ it was my fault.”
My chest tightened, but I didn’t say anything.
“She was a good person—a lot better than me. If I could take back that night, I would.” He exhaled a breath. “But I can’t.”
That was the thing about being a sensor. We knew when people spoke the truth and when they said it from the heart. That’s what Derrick was doing now. No matter how much I wanted to rail at him for all the trouble he caused I couldn’t do it when he was opening himself up like this. He was a hard man who rarely showed his feelings. It couldn’t have been easy to say these things.
“I still miss her,” I said, looking away.
“I don’t doubt that. You ain’t had nothin’ but trouble since you first got here and it ain’t got any easier. Don’t think I don’t notice that. If I could somehow snap my fingers and make things better for you, I would. But it just don’t work like that.”
“No, it doesn’t.” I rubbed my face.
“It is what it is, sensor girl. We can keep this wall up between us or break it down. That’s up to you.” He met my gaze. “If you ask me, I’m tired of fightin’ with you.”
I didn’t say anything right away. What could I say? There were so many things that had come between us and I’d been holding onto them because…well, I didn’t even know anymore. People we knew were dying and more could soon. If we were to survive it, we needed to pull together and put up a strong front. I didn’t really hate Derrick. I hated what happened, but so did he. It was time to let it go.
“The past is the past,” I said, meaning it.
“You’re darn right it is.” He pulled me into a hug.
His wild scent enveloped me as I buried my face in his jeans jacket. For a couple of minutes we sat just like that, holding onto the moment for as long as we could. Then we finally pulled apart. He gave me one last brush across the check before fully letting go.
“Wish you hadn’t mated with that nephilim, though. Given a little more time I’d have made my move.”
I smiled and shook my head. “I love that nephilim. He’s it for me.”
“That’s what makes it so much worse.” He slapped the steering wheel. “The damn man loves you as much as you love him. I’d have to be blind not to see it.”
There was no bitterness in his voice. He only spoke the truth.
“You’ll find someone someday,” I said. A guy like him could catch any woman’s eye.
He grunted. “Better not take as long as it did for Lucas.”
I laughed. Twenty-five hundred years was a long time, though I’d never thought of it that way before. How had Lucas gone that long without finding true love? Maybe that’s why Zoe had become so psychotic. She’d never found that one person that completed her.
Two new presences popped up on my radar, coming from down the road. One was the daimoun and the other a female sensor.
“Is Yerik and his mate meeting us here?”
The alpha nodded. “Yeah. That was the other reason I had to take you out.”
He reached for his door handle.
“Wait.”
Derrick looked over at me with a questioning look.
“Will you tell me where you stashed Zoe?” I asked.
A slow smile spread across his face. “The moon.”
I would have thought he was joking if my senses didn’t tell me otherwise.
“Seriously?”
He shrugged. “I asked the daimoun if he could take her that far and he said he could--barely. She ain’t powerful enough to get back on her own so it seemed like the perfect spot to keep her contained. What’s the worst she can do there?”
I thought that over. “Well, I hope she doesn’t tear up the American flag.”
“Nah, I told him to take her to the other side. She shouldn’t make it that far, considering she ain’t got no water or food. She can’t even yell for that matter with no air to breathe.”
“That’s gotta drive her crazy.”
We hopped out of his truck just as Yerik pulled up in a white SUV. He got out of the driver’s side and went around to open the passenger door for his mate. She slowly got out and turned her head until her gaze met mine. She smiled.
I moved over to greet her and she took my hands. Hers were frail and cold, but she had a strong grip. I hadn’t been sure what to expect. Her hair hadn’t grayed and remained a dark brown she kept just above shoulder length. The biggest signs of her age were the wrinkles in her skin, but her blue eyes were clear and sharp. I could tell by looking at her she’d once been beautiful. Not much of her looks had faded with time.
“I’m Melena,” I said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“I’ve been looking forward to seeing you as well. You may call me Lorna.”
She talked with a perceptible brogue in her voice, but it wasn’t so pronounced I couldn’t understand her. Maybe she’d dealt with Americans before and knew about our bad ears. We tended to be terrible with accents.
We followed the men as they led us into the restaurant.
“So where are you from in Scotland?” I asked.
“In Glencoe.” She glanced over at me. “It’s a little out of the way place where we can have our privacy and no one asks questions.”
Yerik glanced back at us. “It’s also very beautiful. There’s nowhere quite like the Highlands.”
The waitress took us to a less crowded area at the back of the place. Yerik let his mate slid into the booth first. The daimoun was in his kilt, as usual, but he had glamour up so anyone else would think he was wearing a jacket and jeans.
“So what’s going on?” I asked after we got settled and received our menus.
He waited until the waitress moved away from us. “I’ve moved up the timeline. We’ll be announcing our existence to the world tomorrow night.”
My body went cold. Ever since the plague had broken out I’d wanted to get this first step over with, but now that it was almost here I wasn’t sure what to think.
“Why?”
“You of all people should understand. We need the cure and we can’t wait any longer,” he replied in a matter-of-fact voice.
Lorna gave him a disapproving look, then focused on me. “What he won’t tell you is my heart is getting weak. The doctors have been adjusting my medication, but they’re concerned. Yerik just wants to make certain I see our son again before it’s my time to go.”
“Have you considered drinking some of his blood?” I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t done that yet.
Her eyes softened. “I don’t want to live forever. I’ve already watched too many loved ones go and I’m content to finish my days the way God intended.”
Fair enough. Immortality wasn’t for everyone, though I could imagine how helpless it must make Yerik feel. To know he could save her, but she wouldn’t let him.
I reached for her hand. “I admire your strength. If we can get your son back, we will.”
“Thank you.” Her eyes grew misty. “It might be selfish, but it’s the only thing left that I want.”
“It’s not selfish at all,” I reassured her.
“How are you going to announce it to the world?” Derrick asked.
A smile spread across Yerik’s lips. “You’ll all see soon enough.”
He did enjoy being mysterious. Crazy man.
The waitress returned and we ordered our food. Our conversation was light for the rest of our visit. After Yerik left with his mate I insisted on walking back, needing to call O’Connell and give him the exciting news. Derrick resisted at first but eventually left without me. I tramped through the snow along the road as I held my phone to my ear.
“You’re going to do what?” O’Connell’s voice came through loudly over the handset.
“The supernaturals will be announcing their existence to the world sometime tomorrow night. I’m not sure how you prepare for that, but do whatever you need to do.”
He let out a string of curses. “Why are you just now telling me this?”
“Because I just found out less than an hour ago,” I explained in a patient voice.
“How are they coming out?”
“No idea.” I pulled my jacket tighter against the cold. “All I know is they’ll do it in some spectacular way that will leave no doubt they exist.”
Yerik had hinted at that much during lunch.
“I need you here to help me deal with this,” he demanded.
“My daughter is gravely ill. I told you before I can’t leave her.” He’d been calling every day since we got back from the raid.
“She’s not in any hospital I’ve checked in the entire state.”
I considered hanging up on him. “She’s in a very private clinic.”
“Isn’t there some magic or something that can help?”
I sighed. “Not in this case.”
“Fine, but I expect you to call me with updates. I’ll figure out what to do from here.”
“I will.” I hung up the phone and pulled the battery.
No point in leading him straight to the clinic.
Chapter Twenty-four
I brushed a wet cloth over Emily’s forehead. She stared at me with glazed eyes and her mouth partly open. For most of the day she’d slept, but she’d been awake for the past twenty minutes. Her lymph nodes were starting to swell around her armpits and neck. The latest blood tests Paula had run didn’t look good. The plague was progressing at a rapid rate, despite us doing everything we could to slow it down.
“Mel, is this going to kill me?” she asked in a scratchy voice.
I gave her a determined look. “Not if I can help it.”
“Me, either,” Hunter said from the seat next to me.
He’d gotten well enough that we’d decided to let him stay in her room. With him getting stronger by the day, it was hard to keep him out. There were hardly any signs of the plague in him now. He was the fastest recovery case yet.
Hunter gazed down at her. “You’re going to beat this and we’re going to be together—forever.”
“That sounds nice.” She managed a weak smile.
Kerbasi cleared his throat. “I just want it noted that I’m not voicing any of my thoughts aloud during this Lifetime movie moment.”
“It’s noted,” I replied.
A wave of shocked and frightened emotions deluged my senses, coming from across the clinic. Enough to make me wince and Emily cry out.
“What
was
that?” Her eyes rounded.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” I stood up. “Hunter, stay with her.”
He nodded. “What’s going on?”
“It’s hard to explain, but the emotions in this place just got really intense.”
Kerbasi joined me as I went out the door. We both hurried to get through the decontamination process. I wanted to rush it even more, but I knew I couldn’t risk infecting anyone else. Kerbasi must have understood the urgency because he wasn’t even bothered that we had to scrub ourselves down naked next to each other. Normally, we left at different times.
As soon as we were dressed in our regular clothes we headed across the clinic. The emotions I sensed were getting even stronger—if possible. There was only one reason I could think of for that to happen.
We went through the door into the treatment area and found everyone staring at a TV on the wall. It had been installed there a few days ago. Those who could stand were crowding closer to the screen. I joined them and my mouth dropped open.
Yerik was on the news. Out in broad daylight in Seattle he was flying around the Space Needle, waving at people inside. This went on for another minute before he sailed down to the ground to greet the spectators and media who had gathered there. He must have been in the air for some time, waiting until he’d drawn enough attention.