Revelations (10 page)

“I won’t say a word,” he told me. “I promise. Now I’ll let you sleep.”

I didn’t speak again. I just tried to control the swirling of my stomach. It was hard to go to sleep, but once he lay down beside me and put his arm around me, it became a whole lot easier.

“I do love you,” he whispered in my ear just before I fell asleep, as if he could detect the exact moment. Then he kissed my cheek and I was gone.

Chapter Fifteen

Okay, so the saying goes something like this: “And on this day a saviour was born.” Yada freakin’ yada. Ya’ll know the rest. My birthday will never be marked as a national holiday, mostly because I don’t know when it is. Even if I did, it still wouldn’t be a bank holiday. No one is really sure if Christ existed. I exist. The proof of what I can do lies in the beating of Jonas’s heart.

After Jonas, there were more to come. He was the first after Christian. To me, he was the most important. Even more important than my father. It took me a few months from the moment I met him to discover how much I loved him. Jonas, ah Jonas. He loved me from the first moment he saw me. He loved me for me, not for what I could do. I loved him because of who he was.

I could never let him die.

It was the first mistake I would make. Curing Jonas revealed my whereabouts, not that I had a choice in the matter, and that I was still capable of healing, though I didn’t know at the time anyone was watching, and it probably isn’t who you’re thinking.

* * * *

When I woke again, this time on my own, Jonas slept beside me. I felt a little bit better, though not much. I was well enough to get up. I had no idea what time it was, but the darkness outside told me enough. It was well past midnight. I felt the urge to get up and go watch some TV. So I did.

I snuck out of Jonas’s bedroom and went out into the living room. I turned on the television with the volume down very low. Everyone else either dreamed or lay awake in their bedrooms, including Starch, who I discovered, via mind read, sitting up, staring out his window at the stars. I’d leave my surprise for the morning though. I settled upon watching the telly.

I flipped through channels for a good hour, finding nothing good to settle upon then something caught my eye. I quickly turned back and sat up all the way to the edge of the sofa, the remote clenched tightly in my hand.

I was faced with a roving reporter covering the never ending war in the Middle East. Beside this man stood a soldier who could not go unrecognized by myself.

Before I knew it, I got up and knelt as close to the screen as I could. I never heard a word he said, but that didn’t matter. They’d changed his name, but that didn’t matter either. Who cared if he was now Mr. North instead of Mr. Fletcher? Who cared if they’d returned him to his roots in the Air Force, and he now fought an unwinnable war? It was him all the same. My eyes filled with tears, and my hand reached for the screen, as if I could pull him through to me.

My throat swelled, and my heart beat out a drum solo in my chest. The sickness in my stomach and head vanished into thin air. My mouth hung open, and my body trembled.

My father—

Christian…

Was alive.

Chapter Sixteen

“Hey you!”

I woke with a start and nearly fell off the couch. “Geez, Jonas,” I muttered as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. My head ached only slightly, but I felt a hundred percent better.

Jonas came and sat on the coffee table, making his eyes level with mine. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I said. “A slight headache, but I’m fine. You?”

“I’m good,” he said. “I got a little worried when I woke up and you were gone.”

“Sorry.” I shook my head then said suddenly, “Christian!”

“Who?” he asked, having forgotten the name of my father.

“My father,” I reminded him, grabbing the remote from off the floor where I dropped it sometime during the night. The TV was still on, and I flipped through channels. “I saw him.”

“On what?” Jonas asked.

“The news,” I told him. “He’s in Iraq. He’s alive.”

Jonas, who knew more details (though not all the details) than anyone about what happened with Christian and I, or should I say,
to
Christian and I, understood what I was talking about. “You saw him?”

“Yes,” I said. I realized what I was doing and turned off the TV. “I saw him.” I looked back at Jonas’s amber eyes. “Has anyone seen you?”

“No,” he said to me. “It’s still late. Or really early.”

He was right. I glanced at the windows to see darkness outside.

“We have a few hours before dawn.” He paused then said, “Hey, I forgot.”

“What?” I asked.

“This,” he said. He leaned forward, put his hand behind my neck, and kissed me. His lips were soft and full of purpose. He tasted of the earth, like a full bodied wine.

I could only close my eyes and give in to the dizziness that overcame me. And I kissed him back, of course.

When he pulled back from me, he said, “Glad you’re feeling better.”

“You, too,” I whispered, lost somewhere in a daze.

“Thanks to you, love,” he said back. “So now what? How do we explain this to everyone?”

I shrugged. “Miracle?” I said, hating the taste of the word on my tongue. The word had been a favorite of Christian’s, and of Michael Daniels’s. I let out a deep sigh I hadn’t even felt building in me.

“What?” Jonas asked.

“Christian.” I sighed.

As if reading my mind, Jonas said, “He’s in Iraq. There’s nothing you can do. It’s not like you can fly over there and rescue him or something.” He paused. “Besides, you don’t even know what happened to him.”

I gave another sigh and ran my hands through my hair. “You’re right, you know.”

“I know,” he said with a grin. “Now let’s get out of this house before we wake everyone and need to explain ourselves.”

I quietly tiptoed to my room and got my jacket out of my closet. I slipped into the faux fur lined sweater and joined Jonas back in the living room. He had on a black leather jacket. I paused again only to put on the shoes I’d left by the front door then we went outside into the chilly night.

Chapter Seventeen

We sat together on the swing, as close as electrons will allow two people to be. He had his arm around my shoulders, and my head leaned against him. He was cold in his jacket, but he would not say a thing. Jonas was a tough guy and would not admit a little cold air bothered him. Not that it was his fault, mind you. Being a cold-blooded creature, Jonas thrived in the desert sun. Enough about Jonas. I just like to talk about him.

We were outside for only a few minutes before I heard a howl echo across the desert.

“Must be Allie,” Jonas said absently.

“She can change whenever she wants, right?” I asked. “I’ve never seen it.”

“Allie runs with the moon,” Jonas told me. “She’s a traditionalist. Come on.” He got up, gave me his hand and led me around to the back of the house. “Just keep your eyes out that way.”

I followed the line of his finger and stared out at the blackness of the desert beyond. I couldn’t see a thing, but I never claimed to have great eyesight. Jonas took a seat at the small table we kept in the back, in case anyone wanted to eat dinner outside with a good view of cactus and Joshua trees. I followed his lead, as apparently I was wont to do.

I sat there, looking up at the stars, wondering about Alendra. Half-wolf and half-human. Perhaps something different? I myself could not claim to be wholly human. After what Holt did to me over the years, I couldn’t even say how much of me was human anymore. So what was Alendra? Human? Wolf? An experiment gone wrong? Was she meant to be?

“Meant to be.”

The voice came to me out of nowhere, echoing in the confines of my skull. I only know one person who could speak to me like this: Holt.

“Whoever he is, I’m not him.”

I rose from the table, ignoring Jonas’s words. Whatever they were, I didn’t hear anything but the buzz of his voice. I let my eyes roam over the darkness, looking for the speaker. I could see nothing in the inky night.

“Didn’t know I could hear you, did you?”

I let my jaw drop as I recognized the voice.

“Look to the north,”
she said.

I did as I was told. There, on top of a ridge, illuminated by the light of the full moon, I saw a silhouette. “
Seriously?”
I asked.

She came loping towards me, a shining silver beacon in the darkness of the night. She was still far off as she said, “
This is kinda cool.”

“
Cool?”
I said. “
Please don’t tell me you’ve been able to read my mind this whole time
.”

“
No,”
she said. “
I’m not like you. This is the first time I’ve been able to read anyone
.

“
This is really interesting,”
I told her as she drew closer to me.

She was almost to me in her wolf form, when she said, “
Tell me about it.”

Jonas was suddenly at my side. “I can tell something is going on,” he said, leaning down so he spoke in my ear.

“Tell me about it,” I said, repeating Alendra’s words.

“She is quite beautiful,” Jonas said as the large, gray wolf slowed to a walk about twenty yards from us.

“
How is this possible?”
I asked her.

“
I’m not sure,”
Alendra said. “
Perhaps we should ask Hermione. It must be a connection made only when I am wolf. Because I sure can’t read you when I’m human.”

“
And I can read anyone while human.”
I paused. “
Not that I’m really anything but human,”
I added as an afterthought.

“
I believe you might be more than human,”
she said.

I swallowed and cursed under my breath.

The wolf’s golden eyes sought out Jonas then she looked back at me. I actually saw her raise a furry eyebrow. She sat there for a moment, a large creature that was taller than my waist when standing…her standing, not me, in case you were confused. Her tail swished on the ground, stirring up a small dust cloud.

“
Alendra,”
I said, keeping my mental voice at a pleading whisper. “
Please.”

She was quiet for a moment longer before she said, “
Your secret is safe with me, Christiana. I won’t tell a soul. I promise
.”

“
Thank you,”
I said to her, swallowing the fear that crept into me when she discovered what I did to Jonas.

“
So you aren’t just a mind reader, but you’re also a healer. I’m amazed.”
Alendra rose from her seated position. She walked up to me, her black nose raised upwards so she could better see me. Her eyes glowed in the dark like balls of flame. Her ears perked, and she listened to more than just my voice in her head.

“
You know,”
I said, “
I thought you hated me.”

She grinned, showing her gleaming white teeth, teeth sharp enough to tear open my throat. “
I did,”
she said. “
But now…well, there’s no going back, Christiana. And I find I’m looking forward to more nights like this one.”

I only smiled.

“Now stand back and I’ll show you something else.”

I did as I was told, taking a step back. I backed right into Jonas, whose questioning eyes locked on mine for just a second before Alendra began her change.

I can say I have been amazed before. The first time was when I cured Christian, only because I had never done anything extreme before. I wouldn’t admit that fact out loud to anyone. What Alendra showed me that night is still one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

With Jonas’s arm around my waist, I watched Alendra change back into a human being.

It was a quick process, and my description does not do it justice. Her eyes began the change first, turning from those of a savagely beautiful beast into the eyes of a human being. They lost none of her intelligence as they changed. Her entire body morphed at once, turning from wolf to human in a matter of seconds, a slow, deliberate melting of the flesh. I can’t think of any other way to say it. She melted.

Before I knew it, Alendra the woman stood before me, her silvery hair hanging loose all the way down to her waist. Her hair was the color her coat had been, and luxurious, like silk. She stood naked before me, her white skin glowing just as wonderfully as her fur coat had. Alendra smiled brightly.

“Impressed?” she asked, not caring if her entire body was visible to both Jonas and me.

“You have no idea,” I said, in awe of her.

“It’s gone, you know,” she said.

“For you, yes,” I told her. “For me, it’s never gone.”

She came to me, her eyes all aglow. “I’ll never think of you the same way, Chris.”