Tagan's Child (20 page)

“What about you
Sophie, are you happy?” he asked, keeping his eyes trained on
me.

It struck me as
a slightly odd question. “Well, I would have preferred that Toby
had not been kidnapped by aliens,” I said with a frown.

Ahran’s lips
twisted into a humourless smile. “We all wish that hadn’t happened,
but I mean before the recent turn of events. Were you happy?”

I blew out my
cheeks as I thought back to my life before Toby had been kidnapped.
“It’s been a really tough year. Losing Katie was one of the most
difficult things I have ever had to deal with. She wasn’t just my
sister she was my best friend.” I took another sip of my wine. “Our
mother never really got over the death of our father when we were
young and even though Katie was only three years older than me it
was her I always turned to. The bond we had continued into
adulthood.”

I looked up at
Ahran with tears in my eyes and was met with his own look of
anguish. Was he thinking about Tagan again? I guessed he knew what
it was like to lose someone he’d loved.

He started to
say something but faltered. “I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “From
the brief glimpse I’ve had of your life it seems like you have
coped well.”

I smiled and
swallowed back the tears.

“Toby is a
great little boy, I am lucky to have had him.”

“Have him,”
Ahran corrected. “We will get him back Sophie.”

I so
desperately wanted to believe him but at this moment in time Toby
seemed so far away.

“You don’t
think they are being cruel to him, do you?”

“He is an
innocent and children are highly regarded in Ramia. There is no
reason why they should be cruel to him. Toby is Bazeera’s ticket to
getting what she wants and she wouldn’t compromise her
chances.”

Ahran’s words
offered me some comfort. I gazed back into his eyes, struck by the
sincerity I saw there. He really was trying to reassure me. I
wanted to believe him, but I was so far out of my comfort zone in
this strange place that I hardly knew what to think.

His hand was
resting on top of the tray in front of him and I wanted to slide my
hand into his to draw on some of his strength but I fought the
urge.

“Thank you.” It
was all I could muster as tears threatened. Tears not just for
Toby, but for myself and the awkward, difficult and dangerous
situation I had found myself in.

Whilst we ate
dessert I tried to rein in my emotions. I yawned as our trays were
cleared away.

“You ought to
try and get some sleep,” Ahran advised.

I nodded,
feeling weak with exhaustion. “I can quite safely say that today
goes down as one of the worst days of my life and that’s saying
something. I’ve had some pretty bad ones,” I said, giving him a
weak smile.

He smiled back
sympathetically.

“I think I will
try and get some sleep,” I said, retrieving the headphones from the
pocket on the side of my chair, before reaching down for the
blanket that was stowed under my seat. I reached up and switched
the overhead light off.

“Night,” I
said, pulling the blanket over me. I put the ear buds in my ears
and fiddled with the buttons on the arm rest. “How do I turn the
T.V. on?”

“Here,” he
said, reaching over and switching it on. I managed to not inhale as
he did it this time. I also pushed myself back into the seat to
avoid any contact with him. I was knackered, my defences were down
and there was no telling what my body would do in response to his
touch.

The T.V. screen
flickered to life and he sat back in his seat.

“Goodnight
Sophie,” he said quietly.

For a long
time, I stared at the screen not taking in the movie. How was I
ever going to get through this? I feared for Toby and wondered how
he was coping away from me and home. I didn’t know how we were even
going to begin to find him. I was also pretty concerned that my
growing attraction for Ahran could only end in tears.

After some time
the gabble of Ramian dialogue flowing through my headphones receded
into the background and I surrendered to the creeping fingers of
sleep.

*****

“Wake up
Sophie,” Ahran said as he nudged my arm. “We are just about to
land.”

I had assumed
the foetal position in my chair and my left arm had gone dead with
the weight of my head. I sat up a little disorientated and
stretched when I realised where I was.

“That was
quick,” I said croakily.

“It was for
you, you slept for most of it.”

“You didn’t
sleep?”

He shook his
head.

“Can’t you
sleep on planes?”

“Something like
that,” he said with an odd expression on his face.

Apart from the
massive deceleration the landing was smooth and we were ushered off
the plane by our flight attendant. It wouldn’t have surprised me at
all if she had pressed a piece of paper into Ahran’s hand with her
phone number on it.

We left the
plane and made our way to the arrivals lounge. It was the middle of
the night and apart from the passengers that had been on our plane,
the place was deserted. It wasn’t long before our luggage appeared
down a chute and onto the carousel. We went through security and
made our way through the airport.

“I’m just going
to nip to the ladies, I won’t be a minute,” I said as I spotted
what was literally the universal sign for the toilet to our
left.

“Okay, no
problem.” Ahran pulled his phone out of his pocket and leant up
against the wall outside the ladies. “I’ll just wait here,” he said
distractedly.

I walked into
the loos. There was a woman with a sleepy child washing their hands
at the basins and I smiled at them as they left. Somebody entered
the cubicle next to me. When I had finished I went to the basins
and washed my hands. I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror,
I was pale, my hair needed a good brush and the little make up I
had put on earlier had worn off.

I scrabbled
around in my handbag for my brush and a hair band. The person who
had been in the cubicle next to mine came out and I briefly made
eye contact with her before I felt the blow between my shoulder
blades.

She hit me with
such force that it catapulted my upper body forward causing my head
to smack against the glass whilst my abdomen collided with the sink
unit. Pain seared through my head and I let out a whimper as I slid
to the floor.

Disorientated,
I felt her hands take a grip around my neck. I used all the
strength I had to claw at her fingers but my attempt to lessen her
grasp was futile and my vision began to cascade into a multitude of
colours under her lethal hold. My chest felt like it was about to
explode. I gasped for breath and came to the sickening conclusion
that it would only be a matter of seconds before my world went
blank.

I could feel
myself drifting. The hands around my throat were too strong and I
had nothing left to fight with. My arms fell loosely to my sides as
I gave into the burning feeling in my throat and lungs. Two images
flashed in my mind, one was of Toby and the other was of Ahran, and
then I lost consciousness.

“Sophie, can
you hear me? Open your eyes,” said a male voice.

Air was being
forced into my lungs in between pumping thrusts to my chest. My
head was pounding and it felt like a stock car had driven right
into my pelvis. I attempted to draw in the breath that was making
its unrelenting way into my lungs, but the sensation against my dry
throat only caused me to splutter and cough.

“Gretcha
garlena,” said the now familiar and welcome voice.

My eyes
fluttered open and I took a couple of painful breaths unaided.
“What happened?” I croaked, struggling to understand why I was
lying on the floor of a public toilet and why I was in so much
pain.

“You were
attacked,” Ahran replied, his face full of concern.

I attempted to
sit up, but a bolt of pain shot through my head and I fell back
onto the floor.

“Hey, steady,
take your time. You’ve got a nasty cut on your forehead.”

My arm felt
heavy as I touched my head, it was wet and sticky and I stared
uncomprehendingly at the blood that now coated my fingers.

Slowly it came
back. I remembered brushing my hair, a woman behind me, the blow to
my back and then not much more after that.

My lungs and
throat burned.

“Have you got
any water?”

“Yes, let me
help you sit up.” I tried to assist but my strength had all but
deserted me. “Easy,” Ahran said, “I’ll lift you.”

I felt as weak
as a new-born and lay heavily in his arms as he gently eased me
into an upright position against his chest.

“Here have some
of this,” he said, pressing a bottle to my lips. The cool water
soothed my parched throat. I drew in some steadying breaths and
felt slightly better in spite of the pain coursing through my
head.

“Where is she?”
I asked as the panic kicked in.

Ahran tilted
his head towards the form lying on the floor just a few feet from
us.

I gasped. She
was as still as a stone.

“Oh my God! Is
she dead?” I knew the answer as soon as I noticed her open, vacant
eyes.

“She would have
killed you.” Ahran’s lips formed a grim line. He was applying
pressure to the cut above my eye.

“Ouch! That
hurts,” I winced.

“I’m just
trying to stem the bleeding, you need to have this looked at,” he
said with a frown. “If I support you, do you think you can stand
up?”

“I think so.” I
was creeped out by the dead woman lying only a few feet away from
me and was only too happy to give what he was suggesting a try.

Ahran’s arms
cradled me as I summoned all my strength to prepare myself to
stand. I was on my feet in no time having put very little effort in
on my part. “Ah my head!” I cried out in pain.

Concern carved
itself into every line of Ahran’s face. “I’ve got you.” He took my
weight effortlessly. “Do you think you’ll be okay if I sit you over
there for a moment?” He pointed towards a row of chairs that lined
the wall. “I need to hide the body.”

My eyes widened
but I nodded in agreement. He carried me over and lowered me
carefully onto one of the seats.

“Here.” He
handed me the bottle of water and I took another sip.

He went over to
the dead woman, hooked a hand under her arm and dragged her as
easily as if she had been a ragdoll over to the janitor’s cupboard.
With his free hand he pulled out a penknife concealed under his
trouser leg and extracted one of its arms with his teeth. How on
earth had he got that through security? He unpicked the lock in one
deft movement. The door swung open and he bundled the body into the
cupboard carrying his task out with emotionless efficiency. He shut
the door and used the penknife to lock it again.

I closed my
eyes at the image of the woman slumped in the cupboard. The only
other time I had seen a dead body was when I’d had the distressing
job of identifying my sister at the hospital. The image forced a
tearless sob from my throat.

Ahran was back
at my side in the blink of an eye.

“Are you
alright?”

I nodded even
though I felt anything but.

When he was
satisfied I wasn’t going to pass out, he went over to the sink and
dampened some paper towels. He knelt down in front of me and set
about cleaning me up. It hurt but his close proximity helped to
keep my mind off the pain. “There, that looks better,” he said as
he dabbed at my face one last time.

“You need to
change your top there’s blood all over it.”

I looked down
at my favourite pink sweater which was now red with my blood.
“There’s another top in my bag.”

Ahran left me
sitting on the chair and went to get our bags.

“Here,” he said
dropping my bag in front of me.

“Thanks.” I
leant forward and unzipped it. The pain caused by the sudden
movement made me suck in a breath. I replaced my blood soaked
sweater with a navy hoody and stuffed my stained sweater in my
bag.

“We need to
leave. We’re lucky no-one has come in here. Are you ready?”

“Where are we
going?”

“You need to
see a doctor.”

“I’ll be fine,”
I said, trying to reassure him. I didn’t want to make a fuss, this
was exactly the sort of thing he had meant when he had warned me
that our trip would be dangerous and I had just inadvertently
proven that I shouldn’t be making it with him.

“We’re not
going anywhere until someone has looked at that cut,” he said,
pointing to my head wound. “It’s still bleeding.”

He was right.
The warm trickle of blood hadn’t stopped. I rearranged the damp
paper towels and applied more pressure. “You’ll need to put your
hood up so we can get out of here without drawing too much
attention to ourselves.”

He put his
rucksack on his back and swung my bag over his left shoulder so he
could support me with his right arm.

I went through
the motions of walking but knew that without Ahran I would have
crumpled into a heap on the floor. It felt like I’d been hit by a
train. My back hurt, my neck hurt, my hips hurt and my head
continued to throb. I glanced back at the door of the cleaning
cupboard as we left and felt sorry for the poor unsuspecting
cleaning person who would get a nasty shock in the morning. My gaze
skimmed over the crack in the mirror and I could only feel relieved
that I was leaving this skirmish alive.

We walked an
indirect route through the terminal and I looked up at Ahran
questioningly. He pointed to the minute CCTV cameras fixed to
strategic points around the airport. “We need to avoid those.”

“Oh.” I
wouldn’t have even noticed them.