Rayne rose slowly as if suddenly old, to join them. Her face pale, her gaze sliding from one of her sisters to the other, she swallowed before turning to Dia. “We don’t know. Taking your memories of Ryan after you two knowing each other a short time will be hard enough. Taking a lifetime of memories…” She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. He won’t have any personal identity at all.”
“What if you gave him different memories?”
“We can’t do that, Ryan.”
“Why not?”
Everyone looked at Ryan, but he kept his eyes on Rayne. Dia took his hand only to discover it was ice cold. When he turned to her, his desperation broke her heart. “It isn’t that they can’t, it’s that to do so will involve him thinking he’s had a different life with other people in it, and none of those people would exist, or if they did, they would still look at him the same.”
“As if he’s insane.”
Dia nodded. “Yes.”
Ryan nodded, facing Rayne. “What if you gave John Grammar his memories back instead?”
“That would only complicate the life of what is now a very old man,” Sapphire said, stepping up to them. “I’ve seen him recently, and he’s growing confused with age.”
“At the police station,” Ryan stated with certainty.
Obviously surprised, Sapphire nodded. “Yes. He’s retired now but comes in a couple of times a month to visit. How did you know?”
“My mother told me a little about my step-grandfather, though she only met him once, when she was carrying me. And my father said he knew one of the witches was a policewoman. I guess he meant you.”
Sapphire took a step back, shaking her head. “It was him?” She turned to Rayne. “It must have been him!”
Dia grabbed her sister’s arm. “What are you talking about?”
“When I was transitioning into my Lycanthrope, Ryan’s father must have been that crazed man who broke into the house that day!”
“What did you just say?”
Dia turned to a wide-eyed Ryan, knowing, after everything he’d already learned, this would likely be the thing to send him running. But full disclosure seemed to be the words of the day. “Um…my sister is a werewolf.”
The room filled with Cavanaugh-Whites, Cavanaugh-Hansens, and Cavanaugh-Whitehawks was completely silent until Ryan broke into hysterical laughter. Dia tried to hold her smile back, but it was hard with him laughing to the point of tears filling his eyes. Even knowing he could be in the middle of nervous breakdown, and she in a panic because of it, she couldn’t help but smile. “Ryan, stop.”
He looked at her, his face contorted, and he started laughing again as tears let loose and ran down his face. Becoming truly fearful they’d pushed him over the edge, she looked at her mother, who nodded, and held up her hand palm out.
“Peace be with you, Ryan.”
His laughter slowly trickled to a stop, and he took several cleansing breaths. He eyed Rayne warily and then nodded once. “Thanks.”
Rayne smiled. “Come, let’s reason this all out.”
“I’m hungry.”
Everyone turned to Heracles. He shrugged. “Seriously. Since when does this family hold a meeting where no food is involved?”
Ryan frowned. “Maybe that’s a good idea. I need a minute here.” He shook his head. “I think I need to take a walk and let all this settle before we continue anyway.”
Dia nodded and watched him stroll to the door. He hadn’t invited her to join him, and she knew from the pain in her heart, the only way she’d survive losing him, was for her mind to be wiped of his existence. She found her mother was watching her and shrugged. “Wipe my memories before he comes back.”
Rayne’s shocked expression was accompanied by the shake of her head. “Why?”
Dia looked at the doorway Ryan had taken and shrugged. “Because I want to meet him all over again. Only this time, I want nothing to stand between us but truth.”
“You will also forget your gift.”
Dia hadn’t thought of that. “You can tell me what it is.”
Rayne shook her head. “This could stop your heart, if your feelings for him are true.”
“What other choice do I have?”
“To love me forever, while knowing you really might not.”
All heads turned. Ryan was standing in the doorway. He looked at Dia, with raised brows. “I thought we were going to take a walk.”
Without looking to see what her family thought of his suggestion, she joined him, and they left the house in silence. Once outside he took her hand and led her to the trees. It wasn’t until they were well into the forest before he spoke.
“The wolf we saw that day by the stream, was that a regular wolf?”
Dia tried not to smile. “No.”
“Was it Sapphire?”
“No.”
“So there’s more than one?”
“Yes.”
Ryan glanced at her. “As in a lot more?”
Grinning, Dia nodded. “They won’t hurt you.”
“I figured that. Otherwise I’d be dead by now.”
“Most likely.”
Ryan frowned. “What do you mean, most likely?”
“Sapphire survived the change when, according to her husband, none ever have before. But I guess that doesn’t mean you couldn’t.”
Looking more than a little appalled, Ryan shook his head. “No, thanks. I’d rather stay human.”
Dia grinned. “Jewell’s husband is an ancient Egyptian. She went back in time and brought him into ours.”
Ryan stopped walking, his brows pulled together. “So that would mean Jewell is Divine, and since you are The Regulator, that means Sapphire is The Enchantress?”
Dia nodded. “Looks that way. Sapphire has great magic, though she rarely uses it. And Jewell, new mother of four, was learning to hone her out-of-body magic until she got pregnant. I’m sure she’ll go back to it once she’s up to it.”
“What about you? Would you do something for me?”
Dia shrugged. “Like what?”
Ryan looked up to the blue peeking through the canopy. “Will you bring on a storm?”
Dia laughed, unable to believe he was really embracing them all. “Seriously? You want to see it?”
“Absolutely.”
Swallowing, Dia opened her hands and splayed her fingers. The energy of the earth flowed from beneath her feet to surge upward throughout her body. The air pressure rose as well, sucking up oxygen, making each subsequent breath more of a struggle. Her hair rose with static electricity. Her eyes misted over and then filled with the vision of boiling clouds and lightning. She embraced it all as her vision cleared, and what had formed from within was now happening without. Ryan stood still, watching her intently, as his hair blew in wild abandonment and his clothing flapped against his body like a boat’s sail caught in a gale. She grinned at him, and he grinned back. She knew, spell or not, she loved that man. Not wanting to soak them both, she closed her eyes and allowed the wind to settle and storm clouds disperse. Once she could breathe easier, she knew all was as the day was meant to be. She opened her eyes, only to find Ryan a hairsbreadth away.
“Don’t let them make you forget me.”
The sincerity in his voice matched the truth in his eyes. She searched their turquoise beauty, before nodding. “I don’t think what I feel for you has anything to do with magic.”
His brows lifted. “Why not?”
Dia smiled. “Because I know the me I’ve always been, and there is nothing about you I wouldn’t have fallen in love with anyway.”
“Get away from that witch!”
Dia and Ryan swung around at the same time, but there was no time to react as a middle-aged man pulled the trigger on the gun in his hands.
Dia looked at Ryan in surprise as he screamed the word, “No!”
Pain slammed in her chest, and her hand went there automatically. She looked down at the red liquid seeping across her shirt and han
d, confused. Her legs buckled. And then she realized she’d been shot.
****
Dia opened her eyes and stared at the blades of a ceiling fan as they leisurely made their way around and around. She almost closed her eyes again and then frowned. She looked to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. Her ceiling was not only not white, she didn’t own a ceiling fan.
“There you are.”
Something about the stranger felt familiar, but Dia was certain she must be mistaken. She smiled at him. “Hi.”
A look of amusement lit his eyes. “Do you know where you are?”
Dia shook her head. “Not really. Am I dead?”
Blond brows rose as if he hadn’t expected her question. “Not quite. But you’re close. I’m Sabian. I’m here to help you make the transition.”
Dia frowned. “Are you an angel?”
Sabian smiled. “Some would say I am closer to Satan. But, yes. I am the angel of death.”
“So… What kind of place is this?”
Sabian frowned. “It’s a holding room.”
“With a ceiling fan?”
“That’s just to set the mind at ease when you first realize you’re here.” Sabian snapped his fingers and the ceiling fan disappeared.
Dia sighed as she studied his face. “What if I don’t want to die?”
“That isn’t your choice to make.”
Realization dawned and she remembered where she’d seen him before. “You’re him! I saw you. My sisters saw you, too! On the same day, but we were all in different parts of Europe!”
Sabian nodded. “Yes.”
Anger brewed in Dia’s gut. “So you’ve been stalking me just waiting for a chance to take me away from those I love?”
Sabian shook his head. “No. I just happened to be in the area looking for someone else and that man shot you. It wasn’t your turn.”
“Really? Well that’s a relief.”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re dying. That was a fatal shot to the heart.”
Dia stared at him long and hard as a buzzing sound started and filled the air around them. Frightened, she shook her head, determined to make him stop whatever it was he was doing. “It isn’t my time!”
“Like I said, doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me!”
Sabian shrugged and frowned as he looked around nervously. “You aren’t the only one annoyed. I was close to finding my target. It has taken your people’s version of years! Which by the way is ridiculous. Now I’ll have to start all over again… What the hell is that sound?”
As it had gotten progressively louder, and Sabian now looked as frightened as she was, Dia’s own fear increased tenfold. “Make it stop, please,” she begged, afraid she would disappear altogether.
“Hey! What the hell is going on?” Sabian shouted, looking upward.
Pain flashed in Dia’s chest, startling her. It came again, stronger, harder still, until it consumed. She panted through each hit, but couldn’t speak as the white room turned to gray. She inhaled sharply before shouting, “What’s happening?”
“You’re fading! Dammit!”
Sabian reached for her but before he could take hold, Dia took a huge gasping breath. Her mother and aunts stood over her, hands joined and held above their heads, the cabin’s ceiling now above them all. As soon as she cried out, relieved she’d made it back, their connection broke and Rayne was at her side, nearly smothering her. She struggled against her mother’s chest as Rayne rocked back and forth, taking Dia with her.
“My baby! My baby! I thought we’d lost you!” She cried hysterically with great sobs that shook both her and Dia.
“Rayne, move over. I need to finish this!”
Rayne released her and moved back quickly. Dia turned to see Aunt Haven’s hands glowing as they came straight at her chest. Dia shook her head, frightened, and prepared for the impact, but there was no shock, only soothing heat as the residual pain eased before it disappeared altogether. She took a cleansing breath and looked from one matriarch to the next, so relieved to be back she couldn’t speak.
“Go tell the others, please,” Rayne said to Destiny, before moving to her youngest again.
Only after Destiny left the room and several shouts of joy filled the air, did Dia realize the buzzing she’d heard while on the other side was in fact her sister and cousins, and more than likely the matriarchs, chanting from within and outside the room. She wanted to laugh that they’d defeated the angel of death, but all she could do was cry hysterically. Her mother cried with her, while begging her to calm down and telling her she still needed to recover, and then crying all the harder herself.
Dia tried to stop, but it took too much effort, so she gave in to it until her body was awash with sweat and exhaustion. When she could finally take jerking breaths, she curled onto her side and struggled to tell them all what had happened. But the words wouldn’t come, and each second that ticked by, her memories faded until they were gone. She stared at her mother, confused.
“What happened?”
Rayne smiled at her as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “You were shot, baby.”
Dia looked down, realizing she was completely nude, as she tried to remember her last thought before awakening. “Ryan! Where’s Ryan?”
Rayne took Dia’s hand, her tired eyes sad. “He’s in the other room. He was so distraught his father shot you, we had to put him under a sleeping spell.”
Dia could barely breathe. “His father shot me?”
Rayne nodded. “Yes.”
It was too much to process, but Dia struggled to understand anyway. “How?”
Sighing, Rayne looked down at her hands. “Because he escaped the hospital again this morning. They all thought him in a coma so they didn’t lock him down.
“From the information Sapphire got from her partner on the force, Clayton Davis snuck out and jumped in the police car of an officer who had just brought in another patient. He stole the car, and because the officer was instructed not to carry his gun while delivering mental patients, he’d left it in the glove compartment. He hadn’t taken the keys… He hadn’t locked anything up… He claimed it was all he could do to get the man out of his car and into the building….
“Clayton apparently found everything he needed to come after us and because of processing time, the officer didn’t know his car was gone for about half an hour. By the time they’d figured out what had happened…” She shook her head. “That man will likely lose his job, according to Sapphire’s partner.” Rayne looked at Dia, tears in her eyes. “We hold him no ill will now, but I would have probably killed him if I’d lost you to his carelessness.”
Dia shook her head. “No, Momma, you wouldn’t have. Killing is not in your soul.” Dia smiled. “But I’m so glad to be here.” She took a deep breath. “But what will happen to Ryan’s father now?”
Sorrow filled Rayne’s eyes. “He had a heart attack right after he shot you. Last we heard, he was being kept alive until Ryan comes to the hospital. Logan has taken care of everything there.”
Dia’s eyes filled and spilled over. “Ryan will never forgive any of us.”
Shaking her head, Rayne agreed. “I’m not sure any love can overcome all this.”
Epilogue
Numb, Ryan sat with his dry-eyed mother on one side of him and a teary-eyed John Grammar on the other as the minister read several biblical passages. He couldn’t focus on the words of comfort, though he’d really tried to, out of respect for the father he barely knew and the elderly gentleman he’d only met before the service started. All he could think about was the multitude of Cavanaugh family members who were seated so quietly behind them in the sanctuary. All of them were present, except Dia.
He was surprised any had come, given the situation, but he was glad they had. He knew they felt responsible, but the truth was, he didn’t feel that way at all.
They were who and what they were, which was the nicest, most loving people he�
��d ever met. None of them had anything to do with what had led to this moment, and he was glad they were here so he could tell them so. He hadn’t seen any of them since hurrying to the hospital once they’d awakened him from the peaceful sleep they had put him under when he’d thought Dia dead.
Maybe it was because he barely knew his father, but other than regret, he felt no connection to the man in the casket, nor, in truth, to the man who was his step-grandfather. When the service ended, he rose and shook John Grammar’s hand. The old man looked about to fall over, so he was led away by Ryan’s mother, as the two of them had hit it off from the moment she’d arrived in Mystic Waters.
Ryan turned to those waiting at the back of the sanctuary and smiled, happier to see them than he should have been, he supposed. He searched their faces one by one as he approached, allowing his attention to land on Rayne Cavanaugh-White.
“Thank you for coming.”
Rayne searched his face and smiled gently. “You are at peace.”
Ryan nodded. “I am. I hope my father finally is.”
Rayne looked over his shoulder and nodded. “He is beside you, and he is very much at peace now he knows all truths. He says to tell you he is so glad to have met you, to be well and embrace life.”
Not doubting Rayne would know such things, he nodded. “Thank you.” He bit his bottom lip, wondering if he should ask, but he needed to know. “Why didn’t Dia come with you?”
Sadness replaced Rayne’s serene expression. “She doesn’t know about the funeral, or anything that came before. I’m sorry, but she begged us to take her back to the day before you met, and so she has no memory of you at all. The love spell is broken.”
Ryan nodded but couldn’t help the tears that formed in his eyes. He blinked them away as he took several slow breaths. “Where is she?”
Rayne smiled at his reaction. “She’s likely in her little shed trying to whip up some concoction that will explode.”
“I’m going to her.”
Rayne leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “I knew you would.”
“I’m going to make her fall in love with me all over again.”
“I have no doubt of that.”
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 173
