Aric continued to lay still on the sofa. His breathing was shallow, and his skin was nearly white. I really hoped they knew what they were talking about.
I stifled a yawn; the hot tea was making me sleepy.
"It's three in the morning. You could do with some sleep I'll bet," said Ellen. "I'll go make up the bed in the spare room."
I looked anxiously at Aric. I didn't want to leave him.
Ellen patted my shoulder. "Don't worry about him - we'll look after him." She headed off down a small hallway.
"She's right - you can stop worrying now Lucy, we're going to take it in turns to shield you. I don't know how Aric managed to do it by himself for so long. You must be very special to him."
I swallowed hard and threw an anxious glance at Aric's pale face. "It was really hard on him."
"Well, you won't need to be shielded for much longer. You have an implant. Ellen sensed it before - the signal is very strong. We need to get it out, and then they won't be able to track you."
I gave him a startled look. The last person to try to remove the implant had been my mother. I pushed the scene away from my mind. At least this time we could get a doctor, there'd be anesthetic, no kitchen knife...
"We'll do it tomorrow. In the mean time, get some sleep. And don't worry - you're both safe now."
Ellen appeared from the hallway, with a huge T-shirt for me to sleep in. I took one last look at Aric, and softly brushed aside a lock of hair from his forehead. He didn't stir. I swallowed hard and followed Ellen to the spare room.
Lying in the darkened room, I stared up towards the ceiling. This time last week I would have been tucked up in my own bed, oblivious to the existence of any of this. What a difference a few days could make. I wondered what Uncle Tom was doing - had he listed me as a 'missing person' yet? A pang of guilt pierced me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Turning to my side, I punched the pillow with some force. The old familiar feeling of helplessness returned from my childhood. I was a will-o'-the-wisp, being tossed about on the wind, no control over my own destiny; I was in the hands of others and at the mercy of fate. Pulling the covers up over my head, I wished I could turn off my brain. I didn't want to think or worry any more. I tried to imagine nothingness, but the pale face of Aric appeared in my mind instead. It was a long time before I finally slept.
* * * * *
Chapter Six
The sun was streaming through the window when I opened my eyes again. I squinted, rubbed my eyes, and looked around the room, confused for a moment at my whereabouts.
"Good morning sleepy-head." Aric was sitting on the edge of my bed. There was no sign of the dark rings under his eyes, or the pale complexion - he looked absolutely perfect again. He gave me a dazzling smile and leaned over to kiss me.
"Ugh," I said, avoiding his lips. "Sorry, I've got dog breath."
He chuckled, and kissed my temple instead.
"Ellen has some spare toothbrushes in the bathroom cupboard."
I rubbed my eyes again. "You look great. God, just how long have I been asleep?"
"About eight hours."
I stared at him in amazement. "You look that good after only eight hours? When I left you last night you looked like you were nearly dead!"
He shrugged lightly. "We heal quickly."
I sat up and swung my legs to the floor. Aric moved to an old wooden dresser in the corner, and began to push it aside.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Watch."
The dresser concealed a safe in the wall. Aric leaned over and fiddled with the dial. The door swung open, revealing the contents. I gasped. The safe was full to bursting with large wads of cash. A number of passports fell out on the floor.
"Wow, Saul is loaded!"
Aric smiled. He took some bundles of bills from the safe, and placed them on the dresser.
"This safe is mine. You don't think I've been around for nearly nine hundred years and haven't made a few good investments, do you?"
I picked up the passports and rifled through them. They were all in different names, but they all had Aric's photo.
"We have a thing called a 'bank' these days, you know," I said.
"I try to stay off the grid. I have a number of these all over the place. It comes in handy sometimes."
I supposed it did. If you lived for hundreds of years, you'd have to move around before people grew suspicious about your eternal youth.
He shoved a heap of bills into his wallet, and handed one of the bundles of cash to me.
I looked at it blankly.
"You need to go shopping," he said.
"Oh, no...' I protested, pushing the money back at him. "I can't take your money."
"So you're going to wear that forever?" He said, pointing to Ellen's over sized T-shirt. He smiled to himself. "Kind of appropriate though."
I looked down at the image on the front - it was David Bowie.
He took my hand and placed the cash on my palm. "Keep it - it's a drop in the ocean - really."
It was more money than I'd ever seen before. "I hate taking other people's money!" I wailed.
"Well, I suppose you could get yourself a job and earn some money yourself," he said dryly, with a grin, "But a Bowie T-shirt isn't really appropriate work wear."
I rolled my eyes upward, and took the money gingerly as though it were a dead rat. I placed it on the bed.
There was a knock on the door, and Ellen popped her head inside.
"Ah, I thought I heard your voice Lucy. Hope you slept well?"
"Yeah, I did, thanks."
She turned to Aric. "We've got everything ready. Maureen is here to help."
She opened the door wider, and ushered in a tall red-headed woman.
"You," Ellen said, jabbing a finger at Aric. "Scoot. Women only right now."
Aric turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders. "We have to remove your implant Lucy. Ellen and Maureen need to take a look at you to locate it."
I felt the blood drain from my face. "Here? Now?"
He nodded. I wasn't looking forward to this at all - it was going to bring back too many painful memories.
He pulled me against his chest, then lifted my face to his. "It'll be over soon," he said. He kissed my forehead and left the room.
I faced the two women and lifted my arms outwards. "So, what do I have to do?"
They told me to stand in my bra and panties while they checked me over. Their hands didn't touch me, but roamed about the space around me, as though they were looking for an invisible force. Ellen saw the large scar near my rib, and gave me a sympathetic look. I continued to stare stoically ahead, my arms stretched out to each side as though I were trying to fly. Eventually they located it on my right hip, about six inches away from the spot my mother had cut.
"These things move around," said Maureen. "They're tricky little beggars."
I took a shower and brushed my teeth, then threw the Bowie T-shirt back on, along with my panties. I really did need to go clothes shopping.
The operation was to be performed on the dining room table. As I climbed up on to the table, a twinge of familiarity washed over me and amplified my sense of dread. My heart began to thump wildly against my chest. It was all I could do to stop myself from jumping off the table and running out of the room. Aric sat down on a chair, his face level with mine.
Be brave.
I began to tremble violently. Ellen brought over a tray from the kitchen.
Saul positioned himself near my feet.
"This is just ice Lucy - it will help numb the area." She placed a small bag of ice on my hip and I jumped.
"Wait!" I said. I looked at Maureen, who was wielding a scalpel. "Aren't you going to use an anesthetic first?"
"I'm afraid we don't have any."
I looked sharply at Aric, then back to Maureen. "But... aren't you a doctor?"
A number of silent looks were exchanged around me.
"Maureen isn't a doctor, Lucy. It would have been too
dangerous to bring a doctor into this."
I clutched at Aric's arm. This was my old nightmare all over again.
Aric took my chin gently in his hand and turned my head to face him. I met his blue eyes again.
As if in a trance, I lay back down on my side.
"Keep watching me Lucy, it's going to be okay." His voice took on the soothing, captivating tone he'd used on me before.
He uttered words of comfort, and I couldn't look away. Vaguely as though it were happening a million miles away, I felt Saul take a hold of my feet. Someone - probably Ellen, was holding my arm near my shoulder.
"You're doing great." Aric's voice flowed through me like a soothing tonic. Somewhere, in another part of the room, there was the cold bite of ice and a swab of antiseptic.
"It'll be over soon..." He was stroking my cheek, his eyes barely inches away. I could see the little flicks of teal emanating from the iris. 'Pools of blue' was so appropriate.
The sting of the scalpel felt very far away. Pain... somewhere. There was nudging and pulling, more nudging, and then it was over. Aric moved his hand to the surgical spot, and I felt the euphoric buzzing sensation again as he healed the wound.
I looked around at my hip with surprise. Maureen was mopping up some blood with a piece of white cotton. There wasn't even a scar.
"It's over?" I asked.
"It's over," replied Ellen.
I lay on my back took a deep breath, letting it out in a long, relieved sigh.
"That wasn't so bad," I said to Aric. He helped me up, and lifted me to the floor. On the table, in a white bowl, there was a tiny black speck sitting in a few spots of blood.
"Is that the implant?" I asked.
Saul nodded.
Grabbing the bowl, I studied the speck closely. "It doesn't look like much, does it?"
Saul took the bowl from me. "You'd be surprised at what it can do."
"It's designed to move away from anything trying to grab it. Maureen had to chase it all over your hip with the tweezers."
I raised my eyebrows in surprise and shuddered. It was creepy.
Saul tipped it into a sandwich bag then placed it on a chopping board.
"They usually stop transmitting once they leave a body, but I like to be sure." He whacked the implant with a hammer a number of times, then held up the bag, inspecting his handiwork.
"It's probably harmless now, but Maureen will dispose of this across the other side of town."
"I'm glad to see the last of it," I said. My face broke out in a grin as realization dawned on me - "I'm free! Right?"
Aric and Saul exchanged glances. Aric's answering smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He clapped his hands and clasped his palms together, ignoring my question. "Right, time for a shopping trip I think."
* * * * *
"I thought women were supposed to love shopping? It's in your genes."
I snatched the clothes from the shopping assistant, and threw Aric a dirty look, then trudged back into the changing room. We'd been shopping for four hours now, and I was thoroughly sick of it.
I yanked off Amy's pink top and jeans, hopping around in the tiny cubicle as my foot tangled in the trouser leg.
"Anyone would think I was torturing you," Aric called from his seat just outside the changing room.
I threw on the dress, and had to admit it was quite nice. The price was exorbitant though.
When we'd first hit the stores, Aric had steered me to an up-market boutique. I'd protested in horror.
"Oh, no, way too expensive," I'd said. Before we'd left the apartment I'd shoved two fifty dollar bills into my pocket from the wad of cash Aric had given me, and had intentions of ducking into a superstore and buying a cheap pair of jeans, a couple of shirts, and some extra underwear. I didn't want to have to cost him any more money than I had to.
"Don't worry about the expense."
I'd pulled the two fifty dollar bills out of my pocket triumphantly and waved them at him. "I only brought along this much anyway - it might buy me the sleeve off of one of those shirts there."
He'd patted a lump in his back pocket. "I brought along the rest of your money," he'd said smugly. He'd trumped me, and ushered me into the boutique.
That was the first of many. I'd found the more expensive the boutique, the pushier the shop assistant and we'd accrued bags of stuff. I was writhing with guilt. Aric seemed to be loving it. "You're showing your non-human side," I'd told him. "Human males DO NOT like having to watch girls shop. You're totally weird."
"I just like the chance to look at you," he'd replied with a simple shrug.
I zipped up the back of the dress as far as I could, and went out to meet his approval. He said he liked whatever I tried on, and we inevitably bought it. He'd bought a few things for himself, but the majority of the masses of shopping bags surrounding him were for me.
He sat up and grinned when I appeared out of the changing room. I spun around, the dress flaring out a little around my knees.
"Perfect!" he said. "If you leave that on, I'll take you out to dinner now."
I changed my shoes, and he paid for the dress. We left the store and stashed our shopping in the trunk of Saul's car.
"Come on," said Aric, taking my hand. "I know just the place."
The restaurant overlooked the river. The lights of the skyscrapers in the city center on the opposite bank cast perfect reflections on the shimmering water. As the sun went down, fairy lights appeared amongst the trees on the riverbank. We took a table on the patio and ordered our meal.
"Well, this is much nicer than the trucker's cafe," I quipped. A soft breeze caused the candle on the table to flicker in its colorful glass.
"And our fellow diners are a little more... classier," he agreed.
I looked around at the restaurant's patrons. Mostly couples - it seemed the romantic location was a popular spot to bring a date. I touched Aric's hand, and he weaved his fingers through mine.
"Thank you," I said.
"You're welcome."
"I mean for everything - for coming to save me, for nearly killing yourself trying to protect me..."
"And for that dress," he added with a cheeky smile. "You look really beautiful, by the way."
"Oh, all right, yes, thank you for the clothes," I conceded. "And the compliment." I looked down at the dress and blushed.
"You know, I'd really like to know why you find it so hard to spend money. I'd have thought most girls would love to be spoiled."
I fiddled with the cutlery on the table. "When I was a kid, after my mother, well... my relatives would take me in, but sooner or later they'd pass me on to the next ones - they'd say they couldn't afford to keep me."
I paused and glanced at Aric. He was listening intently. "Oh, I was a right pain in the ass when I was a kid," I went on, "No doubt it was the real reason they passed me on. I came to think that if I didn't eat much, or ask for anything, they might decide to keep me. It never worked. By the time I got to Uncle Tom's, I was too scared to rely on anyone. I've been careful not to be a burden ever since. I hate having money spent on me."
I thought it ironic I'd had to rely on Aric almost from the moment I'd met him. The thought sat uncomfortably with me. A paddle wheeler festooned with fairy lights chugged past on the river. The scene was serenely idyllic, a far cry from the turmoil and loneliness of my childhood.
"Your uncle really loves you. You're lucky to have ended up with him."
"Yeah he does. Next best thing to my own family I guess." I watched the paddle wheeler make its slow way up the river. "You know, this implant thing - my mother was right - I did have one. I've been thinking, maybe she's not mad after all."
Aric looked away. He spun the stem of his glass between thumb and forefinger. "Maybe..."
"I asked Saul how my mother would have known about the implant. She seemed to have known about the Innaki. He thinks she may have been regressed and remembers her abductions."
He glanced at me from under thick eyelas
hes.
"I want to know what's been happening to me. Saul has agreed to regress me."
"No!" The force of his voice made me jump. The other diners looked our way, eventually returning to their own business.
He softened his tone. "No, that's not a good idea... I don't want anything more to upset you."
"But not knowing is worse... "
"Finding out what happened might be worse than not knowing."
I considered what he'd said for a moment, then went on. "For years I've had a feeling there's something I'd forgotten, or should know... like something is missing. I thought maybe it was because I didn't have a proper family, but I think it is this - I need to remember."
Our meals arrived, and we ate in silence for a while.
"I want to visit my mother."
Aric coughed on his food, and took a sip of his drink.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why not? I've never visited her before. Maybe she's been stuck in there all this time, totally sane, her only crime is that she tried to save her daughter... Maybe, I could have had my mother, growing up, after all. "
"Sometimes it's best just to leave things be Lucy."
"I want to know if she really loved me." There, I'd said it. Growing up, my cousins had teased me - they'd said my mother hated me so much she had tried to kill me.
"She did love, does love you." He corrected himself.
"Then I want to see her."
He shook his head and touched my hand. "I think you should leave her be."
An awkward silence hung between us like a thick fog. It was broken by the arrival of a man trying to sell roses to the diners.
Aric reached for his wallet. The man handed him a single red rose. "That will be ten dollars please."
I choked on my ravioli. Aric handed him a ten dollar bill. The man threw the money in his basket with the rest of the roses, gave a little bow, and wished us a good night.
"Ten dollars for a single rose? Are you kidding me?"
Aric held the rose out to me. "It's supposed to be a romantic gesture Lucy."
I took the rose and held it to my nose. It smelled lovely - but not ten dollars' worth of lovely.
Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy Page 11
