Something splashed into the water behind me. I was terrified. Whatever had knocked me off of the bridge was now in here with me. Hysterical, I fought against the rush of the water to get to the side. I scraped my knee on a sharp rock. I was close, I knew it. The smell of stagnant water came up from behind me. I heard a growl. I looked up to the bank of the river. Two small red flames seemed to be hovering in mid air. I focused. They weren’t flames, they were eyes. Something was waiting for me to crawl out. I slowed down and felt the weight of the water shift behind me.
The smell of something wet and rotting hit me again. I knew that smell--it was the smell of trolls. I screamed. My foot hit something slimy, and I made sure it counted. I kicked with all of my strength. It pushed up on me, grabbing my leg, pulling under the surface of the water. I reached my hands out, trying to summon my power. I needed it now, it couldn’t fail me. I felt my lungs tightening--no power came. I kicked and pulled to free myself. It grabbed my waist and pushed me further under. I lashed out at it and wrapped my fingers around a handful of wet hair that felt like seaweed, yanking it out. Its hold loosened, and I pushed to the top. I gasped, sucking in air, scrambling to get my footing. The river’s current kept sweeping my feet out from under me.
Before I could clear the river, the troll sprang from the depths beside me and knocked me down. My body slammed into the rocks, water rushed over my face, pushing at my body. I tried to push off of the rocks, but I had no strength left in me.
I let my head lay in the water and two thoughts came to my mind--Pallo and Caleb. I wanted to see them again, I needed to see them. My life had changed dramatically in the last two days, but I knew that they would forever be a part of it. I didn’t want to die face down in a river with a troll about to tear me limb from limb. I would not go that way. I felt my power creeping up. It was weak, but then again, so was I. I took what little I could muster and used it to give me enough energy to move. It was enough, it stood me up. The water pushed at me, and I staggered to the edge and fell to my knees. Red eyes sped towards me. I put my hands up in a defensive position. I braced myself for impact. Nothing came. I looked around. They were gone. No troll, no red eyes, nothing. I let my body fall against the rocky ground.
Something swooshed down next to my head. I closed my eyes and prepared for round two.
"Gwyneth." Pallo’s voice was soft. "Gwyneth." He leaned over me. I tried to pick my body up but couldn’t.
"Gwyneth! Gwyneth!" Caleb called.
"She is here!" Pallo called out to him. His arms slid around me as he gently turned me over. "What has happened to you?"
"Put me down," I said, coughing out more water. I thought about the troll and the mysterious red eyes. Pallo tensed.
"Which way did they go?" he asked.
I still hadn’t gotten used to his mind reading tricks. I shook my head. "I don’t know … they just vanished."
"Pallo, is she okay?" Caleb was on top of the bridge. I felt a warm rush of power flow through me, and something moving behind Caleb. I was far away, but somehow I just knew. Caleb and I were linked now, and he was too worried about me to sense the danger near him. My chest tightened.
"Caleb!" I screamed.
Growling came from the direction of the bridge. I heard a loud splash, then nothing. I looked at Pallo.
"Help him, please, don’t let him die." I was crying now and my words were mumbled between the sobs.
"I cannot leave you alone."
I could feel the struggle inside of him. He was torn between helping his friend and staying with the one he loved. Loved? Yes, I felt his love for me. I shook my head. No time for that now.
My mind raced. I thought of Caleb, my beautiful new lover Caleb. I pulled myself up. Pallo touched my arm and I knew he shared my thoughts of Caleb.
"Come … I cannot leave you," he said and picked me up in his arms. I kicked at him to put me down.
"Caleb! Help Caleb! We can’t just leave him!" I was screaming at the top of my lungs. What in the world was going on with him? Was he on drugs or something?
Pallo lifted me into the air. I felt like we had risen off of the ground. I looked down to discover we had. We were moving over the top of the bridge. It was empty--no Caleb. I cried out for him. Pallo held me tight. I slapped at his face. I didn’t want to hurt him, I just wanted down. I needed to help Caleb. Pallo didn’t loosen his hold on me. "I have to make sure you are safe," he gritted out.
He took me into the front room of the house and laid me on the living room couch. I jumped to my feet and ran for the door. He was on me in a flash, pinning me to the wall.
"I have to help Caleb! Let go of me!" I pushed at his face. His brown eyes locked on me. They held no anger for me, only sadness.
"I cannot let you go out there, and I cannot leave you by yourself. I do not know how many of them are."
"I’m fine. I can take care of myself," I yelled at him.
"I cannot allow you to do that."
"Why?"
"Cara mia, ti ama--my beloved, love you," he said, easing his grip on my body. I stopped fighting him for a minute. He had just told me he loved me. Did vampires really fall in love? I didn’t have time to analyze it. I couldn’t let anyone die at the hands of those things. Especially Caleb.
"Let me go!"
"Do you feel love for Caleb?" Pallo asked. I found that to be a strange question especially coming from him. I would have thought he’d ask if I loved him too, not Caleb. Besides which, Caleb was going to be dog food if we didn’t get back and save him.
I searched my soul for the answer because I had learned how pointless it was to try covering up the truth from him. "Yes."
"If you had never met him, would you have loved me instead?" I couldn’t believe he was doing this now. Caleb was out there, alone, and he needed us. I turned and started towards the back door. Pallo gripped my waist.
"Pallo, let me go!"
"Then your answer is no?"
I stopped struggling with him. "No…." He tensed "No, meeting Caleb can’t undo what was already done. Is that what you want?"
"I do not understand what you are telling me."
"God, Pallo, are you really that thick? I love you. I’ve been in love with you since the moment I met you. I’ve had dreams about you, I longed for you. My heart bled when I knew that I had hurt you, but I can’t help the way I feel about Caleb. I love you both. Now LET ME GO!"
He turned me in his arms and held me tight to him. "I still cannot allow you to go out there tonight."
"Why?"
"Because, there is a possibility that you may be with child."
I looked into his face. He was trying not to look at me. He was hurt, I could tell. "What do you mean? I can’t get pregnant. The doctor said it was next to impossible."
"Then the doctor was wrong," Pallo said, still not looking at me.
I stopped fighting him. "How do you know this?" I asked him.
"When you thought of Caleb telling you that you were ripe … he meant you were fertile, you were ready to accept his seed."
I thought about how he had pulled out mid way through being finished. "But I thought that the odds of pairing up with someone who is a mate for you were one in a billion."
"I suppose this one was predetermined." He stepped away from me and looked at the closed front door.
I didn’t know what that comment meant, and I didn’t care. I slid down the wall and sat on the floor. I covered my face with my hands. Caleb was out there somewhere and he needed our help.
"Pallo?"
"Yes?"
"You’re telling me that I’m pregnant with Caleb’s baby?" I shook my head. It didn’t feel wrong to be saying this--it felt wrong to be leaving Caleb alone out there.
Pallo’s cool hand touched mine. "No, what I am saying is that there is a chance that you may be with child. We will know for sure by the end of next week."
I moved my hands down and looked up at him. "How will we know then?"
He forced himsel
f to smile. "You will start to show."
"What?" I had heard that Si pregnancies were not like a human gestation cycle. I didn’t realize they were that different. It would take human females months to start to show. It was going to take me only a few days. I would carry the child for close to a year, but it would grow to full size in half that time, the other half would be spent soaking up my magic.
"Oh, my God!" I said, pulling myself to my feet.
"What is wrong?" Pallo asked me.
I looked at him. "If I am with child, then I have to find its father."
Pallo stopped me at the door. I wanted to hate him, I wanted to strike him down with my power and run to the river and look for Caleb. I wanted to have him hold me. The latter desire won out, and I pulled myself close to him. He embraced me.
"I can’t leave him out there, I can’t." I was crying against his chest.
He lifted my chin. "I have summoned for Caradoc and James. They will be here soon to help search for him. Do not worry, Gwyneth, we will find Caleb. We will find him."
Pallo kissed my forehead, and the thought of him bending down and touching my swelling belly came back to me. I felt like we’d been through this before, it felt like a bad case of déjà vu. I closed my eyes and let him hold me tightly as I cried. I sobbed with every ounce of my body. I cried for Caleb, I cried for myself, most of all I cried for Pallo. I could feel his sadness and I knew it would last for an eternity. I let my body go limp. He caught me and carried me upstairs to my bed. He laid me down on it and kissed my head gently as I cried. I saw him sitting on the edge of the bed as my eyes grew heavier. Sleep welcomed me quickly. Seems like the harder I fought it, the more it won.
Chapter 12
I sat up in bed. It was still dark out. I looked at myself and saw I was clean and changed. Someone had cleaned me up. I had a feeling it was Pallo, and I hoped I wasn’t wrong.
I slid my hands down my stomach and touched my abdomen. Nothing. It was flat and smooth. One night down … a few more to go. I don’t know how I felt about possibly being pregnant. Caleb didn’t feel like a stranger to me. It felt as though we’d known each other forever. I felt the same way around Pallo. I couldn’t explain it. I could just feel it deep inside of me. If it was meant to be, then it was meant to be. I could support a baby if I had to. It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing with my life right now, but I would do what needed to be done. I had made love to Caleb, and I would deal with whatever came from that union. I wasn’t sorry for what had happened.
"Caleb?" I couldn’t feel his power around me anymore. I couldn’t feel him at all. I did, however, feel like someone had placed a lead weight on my chest. I wanted to cry, and I had to blink away tears. I couldn’t fall to pieces every two minutes--that wouldn’t help the situation at all.
I climbed out of bed and headed downstairs to the living room. Pallo sat on the couch with his head bent. The moment I saw him I knew he had bad news. My stomach twisted into a knot, bile threatening to rise.
Pallo looked up, his eyes full of pity … pity for me. I knew by his look that Caleb was gone. I felt hot, flushed, and nauseated. I took off out the front door and fell down the front porch steps, landing hard on my knees in the grass. I vomited until I hadn’t anything left.
I pulled myself up and looked into the darkness. I had done this to Caleb. I had gone for the walk, I had gotten into trouble--he had come looking for me. I killed Caleb. Me. I staggered backwards and caught myself on the side of the steps.
"Do not blame yourself for this. Someone sent the creatures after you. You didn’t do this to him. He loved you very much. Wherever he is, I am sure he is happy to know that you are safe." Pallo’s words melted in my head. My body soaked them in and used them as a crutch to stand.
"Pallo."
He came downstairs to help me stand. I didn’t accept his help. "I want to find the person who did this."
"Why?" he asked. I could tell he knew the answer but wanted to hear me say it.
"I want to kill them," I said coldly.
He touched my shoulder. "You have changed, Gwyneth."
I had no idea what he was talking about, but that was becoming the norm, so I ignored it. I turned and went into the house. Pallo followed close behind me. He didn’t make any sound when he moved, and that was creepy. He smiled at me. He knew his stealth mode routine was getting to me, so he quit.
I poured myself a glass of ice water and sat at the table. Pallo joined me. He told me that shortly after I had fallen asleep, Caradoc and James came. He and James went looking for Caleb. Caradoc cleaned me up. I looked at him sternly, but he ignored me. They had looked all along the river’s edge for him and found nothing. They decided to split up, and each one took a side of the river and searched the woods. Pallo found blood in the woods but nothing else. He put his head down as he told me that it was rare for trolls to leave much of their victim behind. I winced. I didn’t want to think about Caleb dying that way. I couldn’t.
Pallo then informed me that I had slept for almost two full days. He stayed here in the basement during the day and slept. Caradoc and James had headed back to the city shortly before I woke.
I looked at Pallo, soaking in the information he’d given me. I ran a hand over my stomach. If I had slept for two straight days and my belly was completely flat, then that meant that there was a good chance that I was not with child.
Pallo’s gaze rested on my stomach. "How are you feeling?"
I nodded, but as I started to answer him, a wave of nausea hit me. I ran to the sink and began to dry heave. I felt Pallo’s cool hands on my forehead.
"Try to relax, Gwen." He never called me Gwen. He was trying too hard now.
I started to cry. "They said that I would never have children of my own. I’ve always wanted children. Now I may get my wish, but the child will never know its father."
"You miss him?" he asked, sitting once more.
"Yeah."
I looked at him leaning back in the chair. I had to do a double take. He was wearing a red plaid shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans that looked to be a bit big on him.
"You’re wearing my father’s clothes?" I started to laugh a little. He looked so out of place in plaid.
He propped his elbows on the table. "I didn’t expect to be staying. My clothes are being laundered. I hope you do not mind that I borrowed these." He put his hand up to unbutton the shirt.
"No, Pallo, its fine. You can have them. I was going to give them away. I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet."
He gave me that wicked little grin of his again and I melted.
"Thanks," I said.
"For what?"
"For being my friend." I reached out and patted his hand.
We cleaned up the house as best we could. I packed a few articles of clothing and we loaded them into Caleb’s red truck. Pallo and I drove back to the city together, and I dropped him off at Necro World, swearing I’d be back shortly. I headed off to get some information.
I stopped at my apartment first. I had promised Pallo that I wouldn’t, but I was pretty sure he could tell I was lying so I didn’t know how much that counted. I went in and changed and threw a few things in an overnight back. I was learning that it was definitely better to be prepared. I headed off in search of answers.
I pulled Caleb’s SUV up outside of Ken’s firm and went to the sixth floor, heading for my office. When I got inside, I saw that my phone was blinking. I had voice mail. I was guessing that missing work for a few days meant that I had a ton of phone calls to return. I glanced at my computer. My inbox was probably full too. Oh, well, they would have to wait. I grabbed my Rolodex and skimmed through the names. I needed to find someone who could help me find out who was sending these creatures after me. I wanted to meet them face to face, they would answer for Caleb. I had numbers for almost every sort of paranormal or supernormal contact in the area. I flipped past Lyle Martin’s name and stopped. Martin was a self-appointed expert on the behavioral patterns of supern
atural and mythological creatures. I had personally never put much stock into what he said, but I was willing to give him a try. The last time I had seen the guy he was appearing on a local talk show.
I phoned the number on the card, but got his answering machine. I started to leave him a brief message concerning a close friend of mine being attacked by trolls on two different occasions and was about to hang up. The phone clicked.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Martin?" I asked surprised to have gotten through to him.
"Yes, Gwyneth, it is I." The fact that he knew my name should have creeped me out. It wasn’t like the damn phone was in my name. If anyone it would be Ken. "You mentioned something about hellhounds, and trolls?"
"Yes." I told him everything I could, leaving out the parts about me having sex with Caleb.
Martin was silent for a minute. "I see, this is most interesting … I would like very much to speak with you about this face-to-face."
"Yes, I understand, but I won’t be able to meet with you anytime soon, and as I’m sure you can tell … time is of the essence." Truth was, I probably could have met with him, but he was creeping me out.
"Yes," he said, long and drawn out, "I shall offer you this one bit of advice."
"Yes?"
"Your past is never far behind."
The line went dead. I looked at the receiver and then back at my Rolodex. I scratched the word nut job on Lyle Martin’s card and thrust it back in place.
I recognized Ken coming down the hall by the sound of his voice. I didn’t want to deal with him right now. I picked up my phone and dialed his office and was relieved to hear him race down the hall to grab his phone. Good old Ken, he was one of those people who just couldn’t stand to let the phone ring. I gave it a second to ring some more and heard his door opening. I bolted out of my office, raced down the hall, and waved at Judy, the receptionist. She was trying to tell me that Ken was looking for me. I nodded and pushed the door open to the stairwell. Running down six flights of stairs in August will take it out of just about anyone. I hit the lobby and headed for Caleb’s truck.
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