Light Within Me

by Fall, Carly

  James still held the knife to her throat, and he dug it in on another slice. Just like the last one, it wasn’t deep, but it hurt.

  “Why are you doing this?” she whispered.

  He went still and then backed away. “Because you took what was mine. You took my job at the paper. I loved my job, and you took it,” he said. “You stole from me, Abby. I did my job, and I did it well. Yet, you took it from me.”

  “I didn’t take anything from you, James,” she said.

  “Yes, you did!” he screamed in her face, making her jump. “How come you have a job and I don’t? That job should have stayed mine. I was better at it than you, but you flashed your long legs, probably crawled under old Bob’s desk and blew him, and you kept the job.”

  He yanked her hair viciously, making her cry out. “But let me tell you something, Abby. I hate those Warriors more than I hate you and your snotty attitude, always acting like you’re better than everyone else. I hate them. I was originally going to kill you because you took my job and you’re a bitch. Oh, and that I could.” He breathed even heavier, bringing her hair up to his nose and sniffed. “Now I’m going to kill you because there’s a Warrior who seems very attached to you. And one thing I know about males of our race—once they fall in love, it’s their greatest weakness. So if I kill you, it will destroy him. He’ll probably take a gun and blow his brains out the back of his head, and that’s good for me. Then I have one less of those fuckers up my ass.”

  He pulled her hair again. “Let’s go, bitch.”

  Abby walked toward the next set of steps. Once they were down these steps, it would be out the door and who knew where after that. And then, she would be killed, if he didn’t kill her before they made it to the door.

  But the door downstairs opened, and Noah flew through.

  Abby heard a hiss come from James, and then he grabbed a fistful of hair again, pulling her head back and fully exposing her neck.

  She felt the knife slice at her throat.

  It was different than before. All of sudden she could barely breathe, and blood oozed from the wound. James still had her by the hair and yanked her back behind him. She found herself unable to stand, and slowly sank to the concrete floor, her face next to the yellowing walls. She brought her hands up to her neck to try to stop the bleeding, but darkness seemed to be moving in on her at warp speed.

  “Come and watch your whore female die, Warrior,” James sneered.

  Noah let out a mix of something between a roar and a battle cry, and launched himself up the stairs.

  She watched as James buried his knife in Noah’s shoulder, and then everything faded to black.

  Chapter 54

  Noah found himself exactly where he had been the first time James had gotten to Abby. He was in his quarters, wearing out his nice carpet from pacing, watching Abby try to heal in his big bed.

  Their bed.

  Shit had gone critical. Nuclear critical. When Abby hadn’t shown up at her apartment for lunch at the appointed time, Hudson had called him, and Noah had taken off for the office, fear racing through him.

  He hadn’t bothered to find a parking space, but instead pulled up to the back of the building. The recon they had done before the mission had discovered the back stairwell was rarely used.

  The scene that played out in front of him had made him sick, made his bones vibrate with anger. And yeah, there was a little fear mixed in there as well.

  He doubted he would ever erase the image of James slicing open Abby’s throat. That had sent Noah into a blind rage. He definitely wasn’t thinking properly when he launched himself up the stairs and caught James’s knife in his shoulder.

  He hadn’t felt a thing.

  He had wrestled with James, eventually both of them falling down the stairs. Noah had taken the brunt of the fall, his spine hitting a number of stairs on the way down, and landed with James on top of him, the knife a precarious few inches from Noah’s heart.

  The door at the top of the stairs opened, and Cohen came flying down, stopping at the landing where Abby had passed out sitting up, her head slumped against the wall. Noah looked up at the stairs at the noise of Cohen’s pounding boots and saw his indecision—did he help Abby immediately, who frankly looked like she might be beyond help, or did he help Noah destroy the Colonist and then help Abby?

  Noah answered for him, simply shaking his head, as Cohen stepped down a stair to help him. Cohen nodded and turned to Abby.

  The fight had been fierce. James had been strong, much stronger than he looked. Noah had finally been able to get the upper hand and get the knife away from James. He tossed it halfway up the stairs between him and where Abby and Cohen were, out of reach for all of them.

  James had made this personal. He had come after the woman he loved not once, but twice. He had hurt her both times, so for Noah, it would be a personal kill.

  After a few minutes, some curses and grunts, James straddled Noah, his hands wrapped around Noah’s throat. Noah felt the life begin to leave him as he struggled for breath. He turned his head and looked up the stairs. He couldn’t see Abby’s face, just her shoe that had fallen off her foot. He zoned in on her pink-painted toenails. What if she was dead? If she was, he didn’t want to take another breath. He didn’t want to live a moment without her.

  As he focused on her foot, he took a step out of his doubts and knew with clarity that he wanted to see those toenails again, whether she decided they should be pink, green, or black. It simply didn’t matter. He didn’t know if she was going to live, but he did know that if he didn’t get his shit together, he was going to be one big slab of rotting meat and he would never know if Abby lived or died.

  With renewed purpose, he found the strength within himself to push James off him. He finally wrestled James to his stomach, his knee jammed between James’s shoulder blades. Noah’s breath heaved in and out as he gathered the last of his strength.

  “This is for Abby, you fucker,” he whispered, as he took James’s head in both hands and twisted it with violent force. He snapped James’s neck, the loud crack reverberating through the stairwell.

  A few seconds later, all that was left of James was a black pile of ash.

  Noah had turned to Cohen, who was bent over Abby, concentrating. He slowly went up the stairs, his system coming back online. His shoulder began to throb, the bumps, bruises, nicks, and cuts from the fall down the stairs introduced themselves, letting him know they would be around for a while.

  When he reached the top of the stairs, he looked at Abby. He swore under his breath, not wanting to break Cohen’s concentration. If he was honest with himself, she looked dead. Her face was ashen, and the amount of blood pooling around her was insurmountable.

  He studied her. He wanted so badly to see those big brown eyes open and bathe him in the love they always held. He wanted to see her smile—the one the lit up the room and made him feel like he was nothing short of a god when he was responsible for putting it there.

  “Please tell me she’s alive,” he whispered to Cohen.

  Cohen nodded, and took a deep breath as he extracted his SR44 form from her.

  “Barely. There’s a lot of damage, Noah. I need to go back in soon. I think we can get her home though.”

  “Shouldn’t we take her to a human hospital?”

  They discussed how that would play out. There wasn’t an assailant—he was nothing but a pile of ash on the floor. What would they say? They found her on the street? That would most likely put them suspect, making her life, as well as theirs, very difficult.

  And what about the fact that her SR44 half had come out? “I don’t know what that would do to a human blood sample, if anything,” Cohen said tiredly.

  They knew that if her DNA didn’t come back normal, she would most likely be shipped to Area 51 to find out what she was exactly, to study her, which would be torture for her. Literally.

  “We need to get her back to the silo, Noah. I need to rest a bit, which I’ll do on
the car ride home, and then go back to work on her.”

  Noah nodded, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and call Hudson.

  “Pick up. Now. Critical. James is dead. Abby’s . . . hurt.”

  Hudson wasted no time in the pick-up, or on the way home.

  “Tell me she’s going to be okay, Noah,” Hudson had said quietly as he sped down the road.

  Noah looked down at Abby. Her head lay on his lap, her body stretched out as much as possible across the backseat.

  The bleeding had stopped, but based on the amount that had coagulated on her neck, not to mention the mess on her shirt, she had lost a lot of the stuff.

  “I don’t know,” Noah said, feeling his throat constrict. He took a deep breath. “Fuck. Ask Cohen.”

  Cohen shook his head. “I don’t know, Hudson. She’s . . . she’s in bad shape. But I can’t do anything for her now. I need to rest.” He leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes.

  They were silent the rest of the way.

  Despite the knowledge that James was dead, Noah insisted they go back to the silo where he knew for certain they would all be safe. Or maybe it was familiarity he needed. Whatever the reason, they came back to an empty house. Noah had carefully carried Abby to the elevator and down to their floor.

  He stopped pacing and looked over at her on the bed. Her skin was almost as white as the sheets. He would give anything to see a little color in them.

  He hadn’t felt much of anything since leaving his planet. Well, much of anything but anger and rage and a desire to get his revenge for having his life on SR44 stolen from him.

  Now he had something coursing through him he didn’t like. At all. Noah realized the tremors in his body and the wild beat of his heart was from fear. Stark, cold, raging fear. He felt the usual panic that fear brought to him, and he breathed hard to try to keep from losing it.

  He simply couldn’t lose Abby. Not now. Not when he had finally let go of everything negative in his life and allowed happiness to come in and pitch a tent in his heart. He liked being happy. He liked that he didn’t have any negativity flowing through him any longer.

  His knees felt like they were going to buckle, and he plopped down on the bed next to Abby. He felt a sting in his eyes.

  He was crying.

  Oh, shit.

  He didn’t bother to wipe the tears tracking down his face as he studied Abby. He laid his hand on her chest, and . . . good news. She was breathing. It was light, but her chest did move up and down. Her heart was still beating.

  He had never felt so helpless, so out of control of a situation in his whole life.

  “You can’t leave me,” he said to her. “You need to come back. Now. Don’t fuck around on this one, Abby.”

  He closed his eyes as he imagined her mischievous grin when she teased him, and he wished like hell she would pop off the bed and yell, “Surprise!”

  He waited for it.

  He prayed for it.

  It didn’t happen.

  He got off the bed and began to pace.

  There was a soft knock on the door, and he walked over and opened it. Cohen stood there, looking like a distant relative to road kill. He pushed his dark hair off his forehead, nodded at Noah, and went to the bed. Neptune trailed behind him.

  “Any change?” he asked.

  Noah didn’t bother to answer. Anyone who looked at her could tell there was no change. Neptune howled and made a flying leap for Noah’s arms.

  Cohen lugged the big gray chair over to the bed and placed his hands on Abby’s abdomen. He took a deep breath, and then went still.

  Minutes that felt like hours passed, as Noah absently petted Neptune.

  Cohen straightened and looked at Noah over his shoulder. “I don’t sense an energy, Noah,” he said softly.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Noah yelled, panic gripping his heart, making his muscles immobile. He knew it was sheer fear that was driving him at this point, but still he continued. “What the fuck, Cohen? Her heart is beating. She’s breathing. There’s hope. Don’t go off on your energy bullshit. She’s in there!”

  Noah had the passing thought that if she didn’t wake up with his bellowing she might never open her eyes again. Neptune apparently didn’t like it, and he howled again, jumping to the bed. He curled up on Abby’s chest, staring at her just as he had the last time she had been hurt.

  Cohen stood and met Noah head-on, but he spoke in a calm and reserved voice, “I don’t know what to do, Noah. I can’t heal her without her energy. Nothing would happen. She has to participate in the healing with me. So cut me some slack here, my man. I’m doing the best I can at this point.”

  Noah exhaled and dropped his eyes. “Just do what you can,” he said weakly.

  Cohen nodded and headed for the door. “I’ll be back to check on her in about an hour.” He paused and looked at Noah from head to toe. “Noah, you’re pretty beat up. You want a little voodoo done on you? I should take a look at that stab wound on your shoulder . . .”

  Noah shook his head. He looked down at his bloody shirt and at the piss-poor patch job he had done on his stab wound with a washcloth and some tape. He hurt from head to toe, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the vice of fear gripping his chest. “No. Save your energy. Abby needs it more than me.”

  Cohen left, and Noah went back to Abby. “Come back to me, Abby. I can’t lose you. Not now. We just got shit figured out, Abby. Me and you. Us. Please, get back here . . .”

  Neptune howled in agreement.

  Chapter 55

  Two Days Later

  Abby stood in the far corner of the room watching Noah loom over her body. Her heart ached for the pain she was causing him, but she had no idea how to get back into her body. She had been trying to figure it out since Noah laid her out on the bed and left her human form.

  She looked down at herself again. She was wearing the same clothes when James attacked her, but she was translucent, and she supposed she could very well qualify as a ghost.

  Except she didn’t want to be a ghost. She wanted to be back in her body, alive, healing, and looking forward to her future with Noah.

  But how to get there? She hadn’t a clue.

  She had tried everything from willing herself back into her body to throwing herself at it. She had stood in front of Noah and screamed at him, but he had literally walked right through her. Neptune seemed to register that she was there, tracking her with his big yellow eyes as she moved about the room. He just kept looking from her to her body, obviously confused. She didn’t blame him. Confusion had taken on a whole new meaning. How could she be out of her body, yet her heart and lungs were working?

  It seemed the only thing she could do was stand in the corner and watch what was going on and try not to freak out. Again.

  A while later, a light knock sounded on the door, and Cohen came back in with Rayner and Hudson in tow.

  She watched as they talked, Rayner quiet as usual. This was the first time he had been down to see her. Or, she guessed, her body. Hudson sat on the bed, taking her hand in his. She sighed and began walking around the room.

  “I see you, Abby,” a deep voice rumbled.

  Startled, she looked up to see Rayner staring at her. “You can see me?” she asked excitedly. “Rayner, you can see me? Oh my God. Rayner, please help me! I don’t know how to get back into my body!”

  She rushed up to him, placing herself right in front of him. “How can you see me when no one else can?”

  A small smile came over Rayner’s face. “Almost everyone has a talent, or a curse, in my case.” She heard his words, but his mouth didn’t move. How did he do that?

  “Curse?”

  He nodded. “I see spirits who are caught in limbo. They aren’t dead; they aren’t alive. They’re stuck, just like you are right now.”

  Abby nodded as if that was perfectly normal. “What do I do, Rayner? I don’t want to be dead.”

  “Let me tell the others
you’re here, first. Then I think I know of a way to get you back into that body.”

  She nodded.

  “She’s here,” Rayner said to Noah, Hudson, and Cohen. He ran his fingers to push his blond hair out of his face.

  “What do you mean she’s here?” Noah asked.

  “Her energy isn’t in her body because it’s right here in front of me,” Rayner said, never taking his eyes off Abby. “She can’t get back into her body.”

  Hudson stood slowly and came to stand by Rayner, who was squinting into the empty space. “Abby?” he asked quietly.

  “Tell him I hear him, that I love him,” Abby said. “Tell Noah I love him too, and I want to come back.”

  Rayner passed on the messages, then turned to the other Warriors. “Here’s what I think has happened,” he said. “I think Abby’s body is close to death, but her spirit, or her energy, isn’t ready to accept that, so she’s stuck.”

  “What do we do to get her back in her body so I can continue to heal her?” Cohen said.

  Rayner exhaled and looked at the floor. As a member of the tribes of the forests of SR44, Rayner was a little different from the rest of the Warriors. The Forest Dwellers relied heavily on their knowledge of the spiritual life on SR44, as well as healing chants that went back centuries.

  “Well, my gomada, my grandmother, on SR44 could also see those trapped in-between life and death. I remember her telling me about a chant that helps the spirit to re-enter the body, or make its way up to its final resting spot. We can give it a try, but I’m not making any promises.”

  “We need to get her back,” Noah said quietly.

  Abby went to him and put her hand to his face. She poured the love she felt for Noah into her hand, hoping that she could somehow let him know that she was in front of him and that she was touching him.