[scifan] plantation 06 - plantations origins
Page 14
“Do you even remember what day it is?”
“Is it sleep till noon day?” He sprang up. “Oh shit, it’s Nya’s birthday.”
“You promised Theo you’d help set up the tent. It’s getting late.”
Damian buried his face in a pillow. “I have to stop helping others.”
“Don’t be an ass, you love it.”
He spun to look at her again. “I love you. So, come here.”
“Get it together, man,” she said with a wink as her touchpad buzzed.
It was Doctor Armand.
“What’s up, Doc?” she spoke into the touchpad.
“Freya, Eric has taken a sudden turn for the worse,” Doctor Armand said. “His vitals have not changed, but a scan showed signs of early organ shut-down. He is getting weak. We need to bring him in for observation, but he won’t hear it. It’s up to you to change his mind.”
Her heart stopped. “Doc, there has to be more—”
Armand waited for Freya to finish. “Just talk to him,” he finally said.
She plopped down on the bed, finding it hard to breathe.
Damian slipped an arm around her. He had heard everything. He kissed her forehead. “Go to Eric,” he said. “Do what Doc said. Do whatever’s needed.”
Freya hugged him tight. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.
“You can do anything. I’ve seen you.”
Her smile was bitter. There was a time when everyone could break.
She stood outside Eric’s door, unable to knock. She straightened her hair and licked her lips before opening the door to his room. He was in bed, under the covers, but awake. His face was pale.
“You are the worst patient,” she tried to joke, taking his clammy hand. “Why won’t you give the doctor a break?”
He gave her a half-smile. “I pride myself on knowing when to give up.”
“That’s crap,” she said. “You don’t give up. You’re ruler of the free world.”
“It’s okay, Freya,” he said. “I’m ready.”
She shot him an angry glance. “You’ve always known, haven’t you? We promised to be done with half-truths.”
He lowered his gaze. “Yes, I’ve known. And, I think, so have you.”
Instead of giving him an answer, she drew her receptor. “You’re mistaken if you think I’ll let you go without a fight. I have your super powers now and, unlike you, I’m not afraid to use them.”
His eyed pleaded with her to let him be. She would not listen. She couldn’t. She furiously switched on the receptor. An invigorating stream of white energy sprouted onto Eric, enveloping him. The light spread all over his body, her steady hand guiding it to enter through his pores to heal his very core.
The light had a positive effect. Eric closed his eyes to feel her energy floating through him like an open raft against the wind. He moaned when she turned him over to dip his back into the healing energy.
Freya kept it going for as long as she could. When she finally gave in to exhaustion, she searched him for signs of recovery. He was still pale, still clammy and still breathed shallow.
“I’ll need to use more aggressive energy,” she murmured.
He grabbed her hand. “No, Freya. I am leaving. For good, this time.”
“You’re dumb,” she said, stubbornly.
“My sweet Freya, no amount of energy can reverse this.” He stroked her cheek. “You have my energy now. Use it wisely.”
“I want to give it back,” she shouted at him. How dare he save her life at the expense of his own? How dare he make her carry this burden?
“You don’t give back a gift,” he said with a grin. “It’s considered impolite.”
“Is punching a dying man impolite? Because that’s where I’m at.”
Eric extended his arms, so she could snuggle inside them. “Why do you need to save me so badly?” he asked. “Is it guilt?”
“I don’t know, because that’s what we do, save each other.”
“You are the one now, Freya,” he said, tenderly caressing her hair. “You will lead the free world. Songs will be sung for you and your heroism.”
“I don’t care about songs, I want you,” she said.
He opened his mouth to say something, but she kissed him instead. She kissed him like she had never kissed anyone in her entire life. She kissed him like his lips were sustenance and she was starving.
“I must be dreaming,” Eric said, dizzily. “You don’t have to do this, Freya.”
“I do what I want,” she said.
“I know you do,” he said as he reached out to trace her lips with his fingers, savoring them, before pulling her in for another kiss.
“Little savage girl,” he said with a grin.
She wasn’t sure if he meant her or Faith and she didn’t care. All she cared about was making him feel alive one last time. Her mouth closed on his. He slid his hand into her hair. She kissed him all over his face, struggling to keep the tears from running down her cheeks.
His hands searched for hers and when they found them, flickers of blue flames sparkled between their palms. He received the raw energy like a shot of strong ale.
The force of her life entwined with his in one last, pure, ethereal dance.
She pulled his shirt over his head. She marveled at how smooth and defined his muscles were. No one would guess this powerful man was dying.
She pulled off her shirt, too, her cheeks reddening.
He watched her with sparkling eyes. She lay next to him, skin-to-skin, hands interlaced, her energy scorching its way through him unencumbered.
Eric moaned as the energy filled him up, sending his body into shock. He felt muscles contract, tissues suck in the pure force of what she was sharing with him for the first time. The weight on his chest was lifted for those brief moments as he gulped down oxygen greedily. He buried his face between her neck and shoulder. “This is a really good way to die,” he whispered.
“It’s not fair,” she sobbed in his ear.
“It is fair, Freya. I’ve always known death would come. If I could choose, I’d do it all over again. Saving you was an act of pure joy. I never thought I could ever feel something like that again.”
A wild, roaring emotion roared in her chest. It was love.
Eric took her hand and kissed it. “You don’t kill beauty, you live beauty. Wasn’t that the nonsense you would have me believe?”
She nodded, barely.
“Guess what? I actually agree, you can’t kill beauty.”
He smiled for her. She smiled, too.
CHAPTER 23
EPILOGUE
Today I turn twenty. The sun breaks through the clouds and I feel the instant warmth on my naked skin. I have become an expert at swimming upstream, breaking my personal record once a month, like clockwork.
I have embraced my new powers and my new strength. Every day, I become more and more a child of nature, discovering the beauty of the forest and the melodies of the streams, stopping whatever I’m doing to listen.
It is for him that I do it. It is what he wanted for me. To be reborn into a Zen mind frame and find happiness in all that is pure.
He is with me always, feeling every bit of the sensations on my skin—the water and the wind and the sun. He is me.
Finn and Zoe are getting married next week and I get to be a bridesmaid. Someday, I will get to hold their child and tell stories of the rebellion and stories of the forests.
Eric’s energy has dissolved into mine. We are forever connected and I will forever be haunted, but it’s a good kind of haunting, the kind that makes you want to do better things and be a better person.
This is our only home after all. The bonds we form with our people and every moment we spend with them.
We, humans, are all on the same path. We learn and sometimes we forget what we learned. We move on and we are afraid to look back. We grow and we forget who we are and then we remember again. We fight, we lose, we win – we are the Saviors
of our private little worlds.
I spot Damian running to me with Tobi in his arms. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares of them being taken away, but then they attack me with kisses and my heart feels whole again.
We are every bit as foolish as we are smart and that’s a good thing.
Damian picks me up and spins both of us around. Our three hearts keep beating and the world grows brighter. I feel the winds traveling through our human lands. I feel the river shining in the sun.
The energy flows through everything, through our fingers and kisses, just as it flows now, it had flowed then, through the ages of man.
~~~~
Author Note
Thank you for reading Plantation Origins. I hope you have enjoyed reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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Books in the PLANTATION Series
THE PLANTATION (BOOK 1)
THE DARK LEGION (BOOK 2)
THE SHADOW EMPIRE (BOOK 3)
BEYOND THE RIVER OF TIME (BOOK 4)
DAPHNE: A PLANTATION STORY (BOOK 2.5)
RISE OF THE SAVIORS (BOOK 5)
For more links, click here: Stella’s Books
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
Author Note
Books in the PLANTATION Series