“I was trying to go back where I’d come from. I thought if I could take Robert with me, they could heal him there.”
The Wilcox primus’ face was a study in confusion. “Back to St. Louis? So you have the same gift of travel that Samuel does?”
“No,” she replied, hesitating. But then, what did it matter if she revealed her secret now? Still with Robert cradled in her arms, still holding the ruin of her skirt against him since she didn’t know what else to do, she went on, “What I said wasn’t exactly accurate. I shouldn’t have said where I’d come from. I should have said when.”
Jeremiah stared at her. Then he nodded, as if in understanding. “The future?”
“Yes. About a hundred and thirty years from now.” Tears flooded down her cheeks now, dropping onto Robert’s chest, where they mixed with the blood soaking the cloth she held. “I came here to save him. But I think I only killed him instead.”
“You did no such thing. That was all Samuel’s doing.” The black brows were drawn together, and even in the dim light, Danica could see the way Jeremiah’s dark eyes glittered with anger. She wondered what he would do to his brother, once he caught up with him. “So…why can’t you return to your time?”
“I can,” she said softly. “But I’m not strong enough to bring him with me. And I won’t leave him behind.”
Jeremiah was silent for a few seconds. “Perhaps I can help.”
Did she dare allow herself to hope? But she didn’t know what Jeremiah could do. He was a very powerful warlock, but he was not a healer. “How?”
“I’ll lend my strength to you. Here.” He reached out with one hand, and she lifted her left one from where it had been pressed against Robert’s chest, then wrapped her fingers around Jeremiah’s.
A shock, almost as if she had touched a live socket, and a strange heat seemed to pulse its way up her arm.
“Do you feel it?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Then use it. Use it to take him with you.” He paused for the barest moment, and asked, “Who are you, really?”
“Danica,” she told him. “Danica Wilcox.”
His eyes widened, and some of the strain seemed to leave his face. “So…we will still be here.”
“Yes. More of the Wilcox clan than you can even imagine. Strong and happy and prosperous.” She tightened her fingers on his, still feeling the heat of his magic flowing into her. “And it will get better, Jeremiah. You’ll have to be patient, but it will all work out. I promise.”
He nodded. “Then go. Save him.”
Without truly understanding how she was doing it, she pulled all that magic into her, all that energy. It seemed to spread through every limb, making her tingle with potentiality. Was this what it felt like to be a prima? She didn’t know, and she didn’t have any more time to stop and wonder.
Once again she thought of the cabin in its modern-day form, the driveway, the solar lights evenly spaced along the front walk. Her Land Rover. If only she could move in space as well as time, she’d make sure they materialized right in the SUV so she could bail out of there and head down the hill to the hospital. She’d have to drag him somehow. Or would it be better to run inside and use the satellite phone to call for help?
The world blurred around her, shifting to darkness. Jeremiah was gone, and so was everything else — everything except Robert’s now dead weight in her arms. Had Jeremiah miscalculated? Was even the addition of his power not enough to send her and Robert over the gulf of years that separated them from their destination?
But then there was a crunch of dry grass under her knees, and Danica found herself kneeling in front of the cabin. And yes, there was a vehicle parked in the driveway. Not the Land Rover, though…a silver sedan. Someone’s Honda?
As her addled brain tried to work its way through that particular mystery, the front door to the cabin flew open, and Danica’s cousin Eleanor, the Wilcox clan’s healer, ran down the steps. She hastened across the yard and knelt next to Robert, gently pushing Danica’s hands away so she could get to work.
“How…?” Danica began. Her mind didn’t seem to be processing things correctly. She tried again. “How did you know to be here?”
Eleanor smiled, but she continued to work, tearing away the tie at Robert’s throat and swiftly unbuttoning his shirt so she could lay her bare hands on his chest. That was how her power worked — the classic laying-on of hands, so to speak. She pressed her palms against his bloody flesh and then glanced up at Danica.
“Your friend Caitlin. The McAllister seer. She told me I needed to be here.”
19
Once the bleeding was stopped and the punctured skin smoothed over, the two women took Robert by his legs and arms and hauled him into the cabin. Danica worried that such rough handling would disrupt the healing that had already begun, but Eleanor shook her head.
“He’ll be fine. But we need to get him into bed. He’s still passed out, but soon that will shift over to actual sleep.”
All right, she wouldn’t argue. After all, Eleanor was the clan healer, and she’d been doing this sort of thing since before Danica was even born. Well, maybe not patching up gunshot wounds. She couldn’t help but be grateful, though, that they hadn’t been compelled to take Robert to the hospital. That kind of injury would have brought police scrutiny to the clan, and even though the Wilcoxes had a few people on the force, just to make sure these sorts of things got swept under the rug, some anomalies were easier to hide than others.
They took him into one of the spare bedrooms, then laid him down on top of the quilt so Danica could tug off his high boots and set them down on the floor. His clothes were a bloody ruin, however, and she cast a helpless look over at Eleanor.
“I hate to put him in the bed like that — ”
“Here,” the healer said, and went to the low dresser placed up against the far wall. From the top drawer she brought out a T-shirt and a package of men’s briefs.
“Those weren’t here before,” Danica replied. Again she had the sensation of lagging about two steps behind the rest of the world.
“No,” Eleanor admitted. “Angela called me, saying that her cousin Caitlin had called her, and that I needed to be at the cabin before six tonight because someone would need medical help, but that I also needed to stop at Kohl’s and pick up a few things in these sizes.”
Should she laugh or cry? If Caitlin had been there, Danica would have hugged her and then said that was some hell of a second sight, if it told her which sizes their refugee from the past would require. But Caitlin was hundreds of miles away in Tucson, so Danica settled for smiling and shaking her head.
“Well, that’s handy.”
“I thought so.” The healer gave Danica a searching glance. “It looks like you could stand to get cleaned up, too. I’ll take care of putting these on your man.”
That would save some embarrassment. Not that Danica wasn’t curious to see what Robert looked like…what all of him looked like…but sneaking a peek while he was recovering from a gunshot wound didn’t sound exactly right. Besides, when she looked down at herself, she saw how her own bedraggled bustle dress was stained with blood, limp and crushed from kneeling on the ground. She didn’t think it could be salvaged.
Well, she didn’t need it anymore anyway.
She murmured a thank-you to Eleanor and went out of the guest bedroom and down the hall to the master suite. Once there, however, she had to pause and put a hand up against the wall to support her, the shock of the situation finally falling down on her like the proverbial ton of bricks.
Robert was here. She’d done it. She’d saved him.
That is, Danica and Jeremiah together had saved him, with a much-needed assist from Eleanor and Caitlin. Danica knew she could never have brought Robert all the way to her own time without that extra bit of juice from the clan’s long-ago primus. And what had Jeremiah done afterward, once the shock of her disappearance had worn off and he realized she truly h
ad succeeded in taking Robert back to her own time? Had he gone to confront Samuel over his crime, or had he decided to put the matter aside for the sake of keeping the peace in their clan, since there was no longer any proof that Samuel’s actions had resulted in Robert’s death?
She had no idea. It probably wasn’t the sort of thing that would have been written down in a family diary or anything. Jeremiah had no wife to confide in, and Danica kind of doubted that Samuel would have gone blabbing to his wife Grace that he’d just shot a man in cold blood.
Plenty of time to sort that out later. Danica stripped off her ruined bustle dress, wadded it up, and shoved it in the hamper, then peeled herself out of her corset and chemise, both also stained with blood. How the hell did you clean a corset, anyway? She put it in the hamper, too, since she didn’t know what else to do with it.
A shower, but a quick one, working fast to sluice away the blood and dirt and worry and fear. Afterward, Danica thought she felt almost human. She ran a comb through her wet hair, put on clean underthings, and then drew on a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt. Maybe she should have scrounged the one and only skirt she had with her at the cabin, in order not to shock Robert, but he’d have to come to terms with modern life sooner or later.
Modern life. She’d never had a chance to tell him the truth about herself. He’d wake up in an entirely new century with absolutely no idea of how he’d gotten there.
She went back into the spare bedroom. Robert now wore a T-shirt; the rest of him was concealed under the quilt. It looked as if Eleanor had cleaned the blood off his face and neck, but of course a real shower would have to wait until he was up and about again.
“Feeling better?” the healer asked, and Danica nodded. Tone brisk, as if treating refugees from the past was something she did every day, Eleanor went on, “He should sleep through the night. I healed the wound — he’s lucky, because the bullet went right through him — but his body still needs to do some work on its own for him to recover from the trauma. Try to keep him in bed, at least for tomorrow. He can get up and go to the bathroom, that sort of thing, but he should stay inside and rest.”
There really wasn’t anything Danica could say in response, except, “Thank you, Eleanor.”
“That’s what I’m here for. You should really be thanking your friend Caitlin, since I wouldn’t have known to come if it weren’t for her.”
And Danica would. Thank God for the satellite phone. At least she wasn’t entirely cut off from the world. Enough, though. Enough to give Robert the time he needed to come to terms with what had happened to him. She could only pray that he wouldn’t be too angry with her.
“What’s the date?” she asked then. Technically, she should have come back the same day she left, but maybe time had passed here while she was gone. Her parents would be frantic….
“September twenty-sixth,” Eleanor replied, giving her a curious look. “Saturday.”
So it was the same day. Everything that had happened, everything she’d experienced…it had all occurred in the blink of an eye. Did that make it more real, or less? She didn’t know. She supposed she’d figure it all out later. Right now, she was just bone-tired.
“That’s good,” Danica said, and Eleanor came over and gave her a quick hug.
“You need your rest, too. He’ll sleep — have no worries about that. So make sure you get some sleep as well.”
The healer was probably right. But Danica knew she didn’t want to leave Robert’s side for too long. What if he did wake up in an unfamiliar place, with no one there to tell him where he was? She couldn’t bear that.
“I will,” she said, tone noncommittal.
Eleanor lifted her shoulders, as if she knew that arguing the point wouldn’t be worth the time. “I’ll come by to check on things tomorrow. I’m sure your friend will be fine, but it’s better to be sure. Would around eleven be all right?”
“I think so.” Lord knows what state of mind Robert would be in when he woke up, but maybe by eleven Danica would have had some time to smooth things out.
“Then I’ll let the two of you get some rest.” Eleanor went back out to the living room, Danica trailing behind, and retrieved her purse from where she’d left it on the dining room table. After that, she said goodbye and headed out to her car.
Her car. Crap. Danica finally realized why she hadn’t spotted her Land Rover when she returned. That’s because it was probably still sitting in the parking lot at the Amtrak station.
“Eleanor!”
The healer paused next to the driver-side door, car keys in hand. “What is it, Danica?”
“My SUV — I left it at the Amtrak station. If it stays there too long, it’s going to get towed.” Danica hesitated then. The last thing she wanted was to leave Robert here while she went with Eleanor to retrieve the vehicle, but….
“Don’t worry about that,” Eleanor said briskly. “If you can get the key for me, I’ll have Travis go with me to fetch it. He can drive it back up here, and I’ll bring him home after that.”
Travis was Eleanor’s oldest son, a couple of years younger than Danica. He’d probably love a chance to get behind the wheel of the Land Rover.
“Perfect,” she said. “I actually left the key with it — it’s in one of those wheelwell box thingies — ”
“We’ll find it. You go on inside and get yourself some rest.” She smiled, but she also made a shooing gesture before she climbed into the car and started it up.
Despite that, Danica waited until Eleanor had backed out of the driveway and was slowly maneuvering down the dirt lane that led to the main road. Then she shut the cabin door and locked it, even though she knew she was perfectly safe out here.
There wouldn’t be any return visits from her ghost. He was sleeping just down the hall.
She padded in her bare feet back to the guest room, noticing for the first time that Eleanor had left a glass of water on the nightstand. The light there hadn’t been turned on, though; the only illumination was from the base of the reproduction lamp with the mica shade and amber glass bottom that sat on top of the dresser. It cast a soft, warm glow in the room, not so different from what you might get from a kerosene lamp turned down low. Clearly, Eleanor had been trying to keep Robert’s surroundings as familiar as she could. Intuitive, but Danica supposed you could tell from his clothes that he wasn’t from anywhere near here.
A chair sat in one corner, and she picked it up and set it down closer to the bed. Even in the dim light she could see the shadows under Robert’s eyes, and something around his nose and mouth looked pinched. Well, he’d lost a lot of blood. Eleanor had saved his life, but it still took a good deal of energy to bounce back from an injury like that.
Right then, Danica thought she was going to need a good deal of bouncing back as well. Her arm ached from where Samuel had grasped it, and she could tell she hadn’t recovered from his particular mode of teleportation, either. She really should get up and scrounge something to eat. Robert didn’t look as if he planned to wake up anytime soon.
She shifted on the chair, and it creaked. Almost at once, Robert’s eyelids fluttered, dark lashes beating like worried butterflies against his cheeks. Then his eyes opened, and he turned at once, relaxing slightly when he saw her sitting there.
“You’re all right,” he whispered.
“I am,” she said. “And you are, too. How do you feel?”
His hand went to his chest, to the spot where there had been a bullet hole not even a half-hour earlier. “Wasn’t I shot?”
“Yes,” she replied, her tone gentle. “My clan’s healer fixed you up.”
Eyebrows drawing together, he asked, “How is that possible? You’re from — ” He winced then, as if his chest pained him. Voice dropping to a whisper, he said, “Your clan is a thousand miles away.”
“I know.” God, they really shouldn’t be having this conversation yet. He needed a good night’s sleep. After he’d gotten the rest he needed, he’d be in far better sha
pe to hear her revelations. “Robert, please, just sleep. We can talk in the morning. Just know that you’re safe now.”
“But where — ” Breaking off, he seemed to focus on the V-necked T-shirt she wore. “What on earth are you wearing?”
“My dress was covered in blood. I had to change.” All right, that wasn’t a real answer. But again, she really wanted to avoid getting into all that right now.
He let out a sigh. “Eliza, what aren’t you telling me?”
Everything. She reached out and found his hand where it lay on top of the quilt, then covered it with her own. “I swear that we’ll talk — really talk — in the morning. But the healer told me I had to make sure you got a good night’s sleep. So please…can you do that?”
A long pause. Then his hand shifted, and she felt him wrap his fingers around hers. “Very well. I must confess that I am rather tired.”
Danica rose from the chair so she could lean over and kiss him on the forehead. “Then sleep, darling. And tomorrow I’ll try to explain everything.”
He nodded, his eyes slipping shut already. Good. That was what he needed the most. And tomorrow…well, she’d figure it all out then.
* * *
Once she’d determined he truly was asleep, Danica crept out to the kitchen and nuked one of her frozen meals, then got out the satphone so she could call Caitlin. By then it was a little after seven o’clock, and Danica hoped she wouldn’t be disturbing her friend and her fiancé just as they were sitting down to dinner or something.
But Caitlin picked up right away. “Danica?”
“How’d you know it was me?”
A little laugh. “The same way I knew to send Eleanor over there. Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine. He’s fine. He’s sleeping now, thanks to Eleanor and you.”
Being Caitlin, she didn’t ask who “he” was. “What about you?”
Good question. Danica knew she was bone-weary, and she was worried how she should best break it to Robert that he was more than a hundred years away from everything he knew and loved.
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