As the pain eased, my mind cleared enough to speak. "Have they—is he—did they do it yet?" Tears I didn't know I had left welled up in my eyes and spilled onto my cheeks.
He shook his head so sadly and did another quick glance in my eyes before taking my hand. "Not yet."
I let out a sigh of such relief that I could have given the wolf in the three little pigs a run for his money trying to blow down a house.
Harm stared at the ground. "But they have orders, Evie."
"Orders?" I tried to sit up, but was too dizzy. Harm gently pushed my shoulder back down. "Screw orders? He's a damn human being! What about the natural order of things? What about not murdering people who are good and decent and kind? What about—" the monitor they hooked up to my finger went beeping like crazy and the soldier who first looked at my wrist came back to me to look sternly at Harm. I had trouble catching my breath, and my throat stung. Another shot went into my IV.
Harm looked me solidly in the eye with an intensity I knew he meant. "If I could do anything, I would, kid, in a heartbeat. But there's nothing I can do."
I looked away from him. I wasn't interested in his heartfelt promise to do nothing. It wasn't fair, but I was pretty doped up and still in pain and still really, really—I don't even know how to describe it except to say that half of me was dying inside.
"There is," I suddenly realized out loud. I don't know where the clarity of my voice or my thoughts came from, but somehow I pulled it together long enough to spit out the words. "Be with him. I don't want him to be alone, Harm, wherever they take him. When they—" I couldn't say the words. "When they… do it. Please, stay with him until… until the end. Tell him I love him."
"Evie," his voice was pleading, and he closed his eyes as if he was in pain himself. "He knows, honey."
I looked deep in his eyes and saw something. I can't describe it, but for just a moment, I really thought he understood what Dev meant to me.
But then he continued, "I should stay here with you."
The understanding I saw in his eyes changed to pity, making me want to kick him. The heartbeat monitor thing started beeping like crazy again and I felt so on the edge of losing it that he must have seen it too.
"Okay." He patted my arm. "I promise, okay? I'll stay with him. But you have to stay with Sonya and Gary." He turned to the nice soldier who was giving me the happy shots. "Martinez, take them to the hospital in Laws, and make sure they're okay." He turned back to me, "You promise not to put yourself in danger? And stay with Sonya until her parents get there. I'll call at the hospital when he's—I'll call for you at the hospital."
I nodded vaguely and leaned back. Harm kissed my forehead and was gone. With his departure, so went the last of my strength.
The Grand Canyon-sized hole torturing every nerve in my chest combined with the drain of all my energy, the lack of sleep over the past several days, and the pain drugs pumping into my body leaving me unable to remain conscious. I felt myself float quickly and quietly away, and I was happy to be in an elsewhere. I didn't want to be part of this world anymore. I didn't want to be anywhere something so unfair and painful could happen.
***
"Evie, wake up! It's Harm! He only has a few minutes." Sonya was shoving against my shoulder.
Everything came into focus agonizingly slowly and very fuzzily. As I opened my eyes, the memories subtly returned like a sledgehammer to my head. He was dead. Harm said he would call when Dev had been killed. He was dead, and it didn't matter if I woke up or not. Dropping my head back to the pillow in the hospital bed I was curled up in, I closed my eyes again.
"No, get up. He said you'll be happy, Evie! Get up." She yanked on my arm.
Her words cut through the self-induced fog in my head. Happy? I'd be happy? Maybe? The small sliver of hope I let myself have pulled my aching, exhausted body up to follow, running, behind Sonya.
I barely glanced at my surroundings, but it was clear we were in a room in a hospital. I wasn't on a normal hospital bed. Instead, there were several small rollaway beds in the room in addition to the hospital beds. I didn't know the person in the hospital bed next to the phone, but they must have been on some happy drugs too, because they were totally out. Gary stood next to the small table holding the phone in his hand.
I grabbed the phone with my good arm and held it to my ear. "Harm?" my voice was so scratchy and quiet, I wasn't sure he heard me.
"I can't discuss anything with you, Evie, you know that." His voice was very firm, but there was something else there I couldn't put my finger on.
I tried to blink several times and clear my head of drugs. I needed to really listen.
"I just wanted to say how proud I am of you. You went through so much. You couldn't have possibly survived if it hadn't been for your intelligence."
Praise? I didn't want to hear praise. I almost told him where he could shove this pride he felt for me, but again, something urgent and desperate was in his voice, so I just kept listening.
"But I've been saying that since you were a little girl and mom bought you that Barbie doll. Remember that Barbie? You never wanted to play with it, and while I thought you would destroy it, you spent all your time pretending you were doing science experiments on it. Do you remember that? Remember how you had no use for it as a Barbie doll, so you tried to figure out how it could be useful to you?"
My brain felt so slow. Was he telling me what I thought he was telling me? Was he talking about Dev?
"Well I have to go," he continued quickly, "I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. I was able to talk to Sonya's parents. They'd just gotten to Bakersfield when I spoke with them 23 minutes ago. You're going to stay with them. Evie, there are people who really need me here at base. But write to me as often as you can. Tell me about this new boyfriend you have. I'd like to know more about who he is. I'll call you again when I can. Love you, kid."
Is? Have? People who need him at base? Dev!
"Harm," I finally found my voice again. "Thanks, I—" there were no words to thank him enough. In that moment I was quite sure that not only was Dev alive, but that Harm played a large role in it. Nothing I could say could come close to what I was feeling.
"I know, kid. I'll do whatever I can… to call you again soon. A promise is a promise."
I closed my eyes, my hands shaking with just too many emotions going through me. "I love you, Harm."
"Me, too, Evie. You just be safe for me."
"I promise." I tried to hand the phone back to Gary, but I wound up just standing there staring at it.
"Well?" Gary asked as he took the phone from me.
While I was sure they had been there the entire time, I just noticed Sonya and Gary were standing only inches from me. Both looked concerned—no, they both looked downright petrified with fear.
I wanted to let out the small smile that threatened its way onto my face, but I was too tired. I let out a shaky sigh mixed with so many emotions it's hard to narrow them down. I was afraid of the future—for Dev and Harm. Despite the fact that I didn't know when or if I would ever see Dev again, I let myself feel a little hope and relief. Beyond that, I was so fatally exhausted that it really felt as if I was just floating everywhere on the cloud of fumes I was barely running on. Finally, and perhaps the most overwhelming feeling came from the very large abyss in my chest. I don't know which was stronger, the feeling that the Lone Pine Mountain Devil had actually and literally eaten the insides out of my chest or the sensation of my heart being burned at the stake. Really, it was a toss-up. In the end, the exhaustion won out—all adrenaline being long gone—and I let myself slide to the floor.
Sonya and Gary both lunged forward with arms extended toward me. They had been catching me for so many years that I didn't know how I would ever repay them.
"Evie…" Sonya began, but I could tell she didn't know what to say.
I tried to push out the words to tell them both what Harm said, but my jaw just quivered, and my head fell forward.
I felt Gary next to me—his arms around my shoulders. It felt as if he was trying to give me some of his strength. "Come on, kid. Let's get you back to that soft, fluffy, oh-so-comfortable rollaway so you can get some rest. Things will look better after some sleep."
As he pulled me up, supporting me on one side, Sonya put my arm around her shoulder to support my other side. I whispered softly, "He's alive." I wasn't sure if they had heard me, but I caught Sonya's worried glance at Gary. She thought I had lost it—not that I blame her—even to me it still seemed like something I had imagined. "They're keeping him—testing on him," I forced out as Sonya looked skeptically at me. "Really," I insisted, my voice slow and scratchy and my eyelids so very heavy as they walked my wet rag of a body back to my bed. Gary covered me up with a thin blanket that made me miss my mom's quilt and Dev's warm body embracing mine. Sonya kneeled down on the floor next to me.
"Sonya," I fought to get out, my eyelids already closed and my body already shutting down. "He's…" Sleep was closer and closer as I felt myself smile dreamily. "Alive, Sonya." I tried to keep repeating, "He's alive… he's… a… live."
About the Author
Kimberly Montague was born and raised in the Bay Area of California before moving to North Carolina with her husband where they now live with their three dogs and their over-sized cat. During the summer, she loves watching thunderstorms, trying repeatedly to teach her big dogs to play fetch, gardening, and hanging out with her nephew who comes to visit from CA. In addition to writing, she enjoys constantly reading, spending time with her family, and antagonizing her pets in creative and loving ways.
This is the first book in the Setenid Blight series. The second novel in this series will be out by mid 2012. She also has two adult romance novels: Racing Outside the Line: A Love Story at 190 mph and Until the Morning Sun.
Contact Kimberly Online:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kimbermontague
Website and blog: http://www.kimberlymontague.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorKimberlyMontague
Table of Contents
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About the Author
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