I heard sobbing and it added shame to the blinding pain when I realized it was my own.
The next crack of the whip ripped my blouse away from my body. I watched it go fluttering overhead in the breeze like a bodiless spirit on its journey to the Otherside. Another sharp snap and a slice across my buttocks and I felt my shorts slide over raw flesh to my ankles.
Panic tore its way through me. It rose above the maelstrom of pain. My bra and panty set was the only thing that kept me from being completely naked in front of everyone I knew. If she hit me again those might very well fall away. And I couldn’t have that happen because then my most closely guarded secret would be exposed. Once known, my plan for our escape might never be realized.
“Please no more,” I rasped through dry desperate lips. “Please. Please. Please.” I willed the strap at my back to hold them in place.
Suddenly a large shadow fell over me blocking out the light of the rising sun. Through the swirling haze of pain, I didn’t recognize the clanging sound. Acting instinctively, I wrapped my arms tighter around my twin.
They couldn’t have her. They couldn’t. They would have to kill me to separate her from me.
“No!” Not my voice of protest. A gravelly one. “Stop! Stone says stop. Now!” Firmly spoken simple words. “She bleeds. You are hurting her and the quiet pretty one.”
Cold marble arms enfolded me in their soothing embrace and something that felt like a blanket made of soft buttery leather that had to be his unfurled wings settled around my shoulders. But even that gentle touch was too much against the fire of my flesh. My body began to shudder uncontrollably like an epileptic seizure.
Infinitely sad chiseled grey eyes filled my vision.
The gargoyle was protecting me.
Us.
“Step aside you worthless imbecile or I’ll fetch a hammer and make that crack in your head wider.”
“Stone is not worthless.” He said the words softly but not to her. To me. There was a plea within them. “Stone is not stupid. Stone just takes longer to think things through.”
“What is going on here?” Even in pain I recognized his deep masculine growl.
Avignon.
“Disobedience, Sir,” Delilah answered, her voice lined with an acquiescing tone I had never heard from her.
“I was on the deck above. I saw all that transpired before the lashing. That I couldn’t help but hear as I came up the stairs.” He sounded displeased. Confident steps came closer.
“Send the others to their tasks for the day. You and I will talk more. Later.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She began to bark out instructions. Her words sounded far away. I felt my consciousness fading although fear helped keep me focused.
What was Avignon going to do to us?
Disobedience wasn’t tolerated.
Those who had rebelled or disobeyed were beaten and taken away. None ever returned.
“Stone,” Leonardo’s voice turned softer as the footfalls of the others faded. “Step away from the girls.”
“But…”
“I promise you no further harm will come to them this day.” He sounded sincere and after a couple of long moments of deliberate consideration Stone withdrew.
I heard a sharp inhalation. I turned my head hissing as the small movement tore open already clotting wounds. My bleary eyes met copper ones that sparked with fury.
“You were wise to hide what your shirt has concealed. Your secret is still safe but I will not lie to you. The damage is severe. With them not fully matured yet…” He trailed off. “Can you drink blood to heal as your father could?”
I shook my head and winced as the pain threatened to drag me under. “No,” I rasped through dry lips. “I’m not a vampire.”
“I didn’t think so. That’s unfortunate.” Leonardo knelt beside me and lifted me into his strong arms gently as though I weighed nothing.
“Where are you taking me?” I managed to ask as he moved.
“To the infirmary. If you survive this beating I will figure out what to do with you afterward.” He ducked into the stairwell and I was jostled as he began to jog down the steps.
My vision turned shadowy but before I succumbed to the dark blanket of unconscious that beckoned I had to know. “Millie. Where’s Millie?”
“Do not worry she is following and so is your champion.”
Champion? The gargoyle? My teeth started to chatter and my thoughts grew even dimmer. “Why are you helping me?” I whispered.
“My reasons are my own, but you will owe me a considerable debt Cecilia Ramirez y Aguilera. And I will collect when the time is right. Of that I assure you.”
I dreamed.
Beautiful dreams. Treasured images. Captured moments in time, each bleeding into the next. Spinning down a long narrow tube toward a bright light at the end like a kaleidoscope.
Mamá and her soft smile.
Papá and his fierce countenance.
Millie. My other half.
I tried to gather the images. I wanted to hold them in my hands but they drifted through my fingers like a mist.
Then the stills became moving pictures of memories, like a video feed that I desperately wanted to slow down but it seemed to be stuck on fast forward.
A poignant ache in the center of my chest expanded burning through me like a restless fever.
Millie and I when we were young. Our first day of school. Mamá so patient measuring our heights on the door jam and then taking our photos. Papá so proud walking us to the building holding my hand in one of his and Millie’s in the other.
Las Fiestas de San Juan Bautista. The parade celebrating the patron saint of our island. Those white frilly dresses we wore to the dance. Millie had a raspa, a grape watermelon concoction heavy on the syrup light on the ice.
“All sweet and sugary like you,” I teased. Then she had dropped it. Her eyes glassed up but before her tears had spilled I offered her mine.
So generous. Always so quick to sacrifice for me. Does she know how badly I want to be just like her?
Wait… That wasn’t my thought… but the memories wouldn’t stop and soon I was swept up into the current of another one.
All of us at the falls for a midnight swim with the bioluminescence glowing in the pool around us. Me shaking my shoulders and bouncing my breasts belting out a Latin influenced tune I had written and just because it made Millie laugh.
I laugh because she is the best sister in the world and she makes me happy.
Papá on the shore watching us with amusement and love in his eyes. Why does she not realize Papá is only harder on her than me because he knows she is the stronger one? So handsome and regal with his crystal clear wings outstretched reflecting the Creator’s canopy of stars beneath the moonlight.
I throw my arms around her when she finishes singing. I catch Papá staring at Mamá with fire in his gaze. I want that kind of love so desperately…a once in a millennium love. A man who has eyes only for me and no other. A passion that smolders and never goes out.
I don’t remember that thought. It was definitely not mine. No man was ever going to love me the way Papá loved Mamá. Desire maybe. Vows and forever? Impossible. I had never allowed a dream like that to enter my mind.
Something was wrong. I knew it in my heart and I could feel it within my body. Not hot anymore but cold, so cold. Shaking chills spiraled through me one after another each one leaving me weaker than the last.
The memories continued but something had changed.
I was seeing Mamá, Papá and myself in each new memory that flashed by, but Millie was not present in any of them.
“Millie!” I shouted in terror as the dark memories I didn’t want to relive rose to the surface. Arrows and fire. Mamá and Papá gone. Millie lost to me.
Fear. Uncertainty. And then the pain. Terrible, terrible pain.
Millie.
Not silent but singing. How long had it been since I had heard her voice?
I tried to crack open my eyes but when I did I couldn’t see anything. Blind. I tried to move thrashing my limbs but I couldn’t free them.
“She’s waking.” That voice. That sweet, sweet voice. The one I wanted to hear more than any other.
“I’m sorry for the restraints. You were hurting yourself.” I felt a loosening around my wrists and ankles. Then something wet and cool was removed from my eyes. The light was too bright at first but after blinking a couple of times I saw her. That angelic face within a halo of otherworldly blonde hair.
“Millie,” I whispered. She was back, her beautiful sea green eyes overly bright, shining with her love for me. My tear ducts tingled but I was too dehydrated to cry.
“Cici. Oh, Cici,” she cried and threw her arms around me just like she had at the falls in that memory from so long ago. Only this time her embrace hurt. “We thought you were going to die.”
Who is we? I wondered.
“Your wounds got infected. You had a terrible fever.”
That explained the heat and the chills, but not the weird memories from her perspective. “Millie, honey. Could you ease back a bit? I’m still kind of sore. Everywhere.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry. It’s just that I was worried for so long.” She withdrew immediately her expression revealing her regret. “I thought that since the wounds are all closed that they wouldn’t hurt as much.”
“I’ll be ok. I just feel achy all over.” I grabbed her hand before she could move further away. “Don’t go far.” I squeezed her fingers to reassure her that I wanted her to stay close. “I missed you, too.” That was when I noticed the IV and the red flowing through the tiny tube into the vein on the back of my hand.
A transfusion?
“Can you drink blood to heal as your father could?” Avignon had asked.
I glanced around looking for the lion hybrid. The infirmary was small. The frosted windows let in light but concealed the view, and it was empty except for the two of us. A worrisome thought had me dropping my chin to follow the tubing. “What have you done?” I whispered looking into my sister’s eyes after I saw where it led.
“Don’t be mad.” Millie’s voice was firm her expression just as resolute. “I had to Cici. You were going to die. You seized several times. I felt you slipping away through the connection we share. Fear for you pulled me out of the mental trap I had fallen into.”
“I’m glad for that at least, but you shouldn’t have done the transfusion.” I shook my head back and forth against the pillow, noticing for the first time its nice clean white case.
“You would have done the same for me. Don’t you dare try to tell me anything different. My love for you runs as deep as yours for me, and there was no way that I was going to let you lose those beautiful wings before you had a chance to fly.”
She was right. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her, but I couldn’t begin to imagine how much blood it must have taken for her to bring me back. It was dangerous to give too much blood. There was also a danger in receiving it. Those memories I had dreamed, the thoughts I had heard, they were hers borne through her blood. That was the reason spawned vampires who drank from too many sources were unstable. Most succumbed to insanity unable to distinguish their own thoughts from the thoughts of those on whom they had fed. Our father had believed vampires were a supernatural race with a built in expiration date because of that.
“She is awake.” A happy proclamation spoken in a gravelly voice I recognized. A whoosh of humid outside air lifted Millie’s hair from her neck as the air lock door closed behind our marble benefactor.
“Yes. Isn’t it wonderful?” Her eyes sparkling in a way I had never seen before, my sister turned and smiled softly acknowledging Stone’s appearance.
“I am so glad, pretty one.” The gargoyle strode closer his rounded feline shaped ears twitching as if to express his pleasure. He held a tray in his gauntlet encased hands. His chiseled marble arm touched her sleeve as he set his load on the nightstand beside my bed.
Stone poured water from the jug on his tray into two glasses then turned his head regarding both of us with those impossibly warm eyes of his. My sister’s pale cheeks turned pink under his perusal. “Drink. Both of you.” He handed one glass to Millie.
“Cici first,” she insisted. “She needs it more than I.” She waved a hand to refuse him.
“You have given much, Amelia.” His gaze dropped to the tubing that tethered us together. “So much blood. It has weakened you.” His chiseled lips turned down. A worried shadow darkened his eyes. “Drink. Now you must take. Stone insists.”
“Ok,” she agreed. Their fingers touched when she took the glass from him. She yanked back her hand as if that brief encounter with his marble skin had somehow shocked her, then ducked her chin into her chest. The curtain of platinum blocked her face from my view.
I swung my gaze to the gargoyle to see if he had noticed her bizarre reaction. Stone avoided my eyes and slid one of his strong arms beneath my back helping me sit up to take a sip of water. It was crisp, cold and so delicious. I guzzled it down.
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“Six days,” Millie stated as she curled her fingers around my hand.
“So long.” My eyes grew wide.
“Past our birthday. Through the change.” Two tiny crease lines formed between her delicately arched platinum brows. “Leonardo thinks you would have died if not for that and my blood.”
“Leonardo Avignon was here while I was sick?”
“Every day.” She nodded somberly. “Along with Stone and me.” She peered over at the gargoyle through her thick fringe of platinum lashes.
I frowned when I noticed the deep purple bruising under her eyes.
“Sit, Amelia. Rest.” Stone was frowning, too.
I was surprised to see her comply with his second directive even more readily than the first. But my surprise was overcome by concern when I noticed how gingerly she moved to the chair. I wasn’t the only one who was experiencing aftereffects from the beating. I was about to query her further when the door whooshed open again.
“We saw you wake on the monitors.” Tawny mane pulled back into a stubby ponytail, wearing a heavily brocaded jacket and shiny thigh high boots that made him look like he had stepped straight out of the pages of one of Millie’s historical romances, Leonardo strode into the room. He was accompanied by an Amazon in scrubs. She had a stethoscope around her neck and kinder features than any of the others who I had met so far.
“Hello, Cecilia.” She came directly to my side and reached for my wrist taking my pulse while smiling reassuringly. “It’s good to see you awake. How do you feel?”
“Grateful to be alive.” I captured and held my sister’s eyes.
“It is indeed a miraculous thing.” Leonardo’s deep rumbling voice filled the room even as his gaze quickly swept it assessing and analyzing the situation. He crossed his arms over his broad chest as the woman removed the IV’s and disposed of them. He leaned toward me as she left the room. “We near the harbor at Le Havre. Representatives from the Court will come on board to facilitate your transfer to the train once we dock. Before that happens you and I need to talk.” He glanced over his shoulder at Millie and Stone then back at me. “Alone.”
“Por supuesto.” I tried to scoot up higher in the hospital bed but got lightheaded from just that tiny amount of exertion.
“Cici,” Millie cautioned noticing my struggle. “Let me stay. I can help you. Surely whatever he has to say affects me as well.”
“No. I can do it. I just need a moment for the dizziness to pass.”
She frowned. She knew my reassurance was bravado. I felt so incredibly weak a stiff wind could have toppled me, but I had to hear what Leonardo had to say. If it was bad news I didn’t want to burden her with it. One of us should be granted the opportunity to recuperate without additional stress piled on.
I shoved the hair that had fallen forward out of my eyes realizing that my skin was fresh
and that my hair was silky soft and not matted or tangled anymore. Someone had bathed me and washed my hair. There was no way Millie could have done that alone.
“How did I get so clean?” Leonardo’s eyes met mine briefly as he used the controls to lift up the head of the bed.
“Don’t look at me.” He pointed over his shoulder forwarding the blame toward the only other one strong enough to do the task. Stone’s gaze dropped to his feet. Obviously gargoyles couldn’t blush but he did look extremely embarrassed.
As I freaked out at the thought of having a male’s hands on my naked body while I had been unconscious I noticed Millie stumbling on her way toward the door. Stone did, too. He swung her up into his arms before she could fall, quieter and quicker than the typical lumbering gargoyle.
“Put me down.” She pummeled his bare chest with her hands. Her protest didn’t seem to faze him but he shifted slightly adjusting his stance. His massive heart adorned belt and his mid-calf warrior kilt shifted with him as if they were real clothing and not just sculpted from marble.
“Stone was here with you. Day after day and night after night without thought of yourself. You gave her so much blood. What is left for you?” His defined brows formed a displeased arc over his worried statue grey eyes. “Stone will carry you. You will rest. Then you will eat the food Stone brings to you.”
Stone might think slower than some but he was bossy and I kind of got the impression that my sister liked it.
“Did you hear a word of what I just said?” Leonardo asked.
“What? No.” I shook my head. “I didn’t. I’m sorry.” I needed to set aside my musings over whatever was going on between my sister and Stone and focus on more important things. “Could you please repeat it?” I asked Avignon while rubbing the puzzled crease from my brow.
Dream Magic Page 6
