Aries: Book 2 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series)

by Rachel Medhurst

  ‘Is it Nick?’ I shouted.

  ‘Not sure. Probably,’ Leo shouted back as the van was hit from the side.

  Leo turned the steering wheel. The van was prone to spinning out. It did exactly that as the other vehicle clipped the rear corner. The back doors flung open. My wheels started to roll back. I tried to grab hold of something but it was no good.

  ‘Aries!’ Natalie screamed as my wheels got momentum and flew backwards out of the van. Leo’s brakes sounded a little too late.

  My chair fell to the ground. I couldn’t hold on to it. Brakes screeched around me as I skidded along the concrete road on my side. The skin on my arm dragged along the hard abrasive floor. I gritted my teeth as I bounced. The crunch of metal exploded in my ears as my chair was run over by the car that attacked us. I came to a stop as the car pulled up beside me. A man in a black jumper blew a kiss out of the window before speeding off.

  People got out of their cars and rushed over to me. The van had finally halted next to the pavement.

  ‘Are you okay?’ one man asked, bending down to look me in the eye.

  My body screamed at me. I nodded anyway. My elbow throbbed where it had been ripped up, but other than a few bruises, I was unharmed.

  ‘Aries! Are you all right?’ Natalie cried.

  ‘I’ve rung the police,’ another man shouted, lifting my smashed up wheelchair and bringing it over.

  ‘I need to get to the hospital, Leo,’ I called as he got out and came over.

  His face was unusually pale as he pressed his hand to his stomach. ‘That could have been so bad. I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Look, I need that operation. If I have to go through all this…’ I gestured around me. ‘…I’m not going to get there in time!’

  Natalie crouched next to me and wiped the blood from my arm with a tissue that she pulled from her pocket.

  ‘You can’t go. You have to wait for the police,’ one man said.

  ‘Look!’ I picked up my empty trouser leg and waved it around. ‘I have an opportunity to have an operation that will attach metal rods to my thigh bones so that I can walk again. If I don’t have that operation tomorrow, I will have to wait another five months.’

  The two men looked me over. Obviously deciding to help, they bent to lift me. I put my arms around their shoulders as they took one thigh each.

  ‘I’ll take him in mine,’ one of them said.

  They carried me to the nearest car and put me inside.

  ‘Leo, deal with the police. Natalie, come with me. You need to speak to the doctor.’ My power flooded through me. It felt good to lead again. It had been a long time since I had been able to be my natural self.

  ‘I’ll stay and be a witness. I hope they get the arsehole that ran you off the road!’ The other driver patted my shoulder.

  ‘Thanks,’ I replied as Natalie climbed in next to me.

  Leo stood at the side of the road as we pulled off. Sirens sounded in the distance. It was a good job we got away in time. My body started to shake as my breathing calmed down.

  ‘I’m so glad the brakes are spot on in my car,’ the driver said. ‘When I saw you fall in front of me…’

  ‘Me, too!’ Natalie groaned, grabbing my hand when I looked at her.

  She was shaking, too. She let out a long breath and leant her head against the headrest. She had picked up my hospital bag. It rested between us. Reaching out, I squeezed her thigh. She looked at me and shook her head. There were no words. It had been a close call.

  Chapter Eleven

  My heart thudded in my chest as consciousness pulled at me. I tried to remember where I was and why I felt like crap.

  ‘He’s waking up.’

  I didn’t recognise the voice as I managed to force my eyelids to lift.

  ‘Welcome back, Aries,’ a nurse said, offering me some water. She supported my head as I sipped the cool liquid.

  ‘Did it work?’

  The memory hit me as I clenched the covers in my hands. The doctor was standing on the other side of the bed. I was back in the hospital.

  ‘It was a great success. Your bones are nice and strong so we were able to attach the implant easily. The wound needs to be cared for religiously to prevent any infection. In six months’ time, you should be able to take your first walk.’

  I smiled at him. Six months to rehabilitate was a lot sooner than originally planned. I was determined to make sure that I did everything right.

  ‘The police have been in and informed us that you were involved in a traffic accident yesterday.’

  Raising my eyebrows, I shrugged. ‘When can I see it?’

  I was itching to know what my new implant looked like. They had explained that the prosthetic would be bolted to my skeleton through the implant, which meant I would be able to feel where it was. I couldn’t feel anything yet but I couldn’t wait to get a look at it.

  ‘We’ll be back later to check on the wound. You can have a little look then,’ he said.

  I thanked him as he left. Natalie almost bumped into him as she came into the room.

  ‘How do you feel?’ she asked, bending over and kissing my forehead.

  I frowned, grabbing her hand when she went to move away. It was the first sign of softness that she had shown me since I had been horrible to her.

  ‘I’m excited. It’s like I can finally breathe.’

  She put her head to the side and studied me. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Things can only get better,’ I replied.

  She laughed and handed me a get well soon card from my siblings. I shook my head at their silly messages.

  ‘You mentioned that you’d been through some rough times. Tell me about them,’ I said as Natalie sat in the chair next to me.

  Her eyes dropped to the floor. I couldn’t reach out because she was too far away. I hoped that she would speak to me. She was right. I was self-absorbed and never asked her about her life. Even when we had been together.

  ‘I’m not sure—’

  ‘Please.’

  She grabbed the arms of her chair and pulled it forward, scraping the legs against the floor. I smiled and took her hand as she offered it. Her brown eyes had little flecks of gold in them. I had never noticed it before. She had a smudge of black eyeliner on her bottom lid. It made her eyes look massive as she looked at me. Her pupils were small. Her tongue flicked out to lick her top lip.

  ‘You know my father died when I was young, don’t you?’ she said.

  I nodded. We had shared a few things when we’d dated, although I had never told her about my siblings.

  ‘Well, we had a huge mortgage and he had no life insurance. I ate baked beans on toast for a few years. That part was okay. I watched my mother sink further and further into debt as she tried to dig her way out. That was the hard part.’

  I squeezed her hand. The thought of her living with empty cupboards made me angry. Why hadn’t someone done something? How was it fair that they had been left with so much debt?

  ‘One day it got too much for her. I came home from school, just after we broke up actually, and found her sprawled on the kitchen floor. She had taken an overdose.’ She sniffed. I didn’t react. She needed to be heard, not comforted.

  ‘I suppose, in a weird sort of way, it was good. It helped me to take my mind off you.’ She smiled briefly.

  My stomach clenched. I resisted the urge to apologise. I would do it later.

  ‘I rang for an ambulance. They took her to hospital. My grandmother was called and she came to stay with me. My mother hadn’t told her how bad things had got so I told her everything.’ She wiped her fingers under her eyes to stop her makeup from running. The tears hovered on the edge of her lids. All I could do was listen and hold her hand.

  ‘She took charge. She put our house on the market and moved us in with her. I think mum was secretly relieved but I missed my old home.’

  ‘I remember when you moved. I went to your place to try and get you back but you weren’t there.
I didn’t see you for a couple of years. Then I saw you…’ My eyebrows scrunched up as I tried to remember where we had bumped into each other again.

  ‘At a house party. It was at my friend’s. You had grown so tall!’

  I smiled at her. ‘Yeah, you developed earlier than I did.’

  ‘That was the first night we actually…’

  I shook my head as the memory played in my mind. It had been awkward at first but turned into a pretty amazing experience.

  ‘I’m glad you were my first,’ I whispered.

  She looked up at me and a secret smile played on her lips. ‘Me, too. I’ve not been with anyone else, you know.’

  I tried to sit up. The movement jarred me. My head spun so I laid back down. ‘You’re twenty one and you’ve only ever been with me?’ I stuttered.

  I loved the thought. It made my chest swell but I had no idea why.

  She nodded and looked down at the cover on my bed.

  ‘It’s always been you, Aries.’

  The words were so quiet, I almost didn’t hear them. I swallowed as her hair fell forward, covering her face. I didn’t know what to say. I had been with other women but not in a relationship.

  After we had split, I had been pretty low. My fire went out of control. I had to stay inside, away from the others. It would explode from me with just one word. I didn’t know how to rein it in. Mother had told me it was my anger. She had said that I needed to let myself feel any emotion that came up, instead of trying to suppress it. I wasn’t an emotional person in general but I was in pain. Natalie had bruised my fifteen year old heart, although she had no idea.

  ‘The fire…?’

  I glanced at her. She watched me with clear eyes. She had opened up to me. It was time to return the gesture. We had never been open with each other before. It wasn’t something I found easy.

  ‘I have an ability. We all do,’ I said, holding up the card with my siblings’ handwriting on it. ‘I can create fire with my hands.’

  ‘Is that why you’re a fireman?’

  I looked away from her. I was no longer a fireman. What would I do for the rest of my life, if I couldn’t do that?

  ‘I wanted to help people,’ I replied, not looking at her.

  She pulled on my hand. I glanced over.

  ‘You’ll find another way.’

  Her support was more important to me than anything else.

  ‘No, it’s not why I was a fireman. I loved to help people and be active at the same time.’

  ‘Can you do it whenever you feel like it? Create fire, I mean?’

  She couldn’t look me directly in the eye. I could tell she was being tentative. Was I that unpredictable?

  ‘Yes, I can just…’

  Instead of explaining it, I held up the hand that wasn’t holding hers and pulled the energy from within me. A burst of flame formed in my palm. She gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth.

  ‘Who was that man in the park?’ Her face darkened.

  I had been waiting for the questions. I was surprised she hadn’t asked them before now. There was no way I could stay quiet if I’d seen something so different.

  I pulled the fire back into my body but kept my hand in the air. The red leather bracelet on my wrist suited my tanned skin perfectly. The silver charm, with the Aries zodiac sign, stood out against the bright colour of the band. The edges were still singed from the fire.

  ‘I noticed that you all have those bracelets. Is there a reason?’

  I nodded and let my hand drop to the bed. ‘I don’t know how to explain it to you.’

  ‘Just tell me straight. You’re not one to mince your words anyway,’ she said, stroking my arm.

  The calm gesture sent heat over my skin, which made Natalie pull away.

  ‘You just got really hot,’ she said softly, looking at her palm.

  ‘Sorry. It’s you…you make me hot.’

  She looked at me. I winked. A small smile played on her lips before she turned serious. ‘You’re not going to get away with it that easily, tell me.’

  I rolled my eyes and avoided her hands when she tried to get touchy feely again. I needed a clear head to explain.

  ‘As you can tell, we’re not your usual family. Each one of us has a mission…this sounds so ridiculous,’ I muttered.

  ‘Go ahead,’ she said, capturing my hand and holding it firm.

  ‘We’re not biological siblings, we’re a soul family. We were given a mission before we came to Earth. We have to unite with our soulmate. It’s the most important goal we have to accomplish in this lifetime.’

  When I looked at her, I expected to see mockery in her expression. Instead, she frowned.

  ‘Aren’t we all supposed to be with our soulmates?’ she asked.

  I smiled and let my head fall back against the pillow. ‘Yes, but I’m talking about the ultimate soulmate. What people call twin flames. It’s a tough relationship, because it makes you face who you are.’

  She didn’t move or say anything. Her gaze rose from the spot she stared at on the bed. When her eyes met mine, a bolt of heat rushed through my body. I stiffened all over as she licked her lips.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ she whispered.

  ‘Why not?’

  It wasn’t quite the reaction I had predicted. Not that I could predict anything about her, I didn’t know her well enough.

  ‘It’s hard enough having a normal relationship with you, let alone—’

  I put my hand to her cheek and she stopped talking. She cupped my fingers. Her eyelashes grew wet as she looked at me.

  ‘I’m sorry for breaking your heart,’ I whispered.

  She nodded and blinked back the tears. ‘Do you know how many times I’ve cried over you? And I never cry!’

  I nodded. I had seen how bad Pisces had been when Antony had run from her. She had cried all the time. Natalie wouldn’t be as bad as that but I could see the pain in her eyes.

  ‘I’m a cripple.’

  She frowned and I cursed myself. She had opened up to me and all I could believe was that she was better off without me.

  ‘I don’t care.’ She pinched my arm. ‘Will you stop thinking about yourself for one second?’

  I laughed. ‘I’m not thinking about myself. I’m thinking about you…naked.’

  She slapped me half-heartedly as the corner of her lip lifted. I had managed to lighten the mood. I couldn’t be doing with too much heaviness.

  ‘No wonder the others call you the child of the group.’

  ‘What! Those rotten scoundrels,’ I said in my best pirate accent.

  ‘How did the operation go?’ Natalie asked, gesturing to my heavily bandaged stumps.

  I grew serious instantly. ‘I want to see what it looks like.’

  ‘Are you always so impatient?’

  ‘Yes, pretty much,’ I replied, taking the covers off.

  Clenching my fists, I resisted the urge to pull at the white bandage.

  ‘Your mission. I can see that Pisces and Antony have already achieved it.’

  I glanced at her. I thought I had managed to successfully divert her attention away from the awkward topic.

  ‘Yes, they have united. They have a long way to battle yet but they’ve managed the hard part.’

  ‘And what about you…?’ she whispered.

  I shook my head, throwing the covers back over my leg stumps. They were a reminder of how far I had left to go. There was one main priority in my life right now, and that was to walk again. I was sick of sitting. I needed to be active and move around independently.

  ‘I have a way to go until I’m ready to harmonise,’ I said, breathing a sigh out when the nurse came in to check on me.

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘They’re looking very smooth,’ the doctor said as the bandage came off.

  ‘I can’t see them,’ I replied.

  It was a part lie. I could see the little piece of metal sticking out from my stump but I couldn’t see the exit wo
und.

  ‘Here, I’ll take a picture of them so you can see.’

  Natalie crouched on the floor in front of me. A part of me wanted to stop her but it was the only way I would get an idea of what my new implants looked like.

  ‘They’re fantastic,’ she said to the doctor as she handed me her phone.

  They looked exactly as I had imaged they would. Two bits of metal. One sticking out from each stump. I wanted to get exercising so I could build up my leg muscles again.

  ‘If you look after them well, you should be fine to leave in about a week. We’ll show Natalie the exercises that you can do at home and you’ll go to rehab to use weights on the implant. It will help to get your bones strong and your muscles working.’

  He showed me how to keep the wound clean. It would prevent any infection from going down into the bone.

  ‘My thighs looks so swollen.’

  ‘They will do, you’ve had major surgery,’ Natalie said.

  ‘The swelling will go down over the next few days,’ the doctor said, writing something on a clipboard. ‘I’m happy with what I’ve seen here. The nurse will put clean dressings on and we’ll go from there. I’ll be back tomorrow.’

  He left us. I sat staring at what could be my only lifeline. I had researched normal prosthetic legs and had seen that the pressure on the socket would usually cause pain on the stump. I was glad that I would never have to experience that.

  ‘How does it feel?’ Natalie asked.

  ‘Will you stop asking me that?’ I snapped.

  She moved away from me. Six months felt like a long time. I was bored already.

  ‘Sorry,’ I murmured, remembering that she was only trying to help.

  ‘I’m used to it,’ she said, looking down at her phone.

  The nurse came in followed by Leo and Scorpio. ‘You have ten minutes. Then you have to leave,’ she announced.

  ‘Look at that!’ Leo said loudly, pointing at me.

  ‘That looks gross but fantastic at the same time,’ Scorpio said.

  I shook my head as I smiled at my brothers. The nurse eyed up Scorpio. She was just his type. It wouldn’t be long until he noticed her.

  ‘How long will it take for him to heal, nurse?’ he asked, going over to her and standing close to her as she got the bandages ready.