“I’m fine. Can you loosen up on the hug a bit? My arm hurts and I can’t breathe.” I said with an exaggerated breathiness, although some of it was real. Not from the pain, but more from my reaction to him. There was no fear now. My body warmed and my heart skipped a beat. His hug felt good, and I wished I could hold on and never let go. The panic just seemed to seep out of me when David or Travis held me.
He laughed, and trailed his fingers down my arms as he pulled away. I hissed as he hit a sore spot on my injured arm. Running his hand through his hair, he grimaced and blushed. “Sorry.”
I laughed through the pain, even as I wondered where these reactions came from, both mine and his. “It’s okay. I’m glad you came down to find me. I was stuck because I couldn’t figure out the door.” I was looking everywhere but at him, sure my face was bright red.
Travis cleared his throat. “Well, uh, let’s go on up, then.” There was a weird note to his voice, almost like wistfulness. I peeked up at his face through my lashes and found him staring down at me, his cheeks still pink.
Ah, what the hell, I might as well risk it. “What’s wrong, Travis?”
He looked everywhere but at me, finally settling his gaze on the floor. “What? Nothing. Everything is fine.” He blushed harder again, and put his hands up in front of himself. “Why do you ask?”
I smiled, and touched his hand. He glanced at me, then took my hand, his dwarfing mine as he intertwined our fingers. “You just don’t seem yourself right now. You’re sure you’re okay?”
He snorted. “I should be the one asking you. You’re the one who had the day from hell. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” His thumb was making lazy circles on my palm, sending warm tingles through my body. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I laughed. “I hurt, but I think I will be fine. The worst pain is in my arm, I think it’s broken.” My stomach growled. I blushed. “Well, that and I’m hungry.”
Tugging on my good hand, Travis pulled me toward the door. “Let me show you how to work the door, and then we will go eat.”
In spite of everything, I found myself giggling softly to myself as I allowed him to pull me towards the door. Travis was really sweet, and I found myself looking forward to spending some more time with him. I think I would really like to get to know him better. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.
He shut the door, and it looked like a normal wall. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. “See this line and this square?” He ran his finger along a barely discernible seam. I nodded. “Press in the square, and the door pops open.”
“Wow. That’s like magic. How did they get it so seamless? I could barely see it, and that was after you showed me where to look!”
“Yeah, it’s cool, but I don’t know how they did it. Let’s go eat!” He took my hand and I walked up the stairs after him.
We reached the top of the stairs, and stepped into the family room. I frowned. There was no door here the first time I had been in this room. Travis waited for me to step out and slid the door shut behind him. That was when I realized it was a bookcase. It was a completely hidden room. No wonder I had missed it earlier. I briefly wondered why it was so hidden. Was it a panic room? Travis took my hand again and gently drew me toward the kitchen. “Janelle has dinner ready for us. I think she made spaghetti.”
“Oh, that’s one of my favorites!” My mouth started watering just thinking about it. “Did she make garlic bread too?” I love garlic bread. Well, bread in general.
Travis smiled. “David said it was your favorite. Yes, she made garlic bread, too.”
I briefly wondered how David knew spaghetti was a favorite of mine, but thoughts of garlic bread quickly chased the question away.
We entered the kitchen, and the aroma was amazing. Yum! I couldn’t wait to get my plate and dig in! Janelle stepped in front of me. “David said you were badly injured. Let me put a block on your pain so you can eat.” She laid her hand on my head and closed her eyes. Relief was almost instantaneous.
When she opened her eyes, I thanked her and pushed past both David and Travis to pile spaghetti, sauce and garlic bread high on my plate. They all laughed at my behavior.
In no time at all, I had scarfed down the whole plate, and even gone back for seconds on the garlic bread. It had been over a day since I had eaten, after all. I knew I was going to pay for having eaten all that at once, but I didn’t care. I leaned back. “That was awesome, Janelle! Thank you again! Both for the meal, and for letting me stay here. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I do need to get back to my apartment, though. What do I need to do to protect myself? Obviously, the charms and the wards were not enough. If I can be taken from here, is it even worth staying?”
David shouted, “No! You can’t go home!” He flushed, glanced at his mom and added, “Not yet, at least. It’s not safe.” I was completely taken aback by his intensity. Janelle and Travis were staring at him with almost identical looks of surprise as well.
I sighed. “David, you can’t expect me to stay here indefinitely. That’s why I asked what I need to do to protect myself. I need to get on with my life, and going from here to school and back is not living. I also need to get back to work, and for that I need my craft supplies. I prefer to work in my own space. My mom set a quota for me, and she is waiting for stock to sell.”
David exhaled heavily and ran his hand across his face. “Sorry. I just didn’t…. I just didn’t think. Of course you want to go home. Maybe Mom and I can go over and set up some wards on your apartment? Mom, do you think Sibhre would help as well?”
Janelle looked thoughtful. “Yeah, I would be happy to help, and I can ask Sibhre. Wards are one of her specialities.” She looked at me. “We also need to talk about your arm and what you went through.”
I really didn’t want to talk about it, so I ignored that part of her statement. “How long would it take you to set all the wards up? I would love to sleep in my own bed again.” I glanced from David to his mom. They shared a look and his mom shrugged. If I wanted to keep ignoring this, the best thing would be to get back to my regularly scheduled life. “It will take several hours to set the wards, and we will need to gather supplies first as well. I would like to do a little research, but I think we could have you back to your apartment tomorrow night, assuming Sibhre can help us tomorrow.” Janelle looked at David. “Would you agree?”
“Yes!” David said, a little too quickly. I glanced at him again. I really needed to figure out what was going on with him. He was not acting like himself.
“Okay. Can I help set the wards, or can I watch?” I was really curious about magic. Sibhre had showed me a little, but I hadn’t gotten to see much in action.
“Yes, you can watch. BUT, we need to talk first. David, will you please do the dishes while I talk to Evalia?” Janelle was firm. I guess I wasn’t going to get out of it.
David glared at his mom for a second, but it faded as she just stared at him. “Fine!” He huffed as he got up and gathered the dishes.
“Thank you, son.” She turned to me and got up. “Let’s go in the living room.”
“Okay.” I got up to follow her out.
Travis grabbed my hand. “Wait a second, Evalia. If you are sure you’re okay, I am going to go home.”
”I’ll be fine. Thank you, Travis.” I startled myself by leaning in and kissing his cheek. “See you tomorrow?”
He blushed and smiled. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
I pulled my hand from his and followed Janelle into the living room. She had been watching Travis and me. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I need to find out what they did to you, and I can try to heal your arm as well.” The look in her eyes was disconcerting. It wasn’t exactly friendly, but it wasn’t unfriendly either. She looked very alien at that moment, and I abruptly remembered that she was only half-human. She didn’t seem to notice my hesitation, and continued, “So, what happened? Tell me everyt
hing from when you were taken.”
I told her almost everything I remembered, leaving out the shape-shifter again. I wanted to bury those memories, and the feelings it had unearthed from their tomb in my mind. I even told her about the green man in my apartment and the feeling it seemed he had caused. As I did, fear began to overwhelm me. By the time I was done, tears were streaming down my face, I was shaking and I could barely talk. The whole time, she just watched me with a blank face. While I understood that this was a normal reaction, I was embarrassed by my display. After all I had been through in my life, I had thought I was tougher than this.
When I finished, she sat quietly for a moment. Then, she reached forward and put her fingertips on my left hand. Closing her eyes, she said, “You can’t go home.” Warmth began to spread all the way up my arm, past where it hurt and was swelling. “That Lorgaire put a tracking spell on you, and the being you call the tall man will be able to find you again with what he took from you. Even the blood alone would be enough for most, but with the tissue samples and the bone, he will be able to find you in whatever dimension you flee too. We have to figure out why they want you. I can remove the tracking spell as well, but it will hurt a bit.” The warmth had spread all over my body, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, easing most of the pain with it. Suddenly, the warmth flared into a bright white heat. I inhaled sharply, the pain was everywhere, including in my lungs and it felt like I couldn’t breathe. As suddenly as it came, the heat dissipated, leaving me in a panic as I desperately tried to catch my breath. I sat there panting as her words ran through my mind, with “he can find you again” coming back over and over. I just couldn’t think past them.
Janelle sat back and wiped her forehead. “Don’t worry, Honey. I removed the spell and healed everything as best I could. You will need to be careful with the arm for a few days though. I can’t completely heal broken bones. I started the process, so it will heal much faster, and simply put, I wrapped the broken part in magic to hold it in place. Since it is missing a piece, it will take a few days to heal. You should be able to use it mostly normally, but try not to lift anything really heavy with it, and please don’t fall on it. The piece he took from your stomach was a part of your liver. Luckily, that is the only thing the human body can regenerate on its own. You will feel extra tired for a few days as you finish healing on your own. I also had to take quite a bit of energy from you, so you should sleep soundly tonight.” She cocked her head to the side as she studied my face. “What was your grandmother’s name?”
That question came out of nowhere. Surprised, I said, “I don’t know her real name. On the rare occasions that I saw her, I called her Grammy and no one ever called her anything else that I heard. Mom didn’t tell me when she finally disclosed the family history.” I rubbed my face and yawned. “I could call her back. I probably should let her know what’s going on.” It embarrassed me that I hadn’t thought to tell her everything that had happened since I talked to her. While we were closer when I was younger, our relationship has been strained since a little before Dad died. Since moving away to college, I talked to her very infrequently. Now that I was thinking about it, it made me feel like a bad daughter. She wasn’t exactly alone, but she didn’t have a huge support base either. She had fewer friends than I did, and it was just her and grandma now.
Janelle cleared her throat and I jumped. “Ah, now I have your attention. I was saying that you should just go to bed. I doubt you will be able to have a coherent conversation with anyone right now. You are about to drop. Come on, I’ll help you.”
She was right, I felt like my bones were made of water, and my limbs were extremely heavy at the same time. I stood, and Janelle helped me up the stairs. I had never felt such bone-deep weariness before. I was worried about nightmares but once I made it to the bed and laid down, I fell fast asleep.
Chapter 10
A pain in my arm woke me. I rolled over, freeing it from under me. I wondered briefly if David or Janelle had done something that kept me from dreaming, since my sleep had been undisturbed, but that thought flitted away quickly. I started thinking about all that had happened since Sunday. It hadn’t even been a week, and my world had changed drastically. A small part of me kept thinking I was going to wake up and it would all be an elaborate bad dream. As I thought about it, panic started to creep in again, so I forced my mind to other things. I glanced at the window. There was faint light outside, like it was just dawn. The clock confirmed it. It was just barely 8 am. I laid there and drifted in and out of sleep for a while.
Eventually, my bladder forced me up. I wished I could stay there all day, but nature called. I got dressed and made my way to the bathroom. I had to take out my contacts and wear glasses today. Even though I hate glasses, I couldn’t wear contacts for more than forty-eight hours without taking them out. My contacts were the kind that are designed to be worn continuously for up to a week, but eyes hated me when I tried to do that. Since I was wearing glasses today, I left my hair mostly down, just pulling a small part at the front back so it wasn’t completely in my face. No makeup either. It wasn’t worth the effort, even for the minimal amount I occasionally wear.
I staggered downstairs, and rummaged in the kitchen until I found a sugary cereal. I was sitting at the counter, eating, when David came downstairs.
“Whoa, I didn’t know you wear glasses! They look good!” David was staring at the frames.
I blushed and looked back at my bowl. “Thanks, I usually wear contacts because I hate glasses. They frustrate me.”
He bent down so I had no choice but to look at him. “I like them.” He turned away and started making his own breakfast. “What’s the plan today?”
I don’t know - survive? Stay away from the lunatics looking for me? Run away and hide? All those snarky answers ran through my head, but what I said was, “I don’t know. It’s Friday, so I have to go to my calculus class, and I need to figure out what I missed in class yesterday, and I have a shit-ton of homework. This whole thing has really fucked everything up!” I had started out quiet, but I was yelling by the last sentence.
David put his hands up. “I think you need a day off. Why don’t you stay here? I can stay with you, if you want.”
That sounded really good, but I needed to go to class today if I wanted to pass, so I said as much, adding, “But I will let you know when I am on my way back. I need to stop by my apartment, even if I can’t stay there right now.”
He grunted. “I don’t like you being alone. There is no telling what they will do. I don’t think they would try to snatch you if you are in a group of people, but we don’t know that for sure. Without knowing their intentions, it’s hard to tell what they are willing to risk.”
I really didn’t want to hear that. It hurt to think that just trying to live my life would put innocent people in danger. “You don’t think they would hurt people around me to get me, do you?”
My fear must have shown on my face, because he came around the island and wrapped me up in a hug. “Don’t worry, we will figure it out.” I rested my head on his chest, as I wrapped my arms around his waist. My fear dissipated. I was getting used to this hugging thing. It wasn’t until much later that I realized he didn’t answer my question.
“I need to breathe. Let go.” I patted his back as I smiled up at him. “Thanks, I needed that. What do you suggest? I can’t hide here for the rest of my life.”
He thought for a minute while he went back to get his bowl of cereal. “Why don’t I go to class with you? Then, you won’t be exactly alone, and I can help defend you if someone does try to grab you.” He sat down next to me and bumped my shoulder with his.
“I guess that would be okay, but I don’t want to take you away from your classes, either.” I didn’t want to be the reason he failed.
“I only have one class today, and it’s at 1. What time is your class?”
“Oh, my class is at 10. That will work. We can ride together, and I will sit through your
class and we can stop by my apartment after.”
“Sweet!” He gave me a big grin and started shoveling the cereal into his mouth. With his mouth full, he said, “If we need to be at school by 10, I need to hurry.”
“Eww, gross. Stop talking with your mouth full. I’m going to go get my stuff together. Met you back down here at 9:30?”
He nodded, so I got up, rinsed my bowl out in the sink and put it in the dishwasher. On the way out of the kitchen, I trailed my fingers along his back as I passed him. What was I going to do? I couldn’t stay here forever.
I pushed the door open to the room I was starting to think of as mine. I laid down on the bed and put my head on my arms. I had a few minutes for a brief pity party, then I could man up and face the world. As my mind started going through all the bad things that could happen, I tried to force myself to think of good things that came out of this. If the circumstances were different, I would be thrilled. Nothing would be cooler than being a magical being that had awesome powers. If I wasn’t being hunted for no obvious reason.
I took a deep breath and forced myself up. I had to get moving, and it also helped to keep my mind off all the problems that I currently faced. Including mundane ones, like if I was going to pass my classes. Or how I was going to keep paying for my apartment since I had missed almost a week of work for Mom. Or if I even needed to keep my apartment. What’s the point of paying for it if I can’t stay there? That thought brought tears to my eyes, so I pushed it away, and stomped on it a few times in my mind.
After gathering my supplies for my class, and a book to read during David’s class, I went back downstairs. David was already waiting for me. “So, what boring-ass class do I have to sit through?”
He snorted. “Architectural Design II. It’s not bad.”
I laughed. “Maybe if you know what they are talking about. Oh well, I brought a book to read. Are you ready to go?”
“Yep. Let’s go!” He grabbed his backpack and headed for the door. We got in his older, but well-taken care of, Audi. The ride to school was quiet, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. I was lost in my thoughts when David put his hand on my knee and started rubbing. Startled, I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, but he didn’t seem aware of it. His thumb was making lazy circles on the top of my kneecap. I thought about moving his hand, but it wasn’t hurting anything, and it helped keep my mind off my problems.
A Glint of Shadoewynne: Book 1 of the Shadoewynne Series Page 9
