Marked (22 page)

Adriana Paige
Interstate 70
Just west of St. Louis, Missouri

It took longer than normal for my awareness to return. At first I
thought maybe that was because I was dead, but as I slowly started to
register the amount of pain I was in I decided that couldn't be the
case. My skin felt like it had been rubbed off with a cheese grater
and I was sporting a truly world-class headache, but I was pretty
sure I was still alive—and that made all of the pain nothing
more than a secondary concern.

The
faint, steady rumble of the RV's engine underneath me was a welcome
reassurance that I'd made it back to the real world, but it was still
several minutes before my brain was working well enough for
everything that had happened to come back to me.

My
first thought was of Alec, but my eyelids refused to respond when I
tried to open them. For one terrifying moment I thought I was blind,
but then I realized that the problem really was my eyelids. They were
sealed shut. I could feel the eyelashes pulling against each other.
It was still a concern, but I forced myself to remain calm.

Even
groping blindly it only took a second to find Alec with my right
hand. He was warm and still breathing. A wave of relief crashed
through me, but it wasn't enough. I needed to know whether or not
he'd managed to escape with me.

It
took me a couple of tries to get my voice to work. "Alec, are
you awake? Please tell me that you're okay."

For
one agonizing second he didn't respond, but then his hand closed
around mine. "I thought I was still dreaming. I didn't want to
open my eyes and have to go back to that hell."

I
started to shake as I realized that we'd done it. We'd beaten Dream
Stealer at his own game. Alec was free—he was going to be okay.

Alec
groaned as he slowly rolled up onto his side. I heard his breath
catch as he got his first good look at me.

"Adri,
what happened to you? Your eyes are bloody and you look like you
haven't eaten anything in days…"

"I'm
not sure. I think I remember my eyes bleeding at one point there at
the end of the dream. I guess some things transfer between that
reality and this one."

"You
told me that you were having a hard time, but you didn't say that
you'd stopped eating."

"I
didn't stop. I've been eating—I mean I think I've been eating.
Everything is a little blurry."

I
let go of Alec's hand and ran my hand over my stomach. He was right,
I could feel my ribs. Actually that had been the case for a while,
but they were much more prominent now than they'd been when I'd
fallen asleep—my hips too.

"How
are you feeling, Alec? Are you up to helping me to the bathroom? I
want to clean up my eyes."

"Weak.
I feel really weak, and my chest and shoulder hurt, but I think I can
manage to roll out of bed if I'm careful."

I
shook my head. "No, don't risk it. I'll call for Donovan, I'm
sure he's close enough to hear me if I yell."

I
took a deep breath, but before I could get anything out a tremendous
commotion broke out on the other side of the wall.

"Where
am I? Kaleb! What's happening?"

It
took me a second to place the voice—it wasn't one that I'd
heard very often before—and even once I recognized it, I still
had a hard time believing that I was really hearing Alec's mom. She
didn't sound anything at all like the foggy, only marginally
attentive woman I'd interacted with the few times that our paths had
crossed since I'd first visited Graves Manor.

"Mother?"

I
felt Alec move like he was going to get out of bed, but I grabbed at
his arm, desperate to keep him from moving.

"Please,
Alec. You had a hypervelocity bullet pass within centimeters of your
heart. The shock wave should have killed you and Donovan is still
worried that your heart may have suffered permanent damage. You have
to hold still or you could trigger a heart attack."

Whatever
Alec might have said was preempted by the bedroom door being thrown
open. I could only assume it was Samantha I heard gasp.

"Who
are you and why did you call out for me? Why do I feel like I should
know you?"

"Samantha?
Have you really returned to us?"

Donovan's
voice had a reverent quality that I'd never heard before from him,
but that was nothing compared to what I heard in Addison's voice.

"Please
let it be so! What do you remember?"

"Donovan?
Addison? What has happened to the two of you? You look
different—Addison, you look like it hurts to walk. Where is
Kaleb and where are my children?"

"She
doesn't know."

Donovan's
voice was filled with such regret that I knew he wasn't going to be
able to tell her. I would have waited and let Alec or Addison tell
her, but I wasn't sure that Addison would be able to bring herself to
break the bad news either and I didn't want Samantha's first memory
of Alec as a man to be him telling her that she'd lost her husband
and the last two decades of her life.

I
didn't want to be the one to tell her either, but if she was going to
hate someone, better me than one of the last few links she had to her
deceased husband and the life she'd lost.

I
still couldn't see anything, but I forced myself to roll onto my side
and then worked myself into a sitting position. It was harder than
I'd expected it to be—my left arm seemed to have fallen
asleep—but I managed and then once I was sitting, I turned so I
was facing the door to the bedroom.

"Mistress
Paige, your eyes…"

Donovan's
voice was so full of concern that I wanted to reach out and give him
a hug, but instead I held up my good hand to cut him off.

"I'm
very sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Mrs. Graves, but
your husband, Kaleb Graves, is dead. He died almost twenty years ago
in a fight against Agony. You've spent the intervening years in a
state of disassociation due to the effects of having the Ja'tell bond
severed.

"The
young man behind me is your son Alec. He was recently shot during a
fight against Coun'hij forces in Idaho. Your daughter Rachel
disappeared a week or two ago about the same time that Graves Manor
was destroyed by a Coun'hij strike force consisting of hybrids and
werewolves.

"Alec's
power has finally manifested and it is a doozy, which has caused him
to directly oppose the Coun'hij. So far Alec has managed to kill
Agony and a number of the Coun'hij's enforcers, but we've been unable
to find their home base and we don't currently have a good counter to
Puppeteer's ability to throw werewolves at us.

"You're
currently in an RV located somewhere in the Midwest and you've spent
most of the last week unconscious for unknown reasons which I suspect
relate to the fact that Alec has been under psychic attacks from
Dream Stealer."

My
voice had gone hoarse by the time I finished, but I forced myself not
to wilt under the pressure of all the eyes I could feel resting on
me. Once I was done, there was silence for several seconds before
Samantha Graves finally broke it.

"And
who are you whom I just found in my son's bed, who orders my staff
around as though they are hers, and who presumes to tell me what I
need to know?"

My
chin came up in response to the derision in her voice. "My name
is Adriana Paige."

"She's
my fiancée, Mother, and we would have been married before now
if not for the attack that destroyed the manor. What's more, she's
the glue that has held everything together while I've been injured
and unconscious."

"It
hasn't been just me; Donovan and Mallory have done most of the real
work."

Donovan
cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to contradict you, Mistress
Paige, but neither Mallory nor I could have accomplished anything of
significance without you. I feel it important to add that the two of
you have been introduced prior to this and you were welcomed into the
house by Mistress Samantha, albeit in the same distracted fashion
that has been her way during these many long years since Master Kaleb
was taken from us."

I
got the feeling Samantha still wasn't happy, that in some way Donovan
sticking up for me just fanned the flames of her anger, but Alec
resumed talking before she could say anything.

"Adri
is the reason that I'm able to talk to you right now, Mother. She's
not a shape shifter, but she's got a dream walking ability that is
very similar to what Dream Stealer is able to do. She came in after
me and nearly killed Dream Stealer on his own turf. She is due every
respect as my future wife, but more than that, she's due every
respect many times over as a result of what she's accomplished all by
herself. Donovan, please help Adri to the bathroom so that she can
wash the blood away from her eyes. I'd do it myself, but she said
that my heart may still have some residual damage from that second
bullet."

"Indeed,
Master Alec, it would be best for you to avoid any kind of activity.
Right this way, Mistress Paige."

A
moment later Donovan was at my side, helping me to my feet. He was a
solid, reassuring presence that went a long way towards balancing out
the unfriendly stare I could feel coming from Alec's mother.

With
Donovan's help I managed to make it to the RV's tiny bathroom without
stumbling, but it was more of a challenge than I'd expected it to be.
My left arm was nothing more than dead weight and that threw off my
balance by a significant factor.

Washing
the blood out of my eyes with only one hand seemed to take forever.
The process felt even more awkward because nobody said a word the
entire time I was in the bathroom.

Despite
the brave front I'd tried to put on for Alec, I'd actually been more
than a little worried about my vision. I was shaking by the time the
last of the clotted blood came free of my eyelashes, but I opened
them to a wonderful world full of all of the colors and details that
I'd been worried might be lost to me forever.

I
grabbed the sink with my right hand to steady myself as a tsunami of
relief crashed through me. The feeling passed after only a second and
then I looked up and caught my reflection in the mirror for the first
time since I'd come back from Alec's dream. I looked…disturbing.

The
whites of my eyes had turned a dark crimson that I'd never seen on
anyone else before in my life. I looked like I'd been possessed—that
or beaten nearly to the point of death. My left arm, still hanging
limply at my side, didn't do anything to combat the illusion that I'd
been through hell and back recently.

I
stepped out of the bathroom to find that Donovan had gone to Alec's
side and had his stethoscope pressed up against Alec's bare chest.
Ruby was driving again, James and Dominic were sitting on the couch,
Andrew was sitting at the desk, and Addison was standing in the
doorway, looking at Samantha with an air of reverence.

It
was Samantha who looked over at me first, and while her gasp wasn't
entirely surprising, it still stung.

"What
happened to you?"

"I
was injured while fighting Dream Stealer."

"What
about your arm? Was that the result of your fight with Dream Stealer
as well?"

That
made me pause, but I still answered before my mind had finished
picking at the fragment of memory that was trying to surface.

"No,
I must have just slept on it funny. I think it just fell asleep."

Alec
looked up at me with a concerned expression on his face. "That
doesn't sound right, Adri. I seem to remember something happening
during the fight…didn't Dream Stealer stab you?"

"Maybe.
Now that you mention it I think you're right."

Donovan
crossed the distance between him and me in a flash and prodded my
arm. "Can you feel this, Mistress Paige?"

I
shook my head. "No, like I said, it's asleep."

"Do
you feel pins and needles yet?"

"No,
but I haven't been up for very long."

Donovan
met my eyes with a concerned look. "Enough time has passed that
you should be able to feel something. I'm sorry to be the bearer of
bad news, but I think the nerve damage is permanent. I'm afraid your
arm has been paralyzed."

Adriana Paige
Interstate 70
Just west of St. Louis, Missouri

Alec
lurched out of his bed, desperate to get to my side, heedless of the
possible consequences of stressing his heart. He only made it half a
step before his legs gave out on him. It was a good thing that his
mother was already in the room.

Samantha
wasn't anywhere close to being strong enough to support Alec's full
weight, but she managed to slow his fall and pull him just far enough
to the side to stop him from slamming his head into the small bedside
table just to his left.

I
made it to Alec's side a split second before his head would have hit
the floor and managed to help cushion his fall.

"Alec,
you can't take those kinds of risks!"

He'd
gone a concerning shade of white, but he managed a smile as he shook
his head at me. "I didn't even think about the fact that I might
not make it to your side. That doesn't matter—what are we going
to do about your arm, Adri? It's my fault you got hurt."

I
shook my head as his words brought the end of my dream back to my
memory. It was all I could do to tear myself away from reliving the
moment when I'd been paralyzed. "We don't know that the
paralysis is permanent, but even if it is, this wasn't your fault.
Dream Stealer is the one who did this, but it's a small price to pay
in order to get you back."

Alec
grimaced as Donovan lifted him back onto his bed and began checking
his vitals. "You're right, maybe it's just temporary, but either
way it was far too dear of a price to be required of you."