Dalir's Salvation (9 page)

He sat up, reining in the impulse to pull her back to bed. “You asked why can you see me? I don’t know but I think you do.”

She paused midway to the bathroom but kept her back to him. “How would I know?”

“I don’t have the answer, but we can find it together, if you stop shutting me out. Both of us need to understand what’s happening between us. Let me in.”

Ari’s shoulders fell with a deep exhale. She picked up his shirt from the floor, put it on, and closed a few buttons. Several sizes too large, it dwarfed her. She got back into bed and leaned against the pillow propped on the headboard. For a long moment she stared at her hands resting on her lap.

“My dad died before I was born. My mother worked as a secretary. We lived with grandmother. She took care of me while mom worked.” A small smile softened Ari’s expression. “I called my grandmother MiMi. She was the first to notice I was different. She said when I was a baby I would touch her face and smile as she sang lullabies to me in her mind.” Happiness faded from her expression. “MiMi died when I was five.”

He took her hand. “That must have been hard.”

“Financially, my mother managed to cover the basics. Everywhere else, we struggled. We moved to Texas because she found a better job. Then she lost it. She missed work a lot because of meetings with the principal or teacher at my school. I’d blurt out things I sensed about the kids or the staff that I shouldn’t have. I couldn’t control it.”

Ari’s grandmother sounded wise like Jalan. If Ari and her family had lived on Alandia, they would have received guidance from the temple. “Is that when you moved to South Carolina?”

“Yes. That’s where she met my stepfather. Right after they got married, the company promoted him to the head of the IT department in Baltimore. His son Oliver came to live with us.” Ari hugged her knees to her chest. “He was a devious, manipulative brat. One weekend, my stepfather’s boss threw a children’s party for his seven-year-old daughter, Missy, along with a gathering for the parents.” The recollections brought a haunted look to her gaze.

“What happened?”

“Oliver told lies about me to the kids at the party. They turned against me. The backyard was huge. The adults at the party were having too much fun to notice what was happening. Oliver, Missy, and some of the other kids dragged me to a secluded area. Missy thought it would be fun to lock me in the storage shed so they did. Then she turned up the music on her new portable stereo so no one could hear me yell. The song with the lyrics don’t stop believing came on. That was one of the songs the tech at the hospital played when I was in the MRI machine. It reminded me how when I was locked in the shed, all I wanted to do was stop believing that anyone cared and give up.” She released his hand.

Dalir wanted to hold her, but her body language dictated she needed him to keep his distance. Where was her mother when all of this had happened? How could no one have noticed the other kids beating Ari up? If he could go back in time, he’d knock the hell out of every parent at the party. “But they found you?”

“After the party ended. None of the kids would admit to what they’d done. They’d claimed I’d hidden in the shed because I didn’t want to play with them. One of the parents even suggested that maybe I’d locked myself in for attention. Then I saw Oliver’s smug face and I lost it.” She swallowed hard. “I told every thought or feeling I’d picked up in their minds, including Missy’s bedwetting problems.”

“I guess that didn’t go over too well.”

“No.” She smiled sadly. “But it felt good for a minute. Then the consequences set in. My mom was embarrassed. My stepfather was furious and worried that he’d lose standing with his boss. She confessed to him that I could sense things about people. Oliver must have overheard them. He started pretending that he was scared of me. My stepfather gave my mom an ultimatum. Their marriage or me.”

That glimpse he’d caught in Ari’s memory filled in the blanks. “She chose him and sent you away.”

“Boarding school. Good thing is, I learned to control the visions and to only sense things when I chose.” She picked at a loose string on the edge of the sheet. “I thought my mother would let me come home if I didn’t cause problems at school. She didn’t. Not even when she remarried a second time. During the winter holidays, I didn’t need a vision to understand no one wanted me around. In the summer, they shipped me off to camp. As I got older, I started going home with my friends from school. Their families didn’t treat me like I had the plague.”

Outrage simmered in Dalir. In Alandia, as a gifted one, she would have been admired, cherished, and treated with the utmost respect. “Where is she now?”

“My mom? She’s in Massachusetts. We talk once or twice a year.”

“How can you stand to speak to her?”

Ari shrugged. “She’s my mom.” Her gaze took on a faraway look. “And I also remember the good times. Like my fourth birthday. I have this thing for pineapples, so she and my grandmother gave me a pineapple party. We wore paper pineapple hats and pretty yellow dresses. My mom even saved up to buy me a nice cake. They let me eat it for breakfast the next day.” She held his hand. “I’m not making excuses for what my mother did to me. I choose to forgive her. For me. I have my own stuff to deal with. I refuse to carry her emotional baggage, too. I usually don’t think about back then at all. That’s why dreaming and thinking about it so much lately is”—she glanced at him—“well, kind of unusual.”

Her pensive expression reflected what he’d started to wonder. “And you think I might be the cause.”

“But it could also be a coincidence. I hit my head before I saw you. That could have triggered the memories.”

Or he’d caused her pain.

She squeezed his hand. “And the MRI. I hate small, enclosed places. I think that experience alone caused my nightmare about being in the shed to come up again. In fact, I think it added to it. Before you woke me up last night, I was dreaming about sun and infinity symbols. That’s exactly how I felt in the machine. Like it wouldn’t end and I’d never get out.”

Unease slipped down his spine. She’d dreamed of two symbols of the Alandian royal house? He sat up. She’d almost convinced him of one coincidence involving him showing up in her life, but two? “Where did you see these symbols in your dream?”

“I’m not sure. Inside the shed I think. Nothing at the end of the dream made any sense.”

“I need you to think. Where was it? How did they appear?”

She stiffened and snatched her hand from his. “Stop screaming at me. I told you I don’t know what the changes mean.”

He forced a calming breath and cupped his hand to her cheek. “I’m sorry, Ari. I didn’t mean to yell, but it’s important. Has anything else different happened with your visions or have you sensed anything unusual lately?”

“No.” She frowned. “Well, maybe one thing. I usually have to be focused on wanting to sense something from someone or better yet touching them for it to happen. Last night, Brooke just brushed me and I picked up on horses. And earlier at the club, when we were kissing. I could hear the thoughts of people at the other table.” A light pink tinged her cheeks. “They weren’t kind.” She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “I also can’t read you.”

Not surprising. Out of habit, he always shielded his thoughts. But the other incidences she’d mentioned, he’d been there, possibly influencing her gift. “Tell me about the dream, especially the part that was different.”

Ari shifted as if the mattress had suddenly become uncomfortable.

He hated to make her relive it, but he had to know about the sun and infinity symbols. “Please.”

She nodded. “The dream started the same, with the kids carrying me by my arms and legs. My sandals are gone. My favorite dress is dirty and ripped. The sky is so blue.” Unshed tears brightened her eyes.

As Dalir listened, it was as if he could see the younger Ari struggling to break free from the bullies. Unable to stand the desolation in her gaze, he took her in his arms.

She laid a hand on his chest. “I’m in the shed. Slivers of light are shining in through a vent at the top of the wall, but it’s still pretty dark. I can hear the song playing and people talking and laughing in the distance. I saw spider webs inside of the shed before they locked me in. I think I feel something crawling up my leg. I scream. That’s usually the point where I wake up, but the other night, the dream kept going. The symbols, they glowed on the door like a brand before it flew open. I walked out and I was near water. There was this gray storage building. And ships.” She wiggled out of his embrace. “Does that mean anything to you?”

Water. Ships. That could be anywhere in Florida. Anywhere in the world, but maybe it was more familiar to her than she realized. “Isn’t there a port nearby?”

“Yes. It’s just a few miles away, but I don’t know if that’s the place. Why is my dream so important to you?”

“The symbols mean something to my family. I’m looking for someone.” And just like every other trail Thane and the team had followed, Ari’s dream could lead them nowhere. By sending them to investigate this, he could end up wasting more of their time. If he didn’t, he could end up missing an important lead.

She gripped his arm. “Who are you trying to find?”

“My brother.”

Ari steered her car down the highway exit ramp. “Since you convinced me to prowl around at four in the morning, the least you could have done was let me stop for coffee.”

“I’m sorry.” Dalir kissed the back of her hand as he looked out the window. Street lights illuminated the tension hardening his angled jawline. “I just need to know if what you saw in your vision has anything to do with my brother.”

Other than a falling out driving his brother from home, Dalir wouldn’t tell her more about what happened. Ari switched on the air conditioner. Welcome coolness seeped through her T-shirt and jeans. She didn’t have a blood-related sibling that she knew of, but she could understand it. For her, Lauren and Celine were her sisters. If one of them ran off because of an argument, she’d want someone to help her find them.

She turned right at the light. The last time she’d travelled this direction was summer of the previous year. She, Lauren, and Celine had taken a Caribbean cruise. Once they were all together in a few weeks, another girls trip would definitely show up on the welcome home agenda. Not far, just a local weekend someplace where they could relax and catch up. She missed them so much, she’d even consider going with them to Lauren’s mountain cabin in Mazree, Georgia. Ari sent up a silent prayer. She hadn’t heard from them because they were in remote areas without access to the Internet and no cell reception. Wherever they were, right then, she wanted them happy and safe.

Ari backed off of the accelerator. “Well, this is the main road. To the left takes us to the cruise ship docks. Farther up, takes us closer to the clubs and restaurants on the waterfront.”

“What you mentioned sounds more industrial. Where’s that area?”

“I think it’s up ahead.” As they continued on, the landscape grew less commercial. Shipping related businesses and warehouses took over the scenery. “It’s so dark. If the building I saw in my dream is here, how am I supposed to see it?”

“You probably won’t, but follow your instincts. Your gift will let you sense it.”

He saw her intuition as something good and not a burden. Her stomach fluttered. A sense of lightness flowed in. Once she’d told him her secret, he hadn’t treated her differently or backed away in fear like the last guy she’d trusted. Dalir had simply accepted what she said about her ability as if it were normal, even special in some reverent kind of way. She’d done the same with him showing up in her life. Many couples had a hard time not finding fault in their partner’s quirks and differences, but she and Dalir hadn’t. And the theory of him causing stuff to happen, not buying it. Everything started when she hit her head. They were thrown together by happenstance.

The car bounced over a pothole.

One question she didn’t get a chance to ask, though, was why he had been at the store. It probably got lonely not having anyone see you. Maybe he hung out in crowded places, like the mall and the club, to lessen the sense of existing alone. He seemed used to spending time by himself. As weird as it was, they didn’t have to overcomplicate their situation. They could have a similar arrangement to what other couples did when it came to a no-strings hookup. They could just enjoy the sex, and the unusual connection they shared, for however long it lasted.

The landscape became less inhabited. Marshland lined the road.

Nothing. Not a flicker, an inkling or a flash of an image came into her mind.

“I’ll head back. Something may pop out at me the second time through.”

“Hold on.” He peered out the windshield. “Pull the car over. I want to scout out what’s ahead.”

“You can’t walk around out there without a flashlight.” She shuddered. “Snakes, and who knows what else, are out there. It’s too dangerous.”

The light from the dash board illuminated his cocky grin. “You’re not the only gifted one.” Dalir leaned in and gave her quick kiss. “Stay put. I’ll be right back.” He disappeared.

Ari laid her hand on the passenger seat. His warmth remained. Here one minute. Gone in less than a blink. Could she get used to him doing that? Was she able to visit Alandia? But what if she could only exist there like he did here? All of the unanswered questions made her head ache. That’s why she should stick to the first rule. Don’t overcomplicate the situation.

A cargo van sped past in the opposite direction. It had a logo of a circle surrounded by curved rays on the side of it.

A sun symbol like the one in her dream. Her heart sped up. Dalir. Where was he?

The vehicle grew smaller in the rear view.

Dalir said to stay put, but this could help him find his brother. The industrial area wasn’t far. If that’s where they headed, she could see where they stopped, then come back for Dalir. Or he’d find her. Either way, she couldn’t lose them. Ari made a U-turn. She floored the accelerator. He’d said he could read her thoughts.
“Dalir?”
Or maybe she should say it aloud for good measure. “I’m following a van back toward the industrial area. It has a sun symbol on it.”