Ever Tempted (25 page)

Grace turned and her ghostly form shot toward them.

I grabbed Cole and pulled him up the embankment. “Come on! We have to get away from her!”

“Not without her body.” Cole pulled away and ran for her soggy corpse.

Grace stopped mid-air as if she’d run into a brick wall. Her arms and legs flailed helplessly as white light wrapped around her, trapping her in its luminescence.

“Run! Get as far away from us as you can. Cole, you know what to do.” Anna Marie pulled the lid off a vial and slung it through Grace’s transparent body.

Cole grabbed my arm with his free hand, and we scrambled up the embankment.

A leg fell off the corpse.

“Dammit.” Cole jerked to a halt and swiped her leg up. “Come on. We have to get to the barn.”

Confused, I ran after him.

The corpse dangled and flopped, slinging slimy water in every direction as he ran.

He threw the remains on the ground behind the barn. “Guard her with your life. If you die in the process, I’ll find you again. Somewhere. Somehow.”

I kissed him and sent him around the barn. I turned my back to the corpse so I could keep an eye on the direction of the pond.

Enraged, echoing screams broke through the night. The ground under me began to rumble and quake. I held to the wooden slats on the back of the barn for balance.

Cole dashed toward me with a gas can in one hand and a knife in the other. He tossed the gas can down. “Give me your hand.”

With blind trust, I offered it.

With the shiny point of the knife, Cole gashed an inch-deep hole in my palm.

I screamed and jerked my hand from him.

He tossed a wad of hair and dust over Grace’s corpse, dropped a vial of something dark on her head, and grabbed my hand.

“Drop your blood onto her body.” Cole was insistent.

My hand seared with pain as I squeezed and dug my nails into the puncture. Forcing back a howl of pain, I allowed a constant stream of blood to flow over Eliza’s hair and Grace’s corpse until I was sure it was saturated enough.

Cole’s face twisted as he watched the blood drip. He finally pulled the cap off the gas can. Circling the remains, he doused them with gasoline.

I stepped back when he took a booklet of matches from his pocket.

His hands stopped mid-air. His attention was drawn to something behind me.

“Run!” Cole said as he struck the match.

Not knowing which way to go, I darted around the side of the barn.

Behind me, Grace was half a football field away and gaining.

There was no place to go.

I darted behind the barn in hopes of losing her.

Behind me nothing.

In front of me. Still nothing.

I sprinted across the yard to the Rose Maze. Dashing back and forth, I ran the course that would take me to the door to the tunnels.

“Where are you, you ungrateful little tramp?” Grace was just outside the walls.

As I found the loop on the door glistening in the moonlight, she rose above the Rose Maze, but hadn’t seen me yet.

I jerked the door open and pulled it shut over my head.

Dashing to the waterfall tunnel, I tripped on loose roots. When I regained my balance, it didn’t take long to hear the roaring of the water as it plummeted to the bottom of the falls.

My lungs begged for more air, and my calves burned as if someone had scorched them with hot irons.

I would have to stop soon, but the vision of Cole lying in a casket fueled me for a little longer.

I plunged out of the cave and shot around the side of the falls.

Once out, I bent over with my hands on my knees. Nothing had followed me. Maybe I could sit down on the bank. Deep purple water rippled below me.

A forceful scream echoed through the cave and rattled rocks off the side of the waterfall. They splashed into the water, and when the force behind it found me, it shoved me over and into the water.

I flailed against the downward current, but it caught me and slammed my head against rocks at the bottom of the reservoir. Having screamed before I’d gone under, I didn’t have enough wind to make it back to the top. I panicked and took liquid fire into my lungs.

Was water the way I was supposed to die in this life? I’d cheated death by water before.

Had the equilibrium Anna Marie called on found me?

That was it. Fate had a way of working itself out and this was its plan.

My limbs became heavy, and my lungs no longer burned for oxygen. The back of my head pounded with pain, but that dissipated too.

The sky was black through the water, and the moon was bright in the sky.

I stopped fighting.

A dart of something darker than the tree hanging over the pool of water dove into the water above me just before total black surrounded my vision.

Was this death? Could you still see and experience life around you from another place?

Someone’s touch was hot on my cool skin.

When we got to the surface, I didn’t take a breath, but I was locked inside my body with only my sight to serve me. My eyes were wide, but my chest wouldn’t move. What was wrong with me? There was air to supply my lungs, so why wasn’t I breathing?

“Get her over here!” Kaitlyn’s voice.

Hands fumbled for me, but I didn’t feel them the same way I had when I was fully conscious. I couldn’t accept death. That’s not what this was. It wasn’t right.

“Now, bring her to the side.” Shelby’s voice. It was oddly calmer than her sister’s.

“I’m trying!” Cole said against me. As he jerked me up the water’s edge, his face was wrought with worry. He flopped me over, but caught my head before it hit the ground. After forceful shoves into my abdomen, he listened to my mouth. “Breathe dammit.”

The tunnel of vision I’d been left with decreased to a pin-size dot.

Blackness.

Instead of quarreling with Grace and a witch, I turned in the mirror and straightened my veil.

“You look beautiful, honey.” Mama stepped into view behind me in the mirror.

“I hope he likes the dress,” I said, but my voice was different, softer, more naïve.

“I’m sure he will. It’s time. Everyone is waiting for you.” Mama kissed my cheek from behind and left me.

“One, two, three, four, five, six…” A stressed voice came from far away.

With each number, I took a step out of the room and down the bright sunny hallway. Floral breeze wafted through the air, lifting my veil.

“One, two, three, four, five, six…” The voice broke with sobs with each number.

My chest felt as though someone was hammering it with a boulder, but I wouldn’t let unpleasant sensations ruin my day. Colby’s day. We’d had enough of life’s pain. It was time to be together in my heaven.

Soft music filtered through the walls of the old, big house and found me as I made it to the new elevator Daddy had installed.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine! Dammit, Allie, breathe!” The voice grew softer, though the distress was even more evident.

I was breathing. At an increased rate, but I was breathing. I didn’t know how I would when I finally met Colby at the altar. He’d be so happy we finally made it.

“Move over! You breathe while I do compressions.” The voices were a soft whisper, barely audible.

I stepped off the elevator and took steps to the sound of the person counting in the distance. One, two, three, four, five… When they hit fifteen, I stepped out onto the patio. The crowd rose to their feet as Daddy took my arm and guided me over a white carpet rolled between two sets of people.

“You look beautiful, my dear.” Daddy’s voice was proud in my ear.

“I love you. I forgive you for everything.” I smiled and kissed his cheek.

My cousin and her mother stood beside my maid of honor. Grace. I’d always hoped it could be this way. She clasped a bouquet of flowers to her chest with tears in her eyes.

The music changed as I walked down the aisle in time with the music.

Colby came into focus.

His eyes glistened, and his lips moved to silently say, “I love you.”

At the same time, I heard the same words in the distance, above me, all around me.

What was that?

“Come back to me.” The voice was strangled with tears. It was behind me now.

Cole?

Which way should I go?

As if something were pulling the threads of my soul, I took the final steps toward Colby. He’d want me to come to him. To complete our union. And have our happily ever after. We would be together now that the curse was resolved.

It was the end.

We’d made it.

Something wasn’t right. Colby’s sad eyes closed.

As if water had spilled down a watercolor painting, Colby slid downward along with everything around him.

I coughed and choked.

“Oh my God. Oh my God!” I was lying on the ground but was jerked into someone’s arms as I sputtered water everywhere.

Cole’s sob shook against my chest as he rocked me in his arms. Heat flooded to every vein as my blood found oxygen.

“Get her back to the house. We need to check her over for wounds or breaks.” Anna Marie took over.

Shelby and Kaitlyn cried on each other.

With gentle strength, Cole lifted me from the ground, his chest still heaving as he hurried through the woods.

* * * *

The sun poured into my room from the window. Where had I been? And ah, crap.

On the back of my head a bandage covered a knot that throbbed with my pulse.

“Allie!” Cole crossed the room and came to the bed. “You have a head injury and your neck is bruised.”

“What—what’s going on?” I tried to lift my head, but my shoulders felt as though a wrecking ball had battered them.

“You were…asleep.” Cole’s voice shook.

“How long?” My throat was so dry. “Water. Drink.” I reached for a glass beside my bed, but a cord was attached to my arm. An IV?

“I’ll get it. You sit still.” Cole fumbled for the glass. He trembled as he poured water. He put the pitcher beside many bandages and some sort of medicine.

“Why am I hooked up to a heart monitor?” I was suddenly very afraid.

“Can you feel everything?” Cole looked at my knees and my feet.

“Of course. Wait. Why wouldn’t I?” I sat up, though my head screamed in protest.

“Really. Look, you can’t sit up just yet. I need to check you over.” Cole pressed my shoulder with gentle force until I was lying flat again. “You were in an accident at the waterfall. Do you remember?”

The waterfall. No. I’d been at a wedding.

Wait.

I turned to look at Cole. “Apparently, I died.”

“Again.” Cole smiled weakly. “I wasn’t sure that you’d survive even when you did breathe again.”

“I thought it was a cat that had nine lives.”

“Guilt by association,” Cole said.

I rolled my eyes. “Damn, my head hurts.”

“It should. You took a hard hit on the bottom of the waterfall. In fact, a few hits. It repeatedly slammed you into the rocks like a ragdoll.”

“I saw Heaven.”

Cole’s eyes flashed green. “Really?”

I smiled with the warmth that still radiated over me from the vision.

Cole’s expression twisted with worry. In a sitting position, he sank into the bed beside me and took my hand. “I was closer to losing you than I realized.”

“I wanted to stay. There.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“You were there, but you didn’t want me to stay.”

“Thank God, I have some sense somewhere. Here I haven’t shown a lot of evidence of it. I’m so sorr—”

I put my hand over Cole’s mouth. “No more apologies. I just want you to kiss me. And to find some good pain meds.”

“If you weren’t so fragile, I’d jerk you up out of that bed and never let you go.” Cole trembled with some emotion I couldn’t read.

“She’s awake?” Kaitlyn busted through the door. She shot Cole an irritated glare. “When were you going to tell us?”

“I just woke. He had to keep me in the bed. I thought I could run a marathon straight off, but turns out I almost died.”

“Almost? Honey, you were dead.” Kaitlyn crossed the room, leaned down, and kissed my cheek.

“Once again your talents with CPR were priceless.” I smiled weakly.

“Holy crap. You’re awake!” Shelby barreled through the room and stopped herself before she fell face first on the bed. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Behind Shelby a guy walked in. Where had I seen him before?

“Do… Do you remember Trevor?” Shelby said as I strained to put features with a name.

Oh, yes. Awww. They’d seen each other while I was asleep and—

I looked back and forth at all of their faces. “How long have I been out?”

“Almost a month.” Cole looked at the carpet. “You had swelling on your brain.”

“Why am I at home?” My heart rate increased. I struggled to get comfortable.

Kaitlyn and Shelby stood side by side as they exchanged nervous glances.

Cole stood and straightened the room. “You have the means to have a private nurse. So we hired one.”

“What about doctors?” This was crazy. I’d lost a month.

Cole raised his hand. “You’re looking at him. I’m a neurologist. At least I was in a past life, and I did have some help from a general practice doctor.”

“My brother, Brantley, works in a neighboring town. He does house calls.” Trevor tucked his hands in his pockets.

“Does he—does he know about…everything?” I looked at Shelby, not sure what I could say and what I couldn’t.

Cole hadn’t minded letting out that he’d lived past lives. This was so much to take in that my head pounded more.

“Oh, the pain meds.” Cole got up and went to a case. He took out a syringe and drew yellow liquid from a small vial. “This is going to make you hot all over.”

“Anything you do to me makes me hot all over.” I grinned.

“Ugh.”

“Aww, gah.”

“She’s still Allie.”

“Why couldn’t there be some form of amnesia that blocked her frolicky side,” Shelby finally said after their chorus of groans quieted.

Cole rattled through a bag of medicines and injected my IV line. “I’m so glad to have you back. Now for some much needed relief.”