Forged by Greed (40 page)

He didn’t respond or move—just stood there, watching her hardheartedly.

Jasmira started to tremble, uncertain why she suddenly became
nervous. She quickly closed the distance between them. She threw herself onto
him, clutching his neck. “I was so scared… I couldn’t reach you for days. Everyone
was telling me some crazy stories… that Crystal did something to your memories.”
Jasmira’s eyes flicked over Jatred’s face, looking for the familiar expression
of love and comfort he always had for her. But his features remained icy and
distant.

She drew in a panicked breath. “J?” her voice quivered with too many
feelings to name. Her eyes opened wide when she realized that his arms were still
down his sides and not holding her.

Jatred was quiet, stone-faced, but his eyes weren’t cold anymore. He
reached behind his neck and unclasped Jasmira’s hands. He moved them down and
away from his body.

Her heart sank, and she started to tremble again. “So it’s true?”
She took a step back, her voice barely above a whisper.

“What is true?” Jatred asked, confused.

Jasmira slowly shook her head from side to side. “You are not playing
some cruel game with me, are you?”

He looked taken aback by her words. His face was a spectacle of
emotions—confusion, anger, sadness, resignation. “Look, I’m…” He exhaled
loudly, glancing away.

Jasmira put her hands on his back, trying to draw him to her. His
body stiffened, and she let go of him.

Jatred looked at her intensely. “So you must be Jasmira?” His voice
was low and
raspy.

She arched her eyebrows and stared at his face, speechless.

“Are you or not? Just tell me, damn it. I really don’t remember you.
Is that so hard to understand?” Jatred said heatedly. He shoved his hand
through his thick black hair and looked away, swearing under his breath.

Jasmira shook her head again. “Why are you so angry? It’s not
happening. This is
not
happening. She
couldn’t just take you away.”

Jatred looked into her troubled eyes but he didn’t see anything
familiar. He wanted to drag the memories from the void of his mind, but it felt
like grasping empty air with his hands. He watched her for a moment, looking as
though he was about to say something else. But he remained silent.

“Look… I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
you before—“

“It’s me! Look at me. I mean,
really
look at me!” she screamed with her mind, her jaw clenched. In frustration, she
pulled with both hands on her hair and spun around, taking a few steps away
from him. “I can’t believe this. Nobody just forgets everything. Wait a
minute…” she turned back to face him, her face a mask of hope, “do you remember
other people? Bogdan, Erik, Georgeta? How about my friend, Penelope?”

Jatred shrugged. “I remember all of them. Pen too.”

Jasmira blinked a few times in confusion, her lips parted. She
stared at him in horror. “It’s impossible. So now your memory is... is…” she
struggled to find a right word, “selective?”

Jatred exhaled loudly and clasped both hands at the nape of his
neck, looking up at the ceiling. There was nothing tugging at his heart, so why
did he feel so angry? Why did she have this effect on him? She should be just
another Shifter among the humans around. But she must have been so much more to
him in the past. Just the way everyone tried to convince him that she was. How
was this possible? He would have remembered something. Anything! Wouldn’t he?

“J?” Jasmira’s voice cracked, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

He snapped out of his angry reverie, as if waking up from a bad
dream. Feeling even more confused than he did a moment earlier, Jatred stared
at Jasmira’s tear-stained face. A distant memory tried to invade his
consciousness—the tears spilling from those huge dark eyes and sliding down to
her chin. They dripped onto her yellow t-shirt, leaving wet shapes on the
fabric. Where had he seen this… it was like
déjà vu
.
Ducks swimming in a pond, and then getting
out of the water, shaking their funny little tails. Ducks? What the hell?

“Where did you get this shirt?” Unexpectedly, he heard his voice, as
if someone else formed the words coming out of his mouth.

“What?”

Jatred let out a frustrated grunt and shook his head. “The shirt.
It’s yellow and the wet stain on it…”

 
“I don’t remember. The Gap
maybe? Why?” Jasmira looked down at her t-shirt. She swept her fingers over the
wet spot. She felt a delicate pressure of the Dasht-e Kavir on her chest, but
decided to ignore it for now. She lifted her gaze to Jatred.

His eyebrows were knitted together, a line formed between them. “Where
are those ducks?”

“What? J, you aren’t making any sense.” Jasmira looked at him
suspiciously.

“Forget it.” He shook his head. His hands made their way to the nape
of his neck again, where he wove the fingers together and pressed them to the
back of his head.

“No, wait. Wait. What ducks? Tell me what you saw? Maybe there is
something in your memory? Something that you can use as a starting point to
draw the rest from.” She sounded frantic, her eyes dancing over his face.

“And you think some ducks are the key?” His voice carried a note of
incredulity.

“Well, I… I think you’ve got something—”

“I got nothing! There is a freakin’ hole in my memory, and I have no
clue who you are. I. Don’t. Know. You.”

She gasped and clamped her hands to her mouth. “J—”

“Why do you keep calling me that?” he hissed and turned around. He
took a few steps, stopped and said from over his shoulder, “Leave me alone, I
mean it. Whatever it is you think you are doing, is not my concern. I just want
to be left alone.” He ran up the stairs.

Jasmira’s heart pounded in her chest and she felt very dizzy. She
sank to her knees, shaking, unable to speak
.
“You are not yourself, J. I don’t understand it, but I know this is not you
speaking.”
Her mind was spinning out of control, and she couldn’t do
anything to stop it.

CHAPTER 45

Human World, November 18, early
evening.

Savannah sat by a hospital bed, looking at a room partition. White
fabric was stretched on the stainless steel frame with wheels.
 
She chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying
not to cry. She held her mom’s hand and gently stroked it with her thumb.

The older woman was sleeping. Her chest rose and fell slowly. Her
head was bandaged, and one arm was enclosed in a cast. A large bruise and a long
scratch covered one side of her face; bandages were plastered on her other arm
and neck.
 

A large hospital room was divided into several one-bed sections, each
occupied by someone injured in the earthquake. The door opened slowly. It let
in the noise from the corridor. The hospital beds were crammed in there too. A
slender Asian teenage boy poked his head inside. His face looked like a
beautiful sculpture: high cheekbones, slanted eyes, and a sensual mouth,
combined with smooth skin. He smiled tentatively at Savannah.

“Logan.” Savannah looked surprised.

“Hey,” he whispered, and quietly closed the door behind him. He
walked over to the bed and looked at the sleeping woman. “How is she?”

“The doctor said she should be fine. There is no internal bleeding,
but she has a broken arm,” Savannah whispered.

Logan looked at her, his eyes kind. “I’m sorry. If there is anything
I can do...”

“Thank you for being here. I really appreciate it.” She looked away.

Logan walked to the other side of the bed, where another chair was
positioned right by the room divider. He lifted the chair with one hand, as if
it was a sheet of paper. He brought it next to Savannah, sat down, and turned
toward her. She didn’t look at him.

“Savannah,” he said tentatively, and then raked his hand through his
thick black hair.

Her eyes flicked to him.

“Look… my family, uhm… I told you. They… they won’t allow it—”

“I know,” she cut him off. “They are strict and will never let you
be with me.” She turned to him and whispered very quietly, so the other
patients and the visitors couldn’t hear her, “Because I’m
just
a human.”

Logan swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple momentarily bobbing up and
down. He watched Savannah’s face. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them
quickly with the back of her hand, turning her head away.

They sat in silence, watching Savannah’s sleeping mother. A few beds
away someone was crying softly. The sound cut through a low murmur of
conversations coming from different parts of the room.

Logan cleared his throat and asked, “When are you taking her home?”

“Today. As soon as she wakes up.”

“Do you want me to drive you, guys?”

“No, I have Mom’s car here. It was parked on the street by our house,
but nothing fell on it or anything. We were lucky, at least with the car.”
Savannah tried to smile through the tears.

Logan drew her in his arms and pressed her gently to his chest. He
stroked her hair. She didn’t protest and hesitantly put her hands on his back.

The door opened and a short, corpulent nurse rushed past them, a
tray with a medicine in her hands. Another nurse—a young and willowy African
American—followed, carrying an identical tray. Her short black hair was tightly
braided, dark-brown skin showing between the tiny immaculate rows. The woman
turned her head and glanced at the teenagers. Her gaze slid over to Savannah’s
mother. She stopped for a moment, but then moved past the hospital partition.

Savannah sat up with a sigh, her knees still touching Logan’s. She
looked at her mom’s peaceful face, and then at her ex-boyfriend. He was
watching her with an unreadable expression.

“If you need anything… I mean,
anything
,
don’t ever think twice about calling me, okay?” Logan’s eyes bore into hers. He
leaned tentatively closer as if to kiss her, but stopped, and looked down. He
got to his feet, stuck his hands in his jeans pockets, and bit his lower lip.

“Logan, it means a lot to me that you called, and then came here
right away. It’s so…” Savannah let her breath out forcefully. “Don’t ever leave
me. I mean, you did but… what I’m trying to say is that I feel more secure
knowing we are still… friends, you know.”

“Don’t mention it.” He watched her for a moment, silent, his throat
tight. “I will call you later.”

He turned around, opened the door, and stepped into the hallway
without a second glance.

Don’t ever leave me? What
is wrong with me?
I’m such an idiot.
Savannah squeezed her eyes shut. She grimaced
and hit her fist on her thigh.

                                                           
  
***

“I told you I don’t have any stupid concussion.” Penelope looked at
Erik.

He stood next to her. “Thank Goddess.”

Penelope sneered, “Which one? I don’t see
either
of them doing a damn thing to protect us.”

“Get back home, you two. And be careful.” A man in a white doctor’s
coat passed them hurriedly, a stethoscope dangling from his neck. Both
teenagers clearly heard his voice in their heads.

They turned around to watch him navigate the crowd and the beds in
the hallway.

“You still work for Doctor Bigbee?” Erik asked.

“You know I do. He lets me work just one afternoon a week here.
Downstairs, in the reception. I wonder how he looks when he shifts.”

“I don’t think you will ever have a chance to see that here.” Erik
laughed.

Penelope swatted him on the chest, grinning, and then circled her
arm around his waist. Erik kissed the top of her head, avoiding the spot where
the blood from her injury had dried in a dark-brown crust. The wound was
already healed.

They passed another bed lined up along the wall of the hallway. The
door opened, and Logan stepped out, his handsome face contorted with sorrow.

“Logan!” Erik shouted. “Hey, are you okay?”

The Asian teenager looked from Erik to Penelope, and then past them,
as if seeing all the injured people for the first time. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“What are you doing in here? Is someone from your family hurt?” Erik
towered over Logan, his eyes concerned.

“I was checking up on my friend’s mom. She got hurt in the
earthquake.”

“Who’s mom?” Penelope asked.

“Uhm… her name is Savannah. You probably don’t know her.” Logan
shrugged.

“Of course I know Savannah. She’s my neighbor. They’ve moved into
that little house on my street last year,” Penelope said. “I saw her yesterday
with Jatred. Are they dating?”