Instinctual (18 page)

Jake pulled on her arm. “Hey! We can get there a lot quicker, you know.”

Kate turned and eyed him angrily, not sure if anything was real any more, even his searing touch on her arm.

It was all just madness, that’s what it was. So Jake could time travel, or teleport, too. No big deal, right? Why not just play along with the wacky dream and see what would happen next?

“Whatever, Jake. Just do what you have to and get it over with.” She pulled her arm away from him to make it easier to be angry.

“In order for this to work, you’re going to have to do it. I don’t know where your body is. It’s easy, I promise. All you do is concentrate on the place you want to go and voila!”

“You want me to teleport us
both
out of here?” she asked, poking herself in the chest with her thumb.

“Yes. My holding onto you is no different than you being on your own. Just remember where your body is and concentrate on taking us both there.”

“How are you able to teleport when you’re not like me? Magic doesn’t exist.”

“I can’t explain it now. We don’t have much time. Just trust me, okay?”

Kate knew that Jake was keeping her in the dark about a lot of things but she also knew the urgency of showing Jake where her body was. As much as she didn’t want to, she reached out and grabbed Jake’s hand in hers. He entwined their fingers and gripped her tightly so that there was no way she could pull away again.

Closing her eyes, she pictured the ledge where her broken form lay and in an instant she knew they had moved. The sound of the waves crashing onto the rocks below caused her to open her eyes. Jake was already gasping as he broke contact with her and was kneeling over her body.

Kate could feel his emotions, even at a distance.

Jake looked up to the top of the cliff, becoming harshly aware of just how far Kate had fallen. Looking across to where Kate’s ethereal form stood with her hands across her chest, he asked the million dollar question.

“How did you fall? What were you doing standing so close to the edge? You did fall, didn’t you, or were you pushed?”

“No! I wasn’t pushed. I was running…”

Jake stood up and took a step closer to where Kate hovered.

“Baby…”

Kate stopped him. “Don’t come any closer. Just stay there.”

“How did you fall?”

“I was standing looking out to the ocean, trying to gather my thoughts. Trying to piece together the strange things that had been happening to me. I thought I heard you behind me and I took a step—”

Jake appeared mortified. “Fuck!” His hand swept through his hair, causing it to stand on end as his whole face screwed up. He looked ready to punch something. She could see the anger building in him as he walked over to the face of the cliff and pounded his fist into the dirt and rock over and over again, causing pieces to break off and crumble onto the ledge. He looked like he was in such turmoil at what she’d just told him. He was blaming himself because she’d not only been running from him, she’d fallen because of him.

She watched on in horror as Jake started to pound his head into the wall. It seemed like he was punishing himself on her behalf. One of his fists started up again in between his head-butts. If he didn’t stop there was going to be a landslide. She couldn’t let him keep torturing himself like that. It was hurting her too much.

“Jake, stop!” She walked over to him and put a gentle hand on his back. He tensed underneath her touch but his head and fist stopped. “Don’t do this to yourself. It’s not your fault. I slipped. It was an accident!”

“Accident?” He hadn’t turned yet, as if he was too ashamed. His voice was littered with disgust. “Kate, you were running because of me. I saw the recognition in your eyes at the festival. You sensed me. You came here to get away from me. You fell because you thought I had followed you. Don’t tell me it was an accident!” His fingers were digging into the dirt.

Kate could see the weight of Jake’s guilt on his shoulders and knew deep within her soul that even though she’d reacted to his arrival in Vernazza, he couldn’t be held responsible for the accident. “It’s not your fault that we have a connection so strong that I can feel you without seeing you. You didn’t push me to my near death. I over-reacted. I let my anger and hurt control me. I acted hastily. It was a stupid accident, nothing more. I shouldn’t have been standing so close to the edge.” She was surprised at her own words and how quickly she was forgiving Jake. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was all true.

He shrugged her off and moved over to her battered body where he sat back down and moved her bloodied head to face him, as he gently stroked her cheek.

Kate watched how tender he was being. He cared about her. That was evident. At her apartment, before she’d vanished, she’d agreed to hear him out before she said goodbye to him for good. She owed him that.

His fingers found the faint pulse in her neck. His hands were shaking.

Kate stared at his hands, still not able to see his face. Something wasn’t right.

“Jake?” Unease crept forth. Her sixth sense was fighting through all the haze and drama. A knowing was bubbling to the surface. How had she not seen it before?

He didn’t answer her.

“Jake?” Her voice was louder and higher now.

As he slowly looked up to her with a destroyed look on his face, Kate put a hand over her mouth. “Jake! Your head! Your hands! They aren’t bleeding or cut! I watched you pound both of them into the rock wall. How…? What’s going on?” As if she didn’t already know. She’d just been too blind to really see.

His expression didn’t change and he didn’t give her the answer she needed to hear. “We need to talk. Not here.”

Kate didn’t know now if she wanted answers. To get answers would confirm her growing feelings of dread that had started hanging around Jake. His skin looked better than it ever had. Glowing almost. How could that be? There were so many questions plummeting through her, obviously due to whatever it was Jake wasn’t telling her. Since first seeing him, everything had manifested into a giant mess. What the hell was he even doing here? She had to ask. To try and make some sense of it all.

“Why are you here, Jake?” He looked at her with such sadness, she almost lost her composure and went to him.

“We need to find a way to get help. Get you to the hospital. You’re barely hanging in there, Kate.”

“No. I mean here in Vernazza. Why did you come after all this time?” He’d never really come out and said it. She was curious as to what had led him back into her life after so long. She had always sensed he was here because of her, but why?

“I’m not one hundred percent sure. I do know that I need your help, though. I think that was the reason for coming here.” Confusion swept across his features.

“Why? Why do you need my help?” It was more of a whisper as she took a few steps closer, being careful to keep some distance. Something was so wrong with Jake. Why were his knuckles and head still intact after his meltdown minutes ago? Why couldn’t he remember exactly what had led him to Vernazza? That didn’t make sense coming from someone whose memory was normally so sharp he could recall what he’d been wearing to his first birthday. Well, maybe not quite that far back, but it was better than anyone’s she’d ever known.

“Something has happened to me. The same way it has happened to you. I’m out of my body, too.” He looked away from Kate and back down to her physical body, where he pulled some of the bloodied, matted hair away from her cheek.

And there she had it. The confirmation she’d been dreading. “Are you…” Dare she ask? “Dead?” Now it was her turn to stare wide-eyed at Jake waiting for an answer she didn’t want to hear.

“Not yet. It’s a long story. Can we please just get you help first and then we need to go somewhere safe so I can explain everything? I promise I’ll tell you everything. Why I had to leave you in the first place. Where I’ve been for the last five years, and how your father is involved.”

A whimper escaped Kate as her hand came up to clutch at her throat in shock. “My father?”

“It’s complicated, baby.”

“My father is involved in you being out of your body?”

“No. Yes. Not directly. Look, how are we going to get help to you? That’s my main concern. We’re both walking ghosts. No one can see us.”

“You! How can you see me? How can we see each other?”

“Well, you have your ‘special talent’ and can obviously feel and hear me no matter what but I’m guessing we can see each other now because we’re not physical anymore. Our other senses are heightened.”

“How was I not able to know my father was in Vernazza until I stumbled upon his bag in my apartment? How am I not able to know everything you’ve been keeping from me, Jake? Why does my gift only show itself when it wants to?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’ve never really developed it more. You’ve never really wanted to have it. You accepted the fact that you were different but never really embraced it.”

Kate tried to process everything that was happening. Her fall. Jake. Her father. How was he involved in all this? Is that why he was in Italy? She’d known it wasn’t a social visit but could he be here to try and save Jake?

“Kate. Something happened to your father when you ran through him down near the Doria Castle. It was almost like you zapped him with your energy. Do you think you could do it again? We need to somehow get his attention. Make him think that it’s you trying to connect with him. I can’t think of any other way.”

“Can’t I just try calling him? Oh wait. I don’t have my cell.”

Jake stood again and sheepishly pulled Kate’s cell out of his back pocket.

He stood with his hand outstretched, watching her mood turn from disbelief to annoyance.

“It was you? I threw my cell on the floor because I couldn’t get in contact with any one and when I returned to my apartment it was gone. I saw my father’s bags there and assumed he must have picked it up. What are you doing with my cell, Jake?” Kate’s tone had changed, sarcasm dripping from her words.

“I meant to give it to you earlier. I picked it up when I was in your apartment and then with everything that has happened this evening, I kind of forgot.”

Kate snatched it out of Jake’s hands and switched it on, screaming as she looked at the screen, furiously stepping closer to Jake and punching him in the shoulder, causing him to flinch and take a staggering step back.

“Ten missed calls from my father? What the hell were you thinking, Jake? Why was my cell switched off? My father has been calling trying to get a hold of me.”

As she said this she also noticed five missed calls from Carlos. She swore and put her head in her hands, shaking it furiously.

“What the hell right do you have to even take my phone, let alone turn it off when the people I care about are trying to reach me?” She could barely get the words out.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

She didn’t even hear his apology as she punched in her father’s cell number, turning her back to Jake. There was no ring tone. Only the same static that had been there previously.

“Stupid phone! Why can’t I call out on it? All I get is static.”

“What? Here, let me try.”

Hearing Jake cursing, Kate knew that he hadn’t had any luck, either.

“Why do you think we can’t call anyone?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a bad signal. Or maybe it’s—”

“What?”

“Maybe we can’t call anyone because we aren’t fucking alive, Kate! Our energy is interfering with the signals.” Jake looked livid.

Kate knew he was sorry as soon as the words escaped. The events of the evening had been overwhelming to them both.

Jake strode over and took her in his arms. “I’m sorry, baby. There was no need for that. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m just so annoyed at this whole mess. I’m trying to rack my brains to find a solution but I just don’t know. If anything happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself.” He pulled her head tightly against his chest, not waiting for any resistance.

She fell into him, needing the warmth he brought. “I’m still mad at you.”

“I know. You have every right to be angry with me but I promise you I’m going to spend every hour of the rest of my life trying to make it up to you.”

Kate knew how Jake was feeling and little by little she found herself warming to the idea that he still wanted her and that she at least had company in the alternate universe she occupied.

“So do you think you’re up for another quick trip?” he asked.

“It sure beats walking.” As shocked as she still was at being able to project herself to any destination, it was actually quite addictive.

This time Jake took the lead and transported them both back into the piazza where he hoped Robert and The Gladiator still were.

It was just lucky that they were invisible because popping out of thin air in front of strangers would surely cause some chaos.

Sure enough as they appeared, turning full circle searching for Robert, they found him and his shadow, walking northbound away from the marina up the main street before turning right and ascending a flight of steps to another level of town.