Deviation (37 page)
She held that image as the lack of air tightened her chest in a painful way. Held it still when she saw pinpricks of light behind her eyelids and knew she was near to passing out. Near to giving in and swallowing water and drowning. Sharp, painful lights pierced her vision. She tried to kick her legs, but could feel how slow and labored they were.
They broke the surface and she heard Myron suck in a long breath of air. She coughed and breathed and bobbed back down into the water before he could catch her. When he pulled her against him again she passed out.
When she woke next Myron was carrying her to shore. It was early morning. She could see the golden hue of dawn over the horizon and breathed in relief.
"How far ... did you have to swim?" She asked.
"Far enough."
He slowly lowered her to the sand, then flopped back to rest. He was breathing heavily and he looked terrible. Exhausted and beaten, she thought.
He'd chosen a small cove, well hidden by trees and plant life, but she could see that some of the shadows on his person were actually bruises.
She smiled faintly. He'd done it. He'd gotten her home.
"Oh no," she said, understanding hitting her, "You can't get back."
He turned to look at her and smiled. "Not much to get back to, Kate. Besides," he peeled back his pant leg and pulled a small, squarish object from his boot. "If Borden is right, then I imagine the cure to the Mavirus can do more good on this side of the timeline."
"But what will you do?"
He grinned down at her. "Don't worry about me, Kate."
"But ... "
"You should probably think of what you're going to tell people about all of this."
Kate faltered. She hadn't thought of that.
"You can't tell them the truth, Kate. They'll lock you up and you'll never see your boy again."
"I have to tell them something. They'll want to find Reesa."
"True," Myron said. He peered out at the sunrise for a moment and then smiled at her again. "Tell them a group of crazy fans kidnapped you. You and Reesa fought to get out, but something knocked you overboard."
"And... ?"
"And a handsome man rescued you. You can get away with saying you don't remember anything else."
Kate managed to press her hand to the bandages on her chest. She could feel the ache of injury starting to throb through the drugs and frowned. "I'll just say I don't remember anything after being taken from Reesa's apartment."
"That might be best." Myron pushed himself to his feet. "Rest, Kate. I'll call for help."
She watched him walk away, surefooted and tall, and sighed. The cold of the morning seeped into her, but she couldn't find the will to move. There were other things she wouldn't be able to explain, she thought. She was still wearing the space suit, though the temperature regulator seemed to have failed. And someone was bound to notice whatever medical aid had been given to her while she was unconscious.
Shivering, she closed her eyes and realized she'd forgotten to thank Myron.
Sometime later she woke to an unfamiliar voice. She had a jumble of images in her mind - an ambulance ride and several doctors - but nothing substantial she could pinpoint.
"Some kind of surgery ... " the voice was saying.
It was close by, hushed and professional enough that she could assume where she was. A hospital, more than likely, which meant Myron had succeeded in calling for help. At some level, she'd always known he would. It had to be fate that Reesa wrote the man to look like Ben.
Reesa.
Oh, God, Reesa.
Remorse hit her full force. There was no way she could ever explain what had happened to her friend. She knew that Jake would be adamant about finding her, even if the man had never allowed it to prosper, there had always been an underlying sort of attraction between the author and her publicist. He'd taken a bullet for her, after all. And Kate knew, down in her soul, that Reesa wouldn't want to come back. Not really. The flighty creature was more at home on the other end of reality.
"Mommy?"
She fought her eyes open.
The little hospital room blurred in her vision, but she saw him anyway. Quinn stood just beside the bed, a Spiderman coloring book in one arm as he peered down at her. His blue eyes lit up when he smiled and he bounced twice on his feet before looking away at the door.
"Daddy! Daddy! Mommy's awake!"
Kate thought she should turn and look at Ben, sensed when he had moved to stand beside her and check on her, but her focus was riveted on the sight of her son.
She was home.
The heat of the sun stroked against Reesa's already sweat-laden skin, leaving uncomfortable trails down her spine and pools of moisture in nearly every crease of her body. The ocean battled its way up the shoreline in front of her, coming near enough to her toes that she knew they'd have to move soon or else get wet. But they didn't move. Reesa leaned against Matthew, let her head rest on his shoulder and felt him settle to take her weight.
They were silent, subdued either by their reality or the sight of ocean vista before them. A part of her wondered if maybe Matt had married her only because he thought she'd be dead soon. He had seemed to know about the illness before his brother had confirmed it for them. But then, there was a gentleness to the way he treated her that went against that thought. Now that they both knew she was going to survive, she hoped nothing changed between them.
"I'm certain she made it back," he said after a moment. "Myron is too good at what he does."
"I know."
Reesa had been diligently avoiding the topic of Kate for the past three days. She had to believe her friend had made it back. She couldn't allow the more creative parts of her brain to dwell on the question lest she envision poor Kate dead. If she was honest with herself, Reesa was terrified that if she dreamt something up, it would come true.
"I sent all of the research on the Mavirus back with him." He glanced at her face and frowned. "I'd never thought of time travel in my wildest dreams so I have no idea what sort of ramifications will come of it."
"Well," she took his hand and interlocked their fingers. He had slender hands, strong and warm and they distracted her for a moment. "I imagine that if this is real, then things will alter in such a way that you would not really notice. You, having been born with this reality, would alter with it. But I would see something, since I do not really belong here."
His brow pinched with displeasure.
"And if it's not real?" He asked.
Reesa focused on the horizon again, on the distant blending of blues and whites as ocean met with sky. She hadn't really answered that question for herself and couldn't imagine trying to answer it for him. Either reality was horrifying. Though, for the sake of the human race and every woman she'd killed in her fiction, a part of her prayed that she was in a padded room somewhere, rocking herself back and forth.
Because she couldn't voice that, she nestled into his side and waited for the world to change.
The End.
From Double Dragon Publishing
www.double-dragon-ebooks.com
Witch-Born
Smash witchcraft and steampunk technology together and you get the world of Magnellum, where Witches are nobility and the populace depends on Magic to keep the Wild at bay. Witch-Born is a Fantasy with steampunk tendencies revolving around the lives of Elsie Delgora and Saldorian Feverrette. Fate literally thrusts these two together when Saldorian stumbles over the seditious plot Elsie has been conducting for 23 years. As the two struggle to find an accord the House Lands of Delgora begin to crumble under the tyranny of Vicaress Reonne, whose hidden pet known as the Dellidus slowly eats at the Magic keeping the Wild away.