Faelorehn (25 page)

It was when Cade’s body started distorting into the most grotesque shapes I had ever seen this side of some zombie apocalypse movie that I decided my brain must be shutting down, and that this was the death throes I had been expecting.  It was like watching a car accident in slow motion or witnessing a cartoon character from one of my brother’s favorite shows going bonkers.  I had no desire to witness it, but like a drug, the macabre scene drew my eye like a moth to the flame.

An unknown amount of time passed and I could no longer see Cade, but I could still hear what was going on.  He must have been ripping the Cumorrig and the demon things apart, because I could hear them wailing and screeching in pain.  The racket probably would have hurt my ears, that is, if I could still feel anything.  A blur of pale fur swept by, emitting a sharp bark. 
Fergus!

Suddenly, the horrible screeching stopped and all was still.  I wondered if Cade and the creatures had killed one another, but a few minutes later I felt the presence of someone or something approach.  Someone strong scooped me up and cradled me against their chest. 
Cade.
  Unfortunately, I was too numb to enjoy the experience, or to remember that he had a girlfriend and that he didn’t care about me at all.

“Meghan!” he breathed close to my ear, his voice sounding harsh and broken.  “Oh no, stay with me darling girl.”

I’ll try,
I thought,
but I think you’re a bit too late.
  Why was I being so reasonable?  This was the guy who was dating the Morrigan, the same guy who had apparently lied to me.  So why didn’t I push him aside?  Oh yes, that’s right; I was in shock and since I probably only had a few minutes left to live, I wasn’t about to reject the attentions of the guy I’d been pining after for the last several months.  Immortal or not, the faelah had gotten the better of me and I was definitely dying.

Cade gently pushed his hand up against the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my snarled hair.  He was saying something against my ear in that archaic language the Morrigan had used and he was planting kisses on my temple.  My stomach fluttered.  Not with nausea this time, but with a warm joy.  Could it really be happening, or was I imaging it?

Oh, please kiss me for real,
I thought.

Then I almost felt like laughing out loud, if I were even remotely close to being fully conscious.  There I was, dying on the boundaries of some mystical Otherworld, and all I could think about was this dangerous infatuation I had with some Faelorehn hunter who supposedly was in a relationship with a powerful and beautiful Celtic deity.  It was official then: my brain must be fading away with the rest of me.

Cade was no longer speaking but his lips were moving from my temple, to my cheek, to the corner of my mouth that wasn’t stained with blood, trailing kisses the entire way.  I waited for his lips to finally meet mine, but fate was cruel and I died before I could experience that first and last kiss.

* * *

Bright lights flashed far above me and it felt like I was floating.  I heard urgent voices, shouting and barking out orders.  Was I in heaven?  Hell?  Knowing how my life had been going for the past several months, I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up in either place.

Eventually, the flashing lights stopped and I detected one steady, bright glare.  A sting in my arm, the sound of metal clattering on metal, more voices, an incessant beeping sound and then my awareness faded away again.

I woke in a hospital room, completely disoriented and utterly confused.  There were hospitals in the afterlife?  A nurse came over to check on me, grinning and making some comment about getting my family.  I was alive?  After all that had happened?  Wait, what had happened?  I couldn’t remember.  All I could recall was that I had been so sure I was dying.  Guess I’d been wrong.

Mom and Dad looked ragged, as if they had been up a week straight.  My brothers came bounding in, all of them either drying their eyes or trying very hard not to burst into tears.

They explained to me that I had been attacked by some stray dogs or coyotes near my high school.  A man driving by saw it all and managed to pull the dogs off of me, then drove me to the hospital.  My parents were disappointed that he hadn’t left his name, but apparently I had been lucid enough to give him my name and address.

I had only been in the hospital for the night, though it felt like a week.  I had plenty of bruises, some deep lacerations that needed stitches and my left leg had been fractured.  I had also hit my head pretty hard but they patched me up, put a cast on my leg, and proclaimed me fit enough to leave the hospital.

Mom set me up in my bed once we got back home and brought me a pitcher of sweetened iced tea with lemons.  She positioned the pillows so that I could sit up and read or watch TV or work on the variety of crossword puzzles and word searches she’d gathered for me.

“The doctor says you should take it easy for the next few days to make sure you don’t suffer any more after effects of your concussion,” Mom said.

I nodded.  Just doing that hurt.

She let out a troubled breath and shook her own head.  “A pack of dogs, I can’t believe it.  What is a pack of dogs doing wandering around the neighborhood?”

She sounded so disbelieving, but not in a way that suggested she didn’t believe what had happened to me.  There were a few junkyards in the industrial neighborhood on the other side of the highway, but they only kept one or two dogs to warn off any miscreants.  Most dogs around here were either friendly or fiercely guarded their own yards.

She shook her head again and said, “I just hope Animal Control finds them before they can hurt anyone else.”

Her voice was shaky and I knew she was trying hard not to burst into tears. My mom was tough, she had to be with all my brothers, but when something serious happened she let her emotions show.

I sighed and rubbed my arm.  It was sore where the IV had been and where the nurses had given me a rabies shot, just to be safe.  I grimaced.  I couldn’t wait until everyone at school heard about that.  I predicted a whole new onslaught of nicknames coming my way.

Mom kissed me on the top of my head once more, her eyes shining with the emotion she was trying hard to keep at bay, and then instructed me to send her a text on her cell phone if I needed anything.  I told her I would be fine, but I picked up my phone and held it up to reassure her.  Casting me one last smile, she made her way up my spiral staircase and disappeared through the trap door.

Feeling overwhelmingly blessed about my current state of existence, I huffed a great sigh and leaned fully into my pillows.  If my parents had any idea what had really happened . . . I screwed up my face.  But what exactly
had
happened?  It was still all a blur to me, the details at least, but I did recall crossing over into the Otherworld and then being almost immediately attacked by a contingent of monsters.  I had done something to defend myself, something pathetic like picking up a rock or a stick.  I really needed more practice with the lessons Cade had been giving me.

I cringed at the thought of Cade.  Had that really been him when I was certain I was dying?  Had he really managed to thwart the Morrigan and chase away her monsters and hounds?  Or had that just been another one of my delusions?  Had he really held me in his arms and had he truly kissed me before I lost consciousness?  And if so, could everything that the Morrigan said to me be a lie? 
Duh Meghan, she lured you into the Otherworld to kill you.  Time to re-evaluate your opinion about Cade . . . again.

I sighed and turned my head towards the sliding glass door that looked out into my backyard.  It was early evening and the shadows of the trees were painting gray streaks across the lawn.  It didn’t matter if Cade had come to help me, for I had a terrible feeling I would never see him again.

Tears pricked my eyes and an ache worked its way up into my throat.  As I drifted off to sleep, three thoughts surfaced to my mind.  First, I prayed to whatever gods existed that the memories of my ordeal wouldn’t haunt me during my sleep.  Second, I asked those same deities that the Morrigan would think I was dead and therefore wouldn’t come back for me.  And lastly, I hoped with all my heart that Cade was safe somewhere in the Otherworld.  Despite my mixed feelings towards him and regardless of the fact that the Morrigan seemed to have a significant amount of control over him, I only wished him well.  Perhaps I really did love him, for why else would I feel this way towards someone who very well may have forsaken me?

-Twenty-

Explanation

When I opened my eyes again it was just before dawn.  I wasn’t sure what had woken me, for the silence in my room and just outside my doors was almost deafening.  I had to just lie in bed for a few minutes as my muddled mind resurfaced.  The medication they had given me at the hospital must have lingered longer than I thought.  Finally, I took a deep breath and glanced towards the glass door.  I nearly screamed in surprise.

“Fergus!”  I meant to shout, but it only came out as a croak.

The great white wolfhound panted just outside my door, looking like a ghost against the early morning fog.  I threw back the covers and made to get out of bed but the cast caught my eye.  Ah, yes.  Broken leg.  Maybe Mom had left me some crutches . . . I looked around then sighed.  No luck.  I contemplated hop-limping over to the door but as soon as I put pressure on the leg, I cried out in pain.

I sat on the edge of my bed, the sheets thrown back, feeling rather forlorn.  I was wearing a pair of boxer shorts bedecked with my favorite cartoon characters from my middle school years and an old, faded T-shirt.  I reached up and touched my hair.  Yep, it was a mess.  I hadn’t had a chance to take a good look at the bruises that decorated my face or the stitches in my shoulder and neck, but I’m sure it made me look like some sort of teen version of Frankenstein’s monster. 
Oh well,
I thought with a grin,
it’s only Fergus who’s seeing me like this.

I glanced up, hoping that the hound hadn’t left, and then I nearly fell out of bed in shock.  Fergus wasn’t alone anymore.  A tall figure stood at my door, one hand on the hound’s head and the hood of his long trench coat pulled up.  Of course, the first emotion that rushed through me was relief followed by a tidal wave of mortification.  Oh, what a sight I must be!  I scrambled to cover myself with my sheets and blanket, well aware of the view Cade surely had been given. 
At least the bruises will hide the blush,
I thought in misery.

Cade must have been waiting for something, because he continued to stand at the door, looking straight ahead.  I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I knew his eyes were trained on me.  After a few more seconds I realized he was waiting for me to give him permission to enter my room.  My dark, cluttered, too-many-personal-things-left-out-for-him-to-see room.  I bit my lip.  Should I let him come in?  I glanced around in embarrassment.  Dirty clothes were scattered everywhere, my desk was untidy and my bathroom could have used a good cleaning.  I was dressed in nothing but some unfeminine boxer shorts and a hole-ridden T-shirt, my hair a rat’s nest, and my face looking like a demented artist’s pallet.

I glanced back up again.  Cade still stood there but Fergus seemed to have wandered off, perhaps to act as a lookout.  I wasn’t ready to face Cade yet; at least I didn’t think I was.  I still wasn’t sure what his intentions were.  From the beginning he had seemed to be there to help me, but in retrospect, why would he?  I was a stranger and his job was to round up wayward Faelorehn and the lost creatures of the Otherworld to bring them back to where they belonged.  So why hadn’t he done that with me?  Why hadn’t he returned me to the Otherworld when he found me to begin with?  There had to be a reason and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know that reason yet.  The Morrigan could have been lying when she said something about Cade having a mission, but she also could have been telling the truth.

I sighed.  I shouldn’t let Cade in but the fact that he was waiting for my permission was a good sign.  Besides, deep down, I really wanted to know if that had been him on the other side of the dolmarehn.  If he had saved me in the end or if it had just been an illusion on my part.  And if he had saved me . . . Well, then perhaps he wasn’t as bad as the Morrigan had tried to paint him.  And I really wanted to see him again, desperately, if only to hear his voice and simply bask in his presence.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up and nodded once.  My door must have been unlocked because he slid it open with a cool swoosh.  Funny, I’d been so careful to keep it locked of late . . .

Stepping out of the fog and into my room, Cade delicately pulled back his hood and began to take off his trench coat.  He folded it and set it on the small futon against the far wall of my room and padded silently forward.  He wore his customary jeans, T-shirt, and boots, but there was something about his stance that was off.  He was still walking around as if he had been running a marathon every day for the past several weeks.

The lighting was bad in my room, the only brightness coming from the foggy dawn outside and the weak night light in my bathroom.  As dark as it was it still couldn’t hide the signs of stress on Cade’s face.  I almost gasped when I finally got a good look at him.  He was incredibly pale, much more so than the last time I had seen him.  Dark circles shadowed his eyes and his breathing even seemed troubled; shallow and uneven.  If I didn’t know any better I would have said he’d just been released from a quarantined room after barely surviving a bad case of the Ebola virus.