Healer (The Healer Series) (11 page)

“I do.”
She reached behind her neck and unhooked the silver chain that held the small thin rectangle and hooked it around my neck.

“You’re giving me your necklace?”

“I want you to have it.”

“Why
?” Perplexed, I held the small rectangle in my hand.

“Because it will a
nswer questions for you one day.”

“What questions?”

“You must find the answer to the biggest question first. The rest will come easy.”

“
The biggest question?” I counter.

“
What are you?”

I stare at her wondering if she’s going batty.
“Right now—what I am, is worried my aunt’s been drinking,” I joked

She chuckles. “No. But don’t think you three haven’t brought me to the brink of drinking.”

I laugh. “We’ve been spiking your coffee for years. Jack Daniels seems to calm you best.”

She swats my arm.
“Very funny. Now go and have fun with your brothers. I love you very much.”

“Thanks
, Lucy. I love you too.” I hugged her tight, riddled with guilt that I was going to leave her to run off with Thomas. It would break her heart when she found out. She kissed my forehead and held my face, so that my eyes were forced to look into hers. “Remember, family is everything. We’re stronger together.”

“Okay.”
Could Lucy somehow have known of my plans to run off and this was some kind of guilt trip? She kissed me once more and went into the kitchen. I watched her for a moment before I walked out the door.

“What the hell is wrong with Lucy?” I asked my brothers
, as I slid into the driver’s seat of the yellow beast.

“I
dunno.” Whit shrugged.

Men honestly have no desire to try and understand women. We went to the mall and bought a few things. Lucy ga
ve us a hundred dollars each, but I didn’t buy anything knowing I would not be going to college, but played it off as if I didn’t see anything I liked. Whit and Hudson bought a desk lamp, some plastic dishware, and decided to save the rest of their money for later, which I knew would make Lucy mad. We stopped and ate at the food court, but we still had hours to kill.

I drove by
Thomas’s house, convincing the boys he’d like the surprise. No one answered the door. My heart sank a little more. What was going on? We decided to go see Lila, which was actually nice. It took my mind off of Thomas, although seeing Wyatt was awkward at first.

He pulled me aside and apologized
which I accepted. I watched Lila and Hudson together and they were so sweet. I hated that college would separate them. Lila got accepted to James Madison University, which wasn’t extremely far from Virginia Tech, so at least they could try to see each other some. By the time we left, it had been six hours and I was eager to get home to see Lucy and call Thomas again.

“W
e forgot to drop the camera off,” Hudson said.

“We’ll take it late
r,” Whit replied.

As we made our way down Princeton Avenue
, which was a mile from our neighborhood, a huge billow of black smoke darkened the sky line above the trees.

“
What is that?” Whit stared out the window.

I followed his gaze and a shiver of panic ran through me.
“Lucy,” I whispered. I hit the gas so hard the tires screeched.

“Slow down!” Huds
on shouted from the back seat.

I turned onto our street what felt like an eternity later
, and closed in on a mass of police cars, fire trucks, and neighbors standing outside watching our house burn to the ground.

Whit yelled something, maybe cursed, I’m not sure. I only heard the sound of my own heart as it tried to beat its way out of my chest.

Flames erupted from the rear of the house while black smoke funneled out of every window. Lucy was in there, burning to death.

I jumped out of the car
, not even putting it in park, but Whit hit the parking break and twisted the key before he jumped out himself, followed by Hudson.

“Lucy
!” I yelled through tears and panic.

The sounds of glass shattering
mingled with the whispers of the pedestrians watching. Dark smoke billowed out of the windows and stung my eyes. Vibrations pounded me from every direction, as if my ability to sense energy was magnified. “Lucy!” I kept yelling as I ran towards the house.

A large, black, male police officer grabbed me and held me back.

“Ma
’am, calm down. Is this your house?” He tightened his grip.

“My Aunt is in there!”
I sucked the energy out of him like drinking soda through a straw. His hold released, and he fell to the ground like a ton of bricks. I moved forward, more energized and strengthened.

“Aldo!”
Whit called, panic in his voice.

I reached
for the front door and felt the presence of four people behind me. I turned and pulled hard. It was a weakening pull for me, mentally, because I had not touched any of them. Whit stopped, as the bodies collapsed beside him, shock and disbelief on his face.

Dizziness swirled my head
, but I had to save Lucy. The heat of the door knob scorched my hand, and my lungs burned from the smoke. The skin on my hand sizzled, but the pain did not stop me. Most likely, because of the adrenaline surging though me and the energy from the officers I drained.

“Aldo!
Stop, damn it!” Hudson yelled as he and Whit approached the front door. I took a step forward, when someone grabbed me. My body lurched. Whit had started pulling from me, trying to stop me. I yanked back and felt his pull snap back like a bunji cord that had been stretched too far.

I took another step forward, but he pulled again, harder this time, and I couldn’t break the connection. I struggled, yanking back mentally as hard as I could, but fatigue won over. Whi
t knew he had to drain me unconscious because I would enter the house if he didn’t. It took only moments and I was out.

In my subconscious, Lucy stood in my field from Montana. The day was bright and warm, heavenly.

A beautiful place, where a beautiful soul deserved to be.

My beautiful Lucy.

Her gray hair swept her shoulder
s as a light breeze blew. She looked younger and rested. The ornate flowers of red and purple reached her waist and she picked one before she released it into the breeze.

She looked at me softly.
“Aldo, were you really going to run into a burning house?”

“To save you
,” I whispered through tears.

“You knew I was gone.”

Sobs broke out from within me. “Lucy, why did you make us leave?”

She
walked over to me and hugged me.

“
Because I had to.” She hugged me tighter.

“What happened?” My board
appeared behind us, which contained one black picture. I looked to her, but I knew she couldn’t tell me what it meant. I last touched her before she died. If she didn’t know what was about to happen, there was no way I could have absorbed it from her.

“Vampires?”
I asked.

“Maybe.”
She shrugged.

“Why are you gone now? What happened with the fire?”

“
I don’t know.”  My subconscious answered this way because it didn’t know what happened.

“
Did you start the fire?”

“
What fire?” Her eyes widened.

“
Did you know this was going to happen?”

“
I’ve always known.”

“What do you mean?”

“I knew one day they would find us.”

“Who
, Lucy? Vampires?”

She stared
at me blankly. I stared back, trying to figure out what happened. Lucy might not have known what was going to happen, or maybe I was so distracted with Thomas that I didn’t absorb anything from her.

“Who was the woman you were scheduled to heal?”

“I don’t know. Thomas referred her.” She proceeded to pick flowers, making a bouquet.

“Was he here?”
I jerked them out of her hand and tossed them.

“I don’t know.” She
frowned as she watched her flowers scatter in the wind.

I want
ed to scream and punch my subconscious in the face.

“You know you can’t go to college, Aldo.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. Her eyes met mine and the pain in her eyes pierced my heart. It was killing her to say goodbye to me, but she maintained a steady voice and did not allow herself to cry. “I’m sorry. This is our life. You will never get to live in one place. We made it a long time here, Aldo. Everything told me we should go, but I wanted so badly for you kids to have a little normalcy. It made me so happy to see the three of you happy.” She smiled softly. “It’s time for you to wake up now. Remember the tree in the park where we had the picnic with Thomas that day?”

I
thought briefly about this. It was one of my favorite memories. Thomas taught us to fish that day. The thought wrenched my heart and I started to sob again.

“Focus
, Aldo!” Lucy snapped me back from the puddle I was allowing myself to melt into.

“Yes m
a’am,” I whispered.

She picked a red flower and tucked it gently behind my ear.
“Go there. There are instructions waiting for you.” Tears formed in her eyes.

“I
can’t get in touch with Thomas,” I sobbed

“You need time to accept what that is.” She replied plainly, stepping back from me.

“Accept what?” I question
ed.

“He’s gone
, Aldo. He’s never coming back. You must forget him.” Her voice was firm.

“He’s dead?” I fell to my knees.

“You must forget him.” Her tone was stern, lacking any compassion as she stared down at me.

I felt
my heart rise to my throat. “Why?”

“It’s time to wake up
.” She ignored my question.

“What happened to Thomas?” I insisted.

“Go to the lake where Thomas took us fishing that day. Remember the tree?” She asked.

“Yes, but—”

“There is something there to help you.” She patted my hand and kissed it gently.

“
I have to go now. I love you, and I will always be with you.” She kissed my cheek.

“I love you too
, Lucy.”

Then
she was gone. Just like that. My dream went dark.

I sat in the pitch black
, hugging my legs, crying for what felt like hours. I had to wake up. Waking up was the last thing I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure I could face a world where Lucy and Thomas were absent. I wished I could just hide away in my subconscious from the truth, but that wasn’t possible.

Voices echoed in my head as my subconscious tried to break and send me back to the world I now feared.
The world where I would have to wake up and face the horrible truth. I fought it and hid in my dreams, in that deep dark hole many people wish they could crawl into when despair strikes.

Whit and Hudson’s voices
repeated my name, over and over, begging me to wake up.

I crawled deeper into the darkness of my mind and tried to drown out any sound from the outside world. I couldn’t put rational thoughts
together because nothing made sense anymore, so I continued to crawl. It was all I could do, until the darkness swallowed me, numbing me. I stayed there for a long time and decided I would stay there forever. Suddenly, I was being dragged by my ankles by an invisible being. I twisted, digging my nails into the ground, but it made no difference. The ground was soft, like clay, and allowed me no traction. I jerked my legs and kicked at the being that held my ankles when it released me. I sat up, staring into the darkness; a faint light twinkled in the distance. It was my portal back to consciousness. I turned away from it, not ready to wake up. I walked, but began sinking into the ground as if it were made of quicksand. It sucked me under, devouring me until it dropped me hard onto a stone floor. I stood up and continued to walk when something snapped. I fell to the ground, seized by immense pain. I shrieked, but someone shook me.

Whe
n I woke up, I lay on a gurney, staring into a sky, still tinted with smoke. I looked to my left and saw my lake, my favorite scene in my dreams, but when I blinked, it was gone. I looked to the other side and found my brothers.

Whit stared down at me, his hands on my arms, shaking me. “Aldo, wake up!”

Voices and vibrations surrounded me, and someone held my hand.

“Aldo,” Hudson
whispered. I sat up and turned to slide off of the gurney. I felt woozy, but managed to swallow back my nausea.