Scorned (22 page)

That made me laugh a little.

“You ready to get home?” Pastor Steve asked,
and I nodded.

He drove me home. The ambulance never came,
but it didn’t matter. Except for being a little sore and bloody and
in desperate need of a shower, I was no worse for wear. I wasn’t
dead, and I didn’t need a hospital.

“Thanks,” I said as I slid out of his
truck.

“I’d better see you at church Sunday.”

I smiled. “If I’m not on the run, I’ll be
there.”

My aunt and uncle were gone when I walked in
the front door, but Pierce was waiting the moment I stepped into
the house. I wrapped my arms around his neck and refused to let go.
The warmth of him, his scent, it was all so perfectly Pierce that I
never wanted to be away from him again.

“Where is everyone?” I asked against his
neck.

“Your aunt and uncle went to the store.”

I nodded. “What will I tell them about my
face and hands?” I asked.

“We’ll come up with something, but you need
to get in the shower.” Pierce whispered in my ear.

“That bad huh?”

“It will help keep the surprise down if
you’re not coated in blood.”

The shower stung my open cuts and the bite
on my neck, but it was nice to get clean. I let the water run
through my hair and watched pink swirl down the drain until it was
almost clear.

I knew when Pierce walked in. I didn’t need
to open my eyes. I remembered the dream from that night.

“I’m going to need to start taking my
seizure meds again,” I said to get my mind off my guilt.

“I thought you were always taking
those.”

I shook my head. “I take the milder ones.
I’m going to have to switch back to the stronger pills I think. I
don’t like having seizures like this.”

“I don’t like it either,” Pierce agreed.

“I’m having tics too,” I said. “I don’t like
that either.”

“Maybe it’s the vampires,” he said.

“I know it is. My body doesn’t like them. I
don’t like them.”

Pierce smiled.

“I’m hungry.”

He laughed. “Me too.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“You lost a lot of blood last night.”

I nodded. I hadn’t thought about that. “Did
you sleep at all last night?”

“No,” he answered. “My girlfriend was
running for her life.”

I smiled. “How kind of you to care.”

I woke to the sound of a ringing phone and
shivered. It was too cold in my aunt’s house and I wished she’d
just bite the bullet and turn the heat up. I snuggled closer to
Pierce and pressed my cold nose into his bare chest.

“Stop,” he mumbled and tried to pull
away.

“Sorry, I won’t do it again.”

“LeKrista,” My aunt called through the door.
“The phone is for you, sweetheart. Someone sounds like she’s in a
great deal of distress.”

I got up and went to the door, opening it
just enough to get the phone.

“Hello?”

“LeKrista!” a young voice shouted from the
other end. “LeKrista! I’m in labor! Pierce’s phone is off and I
couldn’t get through on yours!”

“Petrice?” And then it hit me. “Pierce,
Petrice is in labor and your phone is off!” I was already throwing
on clothes. “Do we need to get you?”

“Noooo!” she howled through a contraction
and I listened to her breathe for a moment. “I’m already at the
hospital! Hurry!”

“We’re on our way.” I hung up. “She’s
already at the hospital. You want me to drive?”

“Yeah,” Pierce answered.

I threw on my heavy jacket before we walked
out the door and sped toward the hospital, some forty-five minutes
away. I made it in twenty and we were sent up to the room with best
wishes from the nurses. We found Petrice lying in bed, her head
back and her eyes closed, still very pregnant.

Gable stopped us at the door. “Her blood
pressure went way up right after she hung up with you and had a
seizure,” he said in a barely audible whisper. “They’re saying it
will have to be a C-section. She’s asking for LeKrista. You have to
keep your voice low, or she could have another seizure.”

“Oh.”

They’d turned the TV off in the room because
the movement on the screen caused seizures too. Petrice looked
pitiful, and it made me want to cry. Someone had brushed her hair
and put it up in a ponytail on the very top of her head. It looked
silly, but I knew it was more comfortable than lying on a knot.

“Hey,” I said so soft it was almost a
whisper. “How are you?”

Petrice opened her eyes and rolled her head
to look at me. “I’m about to have my baby,” she said, “but they
have to cut it out of me.”

She was trying to make a joke, but it wasn’t
working very well. I smiled anyway. “You’ll be alright. I
promise.”

She nodded gently so as not to move her head
too much. “I’m scared, LeKrista.”

“I know. It’s going to be okay. I promise.
Pierce and Gable and I are going to be here the entire time, we’re
not going anywhere. We’ll be right here when you get out. And, when
you do get out, there will be one extra little person waiting to
see you when you wake up.”

Petrice smiled. “I hope it’s a boy.”

I smiled back at her. “Me too.” The nurses
came to get her, and Pierce and I backed away from the bed so she
could be wheeled out. We watched them wheel her down the hall and
went to sit in the waiting room. There was only one other person
there and her burgundy hair was unmistakable.

“Tate?”

She turned and grinned. “Hi. Roman sent me.
You must be Pierce.” They shook hands and Tate put her arm across
my shoulders. “I have someone you need to meet. We’ll just be about
little while,” she told Pierce.

I followed her to the elevator and asked,
“Where are we going?”

“There’s a wellness garden somewhere on the
grounds.”

“Somewhere? You don’t know where?”

Tate shrugged. “I’ve asked four different
people and got four different sets of directions.” She laughed.
“We’ll find it.”

We wandered for twenty minutes, but found no
sign of a wellness garden.

“Maybe we should just go back upstairs,” I
said as my phone rang. It was Pierce. “Hey.” There was nothing but
static on the other end. “Pierce? I can’t hear you.”

“Oh! Jell-O!” Tate disappeared around a
corner as I contorted to try and get better reception.

“Hello? Pierce?” But he was gone. He’d hung
up and now I was alone. I went around the corner to find Tate, but
she wasn’t there. What a weird girl to run off after some sick
person’s Jell-O. I walked down the hall until I ran into a door
that required a code, so I turned around. After a few moments of
wandering, I decided I was lost. I was in a wing of the hospital
that I didn’t even know the name of. For all I knew, I could be in
the “Highly Contagious Ward”. I followed the hall, hoping it would
take me somewhere. Normally, there were signs all over giving
directions. Not today. Not in this wing.

The hall came to a dead end.

Great. Just great. Where the hell did Tate
go? If this is some kind of practical joke, it is so not funny!

I grumbled and went back the way I’d come,
but none of it looked familiar. Perfect.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned. The
hall was empty three seconds ago. How could there be someone behind
me? My mind went immediately to vampires, but it was the middle of
the day. Of course, Roman had been up during the day, but then it
was very overcast and rainy. Today was particularly sunshiny.

I kept going, hoping the sound was just
gravity working on some inconsequential piece of something.
Something had just fallen off a shelf, or a nurse had crossed the
hall. That, of course, made me think of shadowy figures stalking
and killing unsuspecting victims.

Then I remembered that an entire wing of the
hospital had been shut down for maintenance. The part of the
hospital that housed the wellness garden and a very lovely fish
pond. I remembered the pictures from the news.

Heavy footfalls behind me made me jump and I
stepped up my pace until I was nearly at a run. I rounded a corner
and pulled up short. Plastic curtains blocked the hall to contain
the construction. Fear thundered in my veins. I knew someone was
following me but I couldn’t think of anyone who’d be out this time
of day. I turned and went back. I tried a few doors until I found
one with a red “exit” sign above it. I pushed on the bar and
stumbled out into the sunlight.

The sun was bright and warm, even on such a
cold day. I tilted my face up as the door clanged shut behind me
and let my face bathe in the warmth for a moment. I looked around.
I’d found the wellness garden, but it was anything but beautiful.
Both the construction and neglect had turned it into something of
the past. In the center was the pond where fish had once swam. Now
they were turned belly up, the water murky and rank with the stench
of death.

“It’s a shame isn’t it?”

I jumped and spun at the soft feminine voice
and looked up to see a woman with chestnut hair nestled under a
tree hung with long strings of stones and gems and crystals that
nearly touched the ground and created a shining curtain around her.
The sun hit each gem and cast colorful prisms about her face. She
sat in the lotus position, but I noticed her hands were placed palm
down in round spots of dirt.

“People think it doesn’t matter. Let the
stupid fish die. We can just replace them with more.” She was quiet
for a moment and shrugged. “I guess it’s true. I’m Miranda. Come
have a seat. Where’s Tate?” There was a sweet, earthy tone to her
voice that reminded me of the smell of dirt after a summer rain and
the green smell of fresh cut grass.

“She ran off after some Jell-O and
disappeared.” The tree was like something out of a fairytale or a
hippie movie and there was something about the look of it that my
soul liked. I brushed a string of crystal beads aside. Something
moved through it as I did. It didn’t feel like power. Actually, if
felt like life. Something was alive inside those beads. I pulled
back and looked at it.

“Don’t worry,” she told me. “I felt it too.
It was just recognizing you. Don’t even think about it. Come sit in
front of me.”

“What was recognizing me?”

Miranda didn’t answer. Her eyes were closed,
her hands palm down in the dirt just barely touching. There was an
electric energy to this little circle she’d created around the
tree. I felt it give me energy, empowering me, and I knew I could
stay awake all day if I had to.

“Don’t let the power fool you,” she said.
“It can trick you into thinking you don’t need the basic
necessities of life, and, while it strengthens it also weakens.”
She opened her eyes and I saw her power there, a golden earth glow
that warmed her eyes.

“Give me your hands.” I gave my hands to
her, palm up. She placed her palms on mine. “As with anything,
there are the two ever struggling classifications of good and bad
among mages,” she told me, “but, beyond that, it’s broken down into
fours. We are called Elementals, or Elemental Mages. We pull our
strength from the four elements; earth, fire, water, and air.
Understand?”

I nodded. It didn’t seem too complicated so
far. Our hands were still palm to palm, the air was still strangely
electrified, and I felt good, like I’d slept all night, but now I
felt that underlying tiredness, hidden by whatever magic was in
this circle. I didn’t know how much I liked that magic.

“The elements contain what is called manna,
what fuels our power. That’s what you feel within this circle. It’s
like a bioelectricity powering everything. There are different ways
of explaining it, depending on how you believe the universe was
created.”

Again I nodded, because that made sense. I
believed in Creation; one God, seven days, and the earth created
from nothing. I don’t know what Miranda or Tate, or even Lady
Xiomara believed but I didn’t think it was relevant to what we were
doing.

“An example,” Miranda continued. “I am an
earth mage, but I can only pull power from dirt and sand and from
stones that you would find on dry land. Rock salt, as opposed to
sea salt. Some earth mages can pull their manna from trees and
flowers, from animals and even from people, though those mages are
very powerful and always teetering on the line between good and
bad.”

Sounds pretty sane so far.

“I’m going to show you your power,” Miranda
said. “I’ll show you mine first, so you can see what it feels like,
and then we’ll see what kind of mage you would be if you accepted
your power. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be a mage or that you’ll
even be able to use any of your power. That is a door, that once is
opened it cannot be closed. This is more like peeking in a window
to see what’s going on. Okay?”

I nodded, not really sure if it was
okay.

“I can feel your hesitation,” Miranda said.
“You have a very loud soul.”

I frowned. “What?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s okay.”

She tilted her head back a little, and
closed her eyes. Our palms were still touching, and I started to
feel a little cold.

I felt Miranda’s power the moment she opened
it up to me. It was like she literally opened a door and I walked
right through it, but it wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d always
expected magic, if it was real, to feel tingly like the effects
that they used in movies but that wasn't what I felt. This was like
a heavy weight had been unloaded into my hands. I wiggled my
fingers and felt earth, moist soil, and I smelled wet dirt. I
breathed in and choked on it. There was dirt in my lungs. I felt it
press on me, weigh me down, suffocate me. I wasn’t breathing, but I
wasn’t panicking. I was calm. I was dying and I was calm.

“LeKrista?” I opened my eyes. Miranda was
staring at me with a look of mixed concern and confusion. “Are you
alright?”