Chapter 22
Alchera
I’m blinded for a few seconds, and all I can do is hold my head. I can’t make a sound, my jaw’s clenched so tightly from the acute pain.
“Sarah, open your mouth for me, honey. Just a little more,” I hear a man with an Irish accent say, worry and love coating his words.
“That’s it, sis. Just a little more. You’re doing so great. Here’s some water. Swallow for me. That’s it, down the hatch they go.”
I can feel someone holding my head back so the water and pills can go down my throat. I swallow as best I can.
He holds me for a few minutes while wiping beads of sweat from my face with a cool cloth.
“You’re so strong, Sarah. You’ll beat this ugly thing yet. We’ll beat it together.”
It takes all my strength to pry my eyes open as he wipes blood from my nose.
Before my vision can focus on his face, everything goes black.
I open my eyes and feel Raighne’s familiar arms around me.
“Alchera?” His face is a mask of worry as he wipes something from my face, his fingertips coming away bloody.
Shit.
I shake my head lightly and begin to sit up while saying, “The pain isn’t mine.”
When I try to climb to my feet, Raighne pulls me back against his chest. “No, not yet. Your nose is bleeding.”
Jason comes in with some paper towels, asking, “What happened? Is she okay?”
There’s remorse on his face as if he blames himself for what happened.
“I had another vision.” I take a paper towel from Jason and wipe the last of the blood from my nose. “She’s in a lot of pain. Her name is-”
“Don’t tell us about her. We don’t know how far behind us Adeth may be,” Raighne warns me.
My eyes snap to his face. “Adeth is here?”
“We don’t know where she is,” he says. “We just have to be cautious.”
This time, he lets me climb to my feet.
There’s movement by the sliding door, then Brenna and Finian enter the room, giving us questioning looks. It’s weird seeing them in regular clothes, and I don’t know what to say to Brenna. In spite of everything, she must be heartbroken from losing our father.
“Thanks for the clothes,” I mutter.
“Don’t mention it.” Her voice is softer, and she gives me a worried look. “Are you okay?”
Feeling awkward, I just nod.
Brenna surprises the hell out of me when she closes the distance between us and pulls me into a hug. Her voice is strained as she whispers, “We missed you at the funeral.”
“I was there.”
I’m still stunned that she’s hugging me.
Maybe they threw something in her elixir so she would be nicer to me.
“Where do we need to go next?” Raighne asks, and I pull away from Brenna.
“I’m not sure. The man sounded Irish, but they could be anywhere in the world. I couldn’t see anything except for the guy.”
I’m so frustrated with my visions, or should I say, the lack of details in them.
“Where are we now?” I think to ask.
Jason gives me an incredulous look, but answers, “Maastricht. In the Netherlands. ”
“We need to leave this house,” Finian says. “We can be traced via the waterfall.”
“You’re right,” Raighne agrees. “We have to find a place far from here where we can stay tonight and take it from there.”
I glance at Jason. “Do you know of a motel where we can go to?”
“How far away are we talking?” he asks.
“At the very least, an hour,” Raighne answers.
Jason nods. “We can take my station wagon.” He looks at us. “It will be a tight fit, though.”
“We’ll make it work.” I start to feel nauseated and place a hand over my stomach. “Can I have some water?”
“Sure. We should probably pack something to drink and eat for the road.”
I follow Jason to the kitchen and take a bottle of water from him. After drinking some, I say, “Thank you for understanding. It will all be worth it in the end.”
I hope I’m right and not lying to him.
He packs some snacks, sodas, and bottles of water into a bag, then nods at the door. “Let’s go.”
When we join the others, I try to avoid getting too close to Raighne as we leave the house.
Reaching the station wagon, I say, “I’ll sit in the back with Brenna and Finian.”
There’s a frown on Raighne’s face as he gets into the front passenger seat, and I make sure I sit behind him so he can’t see me if he looks over his shoulder.
“How did you all find me?” I ask when Brenna scoots into the backseat, sitting between Finian and me.
“When you shift, you leave a trace behind. We just followed it,” she says.
Jason starts the engine, and I rest my exhausted head against the window, but then my eyes catch Raighne’s in the side mirror.
He looks concerned, and the moment I feel his warmth, I shake my head and close my eyes .
I don’t know for how long we drive, and I have no desire to glance around the foreign country.
A dull headache begins to throb behind my eyes, and I feel restless and agitated. The patch must be wearing off because my ribs start to ache with every breath I take.
“Can we please stop somewhere?” Brenna asks.
“Do we need to?” Raighne questions as he glances at her. “We’ve only been on the road for thirty minutes.”
“Yes. My bladder is only so big, you know,” she mutters.
“We’ll stop at the next gas station,” Jason replies.
We drive for another thirty minutes or so, and by the time Jason pulls over at a gas station, I need to use to restroom as well.
We all pile out of the station wagon, and Raighne says, “We leave in ten minutes.”
“The place where we’ll stop for the night is only another ten minutes or so away,” I hear Jason tell Raighne.
“Is that the map?” Raighne asks.
I glance over my shoulder and see Raighne looking at the cell phone in Jason’s hand.
Damn, I forgot about cell phones and all the luxuries here on Earth. I didn’t even miss any of it.
I follow Brenna into the restroom and pick the nearest open stall. I quickly relieve my bladder before digging another painkiller patch out of my bag. Peeling the old one off, I toss it in the bin. I stick the fresh one onto my thigh, hoping it will start working soon.
When I step out of the stall, Brenna’s washing her hands. She glances at me and asks, “How are you feeling? I mean…after the thing with Adeth.”
Her question and concern catch me totally by surprise. Who would’ve thought she, of all people, would care about me?
“I’m fine,” I answer. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right?”
“Yeah.”
She looks at me for a moment before leaving the restroom.
While I wash my hands, my eyes latch onto my reflection in the mirror, and I notice dark circles forming under my eyes .
I swear I hear music playing somewhere, then my eyes turn from green to gray, and everything blurs.
Soft voices are harmonizing perfectly together. The melody is hauntingly beautiful, and I just stand and listen as they sing.
When the song comes to an end, I see a man and woman sitting on a small stage in a bar.
I recognize the man from the vision I had earlier.
They look so much alike, sharing the same blonde hair and gray eyes.
“You were great, Sarah. How’re you feeling?” he asks as they step off the stage, heading to a room at the back.
I follow them inside and notice how he looks at her as if she’s his entire world.
“Doug, stop your worrying. You’d swear I’m going to drop dead any second now.”
I see the fear registering on Doug’s face, his eyes filled with sadness. “Don’t say that,” he grits the words out between clenched teeth.
“I’m not leaving you anytime soon. You’re my big brother, and I love you way too much. Be a darlin’ and get me some water.”
The world blurs again, and I hear them laughing.
Trees rush by, and they’re driving down a narrow road. The air coming through the open window is chilly.
They drive past a sign that reads ‘James Street’ and something else that’s a bit of a blur.
They laugh again as Doug takes a right and turns into a parking area. He finds a parking spot, and they start walking toward a huge building.
I glance around and realize they’re at a hospital.
“Ready for chemo, sis?” Doug asks. I can hear tension in his voice.
My heartbeat speeds up, and my eyes dart to Sarah. She smiles up at Doug and hooks her arm into his. “I have to be. It’s this or nothing.”
“They could be wrong, you know.” he tries to encourage her while hugging her tightly to him.
Sarah turns her face into Doug’s shoulder, and I catch the heartache she’s trying to hide from him.
“What if the chemo doesn’t work? They said I only have a couple of months left. I might not make it, and I don’t want to leave you. ”
Her panic is raw and real, and I desperately want to take it from her.
“You’ve been doing so great,” Doug says as his palms frame her face. “You’re a fighter. You’re going to beat this.” He pulls her into another hug, and it looks like he’s trying to give all his strength to her.
God, I want to help this brother and sister, who love each other unconditionally, with all my heart.
I have to find them.
I look at the name of the hospital, then everything blurs again.
“Alchera?”
I blink, clearing the haziness still lingering around the edges of my sight.
Raighne is standing behind me. He reaches for my arm, but before he can touch me, I spin around.
“They’re in Ireland. We have to move fast. Sarah, the woman, is dying. We have to go now.”
Panic swells in my chest. I just want to find Sarah.
“She’s what?” Raighne stares at me in disbelief.
I walk to the doorway, saying, “She has some kind of cancer and only has months to live. Maybe less than that. She needs me.”
Raighne’s hand shoots out, and he grabs my arm. “Hold up. We need to talk.”
“Now?” I take a deep breath before glancing at him. “We don’t have time to talk. We need to find Sarah and Doug.”
I yank my arm free and walk straight to the station wagon. Without looking back, I get into the vehicle.
The last thing I want is to talk about my feelings while my chosen ones need me.
By the time we finally reach the motel, I don’t care that it looks rat-invested.
Jason and Finian arrange three rooms, and I have no choice but to follow Raighne to ours .
“Go shower,” he mutters as soon as he shuts the door behind us.
Letting out a sigh, I head to the bathroom, and when I’m finally alone, I close my eyes and fight to keep my chaotic emotions from exploding all over the place.
Everything’s becoming too much for me to handle.
First, I’m yanked off Earth and shoved into Vaalbara. I’m forced to train for months before a sadistic bitch and her offspring kidnaps and tortures the hell out of me. Then I lose my father, and now I’m going after ten people who don’t understand what’s happening.
Jesus, my life sucks ass.
Inhaling a fortifying breath, I shove the self-pity aside and walk to the shower. I turn on the faucets, and while the water warms up, I strip out of my clothes.
When I step beneath the spray, and the warm drops pelt my skin, I let out a groan.
I wish I could sleep for weeks.
I wash my body, ignoring the ugly bruises on my ribs and torso. I can’t see the cut on the back of my leg all that well, so I don’t know if the wound is healing.
I’ll deal with that problem later.
Climbing out of the shower, I grab a towel to dry my body, but a knock on the bathroom door has me freezing.
“Um … yeah?”
“It’s Raighne. We need to do a healing session.”
Shit.
My eyebrows dart into my hairline. I stare at the door as if it will bite me and then frantically scan the bathroom for my bag with the clean clothes.
“Crap.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” I call out.
I only have the towel, which I quickly wrap around my body.
I sigh heavily before I say, “Uhm…Raighne, my bag is in the car. Will you bring it? ”
I wait a couple of minutes before the door opens, and Raighne comes in with my bag in his hand. His eyes flick over me while he sets it down on the counter.
Feeling super self-conscious, I mutter, “Thanks.”
When he leaves, I quickly open the bag but only find a few sets of underwear and a jacket.
Shit. Did Brenna only pack one set of clothes for me?
My head whips around to where the jeans and T-shirt are lying in a puddle of water from the spray that fell outside of the shower.
Ugh. What am I going to do?
I dig the underwear out of the bag then shake my head. “Oh, come on. Seriously, Brenna!”
I stare at the matching pink lace set, then glance at the shut door.
I place the towel on the counter and put on the revealing underwear before grabbing the towel again and wrapping it around me.
This will just have to do.
I quickly pick up my wet clothes and lay them over the towel railing so they can dry during the night.
Reluctantly, I say, “I’m done.”
The door opens and when Raighne sees me gripping the towel, he frowns at me. “You’ll need to drop the towel so I can get to your back.”
“I’m only wearing underwear,” I mutter.
He raises an eyebrow at me. “So?”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Scowling at the man, it’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him to go to hell, but then I grow too brave for my own good.
Fine. If he wants me to drop the towel, we can both be uncomfortable with me standing in nothing but pink lace.
Keeping my eyes locked with his, I take the towel off and set it down on the counter.
Instead of looking uncomfortable, Raighne’s eyes flick over my body, and the expression on his face darkens.
“What the fuck, Alchera?” he grumbles.
I glance down, and seeing the myriad of bruises on my torso and ribs, regret pours hot through my chest.
Thank God he can’t see the back of my leg.
He stalks toward me, anger pouring off him in waves. Grabbing hold of my arm, he turns me to see my leg, and I let out a groan.
“I knew you were keeping secrets from me,” he snaps. “Why the hell did you hide your wounds from me?”
I move backward, but it doesn’t help because he quickly closes the gap between us.
“I’m fine,” I argue. “You can’t heal every wound I get.”
I try to shove past him, but he grips me by my shoulders and shakes me.
“Enough!” His voice thunders in the small bathroom.
I cringe from his anger directed at me, and it has him taking a step away from me.
Shaking his head, he asks, “Why do you keep fighting our bond? You’ve become good at blocking me, but not that good. I can still get through when you’re tired.”
A confrontation with Raighne is the last thing I need right now. I’m already feeling nauseous and lightheaded, and the headache is making it hard to think.
I lower my gaze from his and stare at the tiles beneath my bare feet.
When I keep quiet, Raighne lets out a heavy breath and steps closer to me again.
He lifts his hands to my sides, and I feel his warmth spread through my ribs and torso.
Slowly, it becomes easier to breathe, and after a good ten minutes or so, he mutters, “Lean against me so I can check your back.”
“You need to take a break,” I argue.
“Lean against me, Alchera,” he snaps.
Letting out a sigh, I press my body to his and close my eyes. When his hands move over my back, removing the last of the whip lashes, I have to suppress the urge to sob in his arms.
I just want him to hold me until everything is better.
I wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face against his chest .
I start to feel even more sick, and convinced I have the flu, I wonder if Raighne can heal more than just wounds.
He pulls free from my hold and crouches in front of me. I glance away because he’s dangerously close to being at eye level with my lace panties.
When his hand brushes over the patch on my thigh, he asks, “What’s this?”
I step backward, instantly uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze. “It’s just something for the pain.”
Darting around him, I walk into the room, and climbing onto the bed, I crawl beneath the covers.
“Where did you get it?” he demands as he follows me into the bedroom.
Shit. One bed.
My eyes widen when I realize I’m sharing a bed with Raighne.
When I don’t answer him quickly enough, he snaps, “Where did you get it, Alchera?”
“At Jason’s house,” I reply as I lie down. “Thanks for the healing session, Raighne, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to sleep because I think I’m coming down with the flu.”
It feels as if a truck’s parked on my chest, and I’m burning up with a fever.
Raighne leans over me, placing his hand on my forehead.
“Let me in.”
I’m too sick and tired to care about keeping him out.
I feel his warmth enter my mind, and it’s so soothing I start to drift in and out of consciousness.
“Get Jason,” I hear Raighne snap. Time warps, then I hear Jason ask, “How many… it’s for my dog…cancer.”
The room grows quiet, and I feel Raighne hold me tightly, his warmth chasing away the fever and nausea.
“I can’t believe you did this,” he growls. “You’d rather die of pain than come to me.”
As the minutes pass, I start to feel better from Raighne healing me, and I drift off to sleep.