Chapter 26 Liza
LIZA
The scent of lavender always made my stomach turn, though I was standing in the middle of the banquet hall kitchen without so much as a sprig of lavender in sight.
It had been many long days and a few longer nights since I’d suffered through that awful dream, but I hadn’t been able to shake it.
The details continued to linger, and I often found my thoughts drifting back to that snowy day when screams had filled the air, when I’d stood by and watched the kind woman shift before falling to the floor.
No matter how many times I tried to shift my focus and think about pleasant memories or what I needed to do that day, the dream always streamed back into the forefront of my mind.
Ty had suggested I not dwell on it, that it wouldn’t change anything and only make me more miserable, but the emotions that consumed me were damn near impossible to ignore.
I’d imagined every possible explanation for the vivid nightmare, and all I could come up with was that it wasn’t just a dream. There was something much bigger to it, and I wanted answers. I wasn’t going to get a good night’s sleep until I figured it out.
I also couldn’t help but feel like something was off with the dream and like I was missing a few pieces of a puzzle.
I didn’t know the names of any of the people, and I also couldn’t focus on the man’s face at the end of the dream.
My gut instinct told me those were important facts I needed to discover.
Last night, I tried to will myself into the dream to no avail. Though it had been seriously traumatic the first time, I thought experiencing it again would provide the missing clues. If I could only force myself to ask questions in the dream, maybe I would unlock the mystery of my past.
I’d been hired to cater a banquet for a local banking group tonight.
Even though my mind was heavy, I still had a job to do.
I couldn’t afford to let this consume my life and ruin the business I’d worked so hard to build.
There was no need to be losing customers just because I couldn’t snap out of my repetitive train of thought.
“Adam, once those vegetables are chopped, I need you to keep an eye on this bread. It should be ready in about two minutes.”
Adam nodded and continued to slice and dice multiple cucumbers and tomatoes for the salads.
“Shit!” Sabrina yelled from across the kitchen. “I just sliced my damn finger open.”
Holy fuck. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. I was tired of things.
I grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink and moved Sabrina out of the kitchen. She held a paper towel around the wound, but she hadn’t caught all of the blood in time.
“Someone sanitize her area while I fix her up!” I shouted over my shoulder as we pushed through the swinging kitchen door.
We took a seat at the closest table in the main dining hall. Digging through the first aid kit, I pulled out several band aids, some antiseptic, and an antibiotic ointment. “How’d it happen?”
“Sorry. I just wasn’t paying attention. I’ll be more careful,” she grumbled and gritted her teeth together while I cleaned the cut.
I focused on the task at hand while visions of the woman’s sad eyes from my dream flashed in my mind. There’d been so much blood then, too.
“Liza, why are you crying? It’s just a cut; I’ll be fine.” She was staring at me as if she thought I might be having a mental incident.
“Crying?” I swiped my free hand over my cheeks. Sure enough, they were wet. I was, indeed, having a mental incident, and I needed very much not to have it here and now. But there really wasn’t much I could do to stop it. My emotions were spilling over, and I hadn’t even noticed. “I’m fine.”
“I don’t believe that.” Sabrina tapped her fingernails on the tabletop. “Is there trouble in paradise?”
A chuckle escaped my throat despite the tears that continued to spill down my face. “No, not at all. Ty is perfect.”
I didn’t notice one of my tears fall onto Sabrina’s wound until she caught my attention with her panicked voice. “Liza? What the hell?”
She pointed to her hand, and I stared as Sabrina’s finger which had healed right in front of our eyes, her skin merged now together.
We stared in awe as the wound scabbed over within a matter of seconds. Shifters healed fast, but this was like fast had been sped up times ten, and Sabrina was human.
“What the hell just happened?” Sabrina’s voice went shrill as she stared at me with wide eyes.
I swallowed thickly. Sabrina didn’t know anything about omegas, and I had never felt the need to tell her.
“Are you some sort of supernatural superhero and didn’t know it?” I asked. I was this far into it, might as well keep it up. “Are you wearing a cape under your apron?”
It was gaslighting and I knew it, but I didn’t want her to ask questions or freak out and draw attention. I couldn’t explain this to her.
“No, of course not.” Sabrina shook her head. “My parents are a hundred-and-ten percent human. You know that.”
Panic crept from my belly up to my chest, and my heart pounded in response. It pounded so hard, as a matter of fact, it hurt. I put my hand over my heart and willed the pain to stop.
How could I keep hiding the truth from everyone, especially my best friend? Was this an omega ability? I had no fucking clue, but surely Sabrina would recognize that I wasn’t a normal shifter.
Michael when he’d injured his arm and I’d cried, then again with the rabbit, and now with Sabrina.
I’d cried over each of them, and they had healed.
That was… weird, at best, if I was looking at it from her point of view, and this wasn’t best. This was the opposite.
It was confusing. And scary. And fuck… so many things I couldn’t comprehend, how could I expect her to understand?
The weight of a thousand thoughts came crashing onto my chest, pushing the air from my lungs. Every breath I tried to draw was short and shallow as I struggled to refill my lungs with much-needed oxygen.
The room dimmed, and I grabbed my head, hoping to keep the world from spinning. An elephant seemed to be sitting on my chest. My fight-or-flight response kicked in. I needed to get out of the banquet hall immediately.
I stood, but the dizziness knocked me back into the chair. I slumped forward, trying to catch my breath and trying to make sense of my life.
“Hey. Calm down, Liza. It’s all right.” Sabrina stood and fanned me with her hand, which didn’t help at all and probably looked as ridiculous as it felt, but I didn’t have enough oxygen or energy to tell her to stop.
I was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. All I could think about was my powers and the people around me finding out exactly what I was.
My thoughts were so loud, so all-consuming, I didn’t even notice Sabrina rushing away and grabbing her phone.
I couldn’t keep all of this inside for much longer. I dropped my head between my legs, not sure if it would actually help. I’d seen someone else do this on a lawyer TV show once. It had something to do with getting enough blood to your head.
Why did I have to be like this?
“Why couldn’t I have been born normal?” I didn’t recognize my own voice. It was so high-pitched and shrill.
“There’s no point in being normal when you were born to be so special.” A voice I didn’t recognize broke through my anxiety-ridden mind.
I looked up to find Stone leaning against wall next to the swinging kitchen door.
“What are you doing here?” Wiping my face, I tried to regain my composure. I didn’t know him very well, but I also didn’t want him to see me like this: weak, sinking into my own tragedy.
Unfortunately, trying to act as if he hadn’t already seen me with my head between my legs and crying like a baby probably wouldn’t do much to convince him of my mental stability.
“I’m accompanying a friend to the banquet tonight. Her parents are on the advisory board for the bank.” He paused and glanced across the room at Cecily, who stared at me with contempt.
I should’ve known.
Stone turned his attention back to me. “I was on my way to the restroom and saw you having a moment. Or should I say, a meltdown?”
“Not very gentlemanly to point it out,” I said. I shook my head, then cleared my throat and smoothed my hair back from my face. “I’m fine, thanks for your concern. You can go away now.”
Instead of leaving, he sat down next to me. “What happened?”
I turned away, clamping my lips together. Who did this guy think he was?
He sighed loudly, but when I turned to look at him, his gaze smoldered as if he was trying to entice me. “Someday soon you’re going to seek me out on your own, and I’ll be waiting with open arms.”
I held his gaze, unaffected, and proud of it. “I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Stone smiled and stood. “Your scent is getting stronger.”
His words made me stiffen. It was weird when someone randomly came up to me and mentioned my scent. It made me wonder if I needed stronger deodorant or different medicine. This time, I knew the answer.
He scoffed almost happily. “You’ll be fully aware of everything soon. I’m sure of it.”
Stone turned to walk away.
“Wait.” I got to my feet. I couldn’t let him walk away without trying to get to the bottom of his cryptic words. “What are you talking about? What exactly do you know that I don’t?”
His gaze held mine, and my breath caught in my throat, the hairs on my arms standing at attention. As I looked at him, I saw something familiar in his eyes. I couldn’t place it, but I had the distinct impression I’d seen them before. A long time ago.
He held me in place with that piercing gaze. “I know everything. So does lover boy.” He turned and stared out the window. “Wait for the full moon, Liza. The full moon should finally do it.”