Chapter One
Parker.
The lights seem to strobe above me, bright, humming, sending riveting vibrations through my sweat-slick skin.
I’m neither here nor there.
A metronome somewhere is counting the beats of my heart.
I feel like I'm floating while I'm doing my best to take in my surroundings, but it’s too bright. I ache. Everywhere. There is not an inch of me that does not feel like it’s been shot to hell. I fight to sit up, but it’s useless. I’m useless.
I close my eyes, it’s the only thing I can seem to manage, and do my best to remember.
Blonde hair, green eyes, the scent of spun sugar, cinnamon and berries.
“You can’t leave me… I love you.”
I try to follow the voice, but it's a million miles away, and my limbs won't carry me.
I need to get to her. I need to go back. How do I go back?
“Hey, take it easy.”
My eyes flutter at the familiar voice and do their best to open.
White. Everything is white.
Blinding like a hospital, but it’s not a hospital. I’m in a room with a small TV mounted on the wall above a sleek, black dresser. There are large windows everywhere, floor-to-ceiling, and the blinding light is from the sun filtering in through the window.
I hear the beeping now, a little louder, closer. A heart monitor, showcasing the uptick of my heart.
“Where am I?” I groan, trying to sit up, but it’s all so heavy. That metronome grows louder, faster.
“Hey, hey, take it easy. You’re safe.”
“Sabrina.” I hum, turning my head to the voice and peek into piercing dark brown eyes that seem to penetrate into your soul.
I don't recognize this person. I try to shift away, but I'm restrained.
“Bri!” It's a garbled scream, causing my own ears to ring.
Exploding lights flash behind my lids, and I throw my head back.
Rory lifts her little five-year-old hands, tears in her big brown eyes, red hair matted to her rounded, freckled cheeks where she’s been crying since I told my siblings I was leaving. “Please come back. Please don’t leave me alone with Mama too long.”
Another flash.
No. No.
I can't be there again.
The rate of the beeping climbs, but in my mind I'm tumbling….
It's a chopper going down…
Grasping at nothing, moving too slow… can’t… Can’t. Get. Out…
Doooowwnnnnn
A failed chanted prayer—
Flash
It's a bomb.
The heat of a building.
Fire claws at me.
Children scream in a language I don't know.
But I know fear.
“Get them out!”
It's hot.
So hot.
Flames lap at my back.
Can’t. breathe…
My arms.
“No! Help them! Don’t go in there!”
But they don’t listen… they’re just kids! Oh, god… they’re… just… kids… “HELP THEM!”
“Goddammit! Get the lorazepam! Parker! Fuck the IV, straight to the thigh. Get it together, Marine!”
My lungs want to seize. The beeping climbs higher and higher.
I choke on the stench and the fumes of seared, charred flesh, the vision of eyes melting in their sockets like wax as they stare back at me.
My body aches. I. can’t. move.
The burns.
It burns… No, it’s… it's…
Col
laps
ing…
Can’t. breathe.
FLASH.
A name caught in my throat at the sound of a gunshot—SAbrINA!
Another garbled, whispered prayer that reaches my ears, the taste of iron filling my mouth. “You can't leave me… I love you.”
I fade…
“I love you…”
Fade into a familiar embrace that smells like spun sugar and berries. “I’m here, Savage. Come back to me. I can’t lose you. You promised.”
Home.
I inhale; the beeping rescinds to a monotonous constant beep.
I'm home.