Chapter 28
The previous night, Salem rushed into our bedroom and pulled me into his arms. At first I thought I was dreaming, but then he whispered words in my ear that melted away my worries. He examined my bad eye, took my vitals, and tested my leg reflexes. After Catcher went into the hall, we cuddled.
He told me he’d found someone who could help, but I wouldn’t get to meet them.
I was curious but also respected that person’s privacy.
It was impossible to feel fear when my gifts picked up nothing but determination in his touch.
He truly believed what he was planning would work, and though I was skeptical, I needed his positive energy.
That morning, I awoke to an empty bed. Salem left a note on the nightstand next to my breakfast. He promised to return but first needed to complete work in preparation for my procedure.
With a renewed sense of hope, I asked Mercy to help me dress since I didn’t want to waste the day in bed. Atticus carried me downstairs, and I watched the sunrise through the window I’d created. After Mercy and Bear left for work, I watched the comings and goings of the pack.
My rapidly deteriorating condition had blindsided me, but not once did my pack leave me alone to wallow in despair.
When Robyn left to do her chores, Archer hung out with me.
When he had to call one of his clients, Lakota took over and told me some wild stories about his time as a bounty hunter.
Although I wasn’t excited when Montana surprised me with a wheelchair, it gave me the freedom I needed to move about the house without someone always having to carry me.
My legs simply weren’t recovering.
While not one person mentioned the upcoming procedure, it was obvious by their attentive behavior that they were treating this as my last day.
Joy painted my nails electric green, a color I chose from Melody’s collection.
Salem came home for lunch, and we ate together in the dining room, candles flickering on the table, wine filling empty glasses, and storytelling to fill the uncomfortable silences.
Mercy and Bear even came home early, and he surprised me with my favorite meal: pork chops and mashed potatoes.
Then Virgil presented a stack of games, and we relocated to the smaller tables so we could have a different game going on each one. We laughed so hard, and everyone got seriously competitive.
Salem had to return to Milly’s house but said he had a surprise in store for me.
Krys carried me to the yard so we could watch the sunset.
We bundled up in warm blankets and lit the firepit.
Cecilia shifted into her impressive black mare and pranced around in the pasture with Luna, their tails swishing as they pawed the earth and playfully took turns chasing each other.
Archer brought pears for when she shifted back.
Robyn curled up in Montana’s lap and put his cowboy hat on her head. Bear and Mercy had gone inside early, and I assumed they were taking advantage of the privacy in the house and getting intimate. Lucian didn’t look at his phone once.
This was my family now, and I didn’t want to treat this as my last day. I wanted it to be my forever.
They bolstered my mood, and when the sky dimmed to a midnight blue, Tak carried me inside with the biggest smile on his face.
“Why are you smiling?” I asked him.
It wasn’t until he knocked his boot against my bedroom door and Salem answered that I discovered everyone had been plotting behind my back.
The trays on the bed were filled with an abundance of food and snacks. Salem had sneaked home early to set everything up while the pack kept me distracted outside.
The real reason Bear and Mercy had gone in was to cook fried chicken, coleslaw, and steak fries. There were four varieties of gourmet popcorn. Four! And Salem carried up the large television from downstairs and placed it on a low table at the foot of the bed. It was better than going to the movies.
I had once mentioned how I loved eating in bed and promised to make Salem do it once, but he surprised me instead. It was exactly how I would want to spend my last day on earth.
“Do you want more popcorn?” he asked while propping another pillow behind his back.
I patted my stomach and gave the empty bowls on the bed a cursory glance. “I’m stuffed. This was the best day ever. You’re a sneaky wolf.” I squeezed his thigh.
Salem had chosen to sit on my right so I could see him better since I’d gone blind in my left eye.
He threaded my hair back and caressed my cheek. “How are you feeling?”
That was a loaded question. While it sounded innocuous enough, he wanted to know about the illness, but I didn’t want to spoil the evening.
“No new symptoms,” I assured him. “And no dizzy spells. All is good. Well, not all,” I said with a chuckle. When I reached for the orange soda on the nightstand to my left, I knocked it over. “Oh no!”
Instead of jumping up to clean it, Salem reached for his own bottle and offered it to me. “I’ll get that later.”
I gulped down the last swallow and then blew on the rim, which made a sonorous sound.
“You’re silly.” He set the drink on the nightstand and then put his arm around me.
“But you still love silly me, and if I ever get tired of making glass, I can start a bottle-blowing band.” I smiled at his bare feet, boxers, and white T-shirt. This was my favorite version of Salem. My thoughts drifted. “So this is the only way, huh?”
“Unless we try Vampire blood.”
I scooted closer as the movie played. “When my father tried that, all it did was give him temporary superhearing and vision, but he still couldn’t walk, and it didn’t heal him. Obviously. We thought at the very least it might alleviate his symptoms.”
“Nervous?”
I snuggled against him. “Yeah. I’m really scared.”
“Let’s scoot down.”
Mercy had come in earlier and collected most of the dishes except the snack bowls. After setting the popcorn bowls on the corner shelf, Salem helped me scoot lower and covered my feet with the sheets. We rested on our side to face each other, the movie Titanic flickering in the dimly lit room.
I glanced at the TV. “Whose movie pick was this?”
“I asked the others for ideas on a romantic movie. This got the most votes.”
“Hmm. I guess everyone forgot the ending.”
All I had on was a cami top and panties. Salem traced his finger over my shoulder, down the length of my arm, across the dip in my side, and up the curve of my hip. Then he tapped his finger. “What’s that white mark?”
I briefly glanced at my left hip. “Oh, that. It’s just a scar.”
“How did you get it?”
“You don’t want to know.”
He circled his finger around it. “I want to know all your stories.”
“I slayed a dragon.”
He pulled me in tight and peppered kisses on my neck, which tickled because of his beard. Then he eased back and circled his finger around the scar with an expectant look.
“Prepare to be disappointed,” I began. “When I was about eight, there was a boy in my neighborhood who picked on everyone. Sensor kids can’t sit in a regular classroom, so we had a special tutor.
We always wore gloves in class, but the teacher used to give us fun assignments to teach us how to use our gifts.
One day, we had a special class assignment where we each had to make cookies.
And while we made the cookies, we had to push a specific emotion into the dough.
Everyone got a card with an emotion. I didn’t tell anyone I was a defect and couldn’t do it, I was just excited we were having cookies. ”
Salem smiled.
“I was pedaling my butt down the street when that kid jumped out of the bushes and knocked me off my bike. My cookies scattered everywhere, and I landed hard on a junk pile sitting by the curb. I was so mad about those cookies. Blood was trickling down my leg, so I had to go home while that kid laughed at me and ate the cookies off the ground. My mom made me stay home, and I didn’t get to enjoy cookie day. ”
I jerked my head back when a wave of anger penetrated through Salem’s fingers. His serene expression belied his buried emotions.
I tugged his beard. “Stop that.”
“Stop what?”
“You know I can feel everything. Don’t start making enemies out of the people who wronged me, especially some poor kid who didn’t know any better. I doubt he even remembers it now.”
He traced the curve of my jaw and then cupped my nape. “Tell you what. When you come home after we heal you, we’ll have cookie day here. I’ll have everyone push their emotions into a cookie, and you can figure out whose is whose.”
I laughed and tucked myself beneath his chin. “As long as I don’t have to eat Virgil’s cookies.”
We settled in and watched the ending of the movie as the camera panned over old photographs of a woman’s life and the theme song played in the background.
Then the interior of a sunken ship illuminated and transformed to its original glory, the passengers alive and waiting.
For whatever reason, it hit differently than it had the first time I saw it, and I thought of the idea of seeing my dad again.
Salem scoffed. “She could’ve fed hungry children with that necklace. Is that supposed to be romantic?”
“If you ever throw my redbird into the ocean, I’ll disown you from the afterlife.” I slipped my hand beneath his shirt and smiled. “Hungry children. You’re always thinking of others.”
“I don’t get it. Even if she didn’t want people knowing she was on that boat, she could’ve sold it anonymously at auction or donated it after her death. It could’ve done a lot of good in the world.”
“Well, if you ask me, she was the true villain in the movie.”
“How do you mean?”
“There was enough room on that piece of wood for the both of them. I would’ve scooted over for you.”
After a thoughtful pause, he said, “Even if there wasn’t enough room, they could’ve taken turns.”
“She also said she would never let go. Lies. She pried his fingers off that raft when he could’ve had a decent burial.”
We both chuckled quietly while other things weighed heavy on our hearts—the unavoidable truth that we might be faced with the same dilemma tomorrow and one of us would have to let go.