Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) (2 page)

Love? Was he really, after all this time… was he allowed to feel love?

“Get her here! I don’t care what you have to do to make it happen, just get her here!”

God, what is happening to me, he thought as he grabbed his head and then rubbed his aching chest. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to catch a jagged breath, despite not needing air to live. He felt like he was drowning. He was drowning and he was caged.

He needed her to live, to breathe. So vulnerable… he’d never felt so weak, and yet so deliriously happy.

“Tell no one of us speaking tonight,” he said to Rainey. “No one is to know, do you understand?”

“Yes, Abe. It’s why I wanted you to do this in private. I understand what you are going through and I won’t increase your suffering one minute longer. I will personally go and get Ariana myself. I’ll leave tonight for the mainland. It will take a day or two, but I’ll get her here for you.”

“Ariana?”

Rainey laughed. “Yes, Abe, that is your love’s name. From now on your life will be about her, really. Ariana.”

“Ariana,” he repeated. “I haven’t had a heart beating in my chest in over nine hundred years, but the moment I laid eyes on her I felt as if I had one again.”

Rainey stood and walked to her King. “Listen, if anyone asks where I’ve gone, just tell them I had personal family affairs to attend to in the States.”

“Yes. Of course. Thanks, Rainey. Keep me informed while you’re away, or you’ll be bringing Ariana back to a mental wreck,” he said as he walked out of the lair, wobbly but with a smile on his face.

Rainey smiled to herself. It was always difficult to give him his fortunes for they were never good; not always bad, but never really anything to be happy about. It had been months since she had seen Abe smile, and she had never seen him smile like that before. The crystal ball never lies.

C
HAPTER 3

It was a long way from Eternal Island to Livenbrook Mental Hospital, but Rainey was determined to do it in one night. She hated wasting time on travel, so she’d learned to fly the island’s private jet years ago. Her idea was to fly to the airport closest to the hospital, get a room for the day and start fresh after dark. Hopefully, that way she could discharge Ariana and fly back, all in one go. There should be fewer nurses and humans to screw up her carefully-laid plans.

Abe would be anxious, having to wait a few extra hours, but Rainey would need her rest so she could fly Ariana safely back to the island. She was certain Abe would be much more upset if the plane crashed with the love of his life and his favorite psychic on board. Well, he might change his mind about the psychic if the psychic crashed, but that wouldn’t matter a whole lot to a dead psychic.

Rainey made it to a small craft airfield about twenty miles from the hospital. She put the plane in storage and then located the office to call a cab. The man at the counter was eating what looked like a very unhealthy cheeseburger and greasy French fries. He was watching some daytime show on a little TV screen.

“Excuse me, can you tell me the phone number for a taxi cab, please?” She eyed the round face of the clock on the wall behind him. Not quite noon yet.

“Ha, lady, you think you in New York or something? We ain’t got cabs ’round here. I’ll let you rent a car if you want. This here’s an airport and auto rental place all in one.”

“Okay, I’ll rent a car. What are my options?”

“We got a real nice minivan, a Grand Am, or a Ford Focus.”

Rainey weighed her options and, if not for her specific mission, would have taken the Grand Am. As it was, she figured the minivan would be her best bet, just in case Ariana would prove a little hard to convince and she would need to travel gagged and tied up. Most humans were quite cooperative, but just occasionally she’d trip over a particularly feisty one.

“The minivan will be fine. Any motels between here and Livenbrook, do you know?”

“$64.58 for 24 hours, ma’am, and here’s your keys. Now, motels… There’s this one right outside Livenbrook, about eighteen miles down the road from here and it’s called… now what was the name of that motel, I drive by it every damn…”

“Thanks a lot for your help. I’ll find it. Here’s sixty-five, just keep the change.”

“Hey, you want your receipt?”

“No thanks,” Rainey said as she ran out the door.

On the highway, Rainey was really wishing she had chosen the Grand Am. Too late now, there was no way she was going back in there. Well, at least the air conditioner worked; it was so humid. She just needed a hot shower and a comfortable bed and she would be fit to carry out the second part of the plan as soon as the sun set.

“Well it isn’t the Ritz, Rainey, but you’re too tired to care,” she said out loud, but to no one in particular, as she checked into the town’s finest motel. She took a quick shower and headed for the bed that in no way could be comfortable. It had restless written all over it. Sleep arrived swiftly, regardless.

Rainey sat straight up in bed when her cell phone rang, nine hours later.

“Hello, Abe,” she said without even checking the number on the screen.

“Have you found her yet?”

“Finding her isn’t the problem. I know exactly where she is, and she’s not about to go anywhere without me. I just had to get some rest, or did you want me to crash the plane on the way back with your sweetheart on board? I’m not a vampire; I can’t stay up for days at a time, like some people can.”

“Oh. Right. Didn’t think of that. I was worried because I hadn’t heard from you since you left.”

“Worried? About me, or Ariana?”

“Damn it, I was worried about you both! Am I not allowed to be?” his voice rang loud and clear as Rainey held the cell phone a foot away from her ear.

She giggled and then clapped her free hand over her mouth. Too late, he’d heard her.

“Just get the job done and get your ass back, and try to get her to come willingly. I don’t want anyone, including her, to know the real reason she is coming here.”

“I’ll call you as soon as we’re on our way back.”

“You make sure you do that.”

She ended the call and stuck her tongue out at the phone. She knew it was childish but she was the only one in the room and it made her happy.

Twenty minutes later Rainey parked in Livenbrook Mental Hospital’s parking lot. The man behind the reception desk looked half asleep. Good, she thought, that should make it easier.

“Hello,” Rainey said, startling the man.

“Huh? C-Can I help you, miss?”

“Actually, you can.” Rainey focused on the man’s eyes. “I need to see the girl in room 303, and you are going to let me in, tell the other nurses I am Ariana’s sister and that I just found out about her condition. I will be taking her with me tonight.”

Rainey was strong in compulsion. All people could do it, but humans were too weak to figure it out. It was just a quick hypnosis trick that she happened to be a master at.

“Yes, miss…” He handed her a visitor’s pass then buzzed her in.

“Thank you and have a nice night,” she said, almost skipping to the elevator.

Rainey made her way up to Ariana’s room without seeing a single nurse. There was a light above Ariana’s bed and someone had turned the television on. She guessed they thought the noise would wake her up.

“Good luck, people. You aren’t going to get her awake without my help.”

She moved what looked to be Ariana’s only bag of belongings to the door, so she could grab it quickly on their way out. No time to check for travel clothes in there, and no need, either; she’d brought some clothes for Ariana with her, just in case. As she walked up to the bed, she pulled a small velvet bag out of her pocket. Rainey poured a small amount of the dust in her palm and sprinkled it above Ariana’s face.

She spoke in a low voice. “Ariana, I am your friend and I am here to help you. When you wake, you will not be frightened. I will count to… Oh, and you will concentrate your thoughts on what I’ve got to tell you. I need you to focus; we don’t have time to dilly-dally. Right. I will count to three and you will slowly open your eyes. One, two… three.”

Ariana’s eyelids began to flutter. She opened her eyes and looked directly at Rainey.

“Good morning, sunshine!”

“Who are you?” Ariana managed to get out.

“My name is Rainey, and I have been sent here to wake you and escort you to the place where you will spend the rest of your life. You are in a mental hospital and you have been in a coma for a long time. Now, you have a choice to make. You can come to Eternal Island with me and you can live and eat for free. I’ll find you a job – as a maid, I think – and that is how you’ll be able to pay for room and board. Any extra money from your wages you can spend as you wish. You will have three days off one week and four, the next. You will be free to do whatever you wish with your free time, but if you leave the island you cannot ever return. You see, it is a very private island, off the map, as they say – at least to you, humans – and we would like to keep it that way.”

Ariana closed her gaping mouth and asked, “Excuse me, are you a patient in this hospital?”

“How did I not see that one coming?” Rainey chided herself and rolled her eyes.

“You’ve got to admit it – none of what you just said makes sense. And since you said this is a mental hospital…” she left the sentence hanging.

“I should have included ‘and you will believe me’ right after ‘you will not be frightened’ in my spell,” Rainey mumbled under her breath.

“And you’re talking to yourself,” Ariana pointed out. “I rest my case.”

“Ariana, we don’t have time to sit and chat forever, you know?”

“Summarize. And speak fast, I can follow. If you want me to come with you to your special island, I would say you owe me at least that much.”

Rainey sighed in defeat. “Okay. Please don’t go into shock again; my wake up dust is really hard to make. You had some bad news, you fainted and never woke up. Now, hurry, hurry, hurry. Get up, get these clothes on and let’s go.”

“Bad news? What news could have been bad enough to make me pass out?”

“Ariana, listen. Look at me. Focus! Snap out of it. Hey, no fainting. You know you can’t handle that one. And we don’t really have the time, right now. I’ll tell you more on the plane.”

Ariana had started to tremble. Rainey could see her blankets quivering.

“Oh, no, you’re not going into shock on me. We haven’t got time for that, either.”

Rainey grabbed hold of Ariana’s arm and shook her, then grabbed her face and forced her to look straight into her eyes.

“Listen, I’m really sorry, but we gotta get going.”

“I’m not going with you anywhere! How do you know so much about me? I thought you were just some crazy person from another room.”

“I told you, but you wouldn’t believe me.”

“I believe you. I mean, I don’t believe you.”

“Can you make up your mind on the go? Here, put this on,” Rainey held out a shirt. “I haven’t even begun to tell you the unbelievable things yet. That could take weeks, the way you’re reacting.”

“Like what? Humor me,” Ariana demanded, momentarily sidetracked, but she took the shirt and slid her arms through the sleeves.

So this is a trade, Rainey thought. She gets dressed, I speak. “Like the fact that I am a witch.”

“Ha, this just keeps getting better.”

Rainey held out some pants. “There are many witches on the island. We put a spell on it so that humans can’t see it unless they know the magic word; which, of course, is secret.”

“The doctors here really need to up your medication.”

“Look, let’s just go and I’ll show you what I mean. I realize this is a lot for you to take in, but it’s imperative you return with me.” Rainey shook her head in frustration. “Please Ariana, just… please.”

“Even if I agreed to this crazy plan of yours and went with you to the land of the witches, how would we just walk out of here? I’m sure they don’t let the patients come and go as they please.”

“Oh, that’s simple. I’ll just put a spell on them. And it isn’t the land of the witches. I said there are a lot of witches; actually, it is the land of… something else entirely different. And it’s an island, Eternal Island, and it’s a long way from here, so could we please get going already, before I get in trouble?”

“And if I don’t want to go with you?”

“I will put you back to sleep and you will never wake up.”

“You can’t do that!” Ariana exclaimed.

“I woke you up, I can knock you back out. You’ll never know I was ever here. Believe me, Ariana, you will be happy you came.”

“And if I want to leave, I can?”

“After I bring you back and erase the memory of the island and everyone on it, yes. Here are your flip flops.”

“And who is everyone, exactly?”

“I’ll tell you on the way.”

Rainey took Ariana’s hand and pulled her resolutely out of the room before she could change her mind, snagging the bag in the doorway as well, as she passed through. They got all the way to the elevator before they were noticed.

“Excuse me, but it is after lights out and you will have to return to your rooms immediately,” a nurse said as she walked toward them.

Rainey turned around and smiled at the nurse. “Oh, I’m sorry, you must not have been informed. This is my sister and I am checking her out. I’m not a patient here, see? Here is my visitor’s badge.”

“No, I wasn’t aware of this and I am the Head Nurse on this floor. No one leaves without a supervisor’s approval. Please come with me.”

Rainey stepped in the nurse’s path and looked her in her eyes. “Clearly, you don’t understand me. I am taking my sister out of here tonight. Are we agreed?”

“Yes,” the nurse nodded, “I agree, your sister leaves with you tonight.”

“Thank you, have a nice night,” Rainey said as she bundled Ariana into the elevator.”

“How’d you do that?”

“Do what?”

“What do you mean, do what? You did something to that nurse to make her agree with you!”

“I told you I would.”

“Would what?”

Rainey rolled her eyes. Were they going to play twenty questions all the way home? “Oh, good grief, put a spell on her – that’s what.”