Falling into Forever (28 page)
“Drink,” he told her, handing her the water.
“Thank you,” she said and gulped down the whole thing. “My throat feels like it's on fire,” she explained, handing the plastic cup back to him.
When he walked to the bathroom for more water, Alexandra grabbed the cords of the window blinds and yanked them open for a better look out the window. “What are you doing?” Kraven asked, returning with a full cup, his eyes darting over her reflection in the wide glass pane.
Alexandra poured the water greedily down her throat while he tried to take the cords from her. “No,” she told him, hiding them coyly behind her back. “I have to show you something.”
Stepping closer to the window, she tapped it with a finger. “Over there,” she said, pointing to the left. “I think my school is somewhere just past that tall bank building. You've heard of Collinsworth Academy?” she asked, turning her eyes back to Kraven, who was standing behind her.
“Of course,” he said, nodding his head.
“And over there,” she continued, pointing to the right, “past that hotel with the white lights on top, is my apartment building. My mom and I live there.”
Alexandra's face suddenly showed shock. “My mom!” she exclaimed, dropping the empty cup to the floor. “Is she okay? I haven't talked to her since . . .” Her voice trailed off as she stared into the night.
“She has not been notified,” Kraven told Alexandra as her grip on the cord slackened.
“Oh,” she mumbled, stumbling back toward the bed.
“Let's close this for now,” he told her, yanking the cord. Once returned to the bed, Alexandra folded her uniform delicately and slid it into the plastic bag.
“What time is it?” she asked, reaching for her neck, her fingertips grazing the bare skin.
“It is after midnight,” he answered. “Is something wrong?” he asked while she patted the plastic bag with her hand.
“I have to go school in the morning. I have to go home,” she said, her voice shaking while she looked around the bed. “My necklace,” she mumbled and shook the bag upside down, her Mary Janes falling to the bed. “There it is,” Alexandra sighed, unhooking the necklace from a shoe buckle.
“Let me help you with that,” Kraven offered, calmly hoping that she would not notice the tremble in his fingers as she lifted her hair from her shoulders. “Iselin,” he whispered to himself, tying the leather strap around her slim neck.
A knock at the door startled them, and Kraven wrapped his arm around Alexandra. The night nurse returned and stepped warily inside the room, pushing a cart.
“It's you again,” noted Kraven when the nurse walked toward the bed.
“I have to take her temperature and blood pressure, sir,” the nurse said, noticing his arm around Alexandra's shoulders. “If you would excuse us,” she told him, holding the thermometer out toward Alexandra's mouth.
He withdrew his arm and stalked into the shadows, his eyes following every movement of the intruder. The nurse shook her head when the thermometer beeped and placed her hand on Alexandra's forehead.
“What's wrong?” asked Alexandra, trying to read the temperature.
“Darn thing is broken,” the nurse explained. “It spiked to 115 degrees and shut off on me. You do feel a bit warm, though. How about some ice chips? I'll be back in a little while with some.”
In the dark, Kraven laughed softly to himself. “There is nothing you can do for her,” he mumbled when he opened the door for the nurse.
“What did you say?” she asked, as he closed the door on her face.
He returned to the bedside. “We cannot stay here.”
“I know,” Alexandra said calmly. “I have to go home.”
“You cannot go there, either,” he replied.
“Are you going to take me to jail?” Then she suddenly recalled the hot breath of the wolf. “What happened tonight?” she asked. “What was that thing that attacked me?”
Bending over her, he took her trembling hand. “I will protect you, Alexandra. That is my duty.”
Her mouth lifted into a pained smile.
Abruptly, the window behind Kraven shook violently, as if a mighty fist pounded on the glass. Harder and harder the punches landed on the window behind the closed blinds.
“What is that!” screamed Alexandra, grabbing at him. Clutching handfuls of his uniform in her fists, she buried her face into his neck. “Make it go away,” she said, her body shaking.
Kraven lifted her from the bed as if she were a doll and cradled her against his chest. Yanking the heavy blanket up, he covered her head and draped it over her body, while she wrapped her arms around his waist. “My clothes,” she said, before he yanked them into his arms as well.
Cracking open the door of Room 401, he peeked into the deserted hallway. Jumping from the doorway with Alexandra securely in his arms, he slammed his shoulder against the emergency exit door by the elevator and looked up and down the stairwell. A laugh echoed from somewhere high above him.
Alexandra stirred under the blanket. “I can't breathe,” she said, trying to pull the heavy cover away from her head.
“Please,” he warned. “Keep quiet.”
His long legs carried them downward three steps at a time, while under the blanket, Alexandra held on tightly and buried her face in his shirt, listening to the calm, steady beating within his chest.
He smells like smoke,
she thought,
like a wild fire.
The stairwell emptied to an exit door. Kraven cautiously poked his head out into the rain. Parked cars lined the empty side street; and in the distance, ambulance sirens wailed toward the hospital's emergency-room doors. The borrowed patrol car still sat where he had parked it across the street, and he ran for the driver's side door.
Once they were inside the car, he removed the blanket from Alexandra's head. Alexandra stared silently into his eyes.
“Who are you?” she said softly.
Looking out the windshield, he cranked up the engine and pulled away from the curb slowly. “You already know that,” he said, turning to look her in the eye. “We've met before. I'm sorry you don't remember.”
“The park!” she exclaimed, running her trembling fingers through his black hair. Alexandra felt herself blush in the dark interior of the patrol car. “What is your name?” she asked.
“Kraven,” he spoke quietly, staring ahead through the windshield.
How do I know that name?
Alexandra asked herself.
Her brow furrowed, and she stared into the night outside the passenger window. Kraven pressed his foot harder on the accelerator. Digging her fingernails into the seat, Alexandra closed her eyes and listened to the racing engine. In her mind, she pictured her friend Taylor's convertible.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her eyes still tightly shut. “Do you have the heat on in here? I'm burning up,” she said, tossing her head drowsily from side to side. “Let's put the top down, Taylor,” she told Kraven before her head fell backward, asleep once more.
Kraven rested his palm on her forehead as she slept against his chest in the cramped front seat of the police car. With only a few hours left before sunrise, the car sat tucked away in a dark corner of the airport deck's top level, far away from the glare of any overhead lights. He slowed his breath and strained his ear to her lips as she mumbled softly. He could barely hear her, because a plane rumbled overhead.
“No secrets,” Alexandra murmured. “Tell me the truth.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Kraven whispered.
Outside, the rain that had pounded the city into submission during the night began to retreat, leaving behind a thick fog that wrapped itself heavily around the airport parking deck.
In the parking spot across from the police car, the blaring horn and bright lights of a yellow Porsche 911 honked and flashed in Kraven's face. A tall redhead in spiked heels navigated the parking lot toward her Porsche, pulling a pink-and-white, polka-dot suitcase behind her. A security patrol truck eased out of the shadows and slowed to pass her, while she maneuvered the bag into the passenger seat.
Climbing into the driver's seat, the woman turned the key in the ignition, and the powerful engine roared to life. The Porsche's headlights illuminated Kraven's face. Easing out of the parking spot, she winked in his direction before revving the engine and shooting across the lot toward the exit.
Alexandra stirred against his chest. “Where am I?” she drawled, sitting up slowly in the seat and rubbing the back of her head.
“You need to leave,” Kraven told her, as a plane engine roared overhead in the dense, heavy clouds.
“No,” said Alexandra calmly, staring at the side of his face. “Look at me,” she ordered.
Kraven turned his head slowly toward her, his dark eyes fixed upon her trembling lips. Alexandra's eyes swept across his rugged face and studied the worry hiding in the deep furrows of his forehead.
“Where do I know you from? Or am I crazy for thinking I've seen you before somewhere?” she asked him.
Turning his head away to the window, Kraven stared into the foggy sky, his eyes trailing the lights of a jet's underbelly as it climbed into the heavens and disappeared behind the clouds. “It is true. We have met before,” he said. “And I have met your father as well.”
The words took Alexandra's breath away.
I'll see for
myself,
she thought, biting her lip in determination. Prying his hand from its tight grip around the steering wheel, she closed her eyes and held his palm. A familiar warmth spread from her fingers and raced up her arm.
“Show me,” she whispered, as she entwined her fingers in his and raised his hand to her racing heart.
“Concentrate,” he advised. “We will find what we seek.”
Alexandra's eyes opened. She saw a dresser mirror. Kraven's face stared back at her, as if his face were her own. In the mirror's reflection, her father stood at the foot of a bed, a suitcase standing open before him as he hastily shoved clothes and papers inside the bag. Shifting her eyes downward, she saw a flimsy cardboard gift box on top of the dresser. It was undoubtedly the necklace, the gift from her father. She heard her father's voice. “What if it does not reach her?” he asked.
“It will find her,” said Kraven. “Believe. But you must hurry now. I will shadow you to the train, but you are being followed closely.”
Behind Kraven, Alexandra's father stopped throwing clothes into his suitcase and looked at Kraven. Their eyes met in the mirror's reflection.
“You will protect my daughter?” Jonathan Peyton asked. “With my life,” Kraven answered.
Alexandra retreated from the vision. She stared motionless at Kraven beside her as the roar of another jet shook the car. “You can't make me go anywhere,” she told him. “You made my father leave, and he never came back.”
Kraven winced. “He was in danger, as you are now.”
“What a coincidence,” Alexandra hissed. “You seem to be the cause of it.”
“No,” he said, dropping her hand. “You do not understand.”
“So where am I supposed to go? Did you think about that? I'm seventeen. I'm a senior in high school,” she said searching for the door handle. “Where did you send my father?”
“Calm down, Alexandra,” he said, pulling her away from the door. “Please,” he pleaded. “I was foolish for bringing you here. I should have known better. You are not a coward. I understand that now.”
“You're not a policeman,” she whispered. She pointed to the name sewn on above the pocket on his uniform. “I know Marion, and you're not him. You've been following me.”
“I'm not the only one,” he said.
Alexandra rubbed the back of her head and winced, as if the wolf still held her long hair in his mouth as he dragged her across the wet road. “Does he want this?” she asked him, rubbing her thumb against the dragon medallion dangling against her chest.
“I don't think so,” Kraven surmised. “It holds no power,” he said, closing his eyes to a vision. In his mind's eye, an auburn-haired beauty with brown freckles and green eyes grinned at him from across a wide, flowing river. A soft breeze rustled the yellow-and-white wildflowers tucked into a loose braid that flowed down her back. She was waving goodbye. Around her neck dangled the dragon medallion, a wedding gift for his princess bride.
“You are more powerful than any trinket,” he said.
Alexandra rested her palm against his cheek and turned his face to her eyes. “Tell me what happened to my father,” she said.
“I promised him that the necklace would find its way to youâthat I would protect you,” he whispered earnestly.
“Protect me from whom?” Alexandra asked.
“Your father is a good man and an honorable scholar. Not all men are so reputable. Your father discovered that people he had trusted were selling artifacts illegally to private, powerful collectors. These people would go to great lengths to keep their transactions a secret.”
“They would kill him?” Alexandra asked, shaking. “What did he do to hurt anyone?”
“He merely stumbled upon the truth. Men have died for less,” Kraven answered. “But I don't know that he is dead, Alexandra,” Kraven hastened to say. “He may be still be hiding.”
“You really think so?” she asked in hope, reaching her fingers to his chin. “I don't like secrets,” she said, holding his face gently.
“I know,” he said, bending his face closer toward her.
“You owe me some explanations,” she said, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead. “Start with what attacked me,” Alexandra said, wincing as she shifted her scraped and bruised legs beneath her.
Kraven sighed and answered, “A shape shifter.”
“A what?” she asked. “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”
