Find Me If You Dare (Dreamcatcher Book 2) (7 page)

“Nolan, come on!” Samantha yelled, snapping him out of his daze. He grabbed her arm, and then Samantha evaporated.

I groaned when we landed, the floor jarring every muscle in my body. Lian and Ivan raced for Trishna’s home. Seth grabbed the back of my shirt when I teetered forward, my legs weakening—whether from blood loss or the feeling of a thousand biting fire ants burrowing through my chest, I didn’t know. The pain blackened my vision. Next thing I knew, I knelt on the ground.

“Lay down, man,” Seth said, lowering me slowly. “You’ll bleed out slower and give Trishna a chance to work her magic.”

Kayla fell next to me as Caelum’s tenants closed the circle around us. The ache spread to the center of my chest. I groaned, breathing through my teeth. She touched my stomach, her hazel eyes watery and her expression determined.

“You’re invincible, remember?” she said. “One silly arrow can’t take you down.” Her bottom lip quivered when her eyes flicked to my chest.

I forced a smile and held her hand with my right. Kissing her palm, I tried to think of a witty response. Instead, my eyes burned; I simply squeezed her fingers. I had to stay strong and hold on for a few more minutes. I couldn’t die, not yet—not before I’d saved Kayla from her father.

My throat tightened. Where the bloody hell was Trishna?

“Move out of my way!” her voice filled the cavern. Trishna crouched next to Kayla and plopped her amulet—the white stone—in Kayla’s palm. “Be ready to pass that to me.”

Kayla nodded, returning her gaze to mine.

Trishna grasped the arrow shaft with both hands then ripped it from my chest. I shouted as the edges tore through my flesh, darkness flashing on the edges of my vision. The pain was unbearable, throbbing, burning—

Blood exploded from my wound, and in seconds, the room started to fade.
Shit
. I locked my gaze on Kayla’s face, desperate to stay alert.

“Damn, it nicked his heart,” Trishna said, snatching her amulet from Kayla.

“What?” Kayla screamed. She touched her shaking hand to my cheek. “Hold on, Daniel. Please hold on.”

Trishna’s palm pressed against my chest. I squeezed my eyes closed at the intense, nauseating pain. From deep inside me, Trishna’s energy rolled through my bones and muscles until it reached my heart. My jaw slammed shut, and I breathed heavily through my nose. My heart mended, stretching and tearing, shock waves of dizzying pain flying through my body. My hands clenched, and I couldn’t contain my agony any longer. I screamed through closed teeth and smacked the back of my head on the ground.
Angels, help me.

When I thought I would pass out, my skin finally sewed together, and a wave of coolness washed over me, like aloe on a sunburn. Sweat dripped down my face. My shirt clung to my back. I closed my eyes and relaxed my fists. A slow breath escaped my lips, and Kayla’s shaking hand dropped from my cheek.

You’re okay
, she said.
You’re going to be okay.

“Get him to the hospital corridor,” Trishna told my friends. “He’s going to need some blood.”

I brought Kayla’s fingertips to my lips before Seth helped me to my feet. I leaned on him and Nolan as I walked, dazed, across the central corridor into a short tunnel that ended in an expanse, rectangular cavern with rows of beds surrounded by curtains. In the center of the room, a large section of cabinets housed medical supplies. Nolan brushed open the divider surrounding the first makeshift room on our left. It was barely big enough for a healer to walk around the twin bed in the middle. I climbed onto it and lay back, throwing an arm over my eyes as a headache built.

“Thank you,” I said.

“What the hell was that, Nolan?” Seth asked. “Your ma was supposed to be dead?”

“Yeah. I buried her myself.” His voice was sad, tormented.

“I wouldn’t put it past Richard to be capable of necromancy,” I mumbled, my arm still over my eyes.

“Excuse me, boys,” Bartholomew said. I heard the shuffle of feet, then Bartholomew’s cold hand touched my other arm, flipping it over so my palm faced up. A quick pinch in the crook of my elbow told me he’d started the I.V. “Trishna would like to be debriefed, so why don’t you two give Daniel a chance to rest?”

Someone patted my shin, and then two sets of footsteps wandered into the hall.

“Tell me what happened,” Bartholomew said. “I want to hear it from you.”

In as few words as possible, I reviewed the details from the moment we arrived at the asylum to the moment I got shot. He was quiet for all of it, and when I uncrossed my arm from my face, he stroked the black stubble growing on his tan chin, his dark eyes tense.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“That Richard went to an awful lot of trouble to try to kill Nolan. With all those Nightmares, there had to have been a bigger reason they protected the asylum.”

“Maybe we missed something.”

He tapped his chin. “Maybe.” A light flipped on in his eyes. “You said the crossbow was already in position. So, how would Richard have known where you’d stand prior to entering? It doesn’t make sense. Speaking through Nolan’s mother… That was definitely Richard getting back at him for his betrayal. But I’m not so sure Richard cared who he shot. Which makes me wonder why he did it in the first place.”

“He said he was ‘seizing an opportunity.’”

Bartholomew moved his finger from his chin to his chest, still tapping. “Yes, you definitely missed something. When you’re feeling well, I need you to go back to that asylum. In the daylight this time, to avoid any run-ins with Nightmares. And go by yourself. I’m beginning to wonder if we don’t have a mole on the inside.”

My mouth dried. A mole? He couldn’t be serious. “Yes, sir.”

Without another glance, Bartholomew left the room.

I threw my arm over my eyes again. We’d been so careful to screen our new recruits, and Weavers, like Tabbi, wandered Caelum, able to read every witch’s and warlock’s mind. If we did have a traitor, how had we not found them, yet?

I ran a jerky hand through my hair and prayed that when I returned to Albuquerque, there’d be some clue as to how Richard had managed to get the upper hand on us. Though, unlike Bartholomew, I didn’t think we had a spy. Just a really cunning adversary.

Samantha was on the sofa, stuffing her face and watching
Judge Judy
, when I entered our home. Her curly blonde hair was wet, and only a towel wrapped around her.

I turned my head, my cheeks burning, as memories of her naked body flooded my mind. “You really need to remember to put clothes on, Sam. You do share a flat now.” I unhooked my belt from my waist and tossed my weapons on the table.

“I didn’t forget. If I lived alone, I’d be naked,” she replied without taking her eyes off the television. Samantha set her bowl on an end table and stood, the towel barely covering her bum as she shook out her damp hair and sauntered toward her room.

I flinched. Could she make this any more awkward?

“Don’t be a prude, Daniel,” she snapped.

“So, you want me to break up a cat fight after Kayla walks through the door and sees you parading around in a hand towel?”

“Please. You know I’d kick her ass. Naked.”

“And then I’d kick yours. I don’t care what you’re wearing. Seriously, how hard is it to put on a top and trousers?”

“Oh, shut up.” She slammed her door.

Rolling my eyes, I entered my own bedroom, stripping out of my bloodied clothes. “Where
is
Kayla?” I shouted to Samantha through the wall.

“Still in debrief with Trishna. Seth and Nolan are, too.”

The door to my room opened. “Not anymore,” Kayla said as I stepped into clean jeans.

Shutting the door behind her, Kayla hurried to me and placed her palms against my bare chest. My pulse spiked.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come visit while you were still healing,” she said. “Trishna refused to let us leave until she made sure we weren’t under Richard’s influence or something, and Nolan and I went last.”

I touched her cheek. “It’s all right, love. I wasn’t in there long, anyway. Did Trishna find anything?” Between Trishna’s paranoia and Bartholomew’s suspicions, nausea was settling in the pit of my stomach.

“No. All of us were clean.”

Kayla’s fingertips stroked my muscles. Chills ran down the front of my body to my feet. A warm hunger wormed its way into my chest, and, a hand still on her cheek, I lifted her face slowly.

“Bartholomew’s beginning to suspect something, too,” I said, lowering my face toward hers.

“Is that something we should be worrying about?” Her palm rested on my stomach as my mouth hovered above her lips.

“Not right now.” I kissed her tenderly. Her lips were so soft; my heart shifted, remembering how she tasted, how she felt. My hand slid from her chin to behind her neck as my mouth opened hers. Kayla leaned into me with a soft whimper, our kisses intensifying.

“What if the others hear us?” she spoke into my mouth.

“Who cares?”

My other arm around her lower back, I shuffled her to the edge of the bed and sat her on the mattress, our lips moving in time with each other. Sliding between her knees, I laid her on her back, kissing down her chin to her collarbone, nibbling lightly. Kayla held my head, moaning quietly.

A bomb rocketed through my head. I jumped away, gripping my skull with a groan.

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asked as the room spun.

“I don’t know.” Another explosion detonated in my head. With a shout, I dropped to my knees, crushing pain shooting down the left side of my body.
Jesus.
I squeezed my eyes closed.

Kayla leaped from the mattress, taking my face in her hands. “Daniel, tell me what’s wrong. Look at me.”

The worst agony I’d ever felt was the night I’d stuck my arm through a wraith and melted my skin—until now. It took every ounce of energy not to scream as the entire left side of my body fell limp, like someone lit my limbs on fire while drilling into my bones. I bent forward onto my right hand, balancing my weight between it and my right knee.

Kayla, something’s wrong.
My arm gave out, and my elbow hit the stone floor with a crack. I shouted and rolled onto my back, my breath bursting in and out through my teeth.

“Help! Someone help!” she yelled. Kayla ran her hands through my hair. “Hang in there, Daniel. Sam will get— Oh my God.” She stroked my neck with shaking fingertips.

I popped my eyes open. Spidery, dark veins ran every direction down my neck, chest, stomach, and arms, originating from where I’d been shot with the arrow. I whimpered and dropped my head, groaning as another tidal wave of pain rolled through me, moving into every nook of my body. My vision darkening, I closed my eyes, seconds away from asking Kayla to knock me out. What was happening to me?

The door to our room opened, and footsteps ran in. “What’s going— Holy… I’ll call for Trishna,” Samantha said.

“Daniel, open your eyes,” Kayla said, placing a cold hand on my cheek. “Sam, he’s on fire. Daniel, look at me.”

I glanced into her large, petrified eyes—then another bomb detonated in my head.

Blackness overtook me.

ayla and I lay in bed, white sheets wrapped around our naked bodies. Sunlight poured through a skylight above, highlighting the green and gold specks in her hazel eyes. My heart fluttered. She was so beautiful. Her head rested on my shoulder, and her fingertips caressed my chest. My palm rested on her stomach—her pregnant belly.