Under Zenith (26 page)

I’d wait until he left.

“Thank you for doing that
, Hayden,” I said seriously, hoping he understood just how much he’d saved my family. “I know you don’t like it when I’m all mushy, but you really did us a huge favor. I don’t think you understand just how much you helped my parents out. These medical bills would have destroyed them.”

“I don’t hate emotion
that
much, Isla. I told you I’m not nearly as heartless as you think I am.”

I wasn’t sure I believed him just yet, but his actions were definitely starting to change my opinion of him.
It seemed like no matter what, I never quite knew what to make of Hayden. For better or worse, he always surprised me.

“So
, the procedure?” I asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.

“Right,” he said, shaking his head to focus once more.
“It sounds a little science fiction-y, but we’ve developed an experimental procedure where we pretty much link our brains with a series of wires and transmitters.”

I gave him an odd look at this description. It didn’t sound like a real thing.

“I know…that’s why it’s experimental,” he said, realizing how crazy his explanation sounded. “They’d hook us up together, put me under, and ease me into your mind with a serum we’re working on. And if that isn’t impossible enough for you, all of those ‘tasks’ you were performing…do you want to guess what those were?”

“Some sick, sadistic, thing you thought up to torture me?” I ventured.

“Close, but no,” he said, giving me a look for my sarcastic answer. “You and I were actually mapping different parts of your brain, trying to regain function in each area. So you’d conquer a memory task and--.”

“I’d have control over my own memory again,” I finished, sounding distant.

It was crazy, and completely far-fetched, but somehow it still made sense. No matter how unbelievable Hayden’s explanation was, they’d tried it and it had worked, so by some miracle, the whole thing was possible.

“So failing a task meant…
what?” I asked.

“You failed to regain control over that part of your brain; and unless you had full use of these different areas in your mind, you wouldn’t be waking up from the coma,” he explained. “That’s why it was so important you didn’t fail the tasks.”

“Then why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” I asked incredulously, my accent thicker now that I was so emotional. “I wouldn’t have been such a pain if I actually understood what was going on.”

“Would you calm down and let me explain
, you mad woman?” he asked, giving me a look that strongly reminded me of our time together in the cycles.

It was a look that said,
You are so incredibly annoying.

“Because the procedure was experimental there were still a lot of bugs to work out. One of the biggest being that I couldn’t differentiate reality from what was in your mind when I was with you.”

“That seems like a
big
bug,” I said.

“Tell me about it. I’d be here with your family, telling them we’re making
all sorts of progress and really hopeful that I’d be able to help you, then I’d go into this weird space where the only memory I possessed was this vague idea that I was your Guide and had to get you to your Destination. That’s all I knew.”

“Not to mention all of my memories you had access to,” I pointed out.

“That was just another odd side effect,” he said dismissively. “But imagine my frustration when I’d come back out of that space and into the real world? I was so angry that I couldn’t ever remember to tell you what was really going on and I’d hate myself for being so rude to you, but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it. I always tried to tell myself I’d explain everything to you the second I went back in, but I’d forget almost immediately.”

“Yeah, something tells me this procedure would have gone a lot smoother if you’d been nice and could tell me that I wasn’t dead.”

“Just a bit smoother,” he joked, looking down at me with a grin that heated my cheeks up.

“So what was with the bizarre weather in each cycle?” I asked. “Or was that just my crazy imagination?”

“I’m not positive, but I have a theory,” he began.

“Which is?”

“It was always sunny before I came into the cycle right?”

“Right,” I confirmed.

“Well I always checked your pupils before going under and connecting to your mind. I’m kind of wondering if the ‘sun’ you saw, was actually just my flashlight.” He didn’t really sound convinced of this one. “But remember, these are just theories. There’s so much about this procedure we don’t understand. It’s a bit of a mystery.”

“That would make sense,” I said slowly. “But it doesn’t explain the fog or the snow.”

“More theories,” he replied with a grin.

“This should be good.”

“The fog was probably from the serum we had to pump through your IV when they connected us to each other. It always made my mind a little hazy so maybe that translated into fog for you?”

“Doesn’t sound as convincing as the sun theory
, but go on,” I teased.

“The snow was probably the same thing. As the serum leaves your system it leaves behind a cold sensation in your veins
, so every time the serum ran out and the cycle came to a close, you rationalized the cold in your veins with snow that made you sleep.”

“So I really do just have an odd imagination.”

“Or a brilliant one. You definitely came up with creative ways to explain everything that was happening to you,” he said, sounding almost impressed.

“I’m nothing if not creative,” I agreed. “So each cycle was on a set amount of time? It seemed like the completion of a cycle depended on how quickly I got through each task.”

“I think we were lucky the timing worked out that way, but it was definitely on a timed basis.”

“But it
felt like the cycles got longer toward the end there.”

Hayden looked down at the floor guiltily.

“What?” I asked, trying to coax his secret out of him.

“I may or may not have told your family I’d need more time with you for the later tasks,” he admitted.

“But you didn’t?” I asked, thinking that seemed like a true statement.

The longer the tasks had gone on, the more difficult they had become. It only made sense that he’d need more time with me to make sure I’d completed them all.

“Not really. I just wanted to spend more time with you.” He swallowed uncomfortably at this revelation. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t all that in to expressing his feelings. “Of course I didn’t realize that’s why the cycles were longer once I got in there, since I forgot any and all valuable information right when they put me under.”

He sounded put out by this fact, but his smile that seemed so quick to return told me otherwise.

I liked the smiley Hayden. His grin could melt a glacier.

“Plus you can imagine how
embarrassing it was for me to kiss you…in your mind that is, and then wake up in a room with your parents. Not exactly a great way to experience your first kiss with someone.”

At the mention of our kiss my heart instantly accelerated and I cursed the stupid machine that was keeping track of my heart rate. Hayden glanced at the rapidly beeping machine
, but didn’t say anything.

“I guess technically we haven’t kissed yet
, have we?” he asked me, raising his eyebrow at me like he always did, and making my mind much fuzzier than it had been when I’d first woken up from my coma.

“I don’t know that it’s really all that fair to be having this conversation while I’m hooked up to this machine,” I protested, unable to ignore the persistent beeping that wouldn’t seem to slow d
own while Hayden was in the room.

He leaned in a bit closer to me and placed his hand over mine, tapping on the small rubber clamp that rested over my finger.

“What, this?” he asked, his voice incredibly deep and soft.

The machine sped up a few beats.

“Yes that,” I answered in practiced annoyance.

He was so close now, his smile never faltering
, and the beeping on my machine growing ever faster.

“I kind of like it,” he whispered, slipping the receiver off of my finger and closing the space between us.

The kiss wasn’t deep like our first (imagined?) one was. Instead he gently pressed his lips to mine for just a few seconds before pulling away again, his scruffy five o’clock shadow tickling my skin.

“That was highly unprofessional,” I joked quietly, nudging his nose with my own.

“I’m kind of a lousy doctor,” he agreed, leaning in again and giving me another slow, long kiss.

He still smelled like soap and his long fingers gently trailed down
the inside of my arm to my wrist, sending goose bumps up my neck. After a moment, he gently pulled his lips away from mine and stood back up.

“And I’m supposed to be letting you rest.”

“What?” I asked, incredulously. “Hayden Temple, you can’t just kiss me then walk away. You sit your butt back down this instant and finish explaining everything to me or I’ll be pushing
you
off of a cliff the next chance I get. The door swings both ways.”

“Glad I didn’t just imagine your stu
bbornness,” he said with a long-suffering sigh, still moving toward the door and wordlessly informing me I had lost that battle; I had to sleep whether I wanted to or not.

“You haven’t won, you know,” I told him smugly. “I’ve got a lot more questions and I know where you work.”

“Luckily, we have more than enough time together,” he said, acting like this fact was a burden to him. “Probably too much time.”

“Just as long as our time together doesn’t involve any more tasks,” I stated with a grin. “Or else I might have to sit back and watch while you try to complete impossible and completely nonsensical tasks while I just pop in and out whenever I please. Sound familiar?”

“You don’t have the patience,” he challenged.

“Oh Hayden, you’re going to have so much fun learning about my lack of patience.”

“I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into with you, but I can see you’re going to be a handful,” he said in mock exasperation as he gave me one last sideways smirk and walked out the door.

He had no idea.

Acknowledgments

These acknowledgments are going to be weird. I mean, weirder than normal, because this book was such an odd one to write. Thank you to Dr. Ice and Dr. Okinawa for all of the ‘facts’ you gave me. Because goodness knows if there’s one thing I hate, it’s trying to figure out facts when all I want is to be creative. If I got anything wrong, now the blame is on you. Just kidding. But really. Ashlee, thank you for fangirling with me over these characters to get me even more excited about this book. Zack Snyder, I’ve only seen one of your movies, but it was the best thing ever. And it made me want to write some crazy stuff, which is exactly what I did in this book. Killian and Scarlett, in a very not subtle way, thank you for being perfect.
Mumford and Sons
, I’m sorry I said you killed my heroine, but I guess that just proves how great your music is.

Of course this book wouldn’t even be out if I didn’t have such an epic, wonderful, AMAZING publishing family at CHBB. I’m glad you guys are all slightly crazy. It just wouldn’t be a good publishing company if you weren’t.

Family, thank you, as usual, for putting up with me. Especially since I couldn’t stop saying “Isn’t Isla stubborn? Aren’t they funny together? Isn’t Hayden cute?” about fictional characters that
I
wrote. Probably not healthy. Jackie, thank you for the clay and the candy and being so Sherlock-y.

Husband,
thank you for brainstorming with me and being the most wonderful person in the universe. Hemmingway, thank you for not eating any rough drafts of this book. And to my Father in Heaven, thank you for this gift.

About the Author

Shannen Crane Camp
was born and raised in Southern California, where she developed a love of reading, writing, and anything having to do with film. After high school, she moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, where she received a degree in Media Arts and found herself a husband in fellow California native Josh Camp. The two now live in either California or Utah...they still can't decide.
Shannen loves to hear from readers, so feel free to contact her at [email protected] or visit her website for more information:
http://shannencbooks.blogspot.com