Winter's Scars: The Forsaken (Winter's Saga 5) (29 page)

Meg turned in silence and eyed him suspiciously.

“To rebuild your muscles, you must eat plenty of healthy foods,” he added to soften his demand.

Meg simply nodded once and turned away from the Senator who started to leave, closing the door to her room behind him.

“Oh, and Meg?”

Meg looked w
arily toward the Senator. 

“Please understand that while you are a guest, you must adhere to the rules of the hospital.  While I do act as Senator to the great state of Kentucky, I am also the head counselor at this facility and must maintain the compound in the best interest of my patients—despite guests.”

Meg frowned, thinking his words were just cryptic enough to be scary.

The Senator nodded once and finished closing the door to her new room behind him.  Meg stood alone in the
blood red room, feeling exhaustion and terror fight equally for her attentions.

What in the hell have I gotten myself into?

She folded her arms across her boney chest and sat as heavily as her one-hundred pound body could on the edge of the four-poster bed.  She began debating whether to escape or to barricade herself in this room. 
While her mind still raced through the possibilities, her eyelids refused to stay open, as if weights dangled from her long lashes.  She leaned over and curled up into a fetal ball at the foot of the luxurious bed, telling herself she just needed to rest for a few minutes and think.  Within minutes, her whole body shuddered in utter exhaustion as she melted into the bed.  All attempts to maintain her ill-fitting fake composure slipped off her gaunt frame as sleep took over. 

In her collapse
into exhausted sleep, her bruised mind and broken heart ached for something just out of her reach.  Silent tears seeped and pooled at the bridge of her nose, soaking into the blood red comforter on which she curled. 

Her shattered mind gifted her with cruel dreams
.  The gaping hole where her memories used to live throbbed, swollen and bloody.  Unable to soothe itself, images ricocheted off the remaining shards that still existed, shredding the soul with every attempt at escape.

Chapter 53 Sacrifices

In his room, just two doors down and across from where Meg lay trapped in terrifying, disconnected dreams, Senator Arkdone watched her on his high-definition surveillance monitor and smiled.  He knew he would barely sleep, so anxious for the psychological game to begin at dawn.  He stepped away from the monitor and sauntered
to the bathroom, whistling a tuneless song as he drew himself a bath in the very tub where he had bathed that little creature himself not so long ago.  As Arkdone stripped himself of the tailor made slacks and crisp dress shirt, Sirus was putting the finishing touches on his report.  After leaving his humble servant’s quarters behind the stairs, he walked to the controller’s desk and laid the report on it, quietly.  He had to exclude much of the conversation between Gideon and the girl, but overall, it was a true and accurate retelling of the major events.

Having finished his task, Sirus slipped back and let Gideon
come forward with a soft shudder of the body they shared.  He knew what was expected of him without the Senator’s direct order.  On silent feet Gideon walked to the room he knew the Senator had assigned the girl.  Instinctively, his hand moved to the knob so he could look in on her to be sure all was well.  He hesitated for just a moment and listened with keen ears at the door.  Hearing nothing, he knocked softly and waited a few moments for any response, then opened the door. 

Light from the hallway in which he stood spilled in angles across the floor of the dimly lit room until it reached the bed
where he saw the girl curled up on her side, head tipped awkwardly to one side as though she had passed out instead of falling asleep.

Knowing he should just walk away and actually doing it were two entirely different beasts.  Sirus nudged him to leave, but Gideon stood his ground.  He stepped into the room and made his way to the girl who had been under his protection for such a long time
.  Watching over her had become second nature to the fractured soldier. 

He leaned down and carefully lifted her off the edge of the bed and carried her sleeping body to the pillows to lay her down. 
Then he noticed the drying tear tracks and the dampness of the fine hairs that framed her angelic face.

Gideon frowned deeply at the sadness written in those silent tears.  His
alter urged him to put the girl down and walk away, but he was more afraid of leaving her alone in her fears than anything Sirus could do.  Nothing mattered but the girl.

He laid her down gently, watching her dark curls fan out around her face.  She was still wearing those boots, so without letting himself think about what he was doing, he reached down and unzipped one, then the other.  Carefully, he slipped them off her dainty feet and set them on the floor next to the bed.  That’s when he saw the glint of something metallic at the headboard.  He leaned down to get a better look and had to contain the rage that boiled into his throat when he saw what it was.

Restraints.

Arkdone had specifically arranged this room for Meg so he would have complete knowledge of every small detail.  This detail pissed Gideon off!

From his back holster the soldier pulled his hunting knife and sliced the strap at the uppermost juncture—where it connected to the bed’s frame.  He walked around all sides of the bed and repeated the act of defiance of his controller.

No one is going to tie you down ever again.  Not if I have anything to say about it.
Gideon growled internally as he sliced the last restraint. 

As for the buckles themselves, Gideon knew he had to get rid of them, so he shoved them deep between the mattress and box springs.   He sheathed his knife and walked back to the girl to check her once more before he pulled a scarlet, silk throw over her and stumbled toward the door. 

His body was shaking so violently that he was barely able to make it out into the hallway before the pain began ripping at his skin.  Sirus was raging inside—chastising Gideon for being so foolish as to defy what was obviously the Senator’s wish.  And now he would pay for his defiance.  Gideon had to get away from the girl’s room and back to his cell where he could writhe in pain without fear of discovery.

His punishment wouldn’t be short or merciful.  His punishment would be handed out again and again until he stained the sheets with his blood.  The body memories were without mercy and the skinning was beginning.

Chapter 54 The Pyro in Cairo

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Margo was shaking her head, confusion clear on her face.  “I mean, I’m the first to believe in miracles, but he’s just a toddler.  Could it just be coincidence?”

“Those are some pretty compelling coincidences,” Sloan mumbled.

Evan stood abruptly from his seat in the corner of the room and started to walk away from the family conversation.

“Evan?” Margo started gently.  “Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

Evan stopped walking, but he didn’t turn around.  His damaged left hand was shoved deeply into the front pocket of his blue jeans.  His shoulders moved with his slow inhale as though he was trying hard to calm down.

“He clearly has a gift of healing,” he finally said and started walking away again.

“Evan, what do you mean?”

He’d known from the moment they saw Maze’s healed leg what Danny could do and was struggling to come to terms with his resentment because of it.

He spun on his heels and locked eyes with his mother.  “Danny is a healer,” he enunciated slowly as though speaking to an idiot.

Ignoring his arrogant tone, Margo pressed him, “How could that be?”

“Why do I have to be the one to explain this to you?”  Evan yanked his hand from his pocket.  “It’s not as if he used his gift on me!”

“Back up Evan,” Theo said, standing and walking to the center of the room.  “How can Danny be a healer?”

“He has already gone through his evolution!  Williams and his henchmen thought the kid was sick and dying—that’s why they left him behind instead of taking him with the other eleven kids to Arkdone to become metamonarchs.  He was evolving, Mom—evolving into a healer who seems to need water to help him channel his gift!”

Margo’s eyes darted to the sleeping little boy still curled up in the crate with the much improved coydog.

“But he’s—he’s so young,” she repeated in a whisper.

“Exactly—
this is why his abilities are erratic at best.  He also seems able to cure some ailments more than others.” Evan waved his hand rudely at his mother’s wheelchair. 

“Williams left him to die and he could have been his most powerful asset,” Cole mused. 

“Evan, if you knew all this, why didn’t you say something sooner?” Theo asked.

Evan had turned away from the family, “Did you need any more reason to worship the kid?”

Theo and Margo exchanged worried looks.

“Well, Se
ñor Sunshine really knows how to make an exit,” Cole murmured to Sloan.

“I need to leave to get the other kids from the airport.  Cole, Sloan, would you keep an eye on Evan?”

“Uh, Dad.  In case you didn’t just wrap your head about what he was dishing out, Evan resents the heck out of all of us—especially Danny.  He’s different since Flagstaff.  And I know it’s the giant ass elephant in the room we’re not supposed to acknowledge, but there it is.  He wants nothing to do with any of us and has been distancing himself from the family.”

“He’s just going through a tough time.” Margo frowned as she straightened the cuff of her blouse.

“No offense Dr. Winter, but he’s been going through a tough time for the past three months.  Cole’s right.  Evan’s a different person than the one I first met.  I don’t know if it was the injuries he sustained or his evolution or a combination, but he’s definitely—changed.”  Sloan’s steel-gray eyes shone brightly in her objectivity on the subject.

“We’ll stay with Evan, but I really think you should take Danny with you. 
Ever since you all told us about Ev’s—gift—well, it’s like walking on egg shells around him.   Danny would be too hard to defend if Evan goes all pyrotechnic on us.”  Cole’s eyes were wide with the intensity of his worry.

No one had seen Evan’s new abilities in action except Margo.  It wasn’t as though Evan was offering demonstrations. 

“Agreed,” Theo answered solemnly.  “Margo, let’s gather Danny and take him with us.  We may need to try to smooth the waters with Alik and Creed before we bring them home anyway.”

Margo sighed deeply but nodded.  “How did it come to this, Theo?” she whispered to him as he loaded her wheelchair into the van on the lift.  “The life these kids lead was bound to start to pull them apart at some point, Margo.  There’s just too much stress on them—maybe we ask too much of them.”

“I would do anything to let them be ‘normal’ kids, Theo.  You know I would.” Her voice pleaded.

“They never asked for the burdens placed on them from childhood.  They’ve been fighting to survive in peace from the moment they learned they were different.”

“I just want to live in peace with my family,” Margo moved to sit next to a sleeping Danny in his booster seat. 

“We can’t give up hope, Margo.”

“You know, you don’t have to stay a party to this.  The US government has no arrest warrant out for you.”

“But they’re after our children.  Cole, too.  We’re in this toge
ther, Margo.  Even if Cole wasn’t added to their list, I wouldn’t leave you.  I want to marry you, remember?”

Margo offered him a rare smile at the mention of getting married.  “I can never hear you say that enough Theodore Andrews, though no one would fault you for walking away while you can.”

“You listen to me,” Theo stopped the car at the end of their deserted street in the middle of a foreign country to look at the women he loved.  Her hair had grayed, especially at the temples, and the worry lines around her soft brown eyes were more pronounced, but she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever known, and looking at her the way he was just then made his heart leap into his throat.  “I’m not going anywhere without you, Margo Winter.  So just get used to my ugly, bald mug  ’cause you’re stuck with me.”

Overwhelmed with love, Margo leaned forward in her chair to reach for her man, just to touch his face, and when she did, she slid too far.  It wasn’t until she held Theo’s rough cheek in her hand that she realized why he was crying.  She looked down at herself and saw that she was leaning her weight on one, outstretched previously dead leg.  They looked over at the sleeping Danny and stifled gasps of joy at his precious gift of healing.  Without her realizing it, he’d been working on her since that day in Arizona when she’d fallen in the kitchen.  He may
have been young and unable to control his gift completely, but whatever he’d been doing was starting to work.  Margo had just taken her first step in five months.

Chapter 55 Time Hath Healed No Wounds

Maze whined loudly when he heard the car pull up.

Cole and Sloan had dozed off on the sofa and as Maze’s whines turned into growling barks, they sat up and looked around, realizing only then that they’d been leaning against each other in their sleep.