wrath of the Sea Queen (167 page)

His stomach began to rumble.  Vin realized that he had not eaten anything since
C
a
eli
's
pancake
s
the day before.  The memory brought tears to his eyes, but
Vin
fought them back.  He went to the top drawer of the dresser, where C
a
eli always stashed
a
snack, and pulled out one of the energy bars.  Seeing
the tainted bar
made him seethe with anger.  Vin threw
it as hard
as he could toward the porch
.  It thudded against the door frame and began to fall toward the floor.  T
he
sudden stir of
wind in the room reflected his anger.
 

As he watched the bar
's movement
, Vin
indulged
an urge to lash out again, raising his hand as if to
pitch
something else.  He went through
a throwing
motion with
his
empty hand and was surprised to discover that he actually
did
t
oss
something.  A spark
flickered briefly at
Vin's
fingertips and then zipped across the air to strike the energy bar
a moment
before it
touched
the floor.  The tiny ember fed on the
foil
wrapper
to
bec
o
me a flame.  Vin rush
ed
over and stomp
ed
it out. 

C
a
eli stirred in the bed behind him, and Vin made a conscious effort to calm
down
before he turned to face her.  They needed to talk
, n
ot only about the obvious
trauma
, but also
about her gift
and Rika
.  Vin
needed to understand what was happening
to her
.  He wanted to know
more about
what happened in the cave the day before. 
He still had a
lot of unanswered
questions. 
Somehow, in
three days,
Vin
had not
managed to complete a
single
discussion
C
a
eli
about these s
erious
events
,
but th
at was going to change
.

"
S
orry
,
H
oney
.  I didn't mean to wake you
,
"
Vin apologized for the noise.

"I wasn't
really
sleeping," she replied weakly.

"
How are you feeling?
"
  Vin asked, sitting down o
n the edge of the bed
.  She tried to turn
toward
him, but a sudden pain
in her ribs
caused
C
a
eli
to
gasp
. 
The answer was obvious.

"
Careful.  Let me help you
.
"

T
o his shock,
C
a
eli
half-heartedly
refused his assistance. 
Vin was puzzled.  He thought that
her attempt to pull away from him
last night
had been
prompted by
her
confusion
.  Now
,
he wasn't
so
sure. 
Did he do
something to upset her? 
Nothing came to mind. 
Was she
upset
because he
was not
in the room
with her when she lost the baby? 
Vin
desperately
regretted
that, but could not undo
it
. 
Vin
again
offered
to help her
.  T
his time
,
C
a
eli
started to take his hand, but then
gave up entirely
and
lay
still
, closing her
tear-filled
eyes, refusing to meet his gaze
. 
Vin
stood up and walked away, looking out through the porch
door
with
pain reflected
in his eyes. 

Then Vin remembered the photos. 
Both Ben and Rika had mentioned them. 
Could that be it? 
How could he explain that to her now, at a time like this
?
  But, if
the photos were
on her mind, then he
owed
C
a
eli
an explanation and
needed to clear the air.

"
C
a
eli, I
know you
saw th
os
e photos
.  Please don't be mad at me because of them
.  You know
that
I would never do that to you
.
  Vicki called me
out
under the false pretense of fixing her computer.  She even pretended
that
she was being
physically
threatened. 
I offered to help her,
taking her at her word
. 
It turned out that Vicki
wanted more from me than a consoling shoulder. 
As soon as I figured out what she was up to, I
headed out the door
. 
Vicki followed me, begging me to stay. 
S
he threw herself at me and kissed me
as I was
leaving
. 
I put a stop to it
and
immediately
dropped her as a client
. 
I know th
ose
pictures ma
k
e
the situation
appear
much
worse
, but they
a
re a
n out of context
lie.  Vicki
probably sent
them
to you to get back at me for rejecting her.  I would never do anything like th
at
, C
a
eli.  I love you too much,
"
Vin explained.

"
I
never
doubt
ed
you
,
Vin,
and
I'm not mad at you," C
a
eli replied. 

That was a huge relief for Vin.  But
,
if not that, then why was
she distancing herself from him?  She had only
done that on one prior occasion
, and not to this extent.
  At the time, she had been
very
upset
with a family matter that she did not fully understand, and they had only just been out on their first date the night before
.
  She had been trying not to draw him into
her problem
.

"
Y
ou
a
re the one who should be upset with me.  I
don't deserve your help,
"
C
a
eli
finally whispered after struggling through her pain to get
propped up in the bed.

Vin turned
around
to look at her, stunned
yet again
by her words. 

"Don't deserve my help?  That's ridiculous
!
  Wh
y would you say that
, C
a
eli
?"

"
I messed up every decision. 
Everyone tried to tell me those bars
weren't any good
, but I didn't listen
. 
If I
were more adept with my
gift
,
I
could have
provided better
help at the hotel
so Apela could have been here for Max.  And
I lost the most important fight. 
I
tried, but I
wasn't strong enough
.  I couldn't
keep our
son
safe. 
You must be
terribly disappointed.
 
All of this i
s my fault,
"
C
a
eli listed a string of self-proclaimed faults, looking dow
n at her hands the whole time.