wrath of the Sea Queen (248 page)

"
I will not allow him to erase my memory.  I will wait as long as it takes; Salma
will
help me.  I'm sorry, Vin.
  No.
"

"
Salma isn't coming.  I think you know that. 
C
a
eli
, t
h
ey will force you if necessary,
"
Vin was not making any progress
asking her permission so he tried, against his better judgment, to scare her into compliance
.
  That didn't work either.
  It only hardened her refusal.
 

"They can try
, but I will
continue to
fight them
," the anger returned to C
a
eli's voice.  She started to walk away from Vin, down the beach and
a few steps
into the water.
  She could go no further.
  Her way
remained
blocked
.

"What if I can get Raph to give
you
his word that he will only heal your wound
and
leave your memory untouched
?
  Will you
permit
it then?"  Vin attempted one final
suggestion
.

C
a
eli
turned to look at Vin, considering
the compromise
. 
While the mere thought sickened her, s
he very much
wanted
the cut on
her
stomach
healed
.  She could endure it with Vin's help if she had to; but
she would not concede
at the cost of her memory. 
She understood that Vin
wanted
to help, but why did it have to sound so much like he was on their side?

Vin
read
the opportunity
in her eyes
and
did
n
o
t hesitate.  He
quickly
posed the arrangement to
Raphael
. 
To Vin's surprise, Raphael
required
one exception.  Raphael insisted on removing the
memory of her seeing
the baby being removed and carried away. 

"No
!
  I will
never
forget that
!
"
C
a
eli
's
refusal
was final.

Her anger at the thought of having the truth taken away from her caused the rain to fall harder and th
e waves to crash loudly nearby.  Her gift fuel
ed
the growing fury of the storm.

Michael was suddenly standing before
her
and
stretch
ing
his hand toward her forehead.  C
a
eli
managed to duck out of his reach.  A large wave crashed into his back, but it
could not
knock him from his feet. 
Michael mov
ed
for C
a
eli again. 
Vin moved
faster,
like the wind
,
and
place
d
himself between Michael and C
a
eli.  He knew that this was a losing battle, but
Vin
was determined t
o defend her.

"
Please,
Michael. 
Let me do this,
" Vin
begged
.

Michael nodded and
held his ground
.

Vin wrapped his arms around
C
a
eli's
shoulders
from behind, hugging her close
.  He took
one of her hands in each of his, gently letting his shirt fall away from her grasp as he moved her hands away from the cut on her stomach.

"
I love you, Honey. 
I
'
m trying to help you. 
Forgive me for
do
ing
it this way
.  Please try to understand
," Vin said, agonizing over each word, hating himself for what he was about to do.
  Vin glanced over at Raphael.

C
a
eli
then
realized there were
hands
other than Vin's
on her stomach.  Raphael was standing before her and sent a soothing sensation into her abdomen.  C
a
eli immediately struggled to move away, but Vin held her firmly. 
Raphael's hands
did not relinquish their
contact
.

"
Vin!? 
How could you? 
Is that why they let you come here? 
They knew I would trust you and let my guard down for you. 
Please,
don't
do this
to me
!
 
You don't have to help them. 
They are only causing further harm. 
I'm begging you, Vin. 
Please! 
Please d
on't
let
him
do this
to me
!
"

C
a
eli's desperate plea
s
nearly ripped Vin's heart out.  He felt
every ounce of
the betrayal her words implied
.  He
could
n
o
t
avoid
second guess
ing
himself. 
Was C
a
eli right?  Would this cause her some further harm that he
could
n
o
t
fore
see
? 
Wa
s there another way
to fix
this? 
Despite his growing doubt,
Vin
held
firm
to his
decision
.  He hoped
this was the
right choice and that
s
he would eventually forgive him for it.
  At the moment,
that
seemed highly unlikely.

The sensation flowed outward from C
a
eli's stomach to the rest of her body,
and
she
could not resist.  She knew, somewhere in the confusion of her mind, that she needed this help
. 
Yet
,
s
he
was unable
t
o
reconcile herself to
fully
accept it. 
She fought against Vin
without success.  He was too strong
.  H
er strength was already depleted
, and
C
a
eli
knew that Vin was doing what he thought was right
.  She called her gift
in
an
attempt to
save
herself
from this
fate
;
but
her
gift
was already responding to her anger, and she could not change its course while Raphael's hands were on her.  C
a
eli
half-heartedly
struggled for a
nother
five minutes and then went still in Vin's arms
, accepting the inevitable
.  The rain and rushing tides
abruptly
stalled.  For t
he moment, everything was quiet.

It took Raphael several minutes
more
to finish his work.  When he was done, C
a
eli's midsection was whole.  There was no trace of her previous run
-
in with the man in black or
any of her
other
injuries
since Sunday
.  Her internal injuries were healed as well, including her cracked ribs
. 
T
he only indication that anything
at all
had
happened to her were three tiny
, wavy,
white lines, running parallel to each other on her left side
, visible through her tattered blouse
. 

"
Her wounds are healed, but she has closed her mind to me.  I believe she is trying to protect herself,
"
Raphael explained before walking off to join Michael a few feet away. 

The storm
was
stalled;
no doubt
a benefit of
C
a
eli's
current
mental
state, though Vin was not sure
that
was a good thing.  He was
deeply
concerned about
the way she looked
.  He feared that she might not be able to recover from the mental devastation
.
Vin let C
a
eli slide to the ground
and sat down with her
.  She did so without resistance
and
star
ed
off into the distance at nothing in particular,
whispering something that he could barely hear.  He leaned closer to catch the words.