Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy) - By Juliana Haygert Page 0,46
strong hands gripped my shoulders, and he helped me sit up against the wall. “Talk to me.”
I was dizzy, wasn’t I, seeing his eyes shining with worry?
A few violent tremors ran up my body, and I felt like crying. I gathered all the strength I had left, and said, “I saw that.” My voice was clogged with emotion. “I saw that happening in a vision just before I came to work.” I didn’t realize I had been crying until the tears blurred my vision. Victor wiped my cheeks, his touch sending a warm, relaxing jolt to my skin. “I never thought it would be true. It was just a vision.”
“I wasn’t just a vision.”
“You were.” I wanted to shout, though I could only whisper. “Until two months ago, you were just a vision. I never thought you could be real.” The walls were closing in on me. “Oh God, I can’t take this.”
My backbone lost its strength, but he held me in place. “Come on, I’ll get you home.” He caught me in his arms as if I were a weightless, ragged doll.
His sweet scent wrapped around me and, for a few moments, I forgot everything else. Why was he carrying me? Where was he taking me?
When he deposited me in my bed, I wondered how we had gotten here and why I didn’t remember any of it. He sat beside me.
“I think we should call a doctor.” I heard Raisa’s frantic voice, though my sight was still hazy and I couldn’t pinpoint her location.
“She just needs some rest,” he said. Then, he passed a cool glass to me. “Drink this. It’ll calm you.”
All I wanted was to calm down. I gulped the sour contents of the glass and lay back on my pillow, the whirling wind in my mind gradually slowing.
“She doesn’t seem so well,” Raisa protested.
“Let’s give her some peace and quiet,” Victor said. His weight left my mattress.
I wanted to pull him back, but I didn’t think I could move my arms. I heard Raisa make some further comments, but then the voices went away and I was left alone in the dark.
Chapter Sixteen
I woke up with a throbbing headache.
I got out of my bed and saw I was wearing only my tee and undies. Why wasn’t I wearing my nighty, or even my jeans? I couldn’t think through the headache. In my bathroom, I found some ibuprofen. While there, I decided to brush my teeth and take a shower.
The warm water running over my skin helped with the pain and I relaxed, enjoying the clean water.
Clean water. Darkness. Pointy teeth. Large wings. Crumbling walls. Red bolts. Fire. Smoke. Burnt smell.
The events rushed back into my mind, making me dizzy. Gasping, I almost fell on the slippery floor, but managed to steady myself. I left the shower, and wrapped in a towel, searched my room for my cell phone or wristwatch. I settled for my alarm clock and was shocked to find it was eleven at night.
Wait. Had I dreamed it? About Victor being at the café, the news, being carried home?
I shoved on a pair of jeans, a black sweater, and flat black boots and went to the living room, hoping to see him there. The apartment was empty and dark. Not even Raisa was home. Her bedroom door was open and the lights were off.
On the kitchen countertop, I found a note in Raisa’s handwriting:
Went out with Olivia.
Victor has your keys. He said he will be back soon.
Call if you need anything.
My mind was in hyper mode. I needed something to do. I couldn’t even go out since my keys were with Victor.
I sat on the sofa and tuned the TV to a cable news channel. I had to know more about what had happened to that small town.
More bad news: the potable water crisis, the energy crisis, the agriculture crisis, the everything crisis! I wondered how long it would take for the world to end.
Then, updated news about the burnt town in Switzerland. The people working the case had no explanations or clues as to how the firestorm had happened and how it—whatever it was—had been able to devastate an entire town in a couple of minutes. The images were shocking. The fire had been extinguished, leaving everything black. The camera zoomed out, and there it was, the precipice where I had been.
My stomach turned and nausea surged up. Oh God. How could it be?