Theodore (Xavier's Hatchlings #2) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,60

was the end of July. I had to stay—I was staying someplace I didn’t want to be.” Her head was pounding, and she asked the man if he had anything she could take for it. Then she remembered something else. “Chad. He’s my husband. He’s somewhere around here. I want you to find him for me so I can tell him something.”

“I can tell him what you want. However, he’s not going to come here. You’re in no shape to have any conversation with him that will make him feel any better than he does at this time. You really did screw up.”

Not remembering her name had been something she didn’t like, and now that she remembered it, she thought she should also be able to remember what had brought her here. She looked at the man again and saw that the woman had returned and that they were both in different outfits. Something was going on, and she didn’t care for it.

“You’re back.” She asked him what he meant. “Since you’ve not been able to recall enough to know your circumstances, I’ll tell you the date again. This is August twenty-fifth.”

“What are you talking about? There is no way I’ve been here that long.” He told her she’d left and had returned. It was exhausting for her to be there with them. “Why am I with you, anyway? I don’t know anything about you.”

“You’ve been making your way to us since July twentieth.” The date. It rattled around in her head, and she wondered about it. “Until you come to the realization as to why you’re here, you’re going to keep coming back. As soon as you do, however, I’m going to send you on.”

“Send me on.” It wasn’t a question she said to him, but he told her that was what she had done to herself. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Tell me what I’m doing here, and I want you to have Chad come here. There is no reason whatsoever why he’d not come to see me now that I’m free.”

“Chad is here. When we last spoke, I told him you were coming here. He said he had a few things to say to you. Would you like for me to call him?” Sandra was afraid for him to call Chad, but Xavier yelled out Chad’s name, and he came into the room. Christ, what the fuck had he done to himself? “He’s been walking a great deal. Getting to know the people in the town. Being relaxed has been good for him. And he’s happy. Something that he rarely got around you. Also, he’s having a wonderful time working for my family. He’s here. Talk to him.”

“What am I doing here?” The woman repeated what she’d said to Chad. “What the hell are you doing that for? He can hear me just fine. Why don’t the two of you go away so I can have a real conversation with him? Now. I don’t have time to fuck around with the two of you and Chad today. I have shit to do. I want you out—”

Something rushed at her head, like all the memories that she needed to know were suddenly just there. Her name was Sandra. Sandra Merkle. There was a restaurant named for her. A home that she had burnt up. Sitting down on the floor, the only thing she could seem to get close to, Sandra let the memories of her having a chain around one of the cops, and something hit her hard in the head.

“They did something to me. The cops. That’s why I’m confused. They hit me with something. I was holding the cop in the chain, and then I woke up here.” She could understand why she was, but she refused to acknowledge it. “You people. You’re the death watchers. You have something to do with the dead. I’m not dead.”

“You are, as a matter of fact. Have been for over a month. We wondered if you’d remember being shot. But you were. When you broke the neck of the officer you were holding hostage, you were shot six times by the other officers. Overkill, but worth it, I believe the paper said about you being dead.” Chad sat down next to the couple. She looked at him while Xavier filled in the blank spaces as to what had happened up until she’d come here. “You were cremated the day