Waking Other Lives

Baran had just given me shocking news, news I was not prepared for. Was he telling me the truth, could I trust him? I still could see his face when he’d pulled the trigger on me, yet I also remembered all the times he clung by my side, came after me each time I escaped his grasp, saving me in his own way, and claiming his undying love.

“What do you mean? ” I asked, hoping to get more details from him.

“Abby is sending a team for you, babe. They will take you out, I don’t know much, damn it!” he cursed angrily. “She doesn’t trust me with you, and rightfully so. She’s keeping me outside the loop.” He lifted the arm wound over my waist, eyed me up and down, his gaze lingering on.... Holy shit, he was looking down my neckline, gazing at the V of my breasts which was now peeking out of the half open robe. I was in my robe I remembered suddenly. I clutched my robe, pulling it tight around my bare skin. He lay on his back, and closed his eyes as if we were two lovers sharing the same routine every day, lying in bed, chatting casually.

I hastily got out of bed, there was no reason to tempt the lion. I fetched some clothes and headed for the bathroom. I locked the room, and changed quickly.

“Do you know where and when?” I asked, unlocking the bathroom door, when I was more decent. A million thoughts swam in my head, and anxiety welled in my stomach.

“No, just don’t leave the house, stay inside for the whole day. I can stay here to protect you,” he promised. He leaned on his elbow, studied me, his look reflecting a sincerity I’d missed.

“But, they will probably suspect something if they don’t see you, won’t they?” I asked turning my head, uncomfortable with his gaze. I could feel him tense up, but no word escaped his lips.

“It does not matter,” he said, eventually. “I’ll handle them.”

“Why are you with them?” I asked. “You know they are in the wrong,” I questioned him.

“Sierra, I am one of them. And, they are not in the wrong. All those Drakons you trust right now will all turn on you humans as soon as they phase into their huge fire sprouting beasts. Is this the world you want?”

“Us humans?” I said. “You are one of us, too. And, no they will not, Drakons will not hurt humans because they are mated to them,” I objected, sitting in bed, my eyes burning with impending wrath how Abby and her trustworthy army loved twisting things, telling tales. Did he think I was up for grabs, a child who could easily fooled? Geez, after I’d been through it all, did he think I didn’t know, that I was in the dark, and could easily be swayed? The joke was on him!

“Cut it out, Baran. I know it all. I’ve seen it all. Abby is nothing but a bunch of lies. And, in case you are not aware, you are human, too, and your friends are probably going to kill the love of your life.”

He laughed bitterly. “I am not human, Sierra. And, that is why I’m here, to prevent them from doing exactly that, killing the love of my life.”

Was he pulling my leg? “Not human? Of course, you are. What gibberish has Abby told you?” I objected. “I meant your true Drakon mate, Baran.”

“I am not human, Sierra,” he repeated. “I was, once, but not anymore. Abby’s essence killed our light, thankfully. And, I surely don’t have a Drakon mate.”

“But,” I stammered, his words making no sense to me. I tried to remember what had happened in the Land of Dragoon, I had withdrawn his light, among the rest, when I was trying to save Elvan, and he’d fainted. Hadn’t he? Or, had he been faking? It was almost dark, only the still burning torches fallen from the hands of the fainting bodies shedding some light on the scene. And, I’d been too much in a rush to get away from Abby to stop and check. “In the Land of Dragoon?” I asked. “Why did you faint then, if you didn’t have the light?”

“Yes, the Land of Dragoon. The things you can do, Sierra,” he chuckled. “You took Abby by surprise, I think she had no clue you could do that. But, I didn’t faint because of what you did.”

I looked at him open-mouthed. “Then why did you faint? Was it pretense?” I shot back, he was not fooling me.

“No, I fainted, but for a different reason. The two giant assholes whose lights you pulled, fell on top of me, knocking me down and I hit my head, “he said, looking down, as if embarrassed that he’d been felled as easily as that.

“You are lying,” I cried, opening my palms trying to feel his light. I was not getting anything, so I touched his chest, and I felt him exhale sharply upon my touch, closing his eyes, but his bodily reactions were all together for a different reason because I didn’t feel a thing, not a damn thing. He was not lying, he didn’t have a light, not even a flicker of it. He was not human. Now, at least we knew how to distinguish neutralizers from humans, they lacked the light. The bad thing was that I was the only one who could tell the difference.

“Sierra, please...” he said, fixing his eyes on me, pressing my palm on his chest. His thumb was rubbing circles on my hand which would have made my heart flutter once, but not anymore.

“He is a monster, a beast,” he said. He didn’t have to say anything else, we both knew he was talking about Seth.

“That’s where my heart lies,” I said.

“No, it is not,” he said, getting up. “Let me know when you change your mind.”

What the hell did he mean by that, did he imply something else? How could he even know? This was so bizarre, but I had to find out.

“Do you where my heart is?” I asked, thinking he’d say the classic jargon for unrequited love such as, ‘yes, with me’. But he didn’t.

“Yes, he said. He looked at his feet, uncomfortable, shuffling his feet, flicking his eyes around the room, averting my eyes.

“Abby has it,” he burst forth.

Huh? Come again? Had I heard it correctly?

“What the hell?” I cried out. “Are you telling me, now? What’s wrong with you? What do you mean she has it, she has it how?” I went to the window sill to bar his exit, pushing him inside the room. I was not fooling myself to think I was strong enough, but he backed away as if my touch burned him, it was probably his guilty conscience which actually did.

“I don’t know its location, I’ve been trying to find out, but nobody tells me anything that concerns you.”

“Lovely,” I said, throwing up my hands. “What do you know?” I protested. It was unfair of me to come at him like this, after all he’d warned me. But, I was mad at him, at everything.

“I will protect you, Sierra. I swear,” he said as his last words, and sprinted past me to jump out of the window. What the hell, had he just jumped from the second floor, and was already on his feet? If the lack of light had not been telling, this was. Baran was certainly something other than human.

Obviously, I couldn’t sleep after all this, I pinched my eyes tightly closed, but to no avail. As, the sun’s first lights cut through me from the window, I gave up. I went to grandma’s room which had always comforted me. Her room was left as it was, her book, with a bookmark stuck inside, was still on her rocking chair. I still could breathe in her presence in the room, I sat in the rocking chair, putting her shawl around my knees and started reading the book, last touched by her. That made me smile.

I don’t know how long I stayed in the room, just reading, forgetting everything else. It was mom’s voice which brought me back to reality. “Sierra, where are you?” she was shouting. I heard her coming out of my room, the door banging behind her. “Sierra!” she was yelling frantically as if demons were after her. I got up unwillingly, and opened the door, knowing full well my bliss was over, and I had to face the day, and all its troubles.

“Here, I’m here, ” I said, and I saw the relief on her face when she spotted me, her face lighting up.

“Baby, your friends are here to see you,” she said, her voice cheerful and bubbly. “I was wondering where they’d been.”

“Who?” I asked. “Seth?”

“No, silly. Your friends, Payal and Abby.”

Nothing could describe what I felt when those words clicked: rage at their courage, shock at their insensitivity, and sadness at what their presence now meant to me. At one time in my life, they had been everything to me, now they were my enemies. Why were they visiting me at my own home, to test me, or take me down? Holy crap, what if they had guns, and massacred my whole family right here, right now? I had to find a gun, I had to keep them away from my parents. I paced in the corridor, restless, desperate, with mom just gazing at me in shock. It was not as if we had a gun stored in one of the rooms, I had nothing. Oh, wait I had my hands, I thought, suddenly smiling. And then my face fell, Payal was probably a neutralizer which meant my powers were useless against her, and Abby was a witch anyhow. All in all, I had nothing. “Mom, where is dad? I asked frantically.

Mom was looking at me perplexed, not understanding why I was not jumping up and down in excitement, and rushing to meet them. “He is at work,” she said.

I sighed. “Good, you should leave right away, too,” I said, pushing her towards the door.

“What nonsense, are you okay Sierra?” she said. “Now that the girls are here, we’ll all have a nice breakfast. I’ll make you some nice omelet and pancakes. I’ll get to it right away,” she said, hurrying down. “I wonder where Baran is,” she muttered. “It is weird that he has not shown up yet.”

“You are so leaving the house,” I urged her, catching up with her, but Abby and Payal were already ascending the stairs. “Sierra,” Payal said, with tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe this,” she exclaimed, rushing at me, hugging me tenderly, all part of her great display. I shivered with distaste.

“We couldn’t wait any longer,” Abby said. “We learned you were out of the coma, and wanted to come right away, but the hospital told us you were taken home. How are you feeling? God, what a miracle!”

I was cocooned within the arms of my two dire enemies, suffocating with the bile rising up in my throat, and mom was all teary eyed. Talk about deception!

In the meantime, I checked Payal’s light, my palm squeezed in between her torso and mine, yep, there was nothing. She was a neutralizer, all right.

“Let’s go downstairs, mom has to leave,” I said.

“Oh, I’m not leaving you girls,” she said, driving me nuts.

When we went to the kitchen, and mom started beating eggs, asking the girls how they’ve been, I was so damn panicky, so hopeless that my body was shaking. If I didn’t find a way out of this soon enough, my heart would not be able to take so much stress anyway.

“I’m worried about you, you look so pale, are you all right?” asked Abby.

“Yes,” I said, curtly.

“We were going to ask whether you felt good enough to go out today,” said Payal. She had risen to help mom, cutting the tomatoes, and mom kissed her affectionately on the cheek.

“What lovely girls you are. It would do Sierra some good, she’s been closed in this house far too long. We are all so lucky that she has friends like you,” she said, feeling all motherly, and emotional. She failed to see through their pretense, their hypocritical gestures, and their feigned sweetness.

My goodness, was mom mayhap a neutralizer, too? She was certainly doing everything to get me killed. A chuckle escaped me with the stupidity of this all scene, and I immediately clamped my mouth shut.

“You see, she is already more cheerful in your presence,” continued mom.

Please mom, just shut up!

“Well,” Abby said, “We have a present for you, Sierra.” And, she stood up. She had no packages with her, nothing that would slightly resemble a present. This was it, she was going to kill me, and probably mom, too, just like Baran had said. The bell rang, and a flicker of surprise flashed in Abby’s eyes, a fleeting look passed between her and Payal, and then she sat down again, not too happy.

“Mom, will you open the door?” I said, not wanting to leave her alone with a neutralizer and a witch.

I was happy to see her back as she left the kitchen.

Abby was no longer smiling, now that mom was no longer in the room. Payal avoided my eyes.

“I was just talking about you,” laughed mom. “What a lovely surprise,” I heard her add in a shrill voice.

I heard the hurried footsteps of somebody else accompanying mom.

Nothing could surprise me anymore, and I didn’t even gasp when I saw who the next intruder was.

“Sierra, love,” Baran said, taking me in his arms, and kissing me passionately. What the hell? I tried to lift him off me, but his lips traveled to my ears and I heard his whisper. “Just play along. I’m trying to save your sweet sexy ass.”

“Then stop kissing me,” I gritted my teeth.

“Ssh, that’s small reward for what I’m about to do,” he said, and then turned to Abby. “Girls, we need to leave.”

Payal’s face was contorted in anger, and jealousy which she didn’t even bother hiding. Her gaze was fixed at Baran’s arm wrapped around my waist, and she was literally hissing. Wow, so she really had the hots for him.

“Why?” Abby asked, serious.

“Because plans have changed, I’ll tell you all about it in the car,” he said. “He is on his way.”

“So, what?” Payal spat. “He can’t even shift.”

“Oh, the news is that he can. Let’s scoot.”

Were they talking about Seth, was he coming, could he shift now?

Mom was looking at us, her eyes wandering from Baran to Abby, from Payal to me, she had a fake smile on her face, she didn’t understand a thing from this conversation except for the fact that they were leaving.

“Don’t go, breakfast is almost ready,” mom said, doing her best to stop their hasty departure.

“Mrs. Trancelli, we must go. We’ll leave Sierra to rest for now,” Baran said. “You take care of yourself babe,” he said kissing me again.

And, that is how they left, with Payal clenching her fists, Abby muttering to herself, and Baran thoughtful, and silent.

“I don’t know why they left,” said mom. “What about them taking you out? I don’t understand it.”

“It’s better this way,” I assured mom. “It’s better this way.”

I waited for Seth, but he didn’t come. Baran had been lying. He had fooled them, and even I had bought the lie. Yet, one thing was undeniable, he had saved me. At least for now.