“Merilee.” He had a wide grin on his face, his voice sounded relieved, like he had finally found what he was looking for. She stayed quiet and just stared at him, half expecting he would disappear, or she would wake up from a cruel dream.
Ash tried to turn her whole body around to face her father, but she wouldn’t dislodge. He kissed her head, pushing it slightly; he did this till he reached her ear. He kissed it then whispered in her ear with his silky soft voice, “Mi amor, he’s real. You are not imaging him, neither are you dreaming.” He tugged at her hand at the front of his shirt. “Touch him, and feel that he is real.”
She didn’t do anything, she just stared at him, and then he did something with his face. She recognized it immediately! It was his impatient face. He always did that when he was trying to be patient with one of them, except for one person.
“You never dared to do that with Mom
“Don’t worry, I know them all.” He sounded so casual.“Oh, you had time to talk to them when you came?”“No, not really.” There was a shadow across his face, his eyes shifted and looked behind her. She turn around, he was staring at Ash.“Dad, what’s going on?” She could see the silent conversation they were having, the trepidation in their faces was so evident it couldn’t have been clearer if the word were stamped on their foreheads.Ash stood up and moved toward them slowly, dragging out the seconds he had left to reach her. He sat on the table facing her. He took her hands in his and buried his face in them, her palms felt wet, was he crying? She’d seen him sad, angry and in agony, but this was very new to her. He kissed the inside of her palms and whispered in them. The words sounded like ‘forgive me’, but she couldn’t be sure. He was scaring her.She plac
“What?” she whispered at him, the images still swimming in her head.He raised his hands and cupped her face, rubbing her cheeks with his thumbs. “Lee, are you okay?” His voice was soft, shaky but level.“It was so real. Like a movie, but, my family…” She stopped, she thought about what she was saying, and she couldn’t seriously be considering it.“I’m so sorry.” Ash sounded miserable, what was he talking about? Someone touched her shoulder, and then turned her around. She starred at her father, his face looked pained.“Honey, it was real. That’s how our family was murdered.” The last word came out like a pained whisper. All the images came flying back into her mind, hitting her with the reality that it had happened. She gasped then pulled away, walking backward as far as she could from the two.“No, it can’t be. It’s my mind; it’s playing t
Joe and Billy moved fast behind her. Ash took slow steps toward her, his arms wide, and his hands up.“Come near me and you’ll regret it!” she hissed the words at Ash with such venom it stopped him dead in his tracks.“Lee, you need to calm down,” he said it slow as if he were talking to an infant.“You knew about me, my dad, my family and you kept it from me! You know exactly how much pain it caused me.” She turned to him, she forgot she loved him, she forgot the fear of losing him, and all she wanted was to attack him, rip his heart out and shred it just like they’d done to hers.“It wasn’t the right time—” he managed to get out before she cut him off.“Give me that bullshit about the right time again and I swear…” She felt a rumble deep inside her.Ash inched closer to her. “It wasn’t my place.”It irritated her how
The plane ride to New York was short and quiet. They rented a car at the airport and drove to a place she never thought she’d go back to, home.“This place is huge, Lee, who owns it?” Maria was in the back seat; her head was sticking out the car window and into the freezing air.She had inherited it when her family died—well that was the story until a few hours ago. This was the first time since that fateful day back home and she had to admit, Maria had a point. It looked bigger than she remembered; no longer a house but a mansion. Hopefully, it was still the same on the inside.“This was my home thirteen years ago.” Lee turned the ignition off, ignoring the pity eyes staring at her. “Let’s go in.”She got out of the car and walked to the door. Her hands trembled as she tried to put the key in. Ann took the key out of her hands and opened the door. It swung open, hitting the wall behind it before it ca
“Yes. I know it sounds impossible, I didn’t believe it myself. I thought it was my imagination, or my nightmares but more vivid and complete. But I never saw how they died. Since Ash and my dad didn’t dare deny it, I knew it was the truth.”Ann looked spacey, her eye brows were raised, and her voice a whisper, “And how did you do that?”“I don’t know.” She’d never thought about it until now. She had been able to read his mind as if it was something she did every day, it hadn’t occurred to her how abnormal it was. She also used to struggle to remember her family, but right then, sitting in that room she effortlessly remembered every experience she had in it. She was now the weirdest person she knew, as if she didn’t have enough going on in her life! “How the hell did I do that?”“What I would like to know is exactly how the guys fit into this?” Maria hadn&rsqu
“Mi amor, you called me, otherwise you wouldn’t have known I was here.” He had his cool matter-of-fact tone. It annoyed her even more.A smile crept on her face, she hadn’t heard that phrase for a while, and it touched her more now than it ever did before. She’d missed it and that silly tone he used when he talked to her like a child. She’d missed everything about him, him annoying and wonderful.“Okay, mister smarty pants, see you in—” A loud bang startled her, she dropped the phone and it shattered when it hit the ground.She turned toward the noise, the door was on the floor and Sabrina stood on top of it. Ann and Maria were on their feet staring at her, frozen by shock. Sabrina stepped off the door and looked around the room. When she spotted Lee at the window she turned and faced her, her face lit up, her face curved in a smile. She looked happy, not happy joy, but happy wicked
“That son of a bitch changed you!” she yelled, and then a loud growl followed. She crouched, mimicking Lee’s current stance. Lee felt her muscles tightened, her fingers curled at the tip.“I was fine fighting a ghost. I was irritated having been lowered to fight a human, but now I’m pissed off that I have to fight my own kind!” Sabrina leaped knocking her onto the floor.Lee hadn’t seen her coming. She cringed holding her knees to her chest as a searing pain tore through her belly. Sabrina rose leaving her on the ground breathless. She moved over her toward the girls.“Lee!” She heard Maria’s frantic shrill behind her.Lee turned on her side and looked up. Maria was holding Ann against herself, her back toward Lee. Sabrina was standing over her; she reached down to grab her hair. The rage was back, hotter than it was twenty seconds ago. Lee sprang to her feet and rushed toward them. She gra
“Joe, we need to do something.” Maria was on the couch with Lee’s head on her lap. They immediately left for Florida after Sabrina’s attack. Ash had spent days watching Lee hoping she would wake up but scared she wouldn’t. When he couldn’t take it anymore he drowned himself in liquor and left Maria and Ann to look after her.“I don’t know what to do.” He crouched down by the couch next to Maria. He wanted to touch her but she was still jumpy. They hadn’t told them what they really were, but Maria had some idea with an image to back it up and she was scared.“Why not take her to the hospital?” Ann was down next to Joe holding Lee’s hand.“We can’t do that. We can’t risk humans knowing of our existence.” Billy stood over Ann his hands crossed over his chest.Ann stood up with a questioning look on her face. “You are worried about coming out of the closet?”“People are going to get killed if they so much as get an inkling of what we are, of what she is.”Maria moved from under Lee, placi