Chapter 147: Fugitive
I almost took a half step back out of pure instinct. She looked like warmed over crap the hospital chewed up and spit out again. Though I figured from her appearance she hadn't left treatment with permission.
"Pain." My first reaction faded quickly as I took in the dirty robe and the slippers on her feet, same industrial hospital issue. Her hair was a tangled mass held back by a large elastic, bits and pieces clinging in greasy strands to her cheeks and forehead. The skin around her eyes had that bruised look of the truly ill and she swayed where she stood, mouth slightly open, eyes wide and staring like she'd forgotten where she was and why she was there.
I looked around for Cydia's spirit but for now it was just Pain and me.
"Syd." She gulped once, voice cracking and hoarse. "Syd. It's you."
"Yeah, Pain, it's me." I reached for her hand, but she cried out softly, jerking herself out of my range like the least touch would hurt her.
"Found you." One of her knees let go and she dipped on a wonky angle before she caught herself again. What the hell had they done to her? She looked way worse than when I saw her at the hospital. The bigger question was how did she get here?
"Come inside." I gestured toward the glass doors. "We can call your mom." And mine. Enough was enough.
She shook her head so violently I worried she'd collapse from the motion. "Not going back there." Her voice slowly rose as each word emerged until she was practically shouting. It was smothered by a roll of thunder. I glanced up and over her shoulder. Storm coming.
It seemed to trigger something inside her, a lucidity she'd been missing. "You have to tell me." She panted as if she'd just run a sprinting race, suddenly gasping for air. "You have to, Syd. I need to know what's happening to me." Tears gushed from her eyes in a flood that quickly wet her face, fat drops falling from her quivering chin. "I know you're part of it. I know it."
The storm moved fast, clouds rushing toward us. Within moments we were under the weight of them. I physically felt the drop in pressure, cranked my jaw when my ears popped.
"It's going to be okay." How could I tell her that when I knew it wasn't? "Just come inside."
She backed off again, this time out of reach. "Tell me. Tell me! TELL ME!"
More thunder. Without it to smother Pain's screams, I knew even drunk Alison would be up. "You showed me once." She wrung her hands in front of her face, looking at them as if they were foreign to her. "You touched me and I saw so clearly."
Damn. So she did remember. Mom must have missed that particular memory when she tampered with Pain and the others over Demetrius's alter ego, Benjamin. I wanted to get through to her that day and screwed up, letting her see and feel more than I should have.
I was about to try to coax her inside again when she lunged forward and grabbed me. Her palms pressed to my cheeks, face in mine, her madness so clear to me I wanted to save her, but didn't have the means.
When she touched me, nothing happened. I could see the understanding in her eyes, the terror. "No," she whispered. "It was there. I know it."
"Not any more," I said. "I'm sorry."
I lifted my hands and gripped hers, pulling them down from my face. She sobbed once, shoulders hunching forward. I hugged her gently, patting her back, wishing there was more I could do for her.
As the clouds above us broke and the downpour emptied itself over where we stood, I felt the power in my mind uncoil, a thread releasing itself. A thread I recognized as it snaked its way out of me and into her. Not witch magic this time, no. Far different and much more of a shock.
The green Sidhe power lit Pain up like she'd stuck her finger in a socket. She pulled herself free of my arms and stared into my eyes, green magic flickering over both of us.
I watched Cydia descend, settle over my friend, wrapped up in the glowing green of her magic.
I blinked through the torrential rain and tried to understand even as the fear left Pain's face. Cydia took over, smiling at me.
"Shaylee," she said.
My heart pounded once, heavily in my chest, hitting me like a blow.
"Cydia." Now I knew Quaid had been right. We were connected, Pain and I, by the power of the Wild Hunt. But what did the sisters have to do with the storm that was coming?
Lightning struck, very close. As it did, the sky rippled with light
Her finger points at me, hatred and jealousy in her face as she says, "Death."
and I staggered from the impact not only of the electricity in the air, but the punch in the gut as I connected with who Pain was to me. Fury took over. I lashed out at her, fist impacting her cheek before I could stop myself. She fell away from me with a cry, but when she looked back her eyes brimmed with the feelings I expected from her.
she points and points and laughs as I die knowing she sent me to death for nothing
Pain snarled at me, an animal sound. Thunder so loud my whole body shook from it drove me to my knees in the wet grass, Pain beside me. I tried to rise but the shock was too great. Lightning struck
I am dying, my soul leaving my body
and I found myself sobbing in fear. A hand grasped mine and I met Pain's eyes as the thunder rolled over us again. Only it was her this time, my Pain, not Cydia, just her with her hurt and her fear. I looked up, saw the spirit of the angry and jealous sister rising, as though being pulled by the very air itself. She cried out but her voice was weak, so weak, her form finally swept away in a gale of wind.
Pain met my gaze, hers wide from what she'd been through and just witnessed. "What does it mean?"
"We have to go." I dragged myself to my feet, her beside me. This was important, more important than obeying my mother's orders. My friend and I were connected to the Wild. Maybe that meant we could influence it somehow. "We have to see Mom."
She was already pulling away from me, her terror growing. "No!" She staggered over a puddle, almost fell again as I lunged after her. "You won't trick me. I won't go back!"
I lunged for her, missed, slipped myself and ended up face first in a flowerbed. I made it to my feet, but it was too late. Pain was gone. I raced after her, slipping and sliding in the heavy rain, making it to the edge of the driveway near the road in time to see her drive off in a car I didn't recognize.
If she stole it, they'd lock her away forever. I'd botched this whole thing very badly. Why didn't I make Mom listen? I had to get to Pain before she did something even more stupid, and bring her to the coven.
I spun as another bolt struck out over the lake and froze. The snapshot of light it created drove fear into my heart. The shadow of someone stood watching me. I knew that shadow. Hadn't he bent over me, blond hair falling forward, green eyes full of love and hate all together?
Before I could force myself to act, something hit me hard on the back of the head and the world spiraled into darkness.
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