Chapter 22

SYDNEY

After the words had spilled from my lips, I was at a loss of where to go from there. I didn’t know how to help Declan. How to go back in time. Instead, I just hung my head. Warm fingers slid beneath my chin, and with a slight urging from them, I lifted my head, my eyes meeting his; silver and gold. I had never noticed the golden striations that shot through the silver before, and I wondered at them. Were they part of the lycanthrope? Slowly my eyes moved over his face, absorbing the strong jawline, the unshaven bristle of a day's growth upon his cheeks and chin, and the curve of his lips. God, he was beautiful. My journey continued, my gaze devouring him. He sat before me, completely naked, completely unashamed…and completely covered in blood.

Reality slammed forcibly into me at the sight of the blood, and jerking to my feet, I stood staring at him, then eyes moving, I stared at all the blood on the floor—his blood. Mouth working, I tried to usher forth words, but nothing emerged. Trembles began to vibrate throughout my body and fatigue consumed me. Weakness claimed my muscles and I dropped like a noodle to the floor, busting my kneecaps against the hard linoleum as I came down. I sensed, more than saw Declan lunge toward me to stop my fall, but I never felt his touch, as suddenly my world went black.

###

Brielle’s voice woke me. “Shut up, Lielyn, just shut up! I don’t give a damn what you think, okay? This shit is all your fault anyway! And you’re coming and going is making me a fucking mental case!”

“But Briellen, she needs Aconite!” Lielyn’s words floated on the heels of Brielle’s.

“The hell she does! I am not giving her Wolves Bane. That shit will kill her!” Brielle snapped.

“No, it will wash the wolf blood from her system,” Lielyn protested.

“Oh. My. God! She fucking healed Declan, not ingested him! Get real, Lielyn! She’s exhausted! When was the last time you brought someone from the edge of death? Never, right? Well, me either, but that is exactly what she did and she fainted from the amount of energy she had to draw upon!” Brielle exclaimed.

With a growl, I hissed, “Will you two be quiet! Good Lord, you’re right next to each other, not five miles apart, so stop shouting at each other.” Instantly both were by my bedside, and for the first time, I peered at the image of Lielyn. Just like the girls in my vision, she had very pale hair and dark chocolate eyes surrounded by dark lashes that held a strip of white on the left lid. Her clothing consisted of a purple, bell-shaped, flounced skirt, a tight belt, along with a short apron: her breasts bare. Her clothing was so beautiful, that I desperately found myself wanting them.

Reaching out, I made to touch the material, but my fingers slid through the air, causing a slight distortion. Jerking my hand back as if I had been snake bit, I shook my head, confused—Lielyn was not physically here—though she appeared to be. She wasn’t a vision for she was definitely interacting, so what the hell was this?

“Lielyn…" I exclaimed, “I don’t understand. You’re here but you’re not!”

“I am projecting,” she answered simply as if that was explanation enough.

I nodded, reaching out and dancing my fingers through her skirt, watching it ripple at the action. “Okay, but how? As well, how do I understand you? Shouldn’t you be speaking Greek to me?”

I heard Brielle snort at the play of words, but Lielyn, obviously not understanding the pun, shot Brielle an irritated look, then nodded, stating, “You are Grecian, so naturally you understand me. Are you not aware you and Brielle both are speaking in our tongue to me?”

Brielle and I said in unison, “Whaaaat?”

“Oh, my. You are ignorant of things, are you not?” Lielyn murmured.

“Wait just a damn minute. You are calling *us* ignorant? I would say you have that backward. What do *you* know of our time? Not a hell of a lot—only what you have witnessed in the last few weeks. We know more of your time than you could possibly ever know of ours. In fact, OLD WOMAN, you are our history!” Brielle hissed.

Lielyn just gaped at Brielle, then spat, “Old woman?” You poor thing. You are so confused. You may be seven-thousand years in my future, but it makes no difference. You are in your eighteenth year and I am in my nineteenth, no matter what time period we reside in.”

Brielle just glared at Lielyn, her arms crossed under her breasts. “I am *not* arguing this—”

A slight knock on the door interrupted Brielle’s words, and going over to the door, she opened it to Leighton and Declan standing on its other side. “Everything okay in here?” Leighton asked curiously, “we could hear raised voices.”

Brielle tossed Lielyn a look, then spat, “No, Lielyn needs to go back to her time!”

Both Leighton and Declan gaped at Brielle. “Lielyn?

Opening the door further, Brielle waved her hand in Lielyn’s direction.

Both men’s eyes widened and Declan breathed, “What the fuck?”

Lielyn, eyeing both men, tipped her head to the side. “Leighton and Declan? My Heaven you two were barely in your sixteenth and seventeenth year when I last saw you. I must say, you have grown into fine men!”

“Oh come on, Methuselah, put you eyeballs back in your head,” Brielle warned.

I knew Brielle was aware Methuselah was male, but I figured she used the name in reference to the age comment earlier just to piss Lielyn off—she had taken a disliking to Lielyn, that was for damn sure.

Lielyn turning her attention back on Brielle, just raised an eyebrow. “I am not blind, Sister.”

Leighton, obviously picking up the tension between the two women, stated, “Ladies, please. There are more pressing matters here, stash it will ya?”

For the first time in the last ten minutes I was finally able to get a word in, and asked, “What’s going on, Leighton?”

“Oh nothing much if you count out the tiny matter of two Darkmore’s running around at the same time, and the other one tried to kill Declan,” he replied.

“But that is impossible!” Lielyn gasped.

Declan shrugged. “Impossible or not, it’s a fact. There are two of us and for whatever reason, my dear Uncle, wants me dead.”

That had both Brielle and me gasping once again, “Whaaat? Uncle?”