The noise drew the nurses in; they saw the knife and screamed. This, of course, brought the police in at a run. In a few brief moments they had me pinned to the bed despite my struggles. Luke and Bres were pushed out, though they didn’t seem to resist all that much, and the chubby brunette nurse jabbed me with a needle.
I let out a yelp as the world went fuzzy around me, my eyes closing as the sedative kicked in, dropping me into unconsciousness.
6
I floated in a world of fog. There were waves and rocks; I was on the beach again. But this time I couldn’t get to the water. An invisible Barrier was between me and the ocean. My instincts were telling me that if I could just get to the water I could find Ashling.
My hands slid over the slick, transparent surface; but no matter how I pounded and screamed, the Barrier held firm. I could see Ashling in the distant surf, could hear her screams as she called for me. Panic clawed at me. She needed me, and I couldn’t get to her.
Voices whispered across my ears, pulling me out of the fog, but I still couldn’t open my eyes.
“We gave her three times the usual dose. She burned it off in a matter of minutes; if we didn’t have the steady drip of sedative on her she’d be awake even now.” A shuffle of feet, the blanket pulled tight around my body as if someone was tucking the corners in.
“What about their parents?” A second voice asked.
The first person, it sounded like the brunette nurse, made a hushing sound. “Not so loud. Father isn’t around; their mother . . .” More feet shuffling, and my ears strained to hear what was said.
“. . . can’t reach her. Went missing today too. So tragic.”
My heart picked up speed. My mother was missing? She’d only just left for Ireland three days ago, right before Ashling’s graduation. I struggled upwards through the sedative, and opened my eyes to an empty room. The nurses were gone. Like moving through thick mud, I raised my left hand, the I.V. hanging from it. I fumbled for it with my other hand and yanked the drip out. A hiss of pain escaped my mouth as the hospital tape pulled on my skin and hair; a trickle of blood dripped down my arm from the injection site.
Within moments my mind began to clear. They probably hadn’t given me as strong a dose as they thought. Still, I took great care as I sat up and slid from the bed, my legs wobbly underneath me. I had been dreading phoning Mom, telling her that Ashling was . . . missing? Dead? I didn’t even know the answer to that. I was afraid she’d be happy. I didn’t think I could handle that.
The police would say Ashling was dead, but I just didn’t believe it. I didn’t think that Luke and Bres thought she was dead either, and for what it was worth, that brought me some comfort. I’d seen what had dragged her down into the depths; it hadn’t been a shark or a killer whale. It had been humanoid, with a single eye and a mouthful of teeth.
I sat back on the edge of the bed and considered everything that had happened from the moment Grandpa had wrapped his fingers around my neck. The voices in my head, the feeling of finally having all the pieces of who I was fit together, the dream, the monsters in the water. Luke and the power he displayed. Either I accepted that I’d been inducted into a world I had never known—one with magic and monsters, where even I, the daughter of a woman who didn’t want children, had power—or I accepted that I was losing my mind and that all of this was just a psychotic break. There was no middle ground.
Which was it going to be? Ashling was the tie breaker. If I accepted I was losing my mind, then Ashling was dead.
I would take magic and monsters if it meant Ashling had a chance of being saved.
It seemed that Grandpa’s stories and ramblings were true. I’d seen a monster for myself; I couldn’t doubt they existed. They’d stolen Ashling away, like some horribly twisted fairy tale.
Fomorii. The word whispered across my mind and with it came a shard of anger. That was what had taken Ashling. Luke and Bres had spoken of them, as if they would be satisfied now that they had my sister. “We’ll see about that,” I muttered.
Across the room my bag sat on the side table, a rumpled pile of mine and Ashling’s clothes within it. The gapped-back hospital gown slithered to the floor, and the air conditioning lifted goose bumps all over my body. Moving fast, I slid into my jean shorts, tank top and flip flops. My cell phone was there too; I tucked it into my back pocket. It wasn’t much, but it was better than the gown, and far better than being na**d. My knife was missing and my heart lurched. It had been my first and last gift from Grandpa. For all that he didn’t like me, I still cherished that knife. There was nothing I could do about it now though. No doubt the police took it.
My mind began to pick up speed as I moved around. I would have to get a boat, maybe hire someone to take me out to where Ashling had disappeared. Scuba gear; I could rent that, though my heart nearly ran away at the thought of diving again. Slipping the bag over my shoulder, I put my hand on the door. An image of the gaping mouth and bulbous single eye of the Fomorii assaulted me, and a shiver of fear rippled down my spine. A spear gun. That should be on my list too. Maybe I could hire some divers to go with me; that would be best. I wasn’t sure I could get back in the water, even now. But for Ashling I would try; I would do everything I could to save her.
I limped down the hallway, my leg still aching. At the nurses’ desk I paused to see that they were engrossed in a cribbage game. With their attention all on their game they didn’t notice me as I walked right out of the hospital.
The fog from my dream seemed to have followed me into the waking world. A heavy grey mist lay over the parking lot, blocking much of the trees and road from sight. I shivered in the late afternoon air and wrapped my arms around myself. You would have never known it was almost July. It looked, and felt, like winter was coming on.
I pulled my phone out and whispered thanks to the heavens that it was still charged. I dialled my mother’s cell phone in the hopes that what the nurses had said was wrong. It rang four times and then went to her voice mail. I hung up before the message came on. I tried my cousin Sheila, where my mother had been staying. No answer there either.
The next number I called was for a cab; the dispatcher, in a completely uninterested tone, finally told me it would be about five minutes. I hung up, and limped to a cement pillar, leaning against it to ease the weight on my leg.
“You shouldn’t be out of the hospital yet.”
I turned to face Luke. “I hate hospitals.”
He stepped close and I remembered his wetsuit shifting, how he’d made the nurses and cops do what he wanted. He had magic, that much was obvious; my gut reaction was that he wasn’t human, he couldn’t be. And if he knew magic, and what I was feeling inside me was answering him, I needed him to help me understand what was going on. At least for now. Time to buckle down and ask the question that had been on the tip of my tongue. “You aren’t Fomorii, I can see that much; so just what are you?”
“I am Tuatha de Daanan, the same as you,” Luke said. “The same as Bres.”
As if he had been called, Bres stepped out from around the cement pillar to my right. “She’s going to be a problem for us, isn’t she?” he asked.
Luke chuckled. “Are you surprised?”
Bres shook his head and again I felt completely out of my depth. I hated not knowing what was going on. And what the hell was a Tuatha de whatever?
The low rumble of a big truck working its way towards us made me look to the road. I looked around for the rig as the ground below me bucked. It wasn’t a truck; it was an earthquake. The world shivered and swayed, the ground shifting like a tilt-a-whirl. I jerked my arms out to the side but still fell, my bitten leg not holding up. Shocked, my eyes widened at an alarming rate when both men leaped towards me, catching me before I could hit the ground. How had they moved so fast?
The quake lasted for only a few seconds and then the world was still once more. Luke’s hands seared my skin; Bres’ hands cooled the fire—and somewhere in the middle I began to melt from the intensity of it all.
“Do you get earthquakes often?” Luke asked me, his face tight with concern. He kept his hands on my waist and Bres stepped away, a glower on his lips.
I shook my head and pulled myself out of his hands. “No. Just recently the Island’s been hit with them.”
The taxi pulled up and I yanked the door open. “Take me to the Wickaninnish Inn,” I instructed the driver, locking the door behind me.
“We will be coming with you, whether you like it or not Quinn. You are our charge,” Luke said through the open window as he tried the front passenger door. It was locked, and I smiled up at him as he frowned down at me.
“I need a few minutes to myself. You can meet me at my hotel,” I said, my voice hard and clipped though I still smiled.
I gave a nod to the cabbie and he pulled away from the curb. In the rear-view mirror stood Luke, his hands on his hips, and Bres, his mouth in a hard line, his jaw tight with anger.
I spun in my seat to stare at them both as they argued, Luke shaking his head and Bres getting right up into his face, arms waving in the air.
“Do you want me to go back and get your boyfriend?” The cabbie asked.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said, just as Luke turned to meet my gaze, his baby blues trying once more to snare my gaze. Heat flooded through me as if his lips were caressing mine, my body reacting to the memory as surely as if it was happening right at that moment. I swallowed hard and sat back in my seat. I steeled myself against Luke and the effect his kiss had on me. My focus had to be Ashling.
When the cab stopped in front of the hotel I tapped the driver on the shoulder. “I have to run up and get some money, I’ll be right back.” He gave me a smile as I stepped out of the cab.
I could see Chesterman beach. I grit my teeth, swallowing the grief that threatened to overwhelm me. As crazy as this all seemed, I knew it was happening. I wasn’t making it up. and that meant that I had a chance to save Ashling. But I had to find her first.
The manager let me into my room, since my key card had gone missing somewhere between the beach and hospital. He handed me a new card and put a hand on my shoulder as he opened the door. “I’m so sorry about your sister. She was a beautiful girl.” His brown eyes were full of sorrow and compassion; they nearly undid my resolve.