Too weak to fight by that time, I could only stare as tears coursed down my face and rapid, shallow breaths consumed me. Black dots spattered my vision.
His finger touched my skin, and searing heat shot through me, quickly replaced by a rippling tingle. Everything blurred as I lost focus and the ability to speak. Warmth followed like waves washing through me.
I wasn’t sure what happened after that, because I was out of it. Hallucinations became my friend as my mother held my hand, with my grandfather and a man I’d only ever seen in pictures stoically watching over us. Despite knowing it was impossible for them to be there, I felt my mother’s soft skin in my hand, smelled her favorite perfume.
“Mom. What are you doing here? Grandfather, how?”
“Shh, don’t question. Just listen. Everything is as it should be now. I’ve been watching over him, but it’s time for me to hand that care on to you. Your grandfather and your uncle have been waiting for me. I need to pass on. I love you, and I love your sister—so very much.” My mother paused, and my grandfather spoke up.
“It is your job to teach him as I taught you. He needs you now. So will your sister, but for different reasons. Without you, he will become a science experiment to be exploited. A pawn for powerful but greedy men. That must never happen. What we have been given is a gift to be nurtured and cherished. Shared with those deserving. Protected.” My grandfather gave me a small smile and nodded.
My uncle held his hand out, and my mother looked up at him. With a serene smile, she stood and grasped his hand.
“Don’t go! Please!” I begged. It was the first time I’d seen my mother since my last visit home before she died. I wasn’t ready for her to leave. It didn’t occur to me to question the sanity of that thought process.
Bright light blinded me, and I shielded my eyes against it.
When I tried to move my other hand, I realized a small one was tightly clasped in mine, our fingers entwined. I rolled my head to the side and my eyes locked on the tired but steady gaze of my son.
My son. Jesus.
“You shouldn’t still be touching me,” I admonished.
“He wouldn’t let you go.” The voice that had haunted me over the years said from his side of the bed. I glanced up to find her sitting beside him holding his other hand. We made a chain, the three of us.
“I’m okay,” I told him, knowing it was the truth. It was as if that was what he was waiting for, because his eyes dropped shut, and he took a deep inhalation that released slowly before evening out in the slow, deep breaths of sleep.
Gently, I extricated my hand from his, breaking the chain. I ignored the pain in my chest that followed.
“How long?” I asked as I rose to my elbows.
“How long, what?” she asked as she brushed the dark hair off his brow. There were many possibilities that question could pertain to, but I’d start with the most important one.
“How long have I been out?”
“About three to four hours,” she murmured without looking away from the boy.
“Shit. Where are Ghost and Phoenix?” I asked as I carefully sat up. It was strange to be on the receiving end of a healing. It hadn’t happened to me since I was a boy and my grandfather helped me after I “fell down the stairs.”
My shoulder was stiff, and dried blood caked my skin.
“They said they were going to do a cleaning job. I’m assuming that meant Lester’s place” was her quiet reply. I took that moment to study the changes the years had made to her. There weren’t many.
She was as stunning as she ever was. Dark chestnut hair, longer than the last time I’d seen her, dark green eyes with softer sea foam and brown flecks. Plush lips that screamed at me to kiss her.
Except I couldn’t ever do that again. The little boy lying between us was proof that it wouldn’t be fair. Despite my initial sorrow at the knowledge of another child being saddled with my “gift,” if I was honest, I couldn’t find it in me to be truly remorseful.
However, the thought that I’d created this little boy with Korrie and she’d never said anything hurt. It also pissed me off.
“I never wanted to be a father,” I murmured as I stared down at the little boy next to me.
She huffed a snort. “Oh, I’m quite aware.”
“How the fuck could you beawareof how I felt if I didn’t fucking know about him?” My blood immediately boiled.
Startled, she jolted ramrod straight in the chair. Wide eyes blinked at me. “That’s a goddamn lie!” she finally hissed as she glared at me.
Stiffly, I stood up. “You think if I knew you were out there with my fucking kid, I wouldn’t have been there for you? For him?”