Healer (The Healer Series) (10 page)

“Yes, please. I need you,
” I whispered back as I placed my hands on the sides of his face. “Love me,” I whispered.

Suddenly, he slid
inside me, and I felt sharpness, like a stabbing, ripping pain. I yelped, in surprise.

“I’m sorry,
” Thomas whispered as he paused, tensing.

“It’s okay. I guess I feel pain because that’s what everyone says
losing your virginity feels like.” I smiled. “Just go slow, please.”

“Of course
, sweets.” He kissed my forehead gently and very slowly moved out and back in.

I tried
to relax, willing the discomfort away.

“We c
an stop.”

“No.
I want this.”

He exhaled loudly and moved
again, very slowly. As he continued his slow rhythm, I realized the pain may not stop this time. The pain felt good on an emotional level, because this was me giving myself to him.

“I promise to be a better
man from this day on.” He gazed into my eyes.

“You are a good man
, Thomas,” I whispered back.

“You make me want to be a better man.”

“Faster,” I whispered. Thomas began to move faster, his lean body sliding over me, driving me crazy.

His breathing became more rapid. “
Aldo.”
He moaned my name and my body reacted as if I had been shocked. I raised my hips, meeting his thrusts, begging for more of him deeper inside of me.

His back moistened with sweat and his energy was off the charts. In a most unexpected move, he pulled energy from me. My body lifted to his, involuntarily, and suddenly, he pushed back, his energy slammed me back into the bed again. He continued this several times and each time I would melt into him, my body evaporated by his, only to be poured back out again. My body was his and under his complete control. With one last major pull, I thought I would pass out, and suddenly, he pushed hard and fast, and he released into me, moaning my name. Flooded with sheer ecstasy, I was a puddle of a young woman that had just been undone. He lay on me, panting, his head positioned on my sternum so that his mouth was millimeters away from my breast. His hot, moist, breath tickled my nipple, sending shocks though my body.

All of a sudden
, all of the happiness, fear, excitement, and joy bubbled up inside of me and I burst into tears.

“What
’s wrong?” Thomas asked, sitting up quickly. “Did I hurt you?” Panic in his voice.

“I’m just so happy.” I smiled though my tears.

“So am I, sweet girl,” he whispered, kissing me gently, while he rubbed away a tear with his thumb.

We lay for some time
, silent, wrapped around one another in the mess of sheets. The lake was still, flat as glass, as spouts of fog drifted across it like ghosts. No words were needed. I felt his energy—soft—calm. Safe. It was the happiest moment of my life.

W
e went swimming, and held each other in the warm water, basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking. I shifted the day to night and blanketed the sky with stars, the moon bathing us in its light.

“You’re amazing,” h
e smiled, gazing into the sky. “I’ve wanted this for so long,” he confessed as he kissed me gently.

“Do you have plans tomorrow?” I
hoped he would come over and spend time with us.

“I
have something to take care of,” he said in a distant way, and his expression seemed odd.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, just something I have to do.” He kissed my shoulder. “You. Are. Amazing.”

“Was it….” I paused, looking for the right word, “good?” I finished.

He
kissed me gently. “It was amazing. Thank you,” he whispered.

“For what?”
 

“For picking me.”

“I prayed it would be you.”

“We should agree on something
, though, Aldo.”  He kissed my shoulder again. “This was amazing—”

“
Agreed!”

“Not what I meant.” He grinned.

“Oh.”

“
I think it’s time for me to be on my own for a while. You know, separate from Lucas.”

“So come to Virginia with us.”

“Virginia?”

“Yeah, Virginia Tech.”

“Oh, college.”
He nodded like he had just remembered. “I forgot about that. No, I can’t. I need to be on my own.”

“So, you won’t be able to
come and visit me there?” I fought the urge to cry.

“Well, wh
at if you come with me?”

I stare
d at him for a moment, unsure of how to react. “I don’t think Lucy would let—”

“You
’re eighteen now,” he interrupted me. “Lucy can’t tell you what to do anymore.”

I pull
ed away from him. “Yeah, but what about my brothers? I can’t leave them.”

Thomas took my hand and kissed
each finger gently, pulling me back to him. “They’ll be in college. Busy with girls and frat parties. They won’t even notice you’re gone.”

I
turned my face from his, hurt by his words, as if he thought I meant so little to them.

“I’m sorry.
That came out wrong.” He shook his head. “Look, I’ve fought this, the idea of being with you for this reason in part. I knew the day would come when we would have to separate. I can’t do that now. I need you.” My heart melted with his words.

“Couldn’t you come with us and heal?” I was still trying to figure out how to have the best of both worlds, Thomas and my family.

“I can’t
, Aldo. I need to go, and I want you with me. Please say you’ll go with me.” He kissed my neck, his lips soft as velvet. “Please say yes.” He gazed at me with his dark eyes.

My heart wanted to leap out of my chest and run away with
him, but my mind kept reminding me that I would be abandoning my brothers and I would break Lucy’s heart. On the other hand, going to college without Thomas felt like a future of nothing but despair.

He pull
ed away and looked at me again. “Say you’ll go, please,” he begged once more.

I stared at him blankly.
“Can I think about it?”

His eyes dropped
, and disappointment immediately consumed his face. As we dried ourselves off and dressed, silence hung over us like a wet blanket, suffocating me. How could he ask me to leave my family behind? He knew how much they meant to me. What was behind this drastic request?

“Thomas, is everythi
ng okay?”

“It’s fine,” he snapped, shaking his head, in that way a person says it’s fine, but everything in his tone and body language says otherwise.

I scolded myself. What was wrong with me? I had practically warped into a deep depression because I couldn’t have him
, and now here he was asking me to run away with him, and I was seriously thinking maybe I shouldn’t do it.

“I’ll go
, Thomas.” I smiled.

He looked
at me, a wide grin spread across his face that told me I had just made his day.

“Thank you.” He
grabbed me and hugged me tightly. “You won’t regret it. Start packing.”

“What? I thought we wouldn’t leave until the summer ended. I have graduation in three weeks.”

“No, we leave in the next day or two.”

“Why so
soon?” I stammered. I couldn’t just bail before graduation. At the end of my life, my list of accomplishments would be short, but damn it, a high school diploma would be one of them.

“I’
ve caught wind of an opportunity and need to seize it. I have to go, but I’ll see you tomorrow.” He kissed me. “Let’s keep this between us, okay.”

“What opportunity?”

“I stumbled upon a rare antique.”

“Oh, your business?”

“Just pack and be ready when I call.”

“But Thomas
…” I pleaded.

“Start packing
, Aldo, and don’t tell anyone.” He grabbed me and kissed me hard. “Okay?”

“Okay,
” I agreed blown away by his kiss, unlike any he had given me the entire night.

I
would not tell a soul. If Lucy caught wind of it she’d probably gag and bound me, pack us up, and high tail us out of town. I kissed him once more and admired his shirtless body as he walked away, then disappeared. I realized it was the first time I had seen him without a shirt on. My inner self proceeded to do a series of back flips. I was no longer the girl who wished she could follow that tribal tattoo on his arm all the way up to see where it ended. Tonight he exposed everything. I turned to clear my mind, to sleep deep, when it occurred to me. I didn’t see his tribal tattoo.

.

nine

Present

I wake at five-thirty
in Alina’s living room, realizing she must have gone to bed. The room is dark, with the exception of a dim light coming from the range above the stove in her kitchen. I get up quietly in desperate need of a bathroom. I find a half bath at the end of the hall on the back side of the living room and pee in the dark, so I won’t wake her children.

I exit the bathroom and jump.

Alina’s
daughter, Ella, stands at her bedroom door.

“Ella?” I whisper
, approaching her slowly so I won’t frighten her.

She
nods, her tiny head wrapped in a scarf to hide her hairless scalp.

“Y
ou are even prettier than your mother told me.” I kneel in front of her. “My name is Aldo.”

“
Mommy told me about you,” she whispers. “She said you were very pretty.”

“Y
our Mommy is so sweet. She’s the pretty one and you look just like her.”

Ella turns and gestures
for me to follow her, and I do, quietly. She leads me into her bedroom, which is exactly what every little girl’s room should look like. Stuffed animals line the shelves on her wall, and a table is set with plastic tea cups and saucers for a tea party.

“Wou
ld you like some tea?” She motions for me to sit.

“I’d love some.” I carefully si
t on the plastic chair meant for a five year old. I’m relieved when it defies the laws of physics and doesn’t crush to the ground under me.

Ella
pours the make believe tea into my pink plastic tea cup. “Sugar?” She holds up a little plastic jar with a spoon.

“
No thank you, I’m watching my figure.”

While s
he makes herself a cup of tea, I realize I could heal her right now. I’m stored up from visiting the pizza parlor earlier. It would take several healings to cure her, but I can figure out how to get back to her. I listen to her energy, but it must be wrong. Her vibrations and pitches are low and unbalanced, one far lower than the other. That just can’t be. I listen again, but get the same result. My heart sinks in my chest.

I can’t save her.

Ella stops and looks at me. “Don’t!” she commands quietly.

I freeze.
“Don’t what?”

“Cry for me,” s
he says softly.

“I’m sorr
y, sweetie, I just had something—”

“
It’s okay. I’m okay.” She smiles gently, placing her hands on the table as she sits, like an old lady might.

“Are you afraid?” I ask
, understanding that I’m talking to a child with a deep grasp of her own mortality. It calms me, knowing this beautiful child is at peace with her fate. We all live fearing death. We’re all terrified. People would kill to have me heal them, to save them from death, but the truly sad part about that, is death is beautiful. There’s no pain on the other side, no fear. Time has no hold on you. The days are warm and full of content. At least that’s what Lucy told me.

“No,” s
he whispers. “I can see your light.”

“My light?”
I question.

“Yes,
it’s like your light is trying to shoot at me, but there’s an invisible wall that stops it.”

“I’d give you all of my light if I could
, Ella. I want to save you, but—” I stop, not sure of how to explain.

“I know,” s
he replies simply. “Just help my Mommy when I’m gone. It won’t be long. She’s going to miss me, and I want her to be happy.”

I ca
n’t hold back my tears. Her concern for her mother over her own demise wrenches my heart. I can feel Alina’s pain, trying to imagine my own child dying. The thought is horrible. Tears stream down my face.

Ella walks
to me. “Shh.” She hushes me, laying her head against my shoulder.

I wrap my arms around her and hug
her gently.
Beautiful
. This beautiful creature is to be taken. Anger rises within me.
Why, God?
Why take her?
 

R
ight on cue, Lucy’s voice rings through, scolding me. “
Aldo, stop!”

I ignor
e her, hugging Ella tighter.

“Aldo, God takes what is his. It is her time. It is not fo
r you to question.”
Her voice is stern. Lucy always scolded us for asking why? So many lives we saved, ailments we healed, but so many left us with their demise certain. I could never explain the anguish in that.
“Let her go.”
Lucy demanded softly. She was right, though. As she reminded me many times in my youth, we do what we can and accept what we can’t, even when it hurts.

“Ella,
heaven is getting a real angel when you get there.” I whisper through my tears. “I’ll be here for your Mommy. Don’t worry,” I assure her. It’s a promise I’m not sure I can keep, but Lucy always taught me that death comes easier when one dies without fears. I have no idea what will happen now that I’ve been found by vampires, but I will be there for Alina if I can.

“Just tell her I’m al
ways with her, okay?”

With her words
, I think of Lucy. It comforts me to know Lucy is always with me, too. “Of course.”

“You should go.” She nods
in the direction of the front door. “What you’ve been looking for is looking for you.”

How does
she know what I’m looking for?

“Good
bye, Aldo. It was nice meeting you.”

“Good
bye, Ella.” I stand up, and as I reach the door of her bedroom, I glance back and see her taking a sip from her little pink tea cup.

I change back into the
jeans and t-shirt I wore to Alina’s, and use her phone in the kitchen to call for a cab. I wait on her front porch for the cab. My nerves are wrecked. My body is tense and my stomach is filled with a mixture of nausea and butterflies. I’m excited that I’m so close, scared that I’m so close, and sad that I can’t save that sweet child.

As I wait for the cab
, I’m overwhelmed with the feeling of missing my brothers and Lucy. I want to wrap my arms around them so badly, see Hudson’s big brown eyes, and hear one of Whit’s stupid jokes that despite my best efforts always make me laugh. I lean against the railing on the porch, busying myself with thoughts of my brothers, until my cab shows up. After sliding in and giving him my address, I close my eyes and try to let my mind clear, but somehow I think about the past.

Past

The morning after our prom, I woke up feeling amazing. Everything had fallen into place, but I hesitated. Maybe I put Thomas in my dream and that’s why I didn’t remember seeing his tattoo. I brushed the thought aside. I probably saw it and just didn’t pay attention to it.

I took a quick shower, trying to convince myself Thomas really was there. We really did make love.
When I got out, there was only one way to find out for sure and that was to talk to Thomas. I wrapped a towel around me and grabbed our phone from the kitchen.

“Morning
, Aldo.” Lucy smiled brightly. Her silky gray hair was pulled back into a clip. Lucy was in her early forties, but she was beautiful. There are rarely women who can pull off gray hair, but Lucy not only pulled it off, she owned it. She always joked about how I’d turn gray early too, just like she did. To which I’d reply,
Not while there’s hair dye.
She was the kind of woman that looked good in anything, which was a good thing, because she wasn’t exactly a fashionista.

“Hurry up a
nd get dressed. I made pancakes,” she called.

“Okay.”
I was starving. I went back into my room and shut the door and dialed Thomas’s number. His phone rang and rang before it went to voicemail. Why didn’t he answer?

I dressed
in a navy sun dress and brushed my hair. I ate with Lucy, Whit, and Hudson and after breakfast, I washed dishes lost in thoughts of Thomas, while Whit and Hudson discussed Virginia Tech and Lucy knitted at the kitchen table. College was right around the corner. How would I break the news to Lucy that I wouldn’t be going? Thomas told me not to say anything; did that mean I wouldn’t even get to say goodbye?

I went back to my room and shut the door. I dialed Thomas’s number again and it went straight to voicemail.
Shit
.

“Aldo.”
Whit knocked at my door.

“What?” I snapped
at him, not meaning to.

“You okay?” h
e pushed my door open.

“Yeah
, sorry, what’s up?”

“We’re going to get some school stuff. Lucy gave us some money. She said we
have to go because she has a healing.”

“Here?”
Lucy never saw clients at our house. She didn’t want anyone knowing where we lived.

“Yeah,
” Whit shrugged and left my room.

I
followed Whit into the kitchen. “Why do we have to leave?” I asked Lucy, as she took her jewelry off. She didn’t have a lot. Just some earrings and an initial ring we had given her for Christmas one year. She also wore a chain that held a silver rectangle, but she never took it off.

“Because yo
u guys need to go have some fun. Besides, this is a very sick person and I need to concentrate.”

“
Why are they coming here?”

“Her husband doesn’t believe in holistic
healing, so she’s doing it behind his back.” She shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“How do you know her?” I ask
ed.

“Thomas referred her.”

“He did?”
When was this?
He’d been absent from our lives for three weeks.

“Yes
, Aldo,” she snapped.

“Are you sure it’s the best idea for you to be alone here with a stranger?”

She looked at me over the rim of her glasses and gave me an,
are you seriously asking me that,
look.

“Okay.” I shook my head
.

“Don’t come back for six
hours.” She started fluffing pillows on our couch.

“
Six hours?” I plopped down in her recliner.

“Yes.” She used her
don’t question
me
tone. “Whit, go tie up Fred in the backyard. Hudson, take some water out there for him.”

“Why can’t he stay inside?” Whit
groaned.

“Because he’ll bark if you three
aren’t here to watch him. I don’t want my client getting scared.”

Whit grabbed Fred’s leash and hooked it to his collar.
“Come on, boy.” Fred wagged his tail excitedly, thinking Whit was taking him for a walk. Hudson grabbed the biggest plastic bowl he could find and filled it with water and followed Whit out the back door.

Once the
y got back in, they got their jackets, I grabbed my purse, and we got ready to go. As we were about to leave, Lucy stepped in front of us. “Let me take a picture of you three.”

“Lucy,
” Whit and Hudson moaned in unison.

“Oh hush.
I only have two pictures left on this thing.”

I stood between Hudson and Whit, their arms around me, and we posed for Lucy
. She snapped the first photo, then demanded a second one where we all made stupid faces.

“You three
, I swear.” She shook her head and laughed.

“Drop this off to b
e developed at one of those one-hour places.” Lucy handed Hudson the disposable camera she used to take photos of us dressed up the night before. We were probably the only people on the face of the planet that still used disposable cameras, but Lucy wasn’t technologically savvy. A digital camera for her would have been like me trying to operate a space ship to the moon. It wasn’t that she wasn’t smart enough; she literally had no desire to learn modern technology.

“Oka
y,” Hudson agreed. She hugged Whit and Hudson both and they went out the door.

“Are you okay
, Lucy?” I asked. Her behavior was odd.

“Of course,” s
he laughed. “You have all grown up so fast. I’m so proud. Especially, of you, Aldo.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. You are an amazing, beautiful, young woman. Your gift is so strong. Your mother would be so proud.” She smiled and tears welled up in her eyes. Any mention of my mother seemed to have that effect on her. “You know I’ve always been hardest on you, because I know you are meant for great things.” She smiled softly.

“I don’t know about that
, Lucy.”