Broken (29 page)

I exhaled and thought about William. I missed having
ordinary, small everyday problems. Like irritating kids wanting toys or candy.
I wanted so badly to give him a normal upbringing where he didn't have to worry
about anything. It killed me that William had to fight big issues like this at
this young an age. It just wasn't fair.

I followed the mother with my eyes as she entered the
store flanked by her three children screaming and pulling each other's hair. A
few minutes later she came out. The kids each had a toy in their hand. They
were thrilled and happy. She looked annoyed and sighed as she helped them get
back into the car. She had no idea how easy her life was, I thought to myself.
At least she was with the ones she loved. After all that was really the only
thing that could fulfill you in this life, wasn't it? To be close to those you
love?

That was when it hit me. Right there at the
gas-station while the couple drove away fighting about her giving in to the
kids again.

I knew where Heather was. Of course I did. Why hadn't
I thought about that before? I knew how to find her.

But it had to wait.

I rented a room at a
local Motel 6 in Jacksonville and checked in. I called Morgan the private
investigator from the room.

"Did you find her yet?" I asked.

"Not yet. She hasn't been to school for days. I
found her father, though. I followed him from his work to this house where he
apparently had a wild jaguar hidden in some cage. Can you believe that? It
broke out. It attacked him that night. I heard the noise and called the police.
Since then he has been in the hospital while I have tried to locate the girl.
But as I said, the school says they haven't seen her in several days."

"Have you checked at his sister's house?"

"Yes. She is not there either."

"Okay," I sighed. "Keep
searching."

After I had hung up I tried to watch TV as I waited
but couldn't concentrate. Instead I walked the room like a lion in a cage
constantly dragging the thick curtain aside to gaze out the big window to see
if the sunset was any nearer than it had been five minutes ago. It was a
troublesome wait. I was constantly weary, feeling worried about her in the cave
at the zoo.

I waited till the sun had set and I had changed. Then
I slid soundlessly out the door to my room and padded along the corridors of
the motel avoiding the rooms that had light in their windows and where I heard
voices. I jumped a rail and then the roof where I knew I could walk unseen
because very few people looked at the roof of a building and since I was black
I blended in with the darkness. My eyes glowed in front of me as I jumped from
one building to another, climbed rails and drainpipes to get up. I found trees
and used their branches to help me get forward and soon I was at the entrance
of the Jacksonville Zoo.

I jumped up on the wall as easily as if were just
another tree. Then I balanced along it for a while till I spotted the exhibit
area where they kept the jaguars. I had found a brochure at the lobby of the
motel and read it closely. The Jacksonville Zoo had had jaguars since 1958.
They were all placed in the same caved area. Since jaguars were solitary
animals they each had their own cave. It gave me hope that
Aiyana
was left alone by the other jaguars during the day. I disturbed the lions when
I passed their area and they threw a threatening roar at me. Some birds in a
cage were scared by my presence and started scattering, flapping their wings
crazily.
 

I had no plan. I had no idea how I was going to pull
this off, how I was supposed to get
Aiyana
out. But I
was going to try. I found the jaguars and called for her with my roar hoping
she would recognize it and come out. I couldn't go in there since I wouldn't be
able to get out again if I did. So she needed to realize that it was me and I
was here to get her out. I had no idea if it would work.

But it did. I only had to call for her a few times
before she stuck her face out. Her beautiful eyes glowed in the darkness of the
cave. Those yellow bright stars that I loved so dearly for many years. But she
didn't come out. She stopped there. In her eyes were hurt and pain. I
understood that she was too wounded to even walk. Her eyes showed agony.

I never even thought about it once. I just jumped the
fence and clung on to it, struggling to pull my body to the top of it. It
ripped me as I dragged my body over the top and left a bleeding wound on my
stomach. I moaned as I landed on my paws. I spotted
Aiyana's
eyes looking at me from the darkness of the cave. Then I ran to her,
disregarding my pain. I stopped in front of her and looked into her bright
glowing eyes. She was lying down. Her wounds had been cleaned and the blood
washed away but you could still see where she had been beaten and where the
barbed wire had ripped her fur and skin. She lowered her head. I came closer
and rubbed my head at hers. I lay down beside her and stared at the fence that
I had climbed from the other side. There was no way I would be able to climb it
again from this side of it. There was no way for us to escape. We were both in
captivity.

We
stayed together in the cave all night. The zookeepers had thrown lumps of meat
in
there for her to eat and she shared it with me. She
didn't eat much. I tried to push meat in her direction with my snout but she
barely ate any of it. I stayed close to her rubbing my snout and face at her
neck trying to make her feel better, trying to comfort her.

When the ray of lights started to rise over the zoo we
started to change as well. I looked at her; she looked at me as our bodies
slowly changed back. I gasped when I realized just how badly she had been hurt.
Her body was covered in bruises from being whipped and beaten with a long stick
of some sort. Her face was scratched from the barbed wire. One hand was broken
and her leg had deep wounds from being caught in the barbed wire while she
fought her way out of the cage.

I held back my tears as I gently touched her cheek and
wiped away a small tear that had escaped the corner of her eye. She tried to
stand but couldn't. She was weak from starvation and pain in her leg. I
realized she needed help right away. Even if her blood was stronger than normal
humans this was too much for her. The transformation had drained the last
strength out of her. I had to act fast. I grabbed her in my arms and carried her
out of the cave. She was drifting in and out of conscience now. I had no bigger
plan. Only this. Me and her. Naked in the jaguar area. When the zookeepers
arrived they found us like that. Me standing with
Aiyana
in my arms, both of us hurt, naked, unprotected, exposed.

Aiyana
was holding her arms around my neck. She felt light as a feather.

"Call 911," I screamed at the top of my
lungs.

Soon
the zoo was filled with men and women in uniform, blinking lights and sirens.
In a sort of strange understanding neither
Aiyana
nor
I spoke a word to them. They covered us up and put us in the ambulance
together, trying to ask us questions that we never answered. We just stared
into each other's eyes feeling the deep love we shared for so many years now. I
held her hand in the ambulance while smiling slightly assuring her with my
thoughts that everything was going to be fine. She was barely breathing, the
monitor showed a low pulse and slow heartbeat.
 
I was scared. I wanted to scream.
Everything inside of me already did.

Please God. Please God or spirits or whoever you are.
Don't take her away from me. Don't let her die.

Chapter 35

Nurses
came and took
her away from me when we arrived at The
Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. They rolled her down the hallway. She was barely
conscious. I was asked to wait, so that's what I did. Another nurse brought me
some hospital clothes that I put on.

Then the unbearable waiting for news followed until
the doctor suddenly stood in front of me. We shook hands and I realized that I
had known him at med school. He had graduated the year before I did.

"How is she, Doctor?" I said.

"Weak, but strong as hell," he said and then
asked me to pardon his French. "But I have never seen anything like this.
You'll have to excuse me, but I am still a little shocked. She was barely alive
when you brought her here and I have to admit I didn't think she had much
chance of surviving, but somehow, almost without us doing anything she came
back to us. I swear I was sure that we had lost her for a second or two. All
the monitors stopped and there was no brain activity and her heart had stopped
beating. We did cardiac resuscitation- you know the drill - but there was
nothing. She was gone. But then she returned. I’ve never seen anything like it
in my career. Normally I know when a patient is gone. Hell I had already told
the nurse the time of death. Then suddenly out of the blue everything started
beeping again. The heart monitor, everything. And I turned and saw she was
breathing. It was like she was sent back from the other side. Gave us quite a
scare there."

"It wasn't her turn yet," I mumbled and
remembered my vision. If I believed in my own abilities to predict certain
events in the future then it wasn't her turn yet. This wasn't how it was going
to go down. I also remembered when her grandmother had died.
Aiyana
had told me that in her tribe they didn't die from
growing old or from normal diseases, they went when they were done on this
earth. They each had a time to go and they would know it in advance.

I sighed and sat heavily in a chair. "When can I
see her?" I asked.

"Well as insane as this may sound, she seems fine
now. She is still weak and her wounds need to heal but you could take her home
right away if you want to. She'll need a lot of rest in the coming days and no
wild or extraordinary activities."

I nodded. "I promise. I'll bring her to my house
and take care of her."

The doctor sighed deeply. "You know I have to ask
this, but how on earth did she end up in this condition?"

"Her husband."

The doctor nodded. "No need to say no more. I see
enough of these cases every day. I'll tell that to the police when they get
here. I'll make sure they keep off your back. I know the local sheriff. He
hates wife-beaters as much as I do."

I looked at him with astonishment. "Thank
you!"

He patted me on my back. "Well we doctors need to
help each other right?" He looked at my stomach. "You should have
something done about that as well," he said.

That's when I realized that I was bleeding from my
wound from climbing the fence. The blood had colored the hospital gown. I felt
it and got blood on my fingers.

"I'll have someone take a quick look at it and
then you'll be out of here before the police arrive," he said and got up
from his chair.

I said goodbye with a heartfelt hug.

A couple of hours later I
carried
Aiyana
out of the cab and through the front
door. Sarah came running towards us from the stairs. "What happened?” she
asked and came closer.

"I need to get her to a bed," I said.

"I just put new sheets in the guest bedroom
downstairs. You can put her in there."

I followed Sarah. She held the door for me and I put
Aiyana
on the bed. She smiled gently and stroked my cheek
as I put her under the covers. Then she looked serious. "Find
Luyu
, Christian," she said. "You need to find her
for me."

I nodded earnestly. Then I leaned over and kissed her
forehead. "I'll find her. Don't worry. Get some rest. You need it."

I love
you
.

I love
you
too
.

Her eyes closed slowly and I let go of her hand. The
sight of her sleeping so peacefully filled me with joy and hope. I didn't want
to have to leave her again; I wanted to stay by her side while she was
sleeping, until she woke up and opened those beautiful eyes again.

I opened the door and walked out into the hall. I
closed the door behind me and as I did I saw William standing in front of me.

"William," I said. "You startled
me."

His expression was serious. Then he spoke: "I
know where she is," he said.