Cancer: Book 5 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series) (7 page)

Chapter Ten

‘Okay, now we’re finally here, I can do what I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.’

Matt moved forward and wrapped his arms around me. I leant my head against his chest and took a deep breath.

‘When are you going to take me out on a date?’ I pulled back and looked up at him.

He raised his eyebrows, his lips pursing together instead of smiling like I thought he would.

‘It’s not that easy, is it?’

I shook my head, refusing to let him bring me down.

We had just walked through the door of our new home. Derek was banging around in the kitchen. The villa was beautiful. I expected nothing less from my father. The pool glittered in the afternoon sun. The bandage around my head had been taken off.

‘I refuse to live in fear,’ I said.

Matt brought his hand up and stroked the ends of my hair. His lips descended onto my forehead. I tilted my head backwards, bringing my lips to his. The kiss was gentle at first.

I gasped as his hands started to roam over my body. We had never been intimate before. As his tongue pushed his way into my mouth, I wrapped myself around him. My heart skipped over and over. My palms started to sweat. He reached between us and undid his jeans. I was about to pull away from him, not ready for that.

‘Are you coming swimming?’ Derek called from the kitchen.

I giggled as we fell apart. Matt growled in the general direction of the door. He wasn’t impressed by our interruption. I was fine with it, though. I didn’t want it to move too fast. Especially as he was still a married man.

‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘We’ve got plenty of time for that.’

Matt frowned, and for the first time ever, rolled his eyes at me. Keeping my face straight, I walked out of the room. I wasn’t sure how our moment of pleasure had turned into something that felt wrong.

The kitchen and living area was open plan. Derek stood by the French windows, staring longingly out at the sparkling water. I smiled at him when he glanced at me. He grinned back when he took in my dishevelled state. We had only kissed.

‘Sorry, did I interrupt something?’

I punched him playfully on the arm. He might be an idiot but he always made me smile.

‘Are you going swimming?’ I pulled the door open and stepped out onto the patio.

The warm sun caressed my bare arms. Although winter was approaching in London, it was a lot milder in Greece.

I closed my eyes and revelled in the warmth. It was good to be free.

A huge splash resounded around me. Drops of water splattered my whole body. Opening my eyes, I laughed. Derek resurfaced in the pool, grinning in my direction.

‘You could have warned me.’

He shook his head as he swam towards the deep end. Drops flew around him in a halo. ‘Where’s the fun in that?’

Smiling, I turned to go back in the house.

‘Where are you going?’ he called.

I paused as I watched him swim to the edge and hang on to the side of the pool. ‘Unlike you,’ I said, pointing at his pile of clothes by the door, ‘I aim to actually wear a bathing suit.’

He chuckled and waved his hand in the air. ‘You don’t need to worry about that.’

My mouth dropped open. He had never flirted with me. Not that he would succeed. He wouldn’t see me without my bathing suit, cheeky man. ‘Now that, Derek, is something that you’ll have to dream about.’

I left him chuckling to himself. I shouldn’t encourage him but I couldn’t help it. At least he wasn’t sulking, like Matt.

Making my way to my new bedroom, I closed the door behind me and leant against it. The room was cold which was quite common for Mediterranean villas.

The double bed was covered with a white duvet. The bedside table held a clock and a lamp. The built-in wardrobe looked spacious from where I stood. It was a shame I didn’t have any clothes to go in it.

As I closed my eyes, I realised how tired I was. It had been a long couple of days, even though I had been in bed for most of the time. I was fully recovered but I wasn’t sure how emotionally stable I was. Matt’s presence in the house put me on edge. There was still so much to sort out before we could be together.

Taking a step forward, I laid down on my bed and closed my eyes. I would rest for a moment. Literally only a second. I had stuff to do. The first thing I had to sort out, before having a swim, would be my wardrobe. I was being serious with Derek, I needed a swimsuit before I got in the pool.

*

I ducked down low under the kitchen table. The siren outside penetrated through the windows and into my ears. The war was starting to get on my nerves. Every day I would get out of bed and try to go about my normal routine. However, it wasn’t easy to keep going when bombs were exploding around you. Especially when you knew that they were aimed at your home.

Making the very same type of ammunition that was killing, not only my friends but neighbours and many others, was not my idea of helping. The money was good, though.

The whistle of something falling from the sky sounded too close to comfort. I covered my ears as I looked out from under my hiding space. My gaze ran over the tea set that sat in the cupboard behind the glass. The clock on the wall ticked gently as time slowed down. The sound grew louder. I gazed at the photo on the window ledge. My family. My mother and father smiled at me from the picture. It was as if they knew what was about to happen.

I screamed as the house exploded around me. The noise was so loud I couldn’t hear myself. Everything shook, including my bones. Bricks tumbled all around me. The crumbling noise of rubble made me clench my eyes shut. The dust entered my lungs, making me cough. They would never find me, even if I didn’t get crushed.

Bricks started to build up around me. The table managed to stay standing, which surprised me, considering how old it was. I stayed completely still as the debris piled up, blocking me in.

It seemed like it took forever for the building to finish collapsing. As suddenly as the roar had started, it stopped. The shuddering around me went completely still. I could see nothing. The darkness enveloped me and there was nothing I could do.

My parents were at work. I was supposed to be on the way to my job. I had decided to spend longer on my hair that morning. How had I survived?

I kept my eyes closed, suddenly afraid of the dark. I had never been scared of it before. Being petrified made adrenaline pulse through me. My heartbeat thumped in my head.

All I could smell was the dust that tried to climb into my mouth and choke me. I coughed to clear it. Unclasping my hands, I ran them over my face. There was no point in my action but I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit there.

Through the ringing in my ears, I felt a throb in my foot. I had been sitting on my knees with my feet under me. Shifting slightly, I winced. My foot had been sticking out. Searching with my hands, I gasped when I touched the brick that lay on top of my foot. I had been so scared, I didn’t even notice it had been crushed.

Knocking it away, I flexed my toes. My teeth gritted when pain shot up my leg. They were crushed. Great, now I wouldn’t be able to wear my high heels to work. I couldn’t help the giggle that came from my mouth. My mother would berate me if she knew that my first thought after I had broken my foot was to worry about shoes.

Shouting in the distance made me put my hands on my chest. The rescuers were outside. I burst out crying, relief flooding through me. The tears ran down my face. I tried to suck them back in. A lady should be a grown-up according to my mother. It didn’t work. The shouting became clearer; my rescuers were nearby.

‘Is there anyone in there?’ someone shouted from outside.

I opened my mouth to call back but the dust got stuck in my throat. My tears didn’t help either. Coughing as hard as I could, I tried again. ‘Help me!’

I had no idea how much of the house had fallen. Was I completely covered? Or were we one of the lucky ones that had only lost a part of the house?

‘Hello?’

It didn’t seem as if he had heard me. Licking my lips, I cringed when I tasted the sand from the concrete. I tried to spit it out. Wiping my mouth, instead of using my tongue, I whistled as loud as I could.

My heart beat faster when I heard a return whistle. They heard me. I sighed, coughing when I sucked in air. It didn’t go all the way to my lungs. They would have to hurry, otherwise I would suffocate from lack of oxygen.

I whistled again, just to make sure. When someone whistled back, I couldn’t help the fresh burst of tears that fell from my sore eyes. The water dropped onto my hands. It was still too dark to see anything. I hoped they would hurry up.

‘Can you hear me?’

The man must have been quite close. Although he sounded muffled, I could make out his words. Hopefully that meant he wasn’t far away. It also meant that the house was probably partly intact.

‘I can hear you,’ I shouted as loud as I could.

My foot throbbed painfully. My body had been pumping adrenaline since the bricks had started to fall. The reality of my situation was starting to set in. I closed my eyes and slowed my breath to try and save as much air as possible.

‘We’re working to get you out. It won’t be long.’

I choked on a mouthful of dust as I inhaled deeply. My heartbeat started to slow as I tried to think of anything other than being trapped. Would my mother and father be angry at me? Was my bedroom ruined? And what about my clothes and shoes? It had taken forever to get such good wardrobe.

‘Can you whistle for me, please?’ the muffled voice shouted.

I wiped my mouth and tried again. They were obviously trying to locate my exact position under the rubble.

‘She’s down here,’ the man shouted.

The sound of bricks being moved filtered down to me. I smiled through the tears that threatened. I hoped my cat had managed to get out before the bomb hit. She hadn’t even entered my mind as I waited for impact.

Something inside me knew that the bomb was going to hit our house. Yet, I hadn’t thought to save our only pet. Oh, how I wished I had thought about someone else other than me. My mother would never forgive me if she got caught up in the destruction. I would never forgive myself.

Movement to the left of me indicated that the men were getting closer. Dust brushed past my face as a tiny pinprick of light filtered into my small hole. I cringed as I tried to move my legs. They were quite numb. The noise grew louder as the light got brighter. I blinked, glancing down at my hands. They were covered in dirt.

‘Are you hurt?’ someone called from outside.

I shook my head but remembered that he couldn’t see me. I watched as hands grasped at the opening, moving away the debris that blocked my escape. A face appeared, looking straight at me. I tried to smile but the shock of what happened started to sink in.

‘It’s okay. We’ll get you out of there, miss.’

I recognised the man’s eyes. He was the father of the daughter I had held only a few days before. He had come to rescue me now. I smiled gently as I thought about the girl. Hopefully she was in a safe place.

‘My foot’s been crushed,’ I said.

He disappeared from view as he carried on working to make the hole bigger. He spoke to someone with him. I couldn’t see who it was. As my escape route grew wider, I tried to steady my muscles. They had started to shake. My foot screamed at me. The pain of my broken bones filtered up my leg, even though they were mostly numb.

‘Right, I think I can get to you,’ the man said, reaching his arms into the small area.

Grasping his hand, I yelped when he pulled. The movement jarred my foot.

‘Are you okay? Do you think you can climb out?’

I shook my head but knew that I had to. I could not stay one more moment underneath the destruction of my home. Gritting my teeth, I took his other hand. Closing my eyes, I used my good foot to push myself through the hole.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you,’ the nice man said.

He put his hands under my shoulders and pulled me the rest of the way. I cried out as my foot hit the concrete bricks. The sunlight on my face made me release my breath. The pain didn’t matter. I was alive.

‘Thank you so much.’ I wrapped my arms around his neck as he lifted me.

Glancing around, I took in the mess of the kitchen. The front part of the house was still standing. That was something. The back bedroom, which was mine, and the kitchen were gone. Completely unrecognisable.

‘We’ll get you to a doctor.’ My rescuer smiled down at me as he carefully took me into the road.

Neighbours stood around, chattering amongst themselves. A lady from a few doors down rushed forward. She took my hand in hers as we walked down the street. It was almost impossible to drive cars around this part of London. The bombs had made so many craters, it wasn’t even worth trying.

‘Is there anyone else in there?’ the woman asked.

Shaking my head, I couldn’t answer. My mouth didn’t want to open. Instead, I kept my eyes glued to the strong chin of the man who carried me. The safety of his arms made me forget that I had a fiancé. A fiancé who was probably up in the sky right now, fighting to win the war.