Healer (The Healer Series) (23 page)

“So you moved to Calif
ornia?” I try to move on, taking a hint.

“Yeah, it was
...” He pauses looking to the sky as if searching for his next word.

“Different,
” I laugh, knowing exactly what he means.

“Yea
h, to say the least,” he laughs.

“So was it just you and your mother?”

“No, I have a sister. She came, too.” He makes a thoughtful smile. “We lived there for years and my mother stopped healing. She took a job working as a waitress. She nearly worked herself to death trying to take care of us. I know it was about normalcy. She didn’t want us to have to move around a lot, especially after our father bailed.”

“W
ell, that makes sense.” I nod, remembering how desperately my brothers and I had wanted to stay in one place and have some normalcy.

“She was a wonderful wom
an.” He stares, perhaps into some distant place where he can see her image play before him. “I can still smell her sometimes. She always wore Eternity perfume.” Tears prickle my eyes with his words as I’m reminded of Lucy’s scent of bounce dryer sheets and moth balls.

“She sounds like a great mother,
” I add. “It must have been wonderful not moving around so much.”

“Yeah, it was nice.
We finished high school, and I went to a community college. I wanted to major in biology.”

“
So you’re smart?”

“Hardly, I was flunking out
,” he snickers. “I had a girlfriend and I was more into studying her than anything else.”

“Was she pretty?” I try
to envision a younger, human Rhett chasing after girls.

“She
was pretty enough.” He shrugs. I take that as pretty enough to have sex with. I roll my eyes, not realizing he’s looking at me.

“Hey, I was twenty-
one years old,” he says defensively, flipping the length of his reins to the other side.

“I’m not judging
,” I smirk. “What was her name?”

“Annette.”

“Annette?” I question.
Seriously?

“Yeah
,” he confirms. “Why?”

“Jus
t trying to get the full visual,” I say and smile teasingly. “So you had a girlfriend named Annette?”

“Yes
, and girls like guys to spend money on them,” he continues, and I laugh under my breath. “They do,” he reiterates, a boyish grin spreading across his face.

“Not all girls.”

“Okay, maybe like a few out there don’t mind a guy that’s broke, but this girl was not one of those few.”

I can’t help smiling. The conversation is so casua
l, like I’m talking to a good friend. Kind of like Thomas and I used to talk.

The p
ang the thought of Thomas brings must show on my face, because Rhett asks, “You okay?”

“Yeah, sorry.”
I clear my throat and my mind. “Please continue.” I smile genuinely intrigued by his story.

Rhett leans down and pats Bruno
’s shoulder. Bruno’s head bobs up in response. “Well, I had healed a few times in Canada, so of course at the ripe old age of twenty-one, I knew everything and decided I could just do it again.”

“What happened?”

“Well, the first few times it went okay. I made a couple hundred dollars, but then I got greedy and wanted more, so I started healing three times a week until my mother figured it out.”

“And she was not happy.”

“No, not at all.” He smiled in a sad way. “We had a huge fight, and I stormed out. I didn’t come home until three in the morning, and when I did, she was dead.” His expression and voice lack emotion, more like an acceptance of what had happened.

My jaw drops to my lap.
Poor Rhett
. “What happened to her?”

He shrugs. “I had been found
, and they waited for me. My mother always said she would rather die than become a blood healer, so they obliged her by draining her dry.”

My throat is tight
, and I’m silent for a moment while I try to fight back sobs. I know how it feels to lose someone so tragically. The day Lucy died was the worst day of my life. Even knowing now she was an imposter doesn’t change that. “I’m so sorry, Rhett.” It’s all I can manage. The truth is there are no words to make a person feel better in a situation like this. Murder is the worst kind of thievery. It steals the irreplaceable, the most precious of valuables. It leaves behind a torturous contrition; the
what ifs
.
What if
I had been there? Could I have stopped it?
What if
I had gotten back sooner?
What ifs
are impossible to answer realistically, but the answer you give yourself is always one where you could have changed the outcome. It’s not rational, but you believe it, therefore making yourself responsible for it.  I tortured myself with
what ifs
after Lucy passed, before I knew who she really was. I know Rhett carries that burden, too. Tears stream down my face, but Rhett doesn’t look at me. I gather it’s intentional, as if seeing me cry may provoke a physical reaction out of him. I can understand this.

He rides
silent for several minutes, until my hushed weeping stops before saying, “There were three of them.”

I focus hard on steadying my voice to hide any emotion.
“Blood healers?”

“No. T
hese were real vampires.”

“How did they find you?”

“A reaper found me and sold my information. My sister and mother were bonuses.”

“What happened to your sister?”

“Y
ou’ve met her.” He smiles.

My mind stalls. S
urely he can’t be talking about... “Sarah?” I gasp, unable to hide my shock.

“Yeah, I know. We’re nothing alike.” He
chuckles softly.

“No, you’re not,
” I agree a little too eagerly. “I thought maybe you two were...” I pause, unable to finish.

“Together?
That’s funny.”

“She seems very protective of you.”

“She’s been through a lot. They raped my mother and Sarah, and then made Sarah watch our mother die. She’s been shut off ever since.” He clears his throat.

My thoughts wrap around Sarah and her cold demeanor. After everything she went through, h
ow could she not be shut off?

“They took us
and held us prisoner for months before they changed us.”

“Why?”

“They were trying to do something with Sarah, but it didn’t work.” He pauses. The wind blows through the leaves and the sound of the horse’s hooves pound the ground. I forgot I was even riding a horse.

“Eventually, we planned an escape, but it went w
rong, and I was the only one who ended up getting out. Instead of going along with the plan, she acted as a distraction to make sure I would escape. After four years, they finally trusted her enough to allow her to roam about, but she disobeyed an order and was put on their hit list.”

“
Rhett,” I breathe his name, disbelief consuming me. I want to say something comforting but I can’t find the words.

“Yeah, I know.” His eyes widen
and he exhales loudly, as if he realizes how crazy it all sounds. “That’s why I think you should have the choice to be turned or not.”

“That’s why you kidnapped me? To give me a choice?” It makes no sense.

“Aldo, we like what we are. But we were taken and turned against our will. That’s not something anyone should go through.”

“Rhett, I’m not going to choose this,” I whisper, hoping not to insult him. He’s not the soulless creature Lucy described, but it doesn’t change my stand.

“Maybe not, but you have to cho
ose something.”

I don’
t understand. I just told him I wouldn’t choose to become a blood healer, so in essence I did choose something.

“Enough about me,” h
e smiles unnaturally, trying to change the subject. “How do you like riding?”

“It’s nice.
Thank you for bringing me out here.”

“My pleasure,” h
e says sincerely.

We ride back towards the field in silence.
Rhett looks so confident riding Bruno. It seems so natural. His hair has come out of its slicked-back hold and is now falling freely, and he wears his simple t-shirt and jeans well. I keep trying to ignore the things about him that make him seem human, but the more I’m around him, the harder it gets.

When we get back to the fence
, Rhett hops off of Bruno and as I slide down off of Esmeralda, he grabs me at my hips.

His cool energy overwhelms me.
“I don’t think I could ever get used to that,” I laugh, trying to fight it.

“U
sually I don’t touch a human this much, but you react differently than most. You’re a healer, so you may actually—” His gaze shifts away as he releases me.

“What?”

“Well, be pulling from me,” he finishes not making eye contact with me.

“Can I do that?”

“Well, I think you have been.” He smiles nervously. It didn’t occur to me that I had or could pull from him since he’s a blood healer, but now I see it. I like the way his energy feels.
This is embarrassing.

“Sorry,
” I offer awkwardly, unsure of what else to say. When he smiles at me, I feel a chill run through me. This time he isn’t even touching me. I swallow hard, trying to hide my reaction.

Unexpectedly,
Rhett steps towards me.

I stumble
back, but bump into Esmeralda. For a moment, his gaze holds mine and I can’t move. I’m locked. Suddenly, an image of Rhett sitting in a chair sleeping, my brother’s staring down at me, Lila kissing Hudson, and Sarah standing, staring out of a window flashes through my mind.

Rhett speaks
, even though his lips aren’t moving, “It’s time to choose,” he says over and over again.

Suddenly
, he grabs me by my arms. “Aldo,” he says softly.

I’m stunned. I can’t respond.
There are so many voices.

“Stop
!” I yell.

“Aldo, it’s okay,
” Rhett assures me, his hold strong on my arms.

I close my eyes and try to stop the jumbled words, but it doesn’t stop.
“Stop!” I yell again, as I pull free from him. I fall to the ground with a thud, and the voices disappear.

When I open my eyes
, I’m in my field by the lake, my favorite place to go in my dreams. The water glistens from the sunlight and the large oak tree stands tall casting its shade down on the plush grass surrounding it.

How?

I blink
, and when I open my eyes again, I’m back in the field with Rhett and the horses.

I glance
up at Rhett, who stands on guard, unsure of what I’ll do.

“What was that?” I force
myself up, refusing the hand he has offered to assist me with.

He
doesn’t answer, just stares at me, his mouth in a tight line.

“
What are you doing to me?” I hiss.

Fear can do funny
things to people—and right now I’m not just afraid—I’m terrified. This is the second time in two days that I’ve had an episode like this, and both times, Rhett was present. What is he doing to me? Fear can also wear many hats to disguise itself.  Sadness, anger, and denial are just a few of the accessory options. At this moment, I’m sporting anger, and I’m wearing it like I own it.

“What do you mean?” He screws
his face, apparently offended by my question or tone—or both.

“I me
an, you’re doing something to me.”

His body recoils slightly.
“And what, pray tell, am I doing to you?”

“Making me
have…” I pause, unsure of what to call it.

He stares
at me, waiting for me to finish.

“Have seizures
or something,” I finish, aggravated.

“How would I do that?”

“You tell me. You’re the magic dead healing dream walker. What other voodoo do you do?” The air between us turns frigid as Rhett’s jaw stiffens and anger advances across his beautiful face.

“
Aldo, you are being ridiculous.” He wheels around to head back towards the fence.

“Am I? Do you have any other gifts I don’t know about?” My voice is still raised
, and I don’t bother to modify it.

“Ju
st one.” He turns back to me with a choleric glare as his broad body towers over me.

I feel lik
e a field mouse about to be swooped up by a really pissed off hawk, but I stiffen my spine, unwilling to let him see he intimidates me. “Oh? And what’s that?” I put my hands on my hips, planting my feet to the ground.