Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles (42 page)

Morna enters the bathroom and wonders
belatedly why she slammed the door. She hopes Luca doesn’t think
she is angry with him or something. She is just so out of sorts and
just can’t deal with whatever he may or not think about her actions
at the moment. After she uses the necessary she goes to the vanity
and washes her hands. She brushes her teeth, then leans against the
vanity with her hands clutching the edge. She presses her face
against the cold glass of the mirror and wonders; “What the hell is
wrong with me?” Suddenly, seeing her nakedness in the mirror makes
her uncomfortable, and she grabs a towel off the rack and wraps up
in it.

The scars on her face and arm catch her
attention. “Damn, I really don’t want to meet all these people
looking so different, 30 years older than they expect, and scarred
up like some reject from a horror movie,” she thinks to herself.
Then she remembers Luca’s plan to treat the scars again last night
with venom to help them fade a little more. That thought leads to
her thoughts to how they actually spent the night. A delicious
smile lights her face, until her uncertainty and the pain in her
head drives the beautiful memory and feelings into a dark corner of
her mind.

“Oh hell!” she mutters and fishes her
hairbrush out of her case on the vanity. It is no use, the dust mop
on steroids is back. She will have to wash and style it this
morning.

“Oh to hell with the hair!” she thinks. That
putrid taste is still in her mouth. She grabs her toothpaste and
toothbrush and cleans her teeth again. This time scrubbing her
tongue thoroughly, which makes her gag. After she vomits, she
brushes her teeth again. “What is this foul taste?” She washes her
face and considers taking a shower.

She hears a very soft knock on the main door
from the hallway. Then she hears Luca step out into the hallway.
After a few moments of listening, and not being able to hear
anything else her anxiety takes on a life of its own. She feels
like it is suffocating her… She puts her hand on the door knob,
preparing to go into the room and see what is going on…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After she has been in the bathroom for about
thirty minutes, Luca decides to knock on the door to check on her.
He is hesitantly raising his hand to knock on the bathroom door
when a knock sounds on the door from the hallway. “What now?” he
wonders in frustration. When he opens the door Aideen is standing
there. He looks behind him into the suite. Morna is still in the
bathroom so he quickly steps out into the hallway and pulls the
door closed behind him. He pulls her into his arms and holds her
tightly, kissing her lips tenderly. “Why are you here sweetheart?”
he whispers. “Is something wrong?”

She returns his embrace and then leans back
to look him in the face, “She re-established the connection with me
in her sleep. Now she is drowning in anxiety and self-doubt right
now, it’s overwhelming me. You have to go help her, snap her out of
it. She is obsessed with me, whether or not she is up to challenges
ahead, and all manner of uncertainties. It’s just awful! Then she
started thinking of what you two did last night. I DO NOT want
those images and feelings in my head! Do you understand me? Go
distract her!”

Just then the door from the room opens and
Morna is standing there wrapped in her towel, looking at the man
she loves more than all her lifetimes put together, more than
anything or anyone else in them, standing there with his arms
around a very beautiful, very young woman. Morna is shocked into
absolute, dumbfounded silence. She just stands there and stares,
unable to process what she is seeing. “I don’t understand…” she
finally mumbles, and backs away. How can a man who obviously loves
her as much as this one does be in some clandestine embrace with
another woman? How? Why? What is going on?

The pain in her head intensifies to an
unbearable level, as blackness over takes her and she collapses in
a dead faint. Luca catches her before she can hit the floor and
carries her over to the bed. He motions Aideen to follow. “You had
better stay here now, we are going to have get this over with. I
really didn’t want to do this the hard way, but I see no other
choice now. We must tell her,” he whispers to the clearly upset
young woman as he strokes her cheek lovingly.

Luca sits next to Morna on the bed, he takes
her limp hand into his own. He brushes her brow with his cold
fingers. Aideen stands beside him looking on. Her face showing
obvious signs of distress. This is the sight that greets Morna when
she recovers and reluctantly opens her eyes. “Morna, darling are
you alright?” Luca asks.

She pushes him away with one hand, and he
flies across the room and slams into the wall. Aideen gasps in
shock and amazement. Luca recovers immediately and returns to the
bedside in less than a second. He firmly takes her face in between
his hands, forcing her to look at him and says, “Morna, look at
Aideen! Just look at her! You know the truth!”

Morna tears her bewildered and wounded eyes
from her mate’s face and looks at the beautiful young woman
standing beside her. She looks so familiar. She looks like Luca!
Except for her eyes and her hair. Her eyes are the exact same
emerald green as her own. Her hair is exactly the shade of
shimmering copper that her hair had been in her original
lifetime.

Suddenly the memories flood back in a
torrent. Morna remembers that she had just learned the wonderful
news that she was to have a baby the very day that she came upon
the ancient vampire in the glen, draining the very life blood out
of her beloved Luca.

“My baby?” Morna whispers. “You are my
child?” Aideen is smiling and crying now, and she nods. Morna
stands shakily and touches the beautiful face, not daring to
believe.

A second flood of memories assault Morna’s
consciousness. The labor had been difficult. Someone was holding
her in some sort of spell and her heart was failing. She could
almost taste the bitter evil of the person wielding the spell, it
has a putrid flavor and smell. The same taste that fills her mouth
right now!

Brigid is barely able to cut the child out of
her swollen belly alive. Morna watches as Brigid cleans the
infant’s nose and mouth, the child cries lustily. Morna smiles
because she knows babe is strong. Brigid is weaving some sort of
spell over the child, and Luca is weaving a healing spell over the
failing Morna. Then Brigid places the baby on Morna’s chest, Morna
kisses the sweet face and whispers, “Aideen,” meaning flame, for
the shock of fiery copper hair on the child’s head.

Suddenly Magdrid, the council of Elders, and
several of Magdrid cronies barge into their cottage. The leader of
the Elders apologizes for the intrusion and asks how they can help
Morna, while Magdrid and her cronies demand the baby. Two of the
Elders come to Morna’s side to assist Rinda who is trying to
staunch the blood flow where the child was cut from her belly. When
Brigid and Luca refuse to hand the child over, Magdrid threatens
them both with exile.

Morna is enraged by her mother’s attitude and
summons her warrior persona with a roar as she weaves the iron-lion
spell on her failing body. She hands the babe to Rinda and arises
from the bed, blood is still pouring from her belly, but she is
determined to drive them from her home. Once she has driven them
outside, she collapses in the grass in front of her cottage. Luca
and Brigid rush to her side. He’s desperately weaving healing
spells, but it’s too late. Rinda screams for Brigid, the baby isn’t
breathing… Morna feels her last heart beat as she reaches for Luca.
Then she remembers no more until Luca finds her in Verona. And all
of those memories are milky, unfocused and exceedingly painful.

Morna strokes Aideen’s face again, and looks
into those eyes that are exact duplicates of her own, “You are
truly my babe?” she whispers. “My child truly lives?”

Aideen says, “Yes Mama, I am your babe. I am
your Aideen, your flame,” Aideen whispers back. Morna takes the
young woman into her arms and holds her rocking side to side. She
stands there like that for longest time, until Luca says, “Morna,
love are you okay?”

“I am better than okay, my child has come
back to me,” Morna vows. Suddenly she realizes she is wearing
nothing but a towel. She looks to Luca and motions to the towel, he
goes to the bathroom to get her robe. After putting the robe on
Morna pats the bed beside her. “Sit child, let me get to know you,”
says Morna enthusiastically.

She drinks in the sight of her child. Aideen
is probably 5’2’, and 110 pounds. Her creamy complexion is exactly
like Morna’s was at one time. She has thick, shiny shoulder length
copper-red hair. She’s very well dressed in a conservative designer
pant suit. Obviously a professional woman. Her manner is that of a
woman who is accustomed to getting her way in all things.

Aideen holds back for a second and then says,
“Mama could you break the link between us? I am hearing, seeing,
and feeling our conversation twice and its giving me a
headache.”

Morna stutters, “Link?”

“Yes Mama, you linked with me in your sleep
this morning. You were having disturbing dreams, or something, and
the link has held fast ever since,” answers Aideen. “That’s why I
came over this morning. I knew you were upset, you were in the
bathroom so long, floundering. I came over to make Daddy help you.
I had just explained to Daddy when you found us in the
hallway.”

Morna looks away, blushes bright red, “We
were linked while I was in the bathroom?” she whispers. When she
looks at Aideen, she simply nods, and Morna ducks her head in
shame. “But not last night?” When Aideen assures her they were not
linked last night.

“I am sorry, child,” she whispers. She gets
up quickly and goes again into the bathroom. She waves her hand in
front of her face and says Aideen-sever, in light Elvish. She calls
out to Aideen through the door. “Is that better?”

“Yes, thank you,” answers Aideen.

Morna leans against the door and covers her
face. Of all the asinine things to do to one’s own child. How could
I have not been aware the link had been re-established? How could I
have stood here in the middle of that panic attack and start
reliving last night with Luca? Oh that poor girl. She must think
her mother is a wanton of the worst kind.

As soon as Luca understands the cause of
Morna’s reaction he turns to Aideen. “I am so sorry baby girl. She
wouldn’t share anything like that with you on purpose, you know
that right?”

Aideen smiles and says, “S’right Daddy. I
can’t say it was pleasant for me,” she chuckles throatily. “But I
must say, you guys rock!” Then she laughs nervously and adds,
“Daddy, go get her back out here. She is really, really freaked out
today. She needs us, both of us right now. I will call Brigid and
tell her Mom won’t be there until noon. That will give us all
morning to help her calm down, okay?”

Luca smiles and lovingly kisses his daughter
on the forehead and walks to the bathroom door. He knocks quietly
on the bathroom door. “Morna, let me in love.”

Morna opens the door for him and he slips in,
closing the door behind him. Morna reaches over and locks the door.
Luca arches an eyebrow at her, and asks, “Are you okay love?”

“Hell no! I am not okay. I am sure she isn’t
either,” she mumbles. “She got a pretty good look at how we passed
the time last night, if you know what I mean,” Morna laments, and
buries her face into Luca’s chest.

“Morna, honestly she is okay.” He chuckles
and says, “She said we rock.”

“Crap! My child knows what a wanton hussy I
am,” she moans softly. “What a way to get to know your long lost
mother!”

“Morna, she knows no such thing because that
simply isn’t true, you are just feeling embarrassed. But take heart
honey, this isn’t the first time she has met you. She met you in
other lifetimes too. She also came to see you in the hospital a few
times. She even came to Mad Mike’s once. You just weren’t ready to
see who she was yet.”

“She really hasn’t had much of a mother has
she?” Morna asks sadly. “Or a father for that matter if you have
spent the better part of the last 600 years chasing after me. Oh
God Luca, what have I done to our child?”

“You have done nothing to her or me. I keep
telling you that. None of this is in anyway your fault!” insists
Luca with more than a hint of frustration in his voice.

“But it has still hurt both of you, hasn’t
it?” she asks brokenly.

Luca looks away and reluctantly nods before
taking her into his arms. “Morna, we have you back. You remember
both of us, this is the first time the three of us have been able
to be together, as a family in a very long time. Do you really want
to waste one minute of that locked in this bathroom, wallowing in
regrets?” he asks firmly. When Morna shakes her head no, he says,
“Good. Now get your shower, get dressed. I will order room service
and my two beautiful girls can share a meal and get to know each
other again.”

Morna hugs him tightly and says, “Thank you
Luca. Please forgive me for being so weak and crazy.”

“You are not weak, you are not crazy. You
have had to absorb a whole string of other lifetimes in less than a
week. A very mind-boggling, unbelievable string of lifetimes I
might add. It is no small wonder you were feeling a little
overwhelmed this morning. Okay so the mind link and you thinking
about last night was unfortunate, but not the end of the world.
Okay?” Morna nods again.

Luca asks, “How’s the head?”

“It really hurts,” she admits.

“Take some more Advil. Maybe the shower will
help, baby,” Luca suggests before he kisses her deeply. He
reluctantly turns her toward the shower and smacks her butt gently.
“Hurry, we miss you when you are gone,” he says before unlocking
the bathroom door and slipping out.