Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) (26 page)

“UA?”
I asked, confused.

“Unauthorized absence
… like AWOL,” West explained.

“How long is your leave?” I interrupted.

“Thirty days.”

“If we can draw him to the fountain, we won’t need thirty days,” I responded, handing
West my phone. “I need one of these. Can you get this for me?”

He stared at the picture on my phone before slowly lifting his eyes to me. “You remember how to use it?”

The eleven hundred dollar Japanese sword filled my iPhone screen. “I remember a lot of things.”

“You were fucking lethal.” Logan shook his head, exhaling slowly as he stared in my direction.

“I let him pin me. I won’t let that happen again.”

We
st stood back. “I gave up my immortality, but he is still immortal. We have to be ready for him.”

I slowly lifted my eyes to his, remembering the cruel grip of Troy’s fingers around my neck.

“I will
dismember him.
”

Logan leaned back against the counter, c
rossing his arms over his chest. “I like this plan.”

“We don
’t need him for information anymore. We don’t need him for
anything
.”

“And Eva?”
West looked toward her bedroom, his jaw tightening.

I
lowered my eyes to the floor, considering my options.

Finally, I turned to Logan. “I don’t know that he won’t come for her anyway, instead of me. I need you to protect her. No matter what the cost. I’m sorry that I have to ask this of you, after all that you have done for me already. Will you do this?”

He stepped closer, stilling my hands in his. “I will protect her… and Violet… with my life. I swear to you both.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, hugging him fiercely. “West, can you trust him?”

He turned to Logan, gripping the countertop as he spoke. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else with my daughter’s lives.”

The energy in the room shifted as both of them came to terms with the lifetimes of battle, accepting, finally, that they were allies.

I turned to Logan, reaching for West’s hand. “Then… we have to go.”

In Eva’s room, I lay down next to her, fighting with the conflicting instincts in my mind.
Stay, protect her… lure Troy away from her…
I wiped one of my tears from her delicate, pink cheek, kissing her before moving away. West pulled her sleeping body into his arms, cradling her and whispering quietly to her. She sighed dreamily, her small, dark eyelashes fluttering beneath closed lids. “We’re doing the right thing,” he said, still gripping her to his chest and locking eyes with me. “I can’t lose either of you again, Roam.”

“We are a family,” I held his face in my hands, shaking my head. “This was all inevitable. Troy will die this time, and he will never hurt me… or my family… again.”

He gently rested Eva’s head back on the pillow, covering her with the pink and purple comforter. “I am so thankful that I have you here, by my side… fighting with me.”

He reached for me over Eva, touching his lips to mine. “
I have something worth fighting for,
” I spoke against his kiss.

“West… Roam, the limo is here,” Logan’s quiet voice from the hallway interrupted our hushed words, and we moved to the door, hand in hand.

Violet’s furious glare held fast until the moment West turned to climb into the limo seat next to me. She flung herself into his arms, smothering her face against his neck. “I’m sorry that I ever blamed you, for any of this… I love you,” she admitted between broken tears.

“
Violet,” he drug his hand over her back, nodding against her curls. “I know...
I know. I love you, too.
Take care of Eva.”

“Come home tomorrow,” she begged as Logan took her into his arms.

“We will,” I promised, losing myself in Logan’s deep, brown eyes one last time. “Logan…,”

“I know,” he nodded, waving as the limo pulled away from the house.

West and I rode in silence to the Jacksonville airport. I thought of the first time I’d ever flown on an airplane, and the baby that cried from the air pressure until West offered suggestions to the young mother to help the unhappy child.

He was meant to be a father.
I watched him stare out the window at the clear, balmy night. Reaching for his hand, I laced my fingers through his. “You’ve done this so many times, West. It’s my turn.”

He faced me, pulling my head to his shoulder. “I’ve never had to leave her to fight before. Knowing that I might not come back… neither of us may come back… I’m feeling like a coward tonight. I want to go back to her and hide her away.”

“You are
nothing
like a coward,” my voice, lowered, tensed in my chest. “We
will
go back to her, and we’ll be a family. On your twenty-seventh birthday, it wasn’t me on that road, telling you about the prophecy. It was our daughter. It was Eva,” I lifted my face to his. “She will live.”

He stared at me in awe. “How did you learn that?”

“Will. He knew.” I sighed. “If Troy doesn’t come to Chicago, we’ll need to go to him.”

“
Right now, I want to get to O’Hare and check into the hotel. The flight is about four hours.”

“I wonder where we’ll come out, once we go through the fountain.”

“The Bulb Fountain, in Saint Paul de Vence. We’ll be about fifteen hours away from Cherbourg. The
Titanic
will arrive in Cherbourg at seven PM, and depart at nine PM for Queenstown. We’ll be traveling most of the day tomorrow through France... if we’re still going on the ship.”

“How do you know… that it’s the Bulb Fountain?”

He lifted his forearm. “I traveled. Looking for a way back to you.”

Sitting back, I stared at him as the limo approached the airport. “You already went there?”

“Roam, I went back to 1912, ’55, and ’77. I was in the process of working out the coordinates for 1790 when Eva began having nightmares about the inclined plane. That was when I realized that she had traveled, on her own, to the castle. She was the key.”

He sighed. “Before I traveled, I went to other inclined planes in the US, and then tried one in Chili and one in Austria. Morgan kept Eva while I traveled all over the world, trying to find a way back to you.”

“When I finally realized that Eva was my only way back, I just couldn’t take her through. I couldn’t put her in danger… especially knowing she wasn’t immortal in the castle. I didn’t tell Violet… as heartbroken as she was over Logan, I didn’t want to tempt her to do something irrational.”

“Morgan cared for Eva for… almost two years?” I longed for my sister as he nodded, his fingers twisting his wedding band absently on his finger.

“She was so close to Eva, Roam. Too close. She and Jason had broken up, and Morgan… needed some space.”

“An entirely different world,” I widened my eyes, staring at the coordinates on my arm. “That’s why I dreamt about the pool. West, this is the eighth life… not the seventh. This life was never meant to have happened,” I shivered, letting him gather me into his arms.

“Then we’ll take each day as it comes. We’ll do this together.”

I nodded, watching a plane take off from the airport ahead.

We checked into the hotel in Chicago after midnight. I’d fallen asleep on the plane with my head resting on West’s shoulder, only moments after he’d pressed his back to the seat, suffering through the change in numbers on his forearm.

He had called Logan the moment we entered our hotel room. “The girls are fine. Logan told me he wished he still had the numbers… to keep track of you,” West said, tossing his wallet and keys to the dresser against the wall.

“I’d rather Troy never be close enough to touch him again,” I argued, dropping to the bed tiredly. “What time should we get on the road?”

He pulled his tee shirt over his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “That depends.”

“On what?”

I watched his adoring eyes glow to a blue flame in the dim lamplight. “On if I let you sleep tonight.”

My body constricted normal blood flow to everywhere but below my stomach. I lay back, slowing my rapid breathing as he lowered his lips to my neck.

His hands slid over my sides, eagerly tugging at my tee shirt. “West,” I murmured, recognizing the burgeoning panic as his fingers danced over the hem of my skirt.

“
I love you, my wife,
” he whispered, my thin, white, cotton skirt masking his exploring fingers. I gripped his bare shoulders, tears quickly burning my eyes.

“Wait,” I shook my head, moaning as his mouth found the sensitive dip in my throat. “Wait, I….,”

“
What, baby,
” he hushed, moving more completely over me. I tried to sit up, but his weight had me pinned to the pillow.

A heavy, wooden door slammed in my mind, and I squirmed. “Wait-…,”

“
You taste like sunshine,
” his hand traced my inner thigh, and I snapped, bucking against him as my heart thudded. Terror locked my fingernails into his shoulders, and I drug them down, listening to him growl in pain.

“
Roam!
” He lurched back, reaching with his left hand to his right shoulder blade. When he pulled away, blood smeared his fingers.

“I’m sorry!” I covered my lips, desperately reaching to cover my bare chest with a pillow as tears streamed down my face. “I… don’t know what’s wrong with me!”

He watched me carefully, finally turning to the mirror across the hotel room. As he shifted, I watched the blood gather in the deep, ragged scratches from my fingernails and slowly drip blood down his back.

“It’s not healing.” He met my eyes, nodding. “
I’ll need to clean this up.”

“Something is wrong with me, I’m so sorry,” I shook my head as he reached for tissues near the bathroom. “Every time Logan and I got too close, I’d freak out like that… and sometimes faint… I…,”

“Roam, there is nothing wrong with you. I shouldn’t have rushed at you like that.”

“I understand if you don’t want to be married to me… you didn’t know that I was… broken… like this-…,”

“
Roam
.” He grabbed for my shirt, unrolling it and slipping it back over my head. “I can’t even know how badly he hurt you in that castle. Do you really think this is your fault?”

“You don’t deserve to be married to a… crazy person…,”

“You’re not crazy, you’re my wife, and we’ll get through this together,” he promised, pulling me into his arms and tucking me beneath the covers of the bed.

“Can we just… sleep tonight? Please?” I begged tearfully. “I love you so much, but I just can’t…,”

“Shh,” he reached for the switch to turn off the lamp at our bedside. “Just close your eyes. I’ll wake you up in the morning.
I love you.
”

“I’m sorry,” I curled into his arms, brushing the backs of my hands over my eyes. “My contacts are burning- I have to take them out.”

“Damn it, I forgot about them. Go on, baby, I’ll be right here.”

I grabbed my toiletry bag, locking the bathroom door behind me.
What is wrong with you? This is West. He is your husband. The love of your life.

Washing my face, I toiled over my thoughts.
Go in there; make love to your husband on your wedding night. You know he won’t hurt you, and you know he feels amazing.

“Roam?” West’s light knock nearly made me jump out of my skin. I slipped my glasses on, turning the lock and opening the door.

“I’m ready,” I took a steadying breath, standing on my toes to reach for his kiss. He reciprocated lovingly, carrying me to the bed.

“Not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to tell you a story.”

“A story?” I repeated, letting him tuck me into the crook of his arm in the darkness.

“On the first day of school… the first time, before you knew any of this, I was prepared to see you in my classroom. I intended to spend the year teaching you about each life, preparing you for what to expect when- or if- we found the doors and traveled.”

He kissed my temple, his fingers brushing against my hair. “I expected a bored senior… not a potential history major whose knowledge rivaled my own. You dropped your book, do you remember?”

“I was so embarrassed. You completely… took my breath away.” I sighed into the darkness.

“When I leaned down to help you, so close I could see the different shades of green in your eyes… I could think of nothing but kissing your lips. Now, you can imagine how disgusted I was with myself.”

“Shame on you, Mr. Perry,” I teased, and he chuckled against my skin.

“Even though I’d spent seventeen years preparing myself to keep my distance, telling myself that I wouldn’t touch you in any way… I couldn’t resist you. I didn’t
want
to resist you. When I’m near you, I am… whole. You smelled like chorine and some shampoo, and I spent an entire afternoon in a discount store in 1977 trying to find exactly which one it was.”