Saving Aeron

Electric

He was smiling as she ran from the elevator. Smiling, as if he hadn't electrocuted her. Slowing down, she turned around and waited in the middle of reception for him to catch up. If he was trying to kill her, he'd have to do it front of people and the five security cameras that watched the comings and goings.

"What was that?" She leaned against the reception desk. "You nearly fried my brain."

"Chemistry." He laughed.

"Too bad." She wiped her hands on her pants. "I'm married and I don't need any more chemistry in my life."

"That's presumptious. I'm not here to break up your marriage." He put his hands up and stepped back. "I had a dream about you. You were bald and you were sad but not crying. There was a huge hole, like I had lost something, but then you're here and it was crazy."

"You might not want to say that too loud."

"That I had a dream about you or that I'm not going to break up your marriage?"

"Both. My husband and I are very popular and even the slightest tidbit of gossip can follow us around." This conversation would feed the trolls for years. She looked around the room. He was going into something normal ears shouldn't hear. "Follow me."

In the courtyard, in full view of the hospital and everyone in the area but out of earshot, Brigh sat on a cement bench and watched as Kai approached, two coffees in hand. He handed her one and sat on a second bench, close enough to talk but far enough, if any of the pack members saw them, her actions could not be deemed inappropriate.

The buzz of electricity lingered on the tips of her fingers, sending her thoughts racing. One time in her life, or past life, had her head ever been shaved and that was on the day she died. Questions bloomed but she fiddled with the coffee he had handed to her and waited for him to open up.

"You were sad, hurt. Your head had been shaved or you had lost your hair. Death was close by. Maybe cancer?"

"When did you have this dream?"

"I don't know. Maybe five, six months ago. I'd have to pull out my journal. I wrote it down."

"What else?"

"It was dark. It felt like there was a piece missing or you took a light from the world. I don't know but it was painful."

"How did you find me?"

"I wasn't looking but meeting you brought it all back. Did you have cancer?"

"No. I've never been sick." She put the paper cup down and cracked her knuckles. "You said you wrote it down. Do you have dreams alot?"

"I have enough and enough come true. That's why I write them down. What happened?"

"What happens when they come true? How many come true?"

"I don't think you're going to get cancer." Kai held his hands up. "I don't interpret them. I just keep them, sort of like a confessional. Unless it's going to help in some way, I don't do anything. They aren't mine."

"You've had a lot of them come true?"

"Some don't."

"What happens with the ones that don't?"

"Nothing. They just don't happen. Something changed the outcome or I just ate something spicy before bed."

"Do people you tell think you're crazy?"

"Do you?"

She shook her head. He had a dream about the day her husband and her sister had her killed for a murder they committed. If he was crazy, so was she. "Do you believe in the Goddess of the Moon?"

"Believe? I accept the truth of the moon; I don't have faith that my life is dictated by the Goddess or the moon, but I can accept others who do." He sipped his coffee and looked at the sky. "It's hard to think that there is some greater being out there while people are suffering. When I saw you, it didn't hurt as much as when I saw other people. Other people, I've watched them die and I can't do anything about it except wake up and read about it the next day."

"Haven't you ever wondered why?"

"All the time, but it's not something I control."

"Are you staying at a hotel here or in the pack's sanctuary?"

"The sanctuary."

She hated wanting to trust him, to tell him that he really had seen her on the day of her death. She also hated not trusting him, believing that he would take her words and twist them into some sort of knife that would betray her just as her husband and sister did.

"Stop by the pack house after dinner tonight. I'll introduce you." She could probably offer a more welcoming introduction but she didn't give it that much thought. She needed to figure out who he was and if she could trust him. She needed people on her side if she was going to thwart any coup her sister or her husband could be planning.

Her car pulled around the courtyard and waited. Fynlee, her second in command, waited for her. Thanks to pack mind, she could reach out to her Beta and the loyal woman would answer. After she excused herself and left Kai to drink his coffee alone, she collapsed in the back of the car. One person had been her confidant since opening her eyes at her wedding. Fynlee knew everything.

"I need you to run a background check on Kai Mclain of the Talsarn Pack. He's studying regenerative medicine here and we are hosting him at the sanctuary." She put her untouched coffee in the center cup holder. "Test that, too. Just in case."

Fynlee didn't need to ask questions. "You got it." She already had Mclain's name running through her database on her phone. " Your sister left the hospital and has been holding court at the pack house, nothing major, just gripping. Balor's doctors are confident that, though he lost his leg, he'll make a full recovery and is a good candidate for a mechanical prosthetic. Fergus hasn't left the pack house and he's been part of your sister's court. Gwyn has been by her side."

This is why she needed Fynlee. Her sister yelled loudly for all to hear her disdain for Fergus but she entertained him at home.