Twilight Siege

30

He tipped his head once in my direction and then vanished. My eyes scanned the room, verifying that I was in fact alone again, but before I had time to sit back down, Merlin returned. In his hands he held a small dark vial. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You can trace a whole lot farther than the others, can’t you?” His only response was a hint of a smile before he became somber again. “Are you sure you want to do this? It has never been tested and I am not certain it will work.” “Is it going to make her a zombie or something? Forget it, anything is better than her dying. Just do it.” I wrung my hands nervously and watched as he uncorked the vial and removed Ashley’s breathing tube, making one of the machines beep angrily. Merlin waved a hand and the machine went silent. He then poured the viscous contents into Ashley’s opened mouth before stepping back away from the bed. My heart pounded in my chest and I chewed relentlessly on my bottom lip. For a long moment, nothing happened and despair that it hadn’t worked gripped me. Then the heart-rate monitor that had been quietly keeping time to Ashley’s steady heart beats began to accelerate. Faster and faster it raced and I looked to Merlin for an explanation, but the man was gone. Ashley’s limbs began to shake as if she was having a seizure and that’s when the beeping of the machine flatlined. A loud constant alarm signified the stopping of Ashley’s heart. Nurses tore into the room, one climbing on top of Ashley and starting chest compressions while others shouted words that didn’t make sense to me. Was this what was supposed to happen? Was she dying? I looked on in confused horror, my chest heaving for air, unable to get enough oxygen. One of the nurses took hold of my arm and pulled me outside of the room and closed the door, but I could still hear the chaos. I stood with my back against the wall in a haze as I listened to the frenzied voices. After about ten agonizing minutes the room started to quiet before a man’s voice called out, “Okay, we can stop resuscitations. Anyone have the time?” “Time of death 16:27,” offered a female voice. One-by-one the staff exited the room with faces drawn and shoulders drooping in defeat. The charge nurse stopped next to me on her way out of the room and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry, honey. Would you like to go in and say goodbye?” “Yes, please,” My voice had abandoned me and the words were little more than a breath. The sterile room was heartbreakingly quiet. The machines had been turned off, and not even the harsh fluorescent lights dared to buzz as I sat down next to Ashley. I slipped my shaking fingers into hers and held her lifeless hand. She was gone. It hadn’t worked. My chin quivered and tears streaked down my face yet again. “I’m so sorry Ashley. I never meant for you to get pulled into this. I tried so hard to keep you safe and none of it mattered.” I trailed off with a sob. Just as the pain dragged me under to a place deeper than I could manage, I felt a squeeze of my fingers. My head shot up with a gasp and I jumped to my feet. When Ashley’s eyes start to flutter I lunged for the nurse call button but was pulled up short when her glowing blue eyes opened fully. “Ashley,” I gasped reverently. She blinked rapidly as she looked around the room in confusion, the glow in her eyes quickly fading. “What’s going on? Am I in a hospital?” I flung myself at her and wrapped her in a tight hug, never wanting to let her go again. “Ashley, you’re alive.” “Good grief, Becca, what’s going on?” she asked as she pulled herself from my grasp. I sat on the bed, holding her hand in mine. “Do you remember anything about what happened?" She scrunched her face in thought and I could see the moment the memories resurfaced. Fear flashed in her eyes and her jaw fell slightly open on a silent gasp. "Ronan, he kidnapped me. I remember you and the alley, but that’s about it." “He hit you over the head and Lochlan’s men brought you here. The doctors said the swelling was too much, you weren’t going to make it.” “But I feel fine.” Her brow pinched with confusion. “That’s where things get a little crazy. You were dying. I did the only thing I could do to save you—I asked Merlin for help.” “Merlin—as in the wizard? Honey, did you hit your head too?” “I didn’t tell you about him, there’s so much I didn’t tell you and I’m so sorry. I was trying to keep you safe, but it didn’t work. Merlin is an ancient Fae—he’s the one who gave me the necklace, and he was also the odd man I talked to in the museum my first day on the job.” I paused, gathering my courage to tell her what I had done. “Ash, I told him to save you and in order to do that, I think he made you Fae.” Her head tilted to the side. “What are you talking about? How would he make me Fae?” “I don’t know exactly, but he made you drink something and then the machines went crazy and the doctors tried to save you, but you died. I didn’t know it had worked but then you woke up and when you opened your eyes…they glowed.” “Are you shitting me?” she exclaimed, sitting tall in the bed. “I wish I was. Do you remember how you got back to Ireland?” “Ronan,” she croaked and I could hear the fear in her voice. “I had some dinner and drinks with a friend at work, the restaurant wasn’t far from home so I walked. It wasn’t particularly late, just around 9 p.m. A block from our place someone called my name out and when I turned to see who it was, Ronan stood by a building not far from me. I was surprised to see him and my first thought was that something had happened to you so I hurried over to him to find out what was wrong. Before I even got a word out, he was behind me with his hand over my mouth and tugged me down into a basement stairwell. He said such awful things.” Her eyes filled with tears as they met mine. “I woke up to him kicking me and discovered I had been brought back to Ireland. I had no idea what was happening. Why he would do those things?” I reached over and put my hand on hers. “He’s gone now, Ash. He won’t hurt either of us again.” As quickly as I could before the nurses came back in the room, I caught Ashley up on the very basics of everything that had gone on in the prior weeks. She was pissed at me for keeping it all a secret, but she understood my motives. “So, if they think I’m dead, how do we get out of here?” she asked as she swung her legs off the edge of the bed. “I think we’re going to need help with this.” I pulled out my phone and texted Lochlan. When he entered the room he froze instantly and his eyes grew wide. “Jesus f**k, she’s Fae. What the f**k happened in here?”