"What's your name?"
One last cry and she is gone, but her last word hangs on the wind. "Serena."
I fall to my knees and sob. Serena, Gar's gifted daughter. Her father had died trying to save me and now I must repay the debt. I must save Serena.
My dream changes and I sit in a dark attic, chained to a bed. No! I don't want to be here. No!
The Seeker, my brother—his memories pull at me. His powers flow in me and crash into my mind, straining and cracking me.
He knew how to find Serena before he died. And now his father, our father, knows.
I must save her.
I need to wake up.
The dream locks its teeth into me like a rabid bulldog, but I fight it and push away.
Harder. Fight harder.
The dream teeth tear through my flesh, and still I push.
Like getting stabbed in the stomach, carved apart from the inside. Pain pins me to my unconscious world like a bug stuck on a board as part of a collection.
It rips me apart. My body is turned inside out and something spills from my body and onto my bed.
***
I jerked awake in my bed, flushed with sweat and stinking of fear, but the pain of my dreams continued to torture me. Gasping and wracked in pain, I hollered for someone, anyone to help.
Who would come? Drake? He wouldn't come. Drake had left me and our baby and wouldn't be back. I thought I'd accepted that, moved on without him, prepared myself for life as a single mother. Now, with the moment of birth so close, my mind latched onto thoughts of him, and I hated myself for still needing him—hated that I felt so alone.
Luke and Lucy were on assignment. How I wished Lucy were here. "Someone, help! Please. I'm having my baby."
Susie burst through the door to my bedroom and surveyed the scene. We both looked down toward what must be the stain of fluid between my legs, but my expanded stomach blocked my view.
Tears fell down my cheeks as I locked eyes with her. "My water broke?"
She nodded. "Looks like Ana is coming early."
I shook my head and closed my legs tight, as if I could keep her safe in my belly by force of will alone. "Lucy needs to be here. And... and Drake."
Her blue eyes widened in sympathy. "I know you're scared, honey, but I'll be with you the whole time. I promise."
A flush of calm flowed through me. The scent of snicker doodles baking filled the air, and I surrendered to feelings of safety and happiness.
Father Patrick had brought Susie to us when we first moved into the Washington mansion and started a new school for kids with para-powers. Susie, a former nun and a doctor, had her own para-powers, though she didn't call them that.
I clutched the peace she brought and held it close to me. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. It's important to stay calm, for you and the baby. Okay?"
I nodded.
"I'm going to get some help and get you to the clinic so we can see how you're both doing. I'll be back in just a second."
She left me alone with my thoughts, and memories of my dreams. My powers had grown since our rescue and escape from Rent-A-Kid. Whatever the Seeker had done to me or given to me before he died, I could now sense other paranormals and locate them—sort of.
I wasn't very good yet, and we'd only found two kids in the last few months using my gifts, but those gifts were growing. Mostly, it happened by accident—in dreams, like the one I'd just had.
Another contraction rocked my body. I practiced my breathing and rode it out, like a wave, as Drake would say.
Drake.
I couldn't bear to think of him, and I couldn't bear not to think of him. Carrying his child created a bond between us. He'd become a part of me in a very visceral way, sharing his thoughts and memories, talking to him through my mind, then finally touching him, kissing him, feeling him in my arms. In trying to save Mary, I'd destroyed his powers and destroyed us. His presence once filled something inside me, but now a giant hole pierced my heart—and not in some poetic, metaphorical way. The pain ate through me like hungry piranhas; it kept me up at night, and made caring about anything a chore beyond my ability to complete.
For all that, it hadn't made a damn bit of difference. Mary had still died.
I'd forced myself through the motions for what seemed an eternity, but time marched on whether I wanted it to or not, and I found myself smiling again, laughing again, enjoying my art again. I'd even applied to a local college for the fall. It had been almost three months since the night Drake left, and my heart had started to heal, but going into labor cracked open that freshly healed wound in my soul.
I existed within myself alone. I thought Poe wrote that in something, but maybe not.
Whoever wrote it, they nailed my feelings exactly. Before, I existed within myself, but never alone. Now, despite the thoughts of others swirling around my head, nothing ever penetrated into me.
I was alone.