“Hey you,” she said gently. Soft fingers smoothed the hair from his brow.
“Hey. How long was I gone?” He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just reappear seconds—or even the very moment—after he disappeared, as if he’d never left at all. But no, he didn’t. He didn’t know why new memories didn’t seep into his head, if he had indeed changed his past. But again, no. Time travel and its intricacies simply baffled him. “How long?” he repeated.
“A few hours.”
Not good. He tried to pull himself into a sitting position. “Is Mary Ann—” A sharp pain sliced through his head, and he groaned.
“Gently,” Victoria said.
When he was up, he dragged his knees to his chest and rested his forehead against them. He was panting. “Is Mary Ann here?”
“I am. What happened?” she’d asked, concern dripping from the words.
All of his friends—plus Riley—were accounted for. Never had he been more relieved. If he’d had the energy, he would have leapt up and hugged them all. “I need a minute to think.”
Everything was fuzzy. From more than just traveling back to the present, he suspected. A return had never left him this groggy.
Okay, so. What had happened? Obviously, he’d changed the past. He’d told Dr. Gray things he hadn’t told him before. Dr. Gray had flipped, just as Elijah had predicted. Since Aden had still met Mary Ann, Dr. Gray had later taken an interest in him. Which meant one of the souls would soon be freed.
His lips lifted in a slow grin. They’d done it, then. They’d really done it.
Had anything else changed?
“Do I live at the D and M with Dan Reeves?” he asked Mary Ann.
“You don’t remember?”
“Do I?” he insisted.
“Yes. You do.” Mary Ann rubbed her arms. “You’re scaring me, Aden.”
“You will cease scaring her immediately,” Riley snapped. So much for his seeming concern about Aden.
“Tell us what happened,” Victoria pleaded.
He sighed. “I went back in time, to a therapy session I had when I was eleven.” He raised his head, fought the dizziness as he pinned Mary Ann with a tortured gaze. “It was with your father.”
She blinked in confusion. “My father? I don’t understand.”
“He was my doctor for a time, in one of the institutions I stayed at. I don’t remember which one. And I didn’t realize he was your dad until today. He was nice, truly listened to me. I liked him. I, well, I told him what had happened, that I lived here and you were my friend. That you had dated Tucker. He kind of freaked out, tried to throw me out of his office.”
She was shaking her head before he finished. “That doesn’t sound like my dad. He would have considered you delusional, but he would never throw a patient out.”
Aden let that go, knowing it would do no good to insist or tarnish her image of her father. “Does he keep records of his patients?” he asked, though he already knew the answer. All doctors did.
“Of course.”
“Then he’ll have a record of me. I’d like to read his thoughts about me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s not only illegal, it’s unethical. He would never give the files to me.”
Aden met her stare, unwavering. “I didn’t want you to ask for them.”
Her mouth floundered open, closed. “That would be stealing.”
Victoria’s hand traveled the length of his spine, up, then down, a soothing caress meant to comfort him. “Actually, that would be helping a friend in need.”
Mary Ann licked her lips and gazed up at Riley, perhaps searching for support. He just shrugged. As innocent as she was and as uneventful a life as she’d probably led, the thought of stealing must frighten her.
“Please, Mary Ann,” he said. “Get those files. Something I said caused your dad to compare me to someone else and I want to know who it was. And, because of my confession to him, I could have changed something here in the present. Maybe it was only his mind. His thoughts. But there’s only one way to find out.”
Still she was silent.
He tried another approach. “Did he ever ask you about a boy named Aden?”
She thought for a moment, gasped. “Not by name, no, but once, right after I introduced him to Tucker, he sat me down and asked about my friends, if I had any new ones and if one liked to talk to himself. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it was a joke.” She scrubbed a hand down her face. “I’ll do it,” she said in a soft whisper.
“Thank you.” His relief was palpable, he was sure.
“It’ll be hard, though,” she added. “His old files are in storage. And those he’s actually put in his computer are in password-protected archives.”
“All I ask is that you try.” He pushed to his feet, his legs a bit unsteady. Victoria kept her arm around his waist. He didn’t need to, not to remain standing, but he leaned against her. “What time is it?”
“Seven-eighteen,” Victoria said.
“PM?” He almost moaned. “I need to get back. Dan said my chores and homework had to be done before bed. Otherwise, I’ll never be allowed to go anywhere after school again.”
“I’ll go with you,” Victoria said. “I’ll change his mind.”
Riley sighed, flicked a regretful glance to Mary Ann. “That means I have to go, too.”
Victoria gazed at him pleadingly. “I’ll be fine. Promise. Besides, you need to look after the human.”
With another look to Mary Ann, Riley shifted from one foot to the other, popped his jaw, then finally nodded. “Fine. You’ve got one hour to return for me.”
“Thank you,” she said and ushered Aden forward. “Hurry, before he changes his mind.”
They quickly reached the line of trees that separated neighborhood from forest. This far away, even someone with Riley’s supercharged hearing couldn’t detect their words.
“Thank God he stayed behind.”
“I know,” Victoria said, grinning. “I expected him to balk. As he is charged with my protection, if something were to happen to me, he would be executed.” Without breaking her graceful glide, she bent down and picked up several fallen acorns. “He must like Mary Ann more than I realized.”
For the first time, Aden was glad about that.
Victoria glanced around. “We have an hour before I have to return. Want to spend it here?”
“Dan—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of him.”
“All right.”
She stopped, the acorns balanced perfectly in her hand, not even rolling. Aden stopped, too, facing her. Waning sunlight filtered through the treetops, a haze of pink, violet and gold that worshipped her pale skin.
Skin that couldn’t be cut, he recalled. “What could happen to you that would cause Riley to get into trouble?”
“I can be kidnapped,” she said, dropping one of the acorns. “Held for ransom by someone who dislikes my father.” Another acorn fell. “And I can be hurt.” The rest slammed into the ground, forming a pile.
He didn’t like the sound of that and found himself skimming his gaze through the surrounding area, searching for any threat that might be lurking nearby. But as usual, even the insects were quiet, perhaps sensing he and Victoria were more than human and thereby dangerous.
“I want to know how you can be hurt.” That way, he, too, could learn to protect her from harm.
She backed away from him to lean against a tree trunk. “Telling anyone of a vampire’s weakness is punishable by death, for both the vampire who tells and the one she confides in. That is why my mother was left in Romania. She spilled our secrets to a human and is now locked away until my father decides how best to slay her.” There at the end, her voice trembled.
“I’m sorry about your mom. I don’t want anything like that to happen to you, so please don’t tell me.” He didn’t fear for himself, but for her. He’d find out some other way. Through Riley, maybe. They had their moments of civility.
Strangely enough, his companions didn’t react to her pronouncement. They’d been silent since he’d woken up in this new present, actually. Yes, they normally remained silent after a trip into the past, but not for long. By now, they should have been back to their normal selves.