“Let’s get you inside.” Still holding my arm, she turned to glance at the brown wolf. “Jim, Emmitt’s saying the boys are worried.” She herded me toward the door while calling out instructions. “You should go reassure them. Grey and Sam can handle things out here.” Everyone did as she said. Since inside was safer than outside, I didn’t try to fight her.
A stack of pants waited just inside the door. Made sense.
I shuffled a few more steps before Luke turned and scooped me up in his arms.
“About time,” the woman reprimanded.
“Who are you?” I asked, peering over Luke’s shoulder at her.
“Winifred Lewis. You can call me Nana Wini,” she said with a kind smile. “The woman behind me is Mary, and the man who will be following us shortly, the one who pulled you from that dog pile, is Jim.” She looked at me expectantly.
“Oh, I’m Bethi.”
“Luke, bring her upstairs. Second door on the right should be open,” she said as we neared a set of stairs. “We’ll be right up with some bandages.”
Luke took the stairs two at a time and had me in a chair in short order.
As soon as he sat me down, he dropped to his knees in front of me and cupped my face between his hands. After everything we’d just gone through, his gentle touch brought tears back to my eyes.
We’d made it. But the place I’d thought would save me was a dump of tinderbox buildings out in the woods. We’d be dead in hours. I already felt dead inside. And tired. All that running. The fighting. Had there been any point to it?
The worry in his eyes tugged at my heart, and I felt a stab of guilt as I thought of everything he’d gone through to get me here.
“Go,” I said reaching up to squeeze one of his hands. “Take a shower and put on your own pants.”
He snorted a laugh then smoothed a thumb over my cheek.
“I’d rather stay with you,” his eyes flicked to my very bloodstained shirt.
“There’s nothing for you to do right now,” I said, crossing an arm over my stomach. I didn’t want him to look at it before I could. “They’ll fix me up, I’m sure.”
Reluctantly, he stood. I arched a brow and shooed him toward the door. Watching him walk away, I couldn’t remember Tinker Bell ever looking so good.
When he closed the door behind him, I eased out of the shredded jacket and lifted the shirt. I almost gagged. Pulling it back down, I eyed the blood-soaked fabric. The cut needed stitches. A lot of them, really. I did not want to be awake for that. I’d had enough pain for...oh, ever.
The door opened behind me and an older man with merry grey eyes poked his head in. When he saw me, he smiled and held up my bag. Perfect. I waved him in the room and accepted the bag. He nodded and left without a word, but I caught his worried glance at my stomach.
I tipped the bag onto the floor and found my bottle of pills. I still had two sleeping pills mixed in with the other ones I’d tried.
I swallowed them dry and leaned back into the chair.
“That bad?” Luke asked startling me.
“What do you mean?”
“Pain pills?” he asked coming over to take the bottle from me. His shirt showed dark patches from putting it on wet and clung to his skin. His hair was still damp too. He couldn’t have been gone for more than a few minutes.
A frown settled on his face when he studied the prescription label and the unknown name on it. “How many did you take?”
“Relax. It’s just a bottle. I keep other stuff in there. I took two sleeping pills.”
His eyes flicked to my blood-soaked shirt. He squatted down near me, balancing on his heels, and lifted the hem of my shirt. His shocked gaze flew to mine.
“I know. It’ll need stiches. No hospital though, okay?” I grabbed his hand and begged with my eyes until he nodded. “The dreams will knock me out, and the pills will keep me under.” I did a slow blink without trying. Already they called to me.
“Luke,” I whispered. “They’re not done trying. Tell the others to soak the buildings. I’ve died by fire before, and it’s not fun.”
* * * *
I suffered the same dream duality as I had before, but more. My present self, my past self, and the past selves of four of my sisters. The multiple views disoriented me, and I fought to focus on just one.
Heat flickered over my stomach like tiny flames dancing on my skin. I wanted to look down, but my eyes remained focused on the horde before me.
My fingers gently squeezed the hand wrapped within mine before I looked to my sister.
Through her eyes, I looked back at me. Again, my present-self suffered a wave of vertigo. My stomach twisted with pain, but I couldn’t tell from which of us it stemmed.
“All will be well,” I promised my sister.
I pushed away the discomfort and tried to focus. My sister squeezed back as her eyes closed.
“What do you see?” I asked.
Concentrating on my sister, I jumped perspectives.
A swarm of glowing lights filled my mind. Blue-green, blue-grey, yellow-green, and then us. The humans were far from us. We’d agreed to leave them out of our fight. The blue-grey almost outnumbered blue-green.
“They will not win. They do not have Courage. Her spark no longer exists,” I said on a sob. Knowing they would not win did not sooth the loss of our sister.
“Be strong. They may not win the Judgement, but they may win this fight.”
A hand closed over my shoulder and peace flowed through me, taking away fear, hate, worry, even the odd outside feeling of pain in my stomach. I breathed deeply and struggled not to smile. I fought to hold onto my worry.
“Stop, sister. Save yourself for them. We will need you,” I begged.
Changing perspective again, I surged into a mind filled with so much fear, hate, worry, pain, and doubt.
I struggled to breathe. My skin felt too tight as if all the emotion inside of me fought to burst out. Fists clenched, teeth gritted, I growled, “And we need you focused. They will learn to fear me.”
“Sisters, join hands,” another of us spoke drawing our attention.
Turning, we clasped hands. Five of us: Strength, Hope, Prosperity, Wisdom, Peace.
“Courage will always be with us,” Strength spoke with confidence as a surge of power flowed through us.
My present-self struggled as what each of the past selves experienced in that moment flooded me.
The sparks in my mind ignited, glowing brightly...
Emotions surged within me as I had the capacity to drain even more from those around us...
Glimpses of the battle to come floated around in the white infinity of my mind...
Flashes of the past rekindled my purpose.
Our purpose.
“The Urbat have grown too strong. We must reduce their numbers or face worse the next cycle,” I, Wisdom, predicted.
“I have no claws, but give me a knife and I will do my part,” I, Peace, intoned. Seething rage boiled within me. I itched to pace the field.
“I can only see our fates in this life, not the next. We will stay back and do what we can. Be well and be loved in your next lives,” I, Prosperity, said softly, pulling Strength and Hope from the circle.
I looked at my sister, Peace. “I remember how to fight thanks to your past lives, but I don’t have the skills you have from this life.”