2 Empath (2 page)

My dad’s face was pained. “Well, of course,” he said miserably. “But surely there’s something somebody can—”

“Dad,” I interrupted quickly, being familiar with his compulsion for action. “I don’t think anyone can
fix
me. I just didn’t want to have to lie to you anymore. But there is a way you can help me.” I threw a beseeching look at my mom. “Both of you.”

They made no response. I took another deep breath. I had been thinking about the plan ever since I’d found Zane alive, and as crazy as it was going to sound, I had to make it happen.

“Zane has no family,” I began. “None at all. His parents are both dead and they were never married, to each other or anybody else. He has no siblings, step or biological. No aunts or uncles. No grandparents. If he has distant cousins, he doesn’t know about them. That’s why the hospital had so much trouble looking for next of kin. He was seventeen when his mother died, and because he was alone, he got stuck in foster care until his eighteenth birthday. That’s when he bought a car and headed west.”

I paused a moment. They were listening quietly. My dad’s breathing was a little labored, but at least the vein in his temple wasn’t throbbing anymore. All good.

“Zane is going to take a while to recover,” I continued. “I’m sure that his father’s estate will take care of his medical bills wherever he is, but he doesn’t know anyone here. He doesn’t even have friends in New Jersey anymore; he told me he lost touch with them after his mother—” I broke off, not sure how much of the more unpleasant side of Zane’s life he would want me to share. “The point is, he doesn’t have anyone to help him through this. Except me.”

My mother’s eyes, always perceptive, studied me. “You want us to see if he can be transferred to a facility back home in Cheyenne? Is that it?”

“Exactly,” I said with relief. Many times I cursed my mother’s uncanny ability to read me. This was not one of them. “He’ll probably need one of those physical rehab places. There’s something like that in town, isn’t there? Then we could all help him out, make sure he gets whatever he needs while he recovers… he wouldn’t have to be alone.”

“Didn’t you say he doesn’t remember you yet?” my dad asked.

The words cut me like a knife. “Not
yet,”
I admitted. But surely Zane would be happy to have the company, the offer of friendship, at least.

Wouldn’t he?

My mom turned to my dad. “I don’t see any reason why not, Mitch. The boy has to recover somewhere, and everyone who’s hospitalized should have some advocate on the outside. Not to mention the boost to his spirits if Kali and her friends could visit him.” She threw me a sympathetic smile.

My heart leapt. It could all work out. It
could.

“Dad?” I asked hopefully.

The man looked thoroughly tortured. He still probably thought I was half crazy. Mitch Thompson lived in a black and white world of friends and enemies, good and evil, right and wrong. Having a daughter who saw shadows from another time didn’t fit in his boxes. I could imagine the wheels turning furiously in his brain… what could he make of it? What could he do with me? How could he fix everything and get us all back to normal?

My personal guess: a punt.

He let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Whatever you think, Diane.”

Bingo.

“I need a walk,” he announced. He snatched his hat, wallet, and keys from the bureau, offered us both an artificially cheerful smile, and took off into the dark.

“He’ll be all right with it eventually,” my mother said gently. “He just needs some time.”

“I know.”

She started to say something else, then paused. I didn’t think it was possible, but the mood turned even more awkward.

“Kali,” she said tentatively, “that last night, at the beach house. You were standing out on the deck by yourself…”

I nodded, remembering against my will. It was all I could do not to tear up again. I had thought I was losing Zane forever.

“I thought you were talking to someone,” she continued. “I was sure of it. The way you were looking at a certain spot… but there wasn’t anyone else there.”

My eyes did tear up. Zane had grown so faint, by then. He had tried to kiss me, but I couldn’t feel it… he wasn’t real. “He was there,” I croaked.

My mother drew in a breath, sharply. “He was?”

I nodded.

“Could he…” her cheeks flared suddenly. She seemed almost embarrassed. “Could he see us, too? I mean, your father and me?”

I swiped a hand across my moist eyes and grinned. “Of course.”

“Oh, dear,” she said uncertainly.

I had to grin at her expression. Her only daughter had just been revealed as a potential nutjob, and she was worried about the impression she’d left on a teenaged ghost. “Don’t worry,” I added. “He liked you both a lot. And I made him promise to stay out of the bathroom.”

Her face reddened.

I laughed out loud, and my eyes teared up all over again. “You’re going to like him, too, Mom,” I insisted. “I know you are.”

She smiled back, but it was a smile tempered with concern. “I’m sure I will, if you do,” she responded. “But you should be careful not to get your hopes too high… about how he’ll respond to all this. You have to remember that you didn’t exactly meet under normal circumstances. And now if he can’t remember—” she broke off, clearly uncomfortable. “I just don’t want you to get hurt any more than you already have been.”

Another icy blade sliced through my chest. Why, oh why, did they have to keep saying such things out loud? Wasn’t I afraid enough already? Weren’t my feet itching, even now, to get back to him and put things right, before he could slip away from me again?

I rose. “I need to get back to the hospital.”

My mother got up with me, her hand on my arm. “Oh, no you don’t!” she ordered. “You are going to stay right here and get some sleep.”

“But I just woke up!” I protested.

Her lips pursed. She pointed at the darkness outside the window. “It’s the middle of the night here, Kali,” she reminded. “Hardly visiting hours. They wouldn’t even let you in.”

I sank back down on the bed. “First thing tomorrow, then,” I said miserably.

Then
I would talk to him. Then I could invite him to come back with me to Cheyenne, and we could start all over again.

We could.

Chapter 2

I was met at the front desk of the long-term care home by the tall, friendly nurse who had led me in to see Zane yesterday morning. “There she is!” the woman boomed in her drill-sergeant voice, even as she smiled broadly. “It’s about damn time! Our boy’s been asking about you.”

Warmth flushed my cheeks. “He has?”

The nurse grinned knowingly. “Mm hmm.”

My joy was mixed with regret. I had intended to arrive as soon as the doors opened, but after having been awake half the “night” staring at the motel ceiling, I had overslept, and neither of my parents — maddeningly — had chosen to wake me.

“Can I see him now?” I asked, sounding more impatient than I wanted to.

The nurse merely laughed. “Sure thing. Go on back. Room 264. Just be sure to knock first, this time. Our boy’s got a thing about his privacy.”

I’ll bet.
I took off down the hall, wondering how awful it must be for any formerly healthy teenager to wake up in a world full of funny odors, IV tubes, and bedpans. The Zane I knew would hate having to rely on other people to take care of him. He would fight to get better as fast as he possibly could, think and plan and scheme a way to finagle himself out of here…

His door was standing open about a foot. As I approached I could hear him talking, presumably on the phone. His voice was even more hoarse than it had been yesterday. I knocked on the door, waited about two seconds, and slipped into the opening.

His bed had been adjusted to where he could halfway sit up. A tray table stretched before him holding an ancient-looking landline telephone, a notepad, and several pens. The curtains on the windows were drawn back and sunlight flooded the room. He looked up, and my stomach flip-flopped as his beautiful sea-green eyes lit up in recognition. He smiled and gestured for me to come inside. “That’s great!” he croaked into the phone. “It’s happening even quicker than I’d hoped. Thanks. Bye.”

He hung up. I wondered, with a dull sense of dread, exactly what was happening so quickly. But my brain was too preoccupied to obsess on the point. It was all I could do to drink in the sight of him.

He looked different from how he had appeared in Oahu, true. When I first saw him, he’d appeared to me as a sun-bronzed, curly blond hottie glowing with health and vitality, despite his not actually being alive. The living, breathing Zane had a complexion that was unnaturally pale, and it was obvious from his slumped posture and the slow, halting way he moved that he was still very weak. But there was no mistaking the glint of joy and humor in his eyes, nor the killer smile that spread across his face to create the sexiest dimples on the planet.

“Kali,” he said breathlessly. “You came back.”

I crossed the room in two strides. Did he remember me now?

Easy, girl.

“Of course I came back,” I answered, trying hard to sound casual and friendly, as if I would not have — with the slightest encouragement — launched myself into his arms and held onto him so tight it would take the entire nursing staff to dislodge me.

“My parents showed up yesterday and took me to a motel last night to sleep,” I explained, keeping a safely polite distance between us. “But I’m here now. How are you?”

“Better now,” he answered, not taking his eyes off me. “I was starting to think that maybe I dreamed you.”

I felt a tug of guilt at the worry in his voice. Waking up from a coma must be completely disorienting under the most normal of conditions, and his last twenty-four hours had been anything but normal. Of course my bizarre appearing-disappearing act would seem surreal.

“I’m sorry, but they made me leave the room while they were examining you,” I explained. “Whenever I asked if I could come back in, they told me that either you were busy with tests or you were napping, and then it was after visiting hours.”

His mouth twisted. “I asked about you, but they told me you were asleep in the lobby and they hated to wake you because you were jetlagged.”

“Yes,” I admitted ruefully. “That was true, too.”

His expression turned serious, and a wave of coldness swept up my spine. The Zane I knew never got serious without good reason.

“I am so totally confused,” he said. “I need you to explain some things to me.”

My joy dampened. Is that the only reason he was glad to see me? “Of course,” I answered. “If you don’t remember what happened in Oahu then it figures nothing else would make sense to you.”

He blinked at me. “I understand we’re in Nebraska.” His voice was steady enough, but I could sense the pain — and bewilderment — beneath it.

I fought back another desire to hug him. “That’s true. We are.”

“But you said we were in Oahu together. You were talking about it yesterday before I opened my eyes. When did all that happen? Why can’t I remember it? They told me that I should expect some memory loss, particularly what happened right before the accident. But I
can
remember the accident. I remember the whole trip!”

A swell of panic rose. He still didn’t remember me. And if he didn’t, why should he believe anything I said? He had no reason to accept my story and every reason not to. I could just be some stalker chick who saw a picture of him somewhere and got obsessed (not as unlikely as it sounds, given his gorgeousness) or some fortune-hunting schemer who knew his dad had money and read about the son’s accident online. I could be anybody. Why should he —

“Could you sit down?” he asked mildly.

Now I blinked at him. “What?”

He smiled at me. “It freaks me out looking up at a girl. I’m used to looking down at them. Messes with my manly ego, which is taking a pretty big hit already with the whole ‘bedridden’ thing. Can you grab that chair?”

I would have smiled back, but I was too petrified. How could I ever make him believe me? I grabbed the visitor’s chair, dragged it to his bedside, and sat down. “I know I need to explain,” I said uncertainly. “I’m just not sure where to start.” I ran a hand nervously through my long, curly locks. They were clean, at least. I’d shampooed last night for the first time in about three days. When I’d finished, the bottom of the motel tub had been gritty with beach sand, and I’d almost cried. I could almost cry at nearly anything lately.

To my surprise, he reached out and touched my hair.

Yeah. Anything like that.

My eyes teared up. I swiped the moisture away savagely. How unbelievably embarrassing.

He pulled his hand back. For a moment, neither of us said anything.

Then I pulled myself together and straightened. “I don’t know how to tell you this except to just tell you. Then if you want to call me crazy and throw me out, you have every right.”

I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t bear to see the inevitable doubt in his eyes.

“I’ve been in Oahu for the past week. You’ve been here in a hospital bed. At least, your physical self has been. But…”

This was incredibly, unbelievably hard. It sounded even crazier explaining it to him than it had to my parents.

“But all my life I’ve had this weird thing — I call it a curse, but you called it a gift — where I can see things other people can’t see. And even though it makes no logical sense, I saw
you
in Oahu, surfing on the North Shore. We thought you were dead — that you were a ghost. Except you didn’t remember your life and didn’t know how you had died. We spent days together, doing all the things I talked about before. You started to remember, but you also started fading away from me, the same time the staff here noticed signs that you were coming back. Finally, you faded away from me completely. I was really upset, but then I saw another shadow, or ghost, just like you who
wasn’t
dead, and I figured out that you must be alive somewhere too. And so I—”