Waking the Witch

thirty-nine

“Savannah?” The voice was unrecognizable, choked with panic. Hands gripped my shoulders. “Come on, Savannah. Wake up. Just open your eyes. Please open your eyes.

I tried. I really tried. But the most I could do was flutter my eyelids enough to see Adam bent over me.

“That’s it. Just stay with me. Please stay with me.”

“Jesse...”

“He’s fine. He’s gone to call an ambulance.”

“I...”

“Don’t talk. Just stay with me, baby, okay? Stay with me.”

Everything went dark again.

I FELT LIKE I’d been dropped ten stories onto the subway tracks, electrocuted, then run over by a half-dozen trains. My muscles ached. My head pounded. Each breath took effort. I could hear the blip-blip of machines and smell the stink of overcooked lasagna, laced with antiseptic. Even with my eyes closed, the light scorched my eyeballs. Cold air blew over me, freezing everything except one hand, which was warm, cupped in someone’s. Fingers brushed hair from my forehead. Touched my cheek. Rested there a moment, then brushed the hair back again, lulling me to sleep.

When I woke again, someone was rubbing my shoulder, murmuring something I couldn’t make out.

With effort, I cracked open my eyes. It was Adam, pale under his tan, eyes bleary, hair standing up, like he’d been running his hands through it.

“You look like hell,” I whispered, throat aching with the strain.

He let out a shaky laugh, hand tightening on my shoulder.

“Not going to tell me I look worse?” I whispered.

“No.” He bent down, lips brushing my forehead. “You look great.”

I squeezed my eyes shut against a different ache. I wished he’d joked back. And I was glad he hadn’t.

“Guess Dr. Lee found an antidote, huh?” I said.

“He always had it. We just needed to know which poison it was. He figured it out from your symptoms and had it ready when we arrived. It was close, though. Too close.”

I craned my head to take in the room. I was in Dr. Lee’s clinic in Portland.

“Paige and Lucas aren’t here,” he said as he straightened. “I called a few times, but they must have been out for the day. They’re probably back by now. I’ll go call—”

I gripped his hand as he tried to walk away. “No.”

“They should know.”

I shook my head. “If Dr. Lee says I’ll be fine, then let them finish their vacation.”

His mouth tightened. “They should know, Savannah.”

“They will, when they get back.” I managed a smile. “If they get mad, blame me.”

Blame me.

I thought about Michael. About Claire. About that security guard. About the homeless guy.

“Savannah?” Adam leaned over me, face drawn with fresh worry.

“Just tired. Don’t call them, okay?” I tightened my grip on his hand. “Just stay.”

I DRIFTED OFF into nightmares. I was back on the scenic lookout with Michael. He was kissing me, telling me he wanted a third date, and over his shoulder, I could see Leah ready to push him over the cliff, and I tried to tell Michael to run, to get as far from me as he could, but he only laughed and kept kissing me.

The scene changed and I was in the sawmill with Adam, searching for Jesse. I told Adam to let me handle this, that it was my problem and he needed to get out, get away from me, but he just kept saying he’d protect me. Only he was the one who needed protecting ... from me.

I knew what happened wasn’t my fault, but I felt like it was, like I should have figured out something was up with Jesse.

Leah had chosen her target perfectly. Jesse was telekinetic, so she could use her powers and I’d never be the wiser. Lucas knew him and trusted him, which was an instant stamp of approval for me. And, in life, Leah had been a deputy sheriff, meaning she could pull off even the PI parts with ease. She’d found the perfect disguise and there was no reason I shouldn’t have fallen for it. No way I could have stopped her sooner. No way I could have saved Michael. But I couldn’t stop thinking it.

Every time I opened my eyes, though, Adam was there. Nothing I could say would make him leave my bedside. Finally, one of the nurses must have heard us arguing about that. She came in and said she had to work on me and he couldn’t be there. It’d be about an hour, so he should go get something to eat, and she’d have someone notify him when he could come back up.

I drifted off again as soon as Adam left. I couldn’t rest with him gone, though. I started dreaming that Leah was in my room, and I kept screaming at myself to wake up, but I couldn’t.

Rage boiled up inside me, impotent rage at Leah for everything she’d done. It roiled until it exploded and the room flashed against my eyelids. A cry of pain. A crash. Then the sound of running feet, a nurse saying “You can’t be here,” a voice protesting, not Leah’s, but a young woman’s, insisting she was a friend. The nurse hauled her out, and the dream slid away.

JESSE CAME BY, and we pieced together what had happened to him. He didn’t stay long. It was awkward, because I kept thinking of him as the guy I’d worked with, only he wasn’t. This was the first time I’d met the real Jesse Aanes. It felt weird talking to him now. But I was glad he was okay.

“I’M READY TO go,” I announced the next afternoon as I brushed my hair. Given how long my hair was—and that I’d been tossing and turning for almost twenty-four hours—the brushing was a major chore. I figured if I could accomplish that, I was ready for anything.

“When you can stay awake for more than an hour, we’ll consider it,” Adam said.

I swung my legs out of bed. “It’s been sixty-five minutes. Bring the Jeep around front—”

He grabbed my legs and pushed them back under the covers. “I was being sarcastic.”

“Too bad, I’m holding you to it. Now let go—”

“If you can’t make me, then you’re clearly not ready.”

“It’s always easy to find you two,” a voice said from the door. “Just follow the sounds of bickering.”

A red-haired woman in her late forties walked in, garnering a double take from a passing orderly half her age. If I pointed it out, she’d say it was only because he recognized her from her TV spots, but the truth is that Jaime Vegas is gorgeous. Even in a casual blouse and slacks, she exudes glamour.

She sailed over to my bedside, giving me a hug. She’d called Adam when he was still in the ambulance, and between them—and with Jesse’s help—they’d pieced together the story. She’d been checking in every few hours since, undoubtedly relaying the updates to my mom. I didn’t ask if Mom was with her now. There are rules about that sort of thing, and we were careful not to bend them too often or the Fates would ensure my mother couldn’t make contact with me.

“So Leah’s back in her hell dimension?” I asked as Jaime settled on the edge of my bed.

“Nope. She got an upgrade to a worse one.”

“And Mom?”

Jaime’s grin faltered. “She’s ... not in the best place right now. Kicking herself silly. You know Eve. She can pull the whole ‘I don’t give a shit’ routine, but when she makes a mistake, she beats herself up worse than anyone else could.”

“Sounds familiar,” Adam said, giving me a look I ignored.

“We’d argued about telling you that Leah was out,” Jaime said. “I wanted to. Eve didn’t. We had Leah in our sights—or so we thought—and she was a thousand miles from you, so Eve didn’t want to freak you out, freak Paige and Lucas out, spoil their vacation ...”

“Tell Mom it wouldn’t have made a difference. Even if I’d known Leah was free, I’d never have seen her in this until it was too late.”

“I’ll tell her. And she has a message of her own to pass along. She says that what you did was incredibly selfless and brave, and if you’re ever tempted to do anything like that again, remember she’s waiting on the other side to kick your ass for the rest of eternity.”

I laughed, but it came out a little ragged, my gaze sliding to the safety of the window.

“Did I miss something?” Adam asked.

“She’s warning me not to tangle with psychotic hell-escapees,” I said. “Which is good advice in general, and—”

“What’d Savannah do?” he said, cutting me off as he turned to Jaime.

I tried to protest, but Jaime told him. As Adam realized what she was saying, his face went rigid, eyes blazing, his fingers heating on my arm. When she finished, though, he turned to look at me, and his expression ... It was respect and it was pride and it was anger and it was something more, too, but before I could figure out exactly what it was, he glanced down, rubbing his chin, the fingers rasping against his beard stubble.

“Yes, you need a shave,” I said.

The corner of his mouth twitched a little, but he still didn’t look at me.

“Your mom’s right,” he finally said, voice gruff. “It was an insanely brave and insanely stupid thing to do, and if you ever consider it again, remember I’m on this side, and if you survive, I’ll kick your ass for the next fifty years, okay?”

“Okay.”

I smiled and he looked at me, and our eyes met, and my heart started beating so fast I could barely breathe.

“Oh, would you look at the time?” Jaime said, jumping up. “I promised Elena I’d call with an update before three.”

“I’ll call her myself,” I said quickly, and Adam looked away just as fast, saying he’d get my phone, then go grab us all something to eat from a café across the road.

“They have chocolate chip cookies,” he said as he handed me my phone. “They look really good.”

I made a gagging noise and he laughed, and whatever had been in the room a moment ago had passed.

As he teased me, though, a nurse stopped and popped her head into the room.

“You got the cookies, then?” she said.

We all stared at her.

“I heard you talking about cookies ...” Her gaze moved down the hall. “No, they’re still here. Just a moment.”

She came back carrying a box that made my stomach clench. Taste of Heaven cookies.

“Your friend dropped these off earlier,” the nurse said as Adam took the box.

“Friend?”

“A young woman. She came in to see Savannah. She knocked over the bed tray and Linda gave her quite the tongue-lashing, I’m afraid. She left these and took off.”

“When did this happen?” Adam demanded.

“When you went for dinner last night,” I murmured. “I thought I dreamed it.” I turned to the nurse. “What did she look like?”

“Mousy little thing.” She colored. “I shouldn’t say that. She was very sweet.”

“Did she leave a name?”

“No. She was about your age. Long dark blond hair. Turned-up nose.”

I thanked the nurse. When she left, I turned to Adam. “The new girl at the commune.”

He frowned. “I thought Leah ...”

“Killed Tiffany? She said she didn’t—and she wouldn’t bother to lie. Seems we have a witch-hunter after all. So can we leave now? Before she comes back and kills me in my sleep?”

He grabbed my shoes and jacket from the closet.