Chapter Five
Nina couldn’t stop staring at the little girl. Was this really her daughter? She was so beautiful. Nina gazed at how the sunlight clung onto her eyelashes and how her hair curled prettily. She wanted to touch her, but she was afraid the dream would end if she did. She sat down on the grass instead, feeling the wet, cold blades of grass against her skin through the fabric of her dress.
“What’s your name?” Nina asked her and the girl smiled.
“Dahlia. You name me Dahlia.”
“Dahlia,” Nina repeated, tasting the name on her tongue. She said it again and smiled widely.
Dahlia lazily picked a dandelion and blew on it, scattering the seeds everywhere. She lay back down and gazed up at the sky with her beautiful eyes. “This is my favorite time of the day,” she sighed.
Nina nodded, and murmured, “Yes, it’s beautiful.”
Her daughter said, “Come lie down with me. Let’s look at the clouds.”
Nina laid down next to her daughter and watched as Dahlia stretched a chubby hand up toward the sky, splaying out her fingers as she said, “Daddy misses you. But I like having you here with me.”
Nina turned her face skyward, and said, “I like being here, too, but it’s making me very weak. I have to go back so I can give birth to you and be with both you and Daddy.”
There was a flash of something in Dahlia’s eyes, something that looked almost like fear, but it was gone immediately. She smiled, and said, “We should play a game.”
Nina eyed the child, feeling wary all of a sudden as she said, “What kind of game?”
Dahlia shrugged, and said, “I don’t care what kind. I just want to spend time with you while I can.”
“You can spend all the time in the world with me when I go back,” Nina said carefully, trying to gauge the girl’s reaction.
Dahlia sat up and said, “How about hide-and-seek?” Before Nina could respond, Dahlia was up in a flash, and she started to run, disappearing out of the corner of Nina’s eye and running toward the fields of sunflowers. Nina pushed herself up slowly; her bones ached and protested the laborious movements.
“Dahlia, come back. I’m too weak,” Nina called out but her voice didn’t carry, and she slowly started to walk toward where the girl had run. “Dahlia,” she called out again, but there was no answer.
The wind had picked up, and it blew Nina’s hair into her eyes and her dress away from her pale skin. She was tired, and she felt weak enough that the wind might blow her over. She closed her eyes and saw dandelion seeds floating in the air, and she opened her eyes to see that the golden sun still hung in the sky, but all the warmth was gone.
Nina’s fingernails were turning blue, and she wanted nothing more than the warmth of her big bear. She wanted Kevin to hold her and to tell her that everything would be all right. She pushed her hair back and waddled through the field until she reached the sunflowers. They were beautiful as they stretched ahead of her for miles and miles.
She pushed through them and felt dwarfed by them as they loomed over her. She looked for the little figure in the white dress, but she could see nothing through the leaves and flowers.
“Dahlia,” she called out again, and again, there was no answer. She kept walking through the field, she could hear bees buzzing overhead, and she could feel her feet swelling, and she just wanted this game to end – this dream to end.
She heard someone move up ahead, and she walked on a little further, parting the flowers to look for her daughter.
“Dahlia, where are you?” she asked, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice.
She heard Dahlia giggle.
“Sweetie, please, I’m getting very tired,” she said, swaying a little on her feet as she started to feel dizzy. Suddenly, she sat down, her legs giving out under her. A few seconds later, she spotted a bright red ribbon among the flowers, and she called for Dahlia. Before she could do anything else, a wave of darkness washed over, and she fainted among the sunflowers.
***
Fergus looked at Kevin, and said, “How long has it been since you shifted?”
Kevin looked up, surprised. “I don’t know – a day or two?” he said, shrugging.
Fergus eyed Kevin’s leg bouncing uncontrollably with nervous energy, and he sighed, and said, “Come on, we’re going for a run.”
Kevin shot a look at Nina and said, “No, uh–” but Fergus didn’t let him finish.
“What? Where’s she gonna go? Is she gonna walk away while you’re gone? Come on, man. You’re driving yourself crazy cooped up in here.”
Kevin sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind a run, actually.”
Fergus smiled triumphantly, and said, “That’s what I’m saying. Come on.”
The two men walked downstairs to see Cassie putting Violet to sleep in the downstairs bedroom. She saw them, and mouthed, “Where are you going?”
“Just heading out for a run. You wanna come along?” Fergus said.
Cassie nodded and bit her lip as she looked at Violet, still not completely asleep. Luke stood up, and said, “Don’t worry. You go on. I’ll put her to sleep.” Cassie kissed Luke on the cheek gratefully and then hurried to join the boys.
Once they were outside, they each carefully tied extra clothes to their legs before shifting and letting the ones they were wearing disintegrate. Kevin raised his face up to the sky and breathed in the fresh forest air. It felt good to be outside and to have enough room to stretch and run.
The silver wolf and black bear started to jog lightly, their paws padding the soft forest earth, and Kevin followed, lagging slightly behind as he closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of running with the sun on his back. He felt the adrenaline rush through his body, and he finally felt that he had an outlet for all that pent-up energy he had. In the last few days, he had snapped at both Kalen and Ammara even though they had graciously hosted all of them in their house, and he made a mental note to be better and to act like an adult, especially around those two.
He hurried to join the other two, and they all ran side by side.
They ran for a good hour, and then, exhausted, they made their way back to the house slowly. Cassie and Kevin walked in, still in their bear forms, while Fergus decided to hang back and shift before entering, carefully pulling on his clothes out on the front lawn.
Kevin made his way up the stairs, squeezing his large bear body through the small stairwell and went into the room where Nina lay. He shifted then and headed for the bathroom where he planned on taking a nice, relaxing shower. As he washed off the dirt and leaves that had stuck to him during the run, he thought about how his life had almost been on hold ever since Nina had fallen ill.
Without her, he didn’t know what to do or how to act. He became petulant and moody, getting angry at everyone or feeling miserable for himself. He finished taking a shower and wrapped a towel around himself, emerging out into the room, and sitting next to next to Nina. He lowered his lips to her forehead and kissed her gently.
“I love you, Nina,” he whispered, “Come back to me.”
***
When Nina opened her eyes, she expected to be back in the world of the living, but instead, she found herself still stuck in the dream. She held back tears as she sat up and looked around. Dahlia sat a few feet away from her, and they were still in the fields, but it was no longer afternoon. The sky was purple, and as the twilight set in, Nina rubbed her eyes, noticing the dirt under her fingernails as she did.
“What happened?” she asked softly.
“You fainted,” Dahlia said simply, still staring at her with those big, brown eyes.
“How long was I out?” Nina asked, looking around at the flowers. The sunflowers didn’t look as cheerful at night as they did during the day. Now they just towered over her ominously.
Dahlia shrugged, and said, “I don’t know…hours, maybe days.”
Nina frowned, and asked, “Dahlia, how old are you?”
Dahlia didn’t answer. Instead, she said, “You know why you are here, right?”
Nina blinked, and said, “This is a prophecy.”
Dahlia nodded. “Yes.”
Nina took a deep breath and tried to stand up, but she was too weak and she fell back down. “What…” she started to say, but her voice broke. She cleared her throat, and tried again, “What are you here to tell me?”
Dahlia looked serious, and said, “You will wake up eventually from all this.” She looked around, and then continued, “And when you do, I’ll be with you in the real world. You’ll be happy, but it will only be the beginning. You have to understand that. There is darkness ahead.”
Nina’s heart raced, and she said, “The beginning of what? What darkness?”
Dahlia looked up at the sky, and said, “War.”
Nina shook her head. and whispered, “No, things are good. Everyone is fine.”
Dahlia was still looking at the sky as she said, “Not for long. With the coming of the third Caillagh, there will be a change. A bloodlust will descend on the Earth among humans, shifters, witches, fairies, vampires, ghouls, and all the Others, known and unknown. Every creature will want to kill or be killed.”
Dahlia’s voice was changing. It was no longer the sweet voice of a child, but the raspy voice of an old woman. Dahlia stood up and started to sway, and Nina shivered.
“Stop it, Dahlia. Please,” she begged, wrapping her arms around herself to protect herself from the cold.
“There will be war,” Dahlia continued, and then she looked straight at Nina, and said, “And you will die, Mommy.”
***
Nina’s body started to convulse violently, causing the entire bed to shake. Kevin panicked and yelled for Ammara. He didn’t know what was going on. He ran to the bed and held it down, but Nina wouldn’t stop shaking.
Ammara came running upstairs and stopped short when she saw Nina. “Oh, my God,” she whispered under her breath.