The village was grim as they entered. The bodies had been laid out and covered with a sheet. People knelt next to the body of their loved ones and cried. Griffith carried Calista’s body to their camp, and Anastasia watched as Argento carried his new child into the cottage he had made his own.
Anastasia headed for the cottage they had turned into a hospital, and when she entered, her heart dropped. Elizabeth sat crying in a corner, Tony’s arms around her, while Tilly worked on Dakota. Anastasia saw the wound she was having to close, and she swallowed her fear and walked to the woman’s side. She touched Dakota’s hand; it was cold to the touch. Tears filled her eyes as she prayed.
Dakota’s face was pale. She knew he had lost too much blood.
“He needs blood. Even if I can get him closed up, he isn’t going to survive. We don’t have the supplies here to do a transfer, and if he doesn’t get one soon, he is going to die.”
Anastasia felt her hope slipping away. This was all her fault.
“I can’t get his wound to close. It seems as if it just keeps reopening,” she muttered, frustrated. Anastasia could see that she was barely hanging on.
“Oh my.” Rayden came forward. He stood and watched silently as Tilly worked. “They must have coated the blade in poison.”
“What?” Tilly asked as she stitched again the same place she had done only moments before.
“It is eating at your stitches.” He gestured to the thread as it dissolved. “I’m not sure what would cause that, as I don’t know of any poison that would continue to reopen the wound, so I am not sure how to fight it.”
“Dammit!” Tilly yelled, and continued working.
Anastasia squeezed Dakota’s hand and willed his injury to heal. She couldn’t lose him. He had to hang on so she could tell him what an idiot she had been.
“Whatever you are doing, Anastasia, keep it up.”
“Huh?” Anastasia opened her eyes and saw that her skin was glowing. She watched with hope as Tilly was able to close the hole in Dakota’s stomach and then held her breath, making sure it stayed closed.
“How did you do that?” Tilly asked.
“I’m not sure I even did anything.”
“You are a healer,” Rayden said proudly. “That is magnificent.”
“Why isn’t he waking up?” Elizabeth asked, coming over to the bedside.
“He needs blood, and soon,” Tilly said.
“We need to get back to Seattle, look for supplies,” Anastasia suggested. “Maybe we can find a hospital that wasn’t damaged.”
“Seattle was destroyed,” Tony said.
“Then we go somewhere else,” Anastasia responded simply. “We have no other choice.”
Carmen nodded. “It is the only way he will survive.”
“I will go with you.” Tony stood. “I can carry him, and fight if necessary.”
“Anastasia, you will be fine this time. Dakota’s life depends on it, but you must go now. Focus on where you want the portal to open.”
Anastasia nodded, and Tony lifted the unconscious Dakota.
“I am going too.” Elizabeth wiped her face. “Tilly can handle things here.”
“Are you okay to do it?” Tilly touched Elizabeth’s arm gently.
“Yes. You did the hard work, at this point it’s just getting an IV started. Let’s not waste any more time.”
Tony nodded to Anastasia and she closed her eyes. Wind began to pick up in the cottage, and when the swirling light appeared, they all stepped through with no hesitation.
They appeared moments later in the alleyway beside Elizabeth’s hospital.
“I thought you said it had been destroyed?” Elizabeth asked as she looked around.
“It had. This makes no sense.” Anastasia spun around.
“Let’s get him inside, we are running out of time.” Tony headed for the door. “We can ask questions later.”
“Elizabeth? Where have you been? We have been worried about you.” A man opened the side door just as Elizabeth reached for it.
“Hi Richard, I’m sorry, I’ve been very ill. My son, he fell, and I was able to get the bleeding stopped, but he needs a transfusion.” Tears filled her eyes again.
“Let’s get him inside then. Nurse! We have a trauma victim!” Richard yelled behind him, and then eyed the weapons that Tony and Anastasia wore. At his glance Anastasia smiled.
“We were going to a Renaissance festival.”
Not fully believing her, Richard nodded. “Still, you will need to leave those in your car so you don’t scare security. We can get him in, just come find us when you’re done.”
A gurney appeared being pushed by two nurses, who both looked worriedly at the large man carrying their coworker’s son.
“It’s okay, Tony.” Elizabeth touched his arm and he gently set Dakota down. “I will be fine, you guys go and change out of your costumes.”
“Come on, Tony.” Anastasia gripped his arm. “We don’t want to scare security,” she added Richard’s earlier warning.
“I will be right back.” Tony kissed Elizabeth and then turned to follow Anastasia.
“If this is back, then Dakota’s apartment must be as well. We can go there and change.”
“What is that?” Tony asked, eyeing the cars that drove by on the street.
“Those are cars. They take you from one place to another.”
“By themselves?” he looked at her, shocked.
“No, you drive them.”
He watched everything with fascination. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be seeing this for the first time. Terrenia had been an adjustment for her, but at least she had studied time periods that had similar attributes. This was all new for Tony.
“Why isn’t it destroyed?” he asked her as they walked up the stairs to Dakota’s apartment.
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t make any sense.” Could it have all been an illusion? Vincent certainly seemed to like playing mind games.
She took a deep breath and tried the handle, surprised when it turned beneath her hand. They stepped inside and everything was exactly the same, down to the coffee mug that Dakota had been drinking out of before he had stormed out.
“How can this be?” she wondered aloud as she looked through the room.
“I don’t know, but we need to get back to Elizabeth. She shouldn’t be alone.” He began unsheathing his weapons and laying them on the table.
Anastasia searched through the drawers until she found a key and then tried it for the door. His parents had always kept a set of spare keys in a kitchen drawer, and she was glad Dakota had as well.
She followed suit, unsheathing her weapons, and went to Dakota’s room to try and find some clothes that would blend a little better than the leather they were both wearing. She found some sweats and a large t-shirt for Tony and one of Dakota’s button-up long sleeves for her. She put it on over her shirt and kept her leather pants and boots on.
“Try these on.” She handed Tony a pair of Dakota’s tennis shoes and wasn’t surprised when they didn’t fit. The sweats and t-shirt barely did.
“Just wear your boots.” She headed for the door as Tony pulled his boots back on.
“I look ridiculous.” Tony scoffed as he looked down at himself.
“Yes, you do,” she agreed with a slight smile. “But surprisingly, you will fit in a lot more this way.”
“Strange world,” he said as he followed her out into the hall.
They walked back to the hospital in silence, Tony staring at everything they passed. When they entered the hospital, Anastasia was dumbfounded by the scene. People were everywhere. It was as if nothing had ever happened. People were smiling and talking just like they would have been before the Brutes had attacked.
“Anastasia?” A woman with a chart approached them.
“Yes.”
“Elizabeth told me to look out for you two.” She looked Tony up and down appreciatively, and had Anastasia not been so concerned with Dakota, she might have snorted. “Follow me,” the woman said, and turned down the hall.
Tony followed the nurse into one of the hospital rooms, and Anastasia took a deep breath. If Dakota died today, she knew she would die with him, and with that, any hope of a good future for her people would be gone. With one death, the world could end as she knew it, and it was that realization that had her regretting walking away from him. She should have done what Argento had suggested, and fought for the strength to carry on even when everything was falling apart around her.
She had been a coward. Had foolishly considered Dakota a distraction, when in reality he was the only thing holding her together. And now, as she stood in a hospital while the person who mattered the most to her was clinging to life, she was ready to fall apart the second she knew it was too late.
“Coming?” Tony asked her.
“Yes.” She followed him into the room. The machines hooked up to Dakota were running smoothly and his color was coming back.
“Tony, why don’t we go and grab some coffee?”
“Coffee?”
“You’re going to love it.” Elizabeth pulled on his arm and closed the door quietly behind them.
Anastasia let out a sigh and buried her face in Dakota’s chest. The tears came quickly, and her chest felt as if it had a hole in it. She gripped his hand and climbed into the bed next to him, curling into him.
“I’m so sorry, Dakota. I was so stupid.” She cried until eventually she fell asleep.
When Dakota woke, the first thing he noted was the pain. His stomach felt as if it had been split in half, which it had, he supposed, remembering the earlier battle. He did his best to sit up, when he felt the weight of someone lying next to him. He looked over to Anastasia, who was curled into his side.
“She hasn’t moved since we got here,” Tony whispered from the corner. He stood from his seat on the floor and moved to stand next to the bed.
“My mom?” Dakota asked cautiously.
“She’s fine.” Tony pointed to a chair in the corner where Elizabeth slept soundly.
Dakota took a deep breath. “What happened? The Brutes had her, is she hurt?”
“It was all an illusion, Dakota. They never had her.”
“But how?”
“A Trepido got to you.”
“Trepido?”
“Nasty monsters, they force you to see your worst fears play out. They take joy from the pain they cause others to inflict on themselves. Had Anastasia not gotten to you, you would have killed yourself or been killed by a Brute who was taking in the show.”
“Shit. So it was a trap.”
Tony nodded. Dakota looked around, taking in his surroundings.
“Where are we?”
“You’re Seattle, believe it or not.”
“It was destroyed, though, I saw it with my own eyes.”
“We aren’t sure how, but it seems to have been returned to the way it was before. We were at your apartment earlier, and Anastasia said everything still looked the same.”
“I am so confused.” Dakota lay his head back down. “Andrew? The others?”
“Andrew is fine, we got to him in time, but the others were gone before we could get to them.”
“Shit,” Dakota muttered, closing his eyes. All those lives lost. The tally was disgustingly high. “How many did we lose?”
“Not sure what the final number was, but the last I heard the total was eighteen. There’s more news as well, I’m afraid.”
Dakota opened his eyes and saw the pain reflected in Tony’s.
“Argento found his wife, but she was already gone when we got there. She had been pregnant when she had gone missing and had given birth to the baby while captive. It appears to be what killed her.”
“The baby?”
“A girl, she’s fine. Argento has her now.”
Dakota nodded. There was no replacement for the loss of his wife, but at least Argento wasn’t completely alone.
“How long until I’m out of here?” Dakota asked, looking up at the machines.
“I think I can get you out later today, but it will be to be put on bed rest at home.” Elizabeth said from the corner.
“Bed rest?”
“Nonnegotiable. You almost died, Dakota. Would have if Anastasia hadn’t brought us here. I’m honestly not even sure how you didn’t bleed to death on the way to the village.”
“I think it was Anastasia,” Tony said softly.
“What do you mean?” Dakota wondered.
“Rayden said she was a healer. The Brutes had coated a blade in a poison that kept eating the stitches. Tilly had a heck of a time getting your wound closed. Anastasia was holding your hand and her skin began to glow; it was then that your wound closed. I’m wondering if it wasn’t her who managed to slow the bleeding on the way to the village.”
Dakota looked down at her as she slept. She looked so peaceful, and yet if you looked closer you could see the bags underneath her eyes, the paleness of her skin. She was wearing thin, and he worried she would break if they didn’t get a handle on things.
“It would have killed her,” Tony added. “Had you died, she would have died right along with you. I’m not sure what’s going on with the two of you, but you had better work it out, and soon.”
Dakota nodded. They certainly would. He closed his eyes and pulled her closer. For now, they all needed rest.
“You two get some sleep,” Tony ordered. “I will keep an eye out.”
“You need sleep as well,” Elizabeth urged.
“I will get some soon. But for now I am fine.” He nudged her back into her chair. “Sleep, love.” He kissed her eyelids and she smiled as she drifted back to sleep.
Tony stood guard over the three most important people in the world to him. He would kill for them, and would gladly give his life if it came to that. Looking at Elizabeth, he prayed it wouldn’t come to that. He was finally beginning to enjoy living again.