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I don’t know how long I sat on the front step with my head in my hands, but when I looked up, the car was parked in the driveway with Julia and Noah leaning against the side, waiting for me to get a grip.
I pushed to my feet and turned, looking at the front door. Leviathan stepped beside me looking up at me for direction. “I’m dead, aren’t I?” I asked and he nodded. My gaze traveled to Julia and Noah. “Are they?”
“No. Before you died, you wished us out of harm’s way.”
I stared at Leviathan and then raised my gaze to Julia. “What about my father?”
He remained silent, but turned and padded to the car, returning with something in his mouth. When he dropped the ancient blade at my feet, I slowly lowered to a sitting position and picked up the knife.
“I’m death?”
“That’s the only logical conclusion,” he said. “You were not breathing and had no heartbeat when we appeared in this town. Julia originally headed toward the hospital, but I suggested we come here first. The knife appeared on the front seat of the car and then you groaned.” Leviathan turned toward the torn up grass. “When you reanimated, Julia lost control of the car.” He swung his gaze back in my direction. “If your father was still in command, you would not be... alive and we would not have this.” He nudged the sheath in my hands.
“But Julia touched me,” I said, meeting her gaze.
Leviathan looked over his shoulder at the two by the car. “They are immune to your touch,” he said. “I think your wish protects them.”
I glanced at my clothing. “Before I do anything else, I need to clean up,” I said and climbed to my feet, turning toward the boarded up house. My brain still couldn’t wrap around what had happened and I reached for the door, wishing for it to be unlocked. The door knob turned easily and when I crossed the threshold, the dark drab house lit up; becoming the cozy house I grew up in.
I didn’t give it a second thought; instead, I headed upstairs without a word and stepped into the bathroom. Warm water cascaded from the nozzle when I turned the water on and I closed my eyes, stripping and stepping under the spray. The sting on my face faded and I turned, reaching toward the spot where I used to keep the soap.
My fingers curled around the bar of Irish Spring and I brought it to my nose, inhaling the fresh scent before I opened my eyes and ran it over the wounds on my chest. Like a giant eraser, the shredded skin disappeared along with the sting in my cheek. For the first time since I woke in the car, I wondered if this was some sort of hallucination.
The curtain rattled and I turned, meeting Julia’s worried gaze.
“Nick?”
That’s when the vision crumbled and I realized I was standing naked in a bone-dry shower, and yet, I was dripping wet. Her eyebrows arched as she scanned my face and then her eyes dropped to my chest. Her mouth slowly fell open.
I didn’t need to look, I already knew there was no sign of the gunshot wounds and whatever blood had stained my clothing and skin was gone.
Her gaze traveled lower and heat filled my face. There was no towel to hide behind and she turned away, but not before I saw the sparkle in her eyes and the blush filling her cheeks.
Following every instinct I had suppressed for years, I reached out, catching her before the curtain fell. Her sharp inhale, followed by the warm spray cascading from the faucet told me she was now in my world, even if it was only for a brief moment, she was here, seeing what I was seeing and feeling the warmth of the shower pelting my skin.
She turned, meeting my gaze, with one that was full of the same questions and fear that made my silent heart pound.
“I think you might want to clean up, too,” I said and didn’t wait for an answer. I pulled her into the shower and into my arms, despite her soft protest. The moment my lips met hers, the events of how I stepped into the role of death hit as hard as the bullets that eviscerated my heart.
Her sweet kiss tempered the demented slideshow playing on my eyelids. When our lips parted, I kept hold of her, resting my forehead on hers. The visions sent a shiver through me and she pulled me closer.
“You’re shaking,” she whispered and I opened my eyes, meeting her soft gaze.
It wasn’t my death that caught my voice in my throat and left my muscles trembling. I wasn’t the one who died the first time we confronted the demons. The first time, everything went horribly wrong. I knelt, unable to fight, bathed in the innocent blood of the victims the demons slaughtered while Julia exhaled her last breath in my arms.
At that moment, I altered fate, making a deal, a trade. Sacrificing my life for hers.
When the clock turned back and Leviathan and I stepped out of the car, I had just enough time to whisper my command for her safety before the gunshots blasted my heart to pieces. I don’t even remember willing us to Maine, but obviously that must have been embedded in my final wish.
I ran my hands through Julia’s wet hair and kissed her, this time letting go of reason. Her clothing ripped as I pulled the wet fabric from her body and she didn’t stop me. It was like she knew when this was over I would have to walk away from her forever.