Bound Book 2

Chapter 53 - Old Memories

Skylar

The retching doesn't stop until eventually, only bile is landing on the floor.

"Skylar?" Gael's hand reaches out to touch me as I flinch back, my back hitting the glass door of this replica of my old house, except this one was spawned from hell itself.

"It's me, Dmitri." My head snaps up to meet the brown eyes of Gael, wondering why he would play this trick on me. Tears are streaming down my face from all the heaving and the situation I am in.

"It's really me, Skylar, and we don't have much time," Gael says to me, his face much softer than it has been since we arrived here. A ruse to convince me of this deceit?

"I don't trust you," I say to him, a small smile on his face at my words.

"That's my girl. You shouldn't trust him. We shouldn't have trusted him from the beginning." The contrast between what Gael is saying now and how he has stated earlier that I can trust him makes me wonder if this is indeed real. Is this really Dmitri here in Gael's body?

"Prove it," I say, not wanting to be fooled into a trap.

"I would expect no less," he says before a familiar push followed by the words 'I can smell you, Skylar,' pop into my head.

"I can smell you, Skylar," he says shortly after, the elation in my chest almost making it physically ache as I throw my arms around him. Only Dmitri could mind link me like that. And only Dmitri knows how much those words mean to me.

"Dmitri, it's you," I say as fresh tears stream down my face.

"It is. I miss you so much," he says, pushing me slightly back so that he can look at me.

"Has he hurt you?" He asks me, his eyes trailing my body, looking for any signs.

"No, but he did try and take my power. It didn't work. I'm not sure why," I say, remembering the confusion and disappointment on Gael's face when he realized he had failed.

"And he put this on me, so I can't use my powers." My hand touches the choker around my neck, frustration once again surging.

"Skylar, it's not your power. We," he says, his hand moving between us, "are the key the Legend spoke of."

"But how? If that's true, then what do we unlock?" I ask him, still not understanding how the power I wield is not mine.

"Unlocked. It's already done." His hand glides down to my stomach, the next words hitting me like a freight train.

"We're pregnant, Skylar. It can't happen, but it has. Between you and I. Human and Lycan. The baby you carry is the tribrid The Legend speaks of."

My mind sifts through little things that have happened lately that now make sense. The weight gain in light of all the vomiting. The faint scent I saw when I shifted. I'm pregnant. We are pregnant.

"Oh my god Dmitri, we are going to be parents," I say, looking back at him as he smiles. He is happy. I am happy.

"We are. But we need to get you out of here," he says, pointing to our surroundings.

"You're at your old house? We looked there," he says, confused.

"It's not. This fucking weirdo created a replica. It's actually quite close to my old house but not in Willow Falls, just outside the town. Look for a place close to a cliff. There is a path that leads off to the right through some bushes," I say as he gets up and looks out the window.

"How is Ivan?" I ask, getting up as I approach him.

"He will be fine. The doc says he will make it. Everyone is fine. Just worried. I can't stay much longer. Here, take this," he says, unclasping the necklace containing my stolen memories. It drops onto my palm, finally within reach. He closes his eyes, his brow pinching together before he collapses onto the ground.

"It requires your blood to open it. That's all I could find in his memories. He is blocking it. Even now, he is strong," Dmitri says, pushing himself up again.

"Elsabeth has a message for you. Your necklace. It has another purpose. When you are ready, say the word 'revelare'. Apparently, it will 'show you the way'," he says, his fingers air quoting the phrase ominously.

"I can already feel the pull back to my body. I have to go, Skylar. Just hang on a bit longer. Now that I know whereabouts you are, we should be here soon. You need to stall him. I don't know how but try to keep things under control until we get here." He holds my hands in his own, bringing them up to kiss them.

"I love you, Skylar. You and our baby." He nudges the thought through our mind link, which I appreciate. Those words coming out of Gael's body, although said by Dmitri, might just be too much.

"I love you, Dmitri. I know I should have told you sooner. I was just scared. I hate that it took this for me to finally admit to myself and you that I can't live without you. Memories aside, I have fallen in love with you. Again."

"You can tell me in person when we see each other again. Which will be soon. It's happening Skylar, remember, stay strong." Those are Dmitri's last words before Gael's body falls to the floor lifelessly.

I put a finger under his nose, confirming he is still alive. Alive but unconscious. Perhaps I could use this to my advantage. My first thought is to run, but the string around my neck tightens the further away I get from Gael, confirming that it is directly connected to him. If I wanted to escape, I would need to get this thing off.

Perhaps I could tie him up, I think, as my eyes connect with the whip he used on me discarded on the floor next to my vomit. Pulling a chair up close to where he is lying, I lift his body, trying to position him on the chair. It takes me three tries, and by the time I am finished, I am out of breath. Before he topples off the chair, I run over and get the whip, wrapping it twice around him before looping the handle through to tie it in place. I didn't know if it would work, but perhaps it would delay him at the very least. I wasn't sure how much time we had.

Moving to the kitchen, I grab a sharp knife before taking a seat on the floor. Bracing myself, I pierce the skin of my pinky finger, blood dripping onto the tiles. Excitement overwhelms me as I hold the pendant in my hand, my pinky finger slowly moving over it. This was it. The moment I regain all the memories that were stolen from me. A drop of blood falls from my finger, almost in slow motion, before landing dead center on the pendant, which is ironically the same color as my scent.

A burst of orange flames erupts from the pendant, the same energy as mine, throwing me back so I am lying on the kitchen floor. A sudden pressure on my head has me screaming, my eyes shutting tightly as I cradle my head in my hands. I thought that getting my memories back would be easy, instead it's painful and loud. Everything comes rushing back, accompanied by the emotion attached to it.

Meeting Dmitri for the first time at Fred's Diner. Him walking me home after dinner with Rene and Ivan after they found out they were bound to each other. The flight to Spain when where we attended the Supernaturals Conference. I blush as I recall me standing outside the men's bathroom on the flight, listening to Dmitri jack off on the other side. The arousal I felt courses through me now again. But with all those good memories come the bad.

The heartache of Savannah interfering in our relationship. Chris and the tea. Me deteriorating when Dmitri and I spent a year apart. Then us getting back together. Me living in his house in the pack. Him proposing to me under the tree in the garden. And finally, the moment that led to me losing my memories. Losing my virginity to Dmitri on the table in his house. The love I felt for him then all comes flooding back to me, mixing in with the love I feel for him now, the two merging to become one continuous feeling, undistinguishable from each other.

I can see now with perspective how hard it must have been on Dmitri when I lost my memories, the love he showed me so clear now and the love I had for him so big it must have hurt for it to disappear. I owed him an apology that wouldn't and couldn't make up for everything. He stood by me through all of that. His love staying strong for us both. Tears stream down my face as I clutch my belly, a thousand emotions tearing me apart. Love, hate, sadness, anger, all culminating, building, until I feel like I am shattering into a thousand pieces. A thousand pieces coated in the venom of my revenge. Gael. He will pay for everything he has done to me.

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