Chapter 9

Those lights, those bright blinding lights. She remembered those lights. She briefly wondered how she could have ever forgotten them; but here they were again stinging her retinas, and making her blind to most of the room around her. But she could see part of the room, and she recognized it too. White sterile walls, bear of any decoration. Her blurry eyes could barely make out the form of several sterling silver wall mounts, what those wall mounts held she had no idea. Something told her she didn't want to know either.

The next thing that registered was the feeling of the metal slab she was laid out on. She remembered that too. The chill of the metal that froze her naked body and the friction from the leather straps that tied her to the table. Her wrists and ankles chaffed and ached as she jerked and arched trying to get off the table. She could see blurry figures wondering around her; hear the tables wheeling into place. The face of a man in a white lab coat flashed before her eyes. She'd seen that man several times she knew it. She tried to place this doctor, but she couldn't quite make it happen.

She squinted her eyes trying to focus in on any one thing that could help her figure out what was going on. Another face flashed in front of her eyes. This one was different. He wasn't a doctor, but who was he? Suddenly she was in a grey room, white trim lined the walls. The man she had seen before was snarling at her. It was almost inhuman. What the hell was he? He grabbed her arms, and began to pull her toward the full size bed in the room. The feel of his touch on her skin sickened her. She could feel the bile rising in her throat.

The pinch she felt on the inside of her right elbow brought her back to reality. She was back beneath the bright lights, that were blinding her again .This wasn't good. She didn't know what they had injected her with, but she knew she was in trouble.

"What are you doing?" Avery's words came out groggy, and she fumbled over each word. When no reply came she began to panic. "Get me off this table."

Still no one even acknowledged that she spoke. Her eyes flooded with tears as she again tried to start moving. "I want to go home," she cried. Yet the others in the room still ignored her. Avery began to arch her body off the table in an effort to get free. She twisted and contorted her chest in sheer fear.

Finally she heard one of them speak. "Get the chest straps. One over both shoulders and upper chest, and one across the knees."

Pure terror engulfed her. "Help me! Someone help me, please!" she screamed out.

"Avery!" Her name reached through the bright lights, and found her. The voice that spoke her name surrounded her.

"Help me!" She cried out to anyone that was listening.

"Avery, your okay." As the voice spoke to her again the calming sensation that the voice created invaded her body. "Where ever you are right now come back to me."

She knew that voice. Bran. "Bran! Bran I need you! Help me! Don't let them do this to me!" Avery could feel the metal slab she was on begin to move. "No make them stop! Bran, make them stop! Don't let them take me!" She felt two strong hands grip her shoulders, and begin to shake her lightly.

"Avery wake up. No one is hurting you, no one will take you. Wake up!" The restraints over her body were gone. She felt herself being lifted up. "No one will take you from me, I won't allow it. Now wake up, I have you." Bran told her as he held her to him. Bran rocked her back and forth in his bed.

When Avery woke she realized that she was experiencing short rapid breaths. Her heartbeat was racing and her whole body was hot and sweating. She clung to Bran as if her life depended on it. "Are you alright now?" Bran asked her.

"Can I have another minute?"

Bran could still smell her fear; it was like she was wearing it as cologne. He held her tighter as he spoke. "Take all the time you need." When her heart rate slowed, and she seemed to have calmed he spoke to her again. "Would you like to talk about it?"

The truth was that even though only a few minutes had passed, she didn't remember much of it. She remembered Bran's calming voice, and she still felt fear. However she didn't know why she was so scared. Her head hurt as she tried to pull the memories back to her. "I don't remember it."

"Nothing?"

"You spoke to me. Something scared me."

"You were screaming in your sleep." Shaking her head she still couldn't figure out what had happened in the nightmare to have frightened her so. Then an image came before her. There was a man standing in front of a grey wall. As she saw his face there as a dull ache that resonated from the back of her neck, just below her hair line.

Bran saw a little flash of recognition in her eyes. Something had come back to her, something from the dream, or maybe something different entirely; but he could see that Avery was in no mood for this conversation right now. She rubbed the back of her neck as she looked at the glowing red numbers on the clock Bran kept beside his bed. It was still early. Bran noticed her look and corrected them both until they were lying on his bed. "Go back to sleep. This can keep until morning."

~8~ ~8~ ~8~

"My son his on his way here, he felt my distress last night. He wants to make sure everything is okay." Bran told Avery while she still lay in his bed.

"Okay." Was her only reply.

"You should dress."

"I'm not naked Bran." She replied mockingly looking down at her clothes. His eyes slowly raked over her body that lay on top of the covers.

"No you most certainly are not." Then he added quietly under his breath. "Such a shame too."

"What?" She asked unable to hear him. "Apparently he's also been visited by a nature spirit; he said it gave a warning that there is a strange aura around Aspen Creek. It felt there was something coming."He changed the subject quickly, and tried to stop looking at her. She had on a light blue camisole top and a pair of black shorts she happened to have in her car last night. Both clung to her curves, but it was extremely comfortable to sleep in. Bran found it very enticing to look at however…

"I don't want my son to see you like that. I don't want any male to see you like that."

"Then I can just stay here while you talk." She told him while snuggling down into his bed.

"I want you to speak with him. He might be able to help you." She turned over and looked at him.

"Help me with what?" she asked with a yawn, she didn't even turn to look at him she just continued to make herself comfortable.

"The dream last night. Charles has inherited magic from both sides of his family. He could help you remember the dream, and interpret the meaning."

"Thank you for considering me, but it's no big deal. I'll be fine. Really."

"It might help you to talk about it. You've experienced a lot for someone so young. There are real gaps in your memory, and things about yourself that are a mystery to even you. The dream could be a link to what's missing."

"I'll be fine Bran, it was just a nightmare."

"Just a nightmare?" He asked. Avery's wasn't sure Bran sounded convinced. "And you remember nothing?"

"I don't have any idea what it was about. I was scared and you were talking to me." Bran looked at her skeptically; she was getting very good at that whole not lying thing. There was something that she remembered, but if she wasn't ready to talk about it, so be it. When she was ready he would be there.

"You still need to dress." He said again. "As I said my son will be here soon, there is no reason for you to still be in my bed."

She rolled over, and climbed to her knees to stretch her back. As she made her very cat like movements Bran looked on his attention completely focused on her rear, as it perched in the air. "I don't recall falling asleep here to begin with. You put me here." When he didn't reply she looked over her shoulder only to find out what seemed to have distracted him. "Enjoying the view?" She asked sarcastically.

"Very much," he answered quickly. "However if you could break the bad habit that you have of falling asleep on couches you would wake were you first slept." He walked to the bed, "now up." He told her with a slightly stinging slap to her butt. Then he started to leave the room.

With a squeal she turned over and glared at him. "What happened to 'I can't handle you'?" She asked contemptuously.

Bran turned quickly around and was on her in seconds. "I think we can see how things go." Then he kissed her. It was a hard intense kiss. She welcomed it was vigor. "I like seeing you in my bed a little too much to let you escape it permanently." Then he kissed her again.

She took his bottom lip between her teeth, before she let go she bit. "Maybe it's you that can't take me Bran."

He growled, "That's a dangerous game to be playing." Bran nuzzled his nose just beneath her ear and grazed his teeth along her neck.

Bran's head suddenly shot up and he looked in the direction of the front door. "They're here," he said climbing off her. He leaned down and kissed her quickly on the tip of her nose. "Get dressed; Anna is here, I believe she wants to see you."

~8~ ~8~ ~8~

"We're kind of dating. But we are not sleeping together," Avery said to Anna that afternoon. When Anna raised her eyebrow Avery rephrased quickly. "Okay we haven't had sex." The pair was once again having lunch with Sage.

"Yet." Sage told them. "It's only a matter of time. Not much more time if I were to make a guess."

"Bran is from a different era. His intentions should be pretty obvious. He's not going to let some random girl stay in his bed over night."Anna said as Sage nodded in agreement. "I should think its much more than dating."

"It's still so soon. I don't think he's ready yet."

"If he felt for Leah what he does for you, then yes I would agree; but he was never in love with her. He hasn't been in love for centuries. That's more than enough time to grieve for his last lost love. Is it Bran that's not ready yet, or you?"

"I'm just not sure this is the right time for Bran and I to start something so serious. I just want to be sure."

"Is there something you're not saying? Something that makes you think that now isn't that good time. That Bran isn't the right man?" Sage asked her. "Cause I suddenly feel like I've missed something."

"I never thought I would be in love, let alone that someone would return those feelings like Bran."

"So you love him," Sage replied with a smile. "And you even know he loves you too."

But Anna heard something else, something that left her feeling unsettled. Something that hinted at darkness. "Why would you never be able to fall in love? You don't strike me as someone so jaded."

Avery sat and thought about that. Why did she think she would never be in love, why did she believe that no one would ever love her back? That didn't make sense.

"Well humans aren't exactly the best example of true love. More of them are divorced these days then they are married." Sage answered. "Broken home?"

"No, my parents are still alive and happily married. They were a good example of and family. I grew up in the Midwest, itty-bitty town in the middle of nowhere. Family togetherness was the town motto." She laughed. She wondered briefly if she'd said to much, but most people here already knew that she was well aware of who she was. She just didn't want to talk about it, leaving that part of her life behind was hard. Then she remembered the current topic of discussion. "I really don't know why I thought that I would never be in love. It's just something that I never thought I would have."

"When did you start to feel that way?" Anna asked her.

"I wasn't always like that. Before I left my family, I thought that I would be in love with my boyfriend until the end of my life." Yes, Anna thought. It made sense, whatever it was happened during the time of her memory loss. It was so ingrained into her very being that even though all memories of it were gone, it had left an impression on the young girl's soul, marked her permanently.

The thought plagued Anna, what could have happened to make someone so young lose all hope for love and happiness? Though Avery admitted to being in love with Bran, there was still hesitation in her. Like she still believed that her love was never going to be, even though it was staring her right in the face.

As the conversation continued Anna watched as Avery rubbed the back of her neck again. It had been happening a lot over the last week or so. As she thought back to the first time she's seen it, Anna remembered it was the night her husband and father in law had taken Avery to meet that horrid doctor. She knew that was a bad idea. When Anna had asked if she were allergic to something Avery laughed, and called it an old scar that seemed to be acting up, it itched a lot.

To be honest it concerned Anna. Something about that scar was familiar, yet wrong. Whenever Avery drew attention to it, it left Anna feeling unsettled, but she didn't want to give the girl more to worry about so she said nothing. Something strange was going on here. She was sure it had something to do with the warning that Charles had received from the nature spirit. Something was coming to Aspen Creek, something that was going to change their lives forever.