The pain was gone. The bleeding had stopped. I thought for sure that I was in Heaven.

I stood in an open pasture covered with the most beautiful wild flowers I had ever seen. There wasn't a cloud in the crystal blue sky. I could hear the running water of a creek somewhere nearby. Yeah, this was most definitely Heaven. It was so beautiful and so peaceful; there was no way that I wasn't dead.

I looked down and saw that I was wearing a bright yellow, sunflower dress, which was odd because I never wore dresses and if I did they definitely wouldn't be yellow but for some reason I didn't mind in the least. It felt right. There was nothing but open sky for miles and miles. The sun shone down on the wild flowers, the wind blowing my hair around my bare shoulders. I felt bad for leaving my brothers but it was so tranquil here.

"Persephany?"

I whirled around at my name and saw my parents walking slowly toward me. My breath caught and I could do nothing but stare. My mother's short brown hair blew in the breeze, her bright green eyes glittering in the sunlight. My father had that lazy smile plastered on his face and tears filled his blue eyes as he saw me.

"Mama? Daddy?" I said, hesitant to run into their arms like I wanted too.

"Baby, what are you doin' here?" Mama asked. God, it was good to hear her Louisiana accent accent again

"I woke up here," I answered.

"Sweetheart, you don't belong here. It's time for you to wake up," Daddy said.

I shook my head. "But I don't want to wake up. I like it here," I protested.

"It doesn't look good," someone said. It wasn't my parents. It was a voice I didn't know. It was like it was coming from somewhere in the distance. "I would start to prepare for the worst," the voice continued.

"Wake up, Persephany. Wake up," my mother said. She was walking toward me and I was backing away.

"No, I'm not going to wake up, Mama," I whined.

"Wake up, honey," Daddy said.

I shook my head violently. "NO! No, no, no!" I screamed. I closed my eyes and wished that they would stop telling me to wake up. I willed them to stop and to my surprise, they did. I opened my eyes and they were gone.

"Please wake up, Seph," Kaige whispered solemnly.

Kaige? Kaige wasn't supposed to be in Heaven. So why was I hearing his voice?

Before I could make sense of anything, the bright meadow faded away. No, I don't want to go! But it was too late. The meadow was gone. My parents were gone. There was nothing but darkness now.

"Please wake up," Kaige said again and this time I heard the tears in his voice.

My eyes fluttered open. I was at the hospital with tubes hooked up to both my arms and an oxygen tube stuck up my nose. It seemed like everyone I knew was there. Both my brothers, James, and even Jayde was there. Kaige was sitting beside the bed holding my pale hand in his.

"Oh, thank God," he sighed.

"Wa…Wat…Water," I rasped out. My throat was so dry, it felt like sandpaper. He happily poured me a cup of water and held it to my lips so I could drink. I would have done it myself, but I was so weak that I could barely move my arms. He moved the cup away from my lips and I swallowed a few times. Much better, I thought.

James walked forward, taking my other hand. "What do you remember?" were the first words out of his mouth.

I opened my mouth to tell him to shut the fuck up and go to hell but no sound came out.

"What's your problem?" Shayne all but screamed at him. "She's just woken up and you want to start interrogating her? Just leave her alone."

"Don't start with me, Thorne," James said, the warning clear in his voice.

"Leave. Her. Alone." Shayne repeated.

"Stop it." That was Jayde. It was the first time she'd spoken. She sat in the corner of the room, as far from me as she could get in the small room. "Can't you see that you're upsetting her?"

Upsetting me? The weren't upsetting me. Arguing and fighting were normal for James and Shayne. It didn't bother me anymore because I knew that even though James was a skilled fighter, Shayne could kick his ass easily.

"Come here, Jayde," I said quietly. She looked at me with wide blue eyes but came forward reluctantly. She was so lucky that I was too weak to move right then because if I could have moved she would have been dead. "You were the bait."

"What?"

"You were the bait. Raidyn used you to lure me to that party so he could try and kill me."

She opened her mouth to protest but I cut her off. "Don't even think about lying to me little girl!"

"But that's not true," she whined.

"Shayne?" Like Kaige and I, Shayne had special abilities. Kaige could look into people's minds, I could conjure objects, and Shayne could tell if a person was lying with a single touch. And that's what he was doing now. All he did was touch her bare arm. His eyes-our mother's eyes-found mine. He nodded once and stepped away from her.

"Get out of here," I growled. "And tell Raidyn that I'm coming after him."

She didn't hesitate. She was already on her way out the door before I'd even finished speaking. Good. She should be afraid. She'd used me and I had been to damn blind to see it.

"Seph, you aren't in any condition to go after anybody. You almost died for God's sake," Kaige said sounding angry.

"I'm fine. Just get Jasmine over here and I'll be good as new," I argued. Jasmine had been a good friend of our mother's and when our parents died we'd remained close friends. She was a healer and a damn good one too. One mug of her special honeysuckle herbal tea and a little bit of rest and you would be right as rain.

Kaige shook his head. "No. I knew that you shouldn't have gone in there in the first place. I knew this would happen. I will not risk losing you again. That was just too damn close, Persephany."

"Fine," I said, suddenly fed up with everyone. "Get out."

Kaige looked like he was about to argue but finally he started toward the door. Shayne gave me a sympathetic look and followed his brother. James stood from the chair he'd pulled up to the bedside. He'd never let go of my hand. I gripped his hand and he sat back down.

"I want you to stay," I whispered.

He raised one eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because I still love you," I said. "And I realized that no matter how much I try to pull myself away from you that we will never be over. I want you in my life, James Lazarus."

He half smiled. "I love you so much, Persephany Thorne." He leaned over and gently kissed my forehead. That seemed to be the only place on my body that wasn't hurting.

"But if you ever start interrogating me like that before I've had a chance to process things, I will not hesitate to tie you down to my bed, buck ass naked, put a Jacob's Ladder through your dick and pierce your balls together. Get it? Got it? Good." Hell I just might do that anyway-minus the piercing the balls together-just for my own satisfaction in the bedroom.

He laughed but didn't say anything because he knew that I would do it too. I was one to follow through with my threats no matter how big or small, I would always follow through. That's just the kind of person I was and he knew it. "Fine," he said. He stood up again. "I'm gonna go and let you get some rest, okay?"

I nodded. "Bring Jasmine when you come back," I said as he walked out the door. "And don't tell my brothers!"

One way or the other I was going to go after Raidyn and this time he'd better make sure I'm dead because I won't stop until either he or I am dead.