“Sounds great.” To his surprise, she got up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. By then they were out in the parking lot, standing next to the Pathfinder while he dug his keys out of his pocket. A wave of warmth went over him, and in that moment, the world looked just a little bit better than it had a few moments earlier.
He’d wait to see how long that lasted.
* * *
Caitlin hurried as best she could at Nordstrom Rack, which was difficult because she’d never gone on one of her clan’s shopping trips to Phoenix and therefore didn’t have more than a fuzzy idea of what she was getting into. The local Walmart it most definitely was not.
But Alex had already spent almost an hour with her at the MVD, and so dawdling here while looking at the dizzying array of tops and jeans and sweaters and accessories was not really being fair to him, especially when he’d just gotten such awful news about his grandmother. True, people bounced back from strokes every day, and Maya had not one, but two healers looking after her. Even so, Caitlin had no intention of making things worse by going on a crazy shopping spree. Well, semi-crazy. Five hundred bucks sounded like a lot of money to her, but she knew it could go very quickly if she wasn’t careful.
So, a cute pale blue wallet marked down to ten bucks, and a very cool bone-colored suede purse with silver studs for the unbelievable close-out price of only thirty dollars, and then a couple of extra pairs of underwear and a new bra, just in case. All right, so she chose pretty, flirty pieces in nude satin trimmed with pale pink ribbons, but they were also way marked down, so no one could accuse her of not being practical. And if she was thinking about Alex possibly seeing her in them, well, who could blame her? She hadn’t forgotten about Roslyn and Danica, nor about Maya…but she also hadn’t forgotten that kiss she’d shared with Alex the night before. Might as well be prepared.
Luckily, he’d gone off to the men’s shoe department, mumbling something about taking a look around. Caitlin sort of doubted he really needed anything. More likely he was making sure he stayed far out of the way, just in case she did end up buying some “unmentionables.” Which she had, so thank the Goddess for his discretion.
Eventually, he caught up with her just as the clerk was handing over her bag of goodies.
“Find everything you needed?” he asked, stepping ahead slightly so he could open the door for her.
“I did — thanks.” When they got to the car, she’d get out the wallet and tuck her new license and what remained of the five hundred dollars into it. For now, they were both just shoved into the pocket of her jeans.
They stopped at the rear of the SUV so Alex could open it up and stow her bag inside. Just as she was handing it to him, a strange droning sound seemed to pound through her head. At the same time, the busy parking lot around them tilted, flickered, and then shifted, changing into another scene entirely. Caitlin retained just enough of herself to put out a hand and lay it on the Pathfinder’s side, the metal the only thing anchoring her to the here and now.
Because she could feel the vehicle, but she couldn’t see it. Instead, she was in another small, dim room. Daylight tried to peek around the cheap roller blind that blocked the window but wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Caitlin could see her arms, but they weren’t her arms — these arms had a faint tan, whereas she had the true redhead skin, the kind that burned and then peeled, and stayed ferociously pale. More than that, the arms she saw now wore bandages in various places, and in between those bandages were the long, angry red lines of scabbed-over cuts.
That wasn’t the worst, though. She looked down and saw the dark blonde hair that fell over her chest, nearly obscuring her breasts — but not nearly enough. A pair of brown hands cupped those same breasts, and she could feel a man’s body against her, holding her, his breath hot on her neck.
But even that wasn’t the worst. That was raising her head and looking into the face of another man, not the one holding her, and realizing he was above her, and in her, thrusting inward as she wrapped her legs around him, moaning in ecstasy while the first man continued to fondle her breasts.
“Oh, Goddess, Roslyn, wake up!” The words came out of Caitlin’s mouth before she realized she was even saying them, and the shopping bag fell from her fingers.
“Caitlin!” Alex’s voice, very close, urgent. “What are you seeing?”
“No,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “No, please, no.”
Hands settled on her shoulders, shaking her, but gently. “Caitlin. You have to tell me what you’re seeing.”