Shifters in the Shadows(190)

"Is what you're allergic to? Yes. You should be fine though. This isn't an exit ramp. You still have some antihistamine in your system, and he's armed to the teeth with more of that and other drugs."

But I can see you! Damn, Cole. I don't want this to all go away in the morning.

"How are you feeling, Hannah? I'm thinking we found our culprit. Your heart rate is speeding up, you're starting to get flushed," Dr. Greene said, checking and noting things as he examined me.

Maybe that's just from your skillful touch, I teased Cole. Although, I couldn't deny that I was having a reaction.

I started to feel like I had at the party, right after I ate the nuts and started to open the door. My heart was beating fast, only the first time I thought it was because I was heading to a night with Mark. This time I knew it was because of the Hazelnut.

It started to get a little harder to swallow and the lightheaded feeling was back.

"Take deep breaths, Hannah. You'll be fine, I'll just grab this syringe real quick and we'll get you feeling all better."

Will I still be able to see you? I asked Cole as the doctor reached for his tray.

"It's still Halloween. Maybe. If not you should still hear and feel me. At least till morning. After that—we'll see."

I shot a glance over toward Dr. Greene. Just short of where he was grabbing my prepared shot was the tray of nuts he'd been feeding me. If he would just move over some, I could grab a handful of…

"Hannah! Don't!"

Cole was in front of me, impossibly fast.

I could see him even better! His chest filled my vision, he seemed almost solid!

"You can't! There is no exit ramp before you right now, this isn't how it's supposed to go."

Then I should be fine, right? Dr. Greene is right here. He'd bring me back before I went too far. I just want more time with you, is that so wrong? If eating more nuts gets us more time together, if Halloween night is the only time I can have you, why wouldn't I take that chance?

"Here you are," Dr. Greene said, walking through Cole's chest like he wasn't even there. "This shot should help. Seems it's the tree nuts in the birch family that you're allergic to. No wonder you didn't know. The hazelnut is the most common nut in that family, the others, like the alder, are way less common."

I'd missed my chance to grab any more hazelnuts, all I could do was nod at Dr. Greene as he gave me a shot and kept talking about how as long as I avoided hazelnuts and kept an EpiPen on me, I should be fine from here on out.

As the shot took effect Cole thinned and dimmed before me until I couldn't see or smell him anymore. Thankfully I could still hear and feel him, at least for the moment.

Once I'd recovered Dr. Greene pushed me in my wheelchair back to the Emergency Room. Cole held my hand and walked beside the chair as Dr. Greene took me back to Mark.

Mark stood up when we entered, and after I was settled back into the bed I watched Mark get all the details about my test from Dr. Greene. Mark's eyes kept shooting to me as the doctor spoke of hazelnuts, EpiPens, and what a lucky woman I was that Mark had gotten help to me so fast.

I didn't feel lucky, though. I felt like my last chance to be with Cole, even if for just a few magical moments, had slipped through my hands with the injection I'd been given.

For a moment I'd had it all—the thinner veil of Halloween was ticking away, medical help to bring me back was all around me, and the nuts, the last key to the usually locked door between me and Cole, had been right there.

As I watched Mark speak with the doctor, and saw the love and concern in his eyes, all I felt was guilt. I was holding a hand I could feel but not see, wishing I'd been able to steal a handful of hazelnuts and hide them in my hospital gown. They'd probably become completely useless to me after tonight, after Halloween and after my exit ramp. They'd still kill me, I was sure, but to what effect if Cole was no longer there?

Had I missed my shot?





Chapter 7





I found it quite ironic that my goal at the Halloween party had been to put my past, my past being Cole, behind me once and for all.

Ha!

I'd planned to walk through that door to my future, my future being Mark, or sex, or LIVING LIFE WITH CAPITAL LETTERS, or however you wanted to spin it, but all walking through that door had done was thrust my past, the thing I was walking away from, smack into my present once again.

How was I supposed to embrace the future when my past could literally reach through the veils of death and make me feel more alive than anyone ever had, before Cole, or since?

So what was I supposed to do now?

Wait?

What if morning came, leaving Halloween and Cole a wild memory?

What if morning didn't take Cole from me?

I grabbed the second one first.

What would my future look like if I could forever more hear and feel Cole like he was really there, only no one else could?