Present Drifter

Chapter 24

I scramble across the bed and wrap my arms around Daxon as quickly as I can. I pull my legs to the side as he wraps his arms under mine and around my back. He nestles his head on my shoulder as we hold each other.

The half an hour I spent in the 1980's makes sense now. Sending me there as he got hurt was a little cruel but it was worth it. Hearing Cameron tell me, Casey, that he loved her. It was a big step for them, for us.

Daxon's grip around me loosens and he gently sets me back on the bed in front of him. A small smile rests on his lips but it's not nearly as big as Cameron's was just now. Maybe it meant more to me than it did to him.

"Is everything alright?" I ask, still reeling off of the high Cameron gave me. I watch curiously as Dax's smile falls and he stares at me blankly.

"I want to protect you," he pauses to take a deep breath. "But I can't." I reach my hand out and rest it on top of his.

"We'll figure this out," I say, trying to be encouraging. I say it half to convince myself.

Melvin stabbed Victoria. His sword went straight through her and she didn't bleed. She had no mark, no scrape, no injury. She barely even reacted to it.

Victoria's name never changed. In all of the lives I met her in, her name was the same. Mine, Daxon's, and everyone else's names changed throughout our lives. Hers didn't, as if she hasn't lived multiple lives. Victoria doesn't get hurt. Her name doesn't change. She doesn't die.

Victoria's immortal. Time has no effect on her. Living has no effect on her.

When Victoria trapped us on Asher's ship, Asher was terrified like he knew we couldn't beat her, like he knew she couldn't die. He tried to fight but he played the defensive tactics. Asher knew he couldn't hurt her. He probably knew before Melvin even stabbed her that nothing he did would harm her.

She was the one who sent me back in time for the first time. She's the one who brought up Huckleberry Finn which ended up being the word associated with that past memory. In two of my past lives I've seen her with the same dangerous boy. The one who shot me in the 1800's. She was with him in the saloon and he helped her trap us on Asher's ship.

When I was poisoned, with Ryder, she was the one to hand me the odd tasting drink. The only thing that could have possibly hidden the taste of poison from me. That guy was with her that night too.

When she dragged me to that party, the one that somehow happened just last night, Daxon looked like he wanted to hurt her. We've been through this before. She's trying to get to us. To get that book. What could be so important about this book?

My breathing begins to quicken as my thoughts start racing. As they start bouncing off the walls of my brain as if they are trampolines.

In all my past lives one of us has died. Victoria has gone after me, and Daxon, and even Kenneth. She can't get hurt. How do we protect ourselves?

My arm trembles in my lap as I try to swallow down my fears. My gaze falls below and rests on Daxon's blue bed sheets. My eyes locked away from his. My chest quakes as I struggle to take in air. I squeeze my fist in an attempt to snap myself out of my panic. I close my eyes and try to focus on my breathing.

Daxon rests his hand on my knee as my arms shaking spreads through the rest of my body. My breaths come out in stammers, my chest burning from the struggle.

"Thea," Daxon whispers. I try to squeeze my eyes closed tighter as if it can protect me.

Breath in. Please just breath in.

Victoria can't me here. She couldn't possibly get to me here. That's what Asher thought on his ship. He thought whisking me away to the middle of the sea could protect me, but it didn't. It didn't protect either of us.