Twilight Embrace (Completed)

Chapter 66

Lyell’s eyes flew open. The room was dark except for a glow that came from the side of his head. He turned and saw a monitor tapping out a heart-beat. He tried to move but a hand restrained him.

“Lie still Lyell. You’re safe, don’t try to move. You’re attached to machines.”

“Annjelica?” Lyell whispered.

“No, it’s Alexandria, her mother.”

“Ohhhh.” He moaned and closed his eyes.

“Lyell, please wake up. Do you know where Annjelica is?”

He tried to lift his head. “Damn, my head hurts. Feel like I’ve been hit by a train. What happened?” He asked as he felt the bandages around his head.

“I don’t know. Wolfe and Vampuric found you in the underground behind a lot of bins. You were covered in blood.”

“Aaaaahhh, Lyell moaned again as he tried to move.

“Lyell, you have to lie still. You have a serious head wound, fractured ribs and concussion. Please lie still before you do yourself any further injuries.”

“Annjelica… have you seen her? Does she know you? She didn’t know me.” He stopped for a moment trying to catch his breath. “Why was he calling her Aspen?”

“Lyell, please slow down. You’re talking too fast and not making any sense. To answer your questions, no I haven’t seen her and I don’t know why she wouldn’t recognize you. Who is Aspen?” Alexandria turned up the night light to see his face clearly.

“I was on this train, underground… then a tunnel. Then there was a lake. There was a lake Alexandria, just…” He closed his eyes for a moment trying to clear the foggy visions in his head.

“Go on.” Alexandria coaxed gently.

“There’s a lake down in the underground, exactly like the one by the cottage. Annjelica was there…. But she didn’t seem to know who I was. Then this man showed up and….” Lyell hesitated and for a moment found it difficult to relive what he’d seen.

“What man? Please try and remember. I need to find my daughter and you are the only one who knows where she is. I cannot reach her at all.”

“He held her in his arms and kissed her as if… well… as if they were…lovers.” The last word got stuck in his throat and hurt like hell to say.

“Lyell, who is Aspen?”

“Annjelica.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was calling her Aspen and… well she responded, as if that had always been her name.”

Alexandria visibly shuddered. Her skin crawled with fear for her daughter. Who could possibly have such powers to take her memories away and have her answering to Aspen? Whose evil hands had she fallen in to and how had she let them control her like this? These thoughts raced through her mind and her body shivered with an eerie cold sensation. Every part of her being seemed to turn to ice and when she looked down at her hands they appeared blue in the dull light of the monitors. It was then she noticed her breath coming out in rings of cold vapour.

She was unaware of Lyell closing his eyes and becoming so still, he was hardly breathing. The room had suddenly turned so cold and dark, she wasn’t sure if it was real or not. Droplets of ice formed with every breath and fell to the ground. When she looked around it was as if she had left the hospital room and had been transported into… an underworld. Her thoughts hung in mid- air. She instinctively cleared her mind hoping this strange sensation was somehow coming from her daughter.

***

Arianna’s cry for help had not been in vain. The Elements of the earth and heavens had heard her dying plea and searched out a rescuer for the child they’d gifted with their powers. Somehow they’d lost touch with her. A darkness, pungent with evil had torn a hole in the light and ripped apart all that was bright and known to them.

‘Time has evolved and twisted into night. There is only one light that can save the child. Bring her home before the ice of darkness freezes her heart and stops it beating.’

Alexandria felt a searing pain shoot through her head as the voice disappeared. She stood up abruptly knocking the chair against the monitor. It was then she looked down at Lyell. Was it her imagination or did his body seem to shimmer as if steeped in moonlight.

“Lyell, if you are my daughter’s savior, then I will bring her back to you, or die trying.”

Lyell opened his eyes and his mouth moved. Alexandria immediately bent her ear to his mouth to hear him.

“Underground pub entrance.” His eyes closed and he never said another word or moved at all. It was as if he hadn’t spoken a moment ago.

“Lyell, Lyell, wake up. What pub? Dammit Lyell, do you have any idea how many pubs are in London.”

Lyell was oblivious to Alexandria’s pleas. He had slipped into a semi-conscious state again.

The thought that she might be that much closer to finding her daughter, Alexandria left hurriedly in search of Wolfe and Vampuric.

Lyell drifted in and out of consciousness and blurred visions filled his mind. When a vision of Annjelica kissing another man filtered into his mind as clear as if he was standing there and watching it all over again, he shouted. “No Annjelica NO.” He sat up and throwing the covers off tried to get up.

The pads attached to his chest, monitoring his heart, ripped off as he stood up and within seconds he passed out and hit the ground. His emergency alarm went off and hospital staff came running. Lyell was now bleeding from his nose and mouth. One of his fractured ribs had cracked and pierced through his lung.