Twin Alphas

Chapter 34

"Hi..." I didn't know what else to say, that seems to be the theme of today's meeting.

"You're supposed to be dead." She raised one eyebrow and looked me up and down for a few more minutes, waiting for me to explain myself.

"I was. And now I'm not..." I couldn't explain it very well, all I knew was that I woke up in a pile of ash and smoke.

"What happened?" I took a deep breath, preparing myself for an explanation that I wasn't even sure I understood when I caught a scent.

"Hey Bayne, I need to go over some of these stats with you, some of the guys are looking a little—Oh, sorry. I didn't know you were busy with someone." His voice made my heart soar and the butterflies in my stomach flutter. I hadn't realized how much I missed him until this point. I turned around to get a look at him, and what I saw stole my breath away. His hair was tussled with a 'just rolled out of bed' look. He had been turning around to leave when he stopped to examine me further. I saw a change in his eyes the minute he recognized me.

"Tori?" his voice was quiet, almost afraid that if he spoke to loud it wouldn't be true.

"Hey... You look well."

"You look... not dead..." his eyes were wide when the words came out of his mouth, his mouth was agape as he stared at me. "I... How did you... We—we watched you die. The house... the house came down around you. I—I died with you that day."

"I know—and I did die, I was just sent back." I told them.

"What do you mean you were sent back? Once you die, that's it, you're dead, end of story. You don't come back." Aaron was almost yelling, but not because he was angry, he was confused and scared. I could see it in his eyes. He may be able to hide his feelings like Bayne can, but he can't hide them from me.

"I don't fully understand it myself, but when I... died, I was sent to face judgment. I met with the Goddess and she seemed angry with me. She told me that I got in the way of her plans. That I wasn't supposed to die that day. I spent a few minutes in Limbo and then woke up under ash and what was left of the house." Aaron had come further into the room and sat down next to Bayne.

"If you weren't supposed to die... then..." Bayne put the pieces together and came to the same realization that I did when the Goddess told me this.

"That means I was... Serko's bullet was meant to kill me, but you stepped in the way. I was supposed to die." Aaron's voice was low and his eyes were down cast.

"That's the conclusion I came to. But I can't figure out why the Goddess would want that for us. Killing you wouldn't have done anything but send me into a deep depression. I couldn't imagine living without you."

"Not completely true. Had Aaron died that day you could have experienced a blinding rage that would have allowed you to severely injured Serko or possibly kill him." Bayne made a point, and I hate to admit it, but it makes sense.

"So you're saying that if I had died instead of Tori, Sercko would be dead by now?" Aaron sat there wide eyed and slightly scared. No one knew what would have happened if the circumstances were different. Only the Goddess knew that, and she didn't tell me.

"That's what it sounds like." Bayne said in her usual tone of no emotion and no sympathy. I looked at Aaron and waited for his reaction. When nothing came from him I sat down on the couch next to him. I let my shoulder brush up against his and instantly felt warm and happy.