Chapter 26: *CHAPTER 26*

I was standing in a room. The television was blaring, Jeopardy was playing on the dated screen across the room. I was standing on a shag carpet, a mug of tea in my hand. The smell of peppermint wafted up from the steam. My hands were wrinkled, I noticed, as I patted the robe twined over my waist to brush off a few cat hairs that had stuck to the fabric.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't me. That the hands weren't mine, but at the same time, they were mine. As the person who was me, but wasn't me sat down on the couch, a cuckoo clock by the front door rang out the hour—it was ten p.m. Distantly, I recognized that clock. It was my neighbor, George's clock. I was standing in George's living room.

I sat down in a recliner, propping up aching slippered feet, taking a sip of my tea. Mrs. Nisbitt was laying in a cat bed in the corner, dozing. Just as I was starting to relax, a loud crash came from behind me. My whole body tensed as I turned toward the sound. I stood from my chair, looking in the shadowed direction of the back door.

A figure stepped into the room. Tall, dark. Imposing.

The air turned thick and my heart stuttered.

My wrinkled hand fumbled out for the phone on the coffee table, but the figure tutted, and I paused, "Tsk tsk tsk, I wouldn't do that if I were you."

A part of me, the part of me who was George, recognized that voice and froze, "What are you doing here?" I heard George's voice croak through my lips.

"I'm here to take what is owed to me. And you're going to help me do it." The tall dark figure took another step into the light of the television, pulling the hood back from his face. "Do you recognize me, George?" The grating voice drawled.

"Y-yes." George's voice said. "You're Morpheus."

The figure smiled then, the glow from the television reflecting off of his teeth.

"Very good."

He took another step forward.

And the world was spinning again.

The images stopped pulsing behind my eyelids, and the world slowly started coming back into focus. I concentrated on the feel of my body again, my blood no longer singing in my veins like it was on steaming in on itself. As the images slipped away and the darkness across my eyes retreated, I focused on the feeling of the gritty tile floor of the cafe pressing into my back.

Lauren shreiked from somewhere above me, "What's happening to her? Is she having some kind of seizure? Someone needs to call an ambulance."

"There's no need to call an ambulance," Malcolm's steady voice interjected, "She's waking up now."

I peeked through blurred vision to see the disjointed smear of Malcolm's golden face hovering over my head. His fingers were wrapped around my arm and the places where our skin touched was hot. Almost unbearably so. It was like his Fire Magic burned beneath his skin, a torch on the brink of scorching its way out. The invisible strand of connection between us--the Bond--was pulsing wildly. And while his voice had been calm, as I focused on his face-- his eyes looked tight with worry, a flash of panic streaking through the green.

"Who even are you?" Matt's hazy voice echoed from a place opposite of where Malcolm's had come from, "You're not even supposed to be back here."

"Shut up, Matt. He knows Kassie," Lauren hissed, her upside-down face popped up in my line of vision, her hazel eyes filled with tears, "Kass, thank God, you're waking up. You scared me to death."

I coughed around a dry throat. With a groan, I attempted to pull myself up off the breakroom's dusty floor. My body was too weak, though. My arms flopped around me like old spaghetti noodles. Lauren rushed behind me to help prop me up.

"What happened?" I croaked.

I looked between the three faces hovering over mine. Malcolm watched me lean against Lauren with hard eyes. Matt was openly glaring at Malcolm, arms crossed over his chest.

"You had a migraine, remember?" Lauren said behind me, squeezing my arms so hard her nails poked into my skin, "You came back here to rest for a minute and when you stood back up to pay out your tables, you passed out."

I'd had that dream—or whatever it had been—of George. It played at the forefront of my mind now. The images that had shoved their way into my mind were branded in my brain. A sick sense of dread took root in my stomach. What if those had been some of George's final moments? Was that even possible? After the past few days I'd had I couldn't exactly dismiss it. Hot tears pricked at my eyes. George. Poor George. He must have been terrified.

Malcolm tensed beside me, his hand on my arm tightening, "I'm going to take Kassie to a doctor."

"No," Matt's voice cut through the room like a knife, "No way in hell. We don't even know who you are. There's no way we're letting her go with you."

"Calm down, Mark," Malcolm said blandly.

"It's Matt."

Malcolm rolled his eyes heavenward before shifting his gaze to me, "Tell them you know me, Kassie, so we can go."

'Your friend Mark is getting really worked up. Do you think he would back off if I told him you're technically my wife?' Malcolm's thoughts drifted through my head. It had been a while since I'd heard his unbidden thoughts beside my own and it shocked me for a moment.

I choked. Don't even think about saying anything to them about our sham of a "marriage".

Malcolm smirked down at me. I hurriedly shoved the mental wall back up between us. It was hard with my thoughts as shaky as they were.

"If anyone should take her to the hospital it should be me," Matt interjected while I was working on the mental wall.

"How do you figure?" Malcolm raised his eyebrows, expression bored, but under the surface, through the Bond, I sensed his simmering irritation.

"I've known Kassie for a while, she'll be safe with me." His face was set with determination and I tensed as he leaned toward me, "Come on Kass, let's go." His arms snaked around my back, ready to tug me to my feet. I felt Malcolm's irritation escalate to fury as Matt attempted to yank me up to my feet.

"Matt, what are you doing? She can barely stand," Lauren demanded, pushing his arms off me.I wobbled on my feet, Lauren leaning me against her tall frame as I attempted to gain some strength back into my legs. Whatever had just happened to me, it wasn't something a regular doctor would be able to help me with. I appreciated Matt's attempt to help me, but I knew the only person here who could help me figure out what happened was Malcolm.

I peered up into Matt's panicked face."I'm going to go with Malcolm," I said as firmly as I could, sweat still prickling on my clammy forehead, "Thank you for trying to look out for me, Matt, but Malcolm's already here and you and Lauren both have to work."

Matt's expression was frozen in disbelief. Disgust and something like betrayal flashed across his face. It took me longer than it should have to realize where his eyes had landed. They were glued to Malcolm's tattoo-- the Mark that was the twin to my own. His eyes flickering between the matching Marks on our arms.

Crap. There was definitely no hiding it now. No way to explain the Marks either.

Matt ground his teeth together, "I'll let Janice know you had to leave." He left the break room in two swift strides, the door slamming unceremoniously in his wake.

I watched the door he'd disappeared through and let out a tired sigh. It was going to be hard to come back from that. Matt and I had gotten into fights before, but never like this.

Lauren untangled my bag from the mess of work lockers. She handed it to Malcolm."You'll let me know what the doctor says?" Her face twisted with apprehension, eyes bouncing between us.I gave her a shaky smile, "You'll be the first to know."

She turned to Malcolm now, eyes turning hard, "If you let anything happen to her, I swear to God I'm going to hunt you down."

There was a twinge of amusement at his end of the Bond. A muscle in his jaw twitched with his suppressed grin, "Nothing's going to happen to Kassie while she's with me, I swear." Despite his teasing demeanor, a note of sincerity rang through his words. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. Yeah, Malcolm wouldn't let anything happen to me because of the damned Life Bond. Lauren must have heard the sincerity in his voice too because she pursed her lips and nodded.

He slung my purse over his arm and turned to me, "Alright, kid, up you go."

My face twisted in confusion, until his long arms wrapped around me, tugging me up till he was holding me in his arms against his chest.