Kelley Armstrong - The Calling

He held out his bare arms, covered in healing scratches. There were more on his face. I looked at him then, my first good look, as hope started to flutter in my chest.

Except for the scratches and a purpled bruise on his chin, he looked exactly as I remembered. Blue jeans, tank top, faded denim jacket, boots. Black hair curling over his collar. Brown eyes flecked with gold. Crooked smile threatening to burst into a grin.

“Got impaled, too.” He lifted his shirt and turned around to show me what looked like a scabbed-over stab wound in his side. “Dislocated my shoulder. Passed out from the pain. When I woke up, the shoulder was fixed—one of the benefits of being a shape-shifter I guess—and the rest was healing. I was unconscious for a while, apparently.”

“I … I still—”

“Can’t believe it?” Rafe shrugged. “I’m guessing a regular person wouldn’t have survived. But we’re part cat so maybe falls aren’t so bad. I think I lost one of my nine lives though.” He twisted to look at the stab wound. “Maybe two.”

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, and when I did, I knew he was real—the heat of him, the smell of him, the feel of him, the taste of him so incredibly real that it surpassed anything my memory could conjure up. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back, and it was like every other amazing kiss he’d given me, multiplied ten-fold. I kissed him until I couldn’t breathe, and then I kissed him a little more, until I had to pull back, gasping.

“I have got to die more often,” he said. And he grinned, that incredible blaze of a grin that made me kiss him again.

When we finally pulled apart, he brushed his palm over my still-damp cheeks.

“Your parents are okay, Maya,” he murmured. “They’ve just left. The whole town left.”

“I know. That’s not…” I stepped back, out of his arms, and looked over at the fallen tree. “I came out here and I saw that, and I remembered us… You…”

He looked startled and … something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but definitely startled, like he hadn’t ever thought I’d be crying over him.

“I dreamed you were alive,” I said. “You were calling me and you needed help, and I wanted to go but…” I swallowed. “It didn’t make sense. I told myself you couldn’t be, so I didn’t, and I’m sorry if—”

“You wouldn’t have found me, Maya. If I called you, it was only in my dreams, when I was out cold. I never expected you to come after me. I should be dead.” He tugged me into his arms. “I’m just really, really glad I’m not.”

He kissed me, and it wasn’t like the other ones, all fire and emotion. This one was achingly sweet and when we separated, the look in his eyes was … almost sad.

“I—I don’t know where Annie is,” I said. “I’m sorry. I—”

“Don’t be.” Another quick kiss, then he put his arm around my waist and started leading me back toward the house. “We’ll figure all that out later. Right now—”

The sliding back door to the house squealed. Daniel stepped onto the deck. Rafe and I were still in the woods, but we could see him, through the trees, and he could see us. He stopped dead. Kenjii raced past him. She barreled down the steps toward us, and gave me a passing lick before jumping on Rafe. He pushed her down, laughing.

“See, I am real,” he said.

“Hmm, still not sure,” I said. “Dogs are supposed to be able to see ghosts, you know.”

“Maybe, but I’m sure that guy can’t.” As we stepped from the woods, he waved at Daniel, who’d come down to the bottom of the steps and was frozen again. “Though he does look as if he’s seeing one.” He raised his voice so Daniel could hear. “Yes, it’s me. Not a ghost or a zombie or a long-lost twin brother.”

“Rafe…?” Daniel started walking slowly across the yard.

“In the flesh. Battered and bruised flesh, but apparently it takes more than a fall from a helicopter to get rid of me.”

“Wow. I can’t believe it, but obviously…” He looked Rafe up and down and shook his head. “Wow.”

“Holy hell.” Now Corey stood on the back deck, staring.

He came over and we had to go through the whole thing again. Yes, it was Rafe. Not a ghost. Not a zombie. Not a long-lost twin brother. As ludicrous as all those ideas sounded, though, they seemed more likely than the truth—that a guy fell from a helicopter and survived.

“You sure about the twin thing?” Corey said when Rafe had finished.

“Yes, I don’t have a long-lost twin brother.”

“I do,” I said. “Or so I’ve heard.”

Rafe grinned at me. “Yes, but I’m not him.”

“Which is good.”

“Very good.” He squeezed my hand.

“We’ll … be inside,” Daniel said.

“Uh-uh,” Corey said. “Romantic reunions are officially on hold, even for guys who’ve returned from the dead. We’re neck-deep in crap here and we need to dig our way out. Or at least come up with a plan.” He looked from me to Daniel. “Ideas?”

“I … have a couple,” Daniel said. “I just need … time to think them through.”

“Sure,” Rafe said. “While you do that, can I tell you mine? I’ve been here almost a day. Plenty of time to think as I waited for you guys to show up.”

“We should head back to Sam,” I said. “She’s at her place.”

Corey nodded. “And I want to know how in hell you not only survived the fall, but made it back here before us.”

Rafe seemed a little surprised at how quickly Daniel and Corey bought his “miracle heal” story, until I explained that they knew about the skin-walker thing. I told him briefly about benandanti and our theories of Salmon Creek, so he wouldn’t think I’d just randomly confessed to having supernatural powers. Then he gave his story.

How did Rafe make it back so fast? Same way we did. He stole a ride. A motorcycle. In his case, though, he skipped all the steps between. No tortuous trek through the woods—he’d landed relatively close to a town. No attempts to get help, because Rafe wasn’t like us. His life experience was closer to Sam’s. His mom had sheltered him as best she could from the ugliness of life on the run, but he hadn’t grown up in a world where you could stroll into town, ask strangers for help, and expect to get it.

Annie used to have a motorcycle, he said, and she’d taught him to ride it. He also knew how to hot-wire one. I wasn’t asking how. Like I said, his life experience wasn’t ours.

“And you knew we were alive?” I said as we approached the outskirts of town.

“I knew you were alive.”

That made me feel… I don’t know. There was a flutter of happiness at the thought, but some guilt, too, because I’d had the same experience. I’d known that he was alive. Yet I hadn’t trusted it.

“Are you going to even ask who else survived?” Corey said. Did I imagine the touch of sarcasm in his voice?

“Well, obviously you guys and Samantha,” Rafe said. “I’m guessing…” He shrugged. “I’m guessing, um, no one else made it. Not exactly the subject anyone wants me discussing, I’m sure.”

“Hayley and Nicole were kidnapped,” I said.

I told him the story as we cut over to the Tillson house.

“So you’ll want to try to get them back,” Rafe said as we crossed the back lawn.

“Um, yeah,” Corey said. “Sorry to throw a wrench in this supposed plan of yours—”

Rafe sighed. “Look, Corey, I know you don’t like me. Daniel doesn’t either, but he’s being nice about it for Maya’s sake.”

“I’m not—” Daniel protested.

“It’s okay. I didn’t go out of my way to make friends in Salmon Creek. I know that. I acted like an ass, and as Maya may have told you, I had a reason, one that probably still makes me an ass. I’m glad to hear Hayley’s okay. Of everyone in Salmon Creek, I treated her the worst, so I’m hoping I get the chance to apologize. I’m glad Samantha is okay, even if we don’t get along. As for Nicole? I know her about as well as I know you and Daniel. Which is about one step up from ‘not at all.’ Of course, I’m glad you’re okay. I know you’ll want to get your friends back. I’m absolutely fine with that. But if you expect me to be as worried about them as you are, that’s not going to happen.”