Sierra Woods - The Resurrectionist

“No.” From above my body, I looked down at the baby, who had never begun to live, and touched it with one finger. I wanted to stay with him. He should go with me.

“He is gone to the source now. Your time here is not finished.”

“Yes it is.” It was. I knew it. I’d accepted it. Closing my eyes, I waited to be taken too. Waited for that irresistible pull from beyond I had heard about.

“You will go back. The call for help has gone out, and you will be saved.”

Saved? How could I be? Did it not see the condition of my body? It was too late now. “No.” I looked down at the mess that had been my body. It was almost beyond recognition. I don’t know if I said it out loud, but I thought it and the other-sider heard me. My condition was beyond saving.

The being moved toward me, and the glow of it burned through my eyelids and into my brain. I wanted to let go, to leave this plane of existence, but couldn’t. Something was drawing me back inside. I felt a pop in my physical body. I don’t know how else to explain it, but it was as if someone or something had yanked on me, only I felt it at a visceral level. I had returned.

I began to glow, just like the other-sider. The life force had returned to my body, not floating around as it had been moments ago.

“You will return. You will survive, and you will right the wrongs committed against you, against humanity, and against the universe.”

“Who do you think I am, Wonder Woman?” I managed to ask with my mind. Something was changing, something was reforming inside me. I could feel it. Reaching down, I placed my hand onto my abdomen and realized all was not as it had been. Things were returning to my body that had just been on the ground. I didn’t want to think about infection or how much dirt was coating my internal organs. Should I survive the injuries, I’d die of septicemia for sure. No antibiotic could cure this.

“You are indeed a wonder. Each step of your life has prepared you for this moment. Your life-threatening wounds are repaired, and you will fully heal, be stronger than you ever were. You will return to your life, gifted as no other.” The light that I had thought was bright went nuclear. In that moment, that nanosecond, my life was changed, whether I wanted it to or not.

I screamed from the deepest part of me, and the sound of it echoed off the canyon walls. The smell of wood fires and the murmur of my ancestors crowded my mind. I had been gifted with knowledge from the ancients, and the power of justice. Just as I had come back from the dead, I would assist others to return, to restore the balance of the universe.

Now, I pulled myself out of the musing at the sound of a scuffle outside my door. In a police station, there is always a scuffle of some sort going on.

The clock face slowly came into focus, and I decided my day was over. Though it was early, four o’clock or so, I was whipped. Nothing else was going to get done today.

I grabbed my bag and stood just as the door opened.

“You look like someone beat you with a rock,” Sam said. Charming as ever. Where was that damned petrified wood? I could use it about now.

“Yeah, I feel like it, too.” Shouldering my bag, I avoided looking into his eyes and shoved my shades on. They protected me somewhat, but he was so friggin’ observant that nothing got past him. Damn cops anyway.

“I’m buying,” he said and stepped sideways in the doorway to let me pass.

That meant I had to touch him with my body and slide intimately against him, smell that cologne of his that always made me want to forget my mission and lick my way from one end of his body to the other. Right now, I was too tired, and tried not to sense the way his body felt, the firmness of his chest and abs as I slithered past him. “You coulda moved.” I threw a glare over my shoulder. With the sunglasses on, it was less effective. Sam wasn’t very susceptible to my glares anyway, which pissed me off. I wasn’t in the mood, so he was on his own for chow.

“Coulda.” He fell into step beside me. “Garduno’s?”

It was the one word I couldn’t resist. My mouth began to water in anticipation. Guacamole, margaritas and meat. “You’re such a bastard,” I said and hung my head. I was defeated already. My stomach ruled my life, and he knew it.

“I am, but that’s why you like me.” With his hand on the middle of my back, he gave me a playful shove toward the main doors. “Let’s eat. I’m starved.”

In less than thirty minutes I was surrounded by the things I loved and needed to get through the day: an excellent margarita, a flat-iron steak, rare, and a hot-blooded man across the table. It was a feast for the taste buds and the eyes. Okay, so I didn’t really need the margarita to get through the day, but it was a nice touch at the end of a sucky one. And I really, really didn’t need the hot-blooded man across the table from me, but boy, the eye-candy factor was too hard to resist sometimes. He was buying me dinner, after all. Who could argue with that?

I know Sam was interested in me in a way I couldn’t return. My life was so complicated, it was all I could do to get through it. I didn’t need any more complications. So for the moment, I just sat there and let him ogle my body, enjoying the rush of it. I knew he wanted to, and if this was the only control I had over a man, I had to take it. Gave me a shiver just thinking about what it would be like to have Sam naked and pressed against me. I gulped my frozen-no-salt-on-the-rim drink, trying to cool off my brain and the burn in my crotch. Didn’t work though. Next time I was having salt. I didn’t care what my blood pressure did.

Fortunately, our orders arrived quickly and I grabbed my knife, ready to stab it into anything that didn’t move.

“You’re the only woman I know who likes her steak bloodier than mine.” Sam cut into his meal.

“I feel so feminine and dainty when you say things like that.” Me? Ha. Not even on a good day. After I was resurrected, I burned every feminine thing I owned. Except for that one pair of pretty pink thongs with a matching bra. Someday...

“We never finished our conversation the other day,” Sam said.

Uh, what conversation? We had so many that got interrupted with phone calls and firearms that I couldn’t keep track. Always on the move, always busy doing something for the station or my office, we never seemed to have a moment to allow our brains to catch up. “Which conversation was that?”

“About my grandmother and her job in the underground.”

I had to laugh. That’s certainly one way of putting it. “Yeah.” I looked at Sam. I liked the way his smile sort of slid over his face slowly just then. The man has a face that isn’t pretty or handsome, but it is compelling. His hair is that dark, dark black that Latin men have, and his is cut very short. Not quite a buzz, but a little longer. He is clean shaven, but I’ve seen pictures of him with a ’stache, and it’s nice, too. The most compelling part of his face is his eyes, which sort of pull everything together and make it come alive. His eyes were the shade of espresso, dark and fathomless, eyes you could get lost in. Kinda like now.

“Dani?” He waved his hand in front of my face, bringing me back to the present. Doh!

How embarrassing. “Sorry.” I cleared my throat and speared a piece of grilled jalapeño. Maybe setting my mouth on fire would keep me focused. “Didn’t mean to stare.”

“No problem. You just seemed lost for a second.” The espresso in his eyes percolated a little warmer.

Yeah, I was lost. In his eyes. It’s that damned cologne he wears. I swear there’s some sort of chemical in it that puts me in a trance. Kinda like catnip for women. Ugh. Back to the convo at hand.