Luka, page 19
When I arrive, Dr. Roth is already waiting at the far end of the parking lot. He pops the trunk of his Buick LeSabre. I toss the bags inside. “What are we doing about the security cameras?”
“I disarmed them before I left, then loaded each with old footage loops we had archived in the system.”
I raise my eyebrows, impressed.
“If anybody’s watching, they won’t see us.” Dr. Roth peers at the building. He knows all the codes. Has all the right keys. We are set up for success, which means this is nothing like Shady Wood. And yet, my heart pounds five times harder and ten times faster as we creep through the parking lot and slip inside.
The hallway is dark and empty.
The only thing separating me from Tess? Two flights of stairs. After sixty-three excruciating hours of separation, it takes every ounce of willpower not to sprint up them. It takes every ounce of willpower to let Dr. Roth take the lead as he carefully and quietly climbs to the third floor.
Two doors down, he removes a ring of keys from his pocket and sticks one into the keyhole, slowly turning until the lock releases a soft click.
Positive the sound has alerted the residential nurse, my attention jumps down the length of the hall, tortured by the slowness with which Dr. Roth twists the knob.
The hinges on the door let loose a high-pitched groan. My pounding heart jumps into my throat. I can contain myself no longer. I push Dr. Roth inside and there she is.
Tess.
Awake.
Strapped to a bed like her grandmother. Staring at the ceiling like her grandmother. My vision blurs with violent shades of red. My father did this. My mother let him. They chose to sacrifice Tess for my sake, not understanding how I’d retaliate. Not understanding the cost.
I go to her bedside.
She blinks up at me like I’m an apparition. A white-eyed man or a strange ball of light. She blinks up at me like I’m not real, but a figment of her imagination.
Dr. Roth unbinds her.
She rubs her wrists and tries to sit up, but her eyes won’t focus and her movements are slow and sluggish.
I place my hand on her back. “We have to get out of here.”
“They told me you weren’t real,” she says, her words slurring—one into the next. “They said I imagined you.”
The violent shades of red blaze brighter. I take Tess’s hand and flatten it against my chest where my raging heart pounds a fierce and steady beat. “Do you feel that? I’m very real, Tess.”
Dr. Roth removes her IV and examines the label on the bag of fluid. “They’ve been pumping her full of sedatives.”
“Can you stand?” I ask.
When she tries, her knees buckle.
So I sweep her into my arms, alarmed by her lightness. A rush of powerful protectiveness tightens my abdomen as Tess rests her head against my chest.
“Come on.” Dr. Roth waves me to the door. “Quickly.”
“What will happen if they catch us?” I ask.
“I’ll lose my license. We’ll both be arrested.”
“Then it’s hopeless,” Tess says. “This is Shady Wood.”
“We’re not in Shady Wood, Tess,” Dr. Roth replies. “This is the Edward Brooks Facility.”
“It is?” Her voice is so muffled, so heavy with sleep, I can tell she’s fighting hard to stay awake. Meanwhile, enough adrenaline courses through my veins, I think I might explode. I think I could obliterate anyone who would dare stand between us and Tess’s freedom.
Dr. Roth peeks into the hallway.
“How long have I been here?” she asks.
“Two days,” I whisper.
Roth steps out into the corridor. I follow with Tess in my arms. She opens her mouth to ask another question, but I gently shush her with a promise to explain later. Right now, we need to get out of here. Without setting off any alarms. Without waking up the residential nurse.
With Tess cradled against me, we hurry down the stairs, out into the fresh air, where the moon is bright and full.
“Your parents have been trying to get to you,” Dr. Roth explains as we hurry toward his car. “Mr. Williams assured them they’d be able to see you tomorrow, but you were going to be moved by then.”
“Moved where?”
“Shady Wood.”
I shift her in my arms, lengthening my stride. “You’re free, Tess,” I say. “It’s going to be okay.”
She smiles sleepily and succumbs to the sedatives.
39
The Gifting
I carry Tess inside Dr. Roth’s two-bedroom apartment and lay her on a warm, comfortable bed in the guest room, then rub a cool salve on her wrists while the doctor encourages her to drink a foul smelling tea steaming inside a mug.
“It’ll help counteract the medicine they were pumping into your system,” he says.
This is all the convincing she needs. She guzzles the drink, then curls into a ball. I pull the covers over her shoulder and sit in a chair by her bedside while she sleeps. I don’t get up. I don’t even move. I just sit there, glowering at the red welts on her wrists. When she stirs awake, the windows are still dark, the sun not yet risen.
She smiles at me, but I can’t bring myself to return the gesture. During the few hours she slept, the adrenaline coursing through my body simmered into a seething rage. “I’ll never forgive him for this.”
“Who?” she says.
“My dad.” I set my elbows on my knees and lean forward in the chair. “He’s the one who did this. He’s the one who reported you to the authorities.”
She sits up in bed, then cups her forehead with her palm.
For a moment, concern nudges my rage aside. Dr. Roth left a plate of food on the nightstand. I pick it up and hand it to her. “Here, you should eat this.”
She sets the plate on her lap, rests her head against the headboard like she’s too weak to hold it up on her own, and takes small bites of a bagel and small sips of the foul-smelling tea. The more she eats and drinks, the clearer her eyes become.
Meanwhile, I’m a mess—my insides a volatile combination of outrage and relief, overwhelming care and boiling indignation.
“They’re going to come back for me,” Tess says.
“I won’t let them get to you.”
She swallows another bite. “Luka, why did your dad have me locked up like that?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
I crack my knuckles, one after the other. “It all goes back to that screening.”
“Your mom’s pregnancy screening?”
I nod grimly. “The government didn’t approve of her decision. I guess the only way my dad could protect me was by striking a deal.”
“Protect you from what?”
“That was the same question I asked my dad. He never gave me a straight answer.”
“What was the deal?”
“They knew my father was in the mental health field. They wanted him to do some screening. Look for crazy people. Dangerous people. Specifically, people who claimed to have prophetic dreams. Then report them to the proper authorities. If he agreed to do that, they’d forget about me. But my dad didn’t do it. At least not everyone. He went out of his way to hide as many as he could. Even more so when my symptoms began. That’s when he bought the Brooks facility. But then you moved to town and the rumors started circling and I was hanging out with you so much. My parents, they freaked out, and well ...” I crack a few more knuckles, my eyes narrowed into slits. “They made a really stupid decision.”
I watch as Tess processes all that I’ve told her, what’s left of her bagel forgotten. When it seems her mind has wrapped around most of it, she sets the plate aside. “You have to tell me everything you know. What’s been going on while I’ve been locked up? I don’t even know whose room this is. What happened after they took me from school?”
“I’m not sure; I left too.” And I haven’t been back. I drag my hand down my face, trying not to relive the horrifying moment when that black sedan drove out of sight. It’s a losing battle, one I think I’ll relive multiple times a day for the rest of my life. I stare at nothing in particular with eyes that burn. “I watched them drive you away.”
“One of the men,” Tess says. “He called me Little Rabbit.”
I blink.
Little Rabbit.
The strange nickname rings a bell.
“That’s what that man in my dream calls me. The one with the scar. The one you fought off in the hospital.”
My mind grapples with the information. The man with the scar called Tess Little Rabbit in our dream. The man with the badge called Tess Little Rabbit in real life. I squint at the hardwood floor, trying to make sense of it while she finishes the rest of her bagel.
“Where are we?” she asks.
“Dr. Roth’s apartment.”
“Does anybody know we’re here?”
I shake my head. “My dad warned me he’d take drastic measures if I didn’t obey him. He didn’t know I’d take drastic measures right back.”
“You mean like soliciting the help of a psychiatrist to break me out of a mental facility?”
Yeah. Like that.
“I knew your parents were getting the runaround by the police. The authorities were no help. They wouldn’t let them see you, even when your dad wielded his influence. I didn’t know where else to go. So I went to Dr. Roth. Something in my gut was telling me I could trust him.”
I scoot to the edge of my chair. “Tess, he knows everything. When I showed up, he had me come into his office, almost as if he’d been waiting for me, and he locked the door and turned up some music and he told me to meet him back here with a bag for you and one for me. He’d already been planning on breaking you out.”
“Dr. Roth?”
I nod. “So I went to your house and I told your mom.”
“My mom?” Her voice breaks over the word.
“I told her everything. About you and me and your grandma.”
“Did she believe you?”
“I think she believed you were in serious danger. She made me promise that I’d take care of you. That I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.” I take her hand. “It’s a promise I won’t break. Your safety means everything to me.”
“What are we going to do? What if they find us?”
Before I can answer, Dr. Roth strides into the room, his neatly combed hair askew. “We don’t have much time,” he says, pressing a stethoscope to Tess’s heart. He takes her temperature. Flashes a light into each of her eyes. “I’m afraid you have to leave.”
I come out of my chair. “Already?”
“It’s not safe. For either of you.”
I hand Tess the bag her mother packed. Dr. Roth and I turn around to give her privacy as she changes out of her hospital robe.
“How did you get this stuff?” she asks.
“Your mom packed it for you.”
When she’s finished dressing, she pulls her hair into a ponytail and shoves her feet into a pair of shoes. “Why are you helping us?” she asks Dr. Roth. “Aren’t you supposed to be one of them?”
“I will never be one of them,” he replies.
“Who are you, then?”
“I’m a Believer.”
“A believer in what?” I ask.
Dr. Roth steps up to the window and peeks outside. The sun has yet to appear and I wonder if my parents know yet. If they realize I’m gone. That I’m never coming back.
“I’ve been doing research for years. Taking notes. Keeping journals. Once I had sufficient proof, my plan was to find more of you. After this, I believe I have all the proof I need.”
“More of us?”
“Proof of what?”
Tess and I ask our questions at the same time. Dr. Roth looks through the blinds, then addresses my question first. “Proof that you’re all in danger.”
“What do you mean all?”
“There are other people out there,” he says. “People like you.”
“Who are we?” Tess asks.
“You are The Gifting.”
I’ve never heard those words before in my life, but for reasons I don’t understand, they have the hair on the back of my arms standing on end.
The Gifting.
A loud knock thunders at the door, followed by a deep-throated, “Thornsdale police!”
Dr. Roth shoves my bag against my chest. Tess loops hers over her shoulders.
“Quick, come with me.” He leads us to the back window of his apartment and nods to the fire escape outside. “Come back in the morning. I promise to tell you everything I know.”
There’s more pounding against the door. “Open up or we’ll let ourselves in!”
I grab Tess’s hand and pull her outside.
We aren’t crazy.
We’re The Gifting.
And there are more of us.
Tomorrow, Dr. Roth will explain what that means. Until then, it’s just the two of us in the dead of night, hurrying down the fire escape on silent feet—me and this girl who has become everything.
I will go through hell and back again to keep her alive and safe and free.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
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THE FABRICATION OF EDEN PRUITT
BOOK 1 IN THE EDEN PRUITT SERIES
The Fabrication of Eden Pruitt (Book 1)
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Studious and principled Eden Pruitt stepped out of line just once. Unfortunately, that reckless decision ended with an arrest, a mug shot, and two very concerned parents. Now they’re starting over. In Iowa, of all places. On the cusp of her senior year, of all times. The situation is less than ideal but she’ll just have to manage, and without complaint. The change of address was her fault after all, and she isn’t going to make anything harder on her parents, who have already been through enough.
* * *
But life in Iowa turns strange fast. Odd things are happening, and Eden has no idea what any of it means. Then she comes home from her first day of school to a ransacked house and the nightmare officially begins. Her parents are missing. She’s convinced something terrible has happened to them. But nobody believes her. Except for a hardened, mysterious stranger who is as dangerous as he is enticing.
About the Author
K.E. Ganshert graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a degree in education. She worked as a fifth grade teacher for several years before staying home to write full time. Now she’s an award-winning author published in two genres: contemporary fiction of the inspirational variety and young adult fiction of the fantastical variety. She is currently pursuing the latter.
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Also by K.E. Ganshert
The Contest, a stand-alone fantasy adventure with mystery and romance
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The Fabrication of Eden Pruitt, Book 1
The Aberration of Eden Pruitt, Book 2
The Revelation of Eden Pruitt, Book 3
The Retribution of Eden Pruitt, Book 4
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The Gifting, The Gifting Series, Book 1
The Awakening, The Gifting Series, Book 2
The Gathering, The Gifting Series, Book 3
Luka, The Gifting Series, a companion novel
The Contest
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In a world of haves and have nots, where petty crime is punishable by death and magic is forbidden, a deadly contest unfolds in secret. Twelve competitors are mysteriously invited. The winner gets one wish.
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For 17-year-old Briar Bishop, this means saving her brother from execution by guillotine, and she’s not going to let anything or anyone get in her way. Especially not Leo Davenbrook, the handsome High Prince, who has grown up with everything she never had and whose very presence threatens her chance at survival. She has no idea a darker battle wages, one that could lead to a fate far worse than the death of her brother.
K.E. Ganshert, Luka
