My Immortal Lover

33

"Ana, stop."

My body jerked when Daniel's voice slid through the thick air that surrounded me and I growled in annoyance. Instead of freezing in fear like Bianca and Alec, Daniel started to move towards me and I lunged forward, my hands reaching for Bianca, but he grabbed my waist and pulled me back.

"Let go of me!" I said, but it ended up coming out sounding closer to a snarl than words and my body started to shake in my fury. Struggling against Daniel, I couldn't seem to get away, even though I was turning into wind and trying to slip through his fingers.

"Ana, please!" Bianca sobbed, backing up and bumping into a frozen Alec.

"I am not weak! You are going to pay for that!" I shrieked and her eyes widened, her mouth opening and closing, trying to formulate words that just couldn't escape her throat.

"Mommy, stop," Todd pleaded and I felt his hands trying to find purchase on the arm that flickered in and out of reality. Finally he sat down on the counter, watching his dad and me flash into sight in front of him, his tiny round face creased with sadness and concern.

My eyes flickered to him and I froze in my attempt at getting Bianca, who now was pushed behind Alec. He was extremely focused now, trying to protect her and she stared at me from around his arm, tears leaking down her face. Todd's face crumbled my madness and I stilled, coming fully back into view and I collapsed.

Daniel hadn't expected this from me and was too late in catching me as I fell, my head smacking the counter on the way down. The world exploded with little bursts of light and a warm fluid trickled down my cheek to pool on the floor. Before they rolled back in my head, my eyes found the door leading to the living room and saw as the kids filled the doorway, staring down at me with horror in their eyes.

Convulsing, my body rolled over and I vomited up the little amount of food I'd consumed today, and then twitched on the floor. There was a commotion going on around me but I couldn't hear it, I couldn't see it. Blood flowed from the gash that led from my cheekbone up into the hairline above my temple.

Then there were hands on me, turning me onto my back, shoving towels against my face and stilling my twitching limbs. I fought them blindly, swiping out with my hands until they were caught and pressed against the floor. Slowly, my hearing came back and I flinched at the awful screaming that emanated around us.

"Ana, stop struggling!" Daniel's frantic voice came through the shriek and there was pain on my forehead. I jerked away from it and tried to turn my head fast, but the hand holding the towel had come forward again, slamming into my face when I twitched, sending me into an eerie blackness and silence.

I stood in the middle of nowhere, but I was surrounded by tall stalks of grass and looked down to find myself in a white sundress, and I grasped my belly, which was protruding with a baby.

"Ana? What's wrong?"

Daniel?

What was he doing here? I'm the dead one; he's not supposed to be dead! My eyes searched for him in front of me, but there was no one there. I backed up and froze when I hit a solid form, then whirled around and looked up into the face of Mack.

The voice hadn't been Daniel's, it was Mack's. A wave of relief washed through me before it turned to confusion. I choked and fisted my hands, blinded and I stumbled, a sudden pain in my forehead.

"Ana?" He asked; his hands swift to catch me in my descent to the ground.

"What's going on?" I asked and my voice was barely above a whisper.