Not Quite Dead

Chapter Fifteen - Not Quite Dead

Artemis

Dawn was up in the air, being tossed and turned by an imaginary wind.  She looked almost pained.  I wanted to help in some way so badly, but I had no idea what was going on.  The glow radiating off of her was so bright that we had to turn away. 

It seemed like she didn't have any control of her body.  She and everything else seemed to be affected by this imaginary wind but my parents, Kyler, and me.  All we could do was stand there helplessly as my almost-girlfriend was being attacked by the creepy imaginary wind. 

What could we do anyhow?  This was obviously a spirit thing.  The only one who could have a possibility of doing anything was Kyler, but he wasn't even an In-between. 

"It's happening!" Kyler shouted.  "She's completing the Changing!"  He jumped up and down, entirely exuberant.  What the crap was the Changing?  Kyler's positive attitude calmed me down a little; at least the Changing would have positive results. 

Yeah, results meaning "in the end," I thought.  But right now, she's obviously being hurt!  But it was also obvious that I couldn't do anything about it.  Like I said earlier, it was a spirit thing, and I was a mortal.  Besides, if Kyler wasn't doing anything, I shouldn't worry.  That kid knew a lot.  I shouldn't be surprised; he was my dead brother. 

What would the Changing do anyway?  I had a few thoughts... I mean, Dawn was looking more human every time I saw her.  What if she was completely human this time?  All I would have to worry about was making sure Rachael and Dawn never met face to face. 

"The missus meets the ex" complex?  That was every man's worst nightmare. 

I wished I could see what the Changing was doing to her.  The glow around Dawn was just too bright, blinding all of us except for maybe Kyler, but I could never really tell with him.  I could just barely see her face, and she looked like she was being dipped in acid or something. 

Just one of the many downsides to being a mortal. 

Then, looking just like a supernova, the atmosphere around Dawn exploded in hundreds of different colors, so many that I didn't even know existed.  The glow around her was gone altogether.  She plopped to the ground, unmoving.  The dress she had on as a spirit transferred to her now hopefully human body.

I reached her first, quickly followed by Kyler, then my parents.  Dawn's hair covered her face.  I touched her hand; it was warm, 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and I beamed.  Definitely human.  In her human form, I noticed more differences between Rachael and her, and I didn't think there would be much bad blood between anybody. 

I put two fingers to her throat, right underneath the side of her jaw.  Her pulse was normal, and I smiled bigger, because I had a complete guarantee that Dawn was ALIVE. 

Dawn was alive. 

"Is she...?" my mother began sadly, then stopped. 

I shook my head.  "Nope.  She's alive.  Dawn is one hundred percent alive."

Just then, Dawn slowly sat up, her eyes still closed.  She brushed her hair out of her face.  She let her senses adjust to her surroundings, and tried to stand up.  Dawn tripped over her own two feet, and blushed. 

"Sorry, I haven't done any walking in three hundred years, you know," she said.  Her voice was like velvet, the sounds of ten thousand beautiful silver bells, silky, soft, and words I couldn't even think of at the moment.  I almost tripped myself because of how beautiful her voice was. 

"Good thing you have a good teacher," I said, pulling her close. 

"Are you kidding me?" my father said.  "Artemis trips on air.  He can't walk straight at all.  He's always bumping into us--"

"Caleb," my mother scolded. 

"I just don't want the girl to get her hopes up--"

"Caleb," my mother said more forcefully, looking him sternly in the eye.  She turned to us, smiling at Dawn.  "Dawn, sweetheart, we'll be inside.  Have Artemis take you in whenever you're ready."

 "Miss Dawn, this is so exciting!" Kyler explained after my parents left.  "I find my mommy and my daddy again and you completed the Changing and you and Mr. Artemis are going to get married and give each other cooties and make little Miss Dawns and little Mr. Artemises--"

I cut Kyler off right then.  "Miss Dawn and I aren't thinking that far ahead, kid."

Dawn covered her mouth as she laughed.  Her laugh was even more beautiful than her voice.  Heck, everything was beautiful about Dawn, especially now. 

Eventually, Kyler left to play with a new spirit boy he found down the street, and it was just Dawn and me left.  Because she couldn't walk properly yet, I carried her bridal style to the lake, and we sat down. 

"Artemis," she said.  My name was like a prayer on her lips, so delicate, like if anything interrupted us at the moment, the connection would break.  "Artemis, I can talk now!  I can say everything I'd been waiting to say for the past months!  Do you know what it's like to not speak for three hundred years?!"

"Nope," I replied, popping the p.  "You can tell me all about that later."

"Later?  When's that going to be--"

And then I did that cliché thing that the guy always does in movies: I cut off her sentence with a kiss.  Then I really couldn't think.  It wasn't one of those harsh kisses like you see in movies or read about in books.  It wasn't a heated kiss or a dirty kiss with tongues slipping in and out of each other's throats.  It was a normal kiss.  We just sat there for what seemed like hours, just...kissing.  There wasn't much more to it. 

And I was on freaking Cloud 9.  I got a feeling like this when I kissed Rachael in the past, but kissing your Kindred Soul, this was completely different.  Our hands stayed on the ground, mainly just trying to support ourselves.  I could've sworn that I'd heard a choir of freaking angels and a big light surrounding us. 

Being with Dawn was going to make me really cliché. 

"Ew, you're giving each other cooties!" Kyler's unmistakable voice cried from in front of us.  Dawn and I pulled away fast at the same time.  We were so in to...what we were doing that we hadn't noticed him.  Dawn was blushing, but I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. 

"Cooties?" Dawn asked.  I couldn't remember if I'd explained it to her before, but I didn't care.  This was the best day of my life. 

"You're gonna get some, too, kid, if you don't watch out!" I joked.  Then all three of us laughed. 

Back in the house, I introduced Dawn to the family.  Officially.  Mom, Dad, Sera, and I all lied about Dawn being someone I met at school.  It would be our little secret.  The girls and the twins liked her instantly. 

As for Dawn... She would be great.  No, she'd be better than great.  She'd be fantastic.  After all, she was not quite dead anymore.