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Book Two in the Darien Grace Chronicles
"I couldn't hear the music. I knew that it was pulsing all around me, I could feel it vibrate through the air, but I couldn't hear it. I hadn't been able to hear it for a while now. I ju...
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Darien Grace
"Mademoiselle?" A soft plea guided me out of the darkened twilight. A phantom warmth begged for me to hold on though, for just a little while longer—memories from another time struggling to hold me. Caleb had been the first person to hold me after I'd left Louisiana. Hell, he'd been the first person to touch me without my wanting to run for the godd.amn hills. Before I'd even met the man, part of me had trusted him. He was the one constant in my life for so many years. I still trusted him, but I didn't trust myself. I'd only caused him, John, and Jas pain. No matter the promises of "family" Caleb had made to me, I was still an outcast. Living with them had been a blissful dream, an escape from the nightmares that I knew would always haunt me, but that escape was only temporary. The Universe wouldn't allow for me to have a permanent reprieve.
I couldn't remember how my conversation with Leala had ended or even how or when I'd fallen asleep. All I could remember was that same sickening syrup forcing its way through my veins and taking me prisoner once again.
"Les heures de visites sont bientôt finies et il demande à vous voir," the same voice as before continued.
"I'm sorry. I can't—I don't speak French," another voice—Leala's said. I had to resist the urge to open my eyes and ask the questions now plaguing my mind. Why had she stayed? Why had she even come here? I knew that she had said that Jas asked her to come, but what did she owe her? What could she possibly be getting out of playing babysitter? Who was asking for her? My curiosity was begging for me to just open my d.amn eyes and ask her, but I fought to keep it in check. There was something in me urging me to keep up the act. I felt like "waking up" would halt whatever flow of information was happening. I didn't have a d.amn clue what was going on but maybe if I kept the act up I would get at least some sort of idea.
Vaguely, I remembered the conversation from when I was first being rushed into this d.amned hospital. Leala had been there and the hospital staff, but there had been someone else too. I knew someone else was there, but the memories were too far buried under the heavy influence of prescription drugs for me to unearth.
I had no other clues to piece together and the lack of information was beginning to irritate me. I was so used to having all of the pieces and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it didn't really matter, I couldn't. Darien Grace had woken up and dug her nails into my world and she wasn't letting go. She was still hanging on and trying to ruin my life. She was a drug too strong to kick and one I'd been on for far too long. She was a part of me, no matter how hard the Universe had tried to kill her.
"It's time. Must leave," the first voice said. She was probably a nurse in the hospital, her thick accent stumbling over the foreign language.
"Oh, okay. Sorry," Leala said, her voice groggy.
The door closed and I knew that the nurse had left.
"It's time to stop running, Darien. Time for you to come back and get your s.hit together. There are people depending on you." A confused thrill raced through me at her words.
