A group of men—tall, powerful, with an effortless command over the space. Their tailored clothing fit too well, exuding wealth and authority. Every nurse, every bystander, turned to watch them. Even Raven couldn’t look away.
They moved with lethal grace, confidence carved into every step. One of them, a man with sharp, nearly black eyes and a deadly air, spoke to a nurse in hushed tones. She nodded, subdued, as if compelled by something unseen.
Raven’s heart pounded. They had to be here forhim. The man she found on the cliffs. Several of them had the same silver-blond hair. But the injured man’s eyes were green. These men had eyes like glaciers, ice blue and just as cold. Her gut told her she was looking at something more than an ordinary gang. This was organized. Dangerous. Controlled.
The dark eyed man turned toward her. He wore black from head to toe. His hair was dark and hung past his shoulders. Hehad it tied at the base of his neck in a style she imagined had been all the rage a couple hundred years ago. He looked out of place. In the wrong time.
They disappeared inside one of the hospital rooms. Then—nurses shouting. An alarm went off.
She jumped to her feet and tried to ask someone what was going on. The hospital staff ignored her.
She paced, uneasy, until the black haired man and one of the others walked back in through the front doors. Eyes black as midnight stared into hers. She took a step forward before she realized she’d moved.
He blinked. Slowly. She saw death in his eyes.
Then… nothing.
Hours later…
Sunlight filtered through her windshield.Raven blinked groggily, her head resting against the car seat.
She was in her car. Parked in the same spot outside her new listing. She glanced over to discover the drone she’d used to take the aerial shots of the property safely nestled in the passenger seat. She reached for the device and scanned the video, making sure she’d covered all the important bits.
Yep. Perfect. But this kink in her neck was brutal, like she’d been out for hours.
She frowned. Had she fallen asleep? The memories were hazy, fragmented. Something about men in expensive suits, a commanding presence, an eerie pull...
A dream? Had to be. Just a weird, crazy, vivid dream. She checked her phone for drone footage. The aerial view of the property she was listing was perfect. Still, something felt off.
When did she fall asleep? That wasn’t like her. She couldn’t remember even being tired. Must be all the extra hours she’d been putting in. This was her first big property listing and she’d been working a lot of hours. If she could find the right buyer, the property would sell itself. It was her dream house, if she was honest. She’d accepted the fact that she’d probably never be able to afford a home like this, but shecouldmake an offer on a cute little cottage in town once she earned the commission on this sale.
Someone would absolutely buy this impressive home. Lots of living space, seven bedrooms, an actual, old-fashioned ballroom for entertaining, a kitchen designed for a master chef, and the entire estate built––or rather updated––to be completely self-sufficient with solar power, access to water, a huge garden, lots of land, state of the art security system, helipad for easy travel. The amenities were mind boggling. The house itself wasn’t just massive, it was gorgeous, the view from the cliffs overlooking the ocean, fantastic. With a bit of scrambling, one could make their way down near the water for some peaceful solitude with nothing but pounding surf for company. A bit isolated, but she could get used to that, especially if she had someone to share it all with.
Emerald green eyes flashed across her memory.
She shook her head, amused by her runaway imagination. But the vision persisted.Stop daydreaming and focus on the road! No one has eyes like that.
As she navigated the narrow gravel road back to town, she tried to ignore the unsettling feeling creeping up her spine.No one has eyes like that..
Two weeks later…
The wind whippedacross the cliffs, salt-laced and biting. Raven stood motionless on the hilltop overlooking the exact spot where she had found the dying man. Her arms tightened across her chest, her gaze fixed on the ground below. She was freezing, the cold sea air cutting through her blouse and pants like a thousand tiny knives.
She hadn’t meant to stay out here this long. But once she reached the cliffs, she couldn’t bring herself to leave. To admit defeat.
She’d lost an entire day, and no one believed her. She’d nearly convinced herself she was going mad, until she saw the time stamps on the drone footage.
How many times had she watched the drone’s video footage now? A hundred? More?
More. A lot more.
And still— she had no answers. No leads. No hospital records. No police reports. No witnesses.Nothing.
Well, nothing except expertly edited video with time stamps almost twenty-four hours apart. The video started on a beautiful, brisk evening… the angle of the sun almost perfect, the swooping views of the ocean and cliffs dramatic. The Northern Lights in the background? Stunning. She’d almost been convinced that she imaged the whole thing. The missing time. The wounded man. The moment the drone had flown over his bloody, injured body and sent the live images to her cell phone.
But she’d looked, checked the footage. And there it was, two date stamps. The time? Mere minutes apart, nearly perfect.As long as one didn’t dig into the metadata on the video and discover that the beginning and the ending of the video were on two different days.
Someone had doctored the video and erased the man. Somehow, they’d erased her memory of it and dumped her back in her car none the wiser.
