I groan as I lean forward, putting my hands on my knees as my stomach clenches and my head spins.
“Are you okay?” Reed asks, his hand already on my back, and rubbing soothing circles on it.
“What happened?” River adds. “You flickered out and then came straight back, and you’ve never gotten ill when you’ve teleported before.”
“I’m not sure what happened. I went, but it was like I hit a brick wall and immediately bounced back,” I plonk my ass on the seat, and tilt my head back, closing my eyes and trying to regain my equilibrium. I hate feeling dizzy.
“I’ll send out a text and let everyone know what’s happened,” Reed says.
I don’t move, worried that any movement will set off the spinning in my head again, and it’s only just stopped.
Tiny, soft hands cup my cheeks. I must have really been out of it because I didn’t hear her come back.
“How’re you doing, Cam?” She asks softly while the others all discuss what happened and what could have caused it.
I pull her onto my lap, and she lands with a surprised oomph that makes me smile.
“Better now,” I reply. It’s true, as soon as she touched me, everything calmed. My stomach stopped trying to expel its contents, and my head stopped threatening to carry on spinning if I moved so much as a centimeter.
She’s mine, and I’m hers, and I keep forgetting that.
I never thought it would happen to me.
Slowly, I open my eyes and find her watching me worriedly. I don’t like that. I gently grip her chin and bring her lips closer to mine, kissing her softly as I feel her relax against me.
“Really, I promise that I am feeling a lot better now, okay?” I tell her when I finally pull back.
She studies my expression closely and then nods, “Okay.”
“What happened, man?” Raiden asks.
I shift Neith slightly so that I can see everyone and reply, “I have no idea. It’s never happened before, not even when I was first starting out.”
“Winston said that they were searching for the threat that stole time from me and that had escaped them. Maybe they’ve locked the grounds down somehow?” Neith asks.
“What?” Coen asks, looking as confused as the rest of us, “Neith, Love, you’re going to have to explain.”
She nods and quickly launches into an explanation about the imps and the necklace they gave her, and the beast from Luesidious. By the time she gets to the end of it, we have some answers but also some questions.
So it’s pretty much business as usual.
“Winston!” She suddenly yells, making all of us wince. After a few moments and no sign of Winston, she adds with a worried frown, “I guess he’s not going to show up.” She tries to call for Wallace too, but he doesn’t come either. “I hope they’re okay. It’s not like them not to answer, usually at least one of them does.”
“I’m sure they’re okay,” Raiden reassures her, “we only saw them a few moments ago in the woods, and they did say that they had a lot going on back at the house, trying to find that creature who stole time from you. I’m sure they’re just busy.”
She nods, “Yeah, that’s true. If anyone knows what is going on with Doc though, it’s likely to be them.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I tell her, as I pull her closer to me.
She calms something inside me that has been raging for far too long.
“Have you tried teleporting to somewhere else other than home?” Raiden asks thoughtfully. “Like from one side of the room to the other, something simple? It would be a good way to test whether your teleporting is not working completely or just isn’t working to go to the other house.”
“That’s a good idea,” Van agrees, his arms crossed over his chest in his usual, ‘I’m worried’ stance.
I shake my head, “I didn’t get that far. I felt really ill, and then you guys all appeared.”
Neith stands up, and I reluctantly let her go. She smiles as she sees my disappointed expression and then says, “Try to do it now. I want to know how worried I need to be.”
