Page 76 of City of Love

He nodded to her, but didn’t say anything.

“He can’t really speak to you right now,” Roberto said. “He’s concentrating very hard. You can always talk to me though. And yes, the buzzing you’re feeling is them holding you here.”

A huge rip of thunder cracked, and at the same time she felt something else. A pulling sensation that started deep in her gut, beneath her belly button. It was as if the bed was made of quicksand and was trying to suck her down into it. A flash of panic and adrenaline shot through her limbs.

It’s not gonna work! My world is trying to grab me!

Yet at the same time, the buzzing held her in a net, a cocoon enwrapping her body. It was yanking her back as strongly as she was being pulled. The forces grabbed at her equally and she felt as though she hung in mid-air. She glanced at Gideon’s face, and though his hands gripped her arm, his eyes were closed in concentration.

The pulling grew stronger, the lightning brighter, the thunder louder. She knew her body was not actually moving on the bed, but it felt as though she was dangling over a giant, black pit, the rope she dangled from bouncing and bobbing in empty space. She was neither here nor there. But Roberto had been right—she focused on the thunder. This thunder, in this world.

A wave of nausea took her and she gagged. Immediately, the sound of the singing got louder, filling the room with light, airy tones, and she relaxed again, the nausea dissipating.

“Roberto, I was getting sick, but it’s passed.” She turned her head and sought his face. “Was that because of them? Alana and Julian?”

“Yes.” He wiped a damp lavender-scented cloth across her forehead. “They responded to your need by increasing the volume.”

“Maybe this isn’t so bad,” she said, calming a bit. “I can do this.”

Gideon opened one eye and looked at her, then closed it again.

“I’m okay, Gideon. Don’t worry, I can handle this.”

But then she felt the first real hit. The quicksand and nausea had merely been a warm up. The pull of her world suddenly yanked at her insides as though someone had grabbed hold of her viscera and was attempting to disembowel her right there on the bed.

She bucked and screamed out in pain, her arms wrapping around her belly, her knees pulling up into a fetal position. The buzzing increased, fighting back against the pull, but the friction of the vibration built to a white heat, burning her from the inside out. There was a war being fought between vacuum and fire, and her body was the battlefield.

She clutched at the sheets, sweat blossoming on her face and chest, and she cried out, gulping for air. Every inch of pain amplified the more so because of the nature of Gideon’s universe and her heightened sensitivity.

“Lexi, please do your best to be still,” Roberto was saying from someplace ten miles away.

“You try and be still!” she heard herself shouting.

The singing got louder. Roberto’s hands moved along her body with a healing energy, soothing her a bit. She quieted, catching her breath and wondering if it was over or just the eye of the storm. Someone was replacing the candles that had burned down to nubs. How many hours had gone by so far?

She glanced at Gideon’s face. He too was soaked in sweat, his eyes closed in concentration. Tears ran down his cheeks. She wanted so badly to tell him it was okay, to just concentrate and not be upset, but…

Another wave of agony broke over her, coupled with flashes of lightning so bright they tore at her retinas, pierced her skull. Her back arched, her hands clutched at the linens, and tears finally broke from her eyes, running down her face and neck, turning cold on the sheets beneath her. She felt as though the opposing worlds each wanted her so badly, they were willing to rip her in two, that she was being ripped in two.

And she sensed that her universe was winning. The pain was pulling her into a black hole, down and down into darkness, back to her world. Her vision was fading, the room becoming dim.

“Gideon!” she called out, believing that she was leaving him. “Gideon!”

She saw his eyes fly open, horror on his face. She could see his lips moving, but could barely make out his words. It seemed as though he was yelling. “Lexi!” she thought he said. “Alexa! Stay! Please, Lex. Stay!”

And then blackness closed in and became nothing.

She hadn’t faded away. She was seizing. Her body spastic and stiff, shuddering on the bed. He’d been doing battle with another universe for nearly three hours and it had now come to this. His tiny little love was being pulled apart, and cruelly, he was on one end of the tug ‘o war, doing half the damage.

“Gideon!” Roberto shouted, the rare occurrence of his raised voice snapping him to attention. “Get back to work. Concentrate on holding her here. Let the healers do their job.”

Gideon’s heart thumped in his chest, his lungs racing to catch air. He released his grip on her arm just long enough to wipe the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.

Concentrate on tonal frequencies and molecular vibration when she lay shuddering on the edge of death in front of him? He tried to find his center, slow his breathing. She needed him to do his job, not lose control now. He focused again, set back to work.

Though his eyes were closed he felt someone gently move his hands from Lexi’s jerking, twitching body, and he knew the healers were doing their job.

Please save her! Please calm her poor body!

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