Page 63 of Return to Me Always

Chapter Eighteen

Finally, I reached his side and fell to my knees beside him. In the darkness, I felt for him, frantic, wishing for another lightning flash to illuminate his face. My hands searched his body, finding no answers.

In my panic, I shook his shoulders, then realized I should feel for a pulse, check for breathing. My fingers found his neck, searching for a heartbeat against my wet, shaking hands. And... thank God. He had a pulse.

He was on his stomach, but I held my palms steady on his back. My hands moved up and down with his erratic breathing.

"Tyler," I sobbed. "Please wake up.Please."

A flash of lightning, and I saw red. On his face. Another flash, and I realized he was bleeding.

"Oh, my God, Tyler. Please wake up. Please. Youhaveto wake up."

Trying to steady my fingers, I reached for his face, attempting to find the source of the blood. But his still body scared me more than anything I'd ever experienced.

Multiple lightning strikes illuminated the sky so I could spot the source of his blood—a cut above his eye. The bottom of my shirt was already torn, and I yanked it off, holding it to his brow in an attempt to staunch the blood flow, pleading with him the whole time.

"Please wake up. Please wake up. Please."

Still nothing. The thought of him never waking filled me with anguish, an anguish so raw that I could barely breathe.

He couldn't die. He couldn't.

"Tyler, please," I begged. "Please wake up. I love you. I need you. Here. With me. Please wake up. I love you. I love you. You have to wake up.Please."

Salty tears mingled with rainwater that streamed down my face. Fear and indecision consumed me.

What would I do without him? How could I help him? What could I do? Should you even do CPR on a person that was breathing and had a pulse? Oh, I didn't know what to do!

"Tyler," I cried. "Please."

A hand caught mine, steel-like, and didn't let go.

"I'm okay," he answered thickly, making me sob even harder.

"Tyler! Thank God."

In all my life, I had never been so happy to hear another person's voice. I nearly collapsed onto him out of relief. But his sudden coughing stopped me. Violent hacking racked his strong body as his lungs rejected the salt water.

Utterly useless, I watched and waited while the rain washed over us both, freezing us, lightning and thunder dancing together dangerously close.

I tried to calm my crying, stop my tears, and breathe.

"I'm fine," Tyler said, his voice raspy. He rolled over slowly, raising himself to a sitting position. "Do you see him?"

"Who? Malcolm? No." I had forgotten about him in my frantic search for Tyler.

He raised a hand and held the bloody cloth to his head. "We should get off the beach," Tyler said between cracks of thunder. "We need to get as far away from here as possible. Away from Malcolm. Now."

Together, we stood upright, my legs still trembling from their previous ordeal in the water. We both stumbled against the uneven sand and rocks amidst the blasts of rain and wind.

The beach ended at the bottom of a humongous cliff that seemed as tall as a skyscraper. Tyler led us toward it, forging a path where the earth met the stony shoreline. We continued on, rain and wind, lightning and thunder feeding off each other, relentless in their never-ending wrath. Not another soul—animal or human—was about.

My legs cramped from their effort among the punishing rocks, and I looked to Tyler to see how he fared. A flash revealed the bleeding from his brow had stopped.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked, even though speaking was such a great effort.

Tyler didn't answer right away, making me think we might be lost. "We can just follow the water," he finally said.

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