Page 62 of Joshua's Mistake
Chapter 11
The hard groundbeneath her was her first sign she had crossed back through the veil. Her body ached but other than some stiffness and an empty belly she was unharmed. Sweat dripped from every pore as the heat pressed down around her.
“Am I in hell?” She tried to say the words out loud, but it sounded similar to a croak from her dry throat.
Gunfire exploded outside. Tessa couldn’t see anything except the orange glow on a mud ceiling.
A man who reminded her of Joshua bent over her and grinned. He lifted her to sitting and tipped some water into her mouth. “You’re in Nevada.”
“Joshua.” She managed the one word a bit better after the water slid down her throat.
The man who had to be Joshua’s brother said, “He’s okay. I’m Kane.”
“Who’s shooting?”
“I’m not sure, but my guess is Banta has found us.”
Tessa stretched her long legs and leaned against the dirt wall. Her body was stiff and her stomach growled. She took the offered cup of liquid and wiped sweat from her face as she drank. “Why is it so damn hot?”
Light streamed in through a doorway. She saw movement and turned to see Joshua crawling on his stomach across the ground toward her. “Because we’re in the sweat lodge, beautiful. It was the only way I could cross over and get to you.”
Her entire body relaxed when she saw him. Her aches no longer mattered. The memory of the pain Banta had caused meant nothing. He was whole and that was all that mattered. “You’re alive. The bullet didn’t hit you?”
“You saved me.” The gunfire continued outside, but Joshua pulled her into his arms. He kissed the top of her head.
Nothing would ever compare to being safe in his embrace. Odd she should feel secure when it was obvious a battle raged outside. “I wasn’t sure and then you were in my nightmare telling me…you love me.”
She’d said it out loud. It might have been her imagination, but that was what she remembered most clearly from the other world.
He moved so she could see his face in the orange glow coming from the center of the round room. “I do love you.”
Bliss. It was well over a hundred degrees in the room. Automatic weapons fire blasted outside and yet those words brought her pure bliss.
“You brought me back.” Her lips found his, warm and needy. The gunfire became louder, breaking the kiss much too soon.
He ignored the sound. “I will never leave you behind.”
She turned to find an elderly Native American woman lying on her stomach nearby. She looked at them and nodded.
Even though Tessa had never seen the woman before there was something familiar about her. Somehow, she knew this woman was the reason Joshua had found her. Tessa asked, “When did the battle start?”
The woman spoke. “It started about fifteen minutes ago.”
Kane said, “We need to get out of here. I have no idea how it’s going.”
“You should have left,” Joshua said.
Kane shook his head. “I wasn’t sure you’d come back.”
The emotions flowing between the brothers swelled and then retreated. Tessa’s connection to Joshua allowed her to feel their bond. Then they both brushed it away as if swatting a fly.
“There should be weapons just outside the entrance,” Joshua said.
Joshua touched Tessa’s cheek and smiled. In spite of the hell breaking loose outside his happiness was obvious. It flowed over her as if it were a blanket. “Do you think you can move? We need to get out of the lodge.”
She pushed to her knees, testing her muscles. “I can move, though I probably won’t be running just yet.”
His smile was enough to make her jump for joy at least figuratively. Her memory was blurry after the bullet meant for Joshua left the weapon. She remembered slowing time. She’d pushed the bullet, but before she could find out if her effort had saved him, the pain of Banta tearing her aura from her body erupted. The agony still lingered in her soul. How had she survived? She remembered the nightmare. Fear, sorrow, rage were all warring together and blocking her from moving forward. Then Joshua came for her, but it was all blurry and surreal. At least until the moment she’d heard him declare his love. Those words were a beacon. The barrier that had kept her away lifted and she’d been in front of him. It had been her and not her fear or her strength. She was more than just one emotion for the first time in what seemed like years. How long had it been?
