Wiccan, A Witchy Young Adult Paranormal Romance (29 page)

“
Scranton? Why
Pennsylvania?”

“
She wanted to be far away
from…somebody and this was the only facility that would accept a
patient out of state with no insurance.”

“
He must be pretty bad if
she’s been hiding from him all these years,” I
concluded.

“
I’m hoping she’ll tell us
all about him.”

I turned my head to stare out the
window and quickly became lost in thought. After that, Grayson and
I didn’t broach too many serious topics. In fact, we didn’t talk
much at all. The silences weren’t uncomfortable, though. We both
had a lot on our minds and I doubted he was bothered by the lack of
conversation any more than I was.

We stopped for dinner a couple hours
from our destination. My appetite wasn’t very big, but that didn’t
stop Grayson from chowing down. He ate a cheeseburger, a chicken
sandwich, fries, an apple pie and drank a large Coke. I surmised
that his metabolism must run at breakneck speed all the
time.

By the time we’d arrived at the
hospital, it was full dark and I was full nervous. Getting onto the
grounds wasn’t as much of a problem as getting in to see my mother
proved to be. Turns out they were much more agreeable to me seeing
her than Grayson. The nurse told us that men upset her.

“
Maybe I could go in first
and talk to her. Then you could come in,” I suggested to
Grayson.

I could tell that Grayson
didn’t like it, but without a court order, they didn’t
have
to let him see her
and I think he realized doing it this way might be our only option.
Plus it was past visiting hours. They didn’t have to let either one
of us in to see her
at
all
.

“
Alright,” he said abruptly.
“But I want you to come and get me as soon as you can.”

“
I will,” I
promised.

I turned to the nurse that we’d been
talking to about seeing her. I nodded. “I’m ready to see my
mother.”

“
Your mother?
Girl, why didn’t you say so?” The chunky little
diva-of-a-nurse grabbed me by the arm and practically pushed me
through the door in front of her.

We walked through several halls that
looked identical. All the walls were a pale, soothing blue and all
the floors were a gleaming, bright white. Doors dotted the
hallways, each one locked with a heavy duty mechanism and each
having a tiny window toward the top.

I heard muffled moans and deranged
laughter coming from the rooms as we passed and I became a little
uneasy, wondering if it was a wise choice to do this without
Grayson. But when the nurse stopped in front of one of the doors
and pulled out her keys, I realized that the time for misgivings
had come to an end. I was about to meet my mother.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The nurse pushed the door open slowly.
It creaked on its rusty hinges, echoing eerily down the hall. The
sound seemed to stir up the other patients, their moans and cries
becoming louder and more agitated.

I followed her into the room and looked
around. There was a tiny metal-frame bed pushed up against the wall
to the left and a small metal table pushed up against the wall to
the right. One metal chair was pushed underneath it. The other had
been pulled up in front of the window and in it sat a small
woman.

Her back was to me. She sat with her
knees drawn up to her chest, head tilted back, staring out the
window into the dark night beyond.

Her long coppery hair hung in a tangled
twist over the back of the chair. She didn’t move a muscle when we
entered.

“
Miss Debbie,” the nurse
said cheerfully. “Your daughter’s come to see you.”

“
I don’t have a daughter,”
the woman said softly.

My heart sank. What if Grayson was
mistaken? What if Irene had gotten it all wrong?

The nurse looked at my suspiciously so
I scrambled to find out if this was my mother before she kicked me
out.

“
Did you ever have to leave
your baby at a hospital near Baltimore? It was called Our Lady of
Mercy,” I clarified.

I saw the woman’s back stiffen and I
took that reaction as a good sign.

Slowly, she lowered her feet to the
floor and turned in her chair to look at me. In the low light, I
could see bloodshot caramel eyes staring back at me from the pale
oval of her face. I’d looked into eyes just like that every day of
my life— in the mirror.

I saw her gaze flicker up to my hair,
which was neatly bound at my nape. Her eyes traveled across my face
and then all the way down to my toes. They made their way back up
again and when they stopped on mine once more, they were glistening
with tears. She blinked several times to clear the moisture from
her eyes and keep it from spilling down her cheeks. I’d done that
same thing a thousand times to keep from crying.

“
What’s your
name?”

“
Mercy,” I
answered.

“
Mercy,” she whispered. Then
she turned her attention back to the nurse. “She can come back
tomorrow. I have to prepare.” And with that, she turned back around
in her chair and resumed her motionless stare out the
window.

The nurse looked at me. By her
expression, she had no more idea what that meant than I did. We
both shrugged and the nurse looked back toward my
mother.

“
Don’t you want to visit
with her since she came all this way?”

“
I need to prepare. That’s
the only way I can help her.”

A little tingle of apprehension
skittered down my spine. “Help me what?”

“
Tomorrow,” she said,
drawing her knees back up to her chest.

“
Nights are harder for most
of our patients,” the nurse whispered to me. She turned toward the
door, motioning with her head for me to follow. “She’ll be better
for you tomorrow,” she said as she locked my mother’s door behind
us.

“
I hope so,” I said,
following her back through the maze of halls.

Grayson was sitting in the lobby area
with his knees spread and his elbows resting on them. His fingers
were tented as if he was thinking. Or plotting.

When I opened the door, his head
snapped up. He jumped to his feet and started toward me. I held out
my hand to stop him.

“
We have to come back
tomorrow.”

“
Why?” he asked, clearly
irritated.

“
Because she’s refusing to
talk to me tonight,” I explained quietly.

“
She’ll talk to—”

Grayson had started to stalk off, but I
grabbed his arm, interrupting his impending tirade.

“
Let’s go find a place to
stay tonight. We can talk about this after we get out of here.” I
looked at him meaningfully. There were ears and eyes all around and
I didn’t want to risk saying something that I shouldn’t.

The debate that was waging inside
Grayson was evident by his expression, which was dark and
conflicted. Finally, without saying a word, he took my arm and
guided me to the car.

Once we were seated in the Charger, he
turned to me and said, “What was that all about?”

“
My mother said she would
talk to me tomorrow. After she had time to prepare.”

“
Prepare? For
what?”

“
I don’t know, but it was
really weird the way she acted. She said that she had to prepare
because it was the only way she could help me.”

Grayson’s eyes narrowed on me. “Help
you,” he repeated.

I nodded.

Hmm
was all he said after that. He stared out the windshield for a
couple of minutes, obviously deep in thought, and then he
straightened in his seat, started the car and pulled out of the lot
without a word.

Once we were on the main highway
heading back toward interstate, we started passing hotels. Grayson
drove past the entrance for a Marriott (for obvious reasons) and
turned into the Hampton Inn parking lot just beyond it.

He pulled up under the covered area in
front of the door and parked, leaving the engine running. “I’ll be
right back,” he said, hopping out and slamming the door behind
him.

I waited while he got us a room, going
over my mother’s words again and again. I had a bad feeling that I
couldn’t explain. And, considering all that I’d seen and been
through lately, that didn’t bode well. Every other time I’d had a
bad feeling it had been justified.

Shaking off my bothersome thoughts, I
pulled out my cell phone and dialed home. Dad had made me promise
to call both him and Mom after I’d visited my birth
mother.

Mom answered. She sounded frustrated
when I told her that I wouldn’t know anything until tomorrow. Other
than that, she was fine, though. I think she might’ve been asleep.
She said she was sitting on the couch reading, which was code for
sleeping. She always falls asleep when she reads.

“
Call Dad. He’ll be worried
sick by now,” Mom said before we hung up.

“
That’s who I was calling
next,” I reassured her.

“
Good. Be careful and- well,
just be careful. I love you.”

“
Love you, too,
Mom.”

After we disconnected, I called Dad. It
was much the same type of conversation. By the time we’d finished,
Grayson was on his way back through the lobby.

“
Well, I’m gonna go, Dad.
I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“
Be careful, Mercy. Love
you.”

“
Love you, too,” I
replied.

I was just flipping my phone closed
when Grayson slid behind the wheel.

“
Who was that?”

“
I had to call Mom and then
I had to call Dad,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“
Why aren’t they
together?”

“
Dad’s traveling. He had to
run to Philadelphia real quick for a meeting or something. If they
don’t hear from me, they freak out.”

Grayson just nodded and started the
car.

Several minutes later,
Grayson was holding the door to
our
room open so that I could enter. I walked in and
looked around, suffering a sudden attack of nerves when I heard the
door close behind me.

The room was cheerfully decorated in
blues and greens. There were the standard hotel room appointments
like a dresser and mirror, armoire and television, desk and chair,
and a small couch and coffee table. Dominating the room, of course,
was the bed. A single, huge king-sized bed.

I set my bag on the end of it as I
stood staring at the mountain of pillows.

“
It’s all they had at the
last minute. I hope you don’t mind sharing,” he said
casually.

“
No, that’s fine. I was just
thinking how good a hot shower sounds,” I said.

Liar,
I scolded internally.

“
Do you mind?” I asked as I
turned to look at him.

Grayson had his hands in his pockets
and his bag slung over one shoulder. He was leaning against the
wall by the bed right behind me.

“
Do I mind?” he asked, one
raven brow arching suggestively. I felt the blood rush to my
cheeks, among other highly volatile places. Then he smiled, one of
those breathtaking, engaging smiles that showed teeth. “No, I don’t
mind.”

Letting his bag slide down his arm and
into his hand, he reached around me and set it on the bed next to
mine. When he straightened, he was so close I could feel the heat
from his body. I had to tip my head back to look up into his face.
His hazel eyes looked more golden in the low lamp light and they
flickered down to my mouth and back again.

“
Are you ready for this
tomorrow?” he asked, reaching out to grab one of my hands. He toyed
with my fingers as he watched me, waiting for an answer.

I was having a hard time focusing on
his words. He was rubbing slow circles on my palm with his thumb
and little waves of heat were traveling up my arm and down to my
navel. I could smell a hint of cinnamon and whatever soap he used
and I could count every black eyelash, he was so close.

“
I,” I began, feeling
breathless all of a sudden. “I think I’ll be fine,” I finally
managed.

He didn’t say anything for a minute,
but I could see wheels turning behind his eyes. Then, abruptly, he
stepped back. “Good. I’ll go get some ice while you shower,” he
said, grabbing the ice bucket and the room key. “Need
anything?”

I was a little confused, but decided
not to dwell on it. Maybe he was nervous, too, although I couldn’t
imagine anything making Grayson nervous.

“
If you pass a vending
machine, will you get me a Coke or Dr. Pepper? Whichever they
have.”

“
You got it,” he said,
slipping out the door.

As I showered, I pondered his reaction.
I’d thought he was going to kiss me, but then he just changed
course all of a sudden. I wondered if maybe it was in deference to
me. Maybe he could sense my hesitation, my anxiety.