Enid’s heart hurt for him. If only there was something she could do to ease his pain. She had to try. It was the least she could do when she encountered a person in such pain. Sometimes, talking about the lost mate helped.
“How did she die?” Enid asked in a quiet tone that invited shared confidences.
Joe sat back in his chair and sighed. “Plane crash. Pilot error,” he said shortly. “After that, I bought the airstrip and turned it into what it is now. I made sure all those who wanted to learn to fly in my Pack got the best training, and that any of mine who needed to go somewhere would always have access to Pack pilots and Pack planes. I don’t let my people fly commercial. Never again.”
“Your mate was on a commercial flight?” Suddenly, Enid felt a sense of wonder. Could it be?
“The AmTrans crash more than a decade ago? She was on that flight.” Joe’s blue eyes were haunted, but things began to fall into place for Enid. When she replied, she couldn’t speak above a whisper.
“Joe… I was on that flight.”
“You… What?” His gaze sharpened as his brows drew together in confusion.
“I was seated in the forward section. Row 2, Seat A. There were a few survivors in that area. Everybody in the back of the plane…” She remembered with horror the feeling of all those souls dying while her own body had been broken in so many places, she couldn’t move to save herself. “I just remember lying in the rubble, tears falling down my face because I knew… I knew what was happening all around me. People were hurt and dying, and I was unable to move. I wanted to go to the others. To help ease their transition. All I could do was reach out with one hand.” She lifted her left hand. “This was the only limb not broken in multiple places,” she told him, her voice flat with remembered pain. “I reached out, and a woman’s hand met mine. She was trapped, like me. We held on to each other as the sirens came closer. I urged her to stay with me, but I felt her slip away. I prayed for her and with her. I blessed her passing, which was all I could do for her at the time. Joe… She was a shifter. The only one on the flight.”
“Dear, sweet Goddess,” he whispered, exploding out of his seat. The chair fell back onto the floor behind him as he fled from her words, stalking into the living room. She stood, following more slowly. She watched from the archway as he ran his hands through his hair, his eyes glowing with emotion and unshed tears.
That was okay. She was shedding the tears for him. She felt them flowing down her cheeks as emotion overcame her. Her memories. His. The pain. The fear. The horror. The sorrow.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, knowing he could hear her with his keen shifter hearing. “So deeply sorry.”
Joe turned toward her slowly. He blew out his breath in a heavy sigh. “I…” He tried again. “I’m glad you were with her when...”
“I am, too,” she said, walking a few steps into the room. “What was her name? I’ve always wondered, but I was in the hospital for a very long time, and I never found out.”
“Tess. Her name was Tess,” he choked out.
“Tess.” Enid looked up for a moment then bowed her head, sending a silent prayer to the Mother of All for Tess’s soul.
When she finished and looked up again, Joe had stalked silently closer. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Praying. I can’t be absolutely certain, of course, but I’ve always felt like your Tess’s soul stayed with me until they dug me out of the wreckage, and even after. She gave me—or, perhaps, the memory of her gave me—strength to go on when so many of my bones were broken or crushed.” Enid reached out and put one hand on Joe’s shoulder. “I think her spirit saved me, Joe. I’ve felt that for a very long time. Ever since the moment I opened my eyes in that hospital, days later, I’ve thought of the way I felt her soul stay near me while I struggled not to follow her into the next life. She fought the pull of that realm so hard to urge me to stay here. She told me before she left her body that I still had work to do here.” A sob escaped her, and the next thing Enid knew, she was in Joe’s strong arms, clinging to him for comfort.
Or, perhaps, he was the one seeking comfort. Or, maybe, it was both of them, seeking solace from memories of the same horrific incident. Whatever the case, it felt so good to be in his warm embrace. She gained strength from his immense well of power. She only hoped she was able to offer him some comfort, as well.
She felt his head drop, so that his face was nuzzled into her neck as she did the same. His arms held her tight as hers held him. He was her lifeline in the storm of emotion. She hadn’t thought about the crash for years, but seeing him suffer from the memories brought it all back. The pain, the heart-wrenching feeling of all those deaths around her, the sorrow. It all came flooding into her mind in a wave of despair unlike any she’d felt since that terrible day.
This time, though, there was Joe. She clung to him, unwilling to let the maelstrom sweep her away as it had for so long while she’d been healing. She’d been so close to death when they found her, but they’d brought her back. Tess had urged her to stay here. Tess had told her there was still work to do. Tess had promised her a full and happy life if she just got through the pain and horror of what had happened.
So far, Enid hadn’t found the true happiness Tess had promised, but she’d always had the feeling it was just around the corner. Someday, she’d find that promise of joy that had kept her going through all that healing, the surgeries, the rehab, the pain and confusion.
Enid had found her calling as a priestess not long after she’d left the hospital, and the Mother of All had helped immensely with the rest of Enid’s healing. She was at the point now, where she barely had any evidence left of the terrible way her body had been broken and crushed. The doctors had said she might never walk again. Worse, they’d told her she’d be in intense pain for the rest of her life. Enid hadn’t accepted that. She’d worked with healers and prayed and learned the ways of the Lady. She’d learned how to use what magic she could claim and had reshaped the bones that had been so terribly damaged. She’d rebuilt her body, one agonizing piece at a time.
That’s how she knew she could help Lucinda after the science of men put her back together again. Enid had been through something similar. Once human medicine had done all they could, then Enid would employ the methods of healing and the magic of the Goddess to make Lucinda even better.
Healing the body was one thing, but healing the soul was something quite different. Joe’s spirit cried out to her for solace. She wanted so much to give and receive comfort after tonight’s startling revelations. She clung to him, as he clung to her. Both of them had been shaken by the hand of Fate that had brought them both to this place and time, joined by tragedy and the loss of a woman named Tess.
When Joe’s head lifted and moved, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to find his lips with hers. The first touch of their lips jolted through them both, sending ripples of awareness throughout Enid’s body. She kissed him with all she had, needing the connection, needing the closeness. It had been so long since she’d been held by a man who seemed to need her so desperately.
His mouth demanded, and she complied. His dominance was a beautiful thing that completely seduced her free will. She wanted nothing more than to submit, to give him everything he wanted. Everything he needed.