Cold Fire [SAMPLE]

[14]

 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I'm frozen. I can't breathe; I can't move; I can just stare.

Did he just address me by my friend's name?

"Melissa, this is–"

"You," I say. I can't help it – it just comes out.

The man frowns. "Me?"

"You're the one – you're the one..." Now that I'm speaking, all I can do is breathe until I'm breathing too much. I take in breath after breath, vaguely aware that I'm going into shock. "You did this to me," I accuse. My voice rises. "You did this to me!"

A breeze wraps around my head, blowing my hair into my eyes and then back from my face. It swirls through the house, getting stronger with each passing second, and outside, I can hear it howling.

There's a hand on my shoulder. "Melissa, you have to calm down." Caden's voice.

But I'm not listening. I direct my anger at Rand. "What is he doing here? Are you trying to get me killed? Who are you?"

Rand's eyes are calm and full of understanding; his voice is steady as he speaks. "Whoever you think he is, I can promise you: he isn't."

I shake my head, my eyes landing back on the man with the sweet voice, the man who held the small hard object in his hand as he placed it to my chest, promising that it wouldn't hurt but knowing that it would.

The man who swapped me with Sarah and bound me to a body that is slowly freezing to death.

"He isn't who you think he is," Rand repeats as I look into the man's dark brown eyes.

The man steps forward and smiles.  I take two quick steps back. "I'm Patrick," he says. He extends a hand. I just look at it. Does he want me to burn him? Or does he just not know how cold my skin is?

He withdraws and faces Rand. "I would stay longer but it looks like you have enough to deal with right now."

Patrick's eyes meet mine. "It was nice to see you again, Sar– um, Melissa." And then he disappears. One second he's here and the next, there's just an empty doorway where he had been standing.

Suddenly, my legs feel too weak to support my weight and I have to lean against the wall as Rand closes the door.

"Who was that?" I ask.

Rand shakes his head. "You weren't meant to meet him. Not yet." He walks down the hallway and into the living room.

I turn to Caden and send him a questioning glance. He just shrugs and follows Rand. I chase after both of them. Everyone sits on the couches in the same places as yesterday, but I stand behind the sofa, my hands gripping the backrest.

"Why did he call me Sarah?"

Rand's head is in his hands. He takes two deep breaths before looking up and saying, "The last time he saw you, you were Sarah."

"But that would also mean I was in a different body. I don't look like Sarah. I look like Melissa."

Rand lets out another deep breath, and that's when I finally notice the large blossoming bruise on his arm and the dirt all over his clothes. "Patrick can see people's spirit's within their body. He recognised you as the person you really are, while everyone else can only see Melissa."

I'm only half-listening. My eyes move to Caden, and for the first time, I see the scarlet cut on his forehead and the blood dribbling down the side of his face.