Free Forgotten Self (Forgotten Self #1) by Rachel Carr Page B

and then...nothing.
     
     
     
     
    Drip,
    d rip,
    drip.
    Somewhere a pipe is leaking. It is cold and damp. I take a moment to collect myself before I open my eyes. When I do, I see that I'm in what looks to be a warehouse. Of course. What a perfect place to be spirited away to. A laugh escapes my lips . 'Spirited' away. No doubt.
    My captor steps out of the shadows and I pull myself off the floor, away from the brick wall I  had been leaning against.
    “ Lucas, what a pleasure,” I greet him flippantly.
    He makes no move forward, staying at a distance. It's a moment before his soothing voice floats over to me. “Abigail, we need to talk. Has Jonathan tried to restore your memory?”
    I don't know why the mention of his name surprises me. I know he's a part of this. And yet, it feels weird to have another person a cknowledge it.
    “ Bits of it,” I reply. “Not enough to know what your role in all of this is.”
    He nods approvingly. “Good. It would be a foolhardy task to completely restore it as you are now. The human body is quite delicate.”
    “ Care to tell me who you real ly are? Or, perhaps, why I'm here?”
    Lucas takes a step closer; I take a step back, right into the wall. The discomfort I've been feeling around him is full-force now.
    “ You're here because I want you to be.” Oookay, macho man. “I'm an angel, just like you,” he tells me steadily. His voice is so calm I can almost feel it. “As far as what I do...my position has no official name, but many refer to us as Balancers.”
    My eyebrows shoot up. “I see.” I don't really. “And you're here for me?”
    “ Yes.”
    The blood disappe ars from my hands, leaving them ice cold. Fear edges through my throat, though I manage to push out, “Why?” I want to take another step back, but the bricks block my way.
    He smiles in a very gentle way; that calm wants to take over again. “I'm not here to harm you. We've done this many times before.”
    “ We – we have?”
    “ Every time you are sent back, I come to bring you home as soon as I am able. You are needed elsewhere – you don't belong here in the mortal world.” Taking another step, he goes on. “Abigail, yo u know me. We've been...acquainted for a long time.”
    I say nothing.
    He walks right up to me and I let him. Some irrational serenity has come over me, allowing this strange man, this angel, to get close. My heart skips when he gets so close that I can see individual colors in his eyes. That overall sage, but there's silver too. Beautiful and so...not human. It feels warmer than it was a minute ago, almost like he brings that heat. I couldn't call it temperature, however. It's more than that. Maybe it's that glow that faintly shimmers about him.
    It's through this daze that he touches my hand, the first time we've made skin-to-skin contact. There is a flash of a memory, a tiny vision joined by overwhelming emotion. Lucas and I walking side by side in a grassy field, somewhere long ago. So brief.
    A strong feeling of familiarity – and something else, something I'm not quite ready to embrace – washes over me. All the blood that had disappeared from my hands rushes into my face, but I can't look away from this an gel in front of me.
    “ I do know you,” I breathe.
    He lightly drops his hand and smiles that small smile. “Hi, Abby.”
     
     
    Twenty minutes in and Lucas has been as vague as Jonathan. I'm frustrated. Again. “When is somebody going to tell me everything?” I fall sh ort of stomping my foot.
    Lucas has taken a few steps back from me, allowing my heart to stop racing – thank God. This...emotion-which-shall-not-be-named is kind of embarrassing in the physical manifestation factor.
    He holds my gaze seriously. “This would all be so much easier if you would just leave with me.”
    “ You said you had to have my permission to take me back, right?” After my recognition of him, Lucas had briefly explained what 'going home' entailed.
    “ Yes, I do.” He