by Hunter Blain
The flaps at the edges wavered as if blown by an invisible wind before sections suddenly whipped across the expanse of the void and began pulling themselves back together. It was like watching two octopi reaching across space in an attempt to embrace one another.
Then it was closed, and the cancerous feeling of concern within my chest began to subside, allowing me to will my eyes away from where the terrifying hole in space had been.
My gaze flew to where my friends were on the ground.
“Hey!” I shouted, only to be met with silence. My throat felt like it was making noise, but all I could hear was a high-pitched tone that made my head want to split open.
Grabbing my nose, I tried to pop my ears, but was only met with the sensation of pressure dropping a little instead of the ability to hear.
As I drifted to the ground with my wings outstretched, I stuck my pinky fingers in either ear and wiggled them around, but to no avail.
Looking back to where the smoking crater remained, I allowed a surge of victory to course through my veins at the realization that the last of the warlocks and the remaining were-pires had been reduced to atoms in the blast. I dared a smile at the completion of the mission that had cost us so much.
Something bothered me, and I looked back at the group right as Locke was dropping his shield and collapsing to the ground, exhausted.
I knew he would be fine, but that wasn’t what was bothering me.
“DEPWEG!” I screamed, or at least I think I did. This time, I heard a muffled sound—like screaming underwater—along with the high-pitched tone.
Panicked eyes searched desperately in the direction of the blast. I only stood at six feet and had been rocked hard by the blast, even with my celestial armor. Depweg was twice my height and had no such protection.
The brief image of Stripe being blown to pieces that only a microscope could possibly hope to see threw gasoline on the building fire of panic that was making my hands and face go numb.
“DEPWEG!” I shouted again, the sound of my voice starting to overtake the whining in my ears.
Heaving breaths billowed steam from a slack jaw as I stumbled to where I thought he could have been blown.
Moving on my busted leg was slow going, so I extended my wings and flapped hard enough to provide lift.
“John!” Meli cried out from behind as my ears finished healing.
I craned my head to see her crouched over the unmoving Hayley.
“She doesn’t have a heartbeat!”
A moan of indecision escaped my mouth as I returned my gaze in front of me, praying that Depweg would just all of a sudden be standing somewhere nearby.
Blue lights and blaring sirens started up again in the distance, and from my vantage point, I could see more than the original two were coming now.
“Shit!” I shrieked in frustration as no less than a whole parade of emergency vehicles made their way toward us.
Depweg was nowhere to be seen. I yelped in utter helplessness and frustration and turned to drift back down to the group before the mortals arrived.
Landing, I crouched on the other side of where Meli was giving Hayley CPR.
“Locke!” I shouted to the unmoving cyclops-wizard. His breathing was steady, but I knew he was out for the count.
The parade of bleating sirens grew louder, accompanied by the sound of squealing tires over the road from the electric cars.
With Depweg missing, Hayley dying, Ben cut up, and Locke unconscious, I did the only logical thing that came to mind; I cursed.
“Welp, fuck.”
41
“John,” a wavering voice whispered.
An idea burst into the forefront of my mind, and I reached over to grab Locke’s ankle and yank him to where the rest of us were huddled around Hayley.
“Ben!” I commanded, gesturing for him to squeeze in tight.
Without hesitation, the werecat took the few steps to join us.
“Meli, grab him. One hand on him and the other here,” I said as I jutted my chin down toward Hayley.
Meli did as instructed, and I pulled the scene around us with my thoughts.
I didn’t risk transporting us with the armor, especially with how depleted the batteries were. So, instead, I simply brought the group to the In-Between.
“What the—!” Meli cried out in surprise, her voice echoing back at her.
Looking to my left, I saw the approaching cars frozen in time.
“Follow me,” a voice I recognized instructed.
Turning my head, I saw Hecate pulling on a section of air like it was a curtain.
I reached under Hayley and hoisted her across one shoulder, careful to put the pressure on her hips and not her belly.
Locke went over my other shoulder before I hustled after Ben and Meli, who disappeared behind the veil.
Stepping through, I was met with a modern-looking hospital room. A man and woman were waiting, scrubbed in with sterile clothing that was heavily influenced by fantasy. Then I registered it was simply the typical Council ponchos, but made from surgeon’s gowns.
“Set her here, please,” the woman instructed, gesturing to a stone platform covered in sigils. Atop it rested a cushioned mat, and I took it to be their gurney.
“She’s not breathing,” I gushed out all at once. Now that Hayley was my only immediate concern, all of the fear that had been split between my friends crashed into one neatly focused target. “You gotta do something, Doc,” I said to the man.
“Nurse Isaac, see to Locke,” the woman said to the man. I felt a flush in my face as I realized my faux pas.
“On it,” the male nurse confirmed, stepping toward me and sliding Locke off my shoulder. He set him on a normal-looking hospital bed and began hooking him up to all sorts of machines. “He’s got a pulse. BP is a little low, but he’s stable.”
“Good,” the doctor said. “Come help me. Warden Broadway is pregnant.”
The nurse all but ran to where the doctor had already hooked Hayley up to similar machines as what Locke was connected to.
I had watched enough Grey’s Anatomy to know that the flat lines on the monitor weren’t a good thing. Did I say Grey’s Anatomy? I meant ER. Is that manlier? Ah, screw it. I missed McDreamy, dammit.
The doctor pulled out an impressive wand that looked like a small branch from a tree. White runes glowed down its length as she began chanting under her breath. The sigils on the platform began to glow in response, sending a pulsating white light toward the ceiling.
I could see through Hayley, as if her skin were made of glass. My eyes glided over her, and I could immediately make out several broken bones, as well as ruptured blood vessels and leaking organs.
“I didn’t think she was hurt that bad!” I uselessly cried out as if I were delivering the most important information the medical team could possibly hear. Panic was making me pace back and forth as I gnawed away at the nail of my thumb.
“John,” the doctor said with a tone of professional calmness and determination, “my name is Doctor Coleman. Can you tell me what happened?”
“She...she-she-she was hit by her own spell! The wolf opened a portal and tricked her!” I stammered, remembering how she had gone down like a sack of potatoes.
“What kind of attack was it? Can you remember?” Doctor Coleman asked in a tone reserved for dealing with children...or panicking adults.
Taking a deep breath, I said, “It was some sort of invisible, wavering attack.”
“Did she use a wand to focus it?”
“No, ma-ma’am. She only had to use her hands.”
“That’s good. It’s probably why she’s made it this far,” the doctor soothed.
The nurse continued to work, grabbing bags of various colored liquids and connecting them to Hayley’s IV. One was the unmistakable color and consistency of blood, and I moved my hand to fully cover my mouth.
An alarm I didn’t recognize blared, drawing the gaze of both medical personnel.
�
��I’m barely keeping her soul within,” the doctor said with a strained voice. “Isaac, tend to the child.”
“Got it,” the nurse said as he brought out his own wand. Instead of being a tree branch like Doctor Coleman’s, Nurse Isaac’s instrument looked like a normal wand, smooth except for the carvings along its length.
“She’s too far gone,” Nurse Isaac said after a few seconds. “We need a life transfusion.”
“Li-life transfusion? Wha-what-what’s that?” I asked, frustrated with myself for being unable to speak effectively.
“The child needs to receive a transfer of life from a donor,” Doctor Coleman explained. “Warden Broadway is simply too weak. I can feel a struggle within her. Part of her wants to let go.”
Ludvig’s smiling face phased into view, and my heart shattered into pieces. I dropped to one knee, unable to hold myself up any longer as tears started to flow.
“John, I need you to pull yourself together or get out of my OR,” Doctor Coleman insisted.
With a quivering face that demanded to sob, I wiped at my nose and got my emotions under control as best as I could.
“Can you take the life from me?” I asked, finding renewed hope. I could probably just heal whatever they took.
“You aren’t alive,” Doctor Coleman answered before glancing at Meli and Ben. “Not in the way they are.”
Ben had shifted back into his man-suit and sat naked on a chair while Meli bandaged him up. There were large stains of crimson, but at least they weren’t leaking.
“She could do it,” Doctor Coleman said.
“Huh?” Meli asked, shooting her gaze to the doctor.
“Give her your life!” I cried out, jumbling my words. Meli responded by giving me a hurt expression while taking a step backward and placing a hand on her chest.
“Not all of it,” Nurse Isaac clarified. “Five or ten years should do it.”
I played back the man’s words in my head, and understood what we were asking Meli to do; give up five to ten years of her own life.
“No!” Ben painfully cried out before clutching his bleeding side.
“You’ll be weak, but you’ll recover, eventually,” Nurse Isaac said.
“Make up your minds quickly, please,” Doctor Coleman said. “If we save her baby, I think I can get her soul to want to stay in her body.”
“Do it!” I shouted. It had been much more aggressive and colder than I had meant, but I also didn’t bother correcting the tone.
Meli looked at the ground, letting her hand drop from her chest, seemingly deep in thought.
“You can’t,” Ben urged just above a whisper.
“She can and she will,” I said, shocking myself with how much of a villain I sounded like at that moment.
“Fuck you, bloodsucker!” Ben returned, attempting to get to his feet in defense of his sister.
My blood asked if it was alright to come to a boil before ripping this dude’s head off, but it was brought to a simmer at the understanding that this was his sister, and I was being a dick.
“Please,” I pleaded in a soft tone.
“Okay,” Meli answered just below a whisper.
“No!” Ben cried out, turning to grab his sister’s shoulders with both hands. “You don’t owe these people anything!”
I bared my teeth as I stared at the back of his black hair, wondering what his beating heart would feel like in my hands.
“I promised Ludvig I’d watch out for her,” I growled, trying my best to keep my emotions from boiling over.
“I don’t care what you promised,” Ben shot back, spinning around and pointing an aggressive finger at me.
“I’ll do it,” Meli repeated a little louder this time.
“Please hurry,” Doctor Coleman said as sweat streaked down her brow.
Meli took a step forward before Hecate placed a hand on her shoulder.
“No,” Hecate spoke. “I’ll do it.”
The entire room was stunned.
“Are you sure?” I asked, sensing this was a bigger deal than I could understand at that moment.
“Yes. It has to be me,” Hecate said, stepping toward Nurse Isaac. She turned to me for a brief heartbeat, and we locked eyes. In that singular moment, I understood this was a part of something bigger, a painting the size of an entire wall that I was having to see through something the diameter of a plastic straw. Even though I could see portions of the picture, no matter how long I looked at it, I wouldn’t be able to piece together what I was seeing without being able to step back and widen my view.
Nurse Isaac positioned his wand in front of Hecate, who straightened her stance and closed her eyes. They began chanting in unison, and her aura responded by glowing a healthy white.
After several seconds, Nurse Isaac gently glided the wand through the air until the tip was resting on Hayley’s belly, right over where the unmoving baby was.
Hecate’s white aura began to flow, soundlessly wafting through the air before being sucked into the unborn fetus as if it were a vacuum.
Hecate gasped in sudden agony as her life force was transferred to the child inside Hayley’s womb.
I stepped forward to grab the Elder and give her stability, but Nurse Isaac held out a hand, motioning for me to stop.
“You might contaminate her aura,” he said slowly while still trying to focus on his work.
I took the message loud and clear and stepped back an extra few feet. I had never felt more impure than at that moment.
Glancing over at Meli, I saw the hurt in her eyes, and wanted to just melt into a hole in the ground. Ben stared at me with pissed-off eyes, and I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that.
“Okay, she’s easing up,” Doctor Coleman informed, relief evident in her voice.
“Almost done,” Nurse Isaac softly said, and I didn’t know if it was for Hecate’s benefit, or my own.
I fought the urge to step forward, and instead, crossed my arms high up over my chest, almost underneath my chin. I understood that my shoulders were nearly touching my ears, and I didn’t have the need or desire to ask them to relax.
The baby kicked once, and a separate monitor started beeping at a steady, fast-paced rhythm.
Nurse Isaac slowly pulled the wand off of Hayley’s belly and gently glided it in reverse, letting Hecate’s aura flow back to its source.
“Annnnnd done,” Nurse Isaac said, prompting me to blur forward right as Hecate began to fall.
Holding her upright, I moved her to a small rolling chair while she held her head. I was nervous when I saw she was tripping over her own feet.
“She’s coming back!” Doctor Coleman announced, joy saturating her words.
Another monitor began beeping in a slower rhythm than the baby’s, and I wanted to burst out in tears.
The doctor lowered her wand and wiped at her dripping forehead with the back of her arm. Then she and Nurse Isaac began stripping off their OR gowns and tossing them in a red biohazard bin.
I let out a long sigh of relief as I watched them inspecting the vitals and giving each other nods of approval.
Doctor Coleman walked over to where I was supporting Hecate as she sat on the chair.
Kneeling, she grabbed one of the Elder’s wrists and glanced at her watch.
I was almost overwhelmed with the desire to ask how time worked in the In-Between, but then I remembered the veil that had been pulled back when we first entered. Questions for another time.
“Take me to my chambers,” Hecate insisted, prompting me and Doctor Coleman to help her to her feet. Already she seemed better able to support herself, but I could tell that a fundamental change had taken place within her. Something was...missing.
Hecate and the doctor slowly made their way out and down an adjoining hallway.
Stepping next to Nurse Isaac, I quietly asked, “What’s up with her?”
“Hmm?” he asked, looking away from the machines to see whom I had been referring to. I lifted my chin in the direction of He
cate. “Oh, she’ll be fine. Life transfusions take a lot out of you.”
I looked at him for a few moments, chewing on the question I wanted to ask. I knew I’d felt something wrong with Hecate, but I had enough sense not to speak about the affairs of an Elder with someone I didn’t know, even if he was the nurse who had just saved Ludvig and Hayley’s baby.
Bringing my hand up, I patted his shoulder while nodding and said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile. “But I didn’t do it for you.”
We both let out tension-relieving chuckles at that, and I turned to see that Meli and Ben were gone.
My smile evaporated, and I let the guilt of what I had said to Meli sink into my heart.
42
I sat on the rolling chair next to Locke’s bed, where he was in a half-sitting, half-lying position, the top of the bed set to an incline. He had been disrobed and clothed in standard hospital attire, including a sanitary eye patch. I guess it made sense to just purchase the needed items from the mortal world rather than reinvent the wheel, as it were.
I cradled my face in my hands as my elbows rested on my knees. My head seemed to weigh a hundred pounds, with much of the mass stemming from eyelids that demanded to stay closed.
Tonight had just been too fucking much, and it felt like I had sludge running through my veins, making me lethargic. My chest hurt as if someone were standing on it, and I couldn’t help but let a silent tear slip every minute or so.
My mind kept drawing me back to what Hecate had said just before the big battle, and I felt like I was nothing but a pawn on a chessboard. Well, maybe a rook or something, but still not the player making the moves.
Another part of my brain was constantly asking why Samael had made an army of were-pires if my friends and I had managed to wipe them out in one battle, epic as it was. It just wasn’t Samael’s style, and that bugged the hell out of me.
Something Taylor had said the last time I was in Faerie tried to come forward, but another train of thought derailed it.
A dark part of my mind that I was trying to repress pushed forward and reminded me that Depweg was missing, or worse, dead.
