by Regan Black
Kelly skimmed the blood report. Petra was right; the values were all within normal range.
"I don't want to leave him open to Kristoff's influence any longer than necessary."
"I don't understand why he's paralyzed again. He was up and feeling fine shortly before you found us."
Petra's eyes were wide and a little sad. "He said as much, but I didn't believe him."
"But you believe her?" Jaden grumbled.
"She isn't the enemy." Petra watched her sister stalk to the table, muttering into her coffee cup. Petra whispered to Kelly, "I think the full-caff ramps her up a little too much."
"I can hear you," Jaden said, looking a little less irritated.
Kelly studied the hologram, using the touch pad on the potato base to move things around. "There are a lot of possibilities here. Five of these are age-old natural stimulants and the other two speed absorption. But the combinations, well…"
"Where's the decoder ring when you need one?" Jaden complained.
Kelly looked from Petra to Jaden and back, confused.
"Previous life thing," Pet whispered.
"But my hearing's still perfect."
Petra snorted and Kelly realized they'd grown into a true sister relationship. Watching them made her want to celebrate for them and cry for her own loss all at once. Where was the temper she relied on to burn off extra emotion?
"We'll work it out," Brian insisted to the room in general. "It's all good."
Kelly glanced up, unnerved that he'd chosen words so close to her father's favorite phrase. She cleared her throat. "Have you given Nathan any of this stuff yet?"
"No. We didn't want to make it worse."
Kelly toyed with the ingredients on the counter, turning her mind back to the days when her Grandma tried to teach her the basics of plant properties and purposes. Unfortunately, all Kelly had wanted to learn were the more complex fighting combinations and the battle strategies her brothers were learning.
What to do with five stimulants? She continued to study the assortment of dried and fresh plants. Some of these leaves were less than a day from being parted from their parent plants. Potency would vary by the processing method. So what to do? Should they try a tea, an inhalant, what?
She shifted and her hand brushed Petra's arm. The empath gasped and sagged, her eyes glazing instantly. Jaden caught her before she hit the floor.
Gideon came charging back into the room, some husband instinct alerting him to his wife's trouble. He glared down at Kelly. "What did you do to her?"
"It wasn't intentional," Jaden assured him from her place on the floor, surprising Kelly with the certain, automatic defense. "Just a brush of fingers. I'm surprised it hit her so hard."
Gideon grumbled, chafing Petra's hand between his palms. "She's doing too much. Tells me crap like pregnancy is no reason to slow down."
"Women have babies all the time, Gideon." Petra's voice was strong enough to ease the worry lines creasing his forehead. "And it's not Ca-Kelly's fault. I'd been running wide open."
"Why in god's name would you be doing that?"
Petra ignored his outburst, but let her husband help her to her feet. When she was situated again, Kelly felt her piercing assessment and knew all hope of pretense was gone. Petra had gleaned something. Hopefully it was just her real name. She glanced around for an excuse to leave and came up empty.
"Being there would not have helped," Petra began, those wide eyes, full of compassion, held Kelly immobile. "The rest of you out. Now."
Kelly's admiration of Petra soared. The quiet authority and underlying determination Kelly found so magnetic were in full force. But she didn't need the Serena lecture round two, so she diverted her eyes and her attention to the plants.
"Kelly, I've studied and researched records of the map box Kristoff had me looking for in the city of Petra. I've spent some time on it every day since then. I figure you're connected to it somehow, based on the emblem we found on your dirk."
Kelly was shocked, unreasonably so. Of course Petra would have looked into whatever might have sent her running. Kelly hated herself for lying to an employer and a friend. More, she hated that she wasn't better at it.
"Your father said all things work for good."
Kelly just nodded miserably. Did everyone have to point that out? She'd grown up with the man, she knew all his pet phrases.
"What else did he tell you?"
Kelly's temper snapped and caught like dry tinder. Suddenly she was on her feet, yelling, all her control burned away. "He told me I lack self-control. I lack respect for tradition. It's a man's job," she sneered, ticking off every point on her fingers, "I'm a woman in case I hadn't noticed and I would never be allowed to guard the maps."
"No." Petra reached out, taking Kelly's hand. "He said you 'could' never be allowed to guard the maps."
Kelly opened her mouth to argue, but the flash of fury was already fading. Was Petra right? "Is there a difference?"
"I believe so. I saw something…you were very young and eavesdropping on your parents."
Kelly pushed her hands through her hair and tried to recall whatever Pet had just seen. No luck. How did the empath see what she couldn't?
"They were arguing over you," Petra said gently.
Kelly could explain how rarely her parents argued, but she knew Petra didn't see nonexistent memories either. She held her tongue, waiting to hear more.
"You'd been hurt. You needed stitches and your father was angry with your mother for risking the 'key'. That was the day they decided to duplicate the map box. An extra layer of precaution to keep the treasures safe."
Why would Petra see something and cling to it, when she didn't even remember?
She'd known, only through second hand testimonials until today, that Petra was the best at this sort of thing. It still irked her to find nothing in her own heart and mind to support the theory.
"Turns out it was a wise move. If I interpret this correctly, Kelly, you are the key."
She snorted. First a cup, now a key. This was all so bogus. "The key to his every irritation, maybe. I spent my life training, proving my dedication and he sent me away. Without consideration, without pretending to care what I'd learned. He just sent me away. He wouldn't have done that if I were so valuable."
"He would," Petra insisted in that quiet way of hers, "if having you and the maps in the same room was a bad combination."
Kelly's mind was baffled and her heart battered as she struggled to come up with the memory Petra referenced. She played with the fresh and dried leaves, using pinches of them to make rune-like shapes on the countertops.
"We should focus on helping Nathan," Kelly said, hoping to nudge Petra off this track.
"What do you propose?"
Kelly jumped on the topic change. "Let's dose him with the stimulants. I say we brew them up and see what helps. Start with the least volatile and go from there."
"You think a stimulant will work against the paralytic?"
"I don't see why not." She shrugged. "If you think of the paralytic agent as a downer, then yeah, a stimulant would counter the effect."
"What's the fastest delivery method?"
Kelly stared at the list on the screen. Seven plants. In different stages, fresh or dry, they had varying degrees of potency. "It's not simple."
"Welcome to our dilemma. I think Jaden was right about the decoder ring."
It would make it easier. "These could all be solitary suggestions listed in preferred order of treatment. I say trying a tea of each single plant is the safest first step."
"It's an option." Petra consulted another sheet of paper, this one more like parchment. "I have another idea. Would you chop that sprig of mint, please?" She handed Kelly the knife, but bobbled it and sliced Kelly's finger open.
"Ow! Oh, damn," Kelly added, covering the wound so it wouldn't drip on everything.
Petra grabbed her wrist and held it firm until Kelly's blood dripped onto an old weathered document.
SIX
Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation. Albert Schweitzer
"What are you doing?" Kelly cried. "That looks like it should be in a museum."
"Oh, definitely." Petra smiled. "It came from one. A private collection, actually. But look."
Kelly forgot the blood, the finger, and most of her recent bizarre life as a red trail blazed across the paper, bringing different symbols to life. "What the –? Is that Latin?"
"Yes. And you've just illuminated a map that leads to Noah's ark."
The red line of her blood drifted apart from the fading ink of the original path noted so long ago. "No way," she said breathlessly. Kelly studied the faded writing, trying to make sense of the symbols. Her curiosity was piqued and for a moment it was like she'd never had to leave Petra. "Where'd you get that? Did someone hire you to find it?"
"No. Someone volunteered it so I could test my theory." Petra's soft laughter jolted her out of the reverie. "You, Kelly, are the key to the map's secrets. I believe it's a genetic factor in your family."
"That's so weird," she said taking the damp towel from Petra to staunch the bleeding. "Why wouldn't he have just told me?"
"I'm sure he meant to. He loves you –"
"Yeah. I know." She glanced at Petra and then peeked at the wound. It was already closing, surely courtesy of Mira. Keeping the towel on for privacy, she started separating herbs to steep for a tea for Nathan. "I’m really not as bitter as that came out. It was just a challenge being the odd man out."
"Because you were a girl."
Kelly wiggled her fingers. "And a key too apparently."
They made notes as they set the first tea to steep. Eventually Brian, Jaden and Gideon trickled back in; each setting to various tasks as if nothing had gone awry.
The quiet atmosphere gave Kelly time to think and review her years at home. Where had her father sent the real map box? She considered asking Petra to take a closer look for clues she might have forgotten, but decided against it. She felt exposed enough already. Excusing herself, she left the apartment, taking the first cup of tea to Nathan.
The room was dim and he lay so still on the bed that she shuddered, remembering the remains of her father and brothers. She forced her feet closer to the bed, eyes on his chest, waiting for the shallow rise that had to happen.
Had to happen.
"Nathan?" No response.
Panic sunk deep claws into her gut. She reached for him, praying to feel anything but cold, lifeless skin under her hand.
"Relax, Kelly," his voice was soft in her mind.
Startled, she jerked her hand away and sloshed the tea. "Crap!"
"I'm okay," he insisted.
"How can you say that? You're paralyzed again." She spoke aloud, though the Paracuron limited him to telepathy once more. "It's been days."
"Long days."
"They're working on something to snap you out of it."
"Good. Hold my hand, please?"
"Of course." She didn't need to be an empath to understand the request. She wanted to do anything to erase the abuse he'd endured in the solitary. "Oh, wait," she said, remembering the tea. "Sip this first."
When he'd downed most of the tea, she set the cup aside and took his hand between hers, stroking his arm, slowly and gently. His skin was pale and raw from too little light and too much of that chemical spray he mentioned. It broke her heart to see him so weak and fragile. He'd been invincible to her mind when they'd met, tall and strong inside and out. He'd been pretty formidable on the side of the road.
Thank God he was still so strong inside.
"You're easy on the ego, keep thinking."
She didn't quite laugh. "Did Petra talk to you about a cure?"
"A little. It's not easy to reach her lately."
That struck Kelly as odd, but she didn't want to press him. The details of his talents were a little beyond her scope and she had plenty of her own distractions.
"You should rest."
She shook her head and some hair fell over her eyes. He moved it back behind her ear with a thought.
She smiled at him. "That's a little creepy." She thought his lips twitched, told herself to stop imagining things. Reality was odd enough.
"What do you know about Noah's ark?" she asked, diverting herself.
"It was a floating zoo?"
"Funny guy." She kept stroking his arm, soothing both of them and trying to come up with another topic.
"We had an explorer in the family. He might've gone after it."
"Noah's ark?"
"You brought it up. Some of his journals have been passed down."
"Private collection my ass," Kelly groused.
"You got something against explorers?"
More like something against deception. Hypocritical of her of course, but she lied to protect, not for personal gain. But that didn't make a lot of sense. What would Petra want with Noah?
"You know I can hear all that, right?"
Kelly floundered. "Sure. Right. Umm...I haven't seen your car."
"Jaden gave it to Cleveland. He's a master at restoration."
"Oh, good." She didn't know Cleveland.
"Petra tested you how?"
"You're going places uninvited again," she scolded, when she realized he'd followed her internal debate about Petra and that ark map.
"But it's my only escape." He managed to sound like a four year old pouting about an early bedtime.
"She made me bleed –"
"She hurt you?" The four year old voice gave way to a full grown, angry pit-bull.
"Down boy. It was a scratch really. But when my blood hit your great-great-whoever's map to Noah's ark it was like parts of it showed up for the first time."
The hospital door burst open and Petra was framed in the light from the hallway. "You bellowed?"
Kelly looked from sister back to brother. She dropped Nathan's hand. "Geez, Nathan! I've been hurt worse playing tag with my brothers." To Petra she said, "It's fine, really. I came in here to think, but he was awake." Petra's astute gaze was probably gathering all sorts of wrong impressions. "I'll just go."
"She'll go," Nathan corrected her. Both women gasped, because he'd spoken aloud. Then he turned his head, eyes open and locked on Kelly. "And you'll stay."
Kelly tried to apologize to Petra for Nathan's foul mood, but the door slammed closed. "Did you just shut that door in your sister's face?"
"Lucky I didn't bump the belly."
A furious, "I heard that," sounded from the hallway before footsteps pounded down the hall.
Kelly and Nathan laughed anyway.
"I'm thinking you won't be getting any more tea soon."
"I'm thinking I won't be needing it."
She looked at him, wondering at yet another change. "What's happened?"
"Just you." He winked at her.
She blinked at him.
"Seriously, Calisto. Come here so I don't embarrass myself. I don't think I can walk yet."
Cautiously, she resumed her place at his bedside. "Unless you're a map, I'm not the reason you're better. And call me Kelly."
Nathan disagreed, but kept it to himself. He'd poked around in her head and recognized the unsettling effects of recent events. "I've been trying to quarantine the drug, I guess it's working."
"Maybe." Her dark eyes were wide and uncertain. "The tea couldn't hurt though. I don't like this regression."
"That makes two of us. Talk later?" He tugged on her fingers, smirking at his success when she landed on her elbows, nearly nose to nose with him. "I haven't thanked you for breaking me out."
"You d –"
He cut her off with another tug, this one mental, that put her lips on his. Oh, god, he'd wanted this – just this. Her soft, warm mouth open for him to taste and learn. She was new to kissing, he didn't have to raid her mind to know it, and he found her inexperience enticing. He lingered on the fullness of her bottom lip, nipped it lightly, and when she gasp
ed just a little he capitalized, stroking her tongue with his.
He heard the doorknob turn and threw the lock, preventing the interruption.
When a furious pounding made Kelly jump, he swore softly and contemplated removing the person to the street. Except he wasn't sure of the dimensions or his strength and wouldn't risk a pointless injury.
Beside him, Kelly traced her lovely mouth with a fingertip, her face flushed and full of wonder.
Oh, but he would get even with whoever was interrupting them. On a sigh, he opened the door, unfortunately just as Jaden put her boot to the knob and she fell into the room inelegantly, spitting like a cobra.
"You jerk," she said, regaining her balance.
"Sorry about that." Nathan shifted, sitting up to meet the onslaught with as much dignity as he could muster. "Can't see through doors, you know. How can we help you?"
"Petra said you're improving again." She glanced at Kelly. "The private nurse helps?"
Nathan knew he deserved a set down, but he'd rather avoid it. "I'll apologize to her. Call it a sibling thing."
"Yeah, well I suppose I get that." Jaden relaxed a fraction. "How soon until you're independently mobile?"
"I'm not sure. I haven't stopped the drug as much as compartmentalize it."
"Research shows the half-life is one week without consistent dosing."
Nathan nodded, knowing it was Kristoff's estranged niece Lorine who was working diligently on a cure. He didn't know why Jaden was being deliberately vague around Kelly, but he followed suit for now. "Physical weakness must make me more susceptible. Kristoff said something to that effect when he pulled me out of the hole."
"Ah." Jaden shuffled her feet, then jerked her chin to the open door. "I'll go pass that on."
"Thanks."
She turned away, tossing the last order over her shoulder at Kelly. "Petra's found something you need to see."
Nathan didn't like the way Kelly leaped up to follow Jaden – as if she wanted to get away from him.
* * *
