Kaleb, Cole and Dan burst in with a bunch of other agents with Mayra running in at the rear. They’d come for me. And I could hardly believe it. How had they found me? How long had I been missing for them to send out a search party? My heart raced with hope and I almost jumped up and down with excitement. I might actually survive this!
A shimmering at the edge of my vision, told me Semelias was attempting to take back his energy once more. But I held on strong as I watched the scene before me unfold.
An EFA came up behind me and threw me to the floor, tying the paws of Semelias behind my back. I saw the others apprehended as Mayra raced over to where my body was hanging on the wall. Kaleb ran with her, remaining in his human form, shouting for someone to help him snap the manacles.
My body looked a sight, hanging there, limp and broken. My face was bloody and bruised, and my body looked like a dog’s chew toy as it hovered over a pool of blood. I was unconscious. My head lolled forward as my own energy remained absent, and it hurt to see such destruction left behind on my own body.
“Terra!” I heard Kaleb shout, and from Semelias’s position on the floor I could see Kaleb’s hands shaking. Someone came forward with some form of bolt cutters and Kaleb gently lowered me to the floor. “Terra, damn it. You’d better not die on me. I mean it.” He put his hands on my leg to try and staunch the blood flow. Cole appeared on the opposite side of me.
“Mayra,” Cole said to my friend, his voice unsteady. “Heal her. You need to heal her.”
“She’ll be fine,” Mayra replied, her voice a lot higher in pitch than normal as she tried to cling to a calm facade. “Won’t you, sweetheart?” She pushed my hair back and reached for the bag next to her.
Dan tentatively walked forward toward my body, as if he didn’t want to acknowledge what was happening. Then he fell down on his knees next to Mayra, his voice was choked with emotion. “Tell us what to do, Mayra. Tell us what to do to keep her with us.”
My heart broke at the sound, seeing them all surround me with such need to bring me home. I wanted to speak to them, to tell them I was okay. But every time I tried to make a sound it came out as a growl.
“Please,” I whispered in my mind, fighting against the panic that I would never see them again, that I would be stuck like this forever. And then I saw it. The mist.
It came on the wings of peace and serenity, wrapping around me like a blanket of comfort. I let myself go and floated as the mist merged into the white light once more. Nothing more came, as darkness claimed me into its hold. And I was grateful to fall without fear into its soothing abyss.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Sleep. I was asleep. I was sure of it.
It felt like sleep anyway, as I rode the strands of a peaceful slumber. Time felt different while you were sleeping, and the external world felt heavier—as if further away.
Voices emerged through the dark every now and again. Whispered words. But I couldn’t make out who was saying them or what was being said. Images blurred into memories that shimmered into fevered dreams, until the pain turned into a searing heat. I screeched as shadowed hands clawed down my skin, and then I heard Kaleb’s voice.
“It won’t take long,” Kaleb said to me. “I promise. Just one more.”
My eyes blinked a few times as the pull of his voice forced me back into reality. The darkness retreated, and I saw Kaleb leaning over me, holding my hand. He looked worried, and the affection in his eyes brought me home.
“Kaleb,” I asked, my voice nothing but a whisper.
“Yeah?” he replied, emotion fogging his own speech.
“Why are their weird shrunken heads dangling above you?”
He laughed, as if with relief, then glanced up at the dried out tiny heads who were staring back at us with stitched up mouths.
“You’re in Mayra’s bedroom. They’re for protection.” He sniffed. “Or so she tells me. I just think she’s got a strange fetish thing going on.”
I went to laugh, but tears came pouring out of my eyes as another round of pain hit. I tried to hold back a scream.
“It’s alright,” Kaleb assured me. “You’re alright. Mayra’s treating your wounds again to keep any infection away. It’s done now. I promise.” He gently squeezed my hand in reassurance. “She’ll just bandage you up one more time and then shake that horrible smelling stick around you. Then she can leave you alone.” He scrunched up his nose. “The stick stinks. But it’ll help.”
“It doesn’t smell horrible,” Mayra reprimanded him from the other side of the bed. “You have a sensitive nose, is all.” She stroked the hair from my face and smiled. “You scared us for a moment there, Terra. It was a close call.”
I managed to smile back weakly. I wanted to tell her that I’d nearly died. In fact, there was no doubt I would have been chew toy city if my gift hadn’t saved me. But it felt weird even saying what the hell had happened, let alone remembering it.
“She’s too stubborn to die,” Kaleb said as he grabbed my cheeks and gave me a big, sloppy kiss on my lips. “Aren’t you, Vane?”
I pushed him off, ignoring the comfort of his kiss, and wiped at my mouth. Replying groggily I told him, “I’ve made it my life’s work to annoy you. There’s no way I’m stopping now.”
He chuckled, studying me for a little while before heading off toward the door.
“Where’re you going?” I asked thickly, not wanting him to leave. As annoying as Kaleb could be, I didn’t want to be without him right now. I felt disoriented, strange, and he was my constant.
“I’ll go and get your dad and Rosie. They’ve been very worried about you.”
“Thanks, Kaleb,” I smiled and I settled deeper into the soft pillow beneath my head.
“You’re welcome. Now get your sexy ass better.”
“He hasn’t left your side once,” Mayra told me as soon as the door closed. “He thinks quite a lot of you.”
“Yeah,” I replied, not quite knowing what else to say to that.
“Ever thought of looking in that direction?” she asked, completely surprising me. I thought about falling back to sleep again to avoid the question, but I didn’t want her to worry or think that I’d passed out.
“Erm, didn’t you and Rosie warn me away from Cole because he’s a shifter?” The pain I’d felt moments before was starting to cool into a bearable ache. “Kaleb kind of shares the same DNA.”
Mayra chuckled as she bandaged my wounds. “Cole’s in line for being an Alpha. He’s a Beta wolf with higher responsibilities. It would be different with Kaleb.”
“Kaleb doesn’t think of me in that way.” I flinched as she finished the bandage on my right side. “He’s looking to have fun with several thousand women before old age hits. And that’s going to be a very long time away.”
“I think Kaleb thinks a lot more of you than you realize. Things are often there, if we know where to look.”
“Did you get hit on the head while I was out? You know Kaleb and I are off limits.”
“If you say so. But the way he reacted when …” She waved it off and cleared some of her things away. “It doesn’t matter. I mean it when I said you scared us. You barely made it in one piece.”
“Raken was waiting at the monorail station for me,” I explained. I felt the salve she’d used on the bandages seep into my skin. “He drugged me and took me to the warehouse.” I struggled to sit up, and she came forward to help. “How did you find me?”
“Kaleb was worried about you,” she replied as she patted the pillows down around me. “You never turned up at the agency, and you weren’t answering your comms. He tried to track your scent from your place but lost it when he got to The Rail. After that, there were too many scents, too many people. That’s when he came and found me setting up at the fair. I got lucky with a tracking spell.” Her face fell. “I’m sorry it took so long to get to you.”
“Hey, you saved my life.” I patted her hand. “And you came for me, Mayra. That’s all that matters.” I
let out a long, drawn-out sigh before suppressing a yawn. “How long have I been out?”
“Almost four days straight.” She paused. “You were in a bad way, hon. I had to engage the dark magics. That’s why you’re in here.”
“The dark magics?” I asked in surprise. I knew how much that would have cost her. No wonder I was lying in her spooky bed right now. Lucky for me, I knew I was lying here for my own protection and not because she wanted to frighten me to death. “You didn’t bring me back from the dead, did you?”
“No,” she replied, slightly offended. “That’s against so many laws, I wouldn’t even know where to start. And I don’t mean Portiside ones. You know how Witch Karma can be.”
“Yeah,” I sighed, “I know. Sorry. I had to ask. It’s just something weird happened with my gift while the rogues were biting into me.”
“Like what?” she asked me with concern and I let it all spill out.
I told her about letting down all my shields after the vision told me to do so, and how I’d been able to control the rogue through his raw energy. The look on her face once I’d finished didn’t make me feel any better.
“You were able to step into his energy while he was still possessing it?”
“Yep. I could see it as clear as day with my shields down. And then my gift just did its own thing and reached out. We connected, and then … well, you know the rest.”
“I’ve heard of manipulators of energy itself, but not of the energies of a person.” She let out a thoughtful sigh as she began to shake the strange wooden stick over me. Leather strips swirled and swished from its center encouraging a noise that sounded like maracas as the beads on the ends hit the wood. Smoke slowly rose out of the small holes it bore near its peak as an extremely sweet scent weaved its way into my nostrils.
“Don’t worry about this,” Mayra said as she continued to shake the smoky stick around. “It will aid in the healing and protection I’ve put around you. And I wouldn’t worry too much about your gift either. There is so little we know about it, and over the years you have needed time to get your head around it all. The shields may have helped with that.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve given you back your control. They’ve allowed you to hone the different parts of your gift one by one, rather than all at once. Maybe now you’ve perfected the part you’re used to having, more is coming through for you to work with? Who knows how this works? It just does.”
“I know. But to be able to control a person? A rogue shifter? That’s walking into some form of weird necromancer territory. It’s creepy.”
“Necromancer’s can only control the dead. You, my dear friend, have a gift that appears to be able to control the living.”
“Now, that is creepy.”
“Maybe so,” Mayra chuckled, “but I would tell you to keep those shields of yours up until you’re better and we can work this all out. I know you had to drop them to save your life, and I’m very glad that you did so, but let’s not tempt fate. Okay?”
“Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m planning on dropping them anytime soon. But why haven’t I been able to do that before? I know I’ve been able to step into energy old and new, but lots of psychics can do that, right? Not this, though. Not stepping into someone’s energy and controlling them.”
“Not that I’ve heard of, hon. But it may only work with beings like the rogue shifters. It might not work on someone with a stronger mental capability.” She tilted her head to study me. “Your power has always been a puzzle to me though. You’re not just a psychic. You never have been.”
“But that’s what they said I was when they tested me for immigration.”
“Only because they were dealing within the realms of possibility. And they may not have picked up on anything else. The testing is pretty specific. You’re not.”
“I don’t want to be a freak again,” I whispered, terrified at the thought of not knowing what I was capable of. I may have been lower down on the food chain over here, but at least I fit in. I didn’t want to be an outcast again. I didn’t want to feel lost once more.
“You’re not a freak,” Mayra reprimanded me. “You are a gifted person who, once upon a time, lived with a bunch of assholes. But not anymore. No matter what happens, we’ll work it out. And we’ll have plenty of time to do so. But right now, you need to heal. And you know the mantra. If we’re not sure about things such as this, then—”
“We don’t do anything until we are,” I finished for her having heard that lecture a fair few times over the years. “Let’s keep it to ourselves for now then. It may have been a complete fluke that I was able to do it anyway.”
Mayra gave me a dubious look but said nothing.
A knock on the door disturbed the silence between us, and Mayra put her stick down on the nightstand beside the bed.
“Your secret is my own,” she whispered, only moments before a worried looking Chris and Rosie walked in through the door. I plastered a big smile on my face to ready myself for their lovable onslaught, and let the worries slide away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“Hey, sleepyhead,” Kaleb said as he walked back into Mayra’s bedroom later on that night. “Thought you might want some company.”
Sleep had claimed me not long after I managed to convince Rosie and Chris that I was okay, and they finally left to return to work. The project they were on was important, and I would only get pissy with everyone hovering round me like I was ready to break. It was a good job both of them knew me well enough to make an exit after claiming I was tired.
It hadn’t been a lie. My body was still healing, even with the aid of Mayra’s magic. I felt drained and useless as none of my limbs wanted to cooperate. They were moving like a tortoise after a heavy feast.
I’d slept for a little while, judging by the darkened sky visible from Mayra’s bedroom window. And I was ravenous all of a sudden.
“Wanna help me up so I can go grab some food?” I asked Kaleb as I tried to move into a sitting position. He was by my side in an instant, plumping the pillows and slowly urging me up a little.
“Mayra’s got some soup on the go. It’s almost done. I’ll get you some in a short while. But it’s bed rest for you, I’m afraid.”
“What’s made you all nurse-like?” I asked him as my head dropped back against the pillow in resignation. Even lifting it felt like too much of an effort.
“Someone’s got to look after you. And I’m used to your crap. I know how much of a lousy patient you are, and I can take it.”
“Thanks,” I drawled with as much sarcasm as I could manage, and he smiled.
He dragged his seat closer to the bed. “You’re welcome. That’s what partners are for.”
Now I could study him at a closer distance, I could see the dark circles beneath his eyes and a few days growth on his face. I recalled what Mayra had said about him not leaving my side, and I was suddenly overcome with emotion. Tears popped up in my eyes before I could stop them.
“What’s up?” he asked, but he made no move to comfort me. It made me chuckle.
“Thanks,” I said, more meaningfully this time. “Thanks for staying with me.”
“Hey, it’s not like I had much to do what with my partner out for the count and Cole stalking around like a wolf with a sore head.” He grinned. “You don’t want to know how many people have had to bear the brunt of his anger while I’ve hid out here with you. Call me a coward.”
“You’re a coward,” I told him with a smile. “What’s up with Cole?”
The humor fell from his face, and his lips hardened into a grim line. “A lot has happened while you’ve been out. He’s moved fast; I’ll give him that.”
“What do you mean?” Worry struck me for no clear reason, and I forgot myself for a moment as I tried to sit up again.
“Hey, stop trying to move like that,” he ushered me back down. “You’ll get me into trouble with Mayra and I don’t want to be turned into a toad, th
ank you very much.”
“She wouldn’t turn you into toad. She would turn you into a snake. That’s her thing.”
“Really?” he asked as his face paled.
“Sure,” was all I said, but he’d seen the smile.
“Oh, you’re a funny, funny human. My sides are splitting.”
“Ha, just like mine.” I pointed at the bandages I could feel wrapped around my waist, but he didn’t find it humorous. Instead, he took a deep breath as if coming to a decision, then he let it all out.
“You’re lucky, Terra. So lucky. I panicked when you didn’t turn up at the agency. I know what you’re like for timekeeping and something didn’t feel right. I figured I could go to The Rail and meet you there, walk in with you. But you never turned up ...” Pain flickered in his eyes. “I tried to track you, and caught hints of you from your apartment. But the trail disappeared after I got to The Rail. That’s when I really panicked. I hunted Mayra down as she was setting up at the fair and she did the spell. Thankfully, she got lucky, and Cole had the agents rounded up in minutes.” He let out a deep breath. “Rudolf didn’t expect you to survive down there. And he did everything in his power to stop the trail leading back to him.”
“I kind of guessed he wanted to kill me when he set the rogues in my direction. I hadn’t exactly been expecting a kinky date when I woke up to find myself hanging from a wall.”
“Yeah.” He laughed slightly. “Figured out that much when Raken admitted to drugging and kidnapping you.”
“He’s still alive?” I asked, both relieved and annoyed that I hadn’t killed him. The thought of the sadistic look on his face while Rudolf had been laying into me made me feel very conflicted about that.
“Yeah,” Kaleb replied. “The Healer Hub healed him. Then he confessed to everything. After the agents hurt him some more, of course.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t kill him,” I said as I thought of the agents whose lives had been lost due to Raken’s deceit. Shifters took loyalty very seriously. To them, betrayal was worthy of a death sentence.
Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1) Page 25
