Vex: Mythical Ink Series (book 1): An Exotic Ink Novel

by LS Anders

  Swallowing hard, she couldn’t believe she was about to enter an area where the most ill patients were kept, but concern for her new friend gave her the courage to set her fears for own health aside and place one foot in front of the other. Stepping beyond the threshold that only family was allowed, she began to scan the walls for placards with the room number she was told he was assigned.

  A final look back at the sea of worried faces and that of her demon’s, the weight of responsibility nearly took her to the ground. As the door automatically began to ease back into place, Avie gave her a firm nod and a smile. A final confirmation that using her abilities to help heal Jason was the right thing to do.

  She easily found his room a few doors down. Peering in through the picture window that took up nearly the entire wall of his room, she blinked back tears not prepared for what she saw on the other side of the glass.

  Jason was in a neck brace. There was some sort of wide strap across his forehead that appeared to be holding his head in place. A tube as round as a man’s finger jutted out from between his lips and was taped to one side of his mouth. The other end attached to a machine that sent out puffs of air in a steady rhythm.

  Holy shit! The thing was breathing for him.

  A cascade of panic shimmered its way over every inch of her skin. With no experience with healing anyone, ever, she worried how much help she would actually be, but she was determined to try.

  A nurse stepped up beside her. “You can go in when you’re ready. Only fifteen minutes visitation per hour. No food or drink in the ICU. And, absolutely no cell phones.”

  Alea nodded. “Can you tell me what is wrong with him?”

  “Has no one briefed you about his condition?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll let the doctor know he has family waiting.”

  “Thanks.” As the nurse rushed off, she battled a twinge of guilt over her lie as she waited for the doctor before she went in.

  A new set of footsteps sounded out behind her. Not the wispy scuffs of the nurse that hurried away, but quick, purposeful steps made with efficiency. Turning towards the sound, she was met by a short man whose head showed more shine than hair. His eyes were smart behind his glasses as he stuck out his hand for her to shake.

  The entire situation was so surreal that she didn’t catch his name, but smiled and hoped she said the right thing. He nodded in kind, so whatever had come out of her mouth was to his liking.

  His mouth was moving and she shook herself to get with the program.

  “…has swelling here,” the doctor was saying as he laid his hand on the back of his skull. “It’s called a subdermal hematoma. We will be closely monitoring the swelling and Mr. Gales is scheduled for another MRI to see if it worsens or starts to improve on its own. If it doesn’t, the pressure will have to be relieved through surgery. As for his cervical spine injury, he’s not responding to any stimuli. There is a possibility he could be paralyzed and we won’t be able to tell if it’s a permanent condition or temporary until he regains consciousness.”

  Thanking the doctor, she hoped he was as confident in his medical abilities as he seemed to be in the way he carried himself as he strode away from her.

  Armed with the knowledge of Jason’s injuries, she shored up her courage and pushed open the large wooden door.

  Steeping into the room, she was met with a chorus of hushed beeping and whirring of so many machines Jason was plugged into, she couldn’t fathom what they were all meant to do.

  The room was sparsely furnished. A chair covered in a tight blue plastic was placed near the bed and a telescoping bedside table was pushed up against the far wall. It was the kind that people used for a mug of water or a tray of hospital food. Why it was there was a mystery. None of the patients in this part of the hospital would have any use for it. If you were well enough to eat and drink, you weren’t sick enough to be in here.

  Pulling the chair closer to the side of Jason’s bed, she tried not to focus on the black circles beneath his eyes or the tube that distorted his lips.

  She needed to stay focused on her task and that was to heal as much of Jason’s injuries as she could without it looking like a modern-day miracle, but enough so that he wouldn’t be paralyzed for the remainder of his life.

  First was to dissolve the pressure on his brain and repair the vessels that were leaking the blood. From there, she would work her way down to the spinal injury at the base of his neck.

  With only fifteen minutes per hour, she was going to have to work quickly to help him before his condition worsened. Thoughts of a hole being drilled in her friend’s skull to relieve the pressure made her knees wobble and her stomach roll.

  Closing her eyes a moment, she let her head fall back on her shoulders. Clearing her mind and focusing on the task at hand, she blinked them open and sneered. Met with a border of cheery flowers that adorned the top edge of the wall made her want to punch the decorator in the face who’d decided it belonged there. How grossly inappropriate to even attempt to create an illusion of happiness in rooms choked with anything but. It was like having a clown at a funeral.

  Reaching out, she laid her hand over his much colder one. The difference in their body temperatures was disturbing, like touching the hand of a corpse. That would not be his fate if she had anything to do about it.

  Closing her eyes, she focused inward then pushed her will out and into the hand she was holding. Up his arm, she traveled until she reached the pocket of blood just beneath his occipital bone. That was one of the points of blunt force trauma the doctor had spoken of. Absorbing the pool was easier than she anticipated, and she was able to repair the broken vessels and bruising to his brain very quickly.

  Dropping down lower, she encountered the spinal cord injury at the base of his skull where he was presumably struck a second time. Some of the nerves were severed and some were compressed by the surrounding bone caused by the impact of whatever he was hit with.

  Manipulating the bones of his cervical spine was difficult, and she was only able to shift one his vertebra off of the bundle of nerves that ran down the center of his spine enough to relieve the pressure before the nurse came in and announced her fifteen minutes was over.

  Forty-five-fucking-minutes she would have to wait to get back in there and correct the rest of the damage. What if that was too late? Was there a time limit on healing an injury?

  “Please.” Her voice cracked and her lips quivered. After seeing inside what had to be a brutal beating, she was raw with anger and fear. “Please let me stay a little longer.”

  The nurse was kind enough to smile as she began to shake her head, dashing her hopes to catch a break.

  Panic gave Alea’s words the strength they needed to convince the nurse. “I promise not to tell a soul. I’ll be quiet. No one will know I’m even here. Just a few more minutes. Please, I’m begging you.”

  The girl tilted her head. Her eyes roaming Alea’s face as if she were warring within herself.

  She hadn’t said no right away, so that was a good sign.

  “Alright. Ten more minutes, but that’s all.”

  The tension in her shoulders eased. “Thank you so much.”

  As soon as the nurse was out the door, Alea placed her hand back over Jason’s. “Alright, sweetie, let’s get you back on your feet.”

  Focusing inward was easier this time around, and she was suddenly back to where she’d left off. Three more vertebrae she adjusted just enough to relieve the pressure, and then she focused her energy on knitting together the nerves that had been severed.

  Her time almost spent, she felt drained from the process. Was this what Avie went through every time she healed Cale? Chasing down and correcting the diseased red blood cells that made up her husband’s leukemia.

  Rubbing a tired hand over her face. “That’s all I know to do, Jason, I hope it works.” She patted then squeezed his hand—

  His hand echoed hers. The lightest of grips, but a grip nonetheless.
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  Her eyes shot to his face, but his eyes remained tightly closed, his condition unchanged. He looked the same as when she’d first walked in. Maybe it was just an involuntary reflex.

  Squeezing again she didn't dare hope for another response. A heartbeat passed and then another...and nothing.

  Deflated, her shoulders sagged, frowning hard as she held back the urge to cry.

  Standing, she took a step closer to his bedside. Behind her, the door hinges made only the slightest sound as the nurse cracked open the door, right on time to kick her out.

  Peering over her shoulder, she absently rubbed her thumb over the hand she still held and exchanged a sad smile with the nurse before returning her attention to Jason.

  “I'll be back as soon as I'm allowed, Jason, I promise.”

  Shocked that his fingers answered her with a stronger squeeze than the first time. There was no holding back her tears.

  “Oh my God, I'll go get the doctor,” the nurse announced, rushing from the room.

  Alea openly wept. Healing her friend was worth every hour, week, year, or whatever time she had shaved off her own life. A gift that she'd never regret giving him after the kindness he'd always shown to her.

  Vex’s cell buzzed inside his coat pocket as Alea disappeared behind the door that led into the ICU. He wasn’t sure what was making her look so nervous, but the resolve in her eyes made him think she had come to some kind of decision that would somehow change her life.

  He read the text from Lucian as he moved away from the group gathered inside the waiting area outside of the ICU.

  Sevin had tracked down the bikers and had found Evana. The angel was already winging it over to the address he’d included in the text, and that was where he was headed.

  Glancing back, he made eye contact with Avie. The little fairy so much like his Alea gave him a questioning look.

  As no one else was paying him any attention, he mouthed, “Found her,” and gave her his best attempt at a grin.

  No more explanation was needed as the female caught his drift and tried to cover her surprise at the good news.

  Slipping away unnoticed, he grabbed a cab outside the hospital and recited an address a few blocks away from where Sevin was no doubt chewing his way through the human trash that had taken Evana.

  The woman was injured, so the angel had put her in a light sleep and was flying her to the hospital. As fast as Lucian moved, he wouldn’t doubt it if they weren’t already in the ER.

  That left Sevin on his own.

  Shifting around in the backseat of the cab, a rush of prickly unease washed over his skin. Wolf or not, he might be deadly as fuck, but that didn’t make him bulletproof.

  “There’s a hundred-dollar tip for you, if you’re willing to lay waste to the speed limit,” he offered. “I’m in a hurry.”

  The cabby’s eyes flashed up to meet his in the narrow rearview mirror just before he punched the gas and veered around another cab pulling away from the curb.

  The human did not disappoint, and there were a couple of times he’d had to grab for the oh-shit-handle as the cab careened around slower traffic and damn near took out a dude on a bicycle. Every time he was slung around in the back, the cabby would glance up in the mirror a little bit of mirth playing across his face.

  The fucker was just being a douche, but if all the crazy driving got him to Sevin faster, he promised himself not to kill the driver once he made it to his destination.

  Swinging over to the curb, the driver brought the cab to an abrupt halt throwing him forward into the back of the driver’s seat.

  Growling out a few choice words, he pulled the promised cash from his wallet and handed it to the smart ass behind the wheel. Exiting the cab, he purposely slowed his steps since hitting the ground at a dead run might draw suspicion.

  Once he was out of view of the cabby, his legs exploded with purpose. His leather jacket catching all kinds of air as the bottom of it rode out behind him like a cape on a super hero as his feet pounded out the remaining blocks that would take him to Sevin.

  The abandoned structure was just up ahead. Its square, squat body as aesthetically displeasing to the eye as any other nineteen-seventy era manufacturing plant he’d ever seen. Surrounded by a scattering of smaller outbuildings, it was the perfect wasteland for squatters and criminals.

  On the outskirts of the city, this area was hopping back in its day. Now just a collection of outdated structures that had outlived their usefulness as manufacturing had moved in a more modern direction leaving behind the antiquated hand machined processes for robotics. Like a gathering of aging old maids huddled together and long forgotten. The structure Sevin was in was the tallest of the bunch.

  Pausing to test every door he came to as he raced from one possible entrance to the next, he was ready to use his shoulder as a battering ram until the next one he came to opened with a cacophonous protest.

  Before he had fully stepped inside, he was hit with a tinny stench that solidified in his nasal cavities. It was a scene right out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

  Coughing into his hand, he had to swallow the thickness that had gathered at the base of his throat before he could continue on to where all the action had gone down. Sevin was still in his wolf form as he ripped open the last living thing in the building’s throat.

  He was a beautiful animal, all shimmering silver and thick furred. He’d petted him like this and knew the extraordinary softness of his coat. That’s where the beauty ended and the scary-as-fuck took over.

  As the wolf sensed him, his head swung up and around daring him to take one more step forward with those fierce eyes. Bloodlust making them sparkle with insanity. Guarding his fresh kill like the predator he was, he bared his teeth. Two rows of bright white, sharp as daggers glowed against the backdrop of sticky red dripping from his chops.

  Vex held his hands aloft and spoke softly to the snarling beast. “Sevin, hey son, you know me. Let’s you and I just chill. The bikers all seem to be to more than dead. You’ve done a good job defending our human friend, so let’s get this mess cleaned up and get the fuck out of here. Me and you, what do say?”

  The wolf backed off his snarl, his lips dropping over his teeth. Moving to a seated position, Sevin turned his head looking at the human he had just killed, licking the blood from his muzzle.

  Facing him again, the wolf whined and bowed his head.

  Sevin’s transformation back to his human-like form was always a miracle to behold. The thick fur retracted and gave way to pinkish skin. The slender legs of the canine elongated and swelled into the arms and legs of a man. The body and face distorted from that of the animal to the more familiar visage that he normally sported.

  Newly transformed, he gave Sevin a moment to regroup before he approached. “Where’d you stash your clothes?”

  “I shifted at Evana’s apartment, and Lucian didn’t bring me anything to wear.”

  “Well, shit,” Vex muttered as he removed his leather jacket and pulled off his hoodie to offer to Sevin as he pushed himself up from the floor.

  Smiling, Sevin took the heavy cotton from his hand.

  “You may want to floss before you go flashing those pearly whites at anyone else but me.” Vex peeled his lips away from his closed teeth and pointed to his own mouth. “You’ve got some…esophagus wedged in your grill.”

  “Thanks for the heads up and the hoodie.” Sevin chuckled as the garment fell to his knees in a heavy rush. “I could belt it off and make a dress out of this.”

  “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

  “Did you see me begging?” the saucy shifter replied. “I’m perfectly comfortable with my birthday suit.”

  “Yes, well, I’m not exactly comfortable with eyeballing your lily-white ass while we tidy up.”

  Snickering, the shifter swiped the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the thick blood in a nasty streak across his cheek.

  Grotesque comic relief in the midst of all the carnage. L
eave it to Sevin to crack jokes while standing in a sea of blood and bodies.

  Shaking his head, he scanned the area for anything they could use to aid in clean up. Not much here, he’d have to make a run to a store, or…he could just torch the place and call it good. Cleaning up this much blood would require a shit load of time that they didn’t have.

  All they needed was an accelerant, and he could handle the rest. Not that he could throw a flame, but he sure as shit could produce enough heat to hit the ignition temperature of a vapor cloud above a puddle of gasoline.

  Taking a turn around the open area, he wandered through the rooms adjacent to the lofty space that housed all the outdated machinery.

  Taking a wide step over a cooling body, he sneered at the handcuffs hanging from a support post in the center of the room. That's where Evana had been held. He knew it without being told.

  Made him want to snap the neck of the dead man blocking the doorway, if there was anything left to break. There was a clump of meat splattered next to the man's head that now laid at a 180 degrees on his shoulders.

  Moving onto the next room down he found exactly what he was looking for. A storage room of sorts offered up shelves of supplies that had once been used to aid in the operations of whatever the old plant had manufactured.

  Once neat and orderly rows of machine oils and cleaners, now pilfered through and scattered about by vagrants and squatters lay haphazardly covered by a thick blanket of dust.

  Scanning the faded product labels, he looked for anything that would burst into a nice flame.

  Bingo.

  It was some kind of cleaning agent, but the warning label was a beautiful thing stating that it was highly flammable. There were several jugs of it, more than enough to turn any evidence into ash. Given all the heavy timber construction, it was sure to burn hotter than the fabled flames of Netherworld.