by Siren Allen
“Damn. What happened while you were out?”
“I heard Hannah tell the two guys who were helping her, that she managed to drug us. But that the boy was strong and she had no idea what he was, but that they shouldn’t take their eyes off of him.”
That only made her more curious about what Lee’s mate was.
“The men took us into the woods. Deep in the woods. I don’t even know if we were still in Mississippi. The tossed us on the ground and left. Then a woman came out, covered in mud, with markings all over her face and body and she started chanting.”
“This sounds like root magic.”
“It felt dark. Suddenly I felt cold. I had never felt that cold before. I could hear rushing water.”
This sounded similar to what she’d felt when she was brought here.
“Suddenly everything went black. When I woke up again, Nach was fighting off cannibals and I was being drug away by a teenage girl.”
“A cannibal?”
Lee nodded. “My first kill.” A tear dripped down her cheek. “I hadn’t wanted to. But she tried...”
“Stop. I know. Trust me, I know.”
“You’ve had to kill too?”
“Yes,” Sin lied.
“We’re not bad people.”
“Of course not. If you hadn’t killed her, her ass would’ve eaten you.”
“That’s what Nach told me. But she was only a kid. No more than sixteen.”
“Here, that doesn’t matter. Here, you have to do what you have to in order to survive.”
“We were lucky that Kaede, Santiago, and Deacon were out hunting that day. They saved us and brought us here. We’ve been here ever since.” Lee wiped her eyes. “How did you end up here, Sin?”
Sin couldn’t tell her about Shade. That was a secret she had to keep to herself. “Wait, Lee, how are you here? This place is for immortals. Only immortals can survive here.”
“I am immortal. Well, for as long as my mate lives. Turns out, even though we don’t know what Nach is, he is an immortal.”
“So, mates of immortals are immortal by default?”
“Of course. Don’t you remember learning that in our first year of training?”
“I barely remember my first year of training.”
“That’s how you’re able to survive here. You’re mated to Kaede, who is an immortal alpha.”
That was it. She was immortal. Shade wasn’t an immortal maker. She no longer had to worry about people hunting her sister down and using her for their own evil deeds. She was mated to an immortal alpha. That was as close to royalty as she’d ever get. She’d take it. Queen Sin!
“Being immortal only means you can live a long time if you manage to survive the evils of the world. It doesn’t mean you can’t die,” Lee told her. “Nach is immortal.” Lee sniffled. “But he’s dying, Sin. My mate is dying and it’s all my fault.”
“What do you mean?” Sin reached across the table to hold Lee’s hand. This was the only way she knew to comfort her.
“He was given a task by The Deciders.”
Those bastards.
“But, he didn’t complete the task. I told him not to.”
Good. “Why?”
“Because it involved the capture and containment of a pregnant fairy.”
Shit.
“I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if he’d done that. He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he’d done it also. He contacted them and told them that he couldn’t do the job after he found out the woman was pregnant. They told him he had three days to get the job done since he’d already accepted it. He told them no. Four days later, he was coming home from hunting and he was attacked by two men in masks. He fought them off, killing them. But he was wounded. The men were rabid wolf shifters.”
“But there’s a vaccine for rabies. Well, back home there is.”
“We have one here also. It’s not working. Nothing is working. It’s been two weeks. Today... today... he looked worse. He’s dying Sin. The man I love is dying.”
“Take me to him.”
“Sin, your mom is good at healing. Not you.”
“I’m good at spells.”
“So is our medic here. They’re not working.”
“I’m also good at figuring out what species a person is.”
“Sin...”
“Hear me out, Lee. You can’t treat an illness if you don’t know the disease. You can’t treat a shifter properly if you don’t know his species. If you’ve tried everything, that means the human body, their normal body, isn’t what’s sick. It’s the animal inside that needs to be healed.”
A look of hope flickered in Lee’s eyes. Now Sin felt pressured to get results.
“Do you really think you can help?”
“I don’t know. I can’t make any promises. But I want to try. For years, I was mad at you for running off. Turns out, you were framed and cursed here. I feel horrible for not digging deeper. If I can help your mate, maybe you’ll be able to forgive me one day.”
“Girl, there’s nothing to forgive. After coming here, I realized that life is too short to hold hate in my heart. Except for the hate I feel for Hannah. That shit is real and it’s here to stay until I out that bitch. But other than that, I don’t have room for hate in me. Plus, I could never hate you. You’re my best friend. If you want to see Nachik and see if you can figure out what’s going on with him, I’d be grateful. Hell, I’ll even bake you three loaves of bread and...”
“Deal.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“If it’s food, I’ll take it.”
Lee laughed. “Come on. Let me show you to the Med Bay. You should put on a jacket. There may be one in your closet. I know I gave Kaede one of my old ones I can no longer fit.”
Sin headed to the bedroom to check. “You’ve lost a lot of weight.” I’m not jealous.
“I’ve lost the majority of it in two fucking weeks. I can’t eat. I’ve been too worried.”
Sin paused, with her hand on the doorknob. “Lee, you’ve got to eat.”
“I know. I just... it’s hard.”
Sin found the jacket and she found boots. As she slipped them on, she said, “We’ll figure something out. We’re witches.”
“My magic has been off as of late.”
“It’s tied to your emotions.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Sin returned to the living room. “We’ll figure it out.”
“First,” Lee chuckled. “You need to figure your bed hair out. What have you and Kaede been doing?”
A blush crept into Sin’s cheeks. Her hands flew to her hair. “Nothing. I swear.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I don’t have a mirror.”
“You do. In your bathroom. Has Kaede not showed you around your new place?”
“We uh...” Sin went in search of a bathroom. “We haven’t had time.”
“I can tell from your hair.”
For someone who was sad, Lee sure was cracking a lot of jokes. Sin found the bathroom. It was cute. There was even a tub. It was kind of a tub. It would do. She walked over to the wall were a triangle-shaped reflective glass was.
It wasn’t the kind of mirror from home. It was glass. It was a reflective surface. But it was foggy. She had to get really close to it to see herself. What she saw reminded her of a Halloween movie.
Why hadn’t Kaede told her she looked like Marge Simpson. Worse than that, he’d stared at her like she was the best thing on either side of the Mississippi. When in truth, she looked like something a fisher would pull from the Mississippi.
Sin found a comb in a bucket near the basin. There was also a brush and a tin container. She opened the small tin container.
“Hey, Lee...” She still couldn’t believe Lee was here. “Is this stuff in the tin for my hair?”
“Yeah. I made it. With the help of a few other black ladies here. You know we had to figure out something to do with our hai
r.”
Black girls rock! “It smells great.”
“It works awesome. If I ever leave this place, I’m taking some with me to see if I can replicate it and sell it. We’d make a fortune.”
Sin sighed as she styled her hair. Leaving here was Lee’s dream too. That dream wasn’t going to be easy to achieve. She wouldn’t burden her friend with that right now. She had enough on her plate.
After rubbing some of the blue cream through her tresses, the comb slipped through her hair like butter. Sin stared down at the container. This was some type of miracle elixir. She quickly pulled her hair up into a ponytail.
“Lee, do you have any rubber bands?”
“Nope. Sorry. I have some plastic bands at my house. They work well. I should’ve brought you some.”
“No worries.” New style. What could she do with it?
Lee popped her head into the room. “I can braid it for you.”
“Would you, please?”
“Yes. I’ll run get a chair.”
When Lee returned with a chair, Sin sat down and let her friend braid her hair to the back. They’d done this in high school dozens of times. Who knew they’d end up doing it on a different plane of existence?
“Sin, even if you can’t help Nachik, I still appreciate your willingness to help. Thanks.”
“If I don’t help him today, I’ll keep trying. You have to be strong and think positive. Guardians never give up, remember?”
Lee sniffled. “I’d forgotten. I remember now. Thank you.”
Sin blinked back tears. “You’re welcome, sis.”
Chapter Twenty
SIN FOUGHT THE URGE to burst into tears.
Poor Nachik. She stared down at the Indian male lying on the cot with a white sheet pulled up to his chest. His skin was pale. His lips were starting to turn blue. He’d lost weight. He looked nothing like the picture Lee showed her on her locket, right before they entered his room.
There was an I.V type thing hooked to his arm and a monitor beside the bed. Sin had no idea if she’d be able to help him or not. She sat down at one of the brown stools Lee had pulled close to the bed. An elderly woman was seated on the other side of the bed, drawing a vial of blood.
“We check his blood daily,” the light pink-skinned woman told her. This must be, Zelna, the fairy healer Lee told her about. “We’re trying to see if the poison is fading.”
“Is it?”
Zelna shook her head while Lee wasn’t looking. Then she gave Sin a sad look. Damn. That was a, between us, he’s not going to make it, look. Sin didn’t even know where to begin. Um... how about his temperature? Sin placed the back of her hand against Nachik’s forehead. He was freezing. She moved her hand away. Nachik sighed.
“Oh my gosh,” Lee yelled. “He’s never made a sound before.”
Even the old fairy appeared shocked. “He hasn’t made a sound since we brought him to the med bay after the attack. Touch him again.”
“Me?” Sin asked.
Zelna nodded. Sin looked to Lee for confirmation. Lee nodded. Okay then. Sin placed the back of her hand against Nachik’s forehead. He was cold. Too cold.
“Have you tried warming him up?”
“We’ve used heated cloths. They don’t really help,” Lee told her. “They make him convulse.”
Nachik jerked underneath Sin’s touch.
“Like he’s about to do now. Move your hand Sin.”
Sin jerked her hand away just as Nachik started convulsing.
“Get the ice,” Lee yelled to the elderly woman all while trying to hold Nachik down.
Zelna removed the I.V from Nachik’s arm and placed a bandage on him. Sin wasn’t a nurse, but she was pretty sure you shouldn’t remove a needle from a convulsing person’s arm. Or should you?
Sin jumped out of her seat giving them room to work. She watched from the sidelines. Something about this didn’t seem right. When she touched him the first time, he sighed, like he welcomed the heat.
And when she touched him the second time, she’d felt fire in him. Almost like what she’d felt when she touched her dragon. Except not as big. Nachik wasn’t a dragon, but he was something that needed fire to live.
She was pretty sure of it. But she wasn’t one hundred percent positive. As a child, whenever she was sick, her parents would have her sit right in front of the fireplace and sweat it out, as they liked to call it.
It always worked. Fire made her stronger and healed her. Sin had a feeling Nachik needed to sweat it out. These convulsions weren’t a bad thing. It was his body’s way of healing.
Or something like that. Shit. She wasn’t a healer. She didn’t know how to explain it. All she knew was that every creature healed differently. They weren’t human so human methodologies and treatments couldn’t always be applied to them.
The door to the med bay burst open. In rushed Kaede followed by Rhen. Rhen winked at her when he saw her. Kaede’s eyes widened.
“Why are you here?” Kaede asked.
She instantly felt like a kid who was supposed to be in bed but had snuck out of the house to hang out.
“I-I wanted to help.”
He nodded. “Thanks.”
He wasn’t mad? Well, he shouldn’t be. Plus, she was grown as hell. She could go wherever she wanted to go in this strange ass compound. His eyes lingered on her for a bit before returning to the situation at hand.
“I got word that Nach was coding,” he told Lee.
With tears streaming down her face, Lee nodded. “You can’t touch him K. You or Sin. He doesn’t react well to heat. He needs another ice bath.”
No, he didn’t. At least, she didn’t think he did. She watched as Rhen helped Kaede bring in ice from outside. Standing in the corner of the room, all Sin could do was observe. Never had she been the type to hold her tongue.
But this was a tough situation. A man’s life was on the line. If she was wrong, someone could die. This was why she’d never wanted to be a healer like her mother and aunt. She didn’t want that type of responsibility on her.
Yet, if she was right and she said nothing, wouldn’t that be wrong also? Fuck. Everyone’s gaze jerked to her. Damn. She’d said fuck out loud. Her weird ass would do something crazy like that.
“What’s wrong?” Kaede asked as he sat a tub of ice down in the corner.
Rhen went to move the body. Here goes nothing.
“Don’t move him.”
“Huh?” Rhen asked.
Well, she had whispered the words. No wonder he hadn’t heard her. Sin tilted her shoulders back, lifted her chin and called forth a confidence she wasn’t feeling.
“Don’t move him.”
Rhen looked to Kaede. “Uh...”
Lee was the one to reply. “Sin, I don’t have time for this. Thanks for your help but...”
“Lee, I love you like a sister. Trust me one more time, please.”
Kaede stared from her to Lee, obviously confused by how the two of them was so close on such short notice. She’d fill him in later.
“Sin...” Lee started.
Sin moved forward. “When I was young, I got sick a lot, remember?”
“Yeah, but he’s...”
“Fire healed me.”
“Fire makes him convulse. Convulsing isn’t a good sign...”
“For humans. For witches. He’s not human and I don’t think he’s a witch.”
“Convulsing isn’t a good thing for most creatures,” Rhen spoke up. “I’ve never seen it be a good sign for anyone.”
“In school, we learn never to pin down a charge who’s having convulsions. Remember?”
“If I don’t, he could hurt himself. I don’t have time for this, Sin.”
“In school, we learned to never treat all shifters alike. Come on, Lee, did you forget everything you learned?”
“You know Caro as Lee?” Kaede asked.
Sin nodded. “I’ll explain it later.” To Lee she said. “I remember my training. I remember what my mom taught
me and how she treated my illness. I’m not saying Nachik is a fire witch or a dragon, but his powers are fire-related. Submerging him in ice stops the convulsions, yes. But it doesn’t heal him. Shifters look scary as hell when they shift, but that’s normal for them. Vampires have darks lines that appear on their face when they go into kill mode. But that’s normal for them. Whatever he is, convulsing when healing is normal for him.”
“Would you bet your life on it,” Lee asked. “Because if he dies...”
“Don’t threaten my mate,” Kaede stepped forward.
“I’m trying to protect mine,” Lee shouted.
This was getting out of hand. Lee conjured a fireball.
“Oh no,” Rhen drawled. “She’s flaming up.”
“Move, Lee,” Sin ordered. She knew she was right. Even her fire felt connected to him. Just as it felt connected to other fire beings.
“Sin... I don’t want to hurt you...” Lee started.
Kaede growled.
“Kaede,” Sin said to her mate. “She has every right to feel the way she’s feeling. She’s scared and hurting. I’ve known her all my life. She wouldn’t threaten me if she wasn’t in pain.”
Lee broke down into tears while still holding Nachik’s convulsing body down.
“Mate,” Sin looked to Kaede. “Will you help her to the stool?”
His eyes widened. “You called me...” He swallowed. “I’ll do as you asked.”
He walked over to Lee and grabbed her shoulders gently. “Lee, Sinclair is trying to help. I trust her.”
Sin’s chest swelled with pride. She had no idea whether or not he was telling the truth or just saying that to comfort Lee. But it made her feel good either way and it boosted her confidence some.
Sin put her ball of fire out and stepped to the opposite side of the bed Lee and Kaede were on. When Lee lifted her hands from Nachik. Sin placed her hands on him. He immediately began convulsing more.
“Nachik,” Lee screamed.
“It’s okay,” Sin yelled. “Give it a second, he’ll calm down. If my heat was hurting him, I would feel it. It’s not. It’s helping him. I can’t describe it with words. But I can feel the difference.”
