All Wounds (27 page)

Rebecca marveled to herself at how she just knew that a faerie’s healing time differed a great deal from a human’s.
Just knowing
stuff was both scary and kind of fun. Freaky but cool. One human day should be enough to heal Cort’s bent wing.

She turned to Inth. “You’ll take care of him, won’t you?” Inth nodded, though Cort gave him a dark scowl and muttered something Rebecca couldn’t hear.

“Cort, I’ll also want you to put a cold compress on your head at home for at least a couple of mortal hours.”

“A compress? Why?” the faerie asked, sounding indignant. “My head is fine!”

“You didn’t tell me you were knocked unconscious,” Rebecca said, giving Cort a sharp look. “Faeries can suffer from concussion just like everyone else. You took a nasty blow to the head, and it’s going to swell. I hereby order you to one full mortal day of rest, beginning right when you get home. And you’ll go straight home from here, gentlefae. Understand?”

“I cannot! I am a guardian of the Queen! I must return to my duties!” Cort protested.

“You are a wounded fae, and I’m your Healer,” Rebecca said. “You’ll do what I tell you to and your Queen knows that perfectly well.”

“Perhaps so, but that doesn’t mean the Queen won’t be upset with me,” Cort grumbled. “Nor the Captain of the Guard.” He glared at his brother.

“I hope you are pleased!”

Rebecca smiled to herself because she could hear the fondness in Cort’s voice.

w x

Rebecca had just closed the drawer that held the supplies she’d used when she heard Ryan moan. She went to him without hesitation and sat down on the bed at his side. She touched the side of his face and Rebecca took in the confused look on his face—he could see her, but didn’t recognize her.

She was very familiar with that particular expression.

“Hey,” she called softly. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

“No,” Ryan managed through clenched teeth. He began to convulse.

“They’re...coming...”

Rebecca didn’t have time to ask what he meant—or who—before Ryan’s thrashing escalated.

She leaned over him, keeping him from falling out of the bed. His eyes were so dark they were almost black. Rebecca forced herself not to panic as she let go of Ryan’s thrashing body just enough to begin rolling up her pajama sleeve.

“No,” Ryan moaned, grabbing at her wrist. “Listen.”

“Ryan, let go!”

“Listen,” Ryan said again, his iron grip on her arm tightening even more. “You can’t—”

“Can’t what?” Rebecca said, trying to pull away, though she knew even in his weakened state that Ryan was ten times stronger than she was.

Ryan babbled. “—can’t fight them. Neutral ground. Don’t let them...” The dark-haired boy suddenly grabbed her shoulders. Rebecca couldn’t stifle her short scream.

“You have to be careful,” Ryan demanded.

“I’ll be careful, Ryan,” Rebecca said, much calmer than she felt. “You have to let me go, though.”

Ryan fell back on the bed as convulsions shook him.

This time Rebecca threw her own body over his, using all of her weight to pin him down. She felt something hot against her hip and looked down.

She gasped as saw Ryan’s bite wound smoking slightly and hissing beneath the waistband of his pajama bottoms.

With one hand, Rebecca jerked the material down and then fumbled in the drawer of the bedside table that held the candle until she found the tincture for Ryan’s hellhound bite wound.

She ripped the cork from the bottle and dumped the contents into the festering blackness that was Ryan’s hellhound bite. Rebecca brought her wrist to his mouth and Ryan bit down on it.

She reached down and pressed her hand hard against the seeping wound. The injury hissed and smoked as it had done the last time she’d poured the potion into it.

Rebecca was so focused on keeping Ryan’s wound closed that she didn’t realize it when Ryan’s thrashing stopped beneath her until he spoke.

“Hey,” she heard Ryan say in a weak voice. He turned his head toward her and gave her a slight grin when she looked at him. He looked down toward his exposed wound. His underwear was still in place, but it was clear Rebecca had all but ripped his pajama bottoms off. “Moving kinda fast here, aren’t we?”

Rebecca blushed and reached to pull his pajama bottoms back up. Ryan groaned and his eyes went blank, though they remained open.

“That you’ll quite literally throw yourself into your healing is encouraging, Acolyte,” Syd’s voice came from behind her.

She could hear the amusement in his tone.

“Though I would very much appreciate it if you’d...remove yourself from atop my thrall,” he continued. “He is still healing, after all.”

“Shouldn’t you be resting, or hibernating, or whatever it is your kind does during the day?” Rebecca asked as she slowly moved from the bed and began to straighten the bedclothes. She was glad Nana hadn’t been there to see her in a bed tearing the pants off some guy she barely knew while she climbed on top of him. Rebecca might be nearly seventeen, but she’d never even kissed a boy.

She could totally understand now what Syd meant when he said that a lot of new Healers took things that weren’t meant...like that...the wrong way.

“The demons have indeed begun kidnapping Healers.”

“Why?” Rebecca asked, trembling. “I thought...that one at school...

when he tried to pull me through the mirror...said I had to go willingly, or something. If that’s true, why...how did they get these other Healers to go with them? What do they want them for?”

“I don’t know,” Syd replied, shaking his head. “I truly haven’t any idea.

I’m just as confused as you are. The only thing I do know is that they will, most certainly, attempt to come for you again. We can’t worry now about why.

All we can do is keep you safe until your power can manifest in its entirety.”

“They’re kidnapping Healers much older than me, whose power has already done that. I don’t know why you think my birthday is going to make me any safer,” Rebecca replied.

“It will,” Syd said. “I promise you, it will. Now try not to worry, remember. Peace and calm.”

Rebecca told him about being able to see Ryan’s wound when he bit her, and asked him about it.

“I can only guess that you were seeing through Ryan’s eyes somehow,” Syd replied. “For that is a very close description of how a vampire sees.” She bit her bottom lip and looked around the room, nervous, and then reached down to brush Ryan’s dark hair away from his face. She gasped as her hand came away wet, and she could see the dark liquid shining against her hand.

Syd shook his head. “He should have stopped shedding by now. This does not bode well for his recovery.”

“Shouldn’t we...I don’t know...” Rebecca looked at Syd, worried. “Call his mom, or something? He wasn’t in school today, and obviously didn’t go home last night. What if the police are looking for him?” Sydney laughed, and Rebecca could tell he was laughing at her.

“What?” she demanded with a scowl.

“Acolyte, quiet and calm, remember,” Syd chided. “Also remember to be respectful.”

She felt like Syd should try and remember that, too.

“What’s so funny about calling his mom? She’s probably worried about him.”

“No,” Sydney replied in a whisper.

“Or the school? Won’t someone come looking for him?”

“No one is going to come looking for him. No one will even notice he’s gone.”

“He’s human,” Rebecca protested. “I mean...well...he was. He has a mother, and teachers, and—”

“No one,” Sydney said again, meeting Rebecca’s eyes with a dark glare for a fraction of a moment. “It’s how he...became one of us in the first place. His mother won’t even notice his absence. Not for quite some time.

And when she does, she will not notify the authorities, or even bother to look for him. She is...most unconcerned with anything other than obtaining her next drink.”

She looked to the boy on the bed for a moment before she dared to meet Syd’s metallic-blue eyes, despite knowing she wasn’t supposed to.

Something in his tone compelled her to. “What about his dad?”

“Ryan spoke of him only once,” Sydney replied. “And that was to say that his father abandoned both him and his mother when Ryan was barely walking. He’s never known his father.”

Rebecca continued to look into Sydney’s eyes, saying nothing.

“They will not bother, either,” he said in reply to a question she didn’t ask but he knew she wanted the answer to. “Ryan is well-known for his disappearances. The school will attempt to contact his mother, and his mother will tell them to mind their own business. As I said...no one will bother looking for him. No one cares where he is or isn’t.”

“Except you,” Rebecca said with soft smile.

She couldn’t help it. She kept her eyes on his, marveling at how amazing they were. She felt as though she were falling into them, being pulled somewhere by them. She couldn’t look away, even if she’d wanted to. She didn’t even think it was possible to do that.

The world outside the room vanished. Nothing existed but her and her desire to stay right here, and do whatever Syd asked of her. She wished he would ask her to do something, just so she could hear him speak, but then she’d have to leave where she was to obey him, and she didn’t want to do that. Ever.

She just wanted to stay right here.

Then that strange, sudden warmth coursed through her limbs and she jumped back, blinking several times as she stared at him. She blushed, deep and pink, very embarrassed. She knew better than to look into the eyes of a Master vampire. She’d been told several times. Warned more than once. It wasn’t very nice of Syd to hold her entranced like that.

“Stop it,” she said, though it didn’t sound very much like she wanted him to. “That’s not fair.”

“I...I wasn’t holding you, Acolyte,” Sydney stammered as he looked away and shook his head. “You...you were holding me.” He looked shocked at the realization. He looked back at Rebecca, studying her.

“Do that again,” Sydney commanded.

“Do what?” Rebecca asked, confused.

“You were
holding
me,” Sydney replied.

“I was not!” Rebecca said, shaking her head. “I mean, I didn’t mean to...um...offend you, or anything. I just...you looked...upset...” Sydney reached for her arm. Clasping her wrist firmly, Sydney brought her hand up. He pressed the palm of his own against hers and closed his eyes with a sharp breath.

“Now, think of something you want to know,” he murmured. “A question you wish answered.”

“Okay,” Rebecca replied. She closed her eyes and did what he said.

A wry smile came to Syd’s lips. “Be serious!”

Rebecca giggled and tried again.

“No, no. Think of something else,” he said aloud. “Something I should know. I don’t know who is going to win the next presidential election. It hasn’t happened yet.”

Rebecca took a deep breath. Syd said she’d see a lot of strange things.

This was certainly strange.

The boy on the bed gave her an idea.

How did you get to know Ryan?
she asked in her mind.

“He saw Billy’s car at the fairgrounds with the keys inside and attempted to steal it,” Syd replied in a low murmur. “Billy caught him, and instead of tearing him to pieces, Billy got to know the boy, then brought him to me. He’d never brought me a human before, and I wondered why he did so then—” Sydney jerked his hand back as though he’d been burned. He looked at Rebecca, incredulous, and pulled away further as he eyed her.

“Such...such a thing has never been done to me,” Sydney said in an awed tone.

Rebecca shrugged. “Nana’s books say that reading is a useful ability and that wounds aren’t the only thing Healers are capable of reading. You can get into
my
head. What’s so scary about me being able to get into yours when I try?”

“This wasn’t ‘reading’,” Sydney replied with a scowl. “You were in my thoughts, seeing what I knew! Compelling me to answer!”

“And that’s a big deal why, exactly?” Rebecca asked, shaking her head as she went and sat on the bed. She dabbed at Ryan’s forehead with a fresh damp cloth. “You keep saying I’ve got all this power, and have this Seer ability. Maybe it’s got something to do with that.” Rebecca looked at Syd with an impish grin. “Maybe I’m the most powerful Healer ever!” Syd didn’t smile at her teasing. He just continued to stare at her, his shock clear upon his face. When he spoke, it wasn’t with amusement, only awe. “Maybe you are.”

He was silent for a long moment, then reached down and brushed her hair away from the Healer’s mark on her neck.

“What—” she began.

“Hush,” he said, and offered his hand to her.

Unsure, Rebecca set the cloth aside and took his hand. Syd helped her stand and led her around the framed curtain that separated Ryan’s bed from the rest of the enclave.

“Would you consent to replenish me, Most Powerful Healer Ever?” he asked.

Rebecca swallowed hard. His eyes weren’t dark, but neither were they as bright as she’d seen, nor were they pulsing like a heartbeat as they normally did. He didn’t really need feeding. He was perfectly fine. Still, he had asked, and it wasn’t in Rebecca to refuse.

In fact, something in her leapt and filled her with a warm wanting.

Yes, please
, it said.
Yes
.

Rebecca just nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“My gratitude to thee,” Syd replied, and bent his head low. “Even now, though not of age, you quite literally radiate power. Even just standing here beside you is somewhat soothing, though I admit it merely makes me hunger all the more.”

Rebecca just stood there, trembling and unsure. She’d said he could take her blood. Why wasn’t he doing it? And why was she so nervous? She’d fed him before.

Yes, but those times it was your idea
, she reminded herself.
Now he’s asking
.

“Yes, I’ve asked, and you’ve consented, but I’ll make it even easier for you. Do you, Acolyte, offer to restore my power through your own life’s force of your own free will? Now, you say ‘Yes, I do.’ That is, if you are indeed giving your consent.”

“Yes, I do,” Rebecca said, though her voice shook a little.