Awakening (5 page)

We staggered out of the alley and to
the front entrance of the shop.

“
Anyone think to bring
keys?” Not bothering to wait for a response, Luke pushed himself
away from us and supported himself against the door. He leaned over
and picked up a nearby rock and broke a panel of glass. He reached
in and unlocked it. I waited for him to move, but he slumped to the
ground.

Darla and I, as if on cue, moved to
either side of him and propped him up. Darla pushed the door open,
and we made our way inside. I kicked the door shut behind me, but
the broken glass provided little protection. Anyone could follow us
into the store.

“
We need something to block
that broken window pane.” I was exhausted, and helping him inside
had taken most of my energy.

We eased him down to the
floor.

“
Worried someone might
steal something? Normally our reputation keeps people at
bay.”
His voice was laced with
pain.

Sometimes a reputation was
a double-edged sword.
The hatred for the
death dealers was widespread. He’d almost gotten killed a few
minutes ago because of it. The very nature of his powers had
horrified the woman he’d tried to rescue, enough so she’d actually
stabbed her savior. I didn’t worry about thieves--I worried about
gang members looking for payback.

“
We need a board or
something to cover the opening. We need bandages and any medical
supplies you have, and we need to get dry and out of these wet
clothes,” I said, stomping my feet and rubbing my arms. I was
trying to keep myself moving by sheer force of will. I felt
completely drained of energy. If I sat down now, I was worried I
would never get back up.

Darla unwound her braid and started to
wring out her hair. She was drenched, and I realized she wasn’t the
only one. A shiver ran down my back and goose bumps covered my
arms. We were all soaked, and it was a chilly night.

Luke looked up at me. “You can find
what you need to fix the pane in the supply room, through the hall
to the left of the stairway.”

“
I’ll get blankets, and
there’s a medical kit behind the counter,” Darla said, moving
swiftly across the room to the doorway behind the
counter.

“
Bring towels or blankets,
anything we can use to get dry and keep warm,” I yelled after
her.

“
Do you have any medical
skills beyond the magic kind?” Luke asked.

“
Keep pressure on the
wound. What kind of medical kit do you have?”

“
It’s a basic kit with
bandages. But we do sell some salves and herbs.” He pointed toward
the back of the shop.

I nodded and made my way to the back.
I wandered around, picking up bottles and pouches, looking for
names I recognized. I found a few things I could use, but I
couldn’t treat anything serious with the things he carried in his
shop. He had some ointments to rub on your chest for colds, and
some remedies for stomach aches and joint pain.

I did find something I could use to
clean the wound and something I could give him that might help with
the pain, but what we needed was a proper healer.

A healer. I used to be a healer. A sob
escaped my mouth. I touched my cheeks in surprise and realized
tears were streaming down my face.

I had panicked out there. He’d almost
died because I had froze. I had to keep it together. I forced
myself to take a deep breath and then another. I wiped the tears
from my eyes and made my way back to his side.

I uncorked a brown bottle and passed
it to him. “Drink half the bottle.”

He looked at me. “Are you sure? You’re
not trying to poison me are you?” His voice was weak, but he
sounded amused.

“
It’ll help with the pain.
I’ll be right back. I’ve got to fix that door. We don’t want any
unwelcome company.”

He drank from the bottle and
nodded.

In the supply room, I found a board, a
hammer and a handful of nails. I made my way back to the front of
the store.

“
How are you doing?” I
asked as I passed him.

“
Still alive and kicking,”
he answered. His voice sounded a bit stronger.

I stood in front of the door and held
the board across the broken pane. I put a few nails in my mouth and
then concentrated on pounding them into the board one after the
other. The hammer missed its mark a few times, and I slammed my
thumb twice, but I managed to cover the hole. I slid the deadbolt
into place. It wouldn’t keep out anyone who really wanted to get
inside. All they had to do was break down the door. It was not a
comforting thought. I went to the front window and looked out. The
street was deserted. It had started raining again.

We needed to get upstairs and put a
few more locked doors between us and any bad guys.

Darla came bounding back into the
room--her arms piled high with blankets.

I grabbed one from her and went over
and wrapped it gently around Luke. “Hang in there.”

I looked up at Darla who was busy
wrapping herself up in a pink and white afghan. “The medical kit?”
I asked.

“
Behind the counter. I’ll
get it,” she answered.

Luke reached out his hand and touched
my arm. “You’re shivering.”

I pulled my arm back. “I’m
okay.”

“
Last thing I need is the
person saving me succumbing to frostbite.” He was joking. It seldom
dropped below freezing in this part of the country. But he was
half-right. Hypothermia was a distinct possibility. I was chilled
to the bone, my clothes were drenched, and I was covered in
mud.

I leaned over and grabbed a blanket
from the pile Darla had dropped onto the floor. I wrapped it around
my shoulders. “There, satisfied?” I asked, smiling at
him.

“
Much better.” He suddenly
winced and pain filled his eyes.

“
We need to get you to a
proper healer.”

“
I know someone, but we
can’t risk going out again tonight. That crew wasn’t so happy with
the way things turned out. They can be vindictive. I wouldn’t put
it past them to come back and hang around, waiting for a chance to
get even.”

“
What about the
cops?”

“
I doubt they’ll even come.
This isn’t their favorite part of town.”

“
So banshees? Is that
something you do a lot?”

“
Not if I can help
it.”

I leaned down and looked at
his injury. “The whole scene was pretty freaky.”

“
You got hurt.” He reached
out and touched the scratches on my arm. “I brought them forth, and
they did my bidding. I’m sorry they hurt you. I wouldn’t have let
them seriously injure anyone.”

He was still bleeding, more
than I would have liked. “Not even the bad guys?”

He kept silent and winced
as my fingers gently moved around the wound.

“
Banshees seem pretty hard
core.”

“
You’ve no idea the kinds
of things we can do.”

And that worried me, more
than I wanted to admit.

Darla knelt down beside me and handed
over a blue plastic box with a medical symbol on its
cover.

I pulled it open and started taking
out bandages, tape and a pair of scissors. “This is going to
hurt.”

He nodded and closed his
eyes.

I used an antiseptic wipe to clean my
hands and then got to work. As quickly as I could, I cleaned out
the wound and bandaged it. I could tell he was in pain by the way
he was breathing. Every time I came in contact with the wound, his
breathing hitched or increased, and he let out a soft moan. I tried
to focus on the task at hand and not the pain I was
inflicting.

Darla sat beside me and quietly kept
handing me bandages and ointments.

I had done all I could. I sat back on
my knees and wiped the hair out of my face. The injury wasn’t bad
enough to kill him but, if left unattended for too long, it could
get infected and become serious.

I turned to Darla. “We need to get him
upstairs.”

“
I can walk,” he said,
pushing himself slowly, but unsteadily to his feet.

“
Last thing I need is to
have you fall over and get a concussion because you’re being a
macho idiot.” I stood up and put my arm around his
waist.

We made our way across the room and up
the stairs. It was slow going. Once upstairs I helped him into his
room and onto his bed. I pulled a black and red striped duvet over
him.

He laid his head back against the
pillow. “Darla, go make some tea. It will help warm us
up.”

She nodded and headed out of the
room.

“
There you go, snug as a
bug in a rug.” I leaned over and brushed my hand across his
forehead. He didn’t have a fever. Infection and fever were the
things we had to worry about. We had to get him to a healer
soon.

He smiled. “My mom use to say that to
me when I was a kid.”

His bedroom was bigger than it looked
from the outside. He had a king-size bed with a padded headboard.
On either side of the bed were two large black nightstands each
sporting a black lampshade. A large black dresser stood off to one
side. The other wall housed a black wooden desk and office
chair.

“
I bet your favorite color
is black.”

“
Now you’re the mind
reader.”

I looked around the room and laughed.
“Call it a lucky guess.”

“
You need to change out of
those wet clothes.”

“
That’s the next thing on
my to-do list. I’ll be right outside. If you need anything, just
holler.”

“
Colina.
Thanks.”

I turned back from the doorway. I
wasn’t sure what to say. I shrugged and smiled. “Sure,
anytime.”

“
I’m serious. I’m glad you
were here. I would hate to think what would have happened if you
hadn’t been. If Darla had been alone…”

The way he was staring at me, the
intensity in his eyes, sent a small shiver down my spine. I wasn’t
afraid of him anymore. Instead, I found myself searching his face,
wondering what he was thinking. It was a good face. He was a
handsome guy. My glance ventured down to his lips and for the
briefest moment I wondered what it would be like to be kissed by
those lips. As the thought crossed my mind a blush spread across my
cheeks.

I pulled tight on the blanket around
my shoulders. “Try to get some sleep.” Without waiting for his
reply, I walked quickly out of the room.

Back in the living room, I found Darla
on the couch curled up in an afghan. Her face was pale, and her
hair hung down around her like a wet golden curtain.

She looked up at me. “The tea’s
brewing.”

“
Why don’t you go take a
hot shower? I’ll stand guard in case he needs anything.”

“
You’re staying?” She
suddenly looked younger than her years, and her eyes filled with
fear.

She’d just watched her brother get
stabbed and almost die. Seeing the panic in her eyes, I felt
uncomfortable and turned away. “I don’t have any place to go. Not
with the bad guys out there.”

“
Is he going to die?” Her
voice was but a whisper.

I walked over and sat down next to
her. “No, he’s fine.”

Tears spilled down her face. “There
was so much blood. I thought…”

I patted her shoulder. “He’s going to
be okay. He needs to see someone who can properly heal him. You can
take him tomorrow. When the coast is clear.”

She grabbed my hand. “Promise me
you’ll come with us.”

“
Darla, I don’t know…” I
started to pull my hand out of her grasp.

Her grip tightened. “Promise me you’ll
stay until we know for sure he’s going to be all right.”

I didn’t want to stay. I didn’t want
to deal with any more of this. But I couldn’t leave her, not now.
Not when she was so afraid. “I promise. Now go get in the shower.”
I looked down at my wet, muddy and now covered in bits of blood
outfit. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to borrow some more
clothes.”

“
Find whatever you need in
my dresser or my closest. Take whatever you want.”

“
It’s going to be okay.”
Even as I said the words, I knew I couldn’t make that promise. I
had learned the hard way the universe could reach out at any time
and take away the things you loved most in the world. When the
universe decided to mess with your life and your loved ones, you
had no choice but to sit back and watch in horror as your worst
nightmares came true.

* * * *

I bolted straight upright and opened
my eyes. It took me a few minutes to realize where I was. I don’t
know what woke me this time. No screams filled the air. No
commotion in the room. Everyone was sound asleep and safe for the
moment. I reached up and touched my cheeks. They were wet. I had
been crying in my sleep again. The aftermath of a nightmare that
was always the same--I woke suddenly with my heart pounding out of
my chest and tears streaming down my face.