Healed (2 page)

I wasn’t on duty today, but I also knew that
Mr. Miller was having problems and that I had to help him. I don’t
know what it was, but I had sensed it. I told Amani that I was just
coming up to talk about switching our schedules. That is how we
worked. We came as a pair. The hospital accepted it, partially
because of Amani’s magic but also because of how well we both did
in college. Amani wanted to come with me, but I told her I was
going by myself and promised not to do anything stupid. Well, that
was a lie.

Now, after healing Mr. Miller, and not
realizing the extent of his injuries, I was completely drained. My
body felt as if it was being crushed by a boulder. I was small as
it was, and I couldn’t even hold myself up. Sweat plastered my hair
to the back of my neck and on my forehead. I was breathing too
heavily. I knew that if one of our co-workers saw me they would try
to rush in and help me, but they would only make things worse.
Luckily for me, I could hear the clomping of Amani’s boots.

When I looked up, I saw the cold stranger
looking at me again. He chilled me to my very core. I tried to tell
Amani, but my words were slurred. She was scolding me and rolling
her big violet eyes. She started to pull me out of the room, and I
tried to turn around to look at the strange man. I couldn’t see
him, but I knew he was still there, his glacial essence still
pushing against my skin like a horrible arctic breeze.

We moved down the stairs and Amani was still
scolding me. She had always been my tall protector. We still didn’t
know what type of paranormal I was. I couldn’t do any type of magic
other than healing, and that was rare Witch power and practically
unheard of. Either way, what we did know, was that when I healed
someone, depending on the seriousness of their injury, I would lose
energy. Smaller wounds barely affected me. With what I did for Mr.
Miller, there was a good chance I would need two days of rest.

“Ami, the dark…man.” She placed my seatbelt
on when I tried to point to where he was standing, but she mistook
what I was trying to say.

“Yeah, Mr. Miller is fine. You shouldn’t
have done that though, dumb bastard was going to die anyways. You
knew that he was close, you knew that, yet you did it anyway.
Seriously, Val, you are my only family, and I am not fucking losing
you, too.”

I fell asleep to her ranting at me.

Usually when I healed, I would dream of
beautiful meadows filled with flowers and unicorns. I never told
Ami about it because it was just so embarrassing. This time though,
it was different. My beautiful pasture was a burnt, cold meadow
instead. The dark man was there. He was watching me, with his
glasses still on, from across the other side of the meadow.

“Who are you?” My voice was barely a
whisper. My heart raced as I saw him take a step towards me. The
earth crunched under his feet, reminding me of the desolate state
of my once paradise. He moved across the land, never answering my
question. His stride never changed, yet somehow suddenly he was too
close, too soon. I looked up at him, which wasn’t too shocking
since I was only five feet and two inches tall.

I wanted to see what his eyes looked like
from behind the dark shades. I don’t even know what possessed me to
do it, but my hands started to move to his glasses. Only when I
touched them did he move.

He grabbed my wrists slightly, violently,
and pulled them away. He continued to move them behind my back and
wrapped one of his large hands around both my wrists, holding
tightly. My heart was racing and my brain was screaming for me to
run. I needed to get out, now. Like, right this second.

I started to struggle which made him force
his body on mine. His stiff, sharp muscles were pushing into me,
leaving nothing to the imagination.

I don’t know where the tree came from, but
it was pressed against my back now. I wasn’t too surprised since
this was all a dream, and yet it felt so real that I couldn’t quite
believe it was just a dream. I bit the inside my cheek, trying to
muster the courage to look up.

When I did, his shaded eyes were trained on
mine, never letting go. He moved close, and his nose brushed
against my neck. My chest was heaving against his in total
terror.

“Interesting,” he muttered pulling away.

“W-w-who are you?” I asked, hating that I
stuttered. I hadn’t done that since I was in 5
^th
grade.

Then he smiled. I gasped, trying even harder
to pull from his hold and move away from him. His teeth were all
sharp, dangerous points fitting into one another like a horrible
jagged puzzle. I opened my mouth to scream.

That’s when I woke up. I was gasping for
air. Ami was there right away.

“Oh fuck, what is wrong with you?” She
touched my forehead.

Usually, I didn’t wake up so violently from
this type of sleep. I woke up a bit cranky because I didn’t want to
leave. Now, I wasn’t sure if I was happy to be back or not. I got
no answers; it was just a dream. It was just my mind processing
what I had been through. It was foolish to think it was more than
that. The dark man with sharp pointy teeth was just a nightmare. I
probably had a nightmare because I had never healed someone so
close to death before.

“Nothing, nothing.” I tried to push away
Ami’s hand.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she did
that hmm-mmm noise in the back of her throat.

My throat felt a little dry and I looked
around for the cup of water that I knew would be close by. When I
started to guzzle it down, I looked at Ami from the corner of my
eye.

“What?” I croaked, taking the water away for
a moment.

“You’ve been out for three whole fucking
days. I was so damned worried about you. Three days! Three! I was
wondering if I should call the fucking hospital and get you a room.
Three days. Three whole motherfucking days of nothing but sleep!”
She was pacing, and she had switched from her completely black
attire to her silky pajamas that I knew were her favorites.

The doorbell rang and she stomped off to
answer the door, muttering the whole time. I didn’t feel it before
but now I could, it was wrapping its cold, bitter fingers around
the air surrounding me. My eyes shot up to look at the window. We
had a bay window with a seat and we could see the front door. The
blinds were closed as usual but I could see through the crack. His
black, black eyes were staring back at me. A chilling smile spread
across his face. I jumped up from the couch, trying to get to the
door before Ami.

As she started to open the door, I was
running in front of her trying to shut it, but the dark stranger
pushed the door open with ease. I scrambled backwards, falling into
my tall friend who went down with me. Together, we stared up from
the ground as the stranger from the hospital looked at us with
indifference.

“You are a Djinn,” he stated, his voice
cold, flat, and slightly terrifying. His completely black eyes
focused on Ami, until he turned to me. His head cocked slightly.
“And you are my target.”

Breathing was hard; it was like something
was stuck in my throat. Chills ran up and down my spine.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Ami was cursing and
trying to pull me up with her, but my eyes were locked on the
stranger. It felt like my body was locked in this position, I
couldn’t move even when I tried. “Wraith, get out of her head!”
Ami’s eyes were glowing bright and I could tell that she was about
to use some type of magic on him.

Ami and I didn’t talk about the paranormal
world, nor did anything that related to it, since her parents died.
But my mind was caught on what she called him. I finally managed to
get the feeling back in my limbs and I started to crawl backwards,
trying to get away from him. His lips parted into a sharp toothed
grin. My body began to shake with fear.

“Djinn, your magic does nothing to me. I
thought you were a dying race…” He looked at Ami for a second only
to turn back to me. “I will be taking her now.” He stepped towards
me and my head shot over to Ami.

I was helpless here; I had no real magic,
the only thing I could do was heal people. Ami was our only weapon.
Plus, even if I wasn’t small, this guy was built, too heavy to even
think about punching. Ami was standing in front of me, her 5 foot 7
inches blocking me from his view but not him from mine. He looked
like he could just lift her and move her aside, and for a horrible
moment, I thought he might.

“Like hell you are! Fuck off! What clan are
you and what do you think you are doing here?” she demanded, hands
on her hips and head held high. I didn’t know what she meant about
clan but I knew that stance. That was her “I am not giving up”
stance.

“York clan, and yourself?”

That seemed to stop my fearless friend. She
straightened from her lapse. I started to stand, moving up behind
her, pressing my body against her arm, trying subtly to tell her
that we needed to run. My instincts telling me it was the only
option at this point.

“York you say? I thought York’s didn’t
enlist the help of the devil?” she shot back her voice strained
slightly.

“You are one to speak,” he replied. There
was no inflection to make him sound like he was making a taunt, he
was merely stating a fact.

“The Djinn are a proud race; we are nothing
of the devil. We are from the Gods.” she practically growled at
him.

“Wraiths are not so different. Now come
along, Valentine.” His eyes were on me and totally disregarded Ami,
but my hold on her tightened.

“How do you know my name?” I asked, cursing
my small voice. Don’t get me wrong. I was scared, but I wasn’t
going to let this Wraith know that.

“I tire of this. Let us go,” he stated
again, holding out his hand now like I would just willingly take
it.

“No.” I was shaking my head and looking at
him like he was crazy.

Ami started to realize that I was trying to
get across and started to move us backwards. He watched, and I just
knew those pitiless eyes were catching every one of our movements.
But he had made no move to stop us or grab me. His smile grew, the
sharp teeth showing.

“That was not a request.” His face was back
to being blank. He stepped closer and we stepped back.

I felt Ami stiffen slightly, she had her jaw
clenched, and I knew what she was about to try. It was too
dangerous and Djinns couldn’t do it with another person. Before I
had time to let go, she grabbed my arm, purple smoke enveloped us,
and we were gone.

Chapter 3 –
Elijah

Watching her cower should have given me some
type of pleasure. The pleasure of a good feed because her fear was
bone deep, and yet my eyes narrowed slightly. Something did not
feel right.

The Djinn’s energy started to change and my
eyes shifted from Valentine to the Djinn. Before I could move, they
were a cloud of purple smoke, and I knew that foolish Djinn had
transported them. I did not think it was possible for the Djinn to
transport another being with them but this one did. Caught by
surprise, this set me back.

I straightened and pulled out the cell phone
York demanded that I take. I looked at the list of contacts. When I
saw the first name—Audrey— that strange sense filled my body again.
She was the cause of all this. Melding with Audrey’s mind had
opened emotions that had been previously closed. Pushing aside that
thought, I pressed send.

“Hello?” Audrey answered, her voice slightly
breathless. I do not know why but I stilled at the sound of her
voice. My eyelids wanted to drift shut. I did not savor things, not
even my food source. Feeding was pleasurable but I did not linger
on the taste. I would not linger on a sound, a voice even.

“I had a situation. I will be longer than
expected. Tell York.” I hung up, turned on my heel, and started out
the door. The search would begin anew; but I had a feeling that
within a week’s time they would be back to their home, thinking I
had given up. Instead of wasting a week running after a ghost, I
would find out what Valentine had done at the hospital.

●●●

My boots were silent against the tile
floors. The hallways were dark and the floor was quiet. I knew
within a matter of seconds it could change. Though this was the
recovery ward, a hospital never sleeps. The people on this floor
were barely asleep as it was. Drug induced sleeps or waking at the
slightest of noises, these humans were far from actual sleep.
Shadows followed me as companions, wrapping their way around me,
assisting me in my mission.

Stopping at the dead man’s bed, I stared
down at him. His sleep was soundless, possibly drug induced, but
his lips were forming an in-sleep smile. Though I felt the strange
urge to jump in his mind and find out what was making him smile
like that, I refrained.

Stepping closer, I could smell the air
around him, fresh and clean. Days before his body reeked of death,
the provocative scent of a full meal. Now, even as it baffled the
doctors here, it baffled me. Witches could not do healing like
this. The Djinn could not wish those who were meant for death to
come back. No, it was something Valentine had done. She had saved
this dead man.

I was running low on energy, and he was
marked for death already. One human life already marked for death
would be nothing compared to the lives I would take if I did not
feast now. It seemed odd to me that, for just a brief moment, I
felt the need to justify my actions.

I moved closer to the man, my body remaining
static as my ghostly form swirled around him. I seeped into his
every pore, joining with him.

He dreamed of a certain silver-haired
paranormal. She was not his to dream about, to even think
about.

In his mind, I forced new dreams to form.
Heart-spiking fear raced through his veins. It was beyond
pleasurable for me. For him, it would be the worst pain he would
ever feel in his life as I began to feed on him, essentially taking
his soul from his body. He died, screaming on the inside, and I
felt satisfied for the first time in a very long time.