“Would you like for me to show you with someone else?” Her face white, fingers trembling, she leaned away from me. Sheila and Claire were on high alert; they wanted to attack me but knew it would kill them. These people played for high stakes.
“No, that won’t be necessary. How is this possible?”
“It goes both ways. It would kill me to kill y’all this way.”
“Would you mind if I validate your statement? I can check for truth, but it requires magic.”
“If it doesn’t hurt me and don’t last, I’m ok with it.”
She gestured and spoke, my armor got warm.
Faye said “You must drop your enchantment, it wards you.”
I retracted the armor; cool air hit my skin and gave me a little shiver. I hadn’t noticed, but I was a little warm. It had done something about my temperature or I’d have cooked.
She did the gestures and words again, “What are your limitations in harming me?”
“If I kill you the way I showed you it will kill me.”
She said “So we have a double bind. You may have other methods of harming us, but we could spend days… Please, heal me.”
Claire gasped and Sheila made a gesture and then became still.
Faye dropped shields and became visible to my other sight in increments.
She was a patchwork of wounds held together with duct tape. Methodology of the patches varied, maybe the work of someone else, maybe from an earlier Faye with different resources.
“Are you blocking the pain from these wounds?”
“Yes, to the degree possible. Can you hurry? I’m exposed, they’re warding us both but I am very uncomfortable.” She was on the verge of panic, well controlled but near. If someone came out, she would freak out.
I fixed the wounds I had caused first, they should be the easiest for her to release. I knitted the skin, replaced the fascia, tied the intestines back in place. She’d missed a nick that would rupture and cause problems in time. Old damage left thick, inflexible scar tissues. I converted the scar tissue to materials for healing. I noticed a tendon misplaced in her hip that would cause her pain when she walked, no doubt requiring constant attention. I corrected the way the cushion lay and it pushed the tendon into alignment. She had a multitude of problems. Knowing I wasn’t tracking time well, I backed out.
“That’s a quick fix.” I sat back and relaxed.
She moved, gestured, muttered, she examined my changes. She looked up, “You did something to my hip?”
“Yes, that had to be painful, it was easy. You had a scar on your intestines causing you problems too. That’s fixed.”
She stood up, bent forward, flexed back and walked in a little circle.
“That is incredible.” She lifted her knee to her chest with both hands and bent forward, touching her head to her other knee. Damn.
“Blocking pain is a constant drain. The spells that contain damage is a drain. I’m in your debt.” She gave me a formal bow. “Call us when you need. We’ll help as much as we can. I would like more healing, for all of us, name your price and we will pay it. “She held her hand out and Sheila placed a phone in it.
“Call me when you have time and we can discuss this. We’ll leave you to your business now.” She handed me the phone, they all bowed one more time and left.
I stood and turned to go inside and the earth boiled at my feet, Mags popped and placed a small sphere of flame on the ground. It burned for a moment and poofed out all at once.
“Coffee is waiting.” She opened the door and I followed.
I explained and then told Carl a few minutes later.
Mags said ‘Good friends to have, but they have many worries and will turn on you. You know about woman who watches?” She waited.
“No, another witch, how many of them are there?”
“Not a witch, woman who lives nearby, watches.”
Carl said “I think she takes pictures from what Mags told me. Just a busybody, old lady Perkins, she’s huntin’ gossip.”
“If that’s all it is, I ain’t gonna worry about it. Mags, looks like you got your healing in. The vamp got the blood. We fixed the stuff with Sheila. Now, I need to get something to eat and just chill, it’s been a busy day.”
A pot of collard greens with cornbread fried on the stovetop with bacon, and ranch dressing hit the spot. I was ravenous and had no problem eating any of it.
Earl came in and sat down, Wanda attached at the hip; something happened there.
Earl said “I got a load, I need to go; I’ll be back. It’s a three day trip; I’ll be back in about a week.” He was talking to Wanda, I was incidental.
“You ok with giving us some time to see what happens?” He took her hand and looked solemn.
Wanda said “Earl, I like you. Yeah, you come back. I’d like to see more of you. We don’t need to rush anything; I’ve had a good time.” She smiled, a big, tooth baring relaxed smile, and her face softened, her eyes distant and deep. She was smitten.
Earl got up “Rose, my number is in your phone. I can put off this load if you need me here. Looks to me like you got it handled.”
“You take care of business, we got this handled. We got the witch thing took care of, that was where I needed the most help. Thank you.” I hugged him and he hugged back, a brotherly feeling, I could live with that.
He left and I finished eating. I had to catch up and try to figure out what was next.
Five
A light colored chunk the size of my fist lay on the porch. I stood out there a minute drinking a morning cup of coffee and it didn’t register right off.
It sunk in it didn’t belong there. The first thing that crossed my mind was maybe a prank, some feces, but it wasn’t lit. It didn’t make sense. I picked it up, careful that it might be a prank. Nothing nasty, nothing tied to it. I unwrapped the thing. The message was scrawled in big block letters and I didn’t even want to guess what the ink was.
‘MORE BLOOD’
I had a pretty good idea who left it. He was regular about it. I didn’t like the idea that I was just a faucet for him. Not to mention it made him stronger. Megan and Armando were gone, Andy was in the basement. Carl was down the street with all his family. Holding back might put any of them at risk. The only option I could see was give in till I could put the thing down; and put him down before he got too strong for me to handle. A wave of panic came close to crushing me, he was already too strong, who the fuck was I kidding. He was playing me. He was an idiot, determined, fast, and could heal from anything I could do. I had to do something before I just started screaming and running mindlessly.
Stepping barefoot into the yard I looked to see if there were any traces of him. A blank spot zipped past just after dark, on the porch then off. I followed, looking for the places where I couldn’t see anything. It was a strain looking for the absences.
Would my blood let me trace it?. It was part of me, not vampire, at least before it was digested or whatever happened to it. I should be able to track it.
I looked inside to get a good comparison and examined the porch where I had left the container of blood. It shined and sparkled. I watched, it lifted and zoomed away. It left a trail behind hanging in the air. I followed it mentally till it faded, but at least I had a good direction.
He had replaced my container with another that was spotless. How thoughtful. I could just imagine him licking it out with that funky vacuum cleaner tongue, damn that was gross. My guts writhed in protest. I put the container in the sink, got dressed, picked up my shotgun and headed for the door. At eight o’clock in the morning; he should be down for the day. I’d find him and put him down.
Mags and Carl stood on the porch waiting.
“Hey Carl, Mags, good mornin’, how are y’all doin’ this mornin’?” There wasn’t any way I could hide the shotgun.
Carl said “I thought we already been over all this. You ain’t after a vampire without me are you?” He folded his arms, stern lecture on the way.
All he needed to do was tap his foot to channel Grammaw.
“I’m gonna find him. You can’t keep up, the way I’m goin’.” I didn’t really need to explain myself but I guess I had kind of promised.
“You can’t carry the shotgun when you change. I can keep up fine with you walkin’. Do we need to do this again?” He made to sit down in a chair on the porch. Mags walked out into the yard and around back, she didn’t want any part of the discussion.
“Carl, you’re right. Damn it. Ok, you’re in, you got your gun? Probably be good if we had a stick too, so we can stake him. I was gonna try to track him as human, if I have to go dog you carry my stuff.”
Mags walked around the house carrying her stick with the little fire on the end.
I walked to the edge of the yard and my phone rang. Could Faye and Sheila come over for some healing? Payment whatever I wanted. When I asked how far away they were she replied
“Less than a minute, we’re taking this. We know you’re busy and we’re trying not to cause you any difficulties.”
“Come on, let’s get it done.” I stood down everybody. Sometimes you have to go with the flow.
I had Sheila sit down on the grass in the back yard, I sat down across from her and Faye did what she did to protect us.
Sheila was a mass of torn places, broken bones stuck together, cartilage forced into shapes to make her able to walk and function. Some of it had no blood supply; the only thing keeping it from rotting was structure overlaid on it that prevented change. That looked painful.
On her throat, tissue stretched over blood vessels held in place with the invisible structure. It wouldn’t let the meat move and kept the blood in the veins and arteries; tendons were forced together, bonded with the same invisible glue, unable to heal, grow, or change.
“Y’all gonna have to relax your hold on the neck so I can fix it.” I didn’t look up, when it relaxed everything was going fall apart. “It’s goin’ to get nasty for a minute when you turn it loose but if you can stand it I’ll fix it right.”
“I’ll give you a countdown?” Faye asked.
“Yeah, that works.”
“Three, two, one, now.”
Her neck fell to pieces. There was a chunk missing over the windpipe. They had pulled the skin around to cover the spot, stretched muscle under the skin, it all snapped back when she released it and a wave of blood flowed down her chest.
I reached deep for the energy I needed and accelerated the healing process. Her body did most of the work, I provided direction and energy. The blood stopped flowing as I stuck it to the edges of tissue and converted it.
I grew the tendons back together, knitted up capillaries, and added to the edges of skin. The wound filled in from the bottom out. It left a reddened area as I filled it. The muscle needed exercise to fill out.
“You done, that will fix it. In a few days it should be good as new, but it shouldn’t hurt now.”
Sheila reached to her neck and muttered as she made a pass, braced for pain; she smiled as the expected pain didn’t materialize.
“Thank you. That was new enough it was still giving me trouble. Now, what can I do for you?” She moved her head around, testing the repairs.
Faye dropped whatever she had done. I noticed when muted sounds came back to normal.
“Problem I got right now is a vampire forcing me to feed him. He’s threatened the people in this neighborhood if I don’t give him blood. He wants blood every day now. I need to find him and take him out.”
Faye asked “What kind of vampire is it?” She squatted down facing me.
“I don’t know what you mean. This is one of those vampires that sucks blood, sleeps in the daytime, moves real fast and ain’t nice.” I thought a second “Oh, and he skins stuff, can wear a deer hide and come out in the daytime.”
Sheila looked at Faye and said “This will not go over well.” She turned,
“You’ll have to ask for something else. We have had dealings with this one, he is something other.”
Faye said “I swear, almost anything else we could help with, but this one is special. He is immune to anything we can do.” She sat down “I know this is wrong, as you say, shit. When we first got here we checked out the area. It’s important who is dominant for vampires and many less usual creatures. We like to know where we stand before we settle in.”
Sheila picked up “Chen Ling is crazy. Worse, he’s careless. He creates spawn on accident. He leaves his kills out where they are easily found. We decided to end him.” She pointed to her shoulder “This is what I got out of that. My magic slides off him as though he weren’t there, he smashed me. If my sisters hadn’t been ready he would have killed me.”
Her shoulder had been crushed and had the now familiar bindings holding the pieces in place. Things like that bothered me. I wanted, no, I needed to make it right.
“Can y’all find him?”
Faye said “We might be able to find him. We’d have to be careful that he not find out we work against him. Without magical protection, he’s more than we can take on.”
“Is he magical?”
Faye said “No, not at all. That’s the problem. He negates magic. It slides off him without touching him. He’s the only one like this we have ever seen.”
“So if you locate him he shouldn’t be able to tell you did it.”
Faye replied “It can’t be obvious. He’s not stupid, just crazy. But no, I don’t think he can sense magic. We’ll do what we can if you’ll protect us from the results.”
“Hey all, good morning, how we all doing today? Elizabeth is bored silly. She ain’t in school, and she’s cleaned everything cleanable at the house. Y’all got something lined up you gotta go do? We come over for a visit.” Wanda stood at the corner of the house with Elizabeth and Stephanie.
Faye said “This child has ability, its shining on her, she’s strong.” She walked over to Elizabeth and reached toward her with both hands “May I touch you?”
Elizabeth nodded “Oh, sure, go ahead.” She thrust her chest out. In her little green pullover shirt, her nipples showed plainly. She was clearly inviting Faye to touch her breasts.
Faye looked at me and stopped, she dropped her hand.
“I didn’t mean that sort of touch. I want to read your aura.”
Elizabeth said “I try to be good” her lips quivered and her eyes filled with unshed tears “I can’t do anything right, y’all are mad at me again ain’t you?”
Wanda said “Nobody’s mad at you, girl. You’re just too easy. We’ll fix it.” She hugged Elizabeth and patted her back. Elizabeth wrapped both arms around Wanda and clung.
Faye said “She’s broken. Who did this?” she stepped back casually, slowly so she could see all of us, Sheila backed up and stood up straighter, arms hanging loose.
“This was deliberate, it’s a foul thing.” She spat to the side without looking away.
I said “Yeah, we agree. They tried to do the same thing to Stephanie but we stopped it. Three girls were done this way. I don’t know how to fix this, I stopped the addiction but this just keeps on.”
Faye relaxed “You didn’t do this.” relieved, she continued “What was done is bad for untalented, but those with a spark can lose their soul. They become a vessel for anyone’s wants, available for any use, unable to protect themselves.”
“Can you fix it? I’ve done all I can.” Elizabeth listened, but she wasn’t concerned; it was like we were talking about someone else.
“We’ll fix this. It’ll take time, we need to keep her a few days.”
“She’s one of mine. Does your oath cover her, to do no harm, to take no advantage of her?”
“That doesn’t matter, she is a sister, we welcome her and we’ll do anything we can to help her regardless of anything else.”
Elizabeth said “I can go with them? That would be fun.” She perked up and turned loose of Wanda.
“Wanda, is this ok with you? They are bound to do no harm, and I thi
nk I’m trusting them.”
Wanda’s lips tight, she said “I ain’t taking no chances with this girl. We got to do something with her, but we can’t let anybody take advantage. Someone gotta watch and make sure she’s treated right.”
Stephanie stepped up “I can go with her and watch out for her. I ain’t got anything to do either, it would be a change.” I hadn’t seen her acting this assertive before, it was a good change.
Wanda said “And who gonna look out for you? You gettin’ over the same thing.”
Carl said “How many of y’all will it take to do whatever you got to do? Can you do it here, in Rosalee’s house?” He was awful free volunteering my house, but it could be a solution.
Faye said “We can. One of us will need to have quiet time with her for a couple hours, undisturbed, once a day for a few days. We can get the things we need and be back before nightfall. Is that ok with you, Rosalee?” At least she remembered whose house it was.
“Yeah, are you going to spend the nights here? I need bedding, maybe air mattresses or something. I can put you in the basement if that works for you, there are three rooms.”
“That would be excellent, couldn’t be better. Sheila will do the work.” She glanced at Sheila, who nodded.
“I can fix Sheila while she’s here, so that works out well.” Sheila brightened up at the thought. They liked getting healed.
“Can y’all give me a hand locating the vampire now? If I can get that taken care of, it will make life a lot easier.”
Faye said “Yes, let us gather materials, when we get back we’ll find him.” She turned to leave.
“Wait – do you need materials to locate him? Or can you do it now?”
“Now if you like.”
“Yes, you find him and I’ll deal with him while you get ready for Beth.”
Sheila and Faye moved together and clasped hands, closed eyes, and stepped sideways in a circle. Faye chanted, Sheila breathed in time with it. They kept it up for a minute and then Faye dropped Sheila’s hand and pointed.
“He is in this direction, buried in leaves and dirt, not deep, trees surround him, dead. If you disturb him he’ll wake, but he will be a little slowed till be becomes totally aware. He is at a disadvantage in the sunlight, it will disorient him, make it hard for him to see, and it will hurt him.”
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