“Wes, do you have Diana?” Edmund called out.
“Affirmative.” Westly answered back from the dining room. I could see him from the porch. He was holding a shotgun wearing sunglasses and his usual headphones. He was my best friend just with an extra shot of Rambo. Edmund nodded to him as he let the front door close behind him.
“I’m not a fricken baby.” Diana complained.
“You’re so rigid with him.” I muttered as I laced up my shoes.
“We’re men.” He shrugged.
“Yes, but he’s different, he’s—”
“He’s just as much a man as I am.” Edmund interrupted. “Even if he hates noise and sauce on his spaghetti. And even if he’s your war-given little brother.”
I just nodded. Edmund was doing what I always wanted for Westly. For someone to acknowledge and respect his differences without treating him differently. I was the one struggling with my instinct to shelter him from life and all of its shit.
We stopped talking as we picked up the pace into a full sprint towards the town square. The screams had died down. As we arrived, the crowds parted for me to step through to where my father and David were standing. Mara ran up to me with Beasley behind her.
“Something happened to the barriers. At least twenty shan came through. They should be back up now, but we aren’t sure what happened. It all happened so fast.” She cried. She was shaking, and I realized this might have been the first time she saw a shan in action.
“Beasley, she will need someone to work in the records office with her today. I can’t do it. Can you fill in?” I asked. He nodded gratefully behind Mara.
“Yes, Ma’am.” He said loudly and took Mara by the arm away from the crowds.
David walked up holding a large piece of cardboard in front of his junk. He was covered in blood and sweat. I tried my best not to get hung up on the fact that his ass was exposed to half the town while he spoke to me.
“Seventeen shan are dead. The barrier kicked in and I could clean up, but it forced me back into this form. There are more coming. Other shifters have been scouting as far as thirty miles out. By nightfall, the barriers will be hit with hundreds of them, and I’ll be ready.” David promised.
It wasn’t good enough. If the barriers failed, not only would they be able to come into Tavern Falls, but I would be the only one able to kill them.
“Mara said there were twenty at least.” I stated calmly. David leaned in close to me.
“Your dad has four at the lab.” He whispered into my ear.
***
“Damn it!” Isaac yelled as the flailing body of a shan came flying out of the lab into the lawn. Edmund sighed and dragged it over to me.
“It’s one of yours.” David said apologetically. I’d figured out a way to collapse the neck, heart, and lungs at once. No matter how someone became ill or injured, it was typically one of those three elements to end the life. It died instantly.
Of the other three shan test subjects, only two were secondhand shan. They were all so decomposed and mangled that recognition was beyond me. The injection of the Renly cure improved their behavior and vital signs, but ultimately led to inconclusive results and nothing resembling an actual recovery. I walked into the lab where Isaac was pacing angrily. Diana was gorgeous in her lab coat and safety glasses as she delicately examined blood samples.
Westly was learning quickly and keeping pace with Diana and Isaac as if he’s been here for years. Isaac was a natural teacher, and he seemed to relate to some of Westly’s systematic thought processes, but Isaac also liked to fly off into fits of rage. Sometimes literally.
“These ones are way too far gone. It would almost be cruel to restore their humanity anyway. Can you imagine waking up to being that?” Isaac asked gesturing to a body on the floor with disgust.
Diana made a delicate waving gesture and Westly carried another try of samples into a refrigerator. I couldn’t believe how much equipment people had managed to get for him.
“Maybe if we could reach them sooner. Or give the vaccine proactively.” I suggested with a shrug. I felt a little useless in the lab.
“It’s patented by the Renly Foundation. This is entirely illegal, and profit will always be the priority in medical matters” He ranted in response. “They would sell it for enough to leave only the poor vulnerable to this epidemic. It would make things worse. Even if we knew it would work. Which we really don’t.” We would have to try it on someone and then let them get exposed or get to them immediately after exposure.”
“Like this?” Westly interrupted. He was holding up his pant leg and a large bite was bleeding profusely. I gasped tripping on a huge bundle of cords and nearly fell backwards trying to get to him through the maze of lab equipment. Edmund grabbed my arm. Diana made an awful half sob half screaming sound.
“Yeah, just like that.” Isaac answered shocked.
And then David hit Westly over the back of the head and injected him with two full syringes stolen from R.I.G.S.
“Double or nothing.” David said wryly. Edmund collapsed next to me. I freaked out.
“What the hell?”
“Oh yeah, your big brave husband hates needles.” Isaac said looking down at the men on the floor with a sigh. “What a fricken mess.”
CHAPTER 25
Westly remained sedated, but stable. Isaac assured me there was no reason to think he wouldn’t be okay. It apparently had something to do with David injecting the cure before the shan germs reached his heart. It would be almost impossible to reach other people that quickly, but Isaac assured me that any of our people deployed to handle shan would have access to it in case of exposure. It would cure them of their genetic abilities as well, but it was probably better than death. I wasn’t sure what I would choose. My magic was a part of me now…again.
Diana watched over Westly anxiously while continuing to do her work.
“Did he do that on purpose?” I wondered out loud as I stood beside Westly’s makeshift bed in the lab. I knew only Westly could really answer that question.
“Maybe that’s smart.” David added.
“How the hell is that smart?” Diana demanded. “He’s waking up to an ass kicking if he did this on purpose.”
“If we get two or three people to test it out before exposure, we can prevent further outbreak. Generic medicine is legal.” David continued.
“It won’t work on shifters or any of us. Westly is neurologically diverse, but genetically typical. We would neutralize ourselves reproducing his situation.” I argued.
“Maybe people deserve the choice.” David said.
“You sound like a conformist.” I insisted.
“No, but you once told me that I die ending the war. If I die on a failed vaccine project, then that wouldn’t quite add up.” He said quietly. I hated that it made sense.
“David, you’re talking about giving up a huge part of who you are?” I continued.
“Nora, what I am cost me everything!” David yelled. It was the fist time I’d seen truly angry. The lab was filled with awkward silence, because we all knew what he meant.
“If we are going to wait for David and Nelsonora to stop arguing, we will all die of old age before they decide.” Diana interrupted. She was snappy and aggressive when she was worried. I tried not to laugh.
“True that.” Isaac contributed from behind a massive machine he called the culture box. I wasn’t sure what it did, but he was involved in building it in the late 90s and the lab needed three additional generators the day it arrived.
“Go to the records office and ask Beasley to find us four people. Volunteers only. Explain the risks. No one with kids.” I said to David solemnly. David nodded and squeezed my shoulder as he left.
“Where is Edmund?” I asked annoyed.
“He’s helping reinforce the borders.” Diana answered.
“How?” I wondered.
“He can’t die, and they need living resources.” She said. I don’t think I hid my disgus
t very well. I didn’t want him used as a battery pack.
“It’s the best thing we healers can do to help. Though, I guess I don’t count anymore.” She added. There was a twinge of bitterness to it.
“Have you had any luck figuring out a way to restore Diana’s abilities?” I asked Isaac.
“No. The cure in her system fights anything else we test against it. It’s final. I’m not going to kill her trying to restore healing.” He answered. Diana let out a shaky breath.
“It’s fine.” She said unconvincingly. “But maybe I can let one of them bite me too.” She offered.
“I’ll bite you before I let you try.” Isaac snapped. She rolled her eyes but backed off.
“What about a blood transfusion? If we stored up enough from her twin.” I asked. I didn’t want to give up on Diana. Isaac sighed.
“We can try it later. For now, we have apocalyptic conditions closing in on our home. Focus.” Isaac said shooing me out of the lab.
***
We had two hours of daylight left, and the church bells were ringing. The shan were within sight already, and the barriers were faulty at best. They couldn’t use Edmund forever. I hopped into the guard truck and headed towards the town square and main street where the records office was located.
David was nearly there when I arrived and screeched to a stop. “You can’t drive for shit.” He said admiring the shrubs and fence post sticking out from the front of the truck. “It’s in park, right?” He added before rounding the front of it.
“This is the first time I can remember ever driving, asshole.” I snapped. I was still white-knuckling the steering wheel and sweating profusely. Now, I was oddly grateful that I didn’t have to do that every day in my post war life as an adult.
“Well, you weren’t much better at it before.” David admitted.
“I need a favor, David.” I said abruptly changing the tone of the conversation. “Now while everyone else is busy.”
“Anything.” He answered.
“There’s no time for science right now. We need magic.” I began. “I need to—”
“I know.” He interrupted. “You’re going to pay the debt. You’re going to make them mortal.”
He offered me a hand down from the truck. I could only nod. I had worked up all this determination to convince him to help me with the spell. It was a little detail intensive and clearly meant for someone else to help. Especially since I couldn’t read the damn thing without translating letter by letter with a chart Isaac made for me.
“Leave this big guy here, and we’ll walk.” David said gently. “It’s way safer.”
“Why hadn’t you gone inside yet?” I asked gesturing to the records office.
“I heard the bells and realized we don’t have time for plan A.” He admitted.
He led me behind the building and towards a few large shipping warehouses. He had the keys for one of them, and inside there was a large circle of ash on the cement floor. There were three pages torn from my book lying in the middle of the circle. The ash was supposed to be from the wood of somewhere sacred.
“We will owe the church a couple grand.” He said as I touched the ash gently.
“You set this all up.” I said amazed. “When?”
“Your dad is an optimist. It almost got you all killed before.” He said wrinkling his nose. “I set this up after you were asking questions at the funeral. I know you.”
“And Edmund?” I wondered. I wasn’t sure exactly what I meant by my question. I was just processing that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to him. There was no time and there was no way he would let me out of his sight to complete this spell if he knew.
“Edmund has a lot of trauma upstairs.” David touched his head. “He’s not going to be okay without you.”
I started crying.
“I don’t know what else to do. I have to end this, and maybe you aren’t the only one who dies to stop this war.” I explained. I wiped my tears determined not to die as a blubbering mess. “We can be afterlife buddies.” I laughed pathetically.
“Well, once this is done. It’s just clean up. It will be dangerous, but it’s going to be over for everyone soon enough. Let’s get started. Sunset provides a lot of energy.” He said gesturing towards the sky.
Everything I needed was in a crate. There were crystals and candles and my hands shook as I reminded myself repeatedly that I wasn’t back at Connie’s shop. I never would be. Soon, I would be gone. Asleep. And nothing could ever hurt me again.
I pushed away the thoughts of my newfound family. I pushed away thoughts of how angry Edmund and Westly would be. I knew Diana could manage them both, and David could help keep my father from losing his alpha cool. “There are letters in my mother’s desk. One for each of you. I wrote them just in case.” I said to David. He looked at me and just nodded.
I began the spell. It was three pages front and back of instructions and words I had to read aloud with conviction. David would translate the instruction parts and I didn’t understand what I was saying as I slowly worked out the words I needed to say. He would correct me quietly when I mispronounced something.
After a while, I was just repeating after him without reading the words myself. I had to cut my hand over a certain crystal. Luckily, I knew all about herbs and crystals. Then we placed a shan’s heart in a smaller circle of ash, and I had to squeeze my bleeding hand over the top of it.
David was standing now. The crate was closer to us within the circle and I realized that he did this because the outer circle began to glow with a blackish purple energy, and no one could cross it. We were too far into the spell. It had been over an hour.
“No one can stop us now.” David said shakily. “We have a wait until this changes color.” He said nodding at the heart. “It will tell us when the bond is made between you and the shan. Then we pay it with life.”
“Do you kill me, or—”
“No.” David cut me off sharply. “At the end, a life is offered, and it’s just—just happens. Painless. I think.” He explained.
He quieted as a very faint glow started coming from the heart. He shook his head before I could ask if it was time. It wasn’t ready yet.
“Can I ask you something before I go?” I said. My teeth were chattering against one another hard enough to distort my words.
“Anything.” David responded quickly. I think he was shaking too.
“What is a split soul?”
“Your life was split. You were thrown off your natural path, but even that was predetermined. From birth you were a split soul. Nothing is random… but split souls often have more than one partner.” He answered hesitantly.
“Like a soulmate?” I asked.
“Like two soulmates.” He responded quietly. “One for each incompatible side of you. Split souls are conflicted. You’ve had two lives essentially. Your soul can be drawn two ways.”
“So that’s what Edmund is always worried about.” I reasoned.
“That’s why it was such a big risk for him to bring me around when you couldn’t remember anything from before. But your safety was more important.” He explained.
We didn’t point out the obvious irony in my suicide spell.
“I don’t know what to say.” I admitted. “I would have sent you away from the beginning if I knew how unfair this was to you.”
“I know. And if it helps, you just answered yourself again.” He pointed out.
“How so?”
“You would have sent me away.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, David.” I cried.
The heart was glowing deeply with the same black and purple energy as the outer circle. I knew I only had moments left, and the clarity of my feelings now was almost unbearable. I needed him to know, and in fact, there was a letter waiting for him that would echo the sentiment. “If I could really live two lives, they would both be full. One would be with you. It would be undoubtedly dangerous and exciting and honest and natural, and full of
love… and arguments.” I laughed.
The glow from the heart was almost blinding now, but David grabbed me by the front of the large sweatshirt I never changed out of and kissed me fiercely. Girls spend an awful lot of time dreaming about their first kiss, but if I’d know better, I would have really looked forward to this last one.
David kissed me like there was no tomorrow, and for me, there wasn’t. I suspected his kisses were always like that, and part of my heart broke knowing that I would never know. The rest of my heart broke with the pain of knowing that I would never see Edmund again either. Two soulmates and I was going to end up rotting in the ground alone. He broke off the kiss abruptly.
The Curious Fate of Nelsonora (Fractured Universe Series Book 1) Page 13