Untouchable

by Stephanie Doyle

  They were sitting on the bank of the river tucked behind some bushes to obscure their position, not that Lilith imagined Echo would be looking for them. She’d already done enough damage.

  Tarak held his hand over the wound but Lilith could see the blood oozing out between his fingers.

  “My pack,” he said between clenched teeth. “I have a first-aid kit.”

  Losing the pack had been the first thing she’d told him to do once they made it to land, hoping that the loss of the extra weight might relieve the pain in his shoulder. More difficult was sliding off the gun holster. Tarak had complied with both orders, but he didn’t seem to be hurting any less.

  Lilith rummaged through the knapsack and found a sealed watertight bag filled with gauze, medical tape and antiseptic. Plus a needle and a thread.

  “Am I going to have to remove the bullet?” She’d seen it done once by Sister Peter but had never participated in the surgery herself. Her only job had been to stop the pain.

  “It feels like it passed through. Check my back. Tell me what you see.”

  She scooted around behind him and saw a tear through his shirt that was a pretty good indicator that the bullet had passed completely through his flesh. Carefully, using her gloved hand despite knowing that her direct touch wouldn’t kill him, she lifted the shirt high along his back almost to his neck and found a jagged hole about the size of a penny oozing blood.

  “What should I do?”

  “Use the antiseptic and try to clean it first. Then tape it up. Does it look like it might need stitching?”

  “No.” At the most one or two stitches might have helped to pull the skin together, but she imagined the gauze would suffice. Having witnessed a number of amputations the sight of blood shouldn’t have affected her, but knowing that it was Tarak’s blood made it different. His suffering touched her and made her hurt inside. Applying the antiseptic was only going to make it worse.

  He’d been right about being able to control her condition to help pull him back onto the bridge. Could she control it enough to give him the right dosage that would take away his pain without completely immobilizing him?

  Always when she anesthetized someone there had been risk. Had she diluted the toxin enough or too much? There was never any sense of certainty or confidence that the person taking her particular brand of medicine would eventually recover from it.

  But if she could control not just the on or off trigger but the levels of poison in her skin, she might be able to offer something truly useful to people. A way to end pain without wondering if she would also end a life.

  Even as the thoughts intruded she could see the back of her hand shimmer and glow. The temptation to lay her hand on his back, to stop his agony was almost overwhelming. What had he called it? A gut feeling? That’s what she had now. An inner sense that if she touched him it would be all right.

  Common sense, however, overruled her gut. Here in the middle of the jungle was not the time to be experimenting with her curse.

  No. Not curse. Gift. At least maybe someday.

  Instead she concentrated on retracting the poison and as she did the shimmer began to fade. The rush of what she could do was almost enough to make her forget that Tarak’s wound was still bleeding.

  “Don’t worry about me. Just pour the damnable stuff on and be done with it.”

  Lilith pushed his shirt up and over his neck, carefully removing it to avoid any extra jostling. Then she took the antiseptic packets and tore them open. As soon as the liquid hit the wound she heard him hiss and knew that the small, whispery sound was only a fraction of what he was actually feeling.

  The wound bubbled for a time, sucking out the bits of dirt and pieces of cotton from his shirt, and then Lilith patched him up. She repeated the process on the entry wound right at the spot where his arm met his shoulder. “You were lucky. The bullet missed bone and went through nothing but muscle and fat.”

  “Fat? Excuse me?”

  Lilith glanced up from her work were she was taping down the padding over the wound.

  “I think you mean muscle only.”

  Confused, Lilith shook her head. “No, I meant the fat under your arm. Are you sensitive about this?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Men aren’t sensitive about fat. Still, what you are referring to is in fact muscle.”

  Since his face was unnaturally pale Lilith decided not to press the issue.

  “We’re going to lose them.” He sighed.

  “I know. Lie back. Rest your head on your pack.”

  “Are you disappointed? Angry maybe?” he asked before the groaning replaced any coherent words as she helped him to recline.

  The question startled Lilith. “Angry? It was my decision to use the bridge. Mine to even bring you along. All of this is my fault. It is you who should be angry with me.”

  “Furious,” he teased.

  “Besides that you have given me possibly the greatest gift anyone has ever given another person. I am not angry. I am so joyful I cannot even properly comprehend it.”

  He held her gaze and slowly smiled. “I am glad.”

  She smiled back and felt the tension in her cheeks. Smiling was such a rare occurrence for her, but she enjoyed the sensation of it. “Of course, we are still going to need to find a way to stop Echo.”

  His smile only widened. “Of course.”

  “Hello! Hello! Is anyone out there?”

  Lilith pulled away from Tarak at the sound of the strange voices coming from the jungle.

  “Oh my gosh, Bob, was that a gunshot? Is somebody shooting?” said an English-speaking woman with an American accent. “Boys, get down. Get down this second.”

  “Please calm down. I will investigate,” answered a man. His words were also in English but they were heavily accented.

  Lilith heard a rustle from the bush and this time concentrated on calling forth the poison in her system. She stood over Tarak, deciding that under no circumstances would anyone hurt him again. Not if she could stop it. Glancing down at her hand it practically sparkled.

  Then the group was upon them and an Indian man emerged first. He was followed by a middle-aged white couple with two teenage boys in tow. The boys were holding paddles.

  The Indian man held both his hands up as a show of faith that he was unarmed. “Are you all right? We heard a gunshot.”

  He spoke in Hindi and Lilith relaxed. Given the wet suits he and the others were wearing she concluded that he was simply taking these tourists out onto the water for a white water rafting trip.

  “You are a guide?”

  “Yes. We were ready to head down river where the rapids are not as fierce when we heard the shot. Then we heard someone groaning as if in pain.”

  “I wasn’t groaning that loudly,” Tarak said, moaning softly on his way to a sitting position.

  Lilith nodded at the guide when it suddenly occurred to her. A guide would take tourists into the jungle for a night of camping and rafting. But he would also have a way to get them out quickly if something happened. That meant transportation.

  “A hunter, I believe,” she replied back in English, hoping to alleviate the fears of the family behind him. “He shot my…friend. We were out camping. I don’t think he saw us.”

  “Oh, that’s just awful. Did you hear that, Bob? He was shot. You need to do something.”

  Bob’s gaze fell to Tarak and immediately he walked over and dropped down on his haunches. Carefully he pulled back the gauze that Lilith had applied and studied the wound.

  “It’s all right. I’m a doctor.”

  “He’s a doctor,” the woman repeated a little louder as if Lilith had not heard the man.

  The guide returned his gaze to Lilith. “You were camping? Alone? Out here?”

  “Yes,” she lied and felt a blush creep over her cheeks. She could only imagine how she looked. Dirty, exhausted and wearing only one silk glove. Lilith glanced down at her hand and was grateful she was no longer shimmering. That might
have been harder to explain.

  “It was my idea,” Tarak interrupted even as Bob began gently prodding around the wound. “Back-to-nature type thing. She didn’t want to come at first but I convinced her. Some vacation.”

  Lilith added nothing to his story, hoping that he’d been convincing enough for the both of them. He was certainly a better liar.

  “Well, you’re lucky,” Bob said as he stood up. “It went through the fleshy part under your arm and clean through your shoulder. Strange, though. It’s a rather small bullet for hunting.” Bob let that statement hang there for a moment, but then eventually looked at Lilith. “It looks like you’ve got it cleaned up pretty good but I recommend getting him out of this jungle now before infection sets in.”

  “Our car is so far back from where we are,” Tarak told them. “Would it be possible to have you take us to Bomdila?”

  The guide looked back at the family, no doubt trying to determine how they would feel about missing out on their trip and how much of a refund he would have to offer. Lilith practically held her breath waiting for someone to say something when Bob’s wife began to nod her head vigorously.

  “Of course we’ll take you back into town. There’s no question. Did you honestly think we would make you walk back to your car in your condition? My goodness! Bob, kids, let’s go.”

  “Oh man! No rafting?” This from the taller of the two teenagers.

  “B.J., I don’t want to hear another word,” his mother scolded. “This man was shot and we have to help him. See…this is why people from other countries don’t like Americans. This is our chance to make a good impression and darn it we’re going to do it. Now everybody turn back and head for the Jeep.”

  Two hours later Lilith was walking through an elegant albeit weathered hotel lobby. After so many days in the wild it seemed surreal. The trip into Bomdila had been rather anticlimactic all things considered. What would have taken another day to hike was accomplished in a little less than two hours. As the smallest of the group, Lilith had ridden in the very back of the Land Rover.

  Satisfied that there was no way she could touch anyone accidentally and with nothing but time on her hands, Lilith had removed her other glove. Cautiously she’d experimented with calling the poison up and then suppressing it. After two hours it had become almost as simple as flexing a muscle. Remarkable.

  “Stay here. I’ll get us a room.”

  Lilith wasn’t sure how it was possible that Tarak could function after being shot and then suffering the horribly jostling trip. Still he’d assured Doctor Bob that he would be fine with a little rest and some food as he’d hopped out of the Jeep. The only compensation he’d made was to carry his knapsack on his uninjured shoulder.

  While Lilith waited in the center of the lobby she was not ignorant of the looks and whispers by several people milling around the hotel. Feeling more naked than she could ever remember amongst those dressed in more complex saris, she pulled the single glove back on. Not that it helped. It was as dirty and sweat stained as the rest of her.

  Normally such things wouldn’t have mattered to her. Being clean was something she did because she enjoyed the feeling of it and because it was healthful, not for vanity’s sake. But as Tarak turned away from the man behind the counter and looked at her, she thought there were other reasons to be clean. She wondered what he saw when he looked at her. A woman? Or a dirty and spent waif of a girl?

  He approached her with a gentle smile on his face. “I secured us a room.”

  “How?” she wondered. Although she’d never been to a town of this size before she still understood the logistics of how the world worked. A room would cost money.

  “A little thing called a credit card. I never leave home without it.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “I’m going to scavenge a bit. Get us some clothes and food. See if I can tell where our friends are and how much time we have.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  Tarak shook his head. “No offense, Lilly, but you’re a little wilted on the vine. Go up to the room. You can take a shower and rest for a while. I won’t be long.”

  “It’s not right. You’re hurt. You should wash and rest. I can go and do what needs to be done.”

  “I’ll have an easier way of it. Trust me.” He held up a gold plastic card. “You need money, remember.”

  Defeated on that point, she accepted that he was better equipped to get them what they needed.

  “I’ll be back shortly,” he said. He held up a large metal key. “Open your hand.”

  Instinctively Lilith held out her gloved hand.

  “The other one.”

  Slowly she raised her uncovered hand.

  “Can I touch you?”

  Yes. As miraculous and unbelieving as it seemed, she knew she was safe to touch. Smiling, she nodded.

  He clasped his hand in hers and for a second they allowed themselves to enjoy the sensation of skin upon skin. His warmth to hers. Then he pressed the key into her hand and closed her fingers over it.

  “Room 312. Do you know how to work an elevator?”

  “I can take the steps,” she said, pointing to where a central staircase led to another floor.

  “Be safe. Don’t open the door to anyone but me.”

  “You be safe, as well.”

  With a hint of a smile he turned and she watched as he left the entrance of the hotel. It was strange. This man whom she had known for only a few days had so quickly become a fixture in her life. His absence was as noticeable to her as the absence of her other glove. It didn’t seem logical that she would feel more alone now that he’d gone than she had felt in her whole life. But she did.

  He would come back. He’d said so. Then they would find a way to stop Echo together. They were in front of her now so they had more options. They would succeed. Lilith would consider no other outcome.

  And then what?

  The question knocked her off balance slightly. So much of their journey had been focused around finding and stopping Echo, she hadn’t even considered what might happen once they accomplished their goal.

  Going back to the village and helping the nuns to rebuild seemed practical. Those needing amputations would still need her medicine. And with her control she might be able to do more. She tried to imagine being back there without Sister Peter. Tried to predict how the people would look at her knowing the trouble she’d inadvertently brought down on their tiny world.

  Something told her that going back would not be an option. She couldn’t imagine how she would be satisfied with the simple existence that she’d left. Now that she knew control was possible she would need to explore her gift, test the limits and the boundaries of her power. There was more good to be done. More to help than just the people of one leper colony.

  Where would she go? How would she function in a world that she knew nothing of? A place where she would need money and access to scientists. She would need someone to show her the way. Would Tarak offer such help? Would he want to take her away with him when he left?

  Would she go with him?

  His job was to engage in violence. For her own purposes she had used his talents, but staying with him while he fought other people’s battles, watching him put himself at risk time and time again, would be torturous.

  Too many questions. Lilith put her hands to her head as if to stop the motion of her spinning thoughts. Instead of thinking about things that she had no answers for, she concentrated on finding her room. The steps led to a second floor and then another. One couple came down as she was ascending and her first thought was to move away as she did instinctively when she had to pass people, but this time she forced herself to maintain her normal course.

  Not that she had to worry. Upon seeing her, the couple actually made an effort to give her a wide berth. Lilith couldn’t help but smile at the idea that it was her smell that was actually more dangerous than her touch in this instance.

  She found the room and used
the key to unlock the door. Once inside she gasped at the size of the bed. Unable to stop herself, she ran her hand over the soft blanket that was laid out on top. One, two, three, it was almost impossible to count the number of pillows that covered the headboard.

  There wasn’t much more to the room other than the bed and the pillows, but when she turned into the smaller connected room she found what she knew in theory, if not in practice, to be a bathroom.

  Fascinated, she reached for the faucet handle and turned it. Then watched in amazement as the water poured from the spigot. She started to reach for the water then stopped.

  “I will not contaminate it. I am not poisonous.”

  The words helped to steady her and when she looked down at her hand and saw no shimmer she knew the words she spoke were the truth. Thrilled, she ran her hand under the cold water. Of course she knew running water existed, but this was the first time she had ever gotten to use it to bathe.

  Turning to her right, she studied the square space closed off with a glass wall. She could see a larger spigot mounted on the wall and another handle below it. Cautiously Lilith reached inside and turned it. She nearly tripped as she stepped backward in surprise. Water poured down over the glass closet. After a moment she found that it heated to the point where it was warm to the touch.

  Eager, she stripped out of her now brown silk sheath and stepped naked underneath the spray.

  The feeling of water pouring over her skin, through her hair, rinsing away the dirt and the fatigue from her body was like nothing she’d ever felt before.

  It was almost as amazing as touching.

  Almost.

  Chapter 16

  T arak winced as he hoisted his sack over his shoulder, the small motion pulling at the injury. He thought about the purchases that made the pack heavier and very quickly the pain went away. Just thinking about seeing Lilly in the blue sari he’d purchased for her was enough to ease any discomfort. At least the one caused by a bullet hole.

  Unfortunately the same image brought with it a new sort of discomfort in a place decidedly south of his shoulder. For the time being, he dismissed that, as well.