Poison Kiss

by Ana Mardoll

  "She's going to be all right, then?" Clarent asks anxiously. Beside us Lavender sits a little more stiffly, the air suffusing with honeysuckle hope.

  Worth nods easily, bundling up the tubing and medicine bag. "Tox's poison is fading very quickly from her system. I believe their faery made the pollution lethal but short-lasting. I presume he did so that his own servants could run away from them and survive to serve another day, rather than needing to be replaced after a single unlucky chance encounter."

  "I do still hurt," I venture sheepishly. I don't want to complain, but I'm not sure if this is something Worth needs to be told. Already I'm wondering if all this moving around was such a good idea, now that the gentle warmth in my veins is fading and the rasp has returned to my throat.

  Nee nods at me as nee moves the coat rack away from the cot and, with a firm hand, helps me to lie down again. "You're talking too much," nee warns. "The soft tissue in your throat is going to be sore for a while. And you should limit your eyes to dim lighting for the rest of the day." Nee places a cool cloth on my brow and motions for Lavender to dab at me while nee steps over to Kieran and begins the arduous process of changing his bandages.

  I realize that Celia is watching me with intense interest. "Sorry. You were saying?" I prompt quietly, softening my voice to lessen the sting. "About the mist?"

  "Three portals in one day, which is a first," she says coolly, studying my face. "All in city limits, which is also highly unusual. And all three popped out altereds who weren't actively trying to escape." Her eyes narrow. "In a single morning, we've found a silver man who can undo alteration magic, a talent I've never even heard of before, a child with lethal airborne poison and a bear-woman who jumped Kieran and inflicted serious damage before I managed to get there."

  I stare at her, my brain moving sluggishly from the aftermath of the drugs. I feel numb from the fresh pain of using my voice. Lavender voices the question I can't find the words to frame. "How did you know to get there and save him?"

  Celia frowns at her, looking grim. "The portal didn't close correctly, so Kieran was able to get out a cellphone signal. The crossing was bad and the woman was confused. Worse yet, there were human witnesses and now we've got to lie low. Someone snapped a blurry picture, and reports are going round about a bear escaped from the zoo." She sighs, looking weary.

  Worth looks up from where nee is wrapping fresh bandages around Kieran, who grits his teeth silently against the pain. "When no one presents at the hospital and the zoos find they aren't missing any animals, it'll be written off as a hoax," nee says calmly. "We just need to be careful until then."

  Celia nods. "We need to figure out why this is happening, though," she says firmly. Her eyes flick back to me. "I would be looking at you as a possible common denominator in all this, Rose," she says bluntly, "as you were there for both Clarent and Tox coming out. But Kieran swears he hasn't seen you since the last group meeting. Are you sure you haven't seen him, maybe without his realizing?"

  My eyes widen and I shake my head, my hair catching painfully on the cot frame beneath me. "I haven't seen him," I protest, feeling helpless. Beside me I sense Lavender tense up, ready to hop in and defend me.

  "Mmm." Celia stares at me a moment longer before mercifully relaxing her scrutiny. "In which case we still have no idea why the portals are forming and where they may hit next. That is why I said, Elric," she adds, turning to him, "that people should react to the mist with caution, immediately text their location to me, and try to exit the portal area before it can seal. If they can't get out in time, they should hide and not approach anyone coming out of the portal."

  "Is that not the same as running? Little difference, I'd have thought," Elric says with a shrug, though his insouciant eyes don't try to meet her gaze. "But at least you captured your bear-woman and you got a little orphan girl out of the deal—"

  "They are a 'child', Elric, not a 'girl'," Celia corrects, cutting in calmly. "And you are not to refer to them as an 'orphan'."

  I glance up at the correction, wondering if this means that the little altered child is genderqueer like Worth. They stand silently in the doorway with Celia, clinging to her leg, listening to us discuss them. They are still wrapped in the black robe that covers them from head to toe, their pretty face and wide dark eyes peeking warily out at me.

  I try to offer them a reassuring smile, hoping to convey that I'm unharmed and not upset or angry over what happened. The child snuggles closer to Celia, looking a little alarmed by my friendly overtures. I remember how frightened I was earlier when I'd thought I had hurt Clarent, and I can only imagine how much more worried they have been while I was unconscious. At least I had known this morning that if Clarent had died Celia wouldn't harm me in retaliation; yet we are all strangers to this little one, and they must have wondered if they would be hurt or punished if I didn't survive.

  "You've got a nice child, then," Elric continues smoothly, unfazed by Celia's correction. "And Kieran was overdue for a good beating, anyway—"

  "You're going the right way to get a beating of your own," Kieran growls, but it's clear that he's still far too weak to rise from his cot.

  "Oh, princess, you're just saying that because you miss me," Elric teases, his eyes dancing. Worth shushes them both.

  "Hold still, child," nee scolds Kieran sternly. "Unlike little Rose, the damage to you wasn't designed to be short-term. If you keep wriggling, I'm never going to get these bandages changed." Ner dark hands move with quick sureness as nee wraps fresh gauze around the angry red claw marks. The sheer volume of the work is overwhelming to watch; almost every patch of Kieran's exposed skin is cut or bitten.

  "Fuck the banda—" Kieran starts furiously, unwilling to be as compliant a patient as I, but he's interrupted by a loud clatter in the hallway. Worth and Elric look up, startled. Clarent quickly steps between my cot and the door while Lavender leaps from her chair, ready to help him. The little child—Tox, nee said their name was—squeezes closer to Celia, their dark eyes clouded with worry.

  Only Celia doesn't seem perturbed by the intrusion. "We're back here, Joel, try not to knock everything over," she says idly, patting Tox reassuringly on the head.

  "Worth, I've said a thousand times not to leave medical journals stacked on the floor." Joel's voice is a whispered hiss, sibilant and thoroughly annoyed. "Celia, you're going to be carrying someone in here someday and trip, and then where will they be? Dead. Crushed. You should have called me first. The pink-haired one is my patient now. It's just unprofessional, is what it is." He emerges from the hallway then, his piercing blue eyes peering out at us from beneath his hoodie, which is pulled up against the afternoon sunlight.

  "We did call you first," Elric interjects, sounding genuinely and uncharacteristically angry. "You didn't pick up." He tenses in his chair and for a moment it looks like he might rise to his feet, but Celia touches his shoulder gently and he settles back into his usual slumped posture, studying the floor with bored detachment.

  "I was busy," Joel says primly, stepping around Celia and Tox. "Oh, hello; are you the new poisonous one?" he asks solicitously, peering closely at them.

  "The child is no longer poisonous," Worth says, looking at Joel with tight-lipped frustration etched in ner face. "The boy there has undone their alteration, and the treatment seems to be permanent as far I can measure. You can confirm that better than I, however."

  "What? No!" Joel rounds on Clarent with a burst of fierce energy, though his expression softens somewhat when he sees me lying on the nearby cot. "I mean," he explains, "I need the poison if I'm to transmute it into something useful. Good god!" His eyes widen in sudden horror. "You've not done it to Rose yet, have you?"

  Elric snickers, which triggers the spread of an embarrassed blush across my face as Clarent glances down at me uncertainly. "I haven't— no. I carried her here when she collapsed, that's all," he says, stumbling under the force of Joel's scrutiny.

  "Well, that's fine," Joel says briskly. "Just d
on't take her poison away like you did with the little girl—"

  "Child, Joel," Celia corrects smoothly. "And that's really up to Rose; you know that."

  "No, but look!" Joel darts forward excitedly, and before anyone can move to stop him there's a sudden flash of glass and metal in his hand. He grabs the tubing going into Kieran's arm, angles a sharp needle into a small plastic junction in the tube, and shoots the contents of the syringe into Kieran's bloodstream.

  "Joel!" Worth's voice is pure outrage; nee draws nerself up to full height and stares imposingly down at him in tangible fury. Ner glare lasts only a moment before nee immediately turns ner attention to Kieran, hurriedly taking his pulse and examining the pupils of his eyes. "What the hell did you just give my patient?"

  "Rose's poison," Joel says, sounding immensely proud of himself.

  Chapter 14

  There's a sudden babble of voices; outraged, frightened, and astonished. I can't pick out individual words over the pounding heartbeat in my ears. He promised. I'm stunned by the unfairness of the betrayal. Joel had sworn he wouldn't use my poison to kill anyone, and Celia had assured me I could trust him.

  "Kieran, no!" I don't remember standing, yet I'm on my feet. I stumble to him, though I can't think of any way to help except to hold him as he dies. I'm close enough to brush his hand, my fingers clutching his, but the room spins wildly around me and I pitch forward clumsily. Clarent's strong arms catch me before I hit the floor and he holds me to his chest, his expression matching the horror I feel.

  "Holy shit! What the—?" Elric is on his feet as well, apoplectic with rage and shouting over the rest of us. But the sudden shock in his voice overcomes the fury, and his eyes widen in surprise as his question dies away. I twist my head to follow his gaze.

  Kieran lies quietly on his cot, looking puzzled but not in any pain. He's practically serene, yet my victims always writhed in agony until paralysis and death claimed them. To my utter astonishment, his angry wounds begin to close up as we watch, the shredded skin knitting together so finely that no scars remain in their wake. Worth hesitates for the briefest of moments before grabbing a pair of sharp tweezers; as nee quickly snips and pulls stitches away, the tiny holes heal almost instantaneously.

  "Rose, look," Lavender breathes softly. I feel her warmth beside us, one arm at my elbow to help support me, the other clapped around Clarent's shoulder to steady herself. The room is filled with the fragrance of lavender and honeysuckle, the heady scents intertwining with the drugs in my system to send me to fresh heights of vertigo.

  "That's not— I can't—" My voice trails away, unable to find the right words. Have I been able to do that all along since I came out?

  Kieran watches his body heal with sheer amazement in his dark eyes. When Worth has clipped the last stitch, he swings his legs over the side of the cot and stands carefully, flexing his legs and arms to test his range of movement. He peels the bandages away, marveling at the healed skin underneath the streaks of blood that he scrubs away with crumpled gauze. There's not a scratch on him, or at least nothing that hadn't long since healed over from his time in the otherworld.

  He looks up at me then with an expression of genuine shock. "If that's your idea of poison, Rosebud, you can kiss me any time."

  "No, no," Joel interjects, sounding smug. "No, it has to be treated first. I have a process! If you kissed her directly, you'd die in seconds. Any of us would," he clarifies as Kieran shoots him an irritated glare. "Well. Except Clarent, because of his metal; and maybe the child, depending on whether they've retained their natural immunity to poison." He frowns down at the little altered, looking doubtful, but quickly turns back to us, not long fazed by his own uncertainty.

  "Some of the undead altered might also be immune," he admits cheerily. "The zombies, anyway, on account of their different circulation. It's hard to say for sure without further experiments. Of course, Elric here would almost certainly die." He glances at the tanned vampire who still glowers at him. "But once treated properly, her poison has powerful healing properties. That's why I need her to stay poisonous," he adds pleadingly, whirling round to appeal to Celia.

  "I'm going to need to see your method," Worth breaks in evenly, ner voice still cool.

  "Of course, whenever you like." He agrees immediately, and I realize with a surreal sort of calm why he's anxious to please Celia and Worth. He thinks they'll agree with him if he's polite, thinks they'll make me stay like I am.

  Celia runs a hand over her eyes, looking weary. "We're not going to decide right now," she says firmly. "Rose and Kieran are going to rest here while Worth monitors them. Joel, you're coming down to the kitchen with me and Tox. We need you to check to see if the toxins are still in their system."

  The quiet child tugs fearfully on her shirt at this. "It's okay," Celia says gently. "Joel is safe, and I'll be right there with you. He just needs to make sure all the poison is gone so that no one gets hurt. Elric, you stay with Kieran and Rose," she adds in a sharp bark over her shoulder.

  "Celia! I have a dozen better places to be—"

  "While you wait, you can text everyone about the emergency gathering we need to hold," she interrupts firmly, turning her intense gaze on him.

  He bristles under her attention for less than a minute before dropping back into his chair. "You owe me, Celia," he mutters sullenly.

  "Of course," she agrees easily, ushering Joel and Tox out of the room.

  For a long moment we are quiet. Elric glares at the floor, eventually digging out his cellphone and utterly ignoring us. Kieran eyes me from his cot with disquieting interest blended with a touch of suspicion. Worth silently hauls out ner medical equipment and begins the tedious task of charting his blood pressure, measuring his pulse, and taking samples from him. Nee does not watch me as nee works, but I can guess the unasked questions nee must be saving for a later opportunity.

  Only Clarent and Lavender provide something approaching comfort. His cool hands steady me gently, while her worried eyes study my face. "Let's get you back to bed," he suggests softly and I nod agreement. His strong arms guide me back to my cot and Lavender adjusts the thin shower curtain, cutting off Kieran's piercing gaze and affording us a tiny measure of privacy.

  My poison healed Kieran. I don't know how to deal with that fact. He'd been so badly injured. For all his gallows-humor, the reality was that he'd have been deeply scarred for life. He might even have suffered loss of function in his arms and legs. Now, in less than a few minutes, it's as if it never happened. If he'd been dying when Celia found him and she'd had a syringe of my treated poison with her— Could my poison save lives?

  Clarent sits cross-legged on the floor beside me, holding my hand in his. Lavender scoots her chair closer, her warm fingers gently stroking my hair and combing out the tangles. I'm so grateful they're both here for me, even though I feel guilty for monopolizing their time. Lavender ought to be sleeping; they must have woken her from her nap to bring her here. And Clarent should be getting on with the important business of taking his life back.

  "I'm so sorry," I murmur, turning my head to look down at him. "I was supposed to square you away with Elric and Mina so you could get settled in. You're free now and you deserve your space."

  Warm gray eyes turn to meet mine. "I don't mind," he says with a soft smile. "Please don't feel bad, Rose. I'm glad I was there to help, and I'm happy to be here with you now. I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be." His cool fingers stroke my hand gently, reassuring me with his touch.

  "And it's not your fault what happened," Lavender adds in a dark undertone, still angry with Celia; the sharp scent of green apples swirls around us. "You were very nearly killed."

  I lean back into the cot, smiling a little at her fierce protectiveness. "You know she has to consider all the possibilities," I murmur. "Three portals in one day! I suspected me, probably before she did."

  Lavender takes a deep breath to argue, but Clarent's gentle teasing breaks in. "Maybe you are bringing us
over," he says softly, eyes dancing. "Both of you. Maybe we're all being drawn over, seeking a glimpse of those lovely green eyes."

  I grimace playfully at this, shooting a look at Lavender in time to see her reluctant grin. "Our faces have launched a thousand ships?" I tease back. "What makes you so sure it's us? If anyone has to be Helen of Troy, I nominate you for the role."

  He pulls a thoughtful face. "Well, you did say I was uncommonly pretty."

  My cheeks burn at the reminder, not helped by Lavender's wicked giggle. "I think I just said 'pretty'," I correct him. "The 'uncommonly' you added yourself."

  He chuckles at this, grinning up at us. "I live in hope," he says easily. Then he sobers and his voice drops lower. "Rose, I'm grateful to Celia and Joel and everyone for all their help," he says, a frown creasing his silver brow. "But, I mean, if you want me to remove your magic, I'm going to do what you want—not what someone else tells me."

  Lavender beams at him, sharp apples turning to warm sweet cider with the force of her approval. "Yes," she agrees in a soft whisper. "Rose, this is what you've been looking for all this time." She leans closer in to us. "We could do it right now before they get back. An accident, you know? There's no reason to think that Clarent has perfect control over his talent yet, right?"

  Their faces are so close to mine that I can feel their breath on my skin, gentle and soothing. "No! It's not about their feelings," I hiss softly, shaking my head. "You saw what my poison did! We have so few healers, and none of them can be bottled like that. If they don't get there in time when Celia calls them, people die!" I turn pleading eyes on her. "Lavs, I could save people's lives."

  Clarent shifts in place, looking uncomfortable. "Rose, you deserve to be with people," he whispers, glancing at Lavender. "With anyone you choose, not just whoever is immune."