“I tried to help him,” I said, on the verge of tears.
“He didn’t consent,” Indra said knowingly. No judgment, only observation. But it made me angry.
RJ dropped his hands and turned to look back at her. “What does that mean?”
“It means the magic won’t work without his consent,” she said as she rooted through a box along the wall.
“But the werewolf,” I blurted at her back. “It didn’t consent either. And you healed him.”
“This is different,” Indra said gently, rising and crossing to where we stood. She held out a vial of something to RJ. “Here, give him this. It will bolster his strength.”
RJ pressed his lips together, took the vial, and stalked over to the cot. Clearly, he was confused and wanted answers. I knew how he felt.
“What is that?” I asked Indra.
She looked up from where she was finishing up drawing a fresh chalk circle on the floor. “It’s a mixture of herbs that help with cognitive awareness. Sort of a caffeine boost,” she said.
I bit my lip, not wanting to push and seem rude, but… “Mirabelle has been prescribing him something for a while too but it stopped working so I’m not sure anything you have will—”
“Sam’s right.” RJ’s shoulders slumped and we both turned to see him frowning. “It’s not working,” he said.
Indra’s lips pursed and her forehead crinkled in thought as she stepped clear of the chalk. “He’s been bitten by a werewolf, but we caught it early so the injury shouldn’t be life-threatening. The herbs should have worked,” she said. And although she sounded slightly irritated, there was no empathy in her words. Only confusion about why her magic had fallen short.
It rubbed me wrong but then she looked over at me with clear sympathy and I shoved it aside. I was beyond stressed. Clearly, I wasn’t reading people clearly right now. Hell, if anyone was guilty of anything here, it was me. I was the reason Alex had been here tonight.
If I had just learned to use my magic sooner, I could have healed that werewolf and he wouldn’t have gotten that second bite.
I exchanged a look with RJ and Indra’s gaze sharpened. “There’s more to his condition,” she said.
Instead of demanding the truth, she strode over to where Alex lay and crouched next to him. She picked up his arm and turned it over carefully in her delicate hands. I watched as she raised it slowly to her face and sniffed the wound curiously. Then, her tongue snaked out and she licked him.
Alex stirred enough to moan and my heart seized at the sound.
I recoiled.
It had been oddly erotic in the second I’d seen her do it but now, her head tilted thoughtfully and she seemed to be treating the whole thing like a science experiment. “He’s been poisoned,” she said finally.
I shuddered out a ragged breath, refusing to look over at Alex anymore. The sight of him so still and unmoving on the cot was too much. I also didn’t love that Indra had her hands on him but now was not the time for jealousy. I had enough emotions to add that to the mix. My guilt at being to blame for putting him in this mess was more than I could handle.
But I also wasn’t inclined to pour out our complicated history. And RJ had already warned me that Edie wanted me to share as little as possible about Alex’s true identity. He wasn’t just a hunter but a high-level operative for CHAS and most of the magical community was not privy to that sort of information.
“Indra, this isn’t … I can’t… I don’t know what you want me to say,” I said finally.
“Don’t bother. He’s a hunter and experienced too. The scars he bears speak to the number of battles he’s fought,” she said and I shot RJ a look, but he only shrugged and stared down at Indra, completely enraptured. “Clearly he already had venom inside him before because the amount currently circulating in his bloodstream is overwhelming. I’m not really sure how he was still on his feet before this incident. He must be very strong willed.”
“It’s … not my story to tell,” I explained, surprised she’d gleaned that much from … licking him?
Indra waved off my words. “I’m not asking for the story, darling. But I can help him if you want.”
My jaw fell open and hope rose. “How?” I asked.
Indra hesitated and the way she looked back at Alex made me pause. Lust. Open wanting. But not sexual… or maybe it was but there was something off about even that. I stepped between them, my hard gaze fixed on Indra, one brow raised as I silently checked her strange behavior. She blinked and then her expression cleared and she came toward me, grabbing my hand and squeezing it comfortingly. “He’s important to you, darling, yes?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “Very.”
She softened and I wondered if I’d imagined the hungry way she’d looked at him. Or the way she’d just brushed against RJ as she’d walked past. “Let me help him.”
“I don’t understand. I thought there wasn’t any magic that could heal a hunter from the venom—” I stopped myself before I could give away my own secret.
I’d wanted to add “any magic except mine” but then I realized how silly that sounded—since I still hadn’t actually successfully healed anyone.
Indra gave me a tight smile. “There are all kinds of magic, Samantha. Anything is possible if you approach it from the right angle.”
I didn’t answer because the truth was, I had no idea what Indra was capable of. I only knew the mysterious supplies she constantly requested from Mirabelle. I only knew the small glimpses I caught when I’d made deliveries. And it wasn’t enough to really understand what Indra did or what she was capable of doing now.
Suddenly, I remembered the spider. Months ago, I’d made a delivery to Indra on the full moon. She’d removed the spider from the jar and found it alive. I had thought it strange and clearly, she’d been confused, since she’d ordered it dead. But as soon as she’d touched it, it had begun moving in her hand. Had she brought it back to life then?
Clearly, there was more to Indra than I’d ever guessed. Still, some small voice inside me warned me against letting her do this.
“Wait, you can heal him?” RJ asked, clearly just now grasping that fact. Maybe he’d been staring so hard at Indra, his brain had temporarily turned off.
“I can give him health,” Indra said.
RJ and I exchanged a quick look and I shook my head once as subtly as I could. But RJ’s eyes were lit with awe and attraction and probably more than a little bit of lust.
“Let’s not waste any more time then,” he said. “What do you need from me?”
Indra made her way back to the cot, hips swishing slightly more than before. I rolled my eyes. She stopped in front of RJ and laid her hand on his arm as she said, “Help me get him into the circle?”
RJ hurried to do as she’d asked. He dragged the entire cot into the chalk circle and set it down again. Alex made a few muttering noises as he was jostled but that was all. I winced at the loud scraping of the legs against the stone floor but I folded my arms over my chest and planted my feet, determined to stay and keep watch. I didn’t even know what I was watching for. Just… Indra.
As I watched, Indra bent low and ran her hand down Alex’s cheek. Jealousy reared, stabbing into my gut like a rusted knife. Energy crackled between her skin and his, appearing suddenly and without warning. Alex cracked an eyelid, then two as he saw Indra hovering over him.
“I can heal you, soldier,” she said softly and I balled my hands into tight fists at my sides, stepping closer.
“Where’s Sam?” he asked and I could have kissed him on the mouth right then for choosing my name.
“Here,” I said, coming forward and kneeling at his other side. I slid my hand into his, holding tight to his feverish skin. He turned to me, ignoring Indra for the moment, and his lips curved when he spotted me.
Then, just as quickly, his expression clouded again. “I’m pissed at you,” he said.
I swallowed the urge to cry and smiled instead. “I know. I deserve it,” I said.
“You do not have permission to heal me,” he said. And then his glare softened. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “You are the only thing I’m worried about now.”
He grunted and then instead of arguing, he said, “Did you find any evidence of who broke in?”
I sat back, confused. It took me a moment to remember that’s why we’d come here in the first place. “We haven’t had much time to look around,” I admitted.
“Edie’s sending a team,” RJ piped up.
“Is it like Kiwi’s house?” he asked, frowning.
“Yes. But there’s no evidence suggesting any person or werewolf.” I sighed. On Alex’s other side, Indra shifted her weight impatiently. I shot her a glance and forced my voice to remain even as I added, “This is my friend Indra. The one I told you about. She can heal you, Alex.”
He turned to look at her and I bit my lip, gripping his hand tight in mine. I hated that I’d been jealous before. And if she could do what I couldn’t … I had to let her. Alex was too important not to.
“You’re Indra,” he said.
She nodded. “I’m a friend of Samantha’s. Your wounds will be fatal if we do not act soon but the choice has to be yours. You must be willing to receive the magic.”
Alex grimaced and tried to reposition his arm.
“It is probably very painful. I apologize. I had to wake you and make you cognizant in order to get your permission to continue,” Indra explained.
I listened for some clue or sign about why I felt so strongly against letting her do this. It was silly, really, to block her when it would mean Alex would live. Besides, she sounded completely convincing and friendly and all-business now. Nothing like the flirty, suggestive tone she’d used before with RJ. Maybe she was just flirting with him. Maybe I’d read it all wrong.
And she’d healed that wolf earlier without missing a beat. If she healed once, she could do it again.
“I… you’re a witch,” Alex said, his forehead creasing as he tried to sit up and then winced, falling back against the pillow.
“Don’t try to move,” I said quickly, pressing his chest back down to the thin mattress. I was careful not to touch the slash marks running across his abdomen.
Indra nodded. “I studied under a priestess of elemental magic years ago.”
“How many years ago?” I asked.
Indra blinked, like she hadn’t expected me to question her, and then smiled, smoothing her expression. “More years than you’ve been alive,” she said quietly.
I bit my lip, relieved to know I’d been right in that suspicion at least.
“All right,” Alex said but his forehead was creased like he was deep in thought. He looked at me and squeezed my hand. I was careful not to let any of my energy seep into our touch.
“Indra can heal me,” he said like it was a question but I knew what he was really saying. He was asking my permission to let her do this. To let her heal him and to let her absorb whatever it cost to do so. To spare me.
My chest tightened and tears threatened. Hot, angry, terrified tears that made me want to lash out at them all. It felt wrong. Like my destiny was being stolen from me.
But Alex was more important.
My shoulders slumped and I forced a smile, raising Alex’s hand to my lips and pressing a kiss to his heated skin. “Indra can heal you,” I whispered back.
Alex relaxed, nodding and going limp against the mattress and I knew then how tightly he was hanging on to make this last. I also knew there was no option left. It was either Indra or say goodbye forever. And I wasn’t doing that. I was never, ever letting go of Alex Channing. No matter what it cost me. No matter what it cost anyone else.
Chapter Thirty
Alex
Everything was a sea of black. Monsters and mayhem and pain and even death all stood ready to greet me at the edge of what felt like a stretched-thin wire that was my life. My lungs didn’t want to work, they wanted to burn. The venom inside me wasn’t so much a fire anymore as a tongue, licking its way to the center of my heart. Consuming my very life force as it came for me.
For the first time since I’d become infected, I considered giving in. Letting the venom have me once and for all. Anything to ease the burning.
The only thing urging me to fight was Sam’s face, her features lit from within like some otherworldly spotlight as she seemed to float just above me, just out of reach. I writhed and strained and struggled to stay—for her.
All details and memories from my own life had vanished amidst the pain. All I knew was one thing but I knew it like I knew my own name: I needed to exist on the same plane as she did for as long as possible.
I had to hold on.
Floating on a cloud of torture, I let the pain take over. Time ceased to matter.
And then, inch by inch, I felt an energy approaching. For a split second, I thought it was Sam, come to heal me after all. I wouldn’t have put it past her to sneak around my defenses and heal me despite my arguments. In fact, I had secretly expected it since the moment she’d learned what she could do.
But I needed her to be whole. To wait for me there. Indra was old and judging from the magic dripping off her anti-aging charms, she was powerful. Whatever it cost, she could pay it far easier than Sam could.
The moment the energy slid in to meet me, I knew it wasn’t my girl. In fact, it didn’t feel female at all.
It wasn’t gentle either.
Energy poured into me, hitting my subconscious like a runaway freight train. I might have been knocked clear of the damned cot—but my eyes wouldn’t peel open to let me check.
Any noise I made was lost to my own ears.
The energy was relentless. Picking and pulling away at the layers of my innermost self, sliding inside and taking up all the empty spaces. And when the spaces were gone, it began shoving out solid pieces as it set up residence inside me. First, the fever. It was there and then gone suddenly like someone tossing trash out onto the street. Then, the burning—my veins were suddenly ice cold and pumping hard against the crowded inner workings of my own body.
And finally, my own feelings.
Passion. Determination. Protectiveness.
I could feel them slipping right out the front door of my own mind. I was powerless to save them. By the time the magic was completely inside me, there were no secret places left to hide, and my chest tightened as I realized what was happening.
The venom had been removed all right, but I wasn’t being healed. I wasn’t being emptied, I was being filled up. By something much bigger and more powerful than any amount of werewolf venom could ever be.
It overflowed from the deepest recesses of my mind, pouring through every muscle and nerve ending and fiber of my being. It consumed me until I wasn’t sure which parts were me and which parts belonged to the heaviness.
I was vaguely aware of it pulling back as whatever had come for me finally began to recede. I managed to lift my own hand to rub at my abdomen and groaned at the soreness left in my muscles in the wake of the power drifting out of me. I had the sense that it curled back in on itself but it had left plenty of juice in the empty spaces inside me.
My thoughts were foggy. Where was I? What had just happened?
“Alex?” Sam’s angelic voice brought me back.
I cracked an eyelid, gritting my teeth because even that small movement made me ache in soreness. But there was, staring down at me with wide, almond-shaped eyes and windblown hair framing her face. Magnificent.
I raised my palm to her cheek, glad to feel her warmth—her realness—underneath my touch. She smiled and pressed her hand to mine, holding me there. “You’re okay,” she said in obvious relief.
“Was there ever any question?” I asked and even though my voice was raw, it was strong.
“Not from me,” RJ said, and I used my free hand to return his high five as he leaned in behind Sam.
Someone on my right cleared their throat. I
looked over and found the dark-haired witch, Indra, watching me. Not a single ounce of emotion shown in her dark eyes, but her words were gentle enough.
“You’re going to experience some soreness as your muscles find their rhythm again, but you should be back on your feet soon enough. In fact, without the venom-induced lethargy slowing you down, you’ll be stronger and faster than you’ve been in a long time.”
She started to get up but Sam let go of me, her hand shooting out to grab Indra’s sleeve. “Thank you, Indra,” Sam said, her voice strangled in at attempt not to cry. But I saw the tears pooling and knew it was only a matter of time before they fell. “I owe you so much for this,” she said.
Indra smiled and something in my gut curled up at the sight. The magic she’d planted inside me reared up against my own revulsion. “Darling, for you, I would do anything.” She patted Sam’s hand once then pulled away and rose to her feet. “That’s what friends are for,” she added. “I’ll give you some space now.”
I watched as she floated out of sight, skirt swishing. When I looked back, Sam was smiling down at me, tears spilling freely down her flushed cheeks. “I can’t believe it worked,” she said. “You’re healed.”
Something inside me lurched at her words. Or maybe her tears. Or the fact that she was touching me. I tensed, cringing at the way she was peeling off the gauze on my abdomen. What the hell? Since when didn’t I like Sam’s hands on me?
“Look,” she breathed and RJ leaned in close, peering over Sam’s shoulder.
I sat up enough to look down and was surprised to see only faint pink lines where the claw marks had been before. I hadn’t been awake enough to see the damage earlier but they’d felt deep as hell when the asshole had made its mark. Now, though, the skin had closed up and the scars were already on their way to fading.
“Eh, I’ve seen better,” RJ said, shrugging. But he winked at me and grinned and I knew he was glad to see me still breathing.
I attempted to return his smile, but it got stuck on my face and felt more like a scowl. I looked from him to Sam, confusion and then even fear snaking through me at my own body’s strange reactions.
Inheritance: (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (Heart Lines Series Book 2) Page 22