The Healer(The Healer Series Book 1)

by C. J. Anaya

Chapter Six

  “I thought you were going to get Victor’s schedule for me,” I whined as we walked into the cafeteria.

  “I need protein before embarking on such a dangerous assignment. Besides, real women eat real food,” my best friend replied.

  “I’m not so sure the cafeteria food actually qualifies.” My nose wrinkled of its own accord as we stepped into the lunch line. “Would you at least keep your eyes peeled, please? I don’t want to run into either one of our targets.”

  “Targets? You do realize I was joking about that secret agent thing, right?” Angie held out her tray and accepted a very unappetizing assortment of cantaloupe and honey dew. I accepted my own dried out fruit and looked over my shoulder hoping to spot an available table against the ugly, green cafeteria wall. I felt something hit my tray and looked down to see that the lunch lady had been especially considerate by giving me a generous portion of what appeared to be lasagna.

  “I had lasagna last night,” I said feeling disappointed. I followed Angie to a small table in the back corner.

  “Is that what this is? I thought it was either fat ravioli or a pitiful attempt at spaghetti and meatballs, and I was so hoping for pigs in a blanket.”

  We took our seats with our backs against the wall. From our viewpoint I was sure I would be able to spot either Victor or Tie if they decided to eat with those of us who couldn’t afford fast food.

  “See anything?” I asked. I tried to stick my plastic fork into a piece of honey dew. It bent under the force of my stab and the fruit went careening off my plate.

  “I see my ex getting all cuddly with that Tanya chick.”

  I looked over at a table directly across from us on the other side of the cafeteria. Nathan’s bulky arm was wrapped possessively around Tanya’s shoulder.

  “Tanya Sedgwick? Really? Nathan is so predictable,” Angie griped.

  “Your comments are dripping with jealousy, and that gives me cause for concern.”

  Angie reached her hand under the table and grabbed my knee.

  “Looks like one of the targets has been here for a while, and he’s made friends quickly.” She nodded toward a table in the center of the room.

  I looked up to see Tie sitting in the middle of a table surrounded by a host of swooning females. I couldn’t believe the crowd he’d managed to gather for himself. I couldn’t believe I’d missed him.

  “Angie, he not only has the entire cheerleading squad watching his every move, but it looks like some of the girls from the debate team are throwing themselves at him.”

  “I thought those chicks were supposed to be smart,” she said in disgust.

  “Who? The cheerleaders?”

  Angie snorted. “I was most definitely not talking about the cheerleaders. I’m fairly certain their IQ’s combined would still be less than my current age.”

  I smiled a bit distractedly and looked back at the pack of heavily mascaraed females.

  “Why are they staring at Tie with those strange, vacant expressions on their faces?” I wondered.

  “There’s nothing strange about it. That’s just generally how they look.”

  I pushed Angie’s shoulder playfully.

  “Give them some credit. After all, they did manage to dress themselves and make it to school today.”

  “Clothes do seem to be their one redeeming quality.”

  I let out a laugh.

  “Wow. Tie doesn’t waste any time. He’s probably the first guy I know who’s managed to start a fan club made up of the most brightest and the most brain dead girls at this school,” she continued.

  “Well, that’s good news for me. Maybe those girls will keep him busy, and I’ll make it out of here without him being the wiser.” I tried and failed to spear another piece of fruit onto my fork. The lasagna noodles were so crunchy it was impossible to cut them with my knife.

  Eating with my hands was becoming inevitable.

  Angie squeezed my knee harder.

  “Think again, girlfriend.”

  I finally moved my attention to Tie’s face and felt my mouth go dry. He may have been surrounded by the most popular girls at my school, but he was looking directly at me.

  The minute our eyes met I felt the same pull I had before. My body went warm all over.I was sure my face was flushing, but I couldn’t look away. He just sat there staring at me like no one else was in the room. It looked as if the girl next to him was asking him a question while simultaneously giving him a neck massage, but he seemed totally oblivious to her attentions. His eyes gave me that same icy look, and the small smile he wore was laced with contempt. I was fairly certain his contempt was meant for me.

  I didn’t know what Angie had been talking about. There was no way this guy liked me. Sure, he seemed to be paying a lot of attention to me, someone whom he viewed as nothing more than a science experiment, but I was clearly the lab rat that he had been sent for so what else was he supposed to focus on?

  She had been right about one thing, though. I was responding to Tie in a way that I never had with anyone else. I think that worried me more than the thought of him knowing my secret.

  “Target number two has entered the cafeteria. I repeat target number two has arrived. Over.” Angie was whispering into a hand that I assumed was holding an imaginary walkie talkie.

  I was annoyed that she wasn’t taking any of this seriously, but my attention was soon drawn to my immediate right. Victor had just walked through the back double doors of the cafeteria.

  “How did you know he was Victor? You said you hadn’t seen him yet,” I whispered.

  “I hadn’t seen him yet, but when a hot new guy whom I’ve never seen before walks into the cafeteria it stands to reason he just might be Victor.” She gave him a measuring look. “Hmm, eye candy. I beg you to reconsider your current game plan.”

  I couldn’t respond. Victor stood there scanning the room with an air of determination, and somehow I knew he was looking for me. I just hoped he wouldn’t look to his left because he was literally three feet away from me.

  It was obvious when Victor’s eyes landed on his cousin. I saw his body tense and his jaw tighten.

  My eyes swiveled toward Tie. Had he noticed Victor enter the room?

  Yep.

  Tie was now in a standing position with his fists clenched and glued to his sides. The muscles in his face morphed his expression into one ugly, venomous glare. Pure hatred was clearly on his agenda. He was no longer looking at me, and I was grateful. The look he had been giving me was bad enough, but the look he was giving Victor would have made small children cry.

  “I thought you said they were cousins,” Angie whispered to me.

  “That’s what Victor said.”

  “Then why does it look like they’re getting ready to throw down?”

  I watched in fascination while Tie and Victor walked toward each other like they were stalking their own prey. I was sure a fight was about to erupt between the two of them, but instead of throwing punches they merely stood about a foot apart facing one another and started talking to each other. They were just talking, and I couldn’t hear a word they were saying.

  Frustration!

  “Well, that was anticlimactic,” Angie muttered.

  “We should leave.” I felt certain the subject of their conversation centered solely on me. My suspicions were confirmed in the next instant when Tie nodded in my direction. Victor’s head turned sharply, and I lowered my gaze in order to avoid both of theirs.

  “So, they’re both staring at you,” Angie said reaching for her fork.

  “Well don’t stare back at them,” I hissed. “There’s no reason to encourage a possible encounter with either one of them.”

  “You can stop hiding now. They seem to be having a very heated discussion.”

  I looked up carefully. They were definitely arguing, and then they were glaring at each other. Victor nodded his head over his shoulder like he was sending Tie some kind of agreed upon signal.
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  At first, I thought Tie was going to head in my direction, but to my surprise he turned and sauntered lazily over to the table that Nathan and Tanya were seated at. My curiosity piqued, I let my eyes follow his athletic frame as he stopped directly in front of Tanya who seemed overjoyed to have someone like him giving her any kind of attention.

  “What is he doing?” Angie asked.

  “I have no idea. You’d think Nathan would have chased him off by now.”

  “Nah. Nathan is focused on stuffing his face with food. He won’t notice anything until his plate is clean.”

  I kept my eyes locked on Tie and wondered if he was simply interested in asking her out. In the next instant, however, he pulled Tanya to her feet, grabbed her by the shoulders, and kissed her right on the lips.

  Watching Tie kiss someone like Tanya Sedgwick made my heart feel like it was being ripped apart. I thought it would stop beating any second. I took several quick breaths to try and alleviate the strange pressure building in my chest, and continued to watch, disbelievingly, while Tie delivered a kiss, the kind of kiss I would generally watch on a movie screen, to someone other than me.

  “No way,” Angie hissed. “Does this kid have a death wish?”

  Nathan stood up as soon as he realized what was going on.

  Unfortunately for me, it took him five agonizingly long seconds to notice anything at all. A record for him all things considered.

  Nathan roughly pulled Tanya back and away from Tie. “Dude, are you freaking kidding me? What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  The cafeteria had gone dead quiet. I could see my classmate’s bored looks transform into varying degrees of interest, trepidation, and outright glee. Clearly, nothing was more entertaining than a fight in the middle of lunch hour.

  “I was just giving your girlfriend here the best kiss she’s ever had. Something you’re clearly incapable of doing,” Tie responded in a lazy voice.

  I could see Nathan’s eyes begin to bulge from their sockets. His face was turning a spectacular crimson color.

  “Here it comes,” I choked out. I anxiously waited for Tie to get into some kind of defensive position.

  Instead, he turned his head to the side and stared in my direction. His eyes locked with mine. What in the world was he thinking? He was about to receive the beating of his life.

  Look back. For heaven’s sake look back, I silently pleaded.

  Nathan’s large, meaty fist seemed to rise up and draw back in slow motion. Tie kept his gaze resolutely on my face, and a hint of a smile began to lift the corners of his lips. In that moment I knew exactly what Tie was doing. He had absolutely no intention of defending himself. He wanted to get hurt!

  Where in the world were all of the teachers? Wasn’t someone going to intervene here?

  He gave me one last look, a look that I can only describe as challenging, before he turned his head around just in time for his face to meet Nathan’s fist.

  The crunching sound it made was so disturbing it literally brought me to my feet. My hands gripped the table before me. The complete and total silence that followed was almost oppressive. Pressure began building inside my head as I watched Tie crumple to the floor. I felt another strange sense of deja` vu and had to shake myself to throw off the dizziness that threatened to drop me to the floor.

  I had seen this before. Where had I seen this before? The pressure continued to build until I thought my head would explode, and then suddenly it did.

  Light seemed to erupt all around me, and I was no longer standing in the cafeteria surrounded by its depressing green walls. The beautiful grassy green that I could now see rolled out before me in all directions. The sky was a stormy grey, and large droplets of water pelted fiercely down upon the deep green below. I couldn’t feel it, though. I couldn’t even feel the wind pounding the rain down in a sharp diagonal direction. I decided to lift my arms out, thinking I would be able to feel the droplets easier, but to my surprise my arms were already raised up before me.

  A strange cry to the right of me caught my attention and I turned my eyes in that direction as if in slow motion. I was in another place and time watching Tie, once again, crumple to the floor as his assailant stood over him ready to attack. My need to save Tie became overwhelming, but I couldn’t seem to move toward him no matter how hard I tried. I screamed in frustration, but my screams didn’t make a single sound. I watched helplessly with my arms outstretched while Tie’s assailant continued his attack.

  There was a loud popping noise that rang in my ears as white light engulfed me again. I was almost relieved to see it, as it signaled my return to a place and time that I knew I actually belonged. I found myself standing in the cafeteria, my hands clutching the edge of the table, watching as Nathan began to lift his fist again. A loud, nearly hysterical voice rose up from the silence and screamed out, “Stop!”

  Nathan’s fist dropped abruptly. His attention turned from Tie and landed squarely on me. Everyone’s eyes were on me. I had been the one screaming at Nathan to stop? Without considering the possible consequences of my actions I rushed around the table and sprinted toward Tie’s prone figure. I dropped to my knees once I reached him and put my hands on either side of his bloody face. I wondered if I would immediately connect with his life force, but nothing happened. I’d been connecting with people all day, but not with him.

  And not with Victor either.

  It didn’t take any kind of connection to know that Tie’s nose had been pulverized. It looked like it had been relocated to the left side of his face. The sight of it made me want to cry. His eyes were closed, and I panicked thinking he might have a concussion or worse.

  “Tie, can you hear me?”

  My inability to connect with his life force in the same way that I had with every other student that day saved me from slipping up in a very big way. As I adjusted my hands on either side of his head that strange little hint of a smile he had given me just before he let Nathan hit him appeared on his now bloodied lips. His eyes opened and closed quickly, and in that instant I realized that Tie knew what was coming. He knew I was getting ready to heal him. He was waiting for it.

  My first instinct was to get up and bolt for the cafeteria doors. Fortunately, I managed to stay in a kneeling position next to him while I pretended to be helpless and pitiful in an effort to get someone to help me. I searched behind me for Victor, knowing he would be watching for my reaction.

  “Victor,” I yelled as my eyes met his. “You’ve got to help me get Tie to the nurse’s station.”

  His eye narrowed. From the look on his face it was obvious I was not reacting the way he had expected.

  I felt a hand grab me roughly on my shoulder.

  “Stay outta this Fairmont,” Nathan said practically growling at me. “I’m not finished schooling the new guy.”

  Victor’s powerful fist pummeling into Nathan’s jaw was more than a little unexpected. Nathan hit the ground hard.

  “You will never touch Hope again,” Victor said softly. Nathan nodded in quick agreement and slowly backed away.

  I gave Victor a surprised look and a nod of thanks before focusing my attention back to Tie, doing my best to fight the need to heal him.

  “Tie, can you talk to me? Can you hear me?” I tried again, gently shaking his shoulder.

  “I can hear you,” he said. His voice sounded muffled. It was like his nasal passage had collapsed. I felt sick inside.

  “Victor and I are going to take you to the nurse’s station and get you some help, okay?”

  “Victor’s going to help too? Now isn’t that cozy.” He opened his eyes slowly and scowled up at us. At least I think it was a scowl. There was so much blood on his face I really couldn’t tell.

  “Hey, I’m not thrilled about this either, cousin. I can’t think of anything more nauseating than helping you get to the nurse’s station looking like that.” Victor’s cheerful voice suggested otherwise. He was clearly enjoying this.

  I mo
tioned for Victor to get on Tie’s other side. His cheerful look disappeared, replaced with some serious disappointment. I could tell he wasn’t happy with the outcome of this little experiment.

  “Okay, on the count of three we’re going to lift you to your feet,” I said.

  We brought Tie up slowly, making sure he could stand somewhat steady.

  “Angie?”

  “I’m here,” she said arriving next to me. She took one look at Tie and grunted in dismay. “I’ll get in front of you and open some doors or something.”

  We took slow steps, while Tie leaned heavily on both of us. He was hurting, but I knew I had to do everything I could to avoid healing him. The sounds of students getting back to their lunches, their gossip, their normal everyday lives seemed to taunt me as Victor and I slowly walked Tie’s shaky frame out the door.

  “You’re insane,” Angie said once we were halfway down the hall. “What exactly were you trying to accomplish in there?”

  “Victor dared me to grab some random girl and kiss her in front of everybody. I never back away from a dare,” Tie said in his now muffled, almost mushy sounding voice.

  Victor was trying and failing to stifle his laughter.

  “You mean the ten cheerleaders sitting on your lap didn’t seem like much of an option for you?” I asked sourly.

  “Not much of a challenge really. Victor and I like ‘em when they’re already taken.Isn’t that right, Vicky?” There was an edge to Tie’s voice that hadn’t been there before. I looked at Victor to see what he would say, but all he did was tighten his jaw and stare straight ahead.

  “So you just thought a guy like Nathan would sit there and watch you kiss his girlfriend without beating the living crap out of you?” asked Angie.

  “I was pretty sure I’d survive the encounter.”

  “Yeah, well your face didn’t. It’s not like your nose is going to magically heal itself within the next couple of hours.”

  Angie’s last comment hung in the air tempting me to prove it wrong.

  “I hear Hope works at the hospital. Maybe she could use her mad skills and heal me right now,” he said nonchalantly.

  I could feel my face getting warm again. I tried to steady myself. As long as they had no idea I was on to them I could buy myself a little more time. I could play dumb. Maybe not convincingly, but I still needed to try.

  “I refuse to heal anyone who sustains injuries due to reckless behavior or pure stupidity.” I mentally congratulated myself on how normal my voice sounded.

  “That’s you on both counts, dude,” Victor said barking out another laugh.

  I was weak with relief when we finally managed to make it to the nurse’s station. Angie opened the door to let us all in, and we slowly eased Tie into a nice soft chair. I grabbed some Kleenex from the counter.

  “That nose needs some professional attention. Unfortunately, all we can offer here is our extremely high strung school nurse. Victor and I will go get her for you,” Angie obligingly volunteered.

  “We will?” Victor looked out of sorts with the strange turn of events.

  I knew what Angie was doing. She thought she was being sneaky, trying to get me and Tie alone. It was the last thing I wanted, but I couldn’t be upset with her.

  That’s what I get for not telling her the truth.

  Victor didn’t appear to like the situation any more than I did, but someone had to go get the nurse. He left in a hurry while Angie slowly sauntered toward the door and gave me a wink just before she walked out.

  I looked at Tie and sighed softly.

  “Don’t act like you’re upset,” he said. “There are millions of women in this world who would love to be alone with me in a nurse’s station.” His smile was more of a grimace.

  “Looking the way you do right now? I think not.”

  I knelt down in front of him and raised a wet wipe towards his face. In a flash he had me by my wrist.

  “What are you doing?” His suspicion of me made me want to laugh. It was so ironic.

  “I’m cleaning the blood off your face. Believe me, it needs to be done.”

  “It hurts too much for you to touch it.” He released my wrist.

  “You’ll survive.”

  I reached my hand up to his face and slowly began to wipe the blood from his chin and then his lips. I cupped the side of his face in my other hand to keep his head steady.

  “Alone at last,” he whispered.

  “Was it everything you hoped it would be?”

  “It will be.”

  Tie reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from my face. The light contact on my cheek gave me goose bumps.

  “You could do it, you know.”

  “Do what?” I was going for cheerleader dumb.

  “You could heal me.”

  He said it without any hesitation.

  I stopped wiping the blood from his face and gave him a steady look. His gaze never wavered, and this time there was no smug little smile to contend with, just a very unfamiliar expression of sincerity.

  My face was only a few inches from his, but I couldn’t work up the energy to put more distance between us. His confidence and knowledge about my gift made me feel nervous and happy all at the same time. I wanted to pour out my heart to him and tell him everything I was capable of. I wanted to show him what I could do. I wanted to heal him.

  Then I remembered who he was and why he was here. If I healed him there would be no going back.

  “I should to take you to the hospital and have my father set your nose back where it should be. It’s leaning towards the left side of your face, and I’m fairly certain it wasn’t like that when I first met you in mythology.”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t play dumb with me.”

  He grabbed both my hands in his. His beautiful blue eyes searched mine intently. I felt my world shift.

  “I know who you are. I know it’s you. So heal me, Hope.”

  His sincerity was compelling. I was no longer positive his intentions toward me were malicious, but I still didn’t know enough about him. I didn’t know enough about Victor either.

  I reached my hand up and touched his cheek as gently as I could.

  “Tie, I think you have a concussion. You’re talking crazy here. As soon as you feel better you’ll remember that people like me can’t work miracles like that. I can’t heal you the way you want me to. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

  His face went from warm and sincere to cold and cocky. It made me feel like his sweet and possibly caring attitude had been an act. Maybe he was just trying to get me to reveal who I was by charming me.

  “I didn’t realize you could be so unfeeling. All this power to heal and you’re going to sit back and watch me suffer for no good reason?” He gave me an appalled look.

  So he was going to throw some guilt my way. I wondered what approach he would take after this one failed. I shook my head and continued to wipe the blood from his face.

  “If you’re expecting me to feel so overcome by your not so silent suffering that I magically become endowed with powers of healing and take away all of your pain, you’re in for a very long wait,” I said.

  “I know a little something about waiting.”

  The wet wipe was saturated in blood. I threw it in the waste basket and grabbed another one. At this point I was just trying to stay busy and distract myself. He may have had a nasty bloody nose, but his lips were deliciously tempting. It was like having a snickers bar sitting right in front of me; irresistible, even with his face smashed.

  “You better tilt your head back a little. This nosebleed is only getting worse.”

  I lifted his chin less gently this time. The tension was getting to me.

  “If you’re so worried about the blood then why don’t you stop it?”

  “Maybe you should tell me why you and your cousin know who I am. I certainly don’t remember seeing you two before.”

  “Don’t you?” He lowered his head and
tried to look at me again.

  I quickly tilted his chin back and held it there.

  “If you don’t keep your head back the bleeding won‘t stop,” I chided.

  My real motivation was to avoid eye contact with him. I was a terrible liar, and I didn’t need him picking up on that.

  “You didn’t answer my question. How do you know who I am?”

  “The real question you should be asking me is when do we go on our first date? I don’t mind an aggressive woman.” He lowered his head and lifted one eyebrow in a way I assumed was supposed to be sexy, and of course, it totally was.

  I sighed in annoyance.

  “I should have let Nathan beat you unconscious. Silence is infinitely better than listening to you run your mouth.” I stood up and threw another tissue in the trash.

  He grabbed my hand in his before I could put more distance between us. The physical contact left me tingling from head to foot. I looked down at him and felt a renewed sense of pain, and even guilt, at not healing someone who so obviously needed it.

  “I guess it would have been better if I was unconscious,” he said sounding almost repentant. “Then you could have healed me without anyone being the wiser.”

  I watched his poor swollen face break into a mischievous smile. It was surprisingly adorable.

  “Why do you and Victor hate each other so much?”

  My question seemed to surprise him. I guess he’d been expecting me to continue denying his outlandish claims. His face darkened a bit, and his hands released mine, balling into fists at his sides. This was a touchy subject, which made me feel even more curious.

  “There’s some bad blood between us,” Tie finally managed to spit out.

  “Yeah, I figured that one out for myself, but why? What happened between you two?”

  “Oh, just a little fight over a girl,” he shrugged.

  “You two fought over a girl?”

  I couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling up.

  “Sure. Guys do that all the time, right?”

  “I guess they do, but to be honest, that kind of behavior seems a bit beneath both of you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, for one thing, Victor seems like the type of person who would sacrifice his own interests for the sake of others.” I ignored the strange gurgling sound coming from the back of Tie’s throat. “And as for you, it’s just so high school. You don‘t strike me as someone who could work up enough energy to care. In fact, I don’t think you’d ever fight for a girl at all. If she isn’t coming to you, it probably isn’t worth your time.”

  My response had angered him, but he did a decent job of controlling it as he slowly stood up.

  “You honestly think I don’t have it in me to care? You don’t even know me.”

  “And yet somehow you know me.”

  Tie placed his hands at my waist and pulled me closer to him. That much physical contact almost did me in. I put my hands against his chest and pushed away. It had absolutely no effect. He remained uncomfortably close to me. Fortunately for both of us his nose bleed had stopped.

  Tie’s anger seemed to fade as he took in my open, honest expression. I really wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just trying to explain to him how ridiculous it was to picture Victor being petty and Tie actually caring enough to put up a fight. He lifted his fingers and traced the outline of my face gently, looking at me like he was discovering something for the first time. I fought to keep myself from savoring the moment. How could I fight a mounting attraction to someone who had no concept of personal space?

  “I wish things were different,” he said with a tinge of regret. “You’re definitely not at all like I remember you.”

  I wrinkled my brow in confusion.

  “That doesn’t make any sense, Tie.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he replied waving away his last comment like it was some big joke. “You’re just lucky I don’t have a caring bone in my body. If I did, you’d be putty in my hands.”

  “Well, looks like you’re back to being your old obnoxious self.” I quirked an eyebrow at him.

  Tie still had his hands at my waist, and it was very distracting.

  “You can let go of me now,” I said pointedly.

  “I’ll let go of you as soon as you agree to heal me.”

  He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in.

  Hello! This feels amazing.

  My hands instinctively rested on his chest, and I almost allowed myself to lean into him.

  Think of something else, anything else. Broken ribs, gunshot wounds, head trauma…

  I continued my morbid mantra in my head as I tried to push myself away from him, but his arms felt like iron. I craned my neck back a bit to meet his gaze, which ended up being a mistake. His eyes were so compelling, albeit cold and forbidding. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have those eyes light up with love.

  Lacerated wrists, compound fractures, urinary tract infections…

  It wasn’t working. I couldn’t think properly when he was touching me. Why was he touching me?

  Tie was the most confusing guy I’d ever met. One second I felt like he held nothing but contempt for me, and the next second I couldn’t help but think I was the only thing he wanted to pay attention to. Add to that the thought that everything he did was just an act to trick me into revealing what I was really capable of equaled a very dangerous situation, especially because I was so drawn to him. In the back of my mind I was hoping it wasn’t an act. I actually wanted him to care for me.

  Where the heck was the nurse?

  I didn’t want to stay wrapped up in his embrace for one more minute, but I couldn’t just leave him injured like this. There had to be a way to help him without letting him know I was doing it. I couldn’t heal his face, but maybe I could ease his pain in a way that wouldn’t be immediately noticeable.

  “Okay,” I agreed pretending to give in to his crazy demands.

  “Okay?”

  He was clearly caught off guard.

  “There’s no use denying it another minute. You’ve unearthed my superhero power, and I can no longer sit here and watch such terrible human suffering without using my powers for good.”

  I was rambling, but I was also desperate to get out of there.

  My abrupt willingness to help him, and my less than serious attitude had left him looking a little lost. I decided to take advantage of this one moment where he seemed less than sure of himself. Moving out of his vice-like grip became easier. I grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, directing him to follow me into a side room that looked like the inside of a doctor’s examining room. It was even equipped with a leather examining bed for sick students waiting for their parents to come and pick them up.

  “Stretch out lengthwise on here, please,” I said.

  “If you wanted to snuggle you could have told me sooner.” The cockiness in his voice sounded a bit forced to me.

  “I’ll need absolute quiet in order to call upon the spirits of those superheroes who have gone before me.”

  I could see Tie rolling his eyes.

  “I wasn’t kidding about the snuggling. It’ll do us both some good.”

  Tie lowered himself down and let his arms fall loosely to his sides, acting as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  My thoughts were whirling ahead of me. I knew this idea of mine wasn’t completely foolproof. I’d never actually healed someone gradually before. Healings were an instantaneous sort of thing. Once I showed someone’s life force what it needed to do, it was eager to comply. Somehow, I needed his life force to slow down the healing process in a way that made it look as if I’d had nothing to do with it. Easing his pain needed to happen gradually as well. If I couldn’t get Tie’s spirit to understand my intentions, then this impulsive plan of mine was going to backfire in a most unpleasant way.