by Morgan Wylie
Doc rushed in only moments later, carrying his medical bag. He used to wear a white lab coat as most medical people do, but after constantly getting blood and other bodily fluids on it he switched to black.
“Information,” Doc demanded. He crouched next to Rylen observing him as he twitched and seized. He had calmed quite a bit when they moved him, but he started again once they laid him down.
“He absorbed a green toxic magic poison that killed all the other people in your medical room,” Lucius recited.
“That explains why he’s a little green,” the doctor supplied. “Did he give it a name?”
“No.”
Doc checked Rylen’s vitals then ran his hands over his body, hovering over his mid-section for a longer moment. “Shit. That’s a lot of poison. How is he not dead, yet?” Doc muttered to himself with a hand over his mouth in concentration.
“He doesn’t die well,” Enock added, standing several feet behind Doc with his arms crossed over his chest. The rest of the team in the room had moved back against walls and out into the entry to give Doc and the leaders space.
“He seems to be containing it all on his own,” Doc observed. “Shit. Everyone out!”
“Tell us,” Lucius said as he watched the last of the team leave except him and Enock.
“Like I said, he’s containing the poison within his body. If he releases it, the poison is still active.” At their confused expressions, Doc continued, “It will be released into the Lair and we’ll all die.”
“What do we do?” Enock asked.
“Get him into the medical lab. Into the containment box I have in the back. We haven’t had the pleasure of using it yet, so I hope this works,” Doc rambled nervously as he stood up and grabbed his bag, heading out the door without another word. Enock and Lucius each grabbed one of Rylen’s arms and lifted him. They half dragged him back toward the medical lab.
Rylen groaned with every few steps they took down the hall and his head flopped forward. Luckily, they didn’t have to go far before they reached the medical lab’s steel entry door. Enock reached for the door and pushed.
“Thanks for holding the door open, Doc,” Enock said dryly. To his surprise, Lucius snorted. Enock raised an eyebrow in his direction, but Lucius simply shrugged.
“Get inside, E, before he drops dead,” Lucius directed. They maneuvered him through the door carefully, past the many beds now occupied with the deceased from the warehouse district.
“Should they be in here? They were infected with the poison,” Enock asked one of the nurses that Doc had assist him, nodding in the direction of the bodies. They passed another set of beds, two filled with the survivors who needed medical attention with the other three survivors hovering around them.
“Doc cleared them of the poison. Apparently, the boss took it straight from their bodies as well,” she answered with surprise, looking up from her clipboard where she wrote information down as she examined the young man who had held the bubble for the others—he was still alive.
“You bet your pretty little ass, he did. That’s why he’s the boss,” Enock said with pride and a wink in her direction.
“Not interested, Enock,” the nurse replied with an eye-roll accompanying the slight blush crawling up her neck into her cheeks.
“Not asking, Jeanette,” Enock said with a big cheesy smile.
“Still carrying said boss,” Lucius growled. Rylen groaned on cue.
“Get him back here, now!” Doc shouted from the back room where he was moving fast, flipping switches and pressing buttons bringing machinery to life that had been dormant moments before. “Put him inside there,” he directed Lucius and Enock, pointing at a steel table in the center of a room. The smallish “room” was really more of a box, approximately eight-feet long by four-feet wide, surrounded by a transparent Plexiglas of sorts. Enock and Lucius positioned Rylen lying with his back on the table.
“Out now,” Doc ordered. “I have to seal it, quickly.” Doc didn’t even pay attention to the two very large men standing outside the box, staring him down with their stoic features. Neither reacted well to others giving them orders, except for Rylen because they chose him, but in this case they had to let it go—there were more important things to focus on.
“What can we do, Doc?” Enock finally asked as he relaxed.
“For now, hope he will come out of this unscathed.” Doc had a grim look on his face as he watched a scan on the computer in front of him as it went back and forth over Rylen’s body.
Enock came up behind him to watch. “What is that?”
“It’s similar to a CAT scan they use in the hospitals, but this one detects magical energies. I designed it myself with help from Poppy and the tech team,” he said proudly.
Just then Mather entered the room and stood by his brother, staring at their leader and friend lying helpless on a cold steel table. “Is he going to be okay, Luc?”
“You sound concerned, Mat,” his brother replied.
“Aren’t you?” Mather looked over at his brother, so different from himself, but reminded him of their mother with her light hair and golden eyes.
“Yeah, I am.” Lucius crossed his arms and leaned to the side against the wall.
Doc continued explaining the scan to Enock. “See these green lines flowing throughout his body?” Enock nodded as he followed Doc’s finger. “The green lines are Rylen’s magical signature, unique to him alone.”
“They seem faded,” Mather observed as he came closer to inspect.
“Yes, they are because of these lines here,” Doc said as he pointed to another set of lines. “The black lines are the invading poison.”
Silence permeated the room, as a weight settled upon them.
“They are taking over then?” Lucius asked bluntly.
“Yes.”
“How long does he have?” Enock asked.
“If he does not expel the toxins soon, not long. In fact, it may already be too late,” Doc said soberly.
Each of them watched the screen. Black veins of poisonous magic traveled throughout Rylen’s body, binding to what little of his own magic he had left. Slowly the toxins consumed almost all of his magic as his body fought to survive against the hostile takeover.
Mather stepped up to the transparent barrier that kept their leader… their brother confined to his cell of decay. Mather raised his fist and slammed it against the pane; had it been glass, it would have shattered under the impact.
“Rylen! Fight the poison. Rylen…” he demanded, desperately hoping Rylen would hear him.
Enock stepped up beside him, not intending to stop him, but to join him he placed his hand on Mather’s shoulder. “You’re home safe, buddy. Get rid of that shit in your body. The kids are safe, you did it man.”
“Almost time, Rylen. Let go,” Lucius said from behind them, glancing at his watch as if he was timing an experiment. Anger and confusion colored Mather’s and Enock’s expressions.
“He’s going to die, Luc.” Mather watched his brother’s stoic response. “How can you sound like you don’t care? You want him to let go?”
Fire—directed at his brother—flashed in Lucius’ eyes. He stalked forward just a step, then stopped. Breathing in, like a bull ready to charge, his nostrils flared. Breathing out, finding his calm, his fist clenched at his sides. Through gritted teeth, Lucius spoke.
“Watch, little brother.” Lucius stalked to the wall just behind the desk where Doc sat, pretending not to pay attention to the boys.
Mather took a step forward toward Lucius, then backed up turned and fixated on Rylen.
“Complete takeover,” Doc said in a hushed, and slightly awed tone. Machines started beeping and whirring. Doc flipped switches and turned knobs, silencing the noises. The nurse rushed in to assist, but Lucius raised his hand, halting her in the doorway. She frowned and looked at Doc, who in her eyes, was the authority in the medical lab. Doc’s concerned gaze went from Rylen then to Lucius who was fixated—waiting—
on Rylen. He shook his head at the nurse, telling her to back down. No one spoke. No one breathed. The room was a vacuum of silence.
A noise blaring consistently without break, fell on deaf ears as if muted in the far distance—flatline.
Doc turned off the machine.
No one moved. All eyes were on Rylen, waiting, hoping for something—anything to happen.
Sensing movement, Enock turned to see Mai and then Vi walk reverently into the room, eyes rimmed in red. In the background of their entrance stood Lacy, set apart and hunched in on herself, staring vacantly at Rylen. As if parting the sea, Gracie practically floated into the already congested room guided by Lola, gliding gracefully to a side wall that no one stood near. The color of her eyes was spinning, electrified with her Oracle magic.
Hope shone in many of the eyes that spotted her presence, willing for her to have the answer they were all waiting on. She stared directly at Rylen without seeing him there in front of her, locked into whatever vision she alone was seeing.
“Anything?” Lola whispered the question weighing in all their minds. But Gracie only shook her head as she continued to watch something the rest were not privy to be a part of; it was her burden to bear. To everyone else, their burden was to watch reality in real time.
One of Rylen’s arms slid off the steel table and hung limp, dangling toward the underworld, symbolic of his descent. Several heads around the medical lab hung defeated. Doc rose from his seat and moved to turn off all the machines that remained on, creating the only hum of life in the room.
Doc looked at the clock on the wall above his desk. “Time of death…”
“Watch.” Lucius and Gracie spoke in unison, channeling the same commanding tone.
With baited breath, they watched.
A whirring sound interrupted the tension as one of the machines moaned to life involuntarily. Doc looked down at his control panel. Shock, awe, confusion, but most of all curiosity flashed across his face, one emotion after another.
“The scanner… it turned itself on,” Doc said as he flipped a few more switches and turned the big screen on so they all could see it. Just like before, it was an image of Rylen’s vascular system, the black veins that surged through his body fully visible. Except that at his toes, something was different.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Look at that!” Doc said with a spark of excitement. He pointed to the very spot where small, yet visible glowing lights of green began shining through. The green light, brighter and stronger than before, surged, advancing from the tips of his toes shooting into his ankles then into his lower legs. Gasps of confusion were heard throughout the room.
“What’s happening, Doc?” his nurse asked.
“His magic is extinguishing the poison that had consumed him, killing him.” Doc paused gazed at all of them in the room. “He’s coming back to life,” he added with awe.
Mather shot a look at his brother. “You knew this would happen? How could you be so sure?”
Lucius shrugged his shoulders unceremoniously. “History.”
“What if this was the first time it didn’t happen though?” Vi asked with concern. “It is not a sure thing.”
“You need to learn to trust. Trust your leader. Trust the magic. Simple as that.” Lucius looked long enough at Rylen to be satisfied with the amount of color slowly beginning to fill his cheeks once more. He then turned to leave the over-crowded room, glancing quickly at Gracie, her eyes now subdued to their normal color as she came out of her trance. Her eyes locked on his for the briefest of moments, then he fled the room.
“Where is he going?” Lola asked as her gaze followed him out the room.
“Who cares,” Vi admonished. “Is Rylen really going to be okay?” She focused on Doc who was still examining the screen intently as the green continued to move up into Rylen’s thighs.
All eyes turned to the doctor. His fingers traced the green line as it progressed further and faster up his torso, alternating glances from the screen to Rylen himself. “Against all science, against all medical knowledge, against normal thoughts of what is possible… it does appear that way,” he paused and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “He told me this was possible when he brought me on. It’s not common with supernaturals or magic users—vampires excluded—but it does happen. I just haven’t seen it personally, until now that is.”
A collective sigh spread through the room. The heaviness blanketing the room dissipated, making room for the joy of relief. Mai stepped up closer next to Mather and the window to watch Rylen regain life. “Don’t worry, Doc. Most of us have been with Rylen or this big lug,” she jerked her thumb in Enock’s direction, “for quite some time and we haven’t watched either of them reanimate from death.” She placed her hand on Mather’s tense shoulder, willing him to relax.
“I wasn’t there,” Mather breathed out, “maybe I could have stopped him or helped him. I wasn’t even able to get Poppy out.”
“There is nothing you could have done, Mather, you know that. As for Poppy, of course we want her back safe, but she made her choice and she needs us now to trust her choice and do what we can on this end.” Mather looked up at her and saw the truth of what she said. “We will bring her home and hopefully all the others still there too.”
“You’re right, Mai. Poppy’s not stupid, as much as I still can’t believe she chose to stay with those… those… people,” he spat. “And yes, we will definitely get her back if it’s with my last breath.” Mather turned to Enock, “Let me know when he’s awake.” He stormed out the lab, leaving the girls and Enock to watch after Rylen.
“It won’t be much longer now,” Doc said as he continued to study the scan. The green magic, now working its way through his chest, was definitely beginning to overtake the black poison in his veins. Rylen’s chest slowly filled with air on his own and then just as slowly expelled it, over and over again: breathe in… breathe out. “See he’s breathing on his own now and his cheeks are flushing.” Extremely satisfied, Doc reached for a clipboard he had been taking notes on and furiously wrote some new ones, ignoring the other people in the room.
“Gracie, do you see anything else? Anything we need to know?” Enock asked her. She was seated on an empty box crate, half leaning on Lola. Her eyes were back to normal, but it took her more than once to focus on Enock.
“He will make a full recovery, but as with the last time this happened,” Gracie paused her eyes filled with sorrow as they landed on Rylen, “a part of him will be damaged… he won’t be the same.” A lone tear fell from her eyes, sliding down her cheek to where it dripped and landed on her arm where it pooled, waiting to be absorbed back into her skin. “But this time, she is here.” Gracie smiled a little smile.
“Who, Gracie?” Lola asked.
“That girl?” Lacy interrupted, “That girl who stayed here, from our enemies that did this to Rylen?” Lacy’s posture had become that of a petulant child, with her hands on her hips.
“Yes, and her name is Alana. You should get used to hearing it,” Gracie answered boldly.
“What does she have that would help him?” Lacy spat. “She doesn’t belong here or with him. That tramp wouldn’t know how to handle him.”
“Would you like me to share other things I know, Lacy?” Gracie asked, eyes filled with accusation bore into Lacy.
Lacy glared back at Gracie. “You don’t have anything on me, little girl. Watch yourself, things happen to people who spread false rumors.”
“Stand down, Lacy,” Enock intervened. He moved closer to Gracie, arms and legs at a casual stance but the look in his eyes said he had obviously made his choice of who he would side with. With a huff of rage, Lacy blew out of the room like a violent storm. Enock then turned to Gracie and motioned between the two of them, “You and I will have a little chat so you can fill me in on what that was about after Rylen is awake.”
“I already told Rylen, but I’m happy to share with you, too, because I don’t think
he took it seriously enough,” Gracie said with satisfaction that maybe Enock would take action where Rylen had not.
“It’s a date,” Enock winked at her.
“Get ready,” Doc interrupted, his words filled with excitement. “The green is almost to the top of his head!”
Those still remaining in the room—Enock, Mai, Vi, Lola, Gracie, Doc, and his nurse—gathered in close to the box that held Rylen. Silence hung heavy, dripping with hopeful expectation and anxious uncertainty. Doc looked back and forth between man and machine. Regular beeping echoed the rhythmic sound of life coming from Rylen.
“The green is complete, from toe to head it exterminated the poison.”
They waited.
“What’s wrong? Why isn’t he awake?” Vi whispered.
Just as quickly as she spoke, Rylen sucked in a breath, jolting to a sitting position, his hands braced on the edges of the table, clutching it with every ounce of strength he currently had. Vi, Lola, and the nurse jumped back from the window. Mai, trained to not react, stood still simply observing, as did Enock and Gracie—though she must have known it would happen that way. Rylen stared straight ahead, gaining his bearings. A few deep breaths calmed his erratic breathing and heartbeat.
“You’re all right, bro,” Enock began with a soothing tone, “you’re home.”
Rylen swiveled his head, his eyes, a granite black—not his usual green and gray—drilled into Enock. The girls, including Mai, and the Doc took a step back. Enock stood solid, returning the stare that did not belong to his friend. The poison peered out from Rylen’s eyes, seeking freedom to infest another unable to contain it. But just as quickly, his eyes flashed green—the bright and lively green of Rylen’s magic—before once again turning to their usual hues, one green and one gray.