The Quick and the Fevered

by Long, Heather

  The snake man grunted. “Tell me what she said.”

  “No,” Jimmy answered in a faint, and fading voice. The eagle stared at her steadily. “Are we outside?”

  “Yes.”

  “Change. Fly away.”

  “No,” she refused. “This one will not leave you.”

  “Dammit, Blue. You have to go. Get away from him.” The snake man. He wanted her to escape the one who wore his face. Even were she willing, she did not think her strength enough to fly. The snake man stared at her, the left side of his face beginning to tremor. She could care about what he wanted or she could save Jimmy.

  When the light dimmed in Jimmy’s eyes and the beat of his heart fluttered, then stopped. She made her decision. Her knife was in the snake man’s possession, but she had teeth. Putting her fingers to her mouth, she sawed the tip of her finger against a tooth until blood appeared welled.

  With her finger to Jimmy’s lips, she whispered an apology then painted the blood to his mouth. Biting her tongue, she winced at the slice of her teeth and the taste of her own blood. Kissing him, she let her blood flow—the forbidden act. It was not his time, and she would not let another slip away into the night. Even as she anchored his spirit to her, she flung her soul into the spirit world to find him.

  He stood on the precipice of the fragile bridge between one world and the next, held in place by a single thread. The dreamwalker—his father. Meeting the man’s compassionate gaze, she dove for Jimmy and even as her claws would have hooked into his shoulders, his hands took hers. Weaving her soul around his, she pulled him back to his body. Willing her blood to kindle, she ignited his heartbeat.

  One pulse.

  Two pulses.

  Thump-thump.

  Between the beats, she slammed his soul home. Lifting her head, she waited as the light returned and the eagle’s eyes expanded, blinked once and then became his soft, beautiful brown once more. The world shimmered and she lifted her head, for the sparest seconds, she could see the dreamwalker on the other side, the veil between spirit and dreaming and life translucent.

  “This one thanks you.”

  The man smiled, his aged expression gentling. “This one thanks you. Take care of my son.”

  She inclined her head, but he already left her alone in the cold. Below, Jimmy sucked in a deep breath, his body bowing as her blood sought his injuries and restored his strength. Awareness flooded her as the snake man crouched.

  The threat was far from over.

  Meeting his gaze, she kept her palm to Jimmy’s chest, binding his spirit to flesh. Death ripped one from the other, and until the blood repaired him fully, the spirit might yet flee.

  “Well, well…” He said. “What have we here, beautiful?”

  “Go, Blue…” Jimmy’s whisper rasped weakly to her ears. No, she would not flee. The snake man’s fascinated gaze went to the blood on her hand. Killing a snake would bring more of the like upon her, but This Man seemed consumed by the spirit of the snake, the oily scales roiling over his body as though the spirit’s struck him again.

  And again.

  His soul was dying.

  Jimmy grimaced. His arms were still bound. She needed to free them, but to do so she had to get past the snake. “Trust me?” she dropped her gaze to meet Jimmy’s.

  “Love you.” He declared.

  It was more than enough. The snake man grabbed her wrist and she let him drag her away from Jimmy.

  Chapter 21

  Jimmy, The Middle of Nowhere

  “Trust me?” Eyes the color of autumn amber met his. Perhaps it was the pain radiating from his core to every extremity or the stark knowledge he’d died—died. Yet somehow this beautiful woman had fetched him home and restored him to his body, but she seemed more than she ever had before. The world around her seemed to shiver. He couldn’t shake the image of the eagle’s wings flaring out behind her like some angel of nature. The faith of his childhood collided with his understanding of the present.

  “Love you.” He whispered the words seconds before the doppelganger seized her and dragged her away. The boneless way she went drove a blade into his middle. How weak was she? She’d been unconscious for two days. Had it been only two days? Was it longer? No feeling quite reached his fingertips. When he tried to roll, his shoulders burned.

  Thank you God—Great Spirit—being above. Forgive me for asking, but I need more…give me more strength, let me help her.

  The doppelganger swore and the thwack of something landing on the earth pierced the shroud of pain rippling over him. Twisting to try and follow them with his gaze took every ounce of strength and concentration he had. Sweat slid down his face and salt stung his right eye. The swelling was gone and his heart pumped harder, every pulse sending another wave out to his fingertips. The ice on his hands seemed to shatter. Heat scored inside of them as though all the blood in his body rushed to his hands.

  Concentrating on what he could feel, he eased onto his side. Cool bone and metal grazed his fingertips. Closing his eyes, he worked his hands until he could grip the blade. Fever burned in his chest, a fresh influx of pure heat. He trusted his aim. The rope loosened as one fiber snapped. Another slice and they gave further, when the last bit binding his hands together tore his shoulders came forward.

  White-hot agony spilled down his arms like liquid silver pouring from a smithy’s kiln. Fighting the urge to blackout, he made it to his front then to his knees. Shoving upright, he stared at two Blue’s struggling. Two.

  The doppelganger had taken her bloodied hands and who knew what gifts he was trying to mimic or steal—was it possible to take from a shaman? Jimmy didn’t care. Balancing her blade on the tip of his fingers, he trusted his instincts and his gift. He’d seen Blue fight and knew she could handle herself—yet weakened as she had to be and unable to truly focus on both faces, he had to believe.

  “Faith, Jimmy. Trust me.” Quanto was beside him and he placed a hand on his shoulder. “You do not believe as Buck does in the lessons taught by the sky and the land, nor in the power of the pack as Cody does or even in the gift of life as Scarlett and Noah do. You believe in very little.”

  “I believe in my family. I believe in the Morning Star. the sun will rise, and we will greet the day. What else do I need to believe in?”

  “Someday Jimmy, you must confront the void in your heart. But for today, believe me when I say the eagle is where you must fly. Protect the eagle at all costs.”

  Scarlett never burned Sam.

  Cody had transformed Mariska.

  Delilah’s song no longer harmed Buck.

  Kid didn’t feed on his wife’s emotions.

  Jason had never been able to hear his Olivia’s thoughts—before they chose each other.

  Their gifts protected the ones they loved.

  He loved Blue—he believed in her and his love. Shifting the blade, he balanced it. Using all of the strength he had left, he flung it at the two women. Instinct and energy flared in him, his vision changed and grew acute. Minor differences illuminated and the blade slammed home, sliding perfectly between two ribs. The woman he struck arched back with a soundless cry.

  Time suspended as her arms spread wide. His Blue backpedaled away, walking on her hands and feet. The scream, when it came, was raw, unbridled agony. The body shivered and began to change. First to Jimmy, then Mrs. Davis, then some stranger, and more, as though time unspooled and every face he’d ever worn ripped over his features.

  Twisting as he fell, the doppelganger faced Jimmy then collapsed, a sad, tired looking man with dirty hair and sallow skin. Dead. Finally. The family is safe. Blue… Only when he was certain the man’s chest didn’t move did he dare look from the corpse to the woman beyond.

  Blue is safe.

  With agonizing slowness, he crawled toward her. Everything hurt, but she met him halfway. She wrapped her arms around him, and they leaned into each other. Exhaustion warred with the need to simply hold her. He needed to figure out where they were, and
he had to go back for…

  “Of course” Shane’s voice drifted over them. “Let me guess, you need me to bury another body?”

  Laughing softly, he raised his head and grinned at the younger man. “You’re late.”

  “You look like hell.”

  He was alive. They all were.

  That was all that mattered.

  * * *

  Unable to even rise to his feet, Jimmy relied on Shane to carry him. Blue had the horses lay down for each of them and they crawled on. Shane led them to an abandoned home built right into the side of a hill. It was in terrible shape, but they were out of the wind and the horses fit inside with them.

  They made camp for two days, all of them too wounded and exhausted to ride. Snow arrived on the second night, blanketing the land in a coating of pure white. Sleeping for nearly two days left him awake to stare at the fire. The crackling wood turned the hovel almost homey. The gentle breathing of the animals coupled with Shane’s snores provided a comfort he couldn’t have imagined.

  Wrapped in the bedroll with him, her head on his chest and her fingers spread over his heart, lay Blue. With Shane’s help, she’d hauled enough water in to heat by the fire to give Jimmy a bath before washing herself. She’d found the comb Jimmy had made for her, and he’d enjoyed watching her run the wooden teeth through her silky black hair. She’d left it down at his request, and he stroked his trembling hand through the mass.

  The shaking would pass, she’d assured him, and he trusted her word. “The one called Jimmy should be sleeping.” Her muffled voice carried a note of teasing.

  “He will. I’m just thinking.” I died. His father halted Jimmy’s tumbling fall into the endless night, then Blue had come for him. “You brought me back.”

  Lifting her head, she gave him a small smile. “It is considered one of the forbidden acts.”

  “You can bring people back from the dead.” He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the notion. When Shane asked him what happened, he’d told him of his injuries but not of his death. How could he possibly explain the impossible?

  “Not as easily as you make it sound,” she whispered. “You were not fully dead. Your body was still warm, and your soul had not fled far.”

  Far enough. He knew without question he would have died truly if his father had not intervened…

  “Fully dead?” How did one go from a little dead to all the way? Running his fingers through her hair, he studied her expression. She’d been as exhausted as he, but then he hadn’t been poisoned by snake venom and she’d still managed to defeat the effects, bring him back from the brink and continued to take care of him while he struggled.

  “Newly dead, I was there when your heart stopped.” The catch in her voice tugged at him and he put his free hand on her cheek.

  “You saved me, Blue.”

  “If not for the Great Eagle—and the dreamwalker—”

  “My father.”

  Her smile turned bittersweet. “He is the one who haunted my dreams for months. He wanted me to go south.”

  “He’s cryptic like that,” he said, then sighed. Quanto had told him goodbye, and so focused on returning to Blue Jimmy hadn’t considered what the farewell meant. Still didn’t want to. “What did it cost you, Blue?” No act as profound as what she’d committed could not come without a price.

  “My heart, but it already belonged with you.”

  Frowning, he traced the outline of her mouth. “What does it mean it cost your heart?”

  “As I bound you to your flesh so did I bind your life to mine. For as long as I live—you cannot die.”

  The revelation rocked him. “That doesn’t make me of the Blood does it?”

  “No, bound by blood, bound to me—as I am bound to you.” The faintest dip of her lashes and dilation of her pupils told him she held back.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Rising to her elbows, she reached for her knife and brought it back. “It will be easier to show…”

  When she took his hand, he said nothing and didn’t pull away when she drew the blade across his palm. The sting of the cut passed swiftly and no blood appeared. On Blue’s hand, however, her palm opened up as though she’d sliced herself and blood welled out of it.

  Shock had him grabbing for something to bind her hand, but even as he watched the injury began to knit itself closed.

  “You’re going to feel anything someone does to me?” What if they shot him through the heart?

  “I am of the Blood,” she whispered. “I will heal myself. My blood will keep me alive.” Then she turned the knife to her uninjured palm and cut herself. He flinched and wanted to shout, but the pain sliced through his hand and he tugged it away from her hair to see a cut open on him. Even as he watched it, the injury began to close. “When I feel pain—you will experience it and I will share yours. What we share will be halved and we will heal. But I am not immortal…when I die, I fear you will go with me.”

  He had no fear of that consequence at all—he wanted to go with her. After a full minute, the cut on his palm went pink and closed. Both held marks, but they were already fading and the pain with it.

  “It’s a gift we can only give once,” she whispered.

  Lifting his head, he brushed his mouth to hers. “Thank you for sharing your life with me.” His father had told him he had a void in his heart, but no longer. He hadn’t realized he’d saved the space for her. Blue fit him perfectly. They had a long journey home in front of them and he couldn’t wait to introduce her to his siblings.

  Thank you, Father—thank you for my family and the woman I will call wife. Without a doubt, he owed both to the man who’d raised him. No one would ever be able to hurt her again, not without him knowing, and he’d keep her safe and she would never be lonely.

  Correction. We’ll never be lonely. His life had been hollow before her, the void in his heart carved to fit her wings. Blue Morning Star had a beautiful ring to it. Their children would share her blood and they’d be special.

  Jimmy laughed. At her inquiring look, he grinned wider. “Childbirth will be interesting…”

  Epilogue

  Ike & Rudy, Old Mexico

  The last of the seeds were stored in the saddlebags. Ike had negotiated with the farmer’s wife for a bag of apples and some sweetmeats to carry with them for eating on the way home. Home. Rudy shook his head. They’d been in Mexico for months. The snow would be deep on the mountain when they got back. Still, it would be good to be on the mountain again, to go home.

  Turning at a sound behind him, Rudy wasn’t prepared for the blow, striking him so hard the world went black. He didn’t even have a chance to warn Ike.

  Scarlett, The Bathing Pond

  Her previous agitation left her tossing and turning. Rather than wake Sam, she’d slipped from their bed and crept through the slumbering house. On the porch, she drew her shawl over her dressing gown. Winter encroached on the Flying K. Tomorrow promised to bring the first frost. The cold hardly bothered her. Padding barefoot down the steps to the grass, she walked out to the pond.

  The baby fluttered in her belly, and she glanced down. “I know, little one. I’m restless, too.”

  Drenched in moonlight, the bathing pool reflected an ethereal gleam. Seated at the water’s edge was a familiar figure.

  “Father!” Buoyed at his presence, she dashed across the grass more like a child than a grown woman. He rose at her call and pulled her into a tight hug. He smelled like Quanto— leather, wood smoke, and a hint of the tobacco he favored in his pipes.

  No matter the torment or circumstances, her father always made her feel as though everything would be okay. Releasing her, he stepped back to arm’s length before he swept his gaze over her.

  “You make a beautiful mother.” He stroked her chin with a calloused finger.

  Flushing at the compliment, she studied him. The scars along his neck were her fault, but the moonlight couldn’t disguise the pallor of his skin or the tr
embling in his limbs. “Father?”

  “Come and sit with me, Scarlett. Tell me about your children. Have you chosen names for this one?”

  Sadness and comprehension flooded through her… The lump in her throat made it nearly impossible to swallow and tears burned in her eyes. Releasing her father, she clenched hands closed to hold back the flames. “You’re here to say goodbye.”

  He nodded slowly as he took a seat on the rock. The slow, careful movements broke her heart. Starlight shimmered through his form, giving him an air of translucence.

  “I don’t—” She couldn’t get the words out. Grief squeezed her heart, then the baby moved, and the flames in her hands quenched. “I will miss you so much.”

  “And I you, my sweet girl.” He patted the rock next to him. “I bring you news of your brothers. Jimmy is well. Even now, he prepares to turn south and return home. Look for him after the days begin to lengthen. Buck will be with you again tomorrow.”

  Her brothers were safe. The news brought her some peace.

  “Now, I want news of your children. Will you come and talk to me of these things?”

  Pacing to his side, she climbed onto the rock and leaned her head to his shoulder. “My children are beautiful, and I want them to know you…” She wanted Molly to hear his stories, to know his wisdom, and to benefit from his patience.

  “So they shall,” he said. “You will tell them of me. As long as I am remembered, I cannot truly leave you.”

  It hurt to even consider and she couldn’t stop the first sniffle or the second. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “We have some ideas for names,” she said, wiping at her trail of moisture trickling down her face. So happy to see him and so terrifically sad at the same time, she felt as though her heart were breaking.

  “What is life without pain? What is joy without sorrow? Would the spring be so sweet if not for the cold winter before it?” Quanto shrugged. “Life is what happens when our world is imperfect. It is a rare gift to love one through those times, to be there, ever the shelter in the storm, no matter whence the storm comes.”