Now, Everly. She’s dazed from the shift in her aura.
I bent to retrieve my knife.
She abruptly sat up, aiming both hands at me. Shadows danced in the room, illuminating the outline of her body, and one side of her face. The perfect side. She was breathtakingly beautiful. “I know about the knife. Do not reach for it.”
TWENTY-NINE
Xifeng knew about my knives. Shock crashed into me. But wait, she’d said knife. Singular. Maybe she didn’t know about the Kershaw strapped to my left ankle. Did I want to take a chance? Not until I knew more. “Why didn’t you take it?”
“Because it will please my Wah Ching family to find it when they cut you. It is one of my gifts to them, to chop you into small pieces with your own blade.”
Psychotic beyond belief. And she’d only referred to one knife. Again. I was so far beyond terror that I found her somewhat amusing. I slowly straightened. “Back to work, then?”
She adjusted herself.
My mind spun with possibilities. I could reach for the Kershaw, or maybe… What exactly had Grandfather said about dying being a way to heal? Something about healing not only being defined by life, but that it could come with death as well.
A distant crash shattered the quiet of the room. Xifeng was off the bed in a flash, crouched, facing me, candlelight glinting off the blade in her hand. She shouted something in an Asian tongue, the words bitter and hateful.
I bent, a too-fast move that set my head injury throbbing and the room spinning. Fumbling, I grasped the Smith and Wesson boot knife, keeping the Kershaw as backup. Xifeng stood over me, teeth bared, a manic sound growling in her throat. “People are here to save you.” She cackled. “You wouldn’t need them if you had real magic. Imposter.”
She jabbed at me. I twisted, her blade slicing into my left shoulder. Jerking away from the pain, I slapped my knife hand over the wound.
Bad move.
She aimed at my chest. I slashed, cutting deep into her arm, then rolled to my feet.
“Kill the gweilo,” she screamed, lunging for me, the tip of her knife pointed at my heart.
I parried, slapping her weapon away with my blade, and then dropped back.
Footsteps pounded toward the door. Xifeng turned, yelled, “Destroy her now. She has no magic.”
Her distraction. My advantage. I lunged forward, and my blade caught her in the shoulder, a clean slice.
She let out an animal screech that sent chills ripping down my nerves.
Something slammed into the door and the frame cracked. The Wah Ching? Coming to finish me off? Rage beat in my veins. This woman was behind Mitch’s death, and no one was taking me out before I gutted her.
I focused on Xifeng, Whitney’s words running through my head. The heart and stomach are the most vulnerable. Stomach wounds are psychologically brutal and will confuse your opponent. Big arteries bleed out faster than small ones. Neck angles are a bitch.
We circled, crouched like wrestlers, only with knives. I waited for a clear shot, then went for her stomach. My blade sunk into her soft, jelly flesh. Sickeningly deep.
Sirens, yelling, a battleground of sound closed in around me, and I yanked the blade free. Xifeng dropped to the floor, a hideous gurgle coming from her mouth.
I leaped back, knocking a candle to the floor. Flames sprang up, engulfing the curtains.
The door slammed open, ripping away from the top hinges. A sharp stream of light flowed over Xifeng’s inhert form, illuminating both sides of her face. Grotesquely injured on the left, stunningly beautiful on the right.
My stomach lurched.
Her gaze locked on mine. She turned her knife in her hand and jammed it into her heart.
And then Pierce’s arms were around me, crushing me against his chest. His heart beat strong and fast against my cheek, and his incoherent syllables bathed my ears in comfort.
The sobs came, slowly at first, and then they took over my body and I crumpled against him, inhaling the safe scent of soap and sweat. And smoke.
“Everly.” Adam’s hand stroked my back. “We have to get you out of here. It’s a crime scene and it’s on fire.”
“Mitch,” I whispered the only word that mattered.
“He’s gone, Everly.” Adam’s voice broke. “The medical examiner is seeing to him now.”
My soul had known from the moment the light left Mitch’s eyes, but Adam’s words stole my last fragment of hope.
Pierce did one of his infamous grunts, swung me into his arms, and made for the door. I didn’t have the energy to fight him, but a huge part of me wanted to lie next to Xifeng and let the flames cleanse my soul.
Pierce laid me on a gurney and barely had time to squeeze my hand before he was yanked into the chaos surrounding us. The scene outside the restaurant was a tumultuous mess that blended with the emotions tearing pieces from my heart—despair, pain, sorrow, regret, love. They took turns stripping sanity from my mind until I was nothing but a mass of sniveling, exhausted flesh that alternated between numbness, hot flashes, and icy cold chills.
A paramedic stuck an oxygen mask over my face. I batted her away. “Don’t need that.”
She ignored me, securing it in place, and keeping her hand there until I stopped thrashing. “We don’t know how much smoke you’ve inhaled, ma’am, and the oxygen will help the shock.”
I nodded agreement.
“Breathe normally while I bandage that gash on your shoulder,” she said, probing the area with skilled, gentle hands. It was the first time I realized I didn’t have a shirt on, and images of trying to stop the blood from pouring out of Mitch assaulted my mind. My heart bumped, painful in my chest, and grief welled into unchecked tears that pooled along the edge of the oxygen mask.
A tall man strode up beside the gurney. I shut my eyes, closing him out, but his strident tones rasped insistently over my skin. “Ms. Gray, I’m Detective Jason Larrabee, HPD.”
Resigned, I opened my eyes, giving him the benefit of a hostile glare. He flipped a look at the paramedic. “Can you take the mask off for a few minutes? I have to question her.”
I figured it was my decision, and since I wanted to get this over with I slid the mask off my face. “Where do you want me to start, Detective?”
Adam edged the man away, got in his face, complete with waving arms, and bullets of words too soft for me to hear.
“Go, Adam,” I whispered.
Hours later, I signed a release refusing transport to the hospital and Pierce took control. He lifted me into the back of the Jeep, tucked a blanket around me, and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “Sleep, Belisama. Give your heart a break from the pain.”
I woke to the sound of cicadas and rustling leaves. I was still in the back of the Jeep, knees pulled tight to my chest, my shoulder throbbing. Annie sat on the floor of the Jeep facing me, tears trickling down her cheeks.
“You’re awake,” she said. “Are you ready to go inside now? Pierce didn’t want to disturb you…”
“Hmm.” My legs were cramped, and I was dirty. And Mitch was dead. I pushed myself up, testing the knots in my legs. “Hurts. Everything hurts.”
She brushed the tears off my cheeks. “You’re home now. A hot bath will help.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Why didn’t you wake me? You shouldn’t be out here crammed into the back footwell of a Jeep.”
“I’m sitting Shiva with you, El. I loved him, too. Yes, I was furious with him, but I loved him just the same.”
Neither of us was Jewish, but it fit. Perfectly.
We made our way inside, my mind reeling with questions. “Where is he? Did anyone call Jayne and Parker? His parents?”
“The medical examiner hasn’t released him yet. I spoke with Jayne, and Pierce sent his pilot to pick her and Parker up. They wanted to escort him to North Carolina for the funeral. Jayne wants to bury him on his property if it’s all right with you. She planned to tell their parents.”
How was I going to get through this? Talking—expl
aining what happened—when every word, every picture battered at the empty space in my heart?
“One day at a time,” Annie answered my unspoken questions.
Light from her kitchen washed over us when she opened the door. I inhaled a shaky breath, preparing to face…whatever. There were two freshly poured glasses of Irish whiskey sitting on the table, ice still crackling.
I picked one of the glasses up, sipped. The burn of alcohol slid down my throat, sweet and comforting. “I have to give a statement. I’m the only witness to everything.”
“Adam arranged it for tomorrow. Um, Chad The Demon’s team is still out there, El. Just because Xifeng and her gang have been contained, you’re not out of danger.”
I took another sip of the Jameson’s. “Yeah, I guess I knew that.” A spark of anger ignited in my gut. “Not for long, though. I’m going to take a shower…try to…I don’t know, breathe maybe.” I wandered down the hall toward my bedroom, the glass of whiskey clutched in my hand.
Annie’s stare rested between my shoulder blades, sending silent concern.
Closing the bedroom door behind me, I stripped off my bloodstained clothes, leaving them on the floor where they fell. I turned the shower on full blast, climbed under the spray, and watched the blood swirl down the drain—mine, Xifeng’s, and Mitch’s. Sobs wrenched from my chest and I scrubbed until my skin was pink and raw. Numb, I toweled dry, tearing the bandage off my knife wound. It was raw and puckered. There would be a scar. I smiled ferociously into the mirror. It would be a good reminder, a permanent reminder that I’d briefly considered using my gift to take someone’s life. Psycho demon-bitch or not, the weight of that rested heavy on my soul.
Wait. Gift. Healing. Oh, bloody hell, Maddie!
I threw on a robe, paused, and then shoved my phone in the pocket. It had Mitch’s voice on it and I needed to hold him close. I tugged the edges of the robe closed, tightening the belt as I ran to the kitchen. Annie, Pierce, and Adam sat at the table nursing glasses of whiskey. “Maddie? Where is she? Is she all right?”
Annie’s gaze flew to the monitor under the kitchen cupboard. “Sleeping. What’s wrong?” she asked, scraping her chair back as she stood.
“The vial of healing toxin, poison, whatever it was that Aukele gave me. Did you get it from between the seat cushions in Mitch’s truck?”
“What vial?” Annie asked, running for the stairs.
Pierce and Adam stared at me with blank faces. Adam recuperated first. “You want to start at the beginning on that one, El?’
I jammed my hands in the deep robe pockets and started pacing. “When Mitch and I were at my new house…” The words stuck in my throat. He’d been alive this morning and already it seemed like years ago.
“You were at the house,” Pierce said, his tone pushing at me.
“Aukele was there. He gave me a vial of my mother’s formula, and told me it was to heal Madigan. That her cells held the poison from when Annie was dying, and that she’d become ill just before her first birthday. It’s still days away, so we probably have time to rescue the vial from the police impound lot.”
“She was fine earlier, before, ah, Burr ran you off the road. Pierce was already chasing you down, but I hadn’t left the house yet. Madigan was playing with Merlin.” He glanced at the playpen where Merlin had curled up to sleep, his head resting on one of the Maddie’s blankets.
“I have to see her. Touch her.” I said, running out of the kitchen.
Annie’s hysterical cries met me on the staircase.
THIRTY
Annie barreled down the stairs, an inert Madigan crushed to her chest. “She’s breathing, but it’s the toxin, I know it is. I have to call Sean. Let him know she’s…”
I pulled in a deep breath and brushed my fingers over the top of Maddie’s head. She was chilled, her skin waxy to my touch. Fragments of the poison I was so familiar with clung to her aura. “Move her outside. I’ll need all the help from nature I can get.”
Pierce and Adam must have been watching the baby monitor, because they were waiting for us at the base of the staircase. “How is she?” Adam asked, his face harrowed with worry lines.
Annie was on her way outside, her breathing loud and ragged. I followed right behind, keeping pace at a full-out run. “It’s the poison,” I shouted, yanking my phone from my pocket. I punched speed dial for Whitney.
Adam stopped in mid-stride. “I’ll head for the impound lot and get that vial.”
I stopped running, stayed him with my hand. “Not enough time.” Whitney’s line rang. And rang. Ready to give up, I nodded at Adam to go, and then took off, full speed after Annie.
Pierce grabbed me. “You’re calling Whitney to pick up the vial? Save time?”
I nodded again, pulse pounding in my throat, shivers cascading over my skin. He pried the phone from my hand. “I’ve got this. Go to Maddie.”
My brain ran though the process I’d used when I healed Annie and Parker, my bare feet slapping on the wood floor in a beat that matched the tempo of my thoughts. I could start with that basic process, using colors to balance and change the energy patterns, except Maddie’s infection wasn’t the same.
I slid to a stop at the edge of the swimming pool, sat and stuck my feet in the water. “Hand her to me, Annie.”
Her eyes were wide with panic, but she laid Maddie in my arms, keeping her hands on her daughter’s feet. I closed my eyes, did my best to push everything except pure love from my heart, and focused on Madigan’s aura. Her etheric connections were all broken, shattered, except for the silver thread connecting her to God’s realm—to infinite life. Grandfather’s words slipped into my head. Death can be a healing.
No way was I going to lose one more person I loved. Not Maddie. Not anyone else. Yet there was no doubt that if I severed that thread, she’d be healed and safe in heaven. Not that I knew how to cut a life thread. Really, no one but God could do that.
The shattered fragments of Maddie’s energy field floated around her tiny body, drawing my attention. They’d faded from her usual vibrant blues and purples to a pale gray. I summoned color, beginning with a pale blue. It was the safest place to start. I’d healed both Annie and Parker with an immediate infusion of strong, healthy color; however, I didn’t dare push Madigan that quickly. She was too young, and her energy pattern too delicate.
I filled my mind, my working space, with a pastel shade of blue and gently washed it over Maddie’s body. Her aura rippled with life-giving force, except where Annie was holding on, desperation pouring from her mind, contaminating my workspace.
This wasn’t going to be easy. I held Maddie steady in a suspended state then opened my eyes and faced my soul sister. “You can’t touch her, Annie. I’m sorry.”
The tears that had been pooling in her moss green eyes spilled over her cheeks. “Can’t touch her?”
“You’re worried and it interferes with the energy pattern.”
She nodded, backing away. “I-I’ll wait ri-right here. Next to you.”
I wanted to hug her, but didn’t dare shift my attention away from Madigan. Closing my eyes, I drifted back into the healing space, and bathed my surrogate niece with another layer of pale blue. This time it worked. The chaotic energy fragments calmed slightly. I breathed a gentle sigh of relief. One layer down, who knew how many to go?
I’d worked through five shades of blue, increasing the depth of the hue on each pass, when Maddie suddenly faded, her skin chilling against my hands. Despair flooded my heart. I couldn’t lose this child. Simply. Couldn’t. I had to tell Annie there were complications. But, maybe one more thing first. I could immerse her in the full blue-violet spectrum of colors. It would be dangerous… Damn, I needed that vial of formula, and Adam wasn’t going to make it in time.
My eyes fluttered open. I had to look at Annie when I told her. Whoa. The pool shimmered in front of me, the rich blue highlighted with twinkling lights that changed the colors from light turquoise to deep purple. I jumped in, cover
ing Maddie’s nose and mouth just before the water closed over us. When we popped to the surface, Annie stood in front of me, dripping and furious. “What are you doing? You could have killed her.” She reached for Maddie.
I ducked us under the water again, filling my mind with love, blocking her nose and mouth with my hand, and using the power of the water to smother Madigan. Not literally, but she had to stop breathing long enough for her energy pattern to detect the difference.
When we surfaced, Annie was beating on my back with her fists. I whirled to face her. “Clear your mind of everything except how much you love Maddie. Don’t think. Just feel that love. She needs you now. Your love. Your presence.”
Annie nodded, eyes wide and scared. I handed Madigan to her. “She’s in a suspended state. Be gentle—and remember, only love. There’s no room for doubt or worry. It will kill her.” I’d intended to scare Annie enough that she’d believe me. It worked. Her face cleared and a smile lit her eyes. It was wobbly, but she’d found the love and was radiating from her.
I helped them out of the pool and prayed Adam would make it back in time. I couldn’t let Maddie live in a suspended state for an indefinite period of time…and I had no idea how long was too long.
The thwacking of a helicopter rotor cut into my worry. Annie and I both stared, watching as it came closer and closer, finally hovering at the far end of the swimming pool. There wasn’t enough room to land without taking out a storage building and large area of landscaping.
Whitney appeared in the helicopter door, hair slicked back, a helmet covering her head. She backed out of the doorway, right leg, left leg until she stood on the top rail of the landing bars. And then she eased down, right leg, right hand, left leg, left hand, finally kneeling on the lowest rail. Hanging on with her forearms, she dropped her legs to hang in the air, and Pierce rushed to grab her, supporting her as she jumped to the ground. They both gave the pilot a thumbs-up, and he took off, leaving a profound quiet behind.
Touch of Betrayal, A Page 21