“Okay.”
Iris began chanting in a low rhythmic language Ashley didn’t recognize. The finger pressed the skin, and Daniel’s back muscles rippled. That had to hurt.
She reached for Iris’s wrist and had her hand slapped back. The pain was nothing compared to the shock fueling her system.
The chanting grew louder, and the air pressure increased in the room, making it hard to breathe.
“What are you—” The skin beneath her finger changed color, drawing back toward the wounds. “How are you doing that?”
“Shh, Ashley. Just wait until she’s done.” The strain in Daniel’s voice worried her.
“Does it hurt?”
“No more than lancing a poison would. It’s got to hurt if it’s going to heal.”
Ashley covered her mouth with her hand, and tried to figure out the trick. The chanting ended and the old woman’s fingers trembled under the magnifier’s light.
“Explain this.”
“Gift of healing.” Iris sat back on the stool and arched her back. Several bones popped. “It takes longer than it used to, but this has never been my strength.”
“Give me a break.” Ashley pulled away from the glass and glared at the old lady. “I’m a doctor, not a hack. You don’t fight infection by dragging it back to the source. The body doesn’t work that way.”
“Says who?”
“Science.”
“Hmm. Okay.” She gestured to Daniel. “What does science say about angels?”
That question floored her. “Nothing conclusive.”
“And those hounds that chased you here. Did you see anything interesting and unscientific about their anatomy? Like when they died, perhaps?”
Crumbling to ash at the pointy end of a sword was definitely outside the laws of nature. “This is beyond my abilities to understand. I use what’s in front of me to understand this world and save the lives that are placed on my table. And you’re telling me that all I had to do was wave my hand and chant a few words?”
“Ashley—”
Iris held up her hand. “No, Daniel. She has the right to question this. Just like I did. And sometimes still do.” She crossed her arms and met Ashley’s glare with a calm exterior and sad smile. “Today wasn’t the first time you faced those beasts, am I right?”
“No. I saw them eighteen years ago.”
“And you were injured. An animal with you as well, right?”
“Casey, my basset hound. He was trying to protect me. What does this have to do with anything?”
“Did he die?”
“Years later of old age.”
“Ever wonder why?”
“I remember Daniel doing something to heal him.”
“It wasn’t me.” Daniel’s cheek rested on the white sheet. The way he watched her made Ashley think this conversation was more important than they were letting on.
“Okay, then who was it?” There’s no way she had anything to do with it.
“In your surgeries, have you ever come across a case in which something happened to the patient to extend his life when it shouldn’t have?”
“What do you mean?”
“Gunshot victim. Miraculously survived with no damage to his brain after being legally dead for twenty minutes.”
“Edward Calero. I kept pumping his heart until he revived.”
Iris ticked off her finger. “On the way home from work, a young intern happens upon the scene of a hit and run. Finding the patient unresponsive, she, somehow, manages to stop severe hemorrhaging of the brain until they arrive by ambulance back at the hospital. The doctor in charge of the case said the patient was lucky to be alive.”
“Sheila Kelson. How do you know the names of my patients?”
“Do I need to continue?”
Ashley breathed out, nice and slow. The roar in her head was moving to an inferno grade rage. “No, but I want to know who told you this information. The privacy act would prevent any outsiders from finding out who the patients and the doctors involved were.”
“I am a consultant on special cases. All I’m given is the case information, names stricken from the record, and barely enough background information to assist with my research.”
“Then how did you know I was involved?”
“Because of the nature of their survival. There are over forty cases with your brand of healing all over it. You leave a mark on these people, a health stamp if you will, that keeps them fit and whole for the rest of their lives. So far, at least.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not even a cold or sniffle.”
“So all those years of training and countless hours studying mean nothing? I could have just waved my hand and fixed them right up?” Her voice rose and so did she.
“Ashley, wait a second—”
“No, Daniel. Listen to me, both of you. I am a doctor. A trauma surgeon. My job is to put people back together when something has torn them apart. I cry, I sweat, and I nearly die for these people every time they’re on my table. So don’t you dare try to trivialize my worth. I am not a snake oil salesman pandering my wares to the suckers and idiots.”
“Well, finally, you have some grit to you. I thought all this running for your life stuff had made you meek.”
“What?” Ashley’s clenched fists trembled at her side.
“Calm down, have a seat, and let me finish.”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, Daniel here is going to die by nightfall.” Iris patted his shoulder. “You wouldn’t want that on your conscious now, would you, doctor?”
Chapter Eight: The Legacy
ASHLEY’S BREATH CAUGHT. “You’re lying.” She stared at Daniel and saw the grimace on his face. The truth was there in his expression.
“Daniel, am I telling the truth?”
“Don’t do this, Iris.”
“If I don’t, and you die, do you think she’ll thank you for keeping it from her? Tell her or I will.”
“Tell me what?”
Daniel rose to a sitting position. She could see the strain of infection in the pallor of his face, the rapid pulse at his throat. Every movement had to be agony. “You wanted to know why you’re special. Why so many have fought to protect your family?”
“Yes.” She blinked and shoved down the trepidation twisting through her mind. Daniel’s fellow angels had died to protect her, and she needed to know the reason.
“Azazel’s power is destruction. Fire. War. He uses people to forward his agenda.” His face tightened and he hunched over. Breaths came in ragged gasps.
Instinct had her reaching for him, but he held up a hand. “Let it pass.”
“What can I do to help?”
“You want to slow the poison? I’ll show you how, but you’ll listen while you work.”
“Okay, let’s do this. Where do I wash up?”
“Wash? She already told you that we don’t have the same—”
Iris gestured behind a curtain. “I’m a doctor. Leave me to my rituals, and quit being so bossy.” She moved toward the sink. “Is he always like this, Iris?”
“Every moment of every day.”
“Hey, now!”
“Hush, it’s a human thing, you wouldn’t understand.”
“That hurts my feelings.”
“Your ego can survive just fine on willpower alone, I’m sure. So hush while she gets ready.”
Ashley turned on the water and let the sound drown out their voices. Scrubbing her hands filled her with a calm purpose. Chris Bonne had internal bleeding. She’d known it the moment she touched him, but couldn’t find it. He should have died on her table last night. She knew it the moment they found the artery rupture.
Sheila Kelson’s brain hemorrhage was impossible to diagnose on the scene, but she’d known. If she counted back, Ashley could pinpoint the moment she diagnosed their problems. Touching them connected her on a deeper level.
Edward Calero’s heart had stopped in her hand
s, but his will had pushed her on. She knew he still had a spark of life left. Despite the pressure to call his time of death, she’d pushed through until he came back.
With Daniel, however, it was different. Why couldn’t she see what was wrong with him? It explained why her panic button kept getting pressed. His fever had surprised her, the infection even more so. Hundreds of patients had put themselves in her care, and the only one that remained a mystery was him.
The scent of apples filled the room.
“No, it’s spreading.” She shoved the curtain out of the way.
Daniel and Iris stared at her in confusion for a split second. Then Daniel cried out, doubling over. She cursed and ran to his side. “Tell me what to do. Now. It’s worse than before. Whatever you did, it’s fighting back.”
“How do you know that?” Iris pulled him down onto the slab, helping him move when his limbs locked up.
Daniel’s back was a road map of agony. “Tell me what to do.”
“Sweet mercy, child. How did you know it was going to happen?”
Tears stung her eyes and she put her hands on his skin. Fire flared to life between them. “I just know. Help me help him. Please, Iris.”
“Calm down. You have to dig into his body with your spirit, find the pathways of this thing, and sever it before it reaches his organs.”
“Find the pathways. That’s it?” She ground her teeth together. Obscure directions weren’t going to help. In her heart she knew this was his only chance. Falling into the zone she’d immersed herself in so many times before, she followed the flow of his blood.
Through the inflammation, it was sluggish and different. Thicker. Changed. She dug into his body with her will, desperate to draw it back, or at least hold it until she could figure out what it was.
This infection pulsed with a will of its own, not Daniel’s, nor hers. “How did you lose your wings, Daniel?”
“Azazel ambushed me. When you use your healing ability, you become vulnerable. Over the years, I’ve moved in to guard you when it becomes too noticeable.”
Ashley tried to ignore the way his pained voice grated against her heart. The urge to stop whispered in the back of her mind, but she ignored it and focused on his body functions. His organs seemed to be the same as a normal human. Metabolically, however, he was an incinerator, burning through calories at an alarming rate. It was hard to tell if it was caused by the wound or angel-specific.
“Have you found the source of the infection, yet?”
“I’m not focusing on that. Right now it’s taking all I can to keep it from spreading.”
“You don’t fight a fire on the fringes. Aim for the heart of it. Once you find it, excise it like you would a lesion. Close your eyes and dig deep to find it.”
Following Iris’s suggestions, Ashley walked her fingers down his back toward the remains of his wings. Her hands ached to have a scalpel in them, but she knew no amount of traditional surgery would fix this. “Why were you coming to me last night?”
“The last few days your powers were showing up more often. Last night, it was the brightest beacon in the city. Everyone with any form of spiritual awareness could sense your work.”
Chris Bonne’s surgery. No wonder she was so drained.
With eyes firmly closed, she mentally traced the inflammation all the way to a sickly root imbedded in a primary bone of the wing. The moment this was all over with, she was going to invest in every bird anatomy book known to man. Her ignorance in naming the parts of his angelic form hampered her abilities.
Sweat beaded her forehead and she drew on the source of the infection. It was a poisonous ball of black foulness. Thick like oil. Instinctively she knew exposing it to the air would infect her and Iris, both.
“I’ve found it. Now what?”
“Where is it located?”
“In his left wing. Close to his heart.”
“Is it affecting his organs yet?”
“Not that I can see. What’s the next step?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking you to help, now would I?”
Ashley ground her teeth together. “You seemed pretty confident a few minutes ago. What’s wrong now?”
“I can see your power, Ashley. It’s got the infection in a choke hold, but it’s leaking out. No angel has ever lasted this long when Azazel attacks them.”
“None of you guys?”
“He took my brother out the same way. Your mother’s guardian. Hundreds of my brethren. Azazel is unstoppable.”
Her mother’s guardian? She shoved that question to the back of her mind, unwilling to shake her focus from healing Daniel.
“He was unstoppable until now,” Iris breathed the words.
“Which is why he wants me dead.”
“Ashley, if you can keep it held like that, I’ll isolate the body around it.”
In her mind’s eye, Ashley could see Iris cauterizing the veins and arteries connecting his wings to the body.
“If you keep doing this, they’ll never heal.” Emotion she didn’t understand formed a lump in her throat.
“They don’t grow back, doc.” Daniel shifted under her touch, just enough to let her know he was still with them. “They’re lost to me forever. Just keep me alive long enough to figure this out, and I promise I’ll make that bastard pay.”
“I’ll take you up on that. The sooner we take this guy down, the quicker I can get back to my predictable, boring life.”
“Okay, I’ve blocked off most of it, but I’ll need your help with the rest. I don’t know anatomy as well as you do. You’ll know about the all the tiny capillaries and side systems I’m not aware of.”
“I’m on it.” Her shoulders ached and the pounding pulse in her head throbbed in time with the headache in the back of her skull. She allowed one moment to wallow in that pain, and then she shut it down and poured all her attention into saving the angel she’d fallen in love with eighteen years ago. When this was over, she’d sort through that mess too. Maybe.
Chapter Nine: Calm Before the Storm
DANIEL AWOKE TO the soft brush of breath across his chest. Ashley’s unique scent clung to the sheet he was covered in. The aching pressure of his severed wings had eased to a dull ache. His attempts to move the bones met with heavy resistance.
Prying open a gritty eye, he recognized the burnished highlights in her otherwise dark hair. Ashley had fallen asleep with her arms and head lying on the bed.
He brushed his fingertips along her forehead. The mark of protection he’d placed on her eighteen years ago still shone bright and beautiful. With a kiss on the back of his thumb, and a renewal prayer, he swiped across the mark once more.
This time only a tiny bit of his power surged up from within. He tightened his hand into a fist and let his head fall back on the cold slab. Without his powers, he felt gutted, useless.
He brushed her hair gently with his palm, and quested out to find the closest guardian. A very familiar voice answered him from the darkness.
If he was Daniel’s replacement, things were about to get a lot worse.
“No hanky panky in the Mission. I already live in fear of being struck by lightning on a daily basis. I don’t think my poor heart could take it.”
Daniel chuckled. Iris came and went like the wind, unpredictable and silent until it wanted to make a fuss. “There’s nothing in this world that scares you, Iris. You can’t fool me.” He sat up and smiled at her. The last of his blood kin in the world. His niece.
Rare emotion chased its way across her face. A face he’d memorized from the moment she’d been born. Just like all the rest of his brother’s family. She reminded Daniel of him in so many ways.
The pain in her expression dropped the smile from his. “There’s one thing I’m afraid of. If it wasn’t for her, that bastard would have taken you from me too.”
“Shhh.” He held out his arms and his niece walked into his embrace. Love bloomed in his chest. She’d been tiny the last time she let hi
m haul her around. He held her against his chest and let the tears she tried to hide bathe his skin. “I’m not going anywhere. You two are amazing, you know that?”
Iris sniffed. “I have never seen anything like her. When she worked on you, the power she wielded could have destroyed the infection, you, and everything in this room if she willed it.”
Doubts he didn’t want to face clouded his heart. “You don’t know that.”
“Angels are just as stupid as humans when it comes to love, I see.” She pushed away from him. Only the hint of moisture in her eyes remained of the vulnerable woman Iris had always tried to hide.
“I feel insulted.”
“As you should be.” Iris sniffed. “Let’s get you both to a bed. This room gets damn cold as the sun sets.”
“Put her in the heart of the Mission. We’re going to have a visitor soon.”
“I’ll do no such thing. You carry her. You’re well enough for now. If I know your friends, he won’t get here until nightfall anyway. Go rest. Be with your woman.”
“She’s not my woman.”
Iris sniffed again and waved her hand. “Whatever you say. I’ve given you the blue room. Don’t break anything.”
She strode out the door faster than he could find something to throw at her. For an ancient crone in human years, she sure could move when she wanted to.
How much of that youth was due to being a Nephilim? For centuries his people had murdered the children of angels and humans, so there was nothing in the records about their life spans.
Daniel admired Ashley’s open expression while she slept. Gone was the too-serious line between her eyes. Her power had pierced his body and muffled the agony twisting his limbs from the inside. She’d fought back the corruption with her entire heart and soul.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was only temporary. If Isaac was coming, that meant the infection had already gone far enough to take his grace. It would consume what was left of his defenses and then shatter his body.
Daniel bent down and lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his body. She nuzzled his chest with a soft murmur. His heart thumped painfully. Three years ago he’d noticed his attraction. For angels, it was a blink of an eye, but for him, it had been an agonizing eternity.
Alphas Unwrapped: 21 New Steamy Paranormal Tales of Shifters, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, Witches, Angels, Demons, Fey, and More Page 103