A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose)

by Charlaine Harris

  “I sure appreciate the offer,” I said.

  “I’ll be ready to go as soon as I hand off to the night nurse.”

  “Can you show me where Eli is, first?”

  Nurse Allen took me to a two-bed room not far from the operating theater. He hadn’t been wheeled past me, so there must be another way out of the operating theater.

  Eli was in the bed closest to the door. The curtain was drawn between him and the other sufferer. I stood looking at him, biting my lower lip, trying not to cry. Eli had bandages all around his chest. He was white as a sheet. He smelled like medicine.

  I stood by him for a long time, watching his chest go up and down. Then I pulled the wooden chair up to the bed and sat, my hand on his. Then I lay my head on the bed, and I slept.

  “Mrs. Savarov?”

  It was a gentle voice, a woman’s. I was on my feet in a snap, my hand on my gun.

  Nurse Allen stood her ground, giving me a very disapproving look.

  “Yes?” I said, relaxing a little.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Who’ll be on duty tonight?”

  “Nurse Underwood.”

  A tall woman stepped out from behind Allen. She had her hair up in a bun behind her white nurse’s cap. She looked strong.

  “Mrs. Savarov,” she began in a smooth voice, “we let you stay longer under the circumstances, but you have to go now. I promise you I’ll call Nurse Allen’s house if there’s any change in Mr. Savarov’s condition.”

  “I need to take all Eli’s possessions with me.”

  Both women looked surprised.

  “When he gets out of the hospital, I’ll bring ’em back, clean.”

  Underwood went to a narrow closet by Eli’s bed and pulled out a bag. “Everything he was wearing, it’s in this bag,” she said.

  My arms full of Eli’s clothes and boots, I turned back to the bed. I was self-conscious because the two nurses were standing there. After I looked down at Eli for a long moment, I bent over and whispered in his ear, “I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

  And I followed Nurse Allen out of the hospital.

  “We need the car?” I asked.

  “No. It’s a block away.”

  So we walked. It was easy to see the nurse was worn out by the way her shoulders slumped. She turned in to a little house, and I could tell it was neat as a pin by the light of the street lamp. She unlocked the front door, and then we were in a tiny living room with shining polished furniture.

  Nurse Allen said, “I’m not being real hospitable because I’m dead on my feet. You need anything in the kitchen, you’re welcome to it. Here’s the guest bedroom. Here’s the bathroom. I’m in the room across the hall if you need me, but I pray you don’t.”

  “Thanks again, and good night,” I said, turning in to the room she’d pointed to as mine. It was small, but I didn’t care. I waited to hear her go into the bathroom, and when I figured she was in bed, I took my own turn, leaving it as clean as I’d found it.

  Before I climbed in the bed, I checked the window to make sure it was locked. The bed creaked and shook with age. I had my guns beside me. The night was cool enough that I didn’t have to turn on the fan.

  It felt incredibly good to lie down.

  I tried to think over the day. Too much had happened to remember all of it in the weariness of the moment. I didn’t feel well, and I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat in many hours. But I couldn’t imagine trying to find food, or even getting up from this bed, and that was the last thought I had before I said hello to sleep.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  It was full light in the morning when I woke. I was real hungry. I got dressed, made the bed, went to the bathroom. Loaded myself down again with everything, including Eli’s clothes, which were still dirty. I hadn’t had the energy to wash them. The shirt couldn’t be mended anyway.

  The house was silent.

  I wondered if Nurse Allen was already at the hospital, or if she had the day off and planned to catch up on her sleep. I left a five-dollar bill on her kitchen table to thank her, and I left as quietly as I could.

  My plan was to eat breakfast and go see Eli at the hospital. I would have all day to figure out what we’d do next. I stowed Eli’s stuff in the car as I passed, and it felt good to have my hands free.

  There were only a few people in the nearest restaurant. Maybe people were scared to come out after the day before. The waitress looked kind of jumpy, but at least the place was open for business, so I ignored that. I drank as many cups of coffee as the waitress would pour. I also packed in the pancakes and eggs and bacon.

  I got to the hospital just a bit before visitor’s hours. I couldn’t see anyone over the counter barricading the duty nurse from the public. But I looked over it to see a woman slumped over the desk, asleep.

  I froze in place.

  Hospitals are noisy places.

  But I couldn’t hear a sound.

  I leaned against the wall and slipped off my boots. I went to Eli’s room very quickly, very quietly, my socks padding over the boards.

  There was someone bending over Eli when I eased the door open, a short man wearing a hospital gown. In another second the man had a gun in the back of his skull.

  “You idiot!” said Felix, keeping his voice low but mean. “I’m here to get him out before they kill him.”

  “Last night he was doing fine. They made me leave. I came back this morning and everything’s strange.”

  “I’m going to turn around really slow,” Felix told me.

  “Arms away from your sides.” Just in case he … where were his clothes? Why was he dressed in a gown like Eli’s?

  Felix actually did what I told him, to my surprise. He turned around as slowly as I could have wanted. But then he snarled, “Where did you spend the night? Did you find some other man?”

  “Could you be any more of a …” I couldn’t think of a word bad enough. I took a small step back, all that the room allowed, and said, “I stayed in Nurse Allen’s extra bedroom.”

  “What was she like when you left this morning?”

  “Too quiet. I didn’t see her or hear her.”

  “I hope she’s alive,” Felix said.

  “Why wouldn’t she be? Has Dr. Gimball been by?” I asked, still keeping my voice very low.

  “Yes.” Felix smiled broadly, but there wasn’t any mirth in it at all.

  “What did he say?”

  “He tried to kill Eli.”

  “Where is he? The doctor?”

  Felix said, “He’s dead. I put him in my bed.” Jerked his chin toward the curtain around the other bed next to the window.

  “You killed Eli’s doctor?”

  “I told you, woman. He was going to kill Eli.”

  “Why didn’t he just mess up the operation last night?”

  “Too many eyes on him, I suppose. I think Nurse Allen is a good woman, or at least an upright one.”

  “What are you going to do if I holster my gun?” My arm was tired. Also, I was feeling silly, because I believed Felix was telling the truth. Though it didn’t make sense.

  “I’m going to tell you to help me get Eli out of this place before someone else shows up to kill him. I can’t keep everyone asleep forever. And the other grigoris are coming nearer every moment.”

  That tipped me over onto Felix’s side. I stared into Felix’s little brown eyes, wanting—real hard—to call him a liar and hit him in the head. But I couldn’t do it. “Get your clothes,” I said.

  Felix disappeared behind the curtain and reappeared within five minutes, fully dressed. Since I didn’t want to have to kill any of the nurses, I was relieved. Eli’s color was better than yesterday, but he still seemed to be unconscious.

  “Why isn’t he awake?” I asked Felix, since he was being so quick with the answers this morning.

  “He will be soon,” Felix said, real shortly.

  “Where were you wounded?” I said, suddenly realizing I ought to know
why Felix was in the hospital.

  “I became unconscious,” Felix said. “Too much magic use.”

  In other words, he had fainted.

  “You full strength now?”

  “No. Close enough.”

  “Should I get a stretcher for Eli?”

  “We should put his arms over our shoulders and walk him out. They’ll all be waking up soon. Except for Dr. Gimball.” Felix actually smiled.

  “The car is out front.”

  “Drive around to the back door.”

  I set off down the hall again. I gave the reception nurse a sideways glance. She hadn’t moved, but her fingers twitched. I took a fast detour into the women’s ward. Maddy looked a lot better. I put half my money into her hand. Then I ran.

  I pulled up under the awning at the emergency entrance. Two orderlies were sitting on wooden chairs outside the big doors, sound asleep. One was white and one was black. Surely that was unusual; maybe Moses the Black had made a lasting difference, here in Sally, at least.

  I jumped out of the car, leaving the doors open to be ready for anything. I hurried inside, to find Felix sort of dragging Eli. Felix was so short and Eli so tall that it would have been comical … if anything could have been. I ducked under Eli’s free arm and took my share of the weight. We moved much faster. When we came to the door, I pushed with my left and we sidled sideways out under the awning. Eli stirred at the brightness.

  We shifted Eli into the back seat. I was getting good at the maneuver. He was lying down, as much as we could arrange him. His knees had to be drawn up a bit. Felix got in the passenger’s seat, and I scrambled behind the wheel, put the car in gear, and off we took.

  In the rearview mirror, I saw one of the orderlies rub his face. I made my turn out of the parking lot very smooth and slow, because the last thing I wanted to look like was fugitives escaping.

  “Do you have a goal?” I figured I better find out.

  “Get out of this town as fast as we can without attracting any attention.”

  I could do that. For a few minutes we were silent as we drove through the streets of Sally. The town was not silent, like the hospital, but it was what I’d call subdued. Despite the cleanup of the big objects yesterday—cars and bodies—there was still plenty of evidence of the violence: broken windows, overturned trash cans. But the rain had washed away all the blood.

  The statue of Moses the Black stood in front of the courthouse as if it had always been there. People of both races were standing before it, gazing upward at the terrible and beautiful face.

  I drove real careful. After what seemed like way too long, I was on the highway west out of Sally. There was still debris scattered in the field where the train had crashed, but there was a crew at work laying new tracks.

  “You put everyone at the hospital to sleep,” I said. I’d been thinking.

  “Sleep is like a form of death,” Felix said, without opening his eyes. I’d been sure he wasn’t asleep.

  I finally understood. Felix was a death wizard. He could kill. And he could reanimate the dead.

  “That gave you control over the bones of Moses the Black.”

  Felix nodded.

  “You made him stab the man we found on the couch.”

  He nodded again. “If the trunk was opened by an enemy, that was going to happen. I thought it might come to be seen as the first miracle. When the story was told.”

  I felt a rising tide of anger. “He might have stabbed me. You weren’t there in the attic, were you?” I pictured Felix crouching beside some of the broken furniture under the canvas sheet.

  He opened his eyes and slid his gaze over to me. “No. All that time? No.”

  “So how come Moses didn’t kill me, too?”

  Felix did sit up then. The full weight of his gaze was on me. I didn’t like that at all. “Wasn’t Eli with you?”

  “No. I was alone.” Eli had been outside being taken hostage by Sarah.

  “You were alone. But the spell recognized you. That’s very interesting.”

  Well, shit. Felix now knew I had grigori blood.

  I couldn’t think of anything to say. I wasn’t going to beg him to keep silent. I wasn’t going to kill him, not after he had saved Eli.

  Seemed he wasn’t going to kill me, either.

  We had to stop for gas thirty minutes later. The kid who came out to pump the gas and check the oil was full of the amazing happenings in Sally—that blacks there were equal with whites, that some foreign god had made it happen.

  “Sure gives you food for thought, when God tells you to alter your ways,” I said.

  The kid could not bring my change fast enough.

  Off we went again. I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask Felix, but he was truly asleep now. I looked back at Eli pretty often, and it seemed to me he was lying more naturally. Eli had been sent to sleep by Felix’s spell just like a regular person; I figured it was because he was weakened by his wound. I thought it was good he slept. He would be hurting when he woke. But I was worried.

  It was lucky the road was clear when I heard Eli say, “Lizbeth? Where are you?”

  I pulled over and parked and opened the door behind me. Eli was struggling to sit up. I helped him and climbed in beside him. He leaned against me and held my hands. We didn’t speak for a little while. Then, because I knew the other wizard was awake, I said, “Felix is here. He got you out of the hospital. With me helping.”

  “Felix?” Eli’s voice was weak.

  “Yeah. Felix.”

  “I think he killed the doctor this morning.”

  “He did.”

  “Why?”

  “He says the doctor was going to kill you.” I kept my voice going right down the middle.

  “I had no idea,” Eli said, and his tone was the same.

  “You see Felix in the front seat? He said we need to get out of Sally now that our job is done.”

  “Felix?” Eli said.

  “I’m right here, Eli.”

  “Why are we leaving town? I was supposed to stay to see what happened after the arrival of Moses the Black.”

  “I had to get you out of there as soon as possible. That’s what I am doing, with the help of your charming friend. You knew she could resist magic spells?”

  If Felix was trying to be casual, he missed his target.

  Eli had not told anyone. He had kept a secret I had not even dared to ask him to. With a lot of neck-twisting, I looked him in the eyes.

  “Are you sure?” he said now, looking back. “Maybe she is just lucky. Gunnies often are.”

  “Or else they’re dead gunnies,” I said, making myself sound cheerful and stupid.

  “I have to get out and relieve myself,” Eli said, sounding like he was apologizing for something.

  “Sure.” I scooted out, reached in to help him.

  It took some shifting around to get Eli out of the car. Felix didn’t offer to help. Whether he knew I’d seen all of Eli (who was still in the hospital gown) and that wouldn’t bother me, or whether he planned to steal the car while we were out of it, something was going on, and I didn’t understand what it was.

  “The car,” Eli gasped as we moved a few feet away behind a tree. He was in pain.

  “I got the keys,” I said. “And I got my guns.”

  I lifted Eli’s hospital gown for him. When I saw it was all he could do to lean up against the tree without aid, I held his dick. With a sigh of relief, he let go. When he was done, I took the opportunity to squat and do the same. Eli eased around the tree to keep an eye on the car.

  Since Eli remained silent, I took it that Felix was behaving. Of course, maybe he was behaving because I had the car keys. Or an invisible someone might have snuck up and stabbed him while I was holding Eli’s dick.

  I couldn’t help but think that would solve a lot of problems.

  When I was put back together, I tucked myself under Eli’s arm and we began working our way out of the woods and back to the road. Eli was alre
ady tired after that short side trip into the trees.

  “Hey, I even said the healing spell on you about a million times while they were operating,” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “Guess I am not such a good half-grigori after all.”

  “It’s bad that Felix knows,” Eli said.

  “I don’t know what I did to make him suspect, except not get killed by Moses the Black. Oh, I didn’t fall under the singing spell. Do you want me to kill Felix?”

  Eli kissed the top of my head as we moved slowly onto the road. He was shaking all over now. “You are wonderful to offer,” he said. “But we’ll keep on as we are, until he wants us to do something we know will lead to our imprisonment or death.”

  I had never thought of imprisonment. The idea made my stomach curdle. I hadn’t been in jail before, much less a prison. Take that back—I’d been in jail once, overnight, due to a case of mistaken identity. More or less. Being locked in a cell, unarmed, with people I didn’t know … I was a good fist-fighter, but I was small with a short reach. Size matters, in a fistfight.

  “Have you always fought with magic? Or have you been in any kind of brawl where you had to use your hands?” I asked Eli, just as we got to the car door.

  “I hit other boys when I was small,” he whispered. “Before I found that I had magic ability. Are you asking if I can still do that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Some days there is nothing I would like better than to hit someone square on the chin. But then I think of what we were taught, that magic users should think it below them to use their bodies to fight.”

  “Don’t you ever think any form of fighting is below you,” I said seriously. “You weigh in there with whatever you got.”

  “All right,” he whispered.

  Eli was about to fold up, so I opened the rear door—thinking a little help from Felix would have been welcome—and got him in. But I looked at Felix as I was about to close the door. “Eli,” I said. “Felix is dead.”

  Eli was so done in it took him a minute to gather up the idea. “Shake him,” he said. “I didn’t do anything to him. You didn’t do anything?”

  “No. You’re the boss, and you said not to.” I opened Felix’s door and looked in. “He’s absolutely dead,” I told Eli. Just for form’s sake I put my fingers to Felix’s neck. “Shit,” I said with disgust. “I had twenty questions I wanted to ask him. When he felt better.”