Chapter 5 #2
He got down on his knees, crossed Mr. Blackwater’s arms over his chest, then found a good grip.
I did the same, resting my hands on the man’s hip. “Why aren’t we on the other side? This feels wrong.”
“We’d have to pull him from that side, and the wall’s too close. Plus, if we had to reach over him, our knees would get in the way. Move your left hand higher.”
“Here?”
“No. Put it below where the blade’s lined up.” Salem touched me for the first time, and I felt his emotions. He was anxious, but I also sensed confidence and composure. Meanwhile, I was on the verge of a panic attack. The Mage was definitely high, his emotions murky and not as sharp.
“What if it cuts me?” I asked.
“That won’t happen. Take a few breaths. When I count to three, push as hard and fast as you can. We don’t want to do this twice, so put everything you have into it. Don’t move your hands, and don’t lean to the left.”
“Wait… Do I push on three, or after?”
Salem met my eyes. “It’ll be one, two, three, push. Got it?”
I nodded.
He turned his attention to the Mage, who was singing a song under his breath. “Mr. Blackwater, I want you to brace yourself. It’s not too late to change your mind. You can trust my friend, and he can be here in under twenty minutes.”
“I know who your friend is,” he said drunkenly. “He runs that fancy club. You can’t trust a Vampire. Ever. Not ever in this world. They’ll kill you with kindness and then they’ll just kill you. Or stab you with a sword because you can’t be blackmailed.”
“What about a blowtorch? We might be able to cut the blade in half. Then I can sedate you before we lift you off the ground. It would do less damage.”
The man raised his head and stared daggers at Salem. “Are you a fucking pussy? Just do it! I’m not waiting around another five minutes with this thing in me. Hurry up!”
Salem looked over his shoulder at the stairs. “Is the assailant coming back?”
“He might. Does that light a fire under your ass?”
After heaving a sigh, Salem reached into his bag and handed the Mage a thick piece of rubber about five inches long. “Bite down on this. It’s rubber, so your teeth won’t break.”
“Teeth grow back.” The Mage cackled and then stared at the pink object. “Is this a dildo? What the actual fuck?”
I sat back, trembling with fear.
Salem cupped my hands in his and leaned in tight. “You can do this. I swear I’ll owe you a favor. On my good name, you’ll have a favor in your pocket.”
A chill swept down my spine. Favor trading was our most valuable form of currency, and everyone honored it.
You could call on a favor at any time, whether it was the next day or the next century.
People collected favors, but they could also backfire—something I knew a lot about.
Only this time the favor was in my pocket.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Okay.”
Salem pulled a bottle and a wide roll of tape out of his bag.
He cut several eight-inch strips and laid them aside since they still had the adhesive attached.
“When we do this, keep pushing him until I say to stop. We need to move him away from the sword. If he’s too close, I won’t be able to tape the wound without rolling him, and no one wants that. ”
After a few deep breaths, I anchored my knees and got a good grip on the man’s hip and thigh, waiting for Salem’s order.
A tendril of hair slipped in front of his face when he looked at me. “Ready?”
Under no circumstance would I ever be ready, but he needed me. After another deep breath, I nodded.
“One… two… three, push!”
We simultaneously shoved the man as hard as we could. Despite the drugs, Mr. Blackwater howled in pain. My hands burned, unshakable agony rippling through my body. It felt as though it was happening to me.
“Stop!” Salem shouted.
I reeled back and clutched my stomach. No longer did I feel his pain, but my eyes blurred with tears.
Salem hastily sprayed the bottle all over the wound, and frothy red bubbles formed as he continued spraying inside the opening. “Stay still. You’re lucky it didn’t get your liver.”
“Fuck! Get me outside,” the man groaned.
I peeled the adhesive off the first strip of tape and held it up, ready to go.
“Don’t move!” Salem wiped the man’s side with a cloth from his bag and began taping as fast as he could. He didn’t have to wait long since I always had a strip ready to go. When he reached the middle, he said, “I need you to roll onto your left side. Do it now.”
The man groaned.
I got up and walked backward as if the floor were on fire and the flames were inching closer.
Despite Salem’s best efforts, blood pooled on the floor from the back opening. He sprayed the rest of that bottle until it was empty and then tossed it across the room. His cloth was too wet to dry the wound.
I took off my white cardigan. “Here!”
He worked fast to dry the skin so the tape would stick. I’d never seen anyone so calm. My blood curdled at the horrifying scene, and a dizzying wave swept over me.
Salem raised his head. “Quinn, I need you.”
I had imagined him saying those words before, but not like this.
I rushed to the opposite side.
“Grab his other arm. We’re going to lift him. Mr. Blackwater, you need to walk. It’s going to hurt like hell, but it’s imperative you stay on your feet. If you let your body hang and make us carry you, it’ll rip the tape open. Do you want to know what’ll happen next?”
The Mage shook his head, his eyes glittering with tears that seemed to be flooding out involuntarily. “Hurry. Get me…”
He was in a significant amount of pain. I hooked his left arm over my shoulder, gripped his hand, then did my best to help him up, but he was incredibly heavy. Salem did most of the lifting.
With every step, the man spoke and appeared more alert. “Get me upstairs! It’s wearing off! Fucking hell!”
Maybe the medicine had bled out of him. He was weak and struggled with every step.
My back hurt, my shoulders hurt, and most especially, my stomach hurt.
Everything he felt radiated through me, but I tried to convince my brain that it wasn’t real.
A good Sensor could disassociate from an experience, but I’d never encountered anything like this before.
I wasn’t sure how we did it, but Salem and I ushered him all the way upstairs, down the hall, and out the front door.
The man broke free from our clutches and stumbled into the sunlight.
After dropping to his knees and falling onto his good side, he stretched out his arms. Relief bled through his expression.
Sunlight was extraordinarily powerful to a Mage.
It could even kill them if they didn’t know how to extract the right amount of healing energy.
But when they did, it sealed together organs, tendons, skin, and restored the body to new, healing them immediately.
It wouldn’t replenish blood loss, and usually broken bones were set beforehand.
He rolled onto his back and sighed while ripping off the pieces of tape. “That fanghole broke my new chandelier.”
I staggered toward a tree before gripping the trunk and vomiting. My whole body trembled, and I broke out in a cold sweat.
Salem pulled my hair away from my face. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t have done that alone—not without either slicing my arm off or butchering him in the process. I wish you didn’t have to see that.”
I squatted and then sat down, my eyes watering and residual emotions rolling through me like a turbulent storm. “What do you think my Breed is, Salem?”
“Aren’t you a Shifter?”
“Partly. But I’m also half Sensor.”
He blanched and lowered his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Salem dropped to his knees in front of me and swept my hair back. “You felt his pain? All of it?”
I struggled to assemble my thoughts. “You needed me.”
“I have pain medicine. Do you still hurt? What can I do?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s over now. I don’t feel anything but sick. It’s like waking up from a nightmare. I’ll shake it off in a few minutes.”
He stroked my back consolingly while I quietly meditated. As a Sensor, I could touch a person and feel what they were feeling, whether physical or emotional. Once I had broken the connection, I no longer felt the Mage’s pain or anger, but it had done a number on me.
Salem’s soothing touch seemed deliberately calming, as if he were mentally thinking of a flowery meadow or vacationing on a beach. I guessed as a healer, he must have known that was the best medicine he could offer me.
“I had no idea you were a Sensor. You weren’t wearing gloves when I saw you at the store.”
Most of us wore special gloves made from a thin material that served as a barrier between us and the world. Emotions transferred from people onto objects, where they lingered for an indefinite amount of time.
“I like experiencing emotions,” I admitted. “The world is here for us to enjoy, both the good and the bad. But I’ve never done anything like that before.”
Salem pulled me into his arms like he had all those months ago and carried me down the driveway. Guilt and compassion were dripping in his embrace. The Mage had already gone back inside without so much as a thank-you.
A black car rolled up the driveway, and a bald man in all black emerged.
His black eyes darted in our direction as he marched past us toward the house.
Sunlight glinted on a large silver ring on his finger with a ruby stone.
Salem’s grip tightened, but the man had other plans.
I could only assume he was the one who had impaled the Mage in the first place.
Once in the car, Salem reached across me and buckled my seat belt. “Wait here. I need to fetch my bag.”
“What?” I grabbed his arm. “You can’t! He’s a Vampire.”
“It’s fine. Men like them don’t care about bystanders. Healers don’t pose a threat to anyone. I’ll be fine.”
I watched apprehensively as he entered the home.