Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
Jack
“You’re a sorceress, too?” Jack stood back, shocked. He looked at Amber with new eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“Oh, when would that be?” Amber looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow. “When you were pounding at my door? When you dragged in your dead friend? Or maybe when Kimberly fell to the ground from her wounds?”
“Okay, okay, point taken.”
“I’m a sorceress of healing. I’ve seen and done enough killing to last me a lifetime. I promised myself I’d work to save life now instead of taking it, so I’m not exactly your traditional sorceress.”
“You can heal him using magic?” Jack motioned to Aareth’s sleeping form. The big man was still on the kitchen table, his wounds cleaned and covered. “Why didn’t you just do that instead of wrapping him in gauze?”
“You understand how magic works; it drains you physically, but more so mentally. If I can get your friend to heal naturally, I will. Better yet, if I can do part of the mending process without magic, I can save my ability to help him the rest of the way.”
“I think I get it.” Jack nodded along with Amber’s words. “The more you can do with traditional medicine, the less of the lifting you have to do with your magic.”
“Yep, that’s right.” Amber reached for a white towel and began cleaning her bloody hands. “He’s infection free and clean now. This will only take a moment.”
Jack watched, wide-eyed, as Amber placed her clean hands gently on Aareth’s wounds. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in through her nose and letting it out through her mouth.
Slowly at first, but then beginning to grow in intensity, a dark purple light came from the bottom of her hands. Her mouth moved, chanting words that made no sense to Jack.
Aareth was still. Except for the rise and fall of his chest, he could have been dead all over again.
“Wait a minute. When you were pumping his chest before, when he had died, you were using your magic then, weren’t you?” Jack asked with a sudden realization.
“Shhh…” Amber didn’t open her eyes. “I’m working.”
Jack watched, enraptured, at the work the sorceress was able to call forward. The level of practice and energy it took to heal a body was far beyond Jack. He was still impressed with his ability to levitate and run in speed boots. He was years, maybe decades, away from manipulating life itself.
A moment later, the royal purple light coming from the bottom of Amber’s hands died. She opened her eyes, stretched her arms and neck.
“Did it work?” Jack asked, leaning forward on his tiptoes to get a better vantage point of Aareth. “Is he healed?”
“Look for yourself.” Amber stepped to the side. “Be quiet, though. He still needs his rest.”
Jack maneuvered around to the side of the table Amber had just left and looked down at his friend. Eyes closed, chest moving ever so slightly, Aareth looked like he was in a coma.
He was bare-chested, minus the large gauze pad Amber had placed over the wound that took up a large section of his torso. Jack touched the edges of the pad with his fingertips and lifted the gauze off Aareth’s chest to get a better look.
He couldn’t help a sharp inhale as he witnessed soft, new skin underneath. What before had been an open wound seeping blood and providing a view of tissue and bone was now completely gone.
Jack found himself in awe of Amber’s work. He would give his left hand to be able to perform such strong magic.
“How…?” Jack looked over at Amber, forgetting to lower his voice for his sleeping friend. “You’re amazing! How did you do that?”
“No, Brenda, come back,” Aareth murmured in his sleep. “Don’t leave me again.”
“Shhh…” Amber chided Jack. She motioned for him to follow her outside.
Jack obeyed, still amazed by the level of skill and the use of magic Amber had used in healing Aareth.
When the two walked outside they were greeted by various members of Marcus’ pack. Marcus himself wasn’t there yet, but the brown werewolf who had saved Jack on his run to Amber’s house sat waiting.
When she saw Jack and Amber exit the house, the werewolf female changed her stance from all fours to two feet. Hair fell in clumps around her as she made the move from beast to woman.
In a few seconds, she stood completely naked in front of Jack and Amber.
“Do they all get naked like that when they change?” Amber asked with raised eyebrows. “I’ll go inside and get her something to cover herself with.”
“Thank you.” The woman who had just transitioned from monster to human nodded toward Amber. “It’s kind of breezy out here.”
Amber disappeared into the house, leaving a red-faced Jack trying to look anywhere besides at the naked woman. Jack directed his eyes down, finding the dirt ground under his feet suddenly very interesting.
“Uh, thanks … thanks for saving me back there,” Jack said, still looking down at the ground. “You saved all of us, really.”
“I was just returning the favor.” The woman laughed as though she were aware of Jack’s awkwardness and was actually enjoying the conversation. “You saved me from your father. I don’t know what I was thinking challenging him anyway.”
“N-no problem.” Jack lifted his gaze, doing his best to ignore the curves of her body. He found her eyes. “We’re all in this together now. We need everyone on the same page if we’re going to have a chance at defeating the vampire army that’s marching on Azra.”
“I agree,” the werewolf female said, taking a step forward. She winced in pain.
“Come on.” Amber reappeared from her home and draped a robe over the naked woman’s shoulders. “Let’s get you inside and healed.”
As the women walked into the house, more and more of the wolves joined Jack next to Kimberly’s statue. They nodded to him, licking their wounds, lounging in the shade of the midday sun and resting.
“Jack.”
Marcus’ voice reached his ears and it brought a smile to his face. Jack looked up to see his father walking toward him still wearing his brown coat. Marcus looked as strong as ever despite the blood that trickled down his leg and dripped onto the dirt ground.
“Jack, how’s Aareth?” Marcus asked as he stood next to his son.
“Amber’s amazing.” Jack shook his head, trying to put what he had seen into words. Any explanation he came up with didn’t seem to do justice to what he had seen. “She’s able to heal through magic.”
Marcus slowly nodded, understanding his son’s awe.
“There are so many avenues, so many disciplines for wizards to follow, it would be impossible to master them all. Unfortunately, side by side with other disciplines like fighting, healing comes in near the bottom of the list.”
“Are you hurt?” Jack asked his father, trying to gauge if he was fine or, like Kimberly, he was hiding his true health. “You’re covered in blood.”
“I’ll be fine.” Marcus shook his head, looking around at the werewolves who had gathered in front of the home. “I need to see to the health of the pack. I need to teach them to harness their own beasts so they can make the change.”
“You are most definitely not fine.” Amber came out of the house again, strain on her face now.
She looked around at the group of gathered werewolves, shaking her head.
“I’m not going to be able to completely heal all of you.
The best I can do is patch you up. Jack, I can use your help, if you’re willing. ”
“Are you kidding me?” Jack said, practically jumping at the opportunity. “Let’s do it!”
“Don’t be so eager,” Amber warned him. For a moment a very serious, almost haunting, look shadowed her eyes. “Like every magic, there is a cost associated with the act, and the cost for healing is high.”