An Apocalyptic Need (9 page)

Grimm tightened his hand around the coin Scarlett had given him, envisioning the Healer’s skybound lair. The first wave of energy felt like a punch in the gut. Grimm gritted his teeth and held on tight to Cari as his breath suctioned out of his lungs and knives of pain slashed through him.

Grimm’s skin prickled, then rose in bubbles as the energy crawled through him. The world spun in a cylinder of smoke and fire, pulling him off the ground. Grimm closed his eyes and threw back his head, a deep howl of agony throbbing in his throat as his very essence was dragged from his pores. Every atom of energy inside him ripped free and joined the spiraling cylinder that pulled him and Cari toward the sky.

She fought against him, her skin moving over her bones in rolling waves. Her mouth opened and her throat contracted in a scream he couldn’t hear for the roaring in his ears. Grimm’s limbs tightened, going numb, and he started to fear that he’d drop her. Then the energy constricted, closing like a vice over his chest, and the world went black.

Grimm woke when they slammed against something hard and sank to the floor. Cari sprawled over him, her strawberry-blonde hair drifting softly over his face. She was moaning softly.

Something poked his leg and he twitched, the movement sending him into residual spasms. The smell of dill pickles had him wrinkling his nose and he forced one eye open.

An enormous pair of feet were inches from his face, the wide toes covered in spiky black hairs.

“I am surprised to see you again, hunter Grimm.”

Grimm shoved a silky blonde lock of hair off his cheek and tried to sit up. “Why do your feet smell like dill pickles, healer?”

The little creature shoved the tall, conical hat off his wide forehead and smiled, showing large, crooked teeth. “I enjoy a good ham salad, hunter. Would you care to join me for lunch?”

Grimm grasped Cari’s arms and carefully moved her aside so he could stand. “Eat something that had your feet in it? I think I’ll pass.”

The gnome chuckled.

Grimm slipped his arms under Cari’s legs and shoulders. “I need you to help her.”

The healer’s smile slid away and Grimm knew what was coming. It was bargaining time. Gnomes never did anything unless they got something in return. Grimm fought the urge to yell and waited.

“Why would I expend energy on this one?”

“I’ll give you a boon.”

The little man shrugged and turned, shuffling across the scarred wooden floor of his lair. The ragged edge of his robes swayed with his wide behind, occasionally catching in splintered spots on the floor. The gnome’s carelessly braided hair was twice as long as he was and it trailed along behind him as he headed for the tiny kitchen. “You have no power, hunter. Nothing to bargain with.”

Grimm fought exasperation and offered the only thing he had of any worth. And the worst possible thing he could offer. “I’ll let you draw blood from me.”

The healer stopped, his small body going rigid, and slowly turned. “How many times?”

“How many will it take for you to heal her?”

“What is her healing worth to you?”

Grimm expelled a breath, looking toward the floor as he fought to overcome his temper. “Three times. I’ll let you draw blood from me three times.”

The healer held Grimm’s gaze a moment longer and then nodded. “You’ll give me a fourth time. Later. Upon my request.”

Grimm spoke between gritted teeth. “Deal.”

The healer motioned toward the long metal tables in the adjoining room. His laboratory. “Lay her down in there. I must mix my potions.”

~AN~

Cari awoke to the sound of horribly off-key humming. She lay there a minute, her eyes closed, trying to figure out why she didn’t hear the grind and pull of the ship’s motors. Her quarters were right above the second engine room and she’d fallen asleep every night since boarding the
Stellam
to the low rumble of the fore engines groaning away the star miles.

The humming was almost like the sound of those engines. But it was too warbly and nasal to be mechanical.

Who would be humming in her quarters?

Her mind tried to home in on a response, but her body was soft with weariness and all she wanted to do was sleep.

Slap, slap, slap.

Cari twitched, her eyelids fluttering open finally at the meaty sound of feet hitting the floor. The scene her blurry gaze gradually showed her was beyond strange. So much wood. So much light. She squinted against the unaccustomed illumination and the nearly blinding greenery beyond the windows.

There was heat too. Smoky heat that made her feel like she was in the center of a campfire on
Luminous One
, the fire planet where they once went to stock up on carbon for the
Stellam’s
backup engines.

Cari tried to sit up and cried out with pain. Her back was tight and sore. A fresh spear of agony jolted through her as a memory surfaced of being hit by a blaster aboard the
Stellam
.

“You will feel tenderness for a bit, child. But it will pass in time.”

Cari sucked in a surprised breath. A bright green, cone-shaped hat bounced toward her, its wearer either walking on his knees or exceedingly lacking in height. “Who…?” She shoved onto her elbows and rested, panting with fatigue as a tiny man with strange, rounded features clambered up a rough-hewn wooden stool. “Where am I?”

He grinned, showing large, yellow teeth. “Who am I? I am called the Healer. Where are you? You are in my lair. Now…” He patted her leg with a warm, gnarled hand, the fingers of which were much longer than normal. “—You must take your medicine. I believe your young man is preparing to leave.”

She frowned at the glass vial of thick, black liquid. “What is that?”

Holding it with the tips of his spidery fingers, the Healer pushed the vial toward her. “No more questions, child. Or I will have to start charging you for the answers.”

With that threat, Cari realized the little creature was a gnome of myth. She’d never met one before. Had, in fact, doubted their existence at all. But what she’d heard, and dismissed as exaggeration, was that they never did anything without payment. Usually in the form of favors.

Which meant someone had had to pay for her healing.

Then his words sank in. “My young man?”

He sighed, pushing the vial into her hand. “Drink.”

She sniffed it and gagged. It smelled like the bottom of the latrine on the ship. “I can’t drink this.”

The little man cocked his head. “I was told you were a soldier.”

“I am. But this is…” She grimaced, shuddering.

The Healer merely lifted a shaggy eyebrow.

Shamed by his obvious belief that she was being a weeny, Cari lifted the vial to her lips, her stomach lurching again at the putrid smell. She tilted the slim vial before she could change her mind, dumping its contents quickly into her mouth. It rolled over her tongue like sludge and oozed down her throat, leaving behind a thick coating that tasted like tar.

She gagged again, shoving the vial back in the gnome’s direction with disgust. “Good god that’s horrible. I think I’d rather be in pain.”

The Healer grinned widely. “I am glad to hear it. That is the toad grease. Terrible, terrible stuff.”

She felt the blood leaving her face. “Toad grease. Ugh. What does that do?”

He climbed down from his stool and waddled across the room, a frizzy gray braid following along behind. “Nothing. It is merely to make the potion taste bad.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “It does nothing? What would the potion taste like without it?”

He climbed another stool and dumped the vial into a large sink. Soap bubbles splashed into the air and he poked at them with a spidery finger, smiling widely. “I’ve been told it’s not unlike peaches and crème.”

Cari dropped her feet over the side of the table, twisting her torso gently to test her back. “You seriously mean to tell me you deliberately made that concoction taste like the contents of a dog’s butt?”

He shrugged. “Of course. It is medicine. It should taste like medicine.”

“You realize you’re like a reverse Mary Poppins, right?” She carefully slid to her feet. The room spun.

“Is that a question?” He dried his hands on a white cloth and cocked his head again. The tall, pointed hat tilted sideways and would have fallen if he hadn’t grabbed it. His features softened when he saw her sway. “The dizziness will pass, child. I’m afraid that’s a side effect of the toad grease.”

“You mean the nasty tasting stuff that does nothing medicinally but which you added anyway?”

He jerked his head once in a nod. “Precisely. I see you’ve been paying attention. That is a vast improvement from the other one. He has a head full of hay feathers, that one.”

Cari opened her mouth to ask whom he was talking about, but didn’t get the chance.

“If you didn’t speak in riddles, maybe I’d understand you, old man.”

Cari’s heart skipped a beat.
Grimm
! She eyed the hunter up and down, her body tightening at the delicious sight. At least that answered her question about who was paying for her care. “Hunter. Thank you for bringing me here but you shouldn’t have.”

He lifted a black eyebrow as the gnome chuckled darkly. “Let us hope your payment will not be in vain, Sorceri.”

Cari’s eyes widened in surprise.
So her suspicions about him were correct.

Grimm shot the gnome an irritated glance. “I told you, I am no longer Sorceri.”

Slap, slap, slap,
the gnome stomped across the space and dropped into a low-slung chair that looked like a padded clam shell. “The guide magics fill your cells still, hunter. The Authority cannot take them away by decree.”

“He still has his magics?”

The gnome’s snakelike fingers moved quickly over the yellowed gray braid, pulling it loose as he nodded.

Cari placed a hand on the table and walked around it, using its surface to keep her upright when dizziness swirled through her brain.

A firm grip wrapped around her upper arm and she looked up into Grimm’s intense brown gaze. Having lived in a man’s world aboard the
Stellam
for months, where any sign of weakness would have started a downward spiral in the strength of her authority, her first instinct was to yank her arm away. However, grateful for what Grimm had already done for her, she forced herself to accept his help. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head and walked with her across the space. Easing herself carefully into a matching clam chair, Cari expelled a weary breath. She glanced at Grimm, who stood beside her chair, eyeing the gnome like he didn’t trust him. “How did you bring us here if you can’t get to your guide magics?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large coin. “An epoch mage gave me this.”

She frowned. “An epoch mage? Where did you find one of those?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later. Right now we need to get going. If you’re up to it?”

“Where are
you
going?”

“
We’re
going to my friend, Audie. He’ll help us figure out what to do about Alcott.”

Cari shook her head. “I need to get back to the
Stellam
. I have a job to do.”

The gnome’s fingers worked quickly along his braid, but his beady black eyes shifted back and forth between Cari and Grimm, his small face brightening as Grimm squared his shoulders.

“Cari, you can’t go back there, Alcott wants you dead.”

She pushed against the arms of the chair and stood, fixing him with her sternest look. “No, he wanted
you
dead. Now that you’re off the ship I can go back and finish my assignment.”

“What assignment?” Grimm’s handsome features were hard with anger, his broad shoulders taut with it.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Dammit, woman!” Grimm spun on his heel, pacing the small space behind the two chairs. The Healer’s head followed the hunter’s movements like an observer at a space tennis tournament.

“It’s none of your affair,” she told him defensively.

“It
is
my affair, captain. If I hadn’t gotten you off that ship you’d be dead right now.” He stepped closer, grabbing her arms in a firm grip. “If I hadn’t brought you here you’d be dead.” His eyes darkened with emotion. “If I hadn’t paid a personal price for your healing…” His expression softened and he looked away, dropping her arms. It was clear he regretted admitting the last to her.

“I never asked you to help me.”

The hunter’s sexy brown gaze sparked with anger.

“Child.” The Healer’s softly spoken reprimand had her flushing, turning away. “I’ll pay you back for my healing, Grimm. But I’ve been given a job to do and I have to do it.”

“Who gave you this job?”

She shook her head.

“Why would you take a job on a rogue Sorceri vessel?” His voice was harsh, soft with disgust.

His repugnance was almost her undoing. But she straightened her shoulders and looked at the gnome. “I need to get out of here and back to my ship. Do you know where the nearest portal is?”