Healing Hands (The Queen of the Night series Book 2) (25 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Recovery

I woke up in a strange place with an unlikely caregiver watching over me. “Steve?” 

He looked up from his
Guns and Ammo
magazine and grinned at me. “Hey, look who’s awake. How’re you feeling?”

“I’m alive. Where am I?  Why are we here?”

Fiona entered the room. I tried sitting up, but a wave of vertigo forced me to lie back. “Thank goddess, both my patients are awake. Let’s find out how you’re doing.”  She walked over to the fold-out camp bed and did a cursory scan.

I mentally did the same thing, inventorying my body parts and looking for damage. Physically, I seemed fine.

“You seem okay,” Fiona agreed with my assessment. “Bet you’ve got a heck of a headache, though. I wouldn’t try to sit up yet. Doing that much healing in one sitting and then giving blood, I’m sure it took a lot out of you. I didn’t realize how much energy you’d spent healing him until after you’d passed out. Once I understood the extent of the damage from the gunshot wound…” she shuddered at the thought.

I asked the dreaded question. “Did he make it?”

“Oh yes, thanks to you. He’s stable now…hasn’t stopped asking about you since he woke up two hours ago. I suppose I’ll have to let the two of you sit together just to protect your blood pressures. Too much stress can affect the healing process. Let me finish my exam, first.”  She conducted a basic once-over, took temperature and blood pressure, and finished her healing hands scan. She said to Steve, “I don’t want her walking around yet. Can you carry her to the other bed?”

“You people are cruel. You want me to put her in
his
bed. That’s just wrong.”

I looked pleadingly at him. “Please, Steve…I need to know he’s okay.” 

He grumbled something about life not being fair, but he wasn’t really upset. He lifted me as if I weighed no more than a pillow and started walking out of the room.

“Where are we?”  I asked, trying to look around the space.

“Keach house…” he said simply.

“Oh,” I hadn’t recognized the room because of the presence of the bed and the absence of the easels. “It’s Jenny’s loft. I recognize it now.” 

***

He carried me down the stairs and along the second floor hallway. We entered the messiest bedroom I’d ever seen, and I saw Evan, propped up on pillows in bed. He sighed in relief at seeing me. I felt the same way. He smiled, and waited quietly for me to get close.

“Which side?” Steve asked.

“The left side,” I answered without hesitation.

“Great, they’ve already picked sleeping sides,” he grumbled.

“No, dummy, it’s the uninjured side,” I corrected him. Normally, I’d sleep on the right, but I wasn’t going to share that information with Steve.

“Well, there you go.”  He set me down on the bed.

“Thanks, Steve.”

“Don’t mention it.” 

Fiona entered the room. Steve turned and addressed her as he walked out the door.

“Hey Fi, Jenny found those keys so I’m gonna check the place out. I’ll call you later.”

“Sounds good, Steve.” She patted his arm. “You’re a good boy. Your dad must be so proud. Thanks for all your help.” 

Next to me Evan gave a little cough.

I squeezed his forearm, to keep him from voicing his opinion.

He complied.

“Sure thing, Fi,” Steve gave me a little wave as he left.

“Why’s Steve here?” I asked her.

“He and I were talking when I got your phone call. I needed someone strong to carry bodies, and he’s the strongest man in the clan, so he joined me and he’s been here ever since.”

I sighed and leaned against Evan, deeply relieved.

Fiona checked his vital signs, warned us not to do anything to stretch the fresh, raw skin on his healing wounds, and left us alone, closing the door behind her.

So many thoughts and emotions warred within me; I didn’t know which one to voice first. For a while, I simply leaned on him, with my hand wrapped around his forearm, and relished the feel of skin on skin.

Eventually he spoke. “Hi.” 

I moaned. Raising myself onto my knees, I straddled his legs and sat on his thighs to gaze into his beautiful eyes without making him move a muscle.

A ghost of a knowing smile crossed his face.

I took his wonderful face into my palms and, putting all of the emotion swelling in my heart, I gushed, “I
missed
you.” 

I was angry with him. I was hurt, sad, scared, apprehensive, confused, thrilled and horny all at the same time. Mostly I was happy he was home and safe, so I didn’t give him a chance to say, ‘I missed you, too.’  Those words were swallowed up when I kissed him…hard, possessively and completely. He returned my passion, kiss for kiss until we believed the moment was real. Only then would I let him breathe.

I placed my forehead on his, and touched nose to nose. “I was so scared, Evan,” I whispered. “When you lay there, with so much blood…I thought…” I couldn’t finish the thought. It was too awful to consider.

“I know what you thought,” he whispered back, while running the fingers on his uninjured side through my hair, to push it out of my face. “Fiona said it was touch-and-go for a bit, but you showed extreme power and courage in saving me. Thank you.” 

I sat back to look at his face. “You have to stop rushing in to save me every time I get in trouble, Evan.”

“I will always rush in to save you, Mags…always. I’d take fifty bullets for you, Margaret MacDougall, and I always will.” 

I sighed. There was no point in arguing.
I’d take fifty bullets for him, too
. Resigning myself, I gathered information. “Where the hell did you go?”

He answered simply, “Scottish Mount, North Carolina.”

“Why did you go there?”

“I wanted to follow up on a hunch. The Poets said something on the vernal equinox. I went to the source to get clarification. It’s so cool down there.”

“What’s in Scottish Mount?”

“Supposedly the headquarters of the entire Coven of Appalachia is in Scottish Mount. I went to talk to their Poets.”

“Did you find what you wanted?”

“I think so. I found their Great Poet. He talked to me.”

“So, what is it?”

“You’ll find out soon.”  He smiled mysteriously.

I would have pressed the issue but at that moment, someone knocked on the door. I got off Evan’s legs and resumed my position next to him on the bed. “Come in,” I called.

Corey slowly opened the door and poked his head around it. “Hey,” he said, “can I come in?”

“Of course you can, kiddo. Come and sit here,” I motioned to a place next to me on the bed. To Evan I said, “Can you slide over a bit?” 

He looked amused that I had taken over making all the decisions in
his
room, but complied.

Corey took a seat next to me. I reached out to give him a hug but he beat me to it. He squeezed for all he was worth. My heart went out to him. He’d suffered so much for someone so young. I squeezed him back.

“Hey, I’m okay…all right?  I was never in danger of being seriously hurt; I just tired myself out and needed some sleep.”

He looked into my face. “You needed twenty-seven and one-half hours of sleep. That’s a LOT of shut-eye.”

“Really?  I was out for that long?” 

Both of them nodded at me.
Wow
.

Corey turned to Evan. “So how are you doing today?  I thought Fi had lost it for sure when she said she needed to cut you open again to get the bullet out, but you look a lot better.”

“Thanks to the MacDougall family, I’m good. I’m a little sore, but I’ll be fine. How about you?  Now Mags is back, are you ready to tell us what happened?”

“Yeah, sure,” he looked at me and mouthed, ‘You scared me’.

I mouthed back, ‘I’m sorry’.

He nodded and took a deep breath.

I urged him, “Start at the point where I stayed with Evan and you took off after Madison.”

“Okay, well you said not to hurt her, but after she tried to shoot me, and
did
shoot him, I decided,
screw that
, so I chased after her. She was crazy upset. We had been standing right inside the clearing but outside the standing stones. She took off running for the arch the gods use, so I’m chasing her and who comes out of the arch but that blue back itch.”  He paused to see if I would admonish him for his use of language.

I didn’t. She was a back itch.

He continued, “Madison’s screaming ‘Save me’ and so Ariana picked her up and flew off with her. I was so pissed I still ran after them. I changed direction and headed for the trail which runs up the mountain, but before I could get out of the clearing these tiny guys with wings and goatees started sneezing on me. I said, ‘Hey!’ but then I started floating. Dariene came out of her arch and picked me up by the waistband of my pants. I tell her to follow the blue back itch and she does. Now both Madison and I are being carried up the side of the mountain. I can see Ariana’s gonna set her down on the top of the mountain and I’m not gonna catch her, but Dariene pulls this wicked end-around and gets to the top first, so Madison pulls out that dang gun and starts firing. Dariene pulls me back up and starts bobbing and weaving. Madison’s aim is sherbet. Every time she fires the gun she gets thrown back several feet because you have no leverage when you’re floating in air. At one point, I thought Ariana was going to drop her. The tiny goatee guys started flying interference for me. It was so cool!” 

I wasn’t amused.

He wiped the grin off his face, quickly. “Anyway, I start counting shots so I know when she’ll run out of ammo…”

“How did you know how many bullets she had?”

“It was simple. She held a Sig-Sauer P228 9mm, so she had thirteen shots total. She’d already fired one, so I started counting.”

“Where did you learn about a Sig-Sauer P-whatever-thingy?”  I was appalled.

Corey scoffed. “Video games, dude.”  Like everyone would understand that. I vowed silently to take a good look at his video game collection when we got home, but he’d returned to his story.

“So finally, the dimwit figures out she can’t aim unless she’s on the ground. She yells for Ariana to drop her. I’ve counted eleven shots so far. She fires one more time before she’s on her feet. She fires while standing on the trail and the blowback throws her on her butt. Then she gets it. She sets herself on her knees, uses both hands on the gun and takes aim. She would’ve hit me for sure, but she’d run out of ammo. I tell Dariene to put me down on the ground. She does and I take off running down the trail toward Madison. Madison pulls the trigger but nothing happens. I’m screaming and charging her so she starts running back down the hill. Then she trips on a root and goes sailing over the edge. Didn’t you see this part in a dream?” he asked me.

I guess I did.

“So I look over the side of the mountain and there’s no aura…all gone. I guess Ariana figured that out too, because she starts yelling and swooping down on me. I’m ready. I want to get my hands on the back itch. I grab her forearm and try like hefalump to cook her.”

“What happened?” I asked, holding my breath.

“Nothing,” he said dejectedly, “I got hurt and she didn’t. She just laughed at me and twisted out of my grasp. She said I couldn’t kill someone who’s already dead. She said something about how dare I try to harm the godhead and she’d be back for me. Then she flew away and I walked back down the hill.”

“I’m so sorry, Corey.”

“Yeah, I’m okay now.”

“What about Madison?” I asked. “What about her family?”

“She didn’t have any family,” Evan said. “Her story’s a pretty sad one. The council will see she gets a proper burial.”

“What’s her story?” I asked, feeling sorry for the woman, even though she’d hated me.

“I know it,” said Corey, looking down at his hands. “I’ve been seeing bits and pieces of it all year.”

“Okay, Corey, why don’t you tell it then?”  I had the feeling he needed to get all of this off his chest so he could put it behind him.

“I guess it really started when she was six years old,” he said softly. “She was playing with a ball outside and her dad was cleaning out the gutters. Her ball rolled under the ladder and she ran after it. She accidentally bumped the ladder and it collapsed. Her dad landed weird and broke his neck on a garden wall. It was an accident, but her mother never thought so. Her mother started drinking heavily and Madison’s childhood was really crappy. After a while she believed her father’s death was her fault, because her mom told her it was, like, every day. Her mom died of liver disease when Madison was sixteen, and she barely grieved. She went to live with relatives, but they feared her. Everyone thought she was cursed. She’d gone all Goth, so it didn’t help her image. As soon as she could drive, she started sneaking out at night. She hid in the Yule cave, because no one went there the other 364 days of the year. One day, Ariana visited her. Ariana convinced her to be a spy. When Evan became the Great Seer, Ariana convinced Madison to try and date him. She became obsessed with him. Sorry, dude,” he said to Evan, who just shrugged. “Anyway, Ariana started using compulsion to make Madison do all kinds of gross things,” he shuddered and I decided to let him skip that part. My poor brother had been traumatized enough. “She’d started this campaign to get Evan to notice her, but you came here for the summer, and you know the rest.”