Ordained (30 page)

The smoke was slow to dissipate. Neither Abby seemed to move, both burned and smudged from the explosion. The counterfeit Abby spit up blood and her heart pulsated up and down with each painful breath.

Across the room, Abby suffered from her own injuries. She’d never felt a burn this excruciating before. The dizziness and illness was overwhelming. She prepared herself for the end – there was no going back.

Using the painful heaves across the cavern as a guide, Abby slowly dragged her dead-weight body across the floor. A thick blood smear was left in her wake. As she collected the stake along the way, she was finally able to examine it. The stake was not laced with the lipid. It was actually a cleverly disguised tranquilizer gun, with an open tip and trigger top. She heard swishing when she shook it and assumed the liquid inside was the lipid phosphatidylserine.

Morphus struggled more and more as Abby neared, but was unable to roll herself off her back. Her double pushed away with all her might, but was helpless as Abby towered over her. Abby pierced the wooden stake into the center of the charred handprint and slammed her hand down on the flat, blunt end. The stake
popped
and the liquid plunged into the heart.

The fake Abby gurgled and froze. Bulging out in pain, the veins traveling away from the heart and out to the body thickened and turned a light shade of gray. The body gasped for air, first quickly, then slowly. For several minutes, Abby watched the effects of the lipid on her helpless opponent. The raspy sound was deafening and the sight chilling to watch. With eyes wide open, the head of her identical twin rolled lifelessly to the floor and blood drained from her mouth.

Morphus’ body slowly dried out, mummified-like. The bones disintegrated into nothingness and left nothing but a fine powder on the floor. The wooden stake was all that remained.

Unable to hold herself up any longer, Abby succumbed to the floor, next to the very spot her enemy departed from. She struggled to breathe but her pain was lessening now. A glorious numbness traveled the length of her body and removed the pain. The calmness caused the burn within her chest to withdraw and her green, color-viewing eyes to return to normal.

Her eyes squinted, blinded by the sight above her. From the heavens, a stream of warm light surrounded her. She wanted nothing more than for the light to take her and put her out of misery. Abby couldn’t fight it anymore; a final breath released her lungs. Her last thought was of Noel, holding her in a tight embrace with her head resting in the crook of his neck, as she surrendered to unconsciousness. Her body became translucent and she faded away, leaving nothing more than a pool of blood across the floor.

Chapter Forty

The arena dim. Hours had passed since Abby and Jayden dissipated. Hunters and advisors lined the outskirts of the arena, armed with their favored weapons, knowing full well the winner of the battle would return to that same spot. Many paced back and forth, eager yet frightened of what was to come. Only the slightest whispers were heard, as if any sound would call the terror forward.

For some reason, the children had been called upon to fight, to throw themselves into the path of danger. One of the little girls resembled Abby and crouched in a shadowed corner, rocking herself backwards and forwards, unsure of her surroundings or what her purpose here was.

A sharp pain pierced Noel’s heart. He groaned uncontrollably and reached for it, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, causing panic. He applied pressure to it, as if it would somehow ease the pain. He had never felt such agonizing pressure before. His body slowly stumbled to the floor.

Some people could feel it when their loved ones died. Was this that moment? Had Abby been given that fatal blow? Had Morphus been able to weaken her enough to get a read on her? If he had, he would have learned how to kill her and created something with the necessary components to destroy her blood.

He felt a soft touch on the back of his shoulder. He could hear Emily call to him but her voice was distorted, like he was hearing her from under water. He couldn’t answer. The pain expanded and traveled down through his limbs and up through his throat, paralyzing him.

He heard muffled gasps, followed by complete silence. Noel forced his eyes open. A warm glow streamed down from the ceiling and a lifeless lump materialized on the floor. A swarm of hunters ran to it and swallowed it up. Noel felt rough tugging on his arm. His hearing was returning to normal as he heard Emily more clearly.

“Noel, come on,” she pleaded. “I can’t carry you both.”

The pain in his chest seceded. He clumsily returned to his feet and headed towards the mass. Most of the advisors were still in the background, hesitant or unwilling to approach. Noel and Emily weaved through the bodies. The sight horrified him. Abby was completely drenched in blood.

“Don’t touch her!” he yelled violently. No one had at that point, but he couldn’t risk them coming into contact with Abby’s blood.

A large gash in her side was the most obvious point of loss. He felt her heart and neck and smeared blood all over himself in the process. He wasn’t sure if there was a pulse.
Please be unconscious
. He swept his arms underneath her and picked her up. She hung heavy in his arms.

He checked the floor for any remaining blood. Only a small fraction had leaked out. Or else there wasn’t much left to lose.

Quietly, he whispered to Emily, “Wipe up all the blood before you leave.”

She was curious but she didn’t question him. The crowd silently parted.

“Hey!” Emily yelled, stopping everyone dead in their tracks. She had seized Roger’s right wrist and pulled him towards her. Valerie’s amulet was grasped tightly in his hand. Noel looked to Abby’s neck. Sure enough, the amulet was gone. Roger must have grabbed for it in the one instant he turned away to push through the crowd.

Emily ripped the amulet from his hand. “She’s not dead yet,” she spat, throwing his hand away. Roger backed out of the crowd. Emily turned to Christoph and held out her hand. “Give me your shirt.”

“What? Why?”

She forcefully grabbed his collar and yanked him towards her. “Give me your shirt!” she yelled. Others in the crowd backed away, including Darby and Mira. Fearful of the thoughts behind her eyes, he gave her the shirt. She quickly soaked up the blood and hustled to catch up to Noel, who had already made it to the exit.

He eyed Lincoln and the Chancellor as they whispered in the background. Disappointment, not elation, covered their faces.

Emily rushed the halls ahead of him and prepped the transfusion equipment.

“Lock the door,” he demanded.

“Jesus Christ,” she said, once she returned and saw Abby collapsed on the bed. “Noel…”

He knew what she was thinking. Ever since Abby’s last transfusion, Noel had Emily give blood on a recurring basis to stock up for this very moment. He too, realized it may not be enough.

“She’s lost so much blood.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he urged. “We’ve just got to keep her from losing it all. The quicker we turn her around, the less damaging it’ll be for her in the end.”

Noel inserted a needle into Abby’s arm and started transferring the blood. “Don’t forget your gloves.”

Emily snapped them on and began sopping up the blood from Abby’s wounds. “Noel, pull it back out,” she said looking up towards him.

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s not gonna stay in.”

Emily was working on the huge gash in Abby’s side. She couldn’t get the blood to stop seeping from the wound.

“Crap,” he moaned in frustration. “Does it go all the way through?”

“I don’t know. Can you pull her towards you?”

Noel gently pulled Abby’s opposite side toward him. Her upper arm fell lifelessly to the bed. The distressed expression on Emily’s face as she examined her backside said it all.

“There’s surgical needles and thread in the first aid box.” He motioned with his head toward the box.

“You know how to do stitches?”

“And quick.”

“What about her insides?” she asked worriedly.

He had originally thought the wound was superficial. Even though Emily discovered she was pierced through, the two holes were only inches apart. He hoped the hit came at an angle, which would minimize an injury to anything important.

“Did anything get pierced?”

“You’re asking me? I don’t have a flippin’ clue where organs go.”

“Trade places with me.”

Half an hour later, both her front and back gashes were laced. Luckily, her insides had no severe damage – at least nothing he wasn’t able to fix momentarily. Emily went behind him and wiped the blood away. She applied the homemade remedy to Abby’s wounds (to her disgust) and covered them with dressings. Noel started the transfusion again.

“Well?” asked Emily when they were done.

“We’ve done all we can. Now we wait and see.”

Emily nodded in agreement. This was the first time he looked at her since he began working on Abby’s stitches. She was clearly aching. He just realized Emily held her up in the air with a freshly broken arm and never once moaned about it.

He also noticed the bandages on her good arm were bright red on the underside. Concerned, he motioned to her arm, “You’re bleeding. Did you break a stitch?”

Emily examined her dressings. “I don’t think so. I must have leaned into Abby’s wounds.”

“Let’s change the dressings. I can’t have you both out of commission.”

Noel unwound the cotton. Layer after layer had absorbed the blood.
Oh, crap
. He unwrapped the final layer, exposing the skin. The blood had soaked all the way through. He pulled a bottle of antiseptic from the kit and quickly cleaned the blood away, pressing deep into the wounds. She flinched in pain. Once clean, he realized her cuts hadn’t completely closed yet. He spread the remedy across her arm, paying particular attention to the open areas. She winced as it burned the more sensitive tissues underneath the skin.

“So how long will it take her to recover?”

Noel’s face softened. He wasn’t quite sure himself.

“She will recover, right?” Emily asked, frightful.

He shrugged. “Only time will tell.” He began winding a roll of fresh dressing around her arm. “Do you feel up to watching her for a few hours? There’s something I need to do and I’m on a bit of a time constraint.”

“Will it help Abby?”

“Not today,” he said honestly. “But it’ll help her heal.”

She nodded in agreement. “Do you mind if I invite Darby and Mira to stay with me?”

“Afraid to be alone?” he asked playfully.

“No. It’s just Darby is also O-negative,” she said solemnly.

Noel stopped wrapping the gauze and stared at her.

“It couldn’t hurt to have a little more blood ready to go, right?”

He continued wrapping. “And Mira? Is she O-negative too?”

“No. But there’s no way I can get one here without getting the other.”

Noel cut and secured Emily’s bandage. “Sure. Just keep everyone else out.” He grabbed Valerie’s amulet from the nightstand, picked up Abby’s wicca bag and left without saying anything further.

Chapter Forty-One

Emily went around the room and collected miscellaneous items that needed to be thrown away: Christoph’s shirt, worn gauze soaked with blood, needles, plastic tubing, gloves, etc. She knew the needles should have been disposed of properly, but the plastic bag was all she had. Once compiled, she told Darby and Mira she would return in a few, that she needed to take the bag down to the incinerator.