Phoenix Tonic (3 page)

Chapter Four

George Simmons rubbed his face as he watched the sun rise from the cushion lined window of his daughter’s bedroom. His all-night vigil seemed worthless. No matter how he prayed for his daughter’s health, she continued to deteriorate.

Why did his little girl have to be so stubborn? She could have been cured weeks ago, if only she’d considered Markham’s proposal. She was suffering so much. The morphine didn’t seem to help anymore. She’d wake up delirious, writhing in pain and then she’d collapse again. It was almost too much for him to handle.

A soft knock came from the rich maple door. Simmons cleared his throat, but was too exhausted to stand. “Yes?”

The maid entered with a lowered head. “Forgive me, but Mr. Markham is here and has requested to visit your daughter.”

Simmons’s brow drew together.
Maybe there’s a chance the fool changed his mind?
He motioned the maid to let the guest have entry.

Simmons watched the young man’s face as he knelt at his daughter’s side. It melted from worry, to distress, to guilt.

“Mr. Markham,” Simmons said low, “I am a proud man. But I beg you, please, let my daughter live.” He knew there was no medicine in the world that could help her at this point. But he couldn’t give up, it was his job as a father.

Kallian reached out to touch the skeleton of a hand that belonged to Hailey, but he pulled back at the last moment. George knew the feeling, as if his touch might break her.

The young man turned toward him, still on his knees. “Please accept my apology for the proposal last month. I didn’t mean for it to sound as chauvinistic as it must have to her. But the tonic has side effects. Those side effects would have plagued her for the rest of her life. I needed her to choose that life. It would have been dangerous for her to be away from me as she learned to deal with the difficulties.”

George leaned forward. “So she doesn’t need to marry you for the medicine? She only needs to be monitored?”

Markham shook his head. “There’s more to it than that. The side effects will make her hormones go out of control. She will not be able to be around any males for at least a year, maybe longer.”

George stood up, his eyes wide. “So it’ll be like a convent? She can do that.”

Markham’s brow furrowed. “It’s much worse than that. If she overreacts she may, uh, spike a fever that can be dangerous to everyone around her.”

George shrugged. “So she’ll learn patience. She needs that anyway.”
Could it be true? Is Markham folding?

Mr. Markham stood and looked at George long and hard. “I’m sorry, this cannot work. If word of the tonic got out it could put my entire family in danger. If she had come willingly—”

“We will not let your secret out, I promise!” George lunged at Markham and grabbed him by the shoulders. “I’ll give you any kind of collateral. Anything at all. I’ll even give you my company, just save her.”

Hailey let out a soft moan in her unconscious state.

Markham stiffened under George’s grasp. His eyes narrowed as he slowly removed George’s hands from his shoulders. A mutinous glare lit up Markham’s features. “I don’t want your company. But if it will keep you in line you can put me on as a leading partner holding the most shares. That way, if you double cross me, we’ll bury the company and you with it.”

George’s fingers dug into the window sill for balance as the young man glared down at him. Markham was certainly formidable, but if he could save his daughter he’d agree to anything. “My daughter will do everything you say.”

Markham looked from George’s desperate face to the girl on the verge of death. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Chapter Five

              “Are you insane?” Malachi growled. “Trying to make her your wife was bad enough, now you’re just going to lock her away? What if the others found out? Can you do nothing right when it comes to this girl?”

“And what is the right thing to do, brother?” Kallian hissed under his breath. There was a pause over the phone as he watched Hailey on her white hospital bed, being rolled up the ramp to his jet.

“You should have let her die, Kallian. The torture you’re about to put her through…”

Kallian gripped the phone tighter. “She’s strong. She can handle it.” The roar of the engines brought the plane to life. “I expect you to be there, Malachi. I don’t want a repeat of what happened to the princess.”

Though muted by the engine noise, Kallian heard his brother say “I will be.”

~***~

Kallian regretted dismissing the nurse as soon as the plane landed. They had been waiting over an hour in the titanium reinforced room, and Hailey was starting to stir. He paced back and forth as the seconds ticked by. The morphine was wearing off, and she was making agitated, though incoherent, sounds.

Where was his brother? He needed the plant. He couldn’t do anything without those stupid leaves. His already discarded suit jacket slipped from the back of the chair and fell to the floor. He ignored it. Instead he unbuttoned and rolled his sleeves to his elbows. The muscles tensed in his forearms as Hailey’s sounds grew louder.

Chewing on the inside of his cheek, he continued pacing. “Please forgive me, Hailey. Just a few more minutes and it will all be over. Just hang in there.”

He had the main part of the tonic on him. Heck, it
was
him. It was flowing through his veins. But the human immune system usually crashed before the antibodies had a chance to work. That's why he needed that plant, to suspend the immune system so his blood could do the work. Throughout time, only fifty percent of humans survived the transformation the old way. He squeezed his eyes, trying to push away the memory of the Princess of York. That would not happen this time.

He didn't dare give her the medicine straight in this condition. She was so fragile she'd die before his antibodies could rewrite her system.

The door handle turned and Kallian froze mid step.

Malachi quickly strode into the room brandishing a briefcase. His jaw set as he locked the door behind him.

"Did you bring it?" Kallian held his hand out, not waiting for a response.

Malachi knelt on the cold titanium floor and popped open the case. "I can't believe you're making me do this." He handed over the plastic bag of fresh herbs.

"I'm not making you do anything. You can go if my choice disgusts you so much."

Kallian unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it on the chair with the plant. He grabbed a syringe strapped to the lid of the case and checked the diameter of the needle. Once satisfied, he pumped his fist a few times and looped his belt around his bicep. Pulling the leather tight with his teeth, he slid the needle in the crook of his arm. His brother set the rest of the contents on the steel counter mounted to the wall. He lit the beaker and waited until Kallian had a full vial of blood.

Malachi held out his hand. “I'll do it. I'm more experienced in this phase—”

Kallian shook his head. “You know the tradition. I chose her, I'm responsible for the outcome. I'll do it.”

A frown turned Malachi's lips. “But she's not going to be yours. You' re just going to keep her locked in here.”

Kallian ignored the remark and began mixing sedatives and sterile water in the beaker. Once the temperature was right, he retrieved the herb and tossed it into the mixture.

As he added two dropper-fulls here and an ounce there, Malachi went to check on Miss Simmons. He removed the bed sheet and stared down at the grim sight.

"I've seen death in all phases, in all kinds of creatures." He shook his head slowly. "But humans are always the most difficult to detach yourself from."

Kallian heard the remarks, but ignored them. He needed complete focus for what he was about to do. Everything he’d saved had four legs. Changes they'd made to the tonic due to their research helped ease the transition in a variety of animals. Hopefully it eased Hailey through the process, too. At the very least, if they failed she shouldn’t suffer.

He removed the mixture from the heat source to let it cool. His gaze fell on Hailey as he waited. She had almost no color, and had stopped making noise. She’d probably passed out from the pain, but he had to make sure. His fingers pressed against the inside of her wrist ever so gently. His brow furrowed as he located her pulse. The vein throbbed faintly. If he hadn’t decided to visit when he had, she wouldn’t have made it through the night.

He wondered how she would react when she recovered. Would she be thankful, or hate him for keeping her locked up? He sighed. Probably the latter.

The vial of blood turned the mixture pink as he stirred it. Malachi handed him another syringe, which he filled with the finished tonic. Malachi backed away as Kallian knelt at Hailey’s side.

“Make sure you plant it at a good angle. Her veins will probably collapse at this point.”

Kallian patted and pinched at her arm until the vein became more prominent. The needle hovered over her arm as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Please forgive me, Hailey.”

The needle sank in exactly how he hoped, and his finger pushed the plunger slowly.

Once Kallian removed the needle his brother traded him a cotton ball for the syringe. Kallian pressed it to the bead of blood over the puncture site. “Do you have a thermometer in that case?”

Malachi nodded and handed over an old glass thermometer. Kallian wiped it down and tucked it under her arm. They waited patiently as the numbers crawled from ninety-eight point two to one hundred-three point five.

“We should remove her clothes before it begins,” Malachi said quietly.

Kallian removed the thermometer and handed it back to his brother. “You clean up.” His tone was non-negotiable. Malachi got the hint, and turned around to put the instruments away.

Kallian folded the bed sheet and set it on the chair with his shirt. He knelt again by her side and gently cradled her delicate neck in his large hand. His fingers pulled at the strands of the bed gown until it came loose. Nudging the pillow off with his elbow, he lay her head back down on the titanium slab. The only sound in the room was Malachi, as he dumped the remaining tonic on the floor and packed up his supplies.

Kallian shoved his arms in the sleeves of his white shirt, leaving it unbuttoned as he scooped up his jacket, the sheets and the pillow. He waited until Malachi was out the door before he pulled the hospital gown off Hailey, grabbed the chair, and left the room.

Malachi brought up computer scans in the adjacent room, while Kallian switched on the camera. He leaned over the monitor as he stared at the image. Hailey lay, completely immoveable. His heart pounded as he stared at the pale figure framed with long blond hair. What if it was too late?

He turned to his brother, who punched keys on the computer. “Do you think she’s still alive?”

Malachi cracked a half smile. “Oh yeah.” He turned a monitor toward Kallian containing an image of a body wreathed in reds, oranges, yellows, and a center white spot that steadily grew. “This is her heat signature. There’s a thermometer in the table she’s laying on. She’s progressing along nicely.” He checked the other monitors before turning back to the heat signature.

Kallian craned his neck at the image. “How hot is the white area?”

He shrugged. “Hotter than my instruments can record, which is about five hundred degrees Fahrenheit.” He rolled his office chair across the room and started flipping switches.

“What are you doing?” Kallian stepped out of the way.

“Shoring up the recessed lights and camera. I have plates that slide over them for just such an occasion.” He tilted his head toward the computer. “We need to shut those down now, before she does.”

Kallian nodded as he began shutting down computers, monitors and video equipment. He watched his brother roll to the door and switch off their own light. In the darkness he heard his brother say, “Any time now.”

Kallian held out his hand in pitch darkness. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust before he found the wall they shared with Hailey.

In the darkness Kallian’s fingers splayed against the plaster-coated titanium. The wall warmed with each passing second. A smile crept to his lips. This was her heat, her life, mingling with his. And she was responding well.

After fifteen minutes in the dark the heat began to die down. "Malachi, it's done," he whispered.

Rustling sounds came from within the darkness, then a light switched on. Malachi quickly worked his way around the room, turning on computers and monitors.

"She made it, didn't she?" Kallian peered at the monitors as they booted. She had to make it. He’d been through so much the last six hours, fighting to save her. And she’d suffered beyond anything he could possibly fathom… She deserved to live.

Malachi clicked away at the computer, opening one window after another until the video image filled the monitor. “There,” Malachi pointed to the screen. Hailey lay on the steel bed, the color of molten lava. Her long blond hair spilled around her healthy, fresh face. The curves of her body were soft and full, void of the skeletal-like frame she possessed a half hour ago. Her breathing rose steady and calm.

“I never heard her scream,” Kallian whispered. Leaning over his brother, he clicked open a few windows until a record of her vitals came up. He sighed. “It looks like the sedatives worked for once. Her heart rate is only a little higher than before she began the transition. Her blood pressure, too, looks good.” He shook his head, wide eyed. “She didn’t suffer.”

Malachi had a funny little smile on his face as he stared at the screen. “She took to your blood well. Her flame was so strong the entire room is covered with ash.” He stood and wheeled out a bucket and mop. “Time to clean up all that soot. Are you going to help me? If we take too long and she wakes while you’re in the room…”

“I know.” Kallian stood and grabbed another mop. “We’ll be quick. I don’t want her to face the side effects, yet.”