The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (46 page)

“Can he heal it himself? I healed my broken elbow, remember?”

Sean was still unconscious but not in a good way. We’d put a bag of ice on his knee, but it looked horrible. It was swollen like a gigantic eggplant. The pain had to be excruciating. I thought he was in shock.

He considered that for a second. “He’s probably able, but we don’t know how that’s working since he, uh, was vaporized. Oh, and that was you too,” he said with some asperity.  “Good God, woman, I thought you loved him!”

“That’s not fair! I didn't mean to break his leg! I had no idea I could do that! And you know I didn’t vaporize him on purpose! How can you even say that?” Sean groaned and I grabbed Dec's arm in panic.  “What about Raphael? Can’t he do it?”

“I’ll see if I can find him. It’ll take a little while. Keep him warm and keep ice on the leg. Give him one of these pills if he wakes up. It’ll knock out the pain.”

I nodded with each direction and glanced desperately back at my patient. He groaned and tried to sit up. Dec and I both ran to him.

“Don’t try to move! You’ll make it worse,” Dec ordered.

Glassy-eyed with pain, he was sweating and more than a little green. I handed him the pill and some water.

“Dec, please hurry!” I whispered as he turned to go.

I made Sean as comfortable as I could. I put a pillow under his head and replaced the ice. He was shivering, so I covered him with a blanket and wiped the sticky sweat off his face. His face lost some of its green tinge as the pain killer took effect. His eyes were still glazed though, and he was groggy. He slipped in and out of consciousness.  Domino curled up beside him and gently nudged his arm with her nose. He smiled faintly at her.

“I’m so sorry. Dec is right. I
am
the worst girlfriend ever.” I sat near him, but I really wanted to curl up to him. I was afraid he wouldn’t want that. So I hovered just to the side.

He whispered, his voice slurring the words, “Dec didn’t say that.” His hand fumbled for mine, and I squeezed it carefully. He squeezed back and smiled a little. “I’ll be okay. It’s just a broken bone. No one dies from that.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you there,” a cold voice spoke from the staircase.

“BALIN?”

Where did he come from?

“Aren’t you dead?” 

His golden eyes twinkled as he enjoyed my shock. Smoothly, he said, “Oh, I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me, but now’s not the time.” As he spoke, he came down the stairs never taking his eyes off of Sean.

Domino threw herself in front of Sean and snarled at our unwanted guest. He waved at her in dismissal. “You and your dog! You think she’s actually protecting you, don’t you? I could kill her if I wanted to.” He looked at her for a long moment and shrugged. “There’s no point, though. She can’t hurt me
now
.” He smiled and a cold chill crawled down my spine.

Sean was sitting up, but his color was green again and beads of sweat ran down the side of his face. “Didn’t I put a blade in you? Why aren’t you dead, demon?”

I sidled closer to him and helped him stand up and lean against the wall. I knew without any doubt that he wouldn’t want to die lying on the basement floor. There were two other things I was positive about. One, Balin would try to kill Sean before leaving our house and two, I would die protecting him. This night wasn’t going to end well for any of us. Where were Raphael and Dec? A little backup would be great right now.

Balin’s handsome face twisted with humor at Sean’s question. He purred in that creepy silky demon voice, “Oh, but I
was
dead. And don’t think I don’t owe you for that. That’s why I’m here. First, I’ll kill you, and then I’ll take her. My boss has a soft spot for her and wants her back.”

He was about 10 feet away from me now. Mentally, I groaned at my predicament. I had no gun, no knife; no weapons handy at all. Sean was struggling to rally his killing powers, but I could see he didn’t have the energy. His body had been drawing the
saol
to his broken leg, and there was precious little extra to rally into his hands. The bones in his face were white with the strain of keeping upright.

“You don’t look too bad for a dead demon, Balin. Why don’t you tell us how you got a new lease on life?” I was stalling and furiously thinking.

Could I vaporize him, on purpose? We hadn’t practiced that yet. I wasn’t sure I could do it without blind panic. Plus, he was too close to Sean…

What if I missed?

“Let’s just say I have your friend to thank for that. I’m sure he’ll be glad to know we’ve worked out a few kinks. Now, let’s go.” He reached for me intending to grab my arm and I let him.

As soon as he grabbed my arm, I flipped him onto his back and kicked him in the head. Jumping back out of his reach, I looked around for something to use as a weapon. There wasn’t anything sharp. I was on my own. He got up and in a heartbeat was standing next to Sean. He wrapped his hand around his throat and squeezed. Sean dug his fingers into Balin’s hands trying to pry them off, but Balin had the advantage. Sean’s face turned red and then purple as they struggled. My vision went completely white when Balin started laughing and let Sean drop to the ground. His laughter pushed me over the edge, and I sent all of my power towards him expecting to vaporize him in a cloud of smoke. Instead, a beam of white light shot out of my hand and cut him in half where it landed. The half that was cut away slid off to the side. The other half looked at me incredulously. His mouth was working to form words, but nothing came out. With one last burst of energy, I vaporized him into smoke.

Only half of him was gone though. The smaller half was still lying across Sean’s feet. He was sucking in oxygen and trying to slide away from the stinking remains, but his knee gave out and he sagged against the wall with a moan of pain.

“Wait! I’m coming.” I stumbled over to him and pulled him away from Balin and we collapsed in a pile together. My breath was coming in gasps, and my eyes burned like they were literally on fire. I squeezed them closed and lay my head on his shoulder. He was drenched in sweat, but I didn’t care. I was exhausted and fell asleep on him.

Someone shaking my shoulder woke me up a few minutes later. My eyes flew open, and I pushed myself up to stand in front of Sean again.

“Get away from him!” There was a crazy edge to my voice that caused him to take a step back. My eyes started to burn again, and this time I embraced the fire and let it grow. Glaring at him, I flexed my fingers in warning.

“Whoa! Relax! I was looking for Killian. Have you seen him?” James sounded less sure of himself than usual. But then he realized how hurt Sean was and a slow smile spread over his face.

“Looks like your boy took one for the team. He’s not dead, I hope.”

“Are you
enjoying
his pain?”

He rolled his shoulders and smirked, “It’s about time the big man feels some pain. He’s overdue.”

“Overdue?”

My blood actually started to boil like effervescent bubbles floating through my veins; my fingers pulsed with new life, with new power. I looked down at my hand and noticed without surprise that my hands were glowing and the light was spreading up my arms. I let it take over and relished the pleasure of the
saol
coursing through my blood, giving me strength and the will to use it. My vision turned white again, and I met James’ arrogant stare with one of my own.

The smirk vanished and he began backing towards the stairs.  Relentless, I stalked after him without breaking eye contact. Every detail of his face was clear. Every pore, every line was magnified, as were his thoughts which were running around in circles inside his head. He was panicking and trying to get out of here. He was afraid of me now; it was the eyes. The white light was freaking him out. He didn’t understand how it was possible. So he backed away…

“I don't like you, James. If you even think about coming near Sean I will blow you to pieces.” To emphasize my words, I raised my hand and blew a hole in the wall just off to his left. Concrete splinters flew like shrapnel sticking in the arm that he raised to protect his face. Confused and afraid, he stared at the blood running down his arm.

“That’s right, James. Be afraid. Be very afraid.” I didn’t recognize my own voice.

He left without another word.

A sound from the other side of the room surprised me, and I whirled around ready to do battle. It was Raphael and Dec. They’d finally showed up and were staring with open mouths and raised hands.

Raphael raised an eyebrow and frowned at Dec accusingly. “Did you know about this?”

Dec shoved his hair back and answered, “Uh, not
this
exactly. She’s been gaining power for a long time now. Just a little at a time though.
Nothing
like this!” He looked at me with appreciation and added, “Wow, you were amazing. Can you be my partner again?”

“Anything you want, Dec. Just make it stop! It hurts-a lot!” I was still glowing and it was getting really painful. My skin was too thin to hold it all inside, and I felt like I was about to burst at the seams.

“Go to her, Declan. I’ll see to Sean.” Raphael sighed and said, “It’s a good thing you found me when you did.”

“Dec, I'm melting!” I was getting frantic.

He scooped me up and dropped me into the shower. Stepping back out, he turned on the cold water, and I squealed with shock. “What are you doing? Drowning me won’t help!” I tried to climb out, and he blocked the exit.

Laughing hard, he wheezed, “It’ll bring your temperature down faster. Just stay there for five minutes, and we’ll do the rest out here.”

So I stood in the shower and watched in amazement as the white light faded and my skin returned to normal. My eyes felt better too. Without the supernatural fire heating me up, the water was too cold and I was shivering. Shutting off the faucet, I begged for a towel.

“All right, come here then.” He wrapped a blanket over my shoulders and led me to the living room. “Sit down and stay covered.”

“What possessed you to turn yourself into a road flare?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I was so furious…It just happened, kind of. I’ve been getting more powers and more strength. I don’t know why. I don’t know where it’s coming from either. It’s really freaking me out.”

“Okay, we’ll talk about it in a minute. But for now, breathe evenly and deeply. Tell your body to cool off,
control
your temperature--use your mind. If you allow your anger to rule you, darlin’, you’ll burn yourself up.”  He reached out and touched my cheek. I leaned my chin into his palm, and he rubbed it with a small grin.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” he asked with a worried look.

I fidgeted and said, “Yes, but some things are too stupid to talk about.”

“If they’re so stupid, why do you let them make you mad?” Chafing some color,
human
color, back into my hand, he said, “Tell me what’s got you so upset, Mica. Please.”

I stalled and stared at the lamp on the table. He’s right. I needed to talk to someone about this, and I couldn’t share any of my life with Dani or anyone else for that matter. How would I explain these things to them? They’d never understand. Dec would though.  I clung to his big warm hand and told him about everything that was bothering me. I was jealous over Sean’s girlfriends and the receptionist. He’d hurt my feelings when he let her touch him like he was available. I was confused and afraid of my new powers. Where were they coming from? What if I hurt someone innocent? I was getting more and more afraid of James and what he was doing. I was terrified that Scott Flynn and his bloody knife would kill some innocent girl just because she looked like me. I had so many things to worry about and no control over anything anymore.

He listened intently throughout my rambling and only asked a few questions to help me clarify my worries. He tried not to laugh when I ranted about the slutty receptionist.

“Oh, Lara? Everyone’s had sex with her. It’s like a rite of passage or something.” He tapped a finger on the side of his face, thinking. “Except for Killian, I think; no one ever knows who he sleeps with.” Seeing my narrowed eyes, he chided, “But Mica, Sean wouldn’t do that now. I can’t believe you’d let her make you jealous. You should know better.”

“Yeah, I’m so awesome. I just broke his leg in a temper tantrum, and then he was almost killed by a zombie demon that I let into our lives,” I snorted. “Yeah, I’m a prize worth keeping.”

He didn’t laugh; instead he pulled me down to the couch and said, “What’s really bothering you? All of these worries are valid, don’t get me wrong, but you’re dancing around something else. I can feel it.”

The problem was I didn’t know what was bothering me. I was just angry. In any event, I was saved from trying to explain that by Raphael.

“Declan, come and help me put our young Sean into his bed. The worst of it’s done now, but he’ll feel better in a bed and off the basement floor.” Turning back to me, he said, “Oh, and Mica?”

“Yes?”

“Would you mind fixing this old man a cup of tea? Earl Gray, if you have it.”

Earl Gray tea?  Raphael was a surprise every time we met. Always elegant and charming, he treated me with great respect.  His impeccable old-fashioned manners masked an old and tremendous power within him. I’d only seen him use this power for healing, but I suspected it hadn’t always been that way. He was still lean and tough as a warrior though not quite as muscular as Sean and Killian. He was older than them though. I thought he was in his late 40s. I was just guessing about that since I wasn’t sure how old he was. For all I knew, he was 5,000 years old…

“How is he?” I asked as I handed him the tea cup and saucer.

He spooned a bit of sugar into his cup and stirred before answering me. “He’ll certainly live; however, he was in considerable pain.” Setting down his spoon with a clink, he asked, “Might I ask why you felt he deserved to have his leg crushed?” His eyes were cool as he looked deeply into my own.

I resisted the urge to gulp; instead, I frowned into my own cup. “I didn’t mean to break his leg, I swear. I just wanted to…”

“Hurt him?” he finished for me.

“No! Yes…but not like that! I was so mad I just wanted to blow off steam and have a good sparring match. He’s always been stronger than me so I thought he could handle anything I threw at him.” I was miserable again.

He was quiet for a moment and then said, “Sean feels that you’re stronger than a human girl of your size should be. Do you think that’s true?”

I glanced at him in surprise. “I don’t really know. But lately, I feel as if I’m changing on the inside.” I smiled awkwardly and chewed on my lip.

“Did he tell you I’ve been able to translocate people? Usually when I try to do that to demons, they end up vaporized. Today though, I was afraid to blow up Sean by accident. So I tried to focus the
saol
towards the demon by channeling it through my hand, and a white light shot out of my hand and hit him. It cut him in half! It was like a laser! I was shocked. I have no idea how that happened.”

Raphael seemed shocked too. He looked steadily at me as if looking for holes in my story. Suddenly my rune began to tingle, and I idly rubbed it with my thumb.

“May I?” He indicated my hand. I nodded and he picked it up and examined the rune carefully. “Hmm.” He lifted a finger to touch it and I flinched.