The Healer: A Young Adult Romantic Fantasy (The Healer Series Book 1) (14 page)

I lifted his chin less gently this time. The tension was getting to me.

“If you’re so worried about the blood then why don’t you stop it?”

“Maybe you should tell me how you and your cousin know who I am. I certainly don’t remember seeing you two before.”

“Don’t you?” He lowered his head and tried to look at me again.

I quickly tilted his chin back and held it there.

“If you don’t keep your head back the bleeding won’t stop,” I chided. My real motivation was to avoid eye contact with him. I was a terrible liar, and I didn’t need him picking up on that. “You didn’t answer my question. How do you know who I am?”

“The real question you should be asking me is when do we go on our first date? I don’t mind an aggressive woman.” He lowered his head and lifted one eyebrow in a way I assumed was supposed to be sexy, and of course, it totally was.

I sighed in annoyance.

“I should have let Nathan beat you unconscious. Silence is infinitely better than listening to you run your mouth.” I stood up and threw another tissue in the trash.

He grabbed my hand in his before I could put more distance between us. The physical contact left me tingling from head to toe. I looked down at him and felt a renewed sense of pain, and even guilt, at not healing someone who so obviously needed it.

“I guess it would’ve been better if I was unconscious.” He sounded almost repentant. “Then you could’ve healed me without anyone being the wiser.”

I watched his poor swollen face break into a mischievous smile. It was surprisingly adorable.

“Why do you and Victor hate each other so much?”

My question seemed to surprise him. I guess he’d been expecting me to continue denying his accurate claims. His face darkened a bit, and his hands released mine, balling into fists at his sides. This was a touchy subject, which made me feel even more curious.

“There’s some bad blood between us,” Tie finally managed to spit out.

“Yeah, I figured that one out for myself, but why? What happened between you two?”

“Oh, just a little fight over a girl.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“You two fought over a girl?”

I couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling up.

“Sure. Guys do that all the time, right?”

“I guess they do, but to be honest, that kind of behavior seems a bit beneath both of you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, for one thing, Victor seems like the type of person who’d sacrifice his own interests for the sake of others.” I ignored the strange gurgling sound coming from the back of Tie’s throat. “And as for you, it’s just so high school. You don‘t strike me as someone who could work up enough energy to care. In fact, I don’t think you’d ever fight for a girl at all. If she isn’t coming to you, it probably isn’t worth your time.”

My response had angered him, but he did a decent job of controlling it as he slowly stood up.

“You honestly think I don’t have it in me to care? You don’t even know me.”

“And yet somehow you know me.”

Tie placed his hands at my waist and pulled me closer to him. That much physical contact almost did me in. I put my hands against his chest and pushed away. It had absolutely no effect. He remained uncomfortably close to me. Fortunately for both of us his nose bleed had stopped. Tie’s anger seemed to fade as he took in my open, honest expression. I really wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just trying to explain to him how ridiculous it was to picture Victor being petty and Tie actually caring enough to put up a fight. He lifted his fingers and traced the outline of my face gently, looking at me like he was discovering something for the first time. I fought to keep myself from savoring the moment. How could I fight a mounting attraction to someone who had no concept of personal space?

“I wish things were different,” he said with regret. “You’re just as fierce and argumentative as I remember you.”

I wrinkled my brow in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense, Tie.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied waving away his last comment like it was some big joke. “You’re just lucky I don’t have a caring bone in my body. If I did, you’d be putty in my hands.”

“Well, looks like you’re back to being your old obnoxious self.” I quirked an eyebrow at him.

Tie still had his hands at my waist, and it was very distracting. “You can let go of me now,” I said pointedly. “I’ll let go of you as soon as you agree to heal me.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in.

Hello! This feels amazing
.

My hands instinctively rested on his chest, and I almost allowed myself to lean into him.

Think of something else, anything else. Broken ribs, gunshot wounds, head trauma…

I continued my morbid mantra in my head as I tried to push myself away from him, but his arms felt like iron. I craned my neck back a bit to meet his gaze, which ended up being a mistake. His eyes were so compelling, albeit cold and forbidding. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have those eyes light up with love.

Lacerated wrists, compound fractures, urinary tract infections…
It wasn’t working. I couldn’t think properly when he was touching me. Why was he touching me?

Tie was the most confusing guy I’d ever met. He was snarky and indifferent one moment, and then behaving as if he cared for me the next. Add to that the thought that everything he did was just an act to trick me into revealing what I was really capable of equaled a very dangerous situation, especially because I was so drawn to him. In the back of my mind I was hoping it wasn’t an act. I actually wanted him to care for me.

Where the heck is that nurse
?

I didn’t want to stay wrapped up in his embrace for one more minute, but I couldn’t just leave him injured like this. There had to be a way to help him without letting him know I was doing it. I couldn’t heal his face, but maybe I could ease his pain in a way that wouldn’t be immediately noticeable.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Okay?”

He was clearly caught off guard.

“There’s no use denying it another minute. You’ve unearthed my superhero power, and I can no longer sit here and watch such terrible human suffering without using my powers for good.”

I was rambling, but I was also desperate to get out of there.

My abrupt willingness to help him, and my less than serious attitude left him looking a little lost. I decided to take advantage of this one moment where he seemed less than sure of himself. Moving out of his vice-like grip became easier. I grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, directing him to follow me into a side area that looked like the inside of a doctor’s examining room. It was even equipped with an examining bed for sick students waiting for their parents to come and pick them up.

“Stretch out lengthwise on here, please,” I said.

“If you wanted to snuggle you could have told me sooner.” The cockiness in his voice sounded a bit forced to me.

“I’ll need absolute quiet in order to call upon the spirits of those superheroes who have gone before me.”

Tie rolled his eyes and then casually draped himself on the bed .

“I wasn’t kidding about the snuggling. It’ll do us both some good.” Tie lowered himself down and let his arms fall loosely to his sides, acting as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

My thoughts were whirling ahead of me. I knew this idea of mine wasn’t completely foolproof. I’d never actually healed someone gradually before. Healings were an instantaneous sort of thing. Once I showed someone’s life force what it needed to do, it was eager to comply. Somehow, I needed his life force to slow down the healing process in a way that made it look as if I’d had nothing to do with it. Easing his pain needed to happen gradually as well. If I couldn’t get Tie’s spirit to understand my intentions, then this impulsive plan of mine was going to backfire in a most unpleasant way.

Chapter Seven

I walked over to the top of the examining bed and gently placed my hands on either side of his head. I needed to focus. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and then began humming a single note like some weird religious monk might.

“Hummm.” I was very proud of myself for not laughing.

“Seriously,” Tie muttered under his breath.

“I call on the spirits of superheroes past, present, and future. Give me focus and purity of heart, and wisdom to use my gift in a way that is pleasing to you all.”

“I get it, Hope. You’re mocking me. Your message is coming in loud and clear.” He sounded irritated, which made me smile.

“I would also like to take this time to give a shout out to my most favorite superhero of all. Wolverine, I always loved your cartoons, but you truly came to life for me when Hugh Jackman represented your iconic image in the unforgettable movie X-Men. May you live long and prosper, and may Hugh Jackman’s jeans always give you the best hind end a superhero could ever ask for.”

“You finished?”

“Hummmmmmm.”

I hesitated before connecting with Tie. I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be, but once I actually focused it didn’t take more than a few moments. I wasn’t prepared for the way he responded to me, though. I could feel him inviting me in, almost pulling me forward as if he wanted me to stay forever and never let him go. A person’s life force was always something I felt and never saw, but the minute I connected with Tie’s, bright images of gold and orange burst forth within my mind. I felt their warmth as they enveloped me in a joyful embrace.

It took me several precious seconds to overcome my surprise. Once I did, I was able to feel not only the warmth radiating from his life force, but also the pain Tie was experiencing due to his injury. I was surprised to feel an aching kind of pain emanating from his heart. I couldn’t pinpoint the cause, but sensed that it was an old kind of hurt, something intangible that couldn’t be fixed with a few instructions. It puzzled and intrigued me, but I couldn’t waste time on something I didn’t fully understand. I decided to ignore the injury and turned my attention to the pain brought on by

Tie’s broken nose.

I tentatively sent thoughts, impressions, and images of the pain gradually ebbing away, instructing his life force to imitate a diminishing of the pain in the same manner pain killers do. It always took time for pain killers to actually kick in.

I waited anxiously for some kind of response. To my surprise, I began receiving more images. I was astounded when it showed me the best way to accomplish the instructions it had received, and then waited for me to give it permission to proceed. I gave my permission as if I were in a daze, and waited as it began its slow methodical process.

My annoying hum continued in order to keep Tie distracted, and then I decided to communicate with his life force again by sending images of his nose gradually healing within a couple of days. Once again, his life force showed me step-by-step details of exactly how to accomplish such a task.

It was amazing. In all the years I’d been healing people I’d never come across someone whose life force was actually capable of healing itself. At the same time I was puzzled. If Tie’s body could heal itself why had it waited to do so? I was still connected to Tie, and I still hadn’t given permission for his life force to proceed. Instead, I posed my question. Why had it waited until now to heal itself? The answer I received shocked me to my very core. It showed me that it had begun the healing process, but Tie made it stop.

Why?

But somehow I already knew. He was waiting for me to do it. He wanted me to reveal my powers.

My head began throbbing again. I had no idea what to do. It was clear that Tie’s body could heal itself. The pain could be taken away in an instant or not at all. If I told his body to heal gradually, I’d give myself away because Tie’s body, under normal conditions, would always heal instantly, but if I healed him instantly he’d know it was me and not him who had accomplished the task.

After a few agonizing moments of indecision, I eventually concluded that I should do nothing. I no longer felt guilty for an injury that could easily be taken care of without my help. I’d simply instruct Tie’s life force to ignore the images I’d sent to it, and wait for instructions from Tie himself. That way his life force wouldn’t respond to me at all, and once I failed to heal him he’d be able to heal himself later.

I set my plan in motion, and then pulled my hands away and stepped back. I stopped my humming and peered down over Tie’s face, pretending to be curious.

“Did it work?” I asked with feigned excitement.

“What do you think?”

His annoyance was surprisingly satisfying.

“I think you look awful. My superhero ancestors must not have been impressed with my sincere and heartfelt supplications. I wonder if I should have also paid homage to the impressive size of Wolverine’s biceps.”

“All hail the modern woman. I’ll admit you were a tad bit stubborn and argumentative before, but this witty sarcasm is new.”

“Seriously, what the hell is that supposed to mean? You keep behaving as if we already know one another. As if we’ve shared some past history together.” I moved to the side of the examining table and gave him my best intimidating glare. “This mind game of yours is useless. You can’t trick me into anything by making me second guess my own memories.”