The Healer: A Young Adult Romantic Fantasy (The Healer Series Book 1) (24 page)

Where had he been hiding that thing?

He aimed for the ceiling and shot with practiced precision before the clicking sound had even finished. The arrow ripped through the ceiling, and a loud, pain filled screech erupted immediately afterward. A scorched, mega-sized paw with huge claws reached through the hole above us.

Victor scooped me up again, and we were running back the way we’d come.

“All you did was piss it off, you know,” yelled Tie from behind us. “And slowed it down. It won’t be able to track us for a while now.”

Claws.

That thing had claws, and they were nasty looking. I was freaking out.

We were down the hallway, past the broken high school entrance and across the street before I could blink an eye. I wondered where we were headed next when my house suddenly appeared in the distance. We were traveling so fast. How was it even possible?

“How do you know where I live?” I shouted.

Victor ignored my question and raced toward the front door of my house. He kicked it open with his foot and rushed inside with Tie following right behind us. Tie dropped Angie unceremoniously to the ground and slammed the door shut.

“This is insane,” she yelled. She didn’t even bother to stand up.

“Did you really think I was gonna let you go back there and get yourself killed?” he asked in exasperation.

Angie shot up faster than I thought she was capable of.

“Do you have any idea how long it took me to save up enough money to buy that car?” She placed her hands on her hips and jutted out her chin.

Full battle mode.

“Oh dear,” I mumbled under my breath.

“What was that?” Victor asked.

I looked at him and felt slightly embarrassed. I was still being held in his arms, and my arms were encircling his very broad shoulders. Victor, this up close and personal, was more than a little mind-numbing. I randomly wondered what it’d be like to kiss him, then I shook my head as I tuned back in to the argument Tie and Angie were having.

“So your daddy bought you a car. He can buy you another one.” Tie already looked bored with the conversation.

He’d just managed to tread on very dangerous ground. I knew I needed to intercede before Angie completely lost it.

“You better put me down,” I said to Victor.

He complied somewhat grudgingly. I tried to put myself between Tie and Angie as fast as I could, but my gold stilettos were impeding my progress.

“Tie, Angie’s father left her when she was three, okay? She bought her own car.”

He had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Angie, I’m sorry about your car. I really am, but we have a few pressing problems here that need to be dealt with first,” I insisted.

Angie still looked ready to throw a few good punches, but she finally relaxed her stance and gave me a nod signaling to me she was willing to play nice for now.

“We’ll be safe here,” Victor said in a comforting voice. “I stunned that thing with several thousand volts of electricity. It won’t wake up for at least three hours. Just long enough for us to make our escape.”

“Escape?” I asked.

“Yes, and don’t worry about your home. The nemokata can’t send their fireballs through here.”

“Nekomata? What…?”

“The fireballs can’t penetrate the walls in which living beings dwell,” Victor continued interrupting my question.

“My car begs to differ,” Angie argued.

“Your car is fine,” Tie joined in sounding frustrated. “Their fire only destroys human flesh. We could go back to the café right now and there’d be absolutely nothing wrong with your car, okay? It was just an illusion.”

I thought about the tree in Mrs. Simmons’ yard.
Mystery solved
. The bickering continued on until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Whoa, wait!” I yelled. “What are nekomata, why are they throwing balls of fire at us, and how in the world do you two even know about them in the first place?” My little outburst seemed to surprise everyone. “Who are you really, because you certainly aren’t high school kids, and you definitely didn’t move here with the intention of staying for any real length of time.”

Tie and Victor looked at each other, communicating in that strange way only guys can.

“Do they know this has happened before?” Angie asked breaking the silence.

“What do you mean, this has happened before?” Victor asked. Angie ignored his tone and continued on.

“When Hope was walking home from the hospital yesterday she thought someone was following her, and then this branch knocked her over and a huge fireball lit up the tree she’d been standing in front of.”

Victor turned to Tie. “You knew about this?”

“I made sure she got home safely.” Tie raised a placating hand. “She hit the ground before the flames came near her.”

“Why didn’t you tell me there’d already been an attack?” Victor was getting angrier by the second.

“I didn’t think you were even coming. You made it very clear that you didn’t believe me despite my insistence.”

“Can you blame me?” Victor shouted. “I couldn’t sense her, Tie. She’s standing right here, and I
still
can’t get a read on her ki or the way it touches the veil.”

“I had it under control, Vicky. Nothing was going to happen to her on my watch.”

“But it isn’t your watch, is it, Tie? It’s mine. She’s my responsibility, and you agreed to that before you were allowed to come here.”

“Someone better tell me what’s going on before I begin screaming at the top of my very operatic lungs,” Angie cried out.

“You were there when I got attacked last night, and you didn’t talk to me or help me up or explain what was going on?” I asked Tie. I was still reeling from their comments, but my anger at his involvement yesterday took precedence.

“What was I supposed to do? Introduce myself and tell you I was there to find out if you could heal people by connecting with their life force, and oh, by the way, there are other people who aren’t so nice, and they would like to kill you?”

“Heal people? Hope, what on earth is he talking about?” Angie asked.

“I don’t know, Angie.” I tried to sound clueless. “For some reason these two both think I’m some kind of miracle worker.”

“We aren’t the only ones. How do you explain that everyone, good and bad, has managed to zero in on you Ms. Fairmont,” Tie asked driving his point home.

“You still haven’t told me what nekomata are or who you two are for that matter.” I needed to steer the conversation away from my healing powers.

“We’ll talk about what nekomata are later,” Victor said wearily. “Right now we need some kind of game plan. We need to get Hope out of town without ‘you know who’ being the wiser.”

“Who is ‘you know who’?” I fairly screamed.

“We’ll need Chinatsu to help us out with that,” Tie said completely ignoring me.

“Our mythology teacher?” Angie asked. “What in the world does she have to do with any of this?”

“I’m not leaving,” I interrupted before anyone could answer Angie’s question. “I don’t know who you people are, and I have no idea what’s going on. Do you really think I’d go anywhere with either one of you?”

“You’re not safe here, Hope,” Victor said trying to reason with me. “I’m not safe because you two are here. None of this started until you two came into town. Am I right?” Their silence was deafening.

“Tell me what’s going on right now!”

“There’s really only so much we can tell you. The rest you have to remember on your own.” Victor placed a calming hand on my shoulder.

“She should have remembered all the ugly, sordid details by now,” Tie said bitingly, “but I think she’s healing too much. She’s been using her powers to heal everyone but herself.”

I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I didn’t want Angie finding out like this.

“Crazy,” Angie muttered to no one in particular. “I’m surrounded by good looking guys who are absolutely nuts. I don’t suppose either one of you is up for a really long make-out session?”

Angie threw herself on the living room couch and pulled out a nail file from her monstrous purse. I was surprised she still
had
her purse.

“I’m going to say this one more time, so pay attention,” I said raising my voice. “I don’t know how to heal people. I don’t have magical powers that allow me to fix injuries, seal cuts, or bring people back from the dead. I don’t even own a broomstick.”

“Well, now you’re just being silly,” Tie said sending me a wink.

The sarcastic remark forming in my mind never got past my lips. I heard the back door open and slam and then my father’s concerned voice boomed loudly from the kitchen.

“Hope? Angie? Are you here?” He sounded very frightened.

“Dad, we’re in here,” I shouted. “You got home fast.” He was also home safe. I felt relieved knowing he hadn’t been attacked by whatever was out there.

I heard my dad stomping down the hallway.

“Someone came into the hospital screaming about a purple PT being set on fire,” he said. “You weren’t answering your phones so I came home to see if everything was okay.” He reached the end of the hallway and came into view. When he caught sight of us he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank heavens you guys are all right.” His voice sounded hollow.

“No one should’ve been able to see any kind of damage to the car,” Victor muttered to himself.

My father opened his arms and walked over to me. He seemed a little unsteady on his feet, and he smelled like he’d been sitting by a campfire.

I hurried forward thinking he’d been injured somehow.

“Hope. No!” Tie screamed just as my father reached behind himself and pulled out the longest, wickedest looking sword I’d ever seen.

He charged at me, yelling something in a language I couldn’t understand and thrust his sword forward aiming for my chest. Everything happened slowly after that. Victor ran toward my father, reaching behind himself and unveiling an incredible looking sword of his own. More steel gleamed on my other side as Tie produced another nasty looking weapon out of thin air.

I randomly wondered where everyone had been hiding their swords.

My brain felt a little fuzzy, and the entire moment took on a surreal almost dream-like quality.

My father intended to kill me. I felt a strange sense of loss knowing my last moments on this earth were so near, and I couldn’t be alone with Tie.

I looked into my father’s eyes as the sharp end of his weapon continued its downward thrust toward my heart. They were cold, black and empty, completely devoid of any human emotion. In the back of my mind, I was able to acknowledge that the man before me really wasn’t my father, but I couldn’t help feeling betrayed all the same. His main goal, at this point, was to end my life.

I saw a streak of gold coming at me from my left and felt myself being shoved backward as Tie threw himself in front of me. I landed roughly on the floor and watched as my fake father’s sword plunged through Tie’s chest and out his back.

Tie screamed in agony and dropped to his knees trying to pull the sword from his chest. Victor let out a deafening battle cry and sailed through the air with his sword raised high above him. He brought it down swiftly, severing my father’s head from his body where it rolled noisily and came to a stop near the front door.

Then there was silence.

Everyone stayed frozen in their various positions until Tie, with one long, gut wrenching scream, pulled the gleaming sword from his chest and collapsed the rest of the way to the floor.

Chapter Thirteen

Angie and I jumped forward toward his outstretched body, but Victor managed to get there before we did, placing his hands on either side of Tie’s head and closing his eyes.

“I can’t believe this. Your dad tried to kill you…he …he killed Tie,” Angie screamed hysterically. There were tears already streaming down her face. She looked up at Victor and pointed an accusing finger at him. “You killed Dr. Fairmont! I didn’t see it. How did I not seen this coming?”

I grabbed Angie’s shoulders and shook her hard until she was looking at me instead of the gaping hole in Tie’s chest.

“Angie, that man wasn’t my father, okay?” I spoke as calmly as I could. Angie’s eyes were bright with more unshed tears. “I know a lot is happening you don’t understand. I don’t really understand it either, but I need you to get a hold of yourself here. I’ll try to explain what I can as soon as we help Tie.”

One thing I loved about Angie, she could adapt to any crazy, unbelievable situation. I watched her take a deep breath and suck back the quiet sobs that were shaking her body. I knew I could count on her to hold it together a little while longer.

Having averted that crisis, I turned my attention back to Tie. His bruised face was wet with sweat, and the bloody stab wound was oozing so badly I couldn’t even imagine how much blood he’d already lost. His eyes met mine and pulled me in. I couldn’t look away, and I didn’t want to. He lifted his hand weakly and grabbed mine. I squeezed it to let him know I was there. He wasn’t alone. His warm smile was the only response he was able to give me.