All Wounds (20 page)

She tried her best not to think about anything but how helpful this was to Syd, and waited for him to finish. It seemed like a very long time before he dropped her wrist and looked back at her with eyes that could see her.

“My gratitude, Acolyte,” he managed, though it was barely above a whisper.

His eyes, though not the brilliant, metallic blue they were when he was fully restored, were not as dark as they had been.

Rebecca didn’t do more than nod. She knew he needed a great deal more than he would take from her, but that he’d taken all he was going to from her at the moment.

“Don’t you dare go out and hunt,” she ordered, knowing what he was planning to do without thinking about it. “You’re too weak. You stay right here and let me heal you. You’re not going anywhere.” Syd started to protest, but instead settled for a scowl and mumbled something rude about the abilities of a Seer being highly inconvenient.

Her stomach growled. Syd smiled a little.

“You should replenish yourself before you consider doing more for me,” Syd said.

“Billy went to get Chinese,” Rebecca said. “But I thought you said I couldn’t eat after...doing that.”

“I didn’t take much,” Syd replied, looking guilty. “Just enough to...ease things a bit. It will be better for us both if you see to your own needs before you see further to mine.”

“So I’ll be all right then?”

Syd nodded. “It’s only when one of my kind takes beyond a certain quantity that you will avoid nourishment.”

“Great. I’m a fuel tank,” she muttered.

Syd reached up and brushed her hair back from her mark again, exposing her neck and the wound he’d made.

You’re much more
.

His hand cupped the back of her neck and he pulled her toward him.

Rebecca thought to panic for only a moment before she felt his lips upon her throat, followed by his tongue.

Pain she hadn’t even been aware of until it was gone ebbed. She closed her eyes and wasn’t aware of tilting her head to give him better access. She thought she heard Syd moan again, and almost asked him if he was in pain, or thought maybe he was taking her pain into himself or something when his hand tightened on her neck. His fingers tangled in the hair at the base of her head and Rebecca’s mind went blank.

The only thing she felt was warmth and safety, like the Syd she knew.

When she opened her eyes, her head was pil owed on Syd’s shoulder. She realized she was stretched out on the bed beside him. Though she couldn’t see his light blue eyes, she knew they were open and staring up at the ceiling.

She was reluctant to move. Syd’s hand was still curled at the back of her neck, her hair still wound around his fingers. If she moved, she’d wake him, and something told her he’d just fallen into a restful sleep.

Besides, she was tired too, and it was warm here. Safe. She hesitated a moment, feeling both very awkward about being where she was and really good about it. Before she could think more about what she was doing, she moved her arm, slow and gentle, to rest across his chest.

His fingers curled more in her hair, and Rebecca felt his arm tighten around her shoulder. She closed her eyes and sighed. Wow, this was nice.

This was also wrong, she knew.
Felt
. What was she doing, snuggling up to a vampire?

Syd wasn’t just a vampire. He was a Master, and—

And...what? And this felt nice? And he was a boy who actually looked at her? What?

Rebecca felt completely stupid and used the hand she’d draped across Syd’s chest to push herself up and away from him. Sure enough, he turned his head toward her as she moved.

“Go back to sleep,” she whispered. “I’ll be up later to check on you, or you call me if you need me.”

Syd looked at her a long moment before he nodded.

Rebecca hurried out of the enclave and tried not to think about what she’d just done, lest Syd hear her freaking out. He really didn’t need to know about it.

w x

“Bit?” she heard at the same time the front door slammed shut.

“Shh! Not so loud, Billy! You’ll wake Syd!”

“Got your Chinese!” Billy gestured to a stack of white cartons covering the kitchen table.

“Wow,” Rebecca said, wide-eyed. “I didn’t need a whole Chinese res-taurant menu. You didn’t have to bring all this.”

“This?” Billy snorted. “Ain’t but a snack, Bit. Well, a snack for me. Least I could do after everything, and you lettin’ me den here tonight. ‘Sides, I saw your fridge earlier, and there ain’t near enough in it for a decent meal.”

“I’ll grab some plates,” Rebecca said as Billy sat down in a chair with one of the cartons. “Oh, never mind.”

Billy made a questioning noise around a mouthful of what appeared to be an entire order of lo mein.

“Nothing,” Rebecca said, shaking her head. “You apparently don’t need a plate.”

“What for?” Billy asked. “Neat thing about take-out—no dishes to dirty.”“Want anything to drink?” Rebecca asked the werewolf already on his third carton. Two bites seemed to be all the guy needed to finish one off.

Billy stood up and went to the pantry. He reached up over the door and brought down another four bottles of fae ale. “Neat thing about this stuff, it gets replenished when you take a bottle. Those garden boys must really like Martha, to have given her so many.” The werewolf returned to the table and set one of the paper cartons in front of her.

Rebecca sighed and found a pair of chopsticks among the mess.

They ate in silence for awhile. Rebecca traded her broccoli beef for the General Tso’s chicken about halfway through a carton. Billy tried to get her to take some of the fried rice that came with the dinner, but Rebecca shook her head and said she was full. Billy, undeterred, shoved a handful of fortune cookies at her and downed the rest of her broccoli beef.

She stretched and yawned. “It’s about time for bed. I’ll go up and check on Syd before I hit the sack. You find a place to den?”

“Yep,” Billy affirmed. “Right there at the bottom of the stairs, between you and anything that might try somethin’ stupid. I thought about sleeping under your bedroom window, but figured you might get upset about that.” Rebecca laughed and nodded. “You’d be right. There’re more blankets in the linen closet if you need them.”

“Nah,” Billy said. He waved her off and set about emptying the last of the take-out containers.

Rebecca shook her head as she left the kitchen and took the candle lantern from the mantle in the living room. She lit it as she reached the top of the stairs, then went into the enclave.

“All right, I’ve eaten now,” she said as she entered. “So you can’t say anything abo—”

She was talking to an empty room.

Rebecca’s insides clenched.

Where was Syd? Had the demons come back and taken him away too, like they did Ryan? She was just about to scream for Billy when she heard her name coming from the other end of the room.

“Syd?” Rebecca called again as she approached the mirror with slow, careful steps. “You’re supposed to be in bed, sleeping.” There was no one there.

Rebecca studied the mirror in front of her. Only her reflection was within it.

She turned to leave again, suddenly anxious, alone in the dark room.

Then she heard it again...her name, very faint.

“Ryan? Hello?”

Rebecca’s brow furrowed. No answer came.

She shook her head and blew out the candle in the lantern. She set it on the bedside table, confused about what she thought she heard. As soon as she was out the enclave door, she leaned over the banister.

“Billy!”

Rebecca heard something like a growl from below and took a step back. She managed to stifle her scream as she recognized the familiar scarred, lop-sided face of the huge furry beast that made it up the stairs with frightening speed.

“What? Was just bedding down.”

“Syd’s gone!”

“WHAT?”

Billy growled and swore and swept past Rebecca into the enclave. She ran after him and was just about to enter when Billy came back out again.

“He ain’t dead if that’s what you was thinkin’,” he said. Rebecca could hear the relief in his words. “Wasn’t taken neither. No demon stink in there or anything else. Probably he went back to the lair to heal up on his own ground. Better for vamps to do that if they can.”

“But you said the demons would find him there!” Billy snorted. “Not if he’s holed up in the lair’s haven, they won’t.”

“What’s the ‘lair’s haven’?” she asked.

“Place where the vamps go to hide. He probably went to check on...

stuff,” he said. “Anyway, he ain’t dead. Dead vamps leave a stink when their body fades, and I don’t smell anything like that. Don’t you worry none, Bit.

‘Sides...you gave him your blood. He’ll be all right. His clan will take care of the rest of him. Now you stay here and wait for him to come back if you want, but it’s too near sunrise here for him to do that, so it will be awhile.

He’s probably resting, and I’m gonna go do the same. You should too.”

“But I told him to stay here,” Rebecca said. “He said that whatever a Healer says is to be obeyed as ultimate law or something!” Billy snorted again. “That don’t work on Masters, so he can do whatever he wants, no matter what you say. I’m goin’ back to bed.”

“I...I thought I heard...”

“What?” Billy growled.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I...I mean...”

“Spit it out, Bit, I’m tired!”

“I thought I heard the mirror in there calling my name,” Rebecca said in a rush. “Okay? I know it sounds idiotic—”

Billy just stared at her for a long moment. “Them stupid, clever bastards...”

“What?” Rebecca asked.

“Nothin,” he said. “Just give me an idea is all. None of us would have heard...but you can, Bit...”

“Hear what? It was just my name, that’s all,” she said.

“Still, good job listenin’,” he replied. “Bet they didn’t expect you to go back up there, bein’ all scared of stuff like you are. Anyway, goin’ to bed now. You go too and don’t worry none.”

“But what did I hear?”

“Dunno!” Billy growled. “Maybe somethin’, maybe nothin’! Either way, ain’t nothin’ to do about it tonight! Sleep!”

Rebecca made a frustrated noise and stepped out of the anubi’s way as he lumbered past her. This time Billy didn’t bother with the stairs and just leapt over the banister, surprising her by landing on all-fours without a sound on the floor below. She could hear him muttering to himself before the house was once again quiet.

Alone on the second floor, Rebecca shivered. She told herself she was cold—it
was
nighttime in October—and closed the enclave door. She forced herself not to run down the stairs, and almost didn’t bother taking off what remained of her clothes before falling into bed.

It was almost too much effort to go into the bathroom, change, wash her very dirty face and brush her teeth before she crawled into her bed.

She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

w x

Rebecca awoke to bright sunshine streaming in her window. The clock beside her bed read two in the afternoon, and her eyes widened as she threw back the covers. Why hadn’t anyone come to wake her up?!

She went into the hallway.

No Billy at the bottom of the stairs, nor was he in the kitchen stuffing his face with whatever he’d brought in to eat.

Rebecca went up to the enclave. Syd hadn’t returned. It, too, was empty.

For the first time since she could remember, she was alone in the house.

Not knowing what to do with herself, Rebecca went downstairs and poured herself a glass of orange juice. She gazed out the kitchen window without really seeing. She looked to the driveway and noticed it was empty.

Billy’s—well, what had been left of it—car was nowhere to be seen, and she wondered where it was, or if it was really still there and just made invisible or something. With everything she didn’t know, and given how careless Billy seemed to be about being noticed by humans, she wouldn’t bet on it. Then probably get told off by Syd for believing silly human things.

Syd. Syd. Where was he? Where was Ryan? And for that matter, where was Billy?

Rebecca finished her juice and put her glass in the sink. First no Ryan, then no Syd, now no Billy.

Great
, Rebecca thought. So much for keeping her protected.

She shrugged and muttered “whatever” as she went back down the hall to the bathroom. She found a bottle of headache medicine, shook two tablets out and gulped them down with a handful of water, thinking about the catch-up work she’d have to do for missing school again today.

That reminded her. Nana said she had books and things. There had been books up in the enclave, and Syd had restored them to order.

Rebecca decided she’d put the rest of the day to good use, and learn more about what it was she was supposed to be.

w x

Propped up on her bed, engrossed in a book about healing ectoplasmic beings, Rebecca jumped when a shout interrupted her reading.

“BIT!”

That sounded like...

Rebecca tore open the bedroom door and ran toward the living room.

“Billy?!”

“GET UP HERE!” the anubi’s voice thundered.

Rebecca took the stairs two at a time and dashed into the enclave.

There on the bed lay Ryan, eyes closed tight, sweating blood and thrashing.

“Found him,” Billy stated the obvious in little more than a grunt.

Rebecca’s eyes widened as she noticed the big werewolf was in his human form and covered from head to toe in red and black. He was breathing hard and holding his side. “Right where you said he was. Had him hidden between realms.”

“But—I didn’t say—what do you mean—you’re hurt!” Rebecca moved toward Billy, but he flinched back and shook his head at her before she could get a closer look at him. He nodded to Ryan.

“Ain’t nothin’. Help the punk. Rox saved my hairy butt again, and his too, but damn...she looks worse than he does.”

Rebecca hesitated only a moment before she moved to the bed. She remembered what Syd said about it being faster to take from her throat than her wrist and slid an arm under Ryan’s shoulders.