All Wounds (6 page)

“Fire burns within you, Acolyte,” the hellhound said, approval in his words, though they sounded just as dangerous as any of the others he’d spoken.

“Rebecca, get back to your knees,” Nana said in a sharp whisper. “This is Lord Notharion, chief of the Hellguards.”

It was all Rebecca could do to peel herself away from the hard, safe wood of the wall behind her, gather her knees back under her and bow her head. She remembered what her nana had said and hoped she was about to do something right. She looked back up at the hellhound and met his eyes, though it took all her willpower to make herself do it.

“Forgive me...my lord,” she managed, though it was hard to unglue her tongue from the roof of her very dry mouth enough to speak. “I meant no offense. This is the first time I’ve seen a...a...hellhound.”

“Well spoken, apprentice,” he said, approving. “She will serve, Martha Althea.”

Nana inclined her head in a nod. “My gratitude, my lord.” Notharion raised an eyebrow at that, and Rebecca thought it was extremely odd that a dog raised its eyebrow.

“I am not a
dog
, and you will cease comparing me to such mortal creatures,” the hellhound said, turning its candle-eyes on Rebecca. “Rebecca Charlotte...you and I will have an interesting relationship.”

“You said you were here to see ‘the boy’. I’m guessing you mean Ryan,” Nana said. “But you weren’t the one that bit him, were you, my lord?”

“No,” Notharion replied. “I am here to see what damage one of my young has wrought.”

“One of your young! My lord! You are a father?” Nana asked, smiling.

The hellhound turned his large head to regard her.

“Maelia whelped,” he affirmed with a single nod.

“My congratulations to you upon the—”

Notharion looked away before Nana finished her sentence, apparently uninterested in congratulations, and took a step toward the bed.

“Stand aside, soulless one,” the hellhound ordered Sydney.

“I will not,” Sydney replied with a dark scowl. “If you’ve come merely to gawk—”

Notharion glared at the vampire and the floor vibrated with his deep growl. “You dare accuse me of coming to take pride in this? It was
you
who baited
us
.”

Sydney had no reply for that and, after a tense moment, moved aside to let Notharion see Ryan’s injury.

Notharion inspected the wound and took a deep sniff at it before he turned to go.

“My lord,” Nana called before Notharion could reach the mirror-portal.

“Can you offer no advice on how to heal such a wound?” Notharion looked back over his shoulder, then to the bed. “Appeal to the Light, for the Dark will offer no aid,” Notharion intoned formally. He hesitated a moment before adding, so quietly that Rebecca wasn’t sure if it was meant to be heard by anyone in the room, “Nor any hindrance.” With that, Notharion walked through the full-length mirror at the end of the room and vanished.

Rebecca cocked her head and considered the now-still mirror Notharion had disappeared into. “I think he just told us to pray,” she said. “Big help there.”

“Rebecca,” Nana scolded in a whisper. “You’re lucky he didn’t maim you, despite his assurance he wouldn’t take offense. Hellhounds aren’t the...

nicest...of creatures, no matter how much deference you show them.” Man, how did Nana manage to be that calm and quiet, when people...

things...
creatures
were so offensive?

Then Rebecca thought about everything she put up with from Marla Thompson and decided it must be something like that. Marla wasn’t nice to Rebecca no matter how often Rebecca tried to be nice to her, or stay out of Marla’s way. The thought of Marla being like a hellhound made Rebecca smile inside.

“Is that what that was? That bowing we did?” Rebecca asked, trying to mimic Nana’s soft voice. “We were showing him deference?” Nana nodded. “With hellhounds, you have to show a great deal of respect, even—” Nana glared again at Sydney as she led Rebecca to the bed where Ryan lay. “—in your own enclave. Otherworlders have different rules and customs about a lot of things. Respect will get you more places and help you a lot more than rudeness, so when in doubt, always be polite, even if you know you’re right and they’re wrong. You can’t let their attitude affect yours—they’re a lot older and smarter than you, and many of them wield powers we’ll never have. That’s why they’re called ‘supernatural’. What we just did with Lord Notharion was a combination between old courtly behavior and mortal wolf manners. They’re related in a lot of ways, and watching a few nature specials on how animals behave wouldn’t hurt you.” Nana looked Ryan’s still, quiet form, then to Syd. “How is he?” Syd returned to kneel by the bed. “He’s shed his mortal coil,” he replied.

Rebecca’s heart broke at the grief and anguish in his voice.

“I’m sorry,” Nana said. “Even if the entry had been unsealed—”

“I know,” Syd interrupted. “And I offer my apologies. I spoke out of fear. He’s like a brother to me, Martha. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“But it is. Now we must both accept and endure, not lament what should have been,” Martha replied in that same wise tone Rebecca had never heard her use before that night. “I need you to remove the rest of the seals.

I don’t know if you’ve realized, but I’m not fit for much anymore, let alone the time and effort it would take for me to do it myself.” Sydney didn’t acknowledge her comment, but gestured a hand at the mirror. It glinted seven times in the candlelight then returned to normal.

“He’s going to need...” Sydney shook his head and looked helplessly up at Martha as he stood.

“I can’t,” Nana said with sympathy. “I’m not enough. I don’t have enough to help him and sustain us both.”

Sydney nodded and looked back at the still form on the bed.

“But she does.”

Both Rebecca and Syd looked up at Nana’s words.

“I...do what?” Rebecca asked. She didn’t like the way they were looking at her.

“Oh please, Martha. For this kind of healing, it has to be her choice.

She’s not even trained.” Sydney curled his lip. “You know that.”

“We can help her. If she’s willing. Rebecca...remember what we talked about downstairs? Well, now’s the time. If you want to help your friend, and help me do what needs to be done, that is.”

“What needs to be done?” Rebecca asked, wary. She had a bad feeling she already knew what they were going to ask, and she didn’t want to be right. She was not about to shove a stake through Ryan’s heart!

“You’ll have to feed Ryan.”

Rebecca blanched. Let Ryan suck her blood? That was disgusting!

“Oh, no,” she said, taking a step back and holding up her hands. “No way.” Sydney swore under his breath. Nana chastised him.

“Listen, young Healer,” Sydney began, speaking with exaggerated patience. “He can’t kill you here. He can’t take too much from you, either, as he could from your grandmother at her age. That’s why you’re a rare and valuable commodity among Ethereals. You have mortal years of use, of life in you. You more than others. He can’t drain you of your life’s force. Of blood...possibly, but that’s rare, and nigh on impossible when a Healer is in her own enclave. That’s right—Healers are always and only female. Healing comes from the life force created by a living soul, and it is the female who creates and bears life. Now, Ryan needs life restored to him and the only life strong enough for that in his condition is yours. So will you, young, untutored Healer, restore my fledgling?”

His pleading. His hurt and regret and helplessness. Rebecca could feel them all, and her heart broke with them.

“Promise me I will not regret it.”

Where did that come from?
Rebecca had spoken the phrase as though she’d known exactly what to say when asked such a question.

Sydney smiled with relief and looked to Nana. “Untrained she might be, but a Healer nonetheless,” he said in approval. He looked to Rebecca.

Her insides tightened as he smiled at her. Her mouth went dry and she bit her bottom lip.
What? Why is he looking at me like that?

“Promising,” he went on as he turned to Nana. “She’ll learn quickly, if such knowledge is that easy to tap.” He turned back to Rebecca. “Upon my honor, my lady,” he said and offered her a slight bow. “I promise that you will not regret your actions.”

Rebecca nodded, still unsure, but knew something had been done correctly. Then, without thinking about what she was doing, she rolled up her sleeve and went to the bed. Her earlier nervousness—what had there been to be nervous about?—vanished. Her pulse beat beneath the skin of her wrist, warm against the cool air of the enclave.

Ryan’s eyes opened and fluttered. He mumbled incoherently.

“Hey, Stereotype,” Rebecca called. “I hear you didn’t eat lunch. Did you get banned from the cafeteria, so that now I have to feed your sorry butt?” Ryan didn’t reply, but the confusion in his dark eyes seemed to lessen as they found her face.

She smiled down at him as she pressed her wrist against Ryan’s mouth.

She looked away, over her shoulder and waited.

I can’t believe I’m doing this,
she thought.

Believe it
, she heard Syd’s voice in her mind.

Rebecca looked up at him, startled. Syd couldn’t help but grin back at her.“You have much to learn, Acolyte.”

“Ouch!” Rebecca gasped as Ryan’s fangs pierced her wrist.

Then the pain faded, and she felt nothing. She really expected to feel
something
...but there wasn’t anything at all. She didn’t feel weak or dizzy, or like something was being taken away from her. On the contrary, she felt...

really, really good. Helpful and...and...

“Nurturing?” Sydney said out loud.

Rebecca blushed and nodded. “I guess that’s as good a word for it as any.” She closed her eyes, but there wasn’t the usual darkness behind them.

Instead there was...something. Darkness, yes, but...things...moving in the dark. Shapes and fire and flame and—

Rebecca gasped and her eyes flew open. Nana came to rest her hands on Rebecca’s shoulders.

“You’re strong,” Nana said. “Stronger even than I was, I think. It’s all right. He won’t take much, this first time, but he’ll need more over the next couple of days.”

“Days?” Rebecca echoed. “Doesn’t this take—I don’t know—just a few minutes?”

“This isn’t Hollywood,” Sydney said with a roll of his dark blue eyes.

“You don’t get bitten by a vampire then change in moments to bite your friends.”

“Well...no offense, but isn’t that kind of what just happened?” Rebecca countered. She pointed to the wrist Ryan had pressed to his mouth.

“Point taken,” Sydney replied. “However, he won’t remember himself for a couple of days.” Sydney glanced up at Nana. “Though something tells me you’re accustomed to people not remembering themselves.” Rebecca felt Nana’s hands on her shoulders tighten slightly before Ryan dropped her wrist and began to tremble.

“That’s enough,” she heard Nana say. “Move away now.” Rebecca did as she was told, and Sydney reached for the damp cloth as Ryan’s trembling once again escalated into convulsions.

“Is it going to be like this until he’s...um...converted, or whatever?” Rebecca asked in a whisper.

Nana nodded and pressed a cloth to Rebecca’s bleeding wrist. “Mmm hmm. But don’t worry. He’s with us now, and safe. Comfortable. But it’s also very late, and you have school tomorrow.”

Rebecca looked horrified.

“Nana,” she reasoned. “You can’t possibly—”

Nana held up a hand, an old familiar gesture that said she was through talking about a subject.

“I
can
,” Nana said, firm. “Your wrist will be healed by morning, and Syd will stay and help me set up a privacy partition for Ryan. Rebecca, you can help in the evenings,
after
your chores and schoolwork are done,
not
before.

It will be a lot of hard work, but you’ll likely be trained enough in a year or so of hard study that we can tell the Council you’re ready to be mentored.

That’s not too long for you to help out here, is it, Syd?”

“A
year?
” Rebecca squeaked.

Syd voiced the same protest.

Nana folded her arms and looked stern. “Sydney Alexander, you came seeking a Healer, and you’ve found one untrained. Rebecca Charlotte, you have a great deal to learn and a vast amount of power to harness. You’ll be lucky if a year is all it takes. And that’s just the bare minimum! Remember, you should have been studying the basics with me for at least a dozen years by now. Most Healers begin at age five. I’m sorry this is late, but if it’s what you both want, it’s all or nothing.”

Syd looked mutinous.

Rebecca was just as unhappy as he looked, but asked, “Will you be more like your old self, Nana? I mean...with him around?” She jerked her head in Syd’s direction.

Nana nodded. Syd looked skyward.

“Then that’s worth a year of...Blondie...and ‘hard work’ to me.” Rebecca glared at Syd out of the corner of her eye.

The vampire groaned. “And I suppose, Martha, since I owe you my own existence and those of my various clan members more than once over, a mortal year isn’t so long a time, especially if it is given to train the granddaughter of Martha Althea in the art of Healing. Provided, that is, she works hard and doesn’t waste my valuable time.”

Oh, that was it. She was done trying to be nice to this guy. He sounded just like one of those jerks at school. She knew now what she’d seen behind her eyes when Ryan had bitten her, and it wasn’t like this guy didn’t have anything to do with Ryan being hurt. All Rebecca’s patience left.

“Valuable time? How about provided you don’t go around getting anyone else I know bitten by hellhounds!” Rebecca retorted.

Sydney stiffened and found a corner of the room very interesting all of a sudden.

Nana glared at him.

“So that’s what Lord Notharion meant. You were
provoking
hellhounds?” Nana asked in a brittle voice.

“Wonderful,” Sydney mumbled. “She’s a Seer as well.” Nana looked at Rebecca and smiled. She didn’t seem a bit surprised at her granddaughter’s talent.