Revelations (13 page)

“Be careful,” Nora whispered.

She turned back to Alexander. He looked as bad as ever. But, at least, he was still standing. She hoped he could hold on until morning, when she would find the herbs that might yet save his life.

A few minutes later, Nora saw Gray running back. When he came up to her, she placed a hand on his head, opening the link again. Instantly, she got an image of the inside of the barn. It was fuzzy, as if Gray didn’t quite know what details to focus on, but there wasn’t anybody there. Old haystacks stood by the walls, and dirt covered the floor. There wasn’t much light, but Gray’s night vision wasn’t bad, and he had made out enough for her to know it was safe.

“Good job,” she told him, out loud. “Now, I need you to stay here. Stay and watch.” In her mind, she formed an image of the spot they were in right now, just at the edge of the trees. Along with it, she sent a feeling of
alertness
, as well as a vantage point of the barn. Again, she felt
affirmation
come back, but it was tinged with the hint of…
disappointment
?

“Come on, now,” Nora said, scrubbing his head playfully, “you’re doing us a big service keeping watch.” She felt
understanding
come back, along with a sense of
duty.

She let go, and Gray settled by the trunk of a nearby tree. He stared directly at the barn, his ears erect. He was definitely alert.

Nora moved closer to Alexander and hefted his good arm over her shoulder. He leaned on her heavily. “Gray checked out the barn,” she told him, “and he told me it was empty.” She didn’t know if Alexander could even hear her, now, but she felt that maybe, just by speaking to him, she could give him a little bit more strength. She had to keep him focused and conscious. “We’ll spend the night there.”

She stepped forward, leading Alexander. He opened his eyes groggily, and they wandered around before closing again. “We’ve been traveling hard,” she told him. “A good night’s rest will help you recover your strength.”

She hoped it was true.

They crossed the distance to the barn slowly, with Alexander dragging his feet. When they came to the front door, Nora pushed against it with her shoulder. It didn’t budge. She stepped back a little and pushed it again, this time with more force. Too much, it turned out, as the entire rotting doorway broke and collapsed down.

Nora cringed as the wooden panels fell on her back. They were light, and she barely felt them, but losing the door meant it was now easier for a passerby to notice them inside the barn.

The inner room was just as Gray had shown her. Haystacks lay haphazardly near the side walls, and the ground was filthy with dirt. For a second, Nora had an image of the old mill flash in her mind, where Hunter had taken her once, but she forced it down ruthlessly. She had to focus on Alexander’s health, now.

She noticed a spot by the far wall that looked the least grimy. She led Alexander there and let him down gently. He slumped against the back wall, and his head fell forward weakly. Nora knelt beside him.

“We made it,” she told him. “We’re in Nakusp. You got me here, just as you promised. We’ll be able to look through the archive, soon.”

Alexander smiled weakly in return. His eyes fluttered open for a second. “…Madison…” he said, “…where is Madison?”

Nora winced at the name, but quickly covered it up with a smile. “She’s coming,” she told him. “She was delayed, but she will come.”

“Good.” He smiled. “I can wait.” His eyes drifted closed, and his head fell back. Nora waited a few moments as his breathing stabilized. His breaths became the deep breaths of sleep.

Nora stood up and looked at him. He had been such a specimen to behold when they first met, the absolute paragon of the male form, but was now so weakened. It was painful to see him like this. The fever must be taking him much worse than she thought if he was asking for Madison.

Nora needed to find the antidote. She
needed
to, as much as she’d ever needed anything in her life. Alexander had taken care of her when she needed it, in the face of desertion and uncertainty, and now he was the one who was so vulnerable and needed help. She was determined to give it to him.

“I won’t let you die on me,” she promised him softly.

Chapter Fifteen

~Preparations~

Nora stood up at the first rays of sunshine. She hadn’t slept all night – after her feeding, she hadn’t felt the need to. It was early, but the sun meant people in town would soon be getting up. She looked across to Alexander, who was still asleep. Lying there, eyes closed and body still, he looked almost…healthy.

But that was before you noticed the sweat-drenched shirt clinging to his body and the faint-but-rancid smell of the open wound.

She had to find the healing woman.

She started to move across the room and caught the tip of her reflection in the shattered shards of an old mirror lying by the far wall.

She gasped. She nearly didn’t recognize herself. Her hair was completely frazzled, and the dress she had on was worn and grimy. But that’s not what stood out to her. She ran up to the broken mirror, and picked up one of the shards. She brought it close to her eyes to examine her face.

She looked…different. The same, but
different
. All her features, from the tilt of her jawline to the peak of her cheekbones, from the sharpness of her eyes to the shape of her lips, looked like they had been…modified, slightly. Augmented, maybe, to become more pronounced. Taken individually and in isolation, the difference in each would likely have been hard to spot, but when all the changes were there together…well, she looked more beautiful than she ever remembered. There was a newfound delicacy to her face, and behind it there was an elegance, too.

And then there was her skin. Just like Hunter’s had been when she first met him, and Alexander’s, and Rafael’s, and the skin of all the Vassiz she’d met, it was completely smooth. As she wiped away the dirt that had built up on her cheeks from the journey, she saw that there was not a single imperfection to her face. Anywhere.

She had
never
looked like that before.

Slowly, her eyes wandered down, scanning her entire body. She looked…more
vibrant than before. More alive. She wondered if it was the transformation that did it, which meant the change might be permanent, or if it had been taking Vassiz blood, which meant the change might dissipate over time.

But that was neither here nor there. She took another look at the mirrored shard and realized how
conspicuous
she looked. If she had any hope of blending in with others in such a small town, her worn black dress definitely wouldn’t do.

Seeing that dress draped over her body, though, she was reminded of Hunter, and the feelings she felt for him—
no.
She would not fall into the trap of reviving painful memories. She had to focus, now, for Alexander’s sake.

The first thing she would need to do, she decided, was find a new pair of clothes. And the only way she could think of doing that, really, was to find a store. And in her current situation, with no money and no desire to interact with anyone, the only way to make use of a store would be to break in.

She didn’t like the idea of stealing, but it’s not like she really had much choice. She had to avoid attention, and an unfamiliar girl walking into a small department store in an oddly-luxurious-yet-dirty dress was bound to attract attention. Especially in a community this small.

At least her new abilities should allow her to get the clothes without detection.

She tossed the glass shard back onto the pile, ran to the entrance of the barn, and peeked out. Seeing nobody, she ran out toward town. She followed some of the main roads, moving fast, into what looked to be the commercial area of town. If anybody had been looking, all they would have seen was an indistinctive dark blur.

Nora pressed herself against the outer wall of a building in a small alley and looked around. She spotted a sign hanging over the entrance of a single story brick building not far from her.
Jolene’s Basement
. Through the glass panels, she could see parts of the storefront where racks of various clothing items hung pressed tightly together.

She examined the building from her vantage point. She didn’t want to break in through the front if she could avoid it. But from where she stood, she couldn’t see any other way in.

She thought for a moment and then did a fast lap around the entire building. At the rear, she noticed a single door with a red sign above it marked “Employees Only.”

Perfect.

She tugged on the handle, prepared to rip the door right out of its frame, but as she pulled back, the doorknob moved freely in her hand. Surprised, she twisted – and the door came open. In spite of herself, she had to smile. She had never been to a town small enough where businesses didn’t feel the need to lock their rear doors overnight. It was unfortunate she had to take advantage, though.

Once inside, she raced through the racks quickly, looking for something plain. Something that would allow her to blend in. She found an inconspicuous pair of jeans and a small yellow shirt that she liked and grabbed both. Before she left, though, she also picked up a new shirt for Alexander. She thought for a moment, and then grabbed two more – she didn’t want to risk coming back again if he needed more.

She left the store, gently closing the door behind her. Walking slowly from the rear of the building, she looked all the way around her to make sure there were no people anywhere. Seeing none, she ran back to the barn.

As she ran, though, she had an uncomfortably familiar feeling of unseen eyes watching her. With her increased perception and augmented senses, there was no way she could have missed anybody, yet…there was an itch between her shoulder blades that reminded her of the time she had first been stalked in the dream world. She thought it must have been her nerves acting up, because as far as she could tell, there was absolutely nobody else around.

Quickly, she reached the front door of the barn, and the feeling of being watched dissipated. It was not gone entirely, but had become much less pronounced. Even as she stepped inside it didn’t go away completely. Which told her it must be her nerves, because there was no way anybody from outside could still see her.

The first thing she did was check on Alexander. As she walked up to him, she saw that he was lying in the same position as she’d left him earlier. He was still asleep. His shirt was damp and clung to his body.

She reached out to place a hand on his forehead and winced. It was burning hot – much hotter than before. She knew his body was fighting the poison, but she didn’t know how much longer he could hold out.

Dropping the bundle of clothes next to him, she hesitated for a moment before reaching down and pulling his shirt off. He needed to have something clean on. His shirt clung to the wound, and she eased it off with great care. She examined the wound. It looked better than she remembered – less vile. And a scab had started to form over it, but it was still moist and unnaturally dark. But, she noted happily, the wound may have gotten just a little bit smaller.

Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to help Alexander. He was getting worse. She wasn’t sure how much she could judge his health on the basis of what the wound looked like.

Once she’d dressed Alexander and tended to him as best she could, she picked up her new clothes and went into a corner to change. After taking the dress off, she was surprised to find the jeans fit looser than they should have – had she lost weight? – but the shirt was the right size.

She went over to the broken mirror and propped the largest shard she could find against the wall. She backed away so she could see her reflection fully. Her hair was still a mess, and she ran her hand through it to tame it as best she could. After a few minutes of struggling with it, she calmed it down enough to make herself look somewhat presentable. And definitely less conspicuous.

With the jeans and plain shirt, nobody should look at her twice.

Chapter Sixteen

~A Simple Shopkeeper~

Nora walked slowly down the streets of Nakusp. She had already been walking around for a number of hours, but with no idea of what to look for specifically, her search for the healing woman was proving less than ideal.

It was during the first half of her expedition that the earliest risers started coming out onto the streets. Cars started driving by her, and she passed by workers opening shops and adults going for their morning jog. It was then that Nora realized just how well developed her sense of smell really was.

She could smell
everybody
. It didn’t matter if they were in front of her, behind her, or somewhere off to the side – she could make out their smell. It was a distinctly human smell, and as Hunter had told her once, it
stunk
. But it did not stink like something offensive, rather, it was just very, very
pungent.

If she closed her eyes, she could tell exactly how many people were around her by all the individual scents she inhaled. She realized, after she passed the first person on the sidewalk, what she smelled was not the person’s odor, but rather the scent of their
blood
.