Healed (4 page)

“I do not possess a heart; I do not see a
reason to care. He was not thinking of his wife. It was you he
dreamt of fucking, and it was
he
who wanted
you
for
himself. Clearly you are blind to what is right in front of you. I
saw no reason for him to live when his soul was already dying once
before. Would you rather I had killed someone who was not close to
death, who had not accepted their fate?”

Valentine looked slightly sick, but it did
not stop me from moving slightly toward her. I was hoping she
wouldn’t notice the action but I knew once she was in my grasp, I
could walk out of here. Her Djinn friend would not be able to
transport all three of us out of here and I was not going to let
Valentine go for a third time. Twice was bad enough. This mission
had become tedious as it was.

“What’s your name?” she asked softly.

“It does not matter.”

“Please, it matters to me.” She was looking
up at me now with pleading eyes. I do not know why but they
affected me. I felt something in my brain react. I did not like
it.

“What does it matter to you?” I asked. My
head was tilted slightly.

“Because if we are on a first name basis,
maybe we can…” she shifted her eyes away from mine. I raised a brow
a centimeter.

“Yes, Valentine?” I knew what she was going
to say. Her body screamed it. She wanted to feel comfortable with
me. She wanted to glean the same amount of power over me as I had
over her. Her small curvy form was tensed, unnaturally so, I could
see the subtle shifts in her body showing me how she was
uncomfortable in this position. I waited a moment longer before I
relented.

“Elijah.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She let out a
high pitched laugh. It sounded like small bells but slightly more
hysterical. “Lord, be my savior – Elijah?”

“It was better than the previous name of
this body. Do you need more information or would you like to get
off the floor so that we may leave.” I was standing next to her now
and I noticed the fear that crept back into her eyes when she
realized how close I was.

“What do you mean it was better than the
previous name of the body?” She looked at me horrified. I did not
care for this conversation and I did not care for the fact that she
seemed to be stalling me. I grabbed her upper arm and pulled her
upright. Her small frame stopped at my mid-chest. This body was not
the tallest I had ever inhabited but it was still tall enough. At
six foot, two inches, I stood above most all women and eye to eye
with most men. Supernatural beings were larger on almost all scales
but one thing that truly made them small to me was their fear. It
did not matter what sort of body I inhabited, I was one of the most
feared creatures out there. This girl did not seem to understand
that as she started to pull away from my grasp.

“The memories of this body stated that the
name was Cody. I took his body and kept my name. Now we will
leave.”

Valentine’s eyes grew wide and I felt her
friend’s presence in the room. Watching Valentine’s eyes, I saw how
they slightly shifted and I knew she was taking in her friend as
well. Before the Djinn could attack, I pushed Valentine back. The
Djinn had a plain metal frying pan in her hands, pulled back as if
to attack me. I gave her a small smile which made her back off
slightly.

“Did you really think that you could sneak
up on me?” I gave her a smile which caused her to visibly flinch
away. Her eyes shifted to Valentine. I could hear her moving but I
did not dare take my eyes off of the Djinn in front of me. One
thing I knew completely about Valentine was that she would not
attack me. She was non-violent, a liability of hers, but it worked
in my favor for now.

My focus went off of the Djinn for a moment
but when I turned back to her she was smiling. It was not a kind
smile, nor one built from fear. Before I could decipher what it
meant something slammed into the back of my head. I turned to stare
at Valentine who was sheepishly holding a golf club in her hand.
The body I inhabited would not remain conscious much longer. She
moved to hit me again let out a small “eep” noise, I was already
falling.

●●●

My eyes shot open almost an hour after
Valentine knocked me out. These girls were more trouble than I
cared to admit. Next time I had Valentine in my grasp there would
be no words. I would render her unconscious and leave her friend,
alive or dead, but not awake. I hadn’t yet decided her usefulness.
I would call York and ask him when I had them again. One thing was
for certain, I would not allow her to take me off guard
anymore.

As I looked around the room, I realized that
they did not even tie me up, which was foolish on their part
certainly. I was not irrational enough to march out looking for
them. That is what I am assuming they thought I would do. First I
would look for the tell-tale signs of where they were headed. The
room I was in was a complete mess. Clothes were slewed about and I
knew the best clues would not come from this room.

I headed to another. There were three other
rooms on this floor. One door was shut tightly, locked and the knob
was dusty. I passed that door. The wood was slightly scarred and
abused on the next door. When I opened it the light was still on.
More things were thrown about and it was spread out as if someone
was grabbing something in a hurry. The room was tiled and I knew
this was only the bathroom, which would not give me any clues of
where they were headed.

I started down the hallway and noticed that
no frames were missing. I looked at the pictures that decorated
their lives as they grew up. There were no pictures of Valentine
under the age of 13. I noticed the Djinn was in photographs from
her infancy and well into adulthood. There were quite a few shots
of the family together. The Djinn’s mother looked remarkably like
her daughter, but the male in the photo was not outwardly
paranormal. Something about him seemed too insipid, too human.

I did not care but I knew that if they were
planning to come back at one point, if they had intended to extend
their leave, they would have wanted one to remember their family
by. My attention went to the last door.

The last door was not scarred, it was clean
cut and well kept. No holes marred the door nor were there
scratches. As I opened the door, I could feel her lingering energy.
I had never felt someone’s energy strong enough before that it
would linger like this. She became more of a puzzle. I do not like
puzzles.

Stepping into her room all I could see was
white. It was like her aura, which made no sense. When my eyes took
it in for a moment, the more I saw that the room was painted white
and the furniture was white, as was the comforter. I walked over to
the closed drawers. When I opened them, the clothes that had been
neatly folded were pushed aside. I almost smiled. She left me the
best clues of all.

I could puzzle together where they were
going based on the clothing she took with her. Observing Valentine
before I took her, and studying her charts to the point that I
could recite them word for word, helped as well. She was one that
leaned towards the dresses, but always modest. She always had a
sweater if her dress seemed to be too revealing. The days that she
worked she seemed most uncomfortable in her scrubs. She always
tried to wear light colored ones with designs. Her shoes always
seemed to be functional.

Her friend Ami was the one that was hard to
pin down. They lived in Georgia, yet she wore black and heavy
clothes. I could not quite understand the reasoning, but it also
made her an unreliable target to track. I did not mind. Valentine
would tell me exactly where they were going and she was all that I
needed. I would kill the Djinn if she decided to get in the way
again.

I gathered enough evidence to know they were
headed north. Unfortunately, since the temperature for them was
always high, it was hard to tell how far north they were going.
There were more clues to be found, I knew that, but I would have to
go into a state of mind. I would have to replay the memories that
occurred when this body was rendered unconscious. That would take
time. Time I was not certain I had. I knew that there were more
paranormals around. Paranormals who were not native to this
area.

I risked losing them if I did take time to
look at the memories but I had a greater chance of losing them if I
went looking for them blind. My mind had been made up. I stood
ramrod straight. My conscious moved through the brain. I could feel
the twitching of the human body I hosted. He still lived slightly.
This was one that would never quite let go. It was why I had chosen
him. A soul that died right away guaranteed that the body would die
within a couple months, years at best. I needed a body that would
last me much longer.

He called out at times. I could hear his
pleas but I ignored them. I gave him only small comforts, at times
he would sleep and when he did he would dream. I would live in his
dreams at times. There was always a girl, always the same girl, a
slight little thing with deep brown hair that he would sit and
speak with for hours. They would move to other activities, he found
the greatest pleasure in those moments. I learned from these dreams
many human or even paranormal emotions. Paranormals always wish to
put themselves above humans but they were quite human themselves. A
Wraith, and only a few other paranormal creatures, could be
considered separate from the human race that the paranormals so
shamelessly run from.

Humans were nothing to fear. Genetically,
they were weak. Emotionally, they were stunted. Even the human that
I had been killing slowly for years still had this obnoxious dream
of hope. The word even tasted bad in the back of my throat. It was
an imprudent concept that brought forth more deaths than any other
emotion. For now, the human that remained slightly alive needed to
be placed in the back of my mind. I needed to control everything;
do things that humans couldn’t even begin to comprehend how to
do.

I brought forth the memories of the muscles
in my ears in order to hear the words that the Djinn and Valentine
had spoken while around me, thinking I was unconscious. I waited as
the sounds built. It was muffled on my right side since my head
landed on that side, so I amplified the left ear.

“I … I just knocked someone out!”
Valentine’s voice sounded distraught which made me feel a twinge of
anger. Why did she insist on feeling bad for doing her own
actions?

“Hell yes you did. Shit! I wish I had caught
that on tape. And did you see his face? I think I actually saw a
Wraith shocked for once. I didn’t think that was possible. Holy
shit!” The Djinn was stomping around, her feet making too much
noise. “Fuck. Okay you tie him up,” She was moving around the room.
“We need to get clothes together. We have to head to my friend’s. I
know he will protect us. Well at least point us in the direction of
someone who can hide us. I know that this sounds crazy – Val!” Her
voice moved to a strange mixture of a scream and one of worry.

“I knocked him out. What if I killed him?”
Her voice was tiny as ever but I could hear it clearly. The Djinn
laughed once.

“You can’t kill a damn Wraith. That is the
problem with them, sort of like the cockroaches of the paranormal
world. They are disgusting beings. Anyways the point is, Val look
at me. You did not kill him. We need to get the fuck out of here.”
Valentine did not answer verbally. “Good. Now go get some clothes,
make sure you take something of everything, but mostly warmer
clothes. I don’t know where we will be going after we get to
Ichiro’s place; I have no idea where he will be sending us.” I
started to pull myself from the memories when the Djinn’s heavy
thumps started to fade, I had all that I needed to know but a soft
voice stopped me.

“I don’t have the heart to tie you up. And I
know you can’t hear me, but I am truly sorry.” She touched my
hairline, her fingers leaving a burning line behind. It was a
strange sensation, one that brought the male in this body to react.
I pulled away from the memory, away from the strange feeling
filling my system. I was separate. I would not merge with this
human. Pulling away from the memories once more, I broke free and
shoved the human back to his tight spot in my mind. I might have to
chain him there if he persists in doing what he just did.

Ichiro’s place.
I resisted a small
smile.

“You can run my little light, but you cannot
hide. You will be mine.”.

Chapter 6 –
Valentine

I convinced Ami to leave Elijah, I mean the
Wraith, untied. He wasn’t going to come to anytime soon, at least
not while we were there. It wouldn’t matter if we weren’t there
anyways, it would have been cruel. She gave me the stink eye and
practically growled at me but I got my way. As we headed out I let
my hand linger on the doorframe. I hoped this wouldn’t be the last
time we saw our family home. I knew that Ami told me we would be
back, a month at the latest, but I couldn’t help but feel like this
would be our last time here. I wanted to grab a picture, one with
all of us but Ami was persistent about leaving as soon as possible.
She even came into my room and started to grab my clothes and shove
them into a duffle bag.

Ami drove and I watched as our beautiful
state zoomed past us. It was sad but I already missed our state and
we weren’t even out of it yet. Ami told me that her friend lived in
New York. China Town, New York. I was never very comfortable in big
cities and the idea of going to New York scared me even more. I
drifted off and dreamt of Elijah.

“
Tell me where you are going?” I knew I
should have been scared. He was so close, closer than any man had
been before. His voice was rough, but it did nothing but create
this strange light feeling in my tummy. I swallowed, willing myself
to look up at him, to open my eyes and see him. When I finally had
the courage to do so, his hand was touching bare skin. “Tell
me.”