Healed (The Found Book 3) (13 page)

“He’s right and he didn’t call for retrieval. He has the watch transmitter, he could have used it. He didn’t,” Nate needed to say it aloud. He’d been thinking the same thing as Sierra, and he was in charge of the mission. In charge of Dakota. There was silence as the plane ate up the miles and Nate thought about Kota and Sarah, sick both of them were in the hands of Lee Stovers.

“Nate.” He realized that Sierra was talking to him. “We’re headed towards Nevada.”

“Whereabouts?”

“It looks like the Mojave Desert.”

“Well there’s some good news,” he gave Sierra a grim smile. They could do deserts, they were good in the sand.

****

Sarah woke up. She was still strapped to the bed and she remembered everything, her name, that she was
found
, her family, Nate. Panic bloomed. When the hell were they going to come and give her fertility treatments? Maybe they already had while she’d been unconscious. She did her best to calm herself. The team would be here soon. She knew it. That was when she heard commotion and it sounded far away.

“He needs surgery.” Helen’s voice and she was yelling at someone.

“No.”

“What are you talking about, he’s lost a lot of blood. He needs to be someplace where we can actually treat someone, not in a fake set-up like this.”

“That’s not your business,” a cold voice replied. “Show us where Sarah Johnson’s room is.”

The voice was much closer. Her door shoved open and a large man with a hard expression stared at her.

“Good, you’re awake. We need you to do something.” Sarah shrank against the bed, she hated feeling scared.

Behind the first man a second man entered pushing a wheelchair. There was someone slumped over in the chair. Helen was right he needed to be in a hospital. He was wearing fatigues, but no shirt, his entire torso swathed in bandages seeped through with blood.

Seeing the wounded man, she struggled with the straps. “Let me out of here. What are his injuries? He needs to be lying down.”

“We brought him here so you could heal him,” the first man said. “The head man wants video of you actually healing someone and we just happen to have the perfect candidate.”

He looked at Sarah in an impersonal fashion and then opened the door to her room. “Get someone in here to undo the restraints,” he yelled out. The beefy orderly who injured her, came in and didn’t look too happy at undoing the restraints. As soon as she was out of the bonds, she tried to sit up, but was too weak.

“Help her out of bed, we need to get this one lying down,” he said indicating the man in the wheelchair.

Black hair covered the man’s face as he was moved to the bed, bandages were wrapped all around his torso and they were covered with blood. He was hardly breathing. She pushed back a portion of the bandage and saw the the wound was deep and seeping blood. She took his pulse, it was barely there.

“Helen, get in here,” she yelled. The door immediately opened admitting the nurse.

“Where are the other doctors?” Sarah demanded.

“Leave,” the first man commanded. His voice was frightening. Sarah and Helen stopped and looked at him.

“Helen, don’t you dare. We need to get this man into an operating room.”

“I said leave,” his voice was low and deadly. Helen left the room. The second man pulled out his phone and pointed it towards the man on the bed, and the whole situation turned surreal.

“Do you want him to die?” Sarah asked incredulously.

“No, we want you to heal him.” She looked at the cold black eyes of the man and didn’t see any indication of insanity. “Hopefully you’ll do a better job than the last one we tested.”

“I told you he needs surgery.” Sarah never healed someone so close to death. They were in a medical facility for God’s sake. Even if there weren’t real doctors, other hands and medical instruments would be valuable while she did try to heal the man. He definitely needed a transfusion.

“Dr. Johnson, let me explain something to you. You have an amazing ability. You are a healer not just a doctor. You can lay hands on people and heal their wounds. You can heal someone without surgery. You don’t remember this, but we believe this to be true. Stop filming,” he said to his partner. “If you don’t do this, we’ll let him die.” For the first time his gaze skittered away from hers. Thank God, maybe he was lying. Sarah prayed if her ability to heal wasn’t enough they would get him into an operating room.

“Get Helen, I need to cut off the bandages.” The first man pulled out a wicked looking knife and cut them off, pushing the man on his side. That was when she finally got a good look at the man’s pale face. It took everything she had not to react. It was Kota. Then the man shoved him over onto his stomach so she could see the wound on his back, in an instant she saw the brutality of the wound on the bronze skin.

“Oh God.”

“Heal him.” He didn’t need to say those words, her hands were already on top of the ferocious looking wound. She felt a pulse, a vibration. She closed her eyes and went inward. She started at the top of the cut under his arm. She laced her fingers together since it seemed to work better that way. She continued to rest her hands on the gash close to his armpit and the vibration increased heating her hand and his flesh. It felt good. Her arm tingled and a creamy calm encased her.

The man with the cold eyes yanked her arm.

“What the hell?”

“We can’t see what’s going on.”

“What?” It was like coming out of a dream. The first man gripped her lower arm and pulled it away from the wound and the second man put his phone up close to video the wound. Where before the flesh was a jagged torn mess, it was now a newly pink scar.

“Goddamit, this isn’t the video they’re going to want. We have to show how the wound is closing. We can’t just have her hand covering the wound, and then uncover it and it be healed. It could be time lapse photography.”

“It’s one continuous video,” the second man argued.

The first man shoved her hand down onto the middle of the remaining gash on his back and Kota groaned with pain. Sarah took it as a good sign, it meant he was feeling better if he was well enough to make noise.

“Film this. Hopefully she’ll heal the portion under her hand, and then it will spread out to the parts above it, and we’ll get that part on film. Make sure you have enough battery in your phone.”

Sarah closed her eyes and tried to tune out the three bastards in the room. Kota was doing better. Stronger. She laced her fingers together and the vibration started immediately much fiercer than before. She looked to see if her hand was moving but it wasn’t. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. She got sucked into a vibrant world of colors and peace and energy. So warm. This time instead of the tingles going up her arm it went through her entire body, down to her toes and up again until all the pent up energy felt like it burst through the top of her head.

“Holy fuck!” one of the men shouted.

“Did you get it?”

She heard the door slam open as she gagged and threw up.

“Amazing. We got it on the surveillance video too. Her talents are off the chart. We thought the other one was pretty good, but Sarah is phenomenal. She’s the real deal. We can tell the surgeon they can go home.” She heard a new voice talking.

“I wonder if he’s going to be as strong a healer as she is.” It was the first man who had come into the room.

“Why couldn’t he heal himself? Hey, watch out, don’t let her fall.”

Arms grabbed her, they hurt.

“God, she’s a mess.”

The pain in her head was so bad. Oh God. No!

“Hold her. Do you have her? Dennis, grab her legs. She’s convulsing.”

“Get a doctor in here now!”

Sarah started gagging again, but they had her held in such a way that she couldn’t turn her head, and she was choking on her own vomit. The pain was so bad she didn’t care if she lived.

The door slammed open again.

“Turn her. Get a gurney.”

Chapter Nine

“Nate, wake up Nate.” He wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t unconscious. He was focusing. Sierra needed to leave him the hell alone.

“Nate. We need you with us. Can you tell us what’s wrong?” When did Cyrus start sounding so considerate?

God it stank.

“What do you expect buddy? It’s a hundred and ten in the back of this truck and you threw up,” Cyrus said.

Nate’s head exploded with pain as it slammed against steel.

“Can you please not drive so fast?” Cyrus begged.

“We need to get Nate to a hospital, malaria is nothing to fool around with.”

“Not malaria,” Nate whispered.

“What did he say?”

“He says it’s not malaria. Would you please slow down. You’re driving through the desert without headlights.” Cyrus was yelling and it hurt his head.

“Look, I’ve done this plenty of times in Afghanistan. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. We need to get Nate help. I’m just praying our gamble with Kota is right, and they wanted him alive.”

“We heard him on the transmitter, he’s alive.”

“Shut up, I need to concentrate,” Nate managed to yell hoarsely.

“What?” they said simultaneously.

“Sarah.” He was back down to a whisper and only Cyrus could hear him. He had to make him understand. He sank against the side of the truck, and tucked his knees up against himself. God, she must have healed Kota and he worried she might have almost killed herself in the process.

“Nate, what about Sarah,” Cyrus gripped both of his shoulders.

“When Sarah heals, she hurts,” he said through gritted teeth. He breathed deeply through his nose. What a mistake, the stench was horrific. He gagged. He swallowed. “Need to connect to Sarah. Can help her with pain.”

“Look at me,” Cyrus demanded.

Nate concentrated on breathing, trying not to pass out from the pain in his head. Cyrus shook him.

“Open your eyes, damn you, and look at me.” Nate opened them a little, but even the dim light of the truck was like a lightning strike.

“What?”

“How bad is Sarah? Did she heal Kota?” Sarah’s brother was smart.

“Think so. Cyrus, shut up. Can help her.”

“What’s he saying?” Sierra shouted from the driver’s seat.

“We need to be quiet. It’s some kind of
found
shit, and he can connect to Sarah.”

“Gotchya,” Sierra said.

“Don’t drive like a maniac.”

“Done.”

Rivulets of sweat trickled down Nate’s spine, the pain was like something out of his worst nightmare. He rounded it up, pulling it inwards, into a shard in the middle of his forehead so he could use it to focus. He kept pulling more and more, reaching further than himself, knowing he was reaching into Sarah and pulling pain away from her, it seemed never ending.

“Angel, can you hear me?”

He could feel her, but she wasn’t answering.

“Sarah, please talk to me.” Instead of pulling at the cords of pain, he followed one of them and was plummeted into molten misery. His entire body clenched and spasmed. He fought the toughest enemy of his life this unending torture trying to get to Sarah.

Finally able to unclamp his jaw he called for her again.

“It hurts so bad,” Sarah said through their connection.

“Sarah, I’m coming.”

“Nate?”

“I’m almost there.”

“So bad,” she whimpered.

While she’d been talking, he’d been able to catch a glimpse of her in his mind’s eye. She was lying on a hospital bed. Her hair was wet and she was shivering under a light blanket. Then he watched in horror as she had a convulsion, but nobody came. He fought through the black substance keeping him away from Sarah. Watching Sarah’s suffering were the longest moments of his life. Finally she stopped as he broke free.

In the instant it took for him to think it, he found himself in the bed with her, wrapping himself around her, tucking her head under his chin. She shuddered, and instead of the normal soothing sensation, he was swamped with pain.

“Closer.” She burrowed further beneath his body, until he was damn near on top of her. She moaned in relief, and the pain lessened just a little.

“I healed Kota.”

“I figured.”

Nate cupped her head and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Then he gently massaged her temple, feeling the spike of pain when another huge shudder wracked her body. After long minutes she gave a soft sigh, and the pain in his forehead and jaw eased.

“What happened to him Nate? He almost died.”

“Those fuckers. If they treated him, he would have been fine.”

“You mean?” She gasped as another convulsion started.

“No Angel, don’t talk.” He hugged her closer, and ran his hands up and down her back. “Breathe through it. I’m here.” Finally she relaxed.

“You knew he was hurt?”

“Yeah, we knew. It was part of the plan to get him taken to where you were being held.”

“It was too big of a risk.” Sarah gasped.

“It wasn’t. We made them think he was a healer. They wouldn’t have risked him dying.”

She didn’t say anything for long minutes.

“But Nate he almost did die.”

“You need to trust us, we knew what we were doing, Kota had a way to contact us if it became critical.”

She went quiet again, then finally nodded. He felt a shard of pain leap through her head.

“You have to stay still, Angel.”

Nate ran his fingers from her temple down her jaw to the back of her neck, and massaged the tight muscles and tendons. She pressed backwards into his fingers. Finally a whimper of relief and his muscles relaxed as well.

“S’ better.”

“I’m glad it’s helping, but we’ve got to get you out of there. I want you back in my arms for real.” He hated feeling helpless. He needed to get her out of this hellhole.