Lost Soul (DarkWorld: SkinWalker Book 2) (29 page)

"Nothing," I answered her, pasting a smile on my face. "Just tired."

She looked at me, suspicion bright in her eyes but said nothing as she led us through to the kitchen. We found her mother sitting at the table. She wasn't alone.

A man sat with her, hooded and cloaked in a purple robe so dark it was almost black. They both glanced up and the man stood to greet me. Gracie pulled me into a quick hug. "I'm glad you are feeling better, Kailin." I smiled and thanked her. "This is Darian."

Darian bowed and then stood upright to look directly at me. His face, though shadowed by the hood, held a curiosity and empathy that surprised me. He had an air of hardness, like he'd lived a long and terrible life. I couldn't tell his age although the lines in his face and the slight stoop to his shoulders would define him as old. But he could be centuries old for all I knew.

"Kailin, Darian is an Ancient. He can heal you," said Gracie.

"Thank you for doing this," I said to Darian, meeting his gaze. He inclined his head and stood.

"I will need a place where you can be comfortable. A bed preferably," he said to Gracie.

She nodded and got to her feet. "You can use Tara's room. It's down the hall to the left. Do you need anything else?"

"I have what I need, Your Majesty. You may join us." Then he turned to me. "If there is anyone you wish to call, anyone you would like to keep you company while I perform the
removal."

I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "Just Tara and Lily are fine."

I'd thought of calling Logan but he'd spent weeks trying to perfect his fire so he could cure me, I wasn't so sure how he would feel to watch someone else take the poison away. Of course, I was yet to see proof that Darian could pull it off.

We entered Tara's room, the same one I'd slept in while in the Greylands. I sat on the bed and Tara brought a chair for Darian. I watched him. Despite his age, his movements were elegant and soft, nothing to say he was old and decrepit.

I removed my leather jacket and set it beside me since Darian would probably need access to the wound. My forearm was dark with purple bruises. Although the last fire treatment had worked, it seemed the poison was as strong as ever. It had spread again, strong and thick within my veins in only the space of a few hours.

My gut clenched. Could Darian really remove the poison from my body? Suddenly, I wasn't so sure. I wasn't so sure anybody could. And what if that was true and I was destined to die of the poison?

I pushed the thought away and watched as Darian brought a crystal bowl out of the leather bag on his shoulder. Beside it he placed a small jeweled knife.

"Lay your hand on the bed, child. I will need to make a cut in the skin. Blood must be drawn from your veins to make this work." I did as he asked, watching his veiled face as he bent over my hand to make the incision.

A spike of pain traveled up my arm and I hissed. Lily came around to the other side of the bed and sat beside me. "You okay?"

I nodded. "I'm fine. It just hurts way more when anything gets near the original wound."

Darian cleared his throat. "I think perhaps this might be a little harder than I originally thought. It sounds very much like there may still be some of the obsidian left within your arm. If that is the case, I will need to remove it before I can do anything to help you."

I nodded even though my stomach twisted so tightly I wanted to throw up. I knew from his description and the somber look on his face that it wasn't going to be an easy procedure.

I almost wanted to call Logan over. Or maybe Grams. But I wasn't a baby. I could handle this. I lay back and tried not to think of pain. Normal pain I could handle. Walkers had a fairly high pain threshold, but the pain from the poison was insidious, debilitating. It ate at me, not just my energy, but my strength and motivation too.

Darian brought the knife to my forearm. "Can you tell me where you think the original piece of obsidian was embedded?"

I pointed and suppressed a shudder, looking away as he lowered the viciously sharp blade to my skin.

"Shouldn't you take something for the pain?" Tara stood rigid at the foot of the bed and interrupted the knife's descent.

Darian shook his head and met my eyes. "We would have to procure a powerful tranquilizer. Something we do not have time to obtain."

"Wait. Kai, can't you call Logan and see what he can get for you?" Tara looked at the knife and then back at me, her face pinched with worry. I hesitated. "You can't have this done while you're awake, Kai. It's insane. It's going to hurt too much and you're already too weak from the poison."

I glared at her, hating that she was probably right. "I'm sorry, Darian. Do you have time to wait? If Logan can get me the drug, I doubt it would take him long to get here."

"Very well. Make your calls. I will wait." He didn't sound too annoyed, so I relaxed a bit. I watched him walk slowly out of the room.

As soon as he left, I called Logan, listening to the phone ring once, twice.

"Hey." I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Hi." I spoke fast. "I need a favor and I'm not sure it's something you can pull off super-quick." My tone was a little too serious and I knew he'd sense something was up.

"What's wrong?"

"Gracie found someone who may be able to cure me. He knows about obsidian poison. The only problem is he has to reopen the wound to make sure all the obsidian is gone."

"Kai, how the hell would he be able to tell? You'd need to be in hospital, under a surgeon's knife to be sure." Logan sounded angry and frustrated.

"I think he knows what he's doing. He's an Ancient." I tried to convince him, and from the silence on the other end of the phone when he heard the word "Ancient," I think I had him convinced. "And I trust Gracie, so I trust him. Please, Logan. I need a drug that will put me to sleep. Something stronger than the normal kind."

"Fine, I'll get it. But I'm going to stay for the procedure." His tone brooked no argument.

"Thank you. How long?"

"Give me half an hour. I need to pop into the lab for this."

"Thanks, Logan."

"Don't thank me. I just hope you know what you're doing," he said with a disapproving grunt.

Me too, Logan. Me too.

***

The doorbell clanged in less than twenty minutes and I sighed, relieved that I didn't need to wait any longer. Logan's expression was angry and worried when he entered the room, ushered in by Tara, who came around to sit on the foot of the bed.

Logan handed me the little bottle and a syringe, then moved to stand against the wall behind Tara. On cue, Darian entered the room. He inclined his head in Logan's direction, a neutral
, respectful greeting from the Ancient. Darian didn't need to be nice, but he was careful and meticulous. It made me more curious as to who and what he was.

"Kailin, once you receive this drug you will be asleep. I am hoping that you will awaken and be free of this poison." He patted my wrist and waved Logan forward. "You may administer the drug."

Logan moved toward me, quickly and efficiently preparing the syringe. I felt the pinprick of the needle as it entered my vein. Logan was good. I barely felt it break my skin. Barely heard Lily's intake of breath as she watched next to me. Except for the one question, she'd been oddly silent the entire time.

Beside me, Darian withdrew his bowl and dagger again and placed it close to my hip. Gracie entered the room with a sheet of plastic and a stack of towels. She placed the plastic beside me and spread a few layers of towels over it. I blinked as I watched her activity. An iciness gripped my throat, a dry, tight feeling that made me swallow repeatedly to bring some moisture back into my mouth. It didn't help.

I heard her formally introduce Darian to Logan, but it all seemed so far away, so garbled.

I blinked again, wanted to tell Logan something was wrong. I could feel my heart speeding up, my panther snarling as the drug filtered into my bloodstream. I took a breath but couldn't speak. I just stared at Logan until the image of him became two. Then everything in my vision blurred until I could handle it no more and shut my eyes, shut everything out.

***

Logan stood at the foot of the bed, watching as the old man readied his knife. He was a bit startled when Darian raised his eyes and asked, "Kailin never got to tell me exactly where the obsidian had embedded within her arm. I do hope you are able to tell me. It will make this easier for both the girl and for me." Darian's voice was soft and calm and confident. He managed to put Logan at ease.

Logan bent forward and pointed just halfway along the scar that Kai's wound had left. She'd healed incredibly well, leaving only a fine line, as thin as a hair
.

"Here," Logan said, praying the man knew what he was doing. Kailin was asleep, breathing the long, deep breaths of the unconscious. Her friends Tara and Lily still sat beside her, worried looks on their faces. Lily looked up, giving Logan a soft, encouraging smile and he realized he must look a mess.

He watched Darian bend over Kai's hand and winced as the old man pressed the blade to her skin. He made a deep incision and blood welled from the cut, dripping down the side of her arm onto the waiting towels. Logan gritted his teeth, the urge to hit Darian so strong that fire began to rise within his blood.

Darian set the bloody blade on the towel, then turned Kailin's hand allowing the seeping blood to drip into the waiting crystal bowl. As the blood touched the stone, the dark red liquid began to shimmer with streaks of silver. Little forks of lightning spread within the blood and Logan frowned. The bowl must have some magical properties, something that reacted to the poison running through Kai's veins.

Then the old man held his hands over the wound for a moment, hovering there as if his palms released some kind of invisible energy. Logan concluded that Darian was some kind of Mage—exactly what kind he was still to discover.

When Kai's arm began to glow with silver lightning striking beneath her skin, Logan stepped closer to the bed to get a better look. Darian didn't react.

The cut shimmered as the open wound also emitted the silver sparks. One particular area, almost exactly where Logan had pointed, glowed stronger, like an x-ray pickup detecting metal.

Darian nodded and gripped the dagger again. This time holding it perpendicular to Kai's hand. He looked like he was about to stab her arm but he made no sudden move.

In fact, Darian moved very slowly, with a sure, steady hand that was a comfort to Logan. The point of the dagger entered the open wound and though Logan flinched and though he expected Kai to flinch, she didn't move a muscle. The tranquilizer he'd brought was doing its job.

Darian's dagger sank farther into Kai's arm and Logan wondered how deep the old man intended to go. He feared Darian may damage vital nerves and muscles in his quest to remove the obsidian he thought was still within Kai's arm. Logan hadn't expected this level of surgery.

He opened his mouth to question how wise it was to perform such a procedure in this kind of environment when Darian let out a hiss of breath. Logan bent closer, careful to keep out of the old man's way. He watched as Darian slowly lifted the point of the deadly sharp knife, bringing with it a tiny sliver of black, so thin it was barely wider than a strand of hair.

The dark tip of the black crystal rose slowly, lifted by the point of Darian's dagger. He brought it only high enough to be visible, then looked behind him at Gracie, who'd remained at the entrance to watch. "Tweezers please. Or some kind of equipment to serve a similar function."

"I'll only be a moment," Gracie said, already halfway out the door. Less than a minute later, she returned with a small pair of tweezers, the metal glinting in the light of the bedroom. Darian took the instrument without a word, returning his attention to his patient almost immediately.

Logan peered closely at Darian, even Gracie and Tara bent forward to watch as the old man place the teeth of the tweezers on the fine tip of the hairline-sliver of obsidian. Darian closed the tweezers onto the obsidian and began to pull the sliver out of Kailin's flesh a tiny fraction of an inch at a time.

The process was so slow, so nerve-wracking that even Logan had perspiration dotting his creased forehead. Nobody breathed as Darian continued to pull at the sliver. Then he stopped and put the tweezers down and everyone looked at him, concerned, worried he'd done something wrong.

"I need to rest my hands. I fear my age is not conducive to such fine work." Darian smiled wryly.

"Would you like me to take over?" Tara offered and Logan almost nodded, knowing the kind of work the metal-singer did, but Darian shook his head.

"I wish I could take you up on your offer, and I am certain you have a much steadier hand than mine, but unfortunately, there is a ripple of magic here that I am working with. The power is just fine enough to allow me to lift the obsidian piece but I have to concentrate very hard, the fine magic and the tiny piece of crystal is a difficult and dangerous combination."

Tara nodded, her face clouded with worry. Darian smiled encouragingly at her. "Do not fear. I am almost there."