Seduced by Crimson (16 page)

"Drui-en," he said. Without asking, she knew he was naming her. And perhaps he was giving voice to what she felt. The word echoed through the sky and shuddered through both the Earth and Xiao Fei.

"Draig-Uisge," she said, and as she spoke, there he was: a sleek, golden water dragon, cutting through the waves until—with a burst of power and a shimmering splash of liquid color—he leaped from the water into the sky.

"Xiao Fei! Have you lost your mind? Xiao Fei!"

Her happy world was abruptly ripped away. She lost her connection to Patrick's eyes, and she dropped with a painful thud onto a dirty stack of rice sacks. Above her, Patrick lost the struggle to stay balanced—Mrs. Wang was shoving him sideways. He was too heavy for the woman to lift, but what she'd begun, gravity finished. Patrick rolled off of Xiao Fei to tumble into a basket of ginger, a single cry torn raw and furious from his throat.

Mrs. Wang ignored him, saving her fury for Xiao Fei. "I thought you had more sense! Bringing a
wei guo ren
here." She called Patrick a white man, but her tone implied much worse. "And shut up that squalling baby!"

Xiao Fei blinked, only now realizing the child was sobbing. She reached over without thought, cradling the screaming child in her arms. He quieted, but not entirely. In fact, part of her mind registered that he felt hot and fretful. But the primary part of her brain, the majority of her thoughts and feelings, was trained on Patrick as he sprawled on the floor beside her. His head was in his hands and his entire demeanor was frustrated and angry.

He looked up and met her gaze. Again she saw him clearly despite the gloom, and again she felt that echo of Earth and sky. It was distant now, but still present, as much a part of her awareness as the steady drain from the demon gate. Two opposites—the gate was emptiness, while Patrick was a fullness, a warm center of being whole.

"You
were
using magic," she whispered. Then her voice and anger got stronger. "First you tie me up; then you bespell me!" She didn't know why she was so angry; shed known what he was doing from that first kiss. She'd known and yet she still felt betrayed.

He didn't say anything. His eyes remained on her, but they were both very aware of the Wang family staring at them and the squalling, squirming toddler in her arms.

At last he said, "I've never lied to you, Xiao Fei."

She blinked. No, he never had. So why did she feel betrayed?

"Shut that child up!" Mrs. Wang screeched.

Xiao Fei looked down at the kid. She thought he'd been hot because it was hot in the room, because he'd had a bad dream, because of a hundred unimportant reasons. But she saw now how foolish she'd been. The boy was feverish. His skin was mottled and his eyes glassy. Was that why his mother had been out on the street in the middle of a battle? Had she been taking her child to a doctor?

Xiao Fei looked at Patrick. "He's got a fever. I think he may be sick."

"Then get out!" screeched Mrs. Wang. "We can't—"

"You can't throw a sick child out on the street!" Xiao Fei shot back. "His mother is dead. Shot through the head."

Mrs. Wang blanched. In truth, the woman wasn't evil, but family came first, and Xiao Fei wasn't related. "I paid you," Xiao Fei reminded her in low tones.

"Not enough," the woman spat. "Not for what you bring."

Patrick's cell went off. He'd turned off the finger, but on vibrate it still made a low noise audible in the stiflingly silent room. He grabbed at his hip. Everyone watched him look at the caller ID.

"It's Peter," he said to no one in particular. "Maybe he can tell us what's going on out there." He stood and walked to the opposite side of the room. Xiao Fei could still hear his conversation, though he tried to keep his words soft. Unfortunately, his side was comprised of single unhelpful words. "What? No. Can't. Military? Damn."

In short, things weren't going well on the outside. Not so good on the inside, either—the toddler was becoming more fretful.

"You can help him," a voice said. "Why don't you help him?"

Xiao Fei looked up to see the drawn face of a preteen boy. She frowned as she searched her memory. "You're Sam," she remembered. "Pei Ling's cousin's friend."

The boy nodded and gestured to Mrs. Wang. "My mother's sister."

Xiao Fei immediately clicked him into place in the Wang family structure. The toddler let out another cranky wail.

"Cure him," Sam pressed. "We know you cured Donny, and he was a vampire. So you can fix this kid."

She bit her lip. "It's not that simple. My blood isn't some magic elixir. I don't know if it'll work."

"It can't hurt, can it?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"But it's just blood, right?" he pressed. "I mean, I know it has medicine in it, but if it doesn't work, it's just like—you know—drinking blood. It can't be
that
bad."

She cradled the squirming child closer. His fever seemed to be climbing, especially in this overheated space. His skin was mottled, and he'd started coughing when he wasn't crying. He looked so small in her arms, so vulnerable.

"We should get him to a doctor," she said. She looked up at Mrs. Wang. The woman was more than ready to throw them out the door.

"Hospitals are overloaded," said old Mr. Wang. Xiao Fei only now noticed that he cradled a receiver in his arthritic hands. He must have been listening to a radio report. "Power's out in whole sections of the city. The One-ten was blown up. Surface streets are clogged." He shook his head. "You won't get help for a simple fever at any hospital."

Xiao Fei glanced at Patrick. He was still on the phone, his face pulled into grim lines. That was all the confirmation she needed. If someone were going to help the child, it would have to be her. Besides, she knew her blood could reverse lycanthropy, and it would be ten times easier getting the boy medical attention if he were fully human. Some health professionals were understandably reluctant to treat were-patients. The risk of infection was always there.

She acted quickly, before she could change her mind. Sam helped. He knelt beside her and held the boy still as she raised her wrist. It took little time to focus her thoughts. The chant came easily. She didn't even need a knife; her fingernail was sharp enough to rip the scab away. Her blood flowed quickly and easily into the boy's mouth.

The child drank. He grimaced at the taste, but then Sam wasn't giving him much choice, holding the kid's head steady so Xiao Fei could trail the stream of blood across his lips. And as she watched the boy swallow, she decided to name him. He couldn't stay "the orphaned ex-werewolf" for the rest of his life.

"You will be called Jimmy by Americans," she intoned, "but for me… I name you Jian Ying, because you will be both vigorous and healthy. You will grow strong and proud and be well loved by all."

To one side, Mrs. Wang grunted. "A good name," she admitted.

Xiao Fei smiled. At last she'd done something right. Then she closed her eyes and softly chanted. She didn't have to watch to know when her wrist wound clotted and closed. She'd have a scab for a day or so, and would have to be careful that she didn't reopen the cut, but beyond that she would be fine. She began her final prayer, only to have the child begin jerking in her lap. She cut off her words as she tried to hold the suddenly bucking child.

Convulsions?

She bit her lip, doing her best to keep little Jian Ying from hurting himself. Sam helped as well, pinning down a shoulder and arm. Even Mrs. Wang added her strength to the boy's legs.

"What's happening? Why is he doing this?" Mrs. Wang gasped.

"I don't know" Xiao Fei answered, fear cutting off her breath. "Sometimes the conversion back to humanity is hard."

"
This
shard?"

She didn't know. She'd done it only once before on a werewolf—a freshly bitten human—and it hadn't been anything like this. But the unvampiring of Donny had been violent. Still, it was excruciating to restrain this tiny contorting body and not be able to help. She was almost in tears by the time Patrick returned.

"My God, what happened?" he asked.

The toddler's convulsions were getting weaker, but not because they were easing. Little Jian Ting was losing strength.

"She gave him the human medicine," Sam said. He was sweating, and his eyes looked huge. His face was drawn.

"Human medicine?" Patrick knelt down and placed a hand on the toddler's forehead. "His energy is all over the place. What did you do to him?" he asked Xiao Fei.

"Chinese medicine," Mrs. Wang snapped. She tried to edge him back and away with her hip. Patrick didn't move. If anything, he leaned closer to the boy.

"What did you do, Xiao Fei?"

"We need to get him to a hospital," she answered. But even as she said it, she knew it was hopeless.

"It's too far away," he said, confirming her fear. "He won't make it."

Tears splashed her hands, and Xiao Fei looked up sharply to see if they were Mrs. Wang's. Nope. Xiao Fei brushed at her own cheeks. When was the last time she'd cried? Not since… Well, it had been a long time.

"He's just a boy," she whispered. "We have to do something."

Jian Ying's struggles were fading, his spasms weakening. He had only a few more minutes. A half hour at most. Patrick whipped out his cell phone again and dialed 911. "What did you give him?" he asked.

It shamed her that she thought twice about answering. The boy's life meant more than her secret. Still, old habits died hard, and Patrick was a foreigner. Well, he was a foreigner to her.

"Xiao Fei," he began.

"My blood!" she gasped before she could stop herself. "It's cured lycanthropy before. I've done it before."

"To whom?"

"A teen. One who was bitten—"

He cursed and snapped his phone shut. "You cured an infected human, not a natural-born lycanthrope."

She frowned, tears blurring her vision. "What?"

Mrs. Wang abruptly pulled away. "He's a wolf?" Even Sam jerked backward.

"He's a boy!" Xiao Fei snapped. She understood their reaction, though. In truth, she would share their fear if her blood hadn't made her immune. No one wanted to become a werewolf, to exist hand-to-mouth in the tunnels, and live by the phase of the moon. She stroked a finger across Jian Ying's pasty cheek. He was still twitching, but so weakly it made her chest hurt. "He's just a boy," she repeated. "He'll have more options as a human."

Patrick's fingers met hers across the boy's forehead. "He was born a werewolf. That's who he is. Trying to change him into a human is like trying to change a dog into a cat—it's unnatural and wrong."

It took a moment for his words to penetrate her fear for Jian Ying, but when they did, Xiao Fei's fingers stilled and her eyes jerked back to his face. She swallowed, trying to erase the bitter taste in her mouth, but it wouldn't go as the horror of what he was saying sank in.

"You mean… I did this? My blood…"

"Poisoned him."

"No…" But she knew it was true. It made sense. "I-I was trying to help. I—"

Mrs. Wang's voice interrupted as she touched Sam's shoulder and drew him backward. "It's better this way," she said. "Better to die than live as a dog. Sad, of course," she added. "But better."

Anger flashed hot and hard inside Xiao Fei. "No, it is not! He's a child." She tucked the toddler close to her heart. Even with her limited ability, she could feel the boy's energy weakening. He was dying. She looked to Patrick. "We will go to the hospital."

She struggled to stand without jostling the boy. Patrick stopped her with a single touch of her shoulder. "We'll never make it," he said.

"We have to try!"

"There's another way," he said, his voice grim. "He needs to be stronger. To fight the poison."

She blinked back her guilt. "To fight what I did to him."

Patrick shrugged, then glanced significantly around him to the Wangs, who were watching as avidly as if this were the latest hot TV show. "His werewolf physiology is strong," he said. She frowned, not following. "Wolf DNA usually doesn't assert until adolescence."

She nodded. "That's why he looks normal."

"He
is
normal!" he snapped. Then he took a deep breath and moderated his tone, putting his other hand on the boy's belly. "I'm going to make him stronger. I'm going to accentuate his wolf energy." He glanced nervously around. "That's what I do. That's my druid skill. I shape energy." When Xiao Fei frowned, not following, he explained further. "I can amplify energy signatures. Of the Earth, of life, of…"

"A wolf."

He nodded.

"But that will make him into a wolf, won't it?"

He nodded. "He'll change. Into a puppy, probably, so you have to be prepared. You'll have to control him. Don't let him bite anyone. At least, don't let him break skin."

Xiao Fei nodded. She understood. "It's the only way, isn't it? To save his life?"

Patrick nodded.

"Do it," she agreed.

Mrs. Wang finally understood. She leaped to her feet in horror. "You'll make him a wolf! Here? No!
No
! He'll bite us."