Spiral (Spiral Series) (30 page)

“So, give me the short version,” I said stubbornly. “I need to know.” The gloomy hospital lights played across his features, creating shadows. His silver eyes and straight nose stood out more against the dimness.

I could see the muscles of his jaw clench. “I promise I’ll explain. Believe me when I say I would like nothing better and have been waiting years for the chance.” He said it with such feeling that I couldn’t help but believe him.

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘years’?”

He smiled down at me. “I’ve been waiting for years to tell you that we are the same.”

I filed that away as question one million and one that I would have to ask him when I had time.

I rubbed my forehead with my free hand, still standing shockingly close to him but needing with all my being not to move away. “The immediate problem is healing Andrew,” I insisted. “If you don’t want me to, and can’t explain why - and that’s a pathetic reason if ever there was one - then you need to heal him.” I said it all swiftly, worrying more with each passing second that Olivia would come back.

“I can’t,” he said, his voice filled with pain. Again, I looked at him in surprise. “Can’t or won’t?” I asked suspiciously.

“Can’t,” he said. “Believe me. I would do anything to keep you safe.”

He said it as if he had known me for years instead of weeks.

“I really feel like I should be freaking out right now,” I murmured. “I don’t know if I’m more impressed with myself that I’m not, or disturbed because I should be.”

Pierce laughed softly and held my hand tighter, only he took it off his chest and moved it to his side. I felt tingling everywhere our skin touched. Maybe it was a reaction to the healing? Maybe it was something else.

“Look, I’m not strong enough to heal him, otherwise I would,” said Pierce.

“I’m stronger than you?” I asked. “There are levels of strength? What? If we have the same eye color how can one of us be stronger?”

Pierce gave a short laugh. “Strength really has nothing to do with the eye color.”

“Ah, um, okay,” I said. “So, I’m stronger?”

“Probably,” he said, nodding curtly.

“Then I have to do it,” I said, trying to get past him and back to Andrew’s side. “If I don’t he’ll die or be permanently damaged or something awful. I can’t stand by and let that happen when I could help!”

I looked at Pierce desperately. The look he gave me back wasn’t unkind, but it was determined.

He groaned and shook his head. “Why do you have to be so honorable?” he asked, ruefully.

My heart quickened at the light in his eyes, and I wanted to grin. But I couldn’t with Andrew lying there next to us, bloodied and broken.

“He’s my brother,” I said. “I have to help him.”

“He isn’t blood,” said Pierce. “If he were. . . .”

“Don’t you care about anyone enough to do anything for them even if they aren’t blood?” I said.

Pierce stiffened. “There are two people I care about that much, yes.”

My eyes widened as I wondered who they were.

“You have to let me help him.”

“You don’t understand the consequences,” Pierce growled. “It’s too dangerous for you.”

“I don’t care about the dangers,” I cried back, squeezing his hand until my fist hurt. “I have to help my brother! Now, move!”

“Can’t you wait until tomorrow? To at least see if the treatments they’re trying will work?”

“What if he dies in the night?” I asked my voice catching.

“Natalie,” said Pierce, his eyes shining with pain, “it’s just too risky. He’s going to be fine. You can’t think like that.”

“I have to,” I cried. “He’s lying unconscious in a hospital bed! How do you expect me to think?”

Pierce ran his hand through his black hair, working his jaw in frustration. “Look, I know you always want to do the right thing. . . .”

“This isn’t about doing the right thing,” I yelled again, if you could call an urgent whisper yelling. We were in a hospital, after all. But it was a relief to get angry, because it kept the worry at bay. “It’s about doing the only possible thing. I will not let Andrew die.”

Pierce searched my face. I didn’t flinch or look away. Maybe I had no idea what was going on, but I knew what would happen if I didn’t do something. Andrew would die, and that just wasn’t an option.

Pierce turned away and muttered something about troublesome girls. I waited as he paced around the room. Finally he stopped, came back to me, and said, nodding tightly, “Alright.” He looked like he expected me to kick him, and it’s true that if I had thought it would do more damage to him than to me I might have considered it. Unfortunately, I was too small to be opening up a can of whoop ass on anyone. If I had kicked him, I would have hurt my toe more than his shin. Whoop ass what Jill was for, and she wasn’t here.

“Will you promise to let me explain everything to you if you do?” he asked. He sounded resigned to his fate. I felt triumph and relief well up inside me.

“Fine,” I said. “You can explain away. Just let me help Andrew. You’re such a talker I can’t wait.”

“So glad you can be sarcastic at a time like this,” but his voice was filled with worry.

“I just touch him, right?” I asked warily, moving towards the bed. Pierce rolled his eyes skyward, as if asking for patience. “You could try that if, you know, you want to DIE.”

“I’ve done it before,” I said, snapped. Not intentionally, really, but he didn’t need to know that. “This isn’t the first time I’ve healed.”

“This is the first time you’ve tried to heal anything really serious,” he said, his jaw clenched.

“First time for everything,” I muttered, stepping up to Andrew’s bedside. It was hard for me to look at him, because he didn’t look like Andrew, just like some bandaged mummy. If the doctors hadn’t told me that that was the star of the baseball team, I never would have believed it could be.

“Okay then, what
do
I do?” I asked. When Pierce didn’t answer I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was standing there, watching me.

“It would be best if I helped,” he said quietly.

“Of course. Help away.”

Carefully, as if he was afraid I would push him away, he moved to stand directly behind me. His hands brushed against my hips and I felt a heat everywhere they touched. He didn’t exert any pressure, just rested his hands at my sides. My breathing was suddenly shallow and I found it hard to concentrate on anything but the feel of those two hands.

It had gotten so that when I was with Pierce, Jackson became a distant memory. Now, when Pierce touched me, I forgot about Jackson altogether. It should have been hard to let go of something I had held onto for so long, but Pierce made me forget everything else.

“Concentrate,” he said, his breath falling softly on my neck and breaking into my foggy thoughts.

“Right,” I murmured. “Okay.”

“What was it like when you healed before?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t mean to do it. Jackson was the first person I healed and it was a total accident. I freaked out. It just happened. After that I was afraid to touch anyone for a long time.”

Pierce’s grip on my sides tightened. “This is going to be a little different, because the wounds are more extensive. You can’t just touch him and expect all his wounds to heal. If I touched him they would only get a bit better. I could maybe heal some of the damage, but I don’t think I could fix everything wrong inside of him that could kill him before morning.”

“But I can,” I whispered.

Pierce cleared his throat. “So, here’s what you’re going to do,” he said, his voice taking on an authoritative tone. “Don’t do it yet, but you’ll need to touch him, probably with both hands. I have no idea how powerful you are, but you’re likely to be strong. Since you haven’t done this before, using both hands is probably best. It shouldn’t take you long, but you have to maintain contact. Your hele is going to fill him.”

“‘Hele’?”

“Right, sorry. You don’t know. I’ll explain later.”

“I can’t wait to get to this mythical ‘later’ of which you speak. I have a feeling I’ll be a lot less angry.”

“Ready when you are.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

 I felt a slight tremor in his hands. The point was I could
feel
his hands. On me.

When I moved, Pierce moved. He kept the exact same distance between us as I leaned forward to touch Andrew. I felt nothing but support behind me.

“Can our hele mix?” My hand was hovering inches above my brother’s arm.

“Not that I know of,” he said. “If you get into trouble I’ll help.”

I liked that he hadn’t told me I didn’t know what I was doing, just that I was inexperienced. I liked that he talked to me like I would understand, and not like some child. I just liked his voice.

“Of course you will,” I murmured. That was obvious. I set my hand onto Andrew’s bandaged arm.

Instantly I was no longer just standing in a hospital room with Pierce behind me.

I was pulled into a white light. I cast around, trying to see, and realized that the light was shining so brightly I would have to close my eyes. Focusing, I tried to move through it. The light was coming from inside myself.

It was like I could see inside my body, and everything there, from my toenails to my hair, was filled with a sort of bright substance.

So, this is what it was that did the healing. I had seen sparks of it before. Sometimes when I closed my eyes there was more light than when my eyes were open.

The sparks were now blazes, and the bits and pieces of brightness were now floodlights.

When I reached out I saw that my hands were filled with the same power, and I smiled. It flowed freely between Andrew and myself. When I touched him I could feel his pain. Every cut, bruise, and broken bone was pulsing.

The most damage was, horrifyingly, to his head. It was like someone had run over it with a hard metal object, which, I guess, might have happened. No wonder the doctors were worried.

Nausea at the damage rose up from my stomach and slammed into my throat. Gagging, I started to pull away, but Pierce held me in place. I knew he was murmuring something, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I strained to hear and realized that I couldn’t break contact with Andrew. If I did that in the middle of the healing process he might be hurt even more.

I focused on him again; I couldn’t let him down. I pushed back inside, trying to heal every bit of damage I could find. I had to fix this, and he had to be okay. My temples throbbed as I forced the light inside me to transfer to Andrew. At first it went willingly, but the more full Andrew became, the harder it was to push the light into him. I found myself trying to coax tiny bits to abused areas as my own body got darker and darker. There was still a little bit of light shining right at the top of my eyes, but I couldn’t get that to budge.

Pressure on my hips brought me back outside myself. Pierce’s hands were digging into my sides, trying to get my attention. He was pushing hard enough to bruise. Once the spell was broken I collapsed, feeling overwhelmed and in intense pain. I sagged against the bed.

Pierce caught me instantly, holding me up.

“You’re okay,” he murmured in my ear, helping me to sit in a chair.

Painfully, I opened my eyes. They felt like sandpaper, and all I wanted to do was sleep.