The Healer: A Young Adult Romantic Fantasy (The Healer Series Book 1) (26 page)

“Heal me like that. Nobody has ever survived a wound from a sword forged in the land of the dead.”

“That’s because the residue the sword leaves behind is able to turn your life force off. All communication between your brain, your life force, and the rest of your body is broken. After that it’s simply a matter of time,” I said.

Tie studied me, looking more than a little intrigued.

“I don’t understand any of this. What is a life force?” Angie asked.

“It’s like a person’s spirit or soul. It exists throughout the body giving every organ, every cell, every molecule a chance to live and function properly. It’s also the essence of that person. Like a personality, only more than that. It’s absolutely aware of everything that’s happening within the body because it controls everything that’s happening within the body,” Victor tried to explain.

Angie held up her hand in protest.

“Okay, pretending I even understood any of that, what do you mean it controls everything? How?”

“Let me ask you this first,” I interjected. “Do you have any idea what makes your heart beat? Has science figured out exactly why a heart starts beating and doesn’t stop? In our physical world where anything that functions does so because of some man-made invention, how do we explain a heart that beats without the help of batteries, or solar power?”

Angie shook her head, looking a little overwhelmed. It was a lot to take in, and there were already so many other things for her to process right now, but I tried to explain it anyway.

“It has intelligence. Your heart, and all the cells and molecules that make that particular organ what it is have intelligence. These intelligences dictate how that organ functions, and that intelligence comes from a person’s life force. Once a life force enters a physical body those intelligences come to life. They’re given instructions and they listen and obey.” I paused for a second trying to gauge Angie’s reaction.

“Is that it, or is there more to this stimulating conversation?”

Sarcasm, for Angie, was a defense mechanism. I was so not her favorite person right now.

“Once I connect with a person’s life force, I know what it knows, and I take on its role by treating it like my own command center in order to heal the body properly. I can show the life force how to heal injuries by giving it access to my computer.” I tapped my temple lightly. “Does that make any sense at all?”

“Oh, sure. Intelligences, life forces, strange healing powers, the fact that you’ve kept this from me for who knows how long. It’s all makin’ sense to me now.” She shook her head like the whole world had gone crazy.

Yep. She was totally mad at me.

“So where’s the land of the dead? Is that in Arizona or something?” she asked shifting gears.

“That’s very funny,” said Tie. “No. The land of the dead is the underworld. It’s where all men go to pay for the crimes they committed in this life. Highly unsavory sort of place if you ask me.”

I felt like my reality and my imagination had suddenly nose-dived into one another. “This all sounds a little far-fetched,” I said.

“Says the girl who talks to life forces.” Victor sat down next to me and gave my shoulder a squeeze.

Tie rolled his eyes and continued talking. He seemed to be bothered by any kind of interaction between Victor and myself.

“While this is all very touching, it still doesn’t address how you managed to break through the barrier between life and death and act as my life force,” Tie said in an attempt to bring us back to the situation at hand.

“She couldn’t have broken the barrier,” Victor argued. “It would’ve killed her. At the very least her brain would have hemorrhaged and…” Victor trailed off looking at me completely horrified.

“No, Hope. Tell me you didn’t break through the veil when you were at the hospital tonight.”

“I was healing a friend. I had to break through something in order to get his cells to listen to me. His life force wasn’t willing to do it.”

“That’s because it wasn’t meant to.” He shook his head in amazement. “You really haven’t changed much, despite all the time that’s past. Always healing people who were meant to pass on.”

“Why do you and Tie keep behaving as if you know me?”

“We’ll get into that in a minute. You need to understand something first. You can’t mess with the line between life and death. You can’t heal people that are supposed to pass on. Playing that kind of role is not only dangerous for everyone involved, but it hurts you. Forcing a healing prevents you from healing yourself, and it weakens that part of the veil you’re pushing through.”

“I don’t need to heal myself. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with me.”

“Well,” Tie began.

“Watch it,” I warned.

“If you divert all of your healing power toward something that isn’t meant to be then you’ll never become immortal, and you’ll never fulfill your destiny. When we found you screaming in that elevator you were already starting to die. The forces of life and death are not meant for us to control, and trying to control them could get you killed,” Victor lectured.

“Immortal? What are you talking about?” I felt ready to explode. “Kirby is dying from leukemia. I had to do something. I couldn’t sit there and allow him to waste away.”

“I don’t know who Kirby is, but if his life force isn’t willing to heal his body then it isn’t supposed to. I think you know that already.”

“But I’m not willing to accept it. Was Tie supposed to die?”

“That was different,” he said. “Tie isn’t meant to die. Not ever. I’m not certain, but I think the only reason you were able to bypass his life force without damaging yourself is because there was no barrier for you to break.”

“What are you saying? No one lives forever. It’s ridiculous!” Angie said.

Victor held up a hand before she could say anything else.

“There’s no line between life and death for people like Tie and myself because our purpose is continuous and eternal.”

Angie’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Well, that certainly explains a few things.”

Seriously? Angie had found some clarity in all of this?

Unbelievable!

“Hope simply fixed what was never meant to be broken.” He turned to his left and addressed me. “Which, by the way, was also incredibly risky. Your spirit could have shut down just as easily as Tie’s.” Victor gave his cousin a hard look. “It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve placed her life in jeopardy.”

“I didn’t ask for her to heal me,” Tie shouted angrily. “I was a little preoccupied with bleeding to death.”

His words stung me more than I wanted to admit.

“Wow. Ungrateful much? Next time I’ll just let you die.” I stood up quickly, disgusting myself with an embarrassing need to cry.

Tie jumped up and walked over to me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eye.

“Tie,” Victor warned.

“Keep your shirt on, Vicky. I’m only going to apologize.” He turned back to me, looking a bit uncomfortable. Actually, there were all sorts of emotions flashing across his features, but the one that stood out was this look of wonder, like he couldn’t possibly comprehend why I’d even bothered to save his life. “I’m sorry. What you did was brave, albeit incredibly foolish, and I’m grateful to you for saving my life. Thank you.”

His backhanded apology sounded a little forced, but his eyes actually held a small hint of warmth in them.

“I owed you one.” I gave him a tentative smile. “After all, you did kind of throw yourself between me and a lethal looking sword. You saved my life too you know.”

He shrugged off the compliment.

“Oh, I know. I’m a regular hero these days. My bad boy image is really starting to crumble.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I think you’re a creep, and you can buy your own dinner,” Angie threw in.

His lips quirked in amusement, and then his face took on a serious cast. “To be honest, Hope, I owed you one. Whether you remember it or not, you once sacrificed yourself for me, and I never had the opportunity to thank you.”

“You have exactly two seconds to explain yourself,” I said. I was one with being left in the dark.

“That’s enough, Tie.” Victor’s growl of anger was uncalled for, but I didn’t understand the dynamics of what I’d been thrown into so maybe it was perfectly called for. Tie seemed very anxious for me to remember, dropping hints to jar my memory, and Victor appeared ready to throttle him for it.

Tie rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I wasn’t about to stand on the sidelines and allow a nekomata to take your life.” Tie released my shoulders from his warm grip and walked over to the recliner in the corner.

“As much as I’m enjoying this heartwarming moment,” Angie said, “I’m afraid it’s absolutely necessary that I address the elephant in the room. Or should I say the great, monstrous cat lying dead in the corner.” She pointed to where my headless father used to be. She was fighting hard to keep her voice steady, but Angie was on the verge of a very noisy breakdown.

And who could blame her?

I looked to where she pointed and caught my breath. Instead of a headless Dr. Fairmont lying motionless on the living room floor, there was a gigantic, headless, black cat with two very long tails.

“What is that thing?” I asked in alarm.

“
That
is a nekomata,” Victor said. He sounded like he was hosting an episode of Animal Planet. “They’re servants of the underworld and extremely dangerous assassins.”

“I gathered that thing was dangerous. How many more are out there?” Angie wondered.

“This is the only one we’ve traced to this location. Though I doubt it was sent by the demon god.”

“You’re right. He wants her alive,” Tie said. “This thing definitely wanted her dead, but who knows how long it will be before he sends his own lackeys. I hope he’s still only able to send them one at a time.

“I thought you said it wouldn’t be able to track us for a while. It certainly found us a lot faster than you anticipated,” I said.

“I can’t account for that. With the amount of voltage it received it shouldn’t have recovered so quickly, and it must’ve assumed we’d go here first. I should’ve thought that far ahead.”

Tie made a snorting noise and said, “Coming here first would’ve been obvious to a fifth grader let alone a demon cat from the underworld.”

“I thought we would have more time!”

“Demon cats and gods, huh?” Angie asked letting out a little giggle.

“Since I can’t claim to know the difference between reality and fiction anymore, I’m gonna go with the flow here and pretend this conversation is the most normal thing that’s happened all day.”

I took in Angie’s mask of calm and knew it was only a matter of time before it cracked wide open.

“Let’s pretend for one second I believe you. Why does this demon god only send one assassin at a time?” I asked watching Angie from the corner of my eye.

“One assassin is all it takes,” he said. “Nekomata are dangerous because they can take the form of any human they wish. This is how they gain your trust, and then they strike.”

“And the fireballs?”

“Nekomata breathe fire,” Tie said.

“Of course they do,” Angie replied. “Cats the size of my refrigerator, are always pretending to be human while coughing up deadly hair balls of fire.”

“Angie?” I asked tentatively.

“I’ll be over here having a psychotic episode if anybody needs me.” She stood up and walked to the couch on the opposite side of the room, picking up her phone in the process. She quickly curled herself into a ball and remained motionless.

I walked over to her. Besides needing some space from Tie and Victor, I was seriously worried about my best friend. I sat down next to her and began rubbing her back hoping to comfort her and avoid a possible episode. She’d been focusing in and out quite a bit lately. It was always a prelude to one of her melt downs. For the millionth time I wished I knew why.

“Don’t think a back rub is getting you off the hook. My level of displeasure with you is skyrocketing. Not only has this double date turned into a complete and total disaster, but I think my hair got singed when that first fireball hit my car. I’m not going to be happy until we get a chance to talk this out.”

“We’ve got to get out of here, first,” said Victor getting serious again. “They know who Hope is now, and the demon god is not going to stop until she’s dead.”

“I’ve got about a million questions on that subject as well, but before we go anywhere we have to call my father. I’m not doing anything until he knows what I know.” I wasn’t about to budge on that one.

“Your father,” Victor said. He looked at Tie in alarm. “The nekomata was in the form of her father!”

“Victor,” Tie warned, “don’t say anything else. Let’s just get them out of here.”

“Don’t say what?” I asked. My stomach began to churn.

“Hope, if the nekomata was in the form of your father that means your father is dead!”

Maybe Victor thought he was being gentle in his delivery of such an awful factoid, but what normal human being could receive that kind of news without feeling like their world had broken in two.