The Soul Healer (15 page)

As amusing as Philip’s embarrassment was, I couldn’t help but gasp when I saw his shoulder. The scar I had noticed the other night was bigger than I had originally thought, stretching from his shoulder to almost his neck. It was silvery-white, rather than red, the skin puckered and raised.

“That’s an old wound,” Philip said, and I realized with a jolt that he had caught me staring. He pointed to a
red mark below the wound, on his chest. “
That’s
where Evan hit me.”

“That looks positively painful,” Kain said, prodding it with one finger.

“OW! SHIT! KAIN, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

Kain snatched his finger away. “Whoops.”

I resisted the urge to bury my face in my hands. “Is there a first-aid kit around here?”

“I’ll fetch it,” Kain said, rising to his feet. He paused. “Try not to throw yourself in front of any more magic while I’m gone, Philip.”

“Just go!” Philip growled. He leaned back against the bookshelf and closed his eyes.

I waited until
Kain’s footsteps retreated before saying, “You’ve got really strange taste, Phil.”

He opened one eye and glared at me. “Shut up.”
Philip flushed again, letting me know my assumption was correct.

“No, really,
why
him? He’s crazy—”

“He’s gorgeous,” Philip moaned. “God, I hate him for being so good-looking. And he’s such a pain in the ass, but I can’t stop thinking about him…”

“Is he gay?” I asked. Was that a stupid question? He had just yanked off Philip’s shirt, after all.

“No.” Philip made a fist with his good arm and slammed it against the floor. “He’s straight, of course.
And a total player. The rumor is he’s slept with the majority of the New York female hunters, and now he’s moved on to regular girls. Only girls…always girls…”

“Why do you keep falling for straight guys?” I asked, not unkindly.

“Because I’m a moron.”

Philip looked really upset, so I decided to let
it drop. “So what’s up with him and Evan?”

“Kain was one of the ones who made fun of Rafe for being Sightless, and Evan is one of the ones who made fun of Kain for being British and having an accent. Which,” Philip said, “I don’t know why anyone
would ever make fun of it. It’s so goddamn sexy, I want to die every time I hear it. And if you tell him that,” he added with a glare, “I’ll be very pissed off, Gabi.”

I held up my hands. “Your secret is safe with me. And you’re right, that is a stupid thing to make fun of. Is that why he talks all funny and tries to hide it? Although it slipped out just now, after you got hurt. Probably because he was worried…” Philip brightened at that, and I bit my lip.
Should
I be encouraging him? If Kain had made fun of Rafe, then I should be like Evan and hate him, right?

“It wasn’t his fault,” Philip said quickly, correctly reading my uncertainty. “He was unpopular when he first moved here—his dad is the director of the British branch of Silver Moon—so he picked on Rafe to make himself some friends. I mean yeah, that’s a stupid reason, but I understand what it’s like to be alone, because of something you can’t control.”

“Phil,” I said softly.

He gave me a sad smile. “It wasn’t that bad, Gabi. They teased me for being gay, so I trained until I was stronger than them. Then, the next time someone made fun of me, I broke his nose. And I continued to do so until they got the point and left me alone.” He shrugged and winced,
his hand going to the wound to cover it. “Kain can’t do that. If he did, my dad would ship him straight home. He hates the Wentworths, hates that Kain is here, and he’s always looking for a reason to get rid of him. The fact that Kain can get under my dad’s skin, really piss him off.” He laughed. “That’s one of the best parts of my day, to tell you the truth.”

I settled down next to him, leaning my head against his
uninjured shoulder. “You and Kain and Evan and Alexandra and Rafe… You guys had it really tough, growing up as hunters, didn’t you?”

“Sometimes, Gabi, I wouldn’t wish this life on anyone.”

Chapter Twenty-three

Kain rejoined us, a first-aid kit in one hand, and a bottle of water in the other. He unscrewed the cap off the bottle before handing it to Philip, who drained half of it in one shot. After assessing the wound, Kain pulled out some ointment and bandages and got to work.

I decided to be nice and not comment on how red Philip’s face was as Kain smeared the ointment on his chest. I was definitely smirking, though, and poking Philip in the side to give him a hard time. Eventually, he grabbed my wrist and said, “Why don’t you check out some of the books, Gabi?”

“Eh, I’m fine where I am,” I said, making myself more comfortable on the floor next to him.

“You’re evil,” he whispered.

“I know,” I whispered back with a wink.

“How did you get this scar?” Kain suddenly asked. His accent was gone, replaced by the stilting American one that he thought sounded natural
, but definitely didn’t. Someone really needed to tell him to just speak British and to hell with the teasing. “It almost looks like a bite mark…”

I starte
d. A bite mark? Peering closer, I realized Kain was right. I could see faded teeth marks on Philip’s skin. Pointy, definitely
not
human, teeth marks. “Phil…”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.” Philip waited for Kain to finish bandaging his wound before picking up his shirt and putting it back on. He frowned at the hole Evan’s magic had made and tried in vain to fold the fabric over to hide it. When that didn’t work, he gave up and settled back against the shelves, narrowing his eyes to tiny slits. “It was when I was twelve. A demon was terrorizing Manhattan; it had already killed six humans and Silver Moon was desperate to stop it.”

“Six!” A serial killer demon? Is that what would happen all the time if hunters didn’t exist?

Philip nodded. “It was really bad. The demon even managed to wound a bunch of hunters, too. My dad finally trapped it in an abandoned warehouse, and when we approached it, it managed to first hurt my dad before taking a huge chunk out of me.” Philip unconsciously touched the scar through his shirt. “I don’t remember much after that. I remember it hurting—worse than anything I’d ever felt before, and then everything sort of got hazy… It was bad. Really, really bad. I wasn’t conscious for any of it, but afterwards I was told the wound wouldn’t
stop bleeding, no matter what they did or tried. Eventually, everyone told my dad to start preparing for a funeral, because it was only a matter of hours, not days, before I died, but he refused. And then, when even he was about to give up…” Philip shook his head. “That’s when I started getting better.”

Kain frowned. “How?”

“No idea,” Philip said. “The wound stopped bleeding, and a few days later, I woke up. I was weak, of course, but each day I grew a little bit stronger until I was back to normal again. Except…” He bit his lip and looked away. His face had been calm when he told us about almost dying, but now there was no denying the pain in his eyes.

“What happened?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know.

“I actually—” He stopped and shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m so embarrassed by this. I used to be good at magic. Like, really good.” Philip looked at Kain, as if challenging him to deny this.

The black
-haired hunter pursed his lips together. “I’ve never seen you use magic, Philip. In fact, you’re rather lousy around it, as you just demonstrated to us when you threw yourself at Underwood’s fireball.”

Philip glared at him. “I didn’t
throw
myself—” His frown deepened when Kain laughed. “
Anyway
, any talent that I had before I was bit disappeared after I made my recovery. We don’t know if I had to sacrifice it in order to live—nor do we even know how I did that, considering I was out of it the entire time—but that’s what happened. And yes,” he told Kain, “I’m a lot weaker around magic than others. That’s why you had to treat my wound. And why I was knocked out cold after my dad hit me with that spell earlier.” Looking spent, he stopped speaking and took another long drink from his water bottle.

“Your father used magic against you despite knowing what it does to you?” Kain asked, affronted. “He’s such a—such a douche-dick!”

Philip spit a mouthful of water out and I squealed, ducking out of the way of the spray. He began coughing up a lung or two, and I had to whack him on the back a few times before he managed to compose himself to ask Kain, “He’s a
what
!”

“A douche…
dick?” Kain repeated uncertainly. “You know, you Americans are always calling people douches, and that seems to fit your father perfectly,
and
he’s also a dick, so…”

Philip started laughing so hard that he doubled over and began wheezing.

Kain looked at me. “Did I use that phrase wrong?”

I grinned. “Actually, I think that’s the best description of Mister Director I’ll ever hear.”

“You know,” Kain said, reaching around a still-laughing Philip to hold out his hand, “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. Kain Wentworth, nineteen, single and enjoying the view in front of him very much.”

“Gabi, sixteen, and very much taken by Rafe,” I said, shaking his hand.

Kain’s grip on my hand tightened slightly. “Rafe? You’re Rafe Fitzgerald’s girlfriend?”

“Yep,” I said. “Is that going to be a problem?” I got ready to aim my death glare in his direction.

But, to my surprise, Kain laughed. “Not at all, Gabi—is that short for something, by the way?”

“Gabiella.”

“Now
that
is a lovely name. Gabiella. I like it.” Kain jumped to his feet. “So, Gabiella, what were you planning on researching with Underwood? Since I chased your guide away, I feel it is my duty to help you!” He turned his back to us as he began thumbing through the books on the shelves.

“Uh…” I looked at Philip.

He lowered his voice. “He’s really good at magic. He’ll know which books to look at.”

“But can we trust him?” I asked, also speaking softly. “And use your head and not your,
you know,
when you answer me, Phil.”

Philip scowled. “I’m not using
that
to decide anything!”

“You sure?”

“
Yes!
”

“What are we talking about?” Kain asked, poking his face between ours.

“Nothing!” Philip launched himself to his feet, his face bright red once more. He pushed past us, heading back to the center of the library. “I’m going to sit down and take it easy; Gabi, you tell him what you need and I’ll wait for you
over there
.” He dashed away before either one of us could say anything.

Kain raised his b
rows. “Now what’s gotten into him?”

I gave him my most innocent expression. “I have no idea!”

Chapter Twenty-four

So I stupidly thought the magic section was just that one little spot we had occupied while Philip had shared his story, but no. It was humongous, taking up the entire right corner of the library, with bookcase after bookcase crammed with more books than I knew what to do with. I seriously felt like collapsing on the floor and crying. How could I possibly find anything useful?

I was beginning to miss the ugly brown room. At least that had been contained, with not nearly as many books as the library.

(But I didn’t miss Charles’s office. No way.)

Kain saw my distressed, wide-eyed look and chuckled. “Let’s narrow our search down. What were you looking for? Attack spells?”

I shook my head, surprised. “You don’t know what I can do? Charles didn’t tell you?”

“I’m not exactly the director’s favorite person,” he said. “He thinks I’m here to spy on him.”

“Well, are you?”

Kain winked.

Okay, this was something I didn’t want to involve myself in.
Although yay to finding someone else who bugged Charles!
I decided to be honest with Kain. If Philip trusted him, then I would, too. “I can heal.”

His blue-green eyes widened at that. Wow, I had managed to surprise Kain?
Something told me that would probably be the first and last time I’d ever manage to do something like that. Instead of commenting, he turned on his heel and bypassed several bookcases, bringing us to the corner of the room. It was dark, with the nearest overhead light a few feet away, and smelled musty. Kain scrolled his hands along the spines of the books, muttering to himself.

I kept quiet, wondering what he was searching for. Some of the books weren’t even in English—Evan hadn’t mentioned that! But, now that I thought about it, it was hard to picture Evan here, doing research. He was such a slacker when it came to—well, everything. I did have to admit he was really good at using magic, but he had to be one of those people with a natural talent. There was no way he learned what he could do from books.