WeavingDestinyebook (11 page)

Malini's weeping intensified. She was losing it. Jacob need to do something to snap her out of it. Katrina and his Mom were as good as dead and he might pass out at any moment from loss of blood.

"Malini, you've got to call Dr. Silva," he managed. "Call now, before it comes back!"

She turned wild eyes toward him, her entire body trembling.

"Now, Malini!" he commanded with what little of himself he had left. And then he let go of his tenuous grip on consciousness and slipped into the impending darkness.

Chapter 14

The Messenger

The sun on Malini's face woke her up, the bright warmth soaking through her eyelids. She'd made it to the phone and dialed Dr. Silva's number before passing out from fear and exhaustion. The call must have been answered because there was something soft beneath her and the feel of sheets against her skin. She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes.

"Gideon," she said, when she realized it was not the sun at all but the light from an angel that was hitting her face.

"Yes, it is I, Malini."

She looked around at the antiseptic white of the walls and bed linens.

"Am I in the hospital?"

"Yes. The staff here believe you were injured when the Laudner's shop was robbed," he said.

She pulled her arms from under the covers and looked at her smooth, healed skin. "Did it really happen? Did a Watcher come out of Katrina?"

"Yes, Malini. And the rest of it."

"Is Jacob okay? Lillian?"

"Both are recovering well. Jacob needed blood but they've patched him up and he's feeling better today. "

"What about Katrina?"

Gideon's face soured. "The Watcher sustained itself by eating her from the inside out. Of course to the humans here, the condition looks a lot like sepsis, so they're treating her as such. She's in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit. I've been visiting her, but the stuff that's inside her is resistant to my healing. It's pure evil that has tainted her veins."

"So, since I'm not burnt any more, can I go?"

"No, Malini. Dr. Silva has built an illusion around you to make it appear that you are still injured. You will heal slowly over the course of three days. You must stay here during that time."

"Why? Where is Dr. Silva?"

"She would like to visit but it is uncomfortable for her to be in your presence at the moment. And until you learn to control what you are it is possibly dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

"You've been called to become a Healer, Malini. A very powerful one by the looks of it. And you must remember that as reformed as we know she is, she lives in the body of a Watcher. Now that your power has awakened, physical contact will result in the burns you experienced."

"So, it's true then. I'm a Healer."

Gideon tilted his head. "Not exactly. Not yet. But you are the seed from which a Healer might grow. Actually, I suspected you were from the start but Abigail wanted to exhaust all other possibilities—"

"You knew? And you didn't tell me?"

"We didn't know for sure and—"

"All this time I've been tortured wondering what I was, if there was even a name for it and you two knew and let me go on like that…" Her voice broke and her vision blurred. She turned her face into her pillow.

"Malini, Healers are very rare. Abigail and I have only met one, the medicine woman from Peru."

"Jacob told me. He went to see her last year. She gave him a red stone that he gave to me."

"This one?" Gideon held up the necklace that Jacob had given her at Christmas.

"Yes. But, why do you have it? I've stored it in my jewelry box since Christmas."

"I hope you don't mind that I retrieved it. Being an angel does have its benefits in a pinch. Tell me, Malini, why didn't you use this when Jacob gave it to you?"

"He said it told the future and I've always thought knowing the future was a bad idea."

"Why?"

"Because you might do things differently. You know, move against God's ultimate plan. Like, say you saw yourself falling down the stairs and so you avoided the stairs and never fell. You would go on about your life as if nothing ever happened. But what if the reason God had you fall was that when you went to the hospital, you would meet someone, someone that would change your life forever, maybe for the better. Then, by avoiding the fall you have avoided the change. What if that person was your soul mate or the CEO of a record company that wanted to make you a famous pop star?"

Gideon chuckled in that low bass rumble that was so endearing.

"Seriously, Gideon, I know it sounds ridiculous but I think sometimes it's better to not have control over our future. I would have never come to Paris if I had the choice but then I would have missed out on Jacob."

The angel's face grew serious. He took Malini's hand in his and the warmth from his touch filled her with a kind of giddy happiness. "You are wise beyond your years to trust in God's plan for you, Malini, but as a Healer you must lead the Soulkeepers into the future. You can no longer be a blind follower.

"This path has been laid before you and this stone has come into your hands for a reason. The medicine woman gave this to Jacob, but I don't think it was a coincidence that he gave it to you. It's your time, Malini. You need to discover what it means to be a Healer and I believe the key to unlocking your gift lies within this stone. Who better to train a Healer than another Healer?"

"Oh." Malini sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. "That's what this is all about, isn't it? Dr. Silva didn't want to admit I was a Healer because you two can't train me. There's only one person in the world who can and she lives in Peru."

"This must be difficult for you to accept," Gideon said.

"Hell yeah. I can't get my parent's permission to go to prom. How the hell am I going to go to Peru?"

Gideon placed the red stone into her palm. "I think the Healer thought of that and sent you the means to reach her from where you are."

Malini ran her fingers over the smooth stone in her hand.

"You have three days. Dr. Silva has built an illusion that will conceal any odd behavior as long as you are in this hospital. But you are scheduled to be released Friday morning. When that happens, you must be fully in your mind. Do you understand what I am saying to you?"

"Not really."

"You will." Gideon backed toward the window, into the light that streamed through the blinds. "I'm going to go now, Malini. Don't waste any more time. Use the stone. Find out who you are. We'll be here when you return."

"But—"

The light pierced through Gideon's flesh like a hundred laser beams, spreading and expanding until he dissolved completely. She was left alone in the room, the red stone pressing a cold circle into her palm.

Chapter 15

Horsemen

Jacob woke in a hospital bed with one single thought: he had to save Malini.

"Malini," he rasped. His sandpaper tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.

"She's not here. But don't worry. She's safe. She's with Gideon in the next room."

Jacob turned his head toward the voice and saw Mara leaning against the wall next to the window. She was watching the bag that hung on the pole next to his bed with a sort of disturbed curiosity. Jacob made the mistake of following her line of sight to a half full bag of blood that dripped into his IV. He leaned back into his pillow, feeling a little queasy.

"It's the second one. You lost a lot I guess. Dr. Silva says you're going to feel sapped for the next couple of days. Our power comes from our blood and yours is…um…diluted."

"Where is Dr. Silva?"

"She's with Lillian."

The memory of his mom tied up and unconscious on the steel table swept through him. "Is she okay?" he asked.

"Yes, but she was drugged. Dr. Silva worked up a potion she's been slipping her to counteract the Watcher's poison. They're saying she needs to stay until her blood is completely clean. Dr. Silva says maybe a week."

"And the Watcher? Did you catch the Watcher that came out of Katrina? My God is she even still alive?"

"No," Mara said, then waved her hand when Jacob's face paled. "Don't freak, okay. Katrina's alive –barely. I meant, no, we didn't catch the Watcher. It's still out there somewhere. I'd like to believe Malini scared it back to Nod for good but Dr. Silva says now that it knows what Malini is, it'll be back with reinforcements."

"Now that it knows what Malini is? What is she?"

"Didn't you see, Jacob? You were there. I heard she fried that Watcher when she touched it."

"So, she's a Horseman. She can produce fire."

"No, Jacob, she's a Healer! She burnt the Watcher because what she's made of is so pure she can't touch one without the evil sizzling under her fingertips. She can't even touch Dr. Silva! Gideon said she's been the first one in over one hundred years. If she survives, she'll be a new hope for us all."

Jacob didn't like the sound of that. He pushed himself up in bed and tried to swing his legs over the side. "I need to see her," he insisted.

"Not gonna happen, hosehead. She's working out the kinks with Gideon. No one can see her for three days. She's got to go on some vision quest to fully manifest her powers. I know you're worried but there's nothing we can do."

Jacob leaned back and twirled the corner of his blanket around his finger.

"And since you don't seem to remember yesterday all that well, I should also tell you that your blood opened up some sort of door at the Laudner's shop."

"What?"

"When your blood dripped onto the floor, it filled the grooves of the carving in the marble and that triggered some sort of trap door. Dr. Silva had a hell of a time hiding it from the police. Don't worry, no one looked down there.
Your blood, your door,
they said. Plus, we didn't have enough time or yeah, I probably would have checked it out."

Jacob's jaw wouldn't remain closed. "My blood opened up a secret door in my uncle's flower shop?"

"Yep."

"When can I get out of here and check it out?'

Mara paced the length of the room, her arms folded across her chest. "I don't know but I have a hunch the blood has to finish first."

They both eyed the chamber below the bag, the drip-drip painfully slow through the tiny tube. Jacob sighed. He'd just have to wait. But with the Watcher out there somewhere, how much time did he have? How much time did any of them have?

Chapter 16

The In Between

Malini sat up in bed and dangled the red stone from its leather strap. Light reflected off the facets, drawing her eye toward the center, toward the place where the red was so dark it was almost black. It was hypnotic how the stone turned, reflecting her image then absorbing it into its depths. Red, everything was red, and her mind slipped away into that weightless space between sleep and awake. The black center seemed to swallow the red, engulfing her until she was surrounded by nothingness.

The void didn't last long. From the bottom up, a room of multi-colored fabric shingled itself around her. Reams of material draped from vertical spools shoulder-width apart as far as she could see. To her left and right, the rows continued into shadow, but ahead of her the path was illuminated from beyond. She walked toward the light.

Eventually, she heard a swoosh-swoosh, like someone was sweeping the floor in long strokes. Malini turned left at the next ream, following the sound up the row. The fabric was spaced further apart in this section, opening to a cleared area with a dirt floor and stucco walls. A woman sat at a loom. Tall and dark, her sleek black hair fell almost to the floor. It was the shuttle she heard, sweeping between the threads, back and forth by the woman's hand. Malini didn't have a loom stashed away in her room or anything, but even she could tell the weaving was exceptionally fast, machine-like. A fine, silky cloth shimmered to life where the thread came together.

"Hello Malini and welcome. It's about time you came to visit me." She was Indian like Malini and wore a traditional sari of blue and green fabric that shifted as if it were a living organism every time she moved.

"Where is this place?" Malini asked.

"In between."

She didn't think that was a very good answer but moved on to her next question anyway. "How do you know my name?"

"You are a smart girl. You tell me."

"Jacob and Gideon said the stone came from the medicine woman. Are you her?"

The young woman laughed. "The medicine woman is two-hundred-fifty-eight years old." She turned her face directly toward Malini, her hands never stopping their work. Malini inhaled sharply at her beauty: long graceful lines, perfect skin, plump lips and her eyes, they danced as if lit from within. "I am much older," she said.

Wait, her eyes
were
lit from within! Malini saw the glowing silhouettes of people going about their daily living, pinpoints of light bustling about the world within her. Malini drew back, placing her hand over her pounding heart. She looked around the shop, at the miles of shimmering fabric.

"I know who you are," she said.

"Of course you do."

"You are Fate."

"That is one of my names, yes. You may call me Fatima."

"Is that why I am here, then? Are you going to tell me my future?"

"No. Not even I can tell
you
your future. For you, I am only a guide and a warning."

"But Gideon said the medicine woman would train me. He said this was an initiation."

"This is an initiation but not the kind Gideon thinks. Gideon has never been here. He doesn't know. Every Healer's experience is different."

"Then why am I here?"

"For you to become what you were born to be, you must face and overcome your greatest fears. You must release what you desire most, and you must choose your course based on your wish to serve, knowing you may do so alone."