The Guardian Page 7

  I looked at her. So hopeful. So excited. And fear soared in my heart again. Even after everything she’d put me through, I’d die if anything happened to her.

  With a sigh, I pressed the button on the side of the cuff. It popped open, and I handed it back to Dana. Then Dr. Rothwell examined my unmarked wrist.

  “Trial run’s over.” Fury’s arm shot forward. “My turn!”

  We both looked down at her hand. It was the wrist with the key to the Nulterra Gate etched into it. The “No” sign seemed even more ominous than it had before.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t cover this up,” she said, rubbing her palm over it.

  I shrugged. “Or we could cut off your hand, and I could take it to the Nulterra Gate and leave you safe at home.”

  “Nice try.” She wrapped her fingers around her forearm. “Doc, think we can put it a little higher?”

  “Should be fine.” He used his index finger to draw a line up the inside of her arm. “The radial artery runs throughout here.”

  That made me feel even worse.

  “Ready?” Dr. Rothwell asked.

  “Ready,” she said.

  I offered her my hand. She hesitated for a half second. Then her face softened, and she laced her fingers with mine. I was pretty sure the move was more for my benefit than hers, but I appreciated it.

  I squeezed. She squeezed back.

  Dana carefully handed the doctor the smaller cuff. He took it and swiveled around on his stool toward Fury’s free arm. “Here we go.” He looked up above his glasses for any last-minute change of heart.

  There wasn’t one, but her hand tensed in mine.

  He carefully folded the cuff around her wrist until…

  Click!

  Fury’s blood-chilling scream echoed through eternity.

  Her instincts took over.

  Red-faced and screaming, Fury’s arm flailed wildly as she tried to shake the cuff from her wrist. She kicked the front of the exam table, narrowly missing Dr. Rothwell’s face by inches. My knuckles cracked under the pressure of her fingertips.

  But we had to get it off her.

  Nurse Dana jumped for her arm and caught it, trapping it against her chest. I reached over her and grabbed the cuff, somehow managing to hit the button on the side. The cuff fell open and clanged to the floor.

  Her bright-red skin sizzled and smoked and immediately bubbled with blisters. The sides of her wrist were black, nearly melted through to the bone.

  She was still screaming and fighting against Dana.

  “Fury,” I said sternly, leaning into her face. “Fury, look at me.”

  My god, her eyes were horrified, stretched to the max, and weeping giant tears.

  “Breathe with me.” I inhaled deep, my own breath shaky. She attempted a steady breath but cried out in pain again. “Breathe,” I said and exhaled slowly.

  “It didn’t burn through to the artery,” Dr. Rothwell said, standing now to examine her wrist.

  Fury tried to look, but I stayed in her face. “You focus on me.” I cupped her jaw in my free hand, forcing her head to stay level with mine. “Breathe.”

  Her whole body trembled, and tears poured down her cheeks. But she inhaled and exhaled in time with me.

  The door flew open. I looked back to see Flint with Azrael on his heels. Flint rushed the bed. “Allison?”

  I moved out of his way.

  “What happened?” Azrael asked.

  “It didn’t work.” Dr. Rothwell sadly shook his head. “The vanadium didn’t protect her the way we hoped it would.”

  “Damn it!” Huffman yelled out in the hall.

  Dana was examining the burn. “Definitely a second-degree, maybe a third-degree burn.”

  Dr. Rothwell scooted closer for a better look. “We need to take you to the burn center. This needs a skin graft.”

  “No,” Fury said through clenched teeth. “It’s a supernatural thing. It will heal better than it looks. No burn center.”

  The doctor looked frustrated, but we all knew there would be no arguing with Fury.

  “Just wrap it and let me out of here,” she insisted. The tendons were still strained in her neck, but she finally seemed to have gotten control of herself.

  Dr. Rothwell huffed. “Dana, debride the burn. Then wrap it in a silver-infused dressing.”

  “Yes, sir.” She looked at Fury. “I’m letting go now, but keep it elevated.”

  Fury nodded, holding her arm in the air. “It doesn’t even hurt that bad,” she said through clenched teeth.

  “Right.” Dana had a knowing smile. “If there’s any decrease in pain, I’m sure it’s your nerve endings realizing they’re dead. That’s going to leave a major scar.”

  Fury tilted her chin up, displaying the shiny band of scar tissue around her throat. “A scar that will look a lot like this.”

  “It’s a wonder that one didn’t kill you,” Azrael said, behind the doctor.

  Flint was shaking beside her. “Screw this.” He released Fury’s hand and started toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Fury asked, her chin still quivering from the shock of the adrenaline.

  He turned and pointed at her. “I’m putting a stop to this shit right now.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  But Flint didn’t answer. He stormed out of the room. My eyes followed him. “Think we should go after him?”

  Azrael shook his head. “No. Give him some space.”

  “Arm up, Fury,” Dana instructed. She looked over at me. “Can you help her?”

  With a nod, I retook my place at Fury’s side, holding her arm in the air. The smell of charred flesh turned my stomach, and I instinctively curled my arm around Fury’s shoulder. Surprisingly, she didn’t fight it as I pulled her against me.

  Instead, she leaned her head against my chest. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

  The next twenty minutes were brutal. Dana peeled the bubbled and charred skin away, rupturing watery blisters and exposing the tender pink dermis underneath. At one point, Fury buried her face in my shirt and cried again.

  Even Azrael had to leave the room twice. When he came back in the last time, his face was as pale as the paper sheet on Fury’s bed. “I think I’m officially in agreement with your father. Warren should go alone.”

  Fury looked up and sniffed. “This won’t make me quit.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Dana asked, still holding a strip of Fury’s skin with a pair of tweezers.

  “Azrael, you wore them in Eden without a problem, correct?” Fury asked.

  “That’s different. I’m—”

  “Mortal, just like me.”

  He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

  “You said it yourself. Blood stone only burns on this side of the spirit line.” She looked up at me. “So I put it on right before we walk through the gate.”

  Dr. Rothwell looked as stunned as we all were. “You were lucky this time, and the last time. These devices are designed to fit as close to your major arteries as possible.” He nodded to her arm. “This cuff was on you for less than thirty seconds. Any longer and it could have severed the radial artery.” He pointed to her neck. “Or your carotid artery.”

  A chill rippled my spine.

  “And do you see these blisters?” Dr. Rothwell turned her hand over. “This is your body losing water, making dehydration a very serious complication of burns.” He gestured toward the case. “If you wear all these pieces, you’re talking about third-degree burns on fifteen to twenty percent of your body. That could be as much as three liters of water lost in a day.”

  “So I won’t wear all the pieces. Just the wrists, and maybe the neck,” she said.

  Dr. Rothwell took both her hands. “Fury, this could kill you, and we haven’t even talked about infection.”

  She looked around at all our worried faces. “I don’t want anyone to think I’m deluding myself as to what’s at stake here. I want everyone in here to know that
I understand the risk, and I accept it.”

  Azrael held up his hands. “It’s your life.”

  “Thank you, Az.”

  “Warren, can I talk to you outside a moment?” Azrael asked, backing toward the door.

  Dana was applying a silver-tinted wrap around Fury’s wrist. I looked down at her. “You all right for a minute?”

  She finally released my hand with an embarrassed smile. “Yes. Sorry. Kinda forgot I was clinging to you.”

  I stretched my fingers then made a fist. “I’m worried I might need an X-ray.”

  She laughed, and after what we’d just been through, it was one of the best sounds in the world.

  “I’ll be right back.” I walked out into the hallway and spotted Az near the lobby. “What’s up?”

  “Leave her here.”

  I was stunned. “What?”

  “You heard me. Leave her here.”

  I threw my hand toward the room. “You just said—”

  “I know what I said, but if she goes, she dies.” He took a step toward me. “Wait until tonight. Then I’ll drive you up to Virginia, and you can warp back to Eden and enter Nulterra through the spirit line.”

  “The Council has forbidden it. Everyone agrees the risk is too great that way. Trust me, that was my first thought.”

  “Then forget about Anya. Chances are good she’s already dead anyway. We can’t lose them both.”

  I knew Azrael no longer believed Anya was dead. And now that I was sure of it, there was no way I could ignore her.

  Besides, the Council had basically mandated that I go. None of us wanted to risk the damned being unleashed on Earth again, and that would always be a risk if Anya and the second key she held were left in the hands of demons.

  “Maybe I can somehow force Fury to stay on the island once she’s opened the gate.”

  Azrael laughed. “OK.”

  “I don’t see another way. You know I have to go.”

  He stared at the floor. “I’m worried.”

  “You and me both.”

  Chapter Six

  “Finally done,” Fury announced, walking outside to where Huffman and I waited.

  His elbow was bent at an odd angle toward his mouth.

  She stopped. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Huffman dropped his arm. “Did you know it’s impossible for the average human to lick their elbow?”

  She slipped on her sunglasses. “You’re so weird.”

  “You can leave?” I asked. We’d been there for over two hours, hence the boredom and consequent attempts at elbow-licking. Huffman had stayed with us the whole time.

  “Yeah. I think he was trying to keep me there to change my mind about the burn center.” She held up a white paper bag. “He finally released me with a bottle of preemptive antibiotics.”

  “That’s good.”

  Az walked out the door behind her. “You guys ready?”

  “Yeah,” Fury said. “Where’s Flint?”

  “Hopefully calming down at the bar.” Azrael looked around us. “But we should take advantage of his absence. Huffman, is this your HOK?”

  “Yes, sir,” Huffman said, loading the blood-stone case into the passenger-side floorboard.

  “Mind dropping us at Echo-10 before you head back to the armory?”

  “Sure thing. Hop in.”

  My ears heard a buzz, and Fury pulled out her phone. “I’d better take it.”

  “We’ll wait,” Huffman said.

  “Hello,” Fury said with the phone to her ear. She walked to the other side of the building.

  Az, Huffman, and I got in the HOK to wait. After about thirty seconds, Fury’s voice was raised, and she’d started pacing the grass strip along the side of the clinic.

  “Looks like she’s giving somebody an ass-chewing,” Huffman said.

  “Glad it isn’t me,” Azrael said with a grin.

  Huffman laughed. “Preach.”

  If I tried, I could probably hear who was on the receiving end of that call, as she was pretty loud and I had ultrasonic hearing. But I refrained. Partly out of respect, but mostly out of fear that she’d kick my ass.

  The call seemed to end quickly, as she ripped the phone away from her ear and gawked at it. Then she stalked toward us.

  When she was close, she threw her bag into the back seat beside me. I flinched.

  “You all right?” I asked, leaning away from her.

  “No.” She ripped off her sunglasses. “John wants a paternity test. Someone told him he might not be Jett’s father.”

  I put my hands up. “It wasn’t me.”

  “I know it wasn’t you.”

  “You think it was Flint?” Azrael asked.

  “Who else?” With a huff, she pushed her stuff onto the floorboard and sat down. “He’d obviously stop at nothing to try to keep me home. Now the whole world is about to know that Jett has the golden blood type.”

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Are you still going?” Azrael asked, turning around in his seat.

  Her face went slack. “Of course I am.”

  His brow rose. “You think John will be your nanny once he finds out he’s not the father, and that you’ve been lying to him for the better part of a year?”

  “Shit.” She obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Could you and Adrianne keep him?”

  “Oh no. We’ve got enough baby drama all on our own without taking on yours.”

  “What about Sloan?” She looked at me.

  The thought of Sloan babysitting for Fury nearly short-circuited my brain. But besides the messed-up-ness of the idea, it wouldn’t be healthy for either kid. “Iliana and Jett can’t be around each other.”

  Fury’s shoulders dropped.

  “Maybe you’ll have to stay home then,” Huffman said, turning his palms up on the steering wheel.

  Ignoring him, she sat back so hard in her seat that it shook the whole HOK.

  “What’d he say?” I asked her quietly as Huffman backed out of the parking space.

  It took a second for her to acknowledge me, which indicated she was fighting hard to keep her emotions in check. “He said he heard from a reliable source that he might want to test Jett’s paternity.”

  “Did you tell him the truth?”

  “I told him we needed to talk in person, and he said, ‘Oh, we will.’”

  “At least you’ll have a chance to explain.”

  “He said he would take Jett to the doctor, either way, to have the test done. Then he hung up on me.” She slumped forward and buried her face in her hands. “Damn it.”

  “Want me to talk to him?” I asked.

  She spoke through her fingers. “No offense, but I’m pretty sure you’re the last person he’d like to talk to.”

  I wondered what she’d told him about me.

  “Have Nathan talk to him,” Azrael said.

  Fury straightened, obviously surprised that she hadn’t already thought of that. “That’s a great idea. Thanks, Az.”

  When we stopped at Echo-10, Fury nudged my ribs as we got out of the HOK. Then she pointed behind me.

  A massive man, like Reuel-massive, was walking straight toward us. He wore MultiCam fatigues and a full weapons belt. I recognized him immediately.

  He worked Claymore’s main entrance gate. I’d once blasted it off its hinges. I followed Fury toward him.

  “You have a visitor!” he shouted, his deep voice booming over the distance.

  It took a second to realize he was talking to Fury, not me or Az. He wouldn’t even look at me as I walked up beside her. Perhaps I still wasn’t forgiven.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “A civilian. Says his name is John McNamara.”

  Oh hell.

  “Did you know he was coming?” Azrael asked Fury.

  She shook her head. “No. He hung up on me.” She looked at guard again. “Did he say what he wants?”

>   “No, ma’am. But he’s furious, and he said if you’re not at the gate in five minutes, he’s going to drive through it.” The guard scowled at me.

  Nope. Definitely not forgiven.

  She took a deep breath. “I’ll go talk to him.”

  “I’m coming with you,” I said.

  I expected her to argue. She didn’t.

  “No. Bring him back here to the lobby of Echo-10,” Azrael said to the guard. “I don’t want anybody making a scene at my gate.”

  “Roger that, sir,” the guard said, turning on his heel.

  I looked down at Fury as we followed Az to the building. “It’s going to be ugly.”

  She sighed. “You think?”

  After my earlier conversation with Fury, I half expected the inside of Echo-10 to be transformed to something resembling the inside of Alcatraz, but when Az used the retina scanner to let us in, everything was exactly the same. Visually, anyway.

  The way the building felt, however?

  My heart began to palpitate.

  “What’s going on here?” I looked around the L-shaped lobby. To our left was an elevator to the apartments upstairs. To the right, two glass sliding doors led into the common living room and kitchen. And down the hallway ahead of us…

  Fresh death pulled at me like a magnet.

  “Azrael?” I asked.

  “Follow me,” he said, walking past.

  Fury stopped next to me. “What is it?”

  “There’s a body here.”

  Fury looked around like the body might be somewhere around our feet. Grabbing her shoulder, I turned her body toward the hallway, just as Nurse Dana stepped out of a door on the right side.

  It was the Echo-10 infirmary. Sloan and I had spent a lot of time there with our friend Taiya. A memory that haunted me now.

  Fury and I reluctantly joined Azrael.

  “Dana, the door,” he said.

  The nurse hesitated. Her mismatched eyes were set on me. She knew what I was, and while it hadn’t seemed to bother her much before, now, she was frightened. “Azrael, I don’t feel the patient is stable enough to—”

  “Dana.” My father’s tone was scolding.

  Without further objection, Dana pushed open the door marked with a medical cross, and my ears immediately heard the sound of life support. The rise and fall of the hissing respirator. The slow and steady beep beep beep of the heart monitor.