Page 54 of Medium
Simon’s expression was regretful. “Not my skillset.” He turned to Ms. Jackson. “This one doesn’t have a mate to bond with. Using your mojo wouldn’t be against the rules.”
My breath caught. Ms. Jackson could heal Manny?
The Ouija board appeared on Ms. Jackson’s chest.I-D-O-N-T-K-N-O-W-H-A-T-Y-O-U-R-E-T-A-L-K-I-N-G-A-B-O-U-Tflashed. My heart sank.
Simon reared back, blinking. “Oh. You don’t remember? You don’t remember me?”
What? Simon knew Ms. Jackson before they were stuck in a room at TWIST? He was a lot older than he looked.
TheNoon the board flashed.
“Huh. Well, uh, in your original, uh, state of being, you were allowed to heal as a last resort if everything else had been tried, so the child in your care—” he pointed at Pia. “—wouldn’t be traumatized.”
“I’m traumatized!” Pia shouted.
I glanced at Rory. He gazed at Ms. Jackson with desperate hope in his expression. I reached across Manny to put my hand on Rory’s shoulder. I tried not to notice how our magic fizzed together as I touched his warm, bare skin. I missed Ellis with a ferocity I could barely tolerate.
Ms. Jackson cocked their head.D-O-Y-O-U-K-N-O-W-H-O-W
“Nope, sorry. Go with your instincts?”
Ms. Jackson looked down at Manny. Then they walked up his body until they were close to his wound, straddling his legs with two paws on either side. All of us except Rory, who was still holding our shirts to Manny’s gut, moved back.
They closed their eyes for a moment, then they raised one paw to their opposite shoulder and dug their claws into their... flesh? It created a pretty gross squelching sound as Ms. Jackson gouged out a big glob of sparkling light. Their shoulder reformed instantly. They held the sparkling clump above Manny’s belly. The Ouija board flashed,R-E-M-O-V-E-T-H-E-C-L-O-T-H.
Rory pressed his lips together but nodded. He carefully lifted the bloodied shirts. I caught a brief glimpse of Manny’s wound gaping open, bloody and torn. I wanted to look away, but I needed to see what Ms. Jackson would do so I could tell Ellis later.
Swiftly they pressed the chunk of sparkling whatever—themself? Magic?—into Manny’s wound. The sparkles appeared to get absorbed into Manny until only Ms. Jackson’s paw—claws thankfully retracted—was visible, splayed across the intact skin of his belly.
They lifted their paw, and every one of us sucked in a breath. Manny’s wound was healed. He had a nasty-looking scar, red, raised, and angry, but the cut was closed. He was still unconscious, but hopefully he’d wake soon.
“Thank you,” Rory gasped. He reached out and grabbed Ms. Jackson’s paw. “Thank you.”
They made an odd bowing nod, then they backed up until they were sitting on the grass near Manny’s feet. Pia jumped up and hugged them.
Rory wiped his face with his forearm, but he just ended up smearing blood across his forehead.
I let myself sink down and sit. I was grateful Manny would be okay. So grateful. But Ellis was still in the vampires’ hands. I rubbed my chest. My magic had been torn in half, but all of Ellis’ Wonders were still connected to me. District Monitorsdidn’t usually have over two hundred connections, and I could tell why. I wanted Ms. Jackson to claw my chest open and let them out.
But I needed to keep them so I could give them to Ellis when we got him back.
Simon yanked his sword out of the ground. He removed a kind of oblong leather backpack I hadn’t noticed him wearing and put the blade inside. Shit, was he about to leave?
I pushed to my feet, which took more effort than I’d anticipated. I faced Simon. “The vampires have Ellis. Is he alive? Do you know where they would’ve taken him?”
He hesitated. “Maybe.” He looked tired. No wonder, since he’d taken out several vampires by himself. He pulled out his phone. I couldn’t help noticing that his wrist bones were strangely prominent. His jeans hung off his hips, and he didn’t seem to have an ounce of fat on him. He was as tall as the other vampires, but they’d been more muscular and seemed to have a normal amount of body fat.
He said, “Four of them got away. They came in two vehicles, but I only have a tracker on one.” He glanced around at us. “That’s how I knew they were here.” He punched at his phone. “Unfortunately, they take different routes with each van. I could follow the one with the tracker, but I can’t be sure Ellis will be in it.”
I took half a second to process this, and then I saw red. Rory started to speak, but I got up in Simon’s face. “You have a tracker on one of their vans, and you let them go around attacking people? What the fuck? Why didn’t you kill them when they stopped for the night or something?”
Simon let his friendly demeanor drop. He looked exhausted, but also like no one I really wanted to fuck with. “Because I didn’t get the tracker on the van until Wimberly a few weeksago, and I’ve been waiting for them to return to their home base, where theykeep their captives.” He snarled that last bit, letting his fangs show.
Well, fuck. “Oh, um, sorry.” I moved back a couple of steps. “Sorry. I’m a little on edge about Ellis.” I rubbed my chest again.
He blew out an exasperated breath. “I tried to prevent this attack, but I’m only one guy. If I go after their van now to get your friend, there’s a fifty percent chance he won’t be in it. And either way I’ll have to kill the vampires, so I won’t be able to follow the van to the other captives, and I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to put a tracker on the other one.”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Multiple captives were objectively more important than Ellis, but he was my mate, and I needed Simon to save him.
