Chapter Twenty-One
Tony’s entire body vibrated with heated energy. He’d never felt anything so powerful in all his life.
He tried to pull back, but Naura held on to him with a strength that surprised him.
“Naura. Stop,” he gasped, his gaze darting around the room.
Warmth suddenly exploded inside his brain. His back bowed and his teeth locked together as it slid down his skull and into his chest as if heated water had been poured through him.
Naura’s body went slack, and her fangs slid from his neck. He caught her head before it dropped to the table.
“Holy shit. Naura? Naura, honey, are you all right?”
Tony rolled from the table and staggered toward the door. “Get Zaureth in here now,” he growled at the Bracadyte keeping watch in the hall.
“Right away.” The guard ran off without an inquiry of unnecessary questions, for which Tony was grateful.
Rushing back to Naura’s side, Tony stopped next to the bed and brushed her hair back from her face. Her skin appeared pale and cold to the touch. “Damn it, Naura. What did you do?”
Zaureth marched into the room. “Tell me what has happened.”
“While I was giving her blood, she said her feet were tingling, and then all hell broke loose. Some kind of strange energy started coming from her. It was almost like heated electricity, if that makes sense. I could see her memories…”
“I have only witnessed her do that once before in her youth,” Zaureth hesitantly explained. “It is a gift that very few Bracadytes have ever possessed.”
Tony cleared his throat. “What kind of gift?”
Zaureth studied him for long moments before answering. “The gift of healing.”
“But you’re a healer, aren’t you?”
Zaureth tilted his head in affirmation. “That, I am. Only not in the same sense as her. Naura has the ability to pull one’s sickness into herself, replacing it with her own life force.”
Tony felt numb. “What happens to the sickness that she absorbs?”
“It eats away at her as would your human cancer. If she absorbs a physical illness, her body takes the ailment into itself. If it a sickness of the mind, the affliction is then transferred into her psyche to be housed until she can overcome it… If she is strong enough.
“Son of a bitch,” Tony snarled, storming toward Zaureth. He gripped the healer’s arms. “Fix her, damn it.”
“I am sorry. I cannot.”
Tony had to force his teeth apart to speak so great was his rage. “You will help her, or so help me God.”
“Your God will not assist you in this, Anthony Vaughn. It is your cross to bear.”
“Then tell me what to do to make her better. I’ll do anything.” And he would, Tony realized, staring into Zaureth’s eerily pale eyes. He would give up his own life if it would save Naura’s.
“You can do nothing but what she accepts.”
Tony released the death grip he had on the Bracadyte’s arms. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Your soul had a blackness in it that most could never survive. I could see it swirling around inside you, eating away at your conscious, corrupting your mind. That sickness now occupies another.” He glanced at Naura’s still form for emphasis.
Nausea rolled through Tony’s gut. He staggered over to a bucket and rested his hands on his knees as what little food he’d been able to consume earlier came back up.
When Tony could dry heave no longer, he straightened and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “There has to be something that I can do. She will never make it back from my memories. The things I’ve seen… The things I’ve done.”
Zaureth offered Tony a cup of water, which he readily drank.
“I will leave you now, Anthony Vaughn. There is nothing more I can do here. Take Naura to her room and make her as comfortable as you can. It is your sickness that resides in her. Only you will know how to rid her of it.”
The strange Bracadyte left without another word.
Tony gently turned Naura over, removed the sheet covering her, and scooped her nude body up into his arms.
Holding her high against his chest, he kissed her forehead, grabbed a towel to drape over her for modesty, and stumbled from the infirmary toward her apartment.
He would make her better if it was the last thing he did, he silently swore as he strode down the hall. Even if it killed him.
A few minutes later, Naura’s apartment came into view. Tony breezed through the foyer into her bedroom and laid her gently onto the bed.
He pulled a blanket over her to hide her nakedness from anyone that might enter. Specifically Braum.
After making sure that she rested, he hurried from the room in search of food. She would surely be hungry when she awoke. And she would awaken, he vowed, coming to a stop in front of Abbie’s door.
“Hauke? Abbie?” Tony bellowed from the opening.
Abbie appeared with her finger to her lips for quiet. “You’ll wake the baby.”
“I need food for Naura.” He realized that he had no idea what Bracadytes ate. “Whatever you think she would like.”
“She is better then?”
Tony debated on how much to divulge to his niece. He decided to be truthful.
Ten minutes later, he sat on a stool in Abbie’s kitchen and watched her expression as he finished explaining what had happened between Naura and him.
“She healed you? But from what?” Abbie stood at a giant makeshift stove, stirring a pot of something that smelled delicious.
Tony shook his head. “I don’t rightly know.” But he did. And if the look in Abbie’s eyes was any indication, she did as well.
“I see.” Abbie poured the amazing-smelling soup into a bowl and grabbed a spoon. “She loves you, Uncle Tony.”
Tony’s heart squeezed. “She can’t love me, Abbie. She barely knows me.”
“My guess is she knows you better than anyone ever has. The Bracadytes have the ability to see inside a person. To know their innermost thoughts and feelings. But I’m sure that you’re more than aware.”
He was. And from the exchange he’d had with Naura in the infirmary, it was clear she knew things about him that he’d long since forgotten. “Abbie…”
“I know what you’re thinking, Uncle Tony. Truly, I do. It’s a scary thing to have another being so deep inside your psyche that you feel like you connected with their soul. But it can be a beautiful experience if you’ll accept it for what it is.”
Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “What is it?”
“A mating.” She turned and strode out the door without waiting for his response.
“Bloody hell,” Tony muttered, jumping from the stool and running after his whimsical niece. “A damn mating.”