Twilight Fall

The plastic shower curtain jerked to one side, and the subject of his thoughts stood there weaving slightly on her feet, a strange look in her black eyes.

"Liling." He reached for her.

She moved before he could touch her, and grabbed the shower curtain, ripping it from its rings. Scarlet sparks swirled in the night depths of her eyes, and she didn't seem to know who he was, for her gaze had an empty, mindless quality to it.

"You take away the sins of the world." She braced her hands against the tile walls. "See how you like it."

The cold water of the shower suddenly turned hot, and steam filled the small room.

Valentin swore as he climbed out of the shower to avoid the now-scalding spray. "Get back before you are burned."

Her gaze shifted from his face to the water and back again, and recognition dawned in her eyes, along with terrible fear.

"Forgive me. I didn't mean to shout at you." He reached in and managed to shut off the shower's taps, the scalding water making his skin turn faintly red for a moment before the light burns healed. "Are you feeling a little better?"

"Not him." She brought her hands up to her head and held it, her eyes shut tightly. "I didn't do anything. Stop shouting at me." She said something in Chinese, and then she screamed the words. "I won't."

Valentin had to lunge to grab her as her knees buckled.

Her eyes had rolled back in her head, he saw as he lifted her up. She was babbling to herself in Chinese.

"Liling." He held her carefully. "What are you saying to me? Tell me in English."

"Take, not give." She whimpered, cringing, clutching her hair as if she wanted to tear it from her scalp. "He's coming. I can feel him. I can hear him. Take not give take not give—"

"Nothing will harm you." He caressed her cheek, and the touch seemed to soothe her. "I won't allow it. I swear this to you."

"He is coming." She groped at him, her hands clawing. "You have to kill me. Promise me. Before he finds us. Before it's too late."

Fever was making her delirious, but the fear in her eyes was genuine. Was this the reason she had run away from Chicago? "Who is this man? Why are you afraid of him? Liling. I am here. I will protect you."

She shook her head. Hinging the tears from her eyes. "You can't. Not from him." She covered her mouth with her hands, and then dropped them away as her eyes filled. "He is the sea and the river and the lake," she said, almost chanting the words. "He is the rain and the snow and the hail."

She spoke of him as if she loved him, this man who terrorized her. "Who is he?" he demanded.

She frowned at him, as if she had expected him to understand. "He is the tsunami. No one can stop him. We will die. Everyone around us will die."

He held her as she wept against his chest. "Tell me of whom you speak, Geliebte."

"He's not a man," she whispered, sagging. "He's a monster." Tear-drowned eyes closed. "Like me."

As Lili collapsed against him. Valentin felt a burning sensation against his skin, and put his hand between them. The skin over her rib cage was red-hot in one area, over a small, unnatural bulge on one bone.

He remembered again the sensation of warmth wrapping around him when she had used her healing touch on his arm. Her body was trying to heal itself, he guessed, but the bullet inside her was somehow hindering the process. It might even be poisoning her, as copper did the Kyn. He would have to take It out.

Valentin had almost no medical knowledge, and his own ignorance frustrated him. He would kill to have Alexandra Keller here now.

He carried Liling out of the bathroom, but the couch was too low for his purpose. He picked up the quilt from it and carried her into the kitchen. The table there was small but supported her weight. He put the quilt over it and laid her down gently.

The flesh where the bullet wound had been looked flushed. Upon closer inspection he saw that the tiny veins under her skin had ruptured. He might know nothing about doctoring, but it was obvious from the pattern of broken veins that the bullet was responsible. They were in the shape of a slug.

Liling was still semiconscious, and Valentin had no drugs with which to sedate her. He feared that using l'attrait to compel her to sleep would only make matters worse, but he couldn't remove the slug while she was still conscious.

He would have to risk it.

Valentin placed his hand on her slender throat and shed as much scent as he dared.

"Camellias." Her lips curved and her eyelids drifted down.

"That's it; go to sleep, Liebling," he said softly, stroking the delicate arch of her throat. "I will care for you until you wake."

Her lips moved to frame a word, and then parted over a sigh. He waited, but she didn't stir again.

Valentin went to the counter and took the thinnest blade out of the knife block. The edge had dulled, so he took a saucer from the cabinet, flipped it over, and used the porcelain rim of the base to hone the blade.

He remembered cutting into Alexandra Keller's back to remove a copper bolt. Alex had Kyn healing ability, however, and Liling was human. He would have to cut fast and not too deep.

He went to the table and bowed his head for a moment. He could no longer trouble deaf heaven for himself, but surely his entreaty for this innocent life would be heard.

"Guide my hand, Father," he said to the God he had not addressed in centuries. "Make her well and whole again."

Valentin prodded the flesh over her ribs and located the small bulge he had felt before. The blade trembled slightly as he brought the knife to her body, but steadied as he gripped the handle tighter and plunged the tip into her skin.

He did not have to cut far; the flattened slug lay just beneath the tissue, lodged partway into the surface of a bone. It did not pop loose, and he was obliged to work the tip of the blade under it before it moved. Blood welled from the incision as he bore down, trying to remove it from the bone in which it had buried itself. Finally it came out like a rotted tooth, emerging from the tissue with an ugly, familiar red-brown gleam.

The slug was made of pure copper.

Valentin pried the slug out of the incision, barely feeling the burn to his own skin as he tossed it aside. He had to close the incision, and he had only one way to do that: with his own blood.

This too was dangerous: too much could potentially poison her. He lifted his wrist to his mouth, biting into his own flesh and turning the wound to drip over hers. The few drops of his Kyn blood were not enough to harm her, and they quickly sealed the wound.

Once he had tended to her, he looked at his hands, which were wet with the blood from her wound. He hated using it for himself, but until he could get them back to civilization, he could not afford to waste a drop. He cleaned the blood from his hands with his mouth, allowing himself a brief moment to savor her taste before gathering her up in the quilt and carrying her back to the bedroom.

Dawn shimmered in the distance.

He put Liling on the bed and closed the window blinds before he joined her. The bed had no linens, but her temperature seemed normal, so the quilt would be enough for now. Valentin pulled her body close and held her, her head tucked under his chin. Only then did he release the tight hold he had kept over his emotions, and pressed his lips to her hair.

"Come back to me, mein Mädchen," he murmured to her. "I will never ask anything more of you. Only come back."

* * *

Chapter 14

To her relief Alexandra discovered that Jaus had never dismantled the lab she had used during her last visit to Derabend Hall.

"Let's take him in there," she told the guard who had carried her brother up from the lake. "That'll be my infirmary for now. I'm going to need some things."

Wilhelm accompanied her to the lab and took down the list of medical supplies and equipment she needed. "I will call our suppliers and have these delivered to the hall within the hour, my lady."

"Thanks." She took her scope out of her medical case. "And call me Alex, okay? The 'my lady' stuff makes me crazy."

"Of course. Alex. I am sorry that your brother fell ill." His dark eyes strayed to John's unconscious face. "If you wish to consult with another doctor, my grandfather keeps a list of those who are our friends."

She used a penlight to check John's pupils. "Depending on what I find, I might take you up on that."

The boy nodded and left to take care of the list.

Alex knew she should have John taken to a hospital in the city. She didn't need to use Sacher's list; this was her town, and she knew exactly where he'd get the best care by the sharpest specialists. But she wouldn't risk having the Brethren discover where her brother was, especially not while he was helpless. They had as many friends in the city as the Kyn did, and she wouldn't put it past them to abduct John or even try to kill him.

Cyprien came in as she was assessing her brother's condition. "Do you know what caused him to collapse?"

"Aside from malnutrition and exhaustion, he's running a high fever. I have to cool him down and get some fluids into him before he has a seizure." She looked up from the blood-pressure gauge. "How are things going with the search for the plane?"

"Locksley and Jayr have trackers searching the areas where they think Jaus may have tried to land the plane, but they have not yet found it," he admitted. "We have received more information from our contacts at O'Hare. It seems the pilot who was flying killed Jaus's regular pilot, a man named Speicher, and used his credentials. He looked enough like him to pass casual inspection and gain access to the plane."

"A suicide stand-in pilot." She shook her head. "I need to write another letter to Congress about airport security when we get back home. Was he just a garden-variety terrorist?"

Michael shook his head. "We are still gathering the facts, but the pilot may have been a Brethren operative, sent to assassinate Val."

If the Brethren knew the plane belonged to Jaus, and that Jaus was Kyn, it wouldn't take them long to track down his home address. "Sounds like we're going to need some reinforcements here." ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">