Cursed To Death

“My Shadow Wolf healing is for natural injuries-like the one Hunter has sustained. The physical body is relatively easy to fix, because it dwells in the realm of the natural and the body will fight to help you help it. But a spiritual injury…” he said, allowing his words to trail off with a weary sigh. “This requires prayer and the intervention of the Great Spirit. I can only try.”

“Then please try,” Bradley said, his voice quavering.

“I think we need to move her to a room, get her co

“That young woman sounds like she needs a CAT scan and an MRI, then to be located in ICU,” Dr. Williams said, looking around, confused.

“She does, but your staff is going to have to allow the shaman to be with her at all times, as well as me and her teammate, Bradley.” Doc exchanged a look with Dr. Williams that said, remember-we’ve been through something like this before at Tulane together.

Dr. Williams nodded. “What about this patient?” he said, referring to Hunter and then frowning. “Tell me that’s not duct tape over a gunshot wound!”

“Okay, so I won’t tell you that,” Hunter said, sounding worn out. “But that’s all they had at the auto body shop’s front counter at the time.”

“A bed, a drip, a transfusion from me, a steak, and a few hours of shut-eye, and this man is good,” Sasha said calmly. “But if you can spare a private room, that may reduce the strain on your PR Department.”

Dr. Williams walked to the door. “Consider it done in the name of homeland security for active military perso

CHAPTER 23

“I’m sorry about Clarissa,” Hunter said, looking across to Sasha’s bed from his. A double IV drip hung above his; one ruby-hued and filled with Sasha’s blood, the other clear, to restore potassium and other vital fluids and minerals he’d lost.

“Yeah, me, too,” she said in a distant murmur. “I feel so helpless just lying here.”

“Believe me,” he said, locking his gaze with hers, “I know that feeling well. But the doctor said for you to just give it forty-five minutes so you don’t overexert yourself and pass out-which could be very bad, depending on where that is.”

“I know, I know.” She looked down. “How’s the arm?”

“Better after your healing.”

She smiled a sad smile and tried to make a joke. “Beats duct tape, I guess.”

There was nothing to say to her that would change the facts. He watched Sasha slip back into her own morose thoughts, helpless to fix the condition that had plunged her there. One of her team members was critically injured. There was no way to make that be all right. Even retribution was a hollow win, when the only thing she wanted was for that person to be okay. He understood that, had lived through crises of this type himself.

He just wished he could have done for Sasha’s spirit what she’d just done to his arm, place his hands over the site of the injury… her heart… and allow the heat to transfer from his palms into that delicate organ… siphoning out pain, knitting back torn tissue and muscle. Closing up the hole left in it from the damage, until all that remained was a super ficial scar. If he had the power to heal the mind and spirit like that, he would. But even Silver Hawk, the wisest shaman of the clan, acknowledged such limitations.

Hunter let out a long sigh that he hadn’t meant to release. Sasha looked at him.

“You okay?” she asked, eyes worried.

“No,” he said quietly. “I’m not, because you’re not. Clarissa is a decent soul. This never should have happened to her.”

“I know,” Sasha said, leaning up on one elbow. “This kicks my ass that some little… hob goblin thing could cause so much pain to so many people.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and hugged herself. “Bradley will just positively fold if something happens to her… and the rest of us…”

“Sasha… what if…” Hunter’s voice trailed off as he stared out toward the window, sitting up.

“Talk to me.” Sasha came and sat on the edge of his bed.

“There are three of us-three strong alphas. Me, you, Silver Hawk. Just like the attics required three sets of bad symbols to be placed in order to affect an entire fortress, what if three powerful prayers said in the shadow lands, where the terror for Clarissa became real, were said in a shaman’s white-light circle of truth?”

Sasha was on her feet. He reached to yank out his IVs and she held his arm. “Bring it with you; we need you strong.”

“The Vampires have told you what?” Queen Blatand shouted, swishing her ice-blue satin gown out of her way as she paced from her ornate ice throne to her visioning table.

Small icicles chimed against the diamonds and pearls that crusted her train, and her clear, ice stiletto heels made a harsh sound against the opaque ice floor. Her servants bowed obsequiously, fearing the queen’s notable wrath. Her fingertips were pale blue beneath her alabaster skin, threatening an icy jolt at any moment. She set the palest of blue eyes on the clear, lake-like surface of the table and spread her fingertips against it, summoning quick, spider-vein cracks to form as the table misted over. When she wiped her hand across it, the table instantly cleared so that she could begin to see events unfolding.

Angry but unsure of the politics, she smoothed a chilly palm over the back of her platinum French twist and pursed her thin blue lips.

“They are calling for a trial,” Elder Futhark said. “Kiagehul is up on capital charges, which is an affront to the entire Unseelie nation.”

“They have not summarily executed him, as is their right if your cousin committed the first act of war against the Seelie king. They seem to be employing due process. Therefore, as much as I despise Rodney, law is law, and I see no reason to expend precious resources on what appears to be a very personal matter of magickal transgression.”

“He is in bondage, my queen,” Enoksen implored. “Held in Sir Rodney’s dungeon with iron and rowan.”

“That does seem to be cruel and unusual punishment,” she said carefully, appraising her top two advisors. “But what have the Vampires to do with all this?” She waved her hand about, causing it to briefly snow in the chamber.

Gremlins and Goblins hid behind the huge icy stalactites and stalagmites hanging from the endless vaulted ceiling and thrusting up through the chamber’s perma-frost floor. Burly digger Gnomes stayed hidden in the shadows and squinted against the northern lights that dappled the upper air, also waiting on the queen’s advisors’ response.

“You are slow to answer,” she said in a threatening tone, “which gives me pause.” She smiled a wicked grin. “Many an avalanche has been caused by the untimely drop of a misplaced pebble.”

“Kiagehul was retained by them to keep them updated on their enemy’s movements, and the Vampires were wrongfully attacked,” Elder Futhark said quietly, and then glanced at Enoksen.

“For personal gain or for the gain of my Unseelie empire was he so employed?” she asked coolly, her breath coming out as a white mist. She narrowed her pale blue gaze.

“I’m sure he was doing so to a

“How so?” she asked in a sudden, stormy burst, waving her arms and causing swirls of mini snow squalls to spin around the room.

“The Seelie have banded together with the Werewolf and Shadow Wolf Federations,” Enoksen said, bowing. “The trilateral alliance is an enemy of the Vampires, and also a threat to the Unseelie… as they guard and honor humans.”