Theodora was doing her best, but she was only one knowledgeable person, and had over seventy patients, all in critical need of care.
More than anything, I hoped that the other healers would arrive soon, although I knew it wasn’t likely. When I’d gotten off the phone with Alex, he was just about to run out the door to meet with another of Thorn’s students. And of course, Tiberius Thorn didn’t carry a cellphone—the stodgy old fuddy-duddy.
I’d told Alex to call my parents to arrange the quickest transport, as I’d be busy trying to keep the patients alive.
Although they needed me here, I regretted not warping to Seattle and helping round up healers. At least there, I’d be gathering people and transporting them back. I could do that, but this? Oh, no. My training from basic and intermediate healing courses was not enough to help these people.
“Miss! Miss!” a raspy voice called out.
I scanned the beds we’d brought down and laid on the ground.A hand waved weakly, the palm hovering only a couple of inches in the air.
I knelt by the patient, an older man of perhaps forty, and read the name tag placed next to him. William. I wondered if he knew my parents. If not, he’d probably heard of them when he’d joined the PIA.
“What can I get you, William?” I asked softly.
I’d learned that a lot of the patients had been kept in silence for weeks or months. As a result, their hearing was sensitive.
“More water,” he croaked. “And maybe a painkiller? My head hurts.”
I nodded.
The vampires at Nightdwellers didn’t use painkillers, but we had found a bottle in the outbuilding that they used for bloodletting. The painkiller was about the only thing in there, because the building hadn’t been restocked after the last round of humans had been led into the academy and drained for sustenance.
Francis claimed that after the process, before the humans left—alive, thank goodness—the vampire handlers pumped them full of IV-fluids and drugged them up so they didn’t hurt or recall a thing.
I got the patient what he wanted, and knelt down beside his mattress to hold his cup.
“Thank you,” William said, once he’d drunk his fill and forced down the pill. He leaned his head back on the pillow. “It might turn my stomach for a while, but after two years of pain, I can’t wait for that pill to kick in.”
“Two years?!”
Most of the other ex-prisoners I’d spoken to had been in the cells for only months. They said most didn’t last longer than three. The guards starved them, and if they were shifters, the inability to shift often drove them mad before they tried to kill themselves.
“That’s eternity,” I whispered.
“Yup.”
I shook my head, unable to believe how tough the man before me must be.
Two years . . . I thought back to my life then. I’d been in my internship, so confused, and a baby warper. At that point, I hadn’t even suspected that the PIA, or a portion of it, could do something so terrible to its employees.
An image of David Chena, the man I’d respected and later killed after he sent Alex to Hell, arose in my mind. He’d lied to me about so many things, and specifically, these people.
When we’d first gotten the patients settled in here, I’d done a lap and searched for the witch I’d seen “taken in for questioning” during a PIA field trip in Culling-year. A witch who, as it turned out, had been spying on the demon-lovers at the PIA. I assumed she’d been brought to the government facility, but she wasn’t among the ones we rescued.
In all likelihood, she was dead, just as Chena claimed. At least he hadn’t lied about everything.
My stomach tightened in anger that only subsided when the soft snores of the man on the mattress caught my ear.
I glanced at William and smiled. He still looked awful, too thin, and with a mouth full of rotted teeth, but at rest, he looked peaceful.
Knowing it wouldn’t last, I lay on the ground next to him, and soaked up that moment while I still could.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
It took over ten hours—an endless stretch of time when you’re watching over people who might die at any moment—but finally, the vampires who’d run across the mountains to retrieve the newcomers returned right after lunch, carrying seven more healers.
The moment I glanced out the window and caught sight of Francis hauling butt down the mountain, I sprinted out of Dracula Hall. Rapid footsteps followed behind me, but I was the first to burst through the front door of the castle.
