Zoe staggered back to Liv’s workstation and placed her hands on the counter. With steadying breaths, she prepared the tea the way she’d seen Liv do it a hundred times. She just prayed that she was using the right ingredients. There wasn’t anything in any of the tins that could make him worse than he already was–she hoped.
The man let out a roar of pain, and gripped the edge of the bed as his body seized and stiffened. The poison seemed to be expanding, tearing through his body like a predator consuming its prey.
She was close to panicking. No, she was already panicking. This was too much. She didn't have the skill or the knowledge needed to help him. She could barely read a damn aura.
Olivia would know what to do, but her cousin wasn't answering her fricking phone.
With trembling fingers, Zoe held his head and forced the hot liquid down his throat. After a gulp, he turned and puked out a black, rancid mass.
Zoe dropped the cup and scooted backwards, the meager contents of her own stomach burning her esophagus. This was not what she signed up for when she accepted her cousin’s proposal to come stay with her. Hell, she hadn’t even known the woman existed until a few months ago. Liv was strange on the best of days, with her New Age ideas, and bizarre beliefs in the paranormal. But until today, her outlandish stories of healers and warriors had just been that–stories.
The man seized again, then went still. His forehead was damp with perspiration, his skin still streaked with black webs. The putrid smell of impending death lingered around him. A chill went up and down Zoe’s spine. She didn’t know how she knew the scent, but the knowledge seeped through her like an old memory.
“No. You are not going to die.” She threw open the cupboard doors. A vast collection of colorful tins lined the shelves.Ugh.Licorice, sassafras, and dried mold. She glowered, compelling their auras forth, like Liv had taught her, but only shades of brown danced in front of her eyes.
He was going to die because she couldn’t find the right fucking tea.
“Dammit!” She slammed the door and it banged.
A rattling sound came from the man's chest. She’d never felt so helpless in her life.
You know what to do.The words pierced her mind, sending a zing through her body. She closed her eyes and a flash of memory infused her. It was hazy, but there was power and knowledge in the vision.
The room started to spin and she had to grasp the counter to keep from falling.
You know what to do.The words echoed like a soft hum within her.
The man would die if she did nothing.
With a sharp intake of breath, she focused on the words that raced through her mind and drew from the strange energy that vibrated around her. She didn’t have time to think about how crazy the entire situation was. She just knew she had to save him. At her beckon, a small wind formed in her palms, then blew across the room, and entered the man.
The color drained from his face, his eyes went wide, and he inhaled sharply.
Zoe refocused and tried again. This time the lights flickered and a deep purple cloud materialized for a moment before disappearing. If she wasn't so focused on saving him, she would have been terrified.
She closed her eyes, centered like she’d learned in yoga class, and added a short prayer to the Goddess of Life.Help me save him.
Perhaps the prayer clinched the deal. The power within started with a buzzing in her ears. It bubbled up and surrounded her like an electric current. When she could no longer endure the pain, she screamed and fell back onto the wood floor.
She'd fired a shotgun once, but this discharge had a hell-of-a worse kick. A black-violet cloud of energy sizzled and snapped above her head in a wild frenzy. When it didn’t move, Zoe willed it forward to kill the poison in the man.
Suddenly, the conjured plasma zoomed around the exam room and lit seven colored candles. It went into the cupboards and rattled the tin cans until two fell off the top shelf with a clunk. The energy morphed and twisted into a sparkling tornado, hovered momentarily above the man’s bed, and disappeared into his body. Zoe was unable to breathe again until it reappeared with a dark shadow caught up in its spin.
Chapter 2
Jack reached for his chest, expecting to feel a sticky pool of blood, but his hand came back dry. That vortex had knifed right through him, yet he was still alive.
“It’s not done." The healer pointed above his head where the spinning energy still hovered.
She tried to stand, but fell forward on her hands and knees, breathing heavily. She scrambled crab-like towards the tins on the floor, tried to wobble up the cabinets, but slipped back. Her head hit the floor with a thud and she stopped moving.
Jack staggered off the daybed, checked her pulse. It was weak, but she was still breathing. Something stirred inside him at the touch, but he was too drained to analyze it.
He hobbled to the kitchenette and grabbed the ancient tins. The steaming water from the kettle made a too-hot concoction, reeking of sweaty sneakers. After a quick gag and gulp, the menacing cloud dissolved through the walls with an anticlimactic sizzle and pop.
“What the hell was that?” He’d been to healers more times than he'd like to recall, but this beat all. He squatted over the unconscious woman.
The front door opened and a cool breeze blew at the curtain.
