Balanced Chaos (The Void Series Book 3) Page 16

  Sam stared at her mother. “I know, Mom. I know that Dave isn’t my father.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked her mother, her hands suddenly going to the hem of her long shirt and rolling it between her fingers.

  “I saw my file. My official file. It says I’m half fae, not full blood.”

  Miranda stared at her daughter, her features draining of color.

  “Which of course means I can’t be the daughter of David Gollet, cause two full-blooded fae don’t produce a half-blood do they?”

  Her mother cleared her throat. “Dave’s not home, and won’t be for a few hours at least.”

  Sam nodded toward the inside of the apartment. To her relief, her mother turned and led them in, saying nothing about what had just passed between them. There was nothing more to be said. They both knew where they stood:

  Miranda was her mother. Dave was not her father. End of story.

  Sorta. Sam began to wonder about the missing link—the man who had provided the genetic material to produce a Void offspring—but quickly pushed those thoughts aside. Now was not the time to ponder her mysterious biological father.

  Sam and Halstead moved to the small couch and took a seat. Halstead jerry-rigged the lamp to hold the nearly-empty bag, saving his arm.

  “Can’t we just remove it?” Sam whined.

  “Not ‘til it’s empty.”

  “Glad someone is keeping her line,” her mother said with a forced smile.

  “Not sure anyone can do that, Ma’am, but we have a good soldier working personal security detail, and he does his best.”

  Sam rolled her eyes.

  “Where is he?” asked Miranda.

  “He’s been badly injured,” explained Halstead.

  “And that’s where Ryan comes in?” asked her mother just as the front door opened. “Ryan, there’s someone here to see you,” Miranda added a little louder as she climbed to her feet.

  Sam’s brother emerged from the narrow hallway and stopped in his tracks. She had no idea what he expected to find in his family’s living room, but she was sure it wasn’t his disowned sister connected to a human I.V. bag sitting next to a National Guard officer.

  “Still with the humans, I see,” he said as he slouched against the wall to stare at her.

  “You knew about this,” demanded their mother, “and you didn’t tell me? Did you know she was getting hurt working for them?”

  Ryan shrugged. “When isn’t she getting hurt?”

  “Okay, guys, I didn’t come here to debate my choice of vocation. I came to ask Ryan a favor.”

  Ryan snorted. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here to ask me a favor, after you abandoned us.”

  Sam bit down on her bottom lip, fighting against the words that threatened to come spilling out. Instead of yelling at her brother, she turned to Halstead.

  “C’mon, Major. We should go. I shouldn’t have brought you. Sorry you had to see this.”

  Major Halstead slowly rose from the dilapidated couch, never taking his eyes off Sam. He unhooked the I.V. bag from the lamp.

  “What? That’s it? You’re just gonna go?” demanded Ryan.

  Sam stared up at Ryan, not flinching away when he met her gaze. “You don’t ask what could possibly be bad enough to push me into coming back to the place where I was both physically and emotionally abused by a man, who as it turns out, was not my biological father. Instead, you scoff at me, and I’m leaving. I don’t have a lot of dignity left, so if you want me to beg, I’ll beg. But if all you’re going to do is accuse me, or abuse me as Dave did, then I’m out of here. I won’t put up with it anymore. I’m not his daughter. I don’t have to stand for it, and I won’t. So what’s it going to be, Ryan? Do you need me to beg? ‘Cause it’s important enough that I will beg for your help.”

  Ryan averted his gaze from the raw emotion Sam willingly displayed. Emotions weren’t an easy thing for the Gollet family, especially when Dave was around, and Ryan was turning out more and more like his father. Sam hated to see it happen, but she had no power to change it. Only Ryan could control his outcome.

  “What do you need?” he asked the floor.

  “The soldier in charge of my safety risked his life today to save mine. He was severely burned. Had it not been for him I would have died multiple times over in the course of the last two days. I’ve come to ask you to heal him.”

  “A human?” sneered Ryan, not even trying to hide his distaste for the species despite their guest.

  “Ryan,” warned Miranda as she glanced at Halstead.

  The major wisely kept his eyes on Sam, who stared at Ryan.

  “Yes, a human. A human who could have easily died for my sake. Me, your sister. He didn’t have to, but he did. There aren’t many fae who would do that for me.”

  Ryan turned his glare onto Sam. “I do this for you, you have to do a favor for me.”

  “What’s the favor?”

  “Dad’s sick. You gotta get him well.”

  Sam screwed up her face in confusion. “You’re the healer. What’s he need me for?”

  “He’s being poisoned, but he won’t admit it. There’s nothing I can heal. I’ve been keeping him going, but just barely. You’ve got to figure out who’s poisoning him and stop it.”

  Sam felt her stomach tie up in knots. She had no doubt it was coming from the same people who were poisoning Mrs. Newberry. Had it been anyone but Philip she would have told her brother—and Dave—to go to hell, but she couldn’t leave the corporal to suffer just because she couldn’t stomach the idea of helping the man who’d made her adolescent years a living hell.

  “Fine,” she growled. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “Good. Let’s go see this boy of yours.”

  Sam ignored the jab and led the way out of the apartment, Halstead and the I.V. bag in tow, and Ryan taking up the rear.

  Halstead pushed the door open to Werner’s room. The doctor sat in the desk chair at the foot of the bed, looking strained. The corporal lie on his stomach, his face turned away from the door. A thin sheet lay across his rump and thighs. The back of his head and his shoulders were swathed in thin bandages that did little to cover the gore of his burns. She ran her eyes down his body, noting more bandages than just those on his upper body. The fire had reached him in various places. The only portion truly clear of burns was his back, where the armored vest had helped protect him.

  Various tubes connected him to machines making beeps and hisses. Small electronic screens flashed at the room, communicating things Sam couldn’t comprehend no matter how long she stared at them.

  Sam stood in the doorway, blocking her brother from entering. She wasn’t sure she could make her feet move any closer. He had endured all this for her.

  “How is he?” the major asked when he noticed Sam’s frozen fear.

  “His vitals are stabilizing, but just barely. I’ve called in to have him airlifted out to a civilian hospital. I’m just not equipped to deal with this here.”

  Sam glanced at the doctor, aware of his professional pride. She squared her shoulders and shook off her fear. Ryan could heal Werner, saving him the painful and dangerous transportation to the human hospital.

  “I’ve brought a fae healer,” Sam said, finally stepping into the room.

  Ryan followed her and knelt beside the bed. The doctor jumped up, preparing to intercede. Sam couldn’t blame him. Fae magic was unfamiliar to him, and it was his job to protect his patient.

  “Let him try,” Halstead said, grabbing the doctor by the arm before he could intervene. “I’ve seen the power of the fae. I believe he can help.”

  “With all due respect, Major, that is my patient. His wellbeing is under my jurisdiction at this point, not yours.”

  “While that is true, I’m asking you to trust my judgement in this matter.”

  “Your judgement means nothing in medical matters.”

  Sam turned her attention away from the arguing men. Ryan had ignored them and al
ready begun his work the minute he knelt beside the bed, his hands hovering over Philip’s shoulders, just above the sticky-looking bandages. Sam held her breath, afraid to believe her eyes. She thought she saw improvement, but wasn’t sure if she was just seeing what she wanted to see.

  As the wounds continued to change, Sam became convinced Ryan’s magic worked on a human. She let out a long breath, unaware that she had been holding it until her lungs sucked in a deep gasp.

  At the same moment, Werner gave a soft groan, drawing the attention of Halstead and the doctor.

  “What are you…” called the doctor, grabbing Ryan’s shoulders.

  “No. Look. It’s working,” said Halstead at the same time.

  The doctor stopped complaining, his hands still resting on Ryan’s shoulders as he watched the wounds continue to heal before their eyes. Philip shifted again, slowly clawing his way toward consciousness.

  “Start peeling the bandages away,” Ryan ordered through clenched teeth as beads of sweat formed across his forehead.

  The doctor grabbed a small plastic container that looked as though it was designed to fit under someone’s chin and slipped on a single glove. Using a special tool, the doctor began gently peeling away the bandages. As the first one slipped off and revealed perfectly smooth skin, the doctor let out a gasp, dropping the tool and the bandage.

  “How?”

  “I told you, the fae are powerful. Keep working with Ryan here,” ordered Halstead.

  Twenty minutes later, Ryan slumped back onto the floor, leaning against the leg of Werner’s desk, the last of his power spent. Sweat poured down his cheeks and his hands shook as he rested his arms on his knees.

  The doctor continued to work to get the bandages off, no longer using the special tool as he realized Philip was completely healed. Just as he worked the last sticky bandage off the corporal’s back, Philip groaned and began to push himself up off his stomach.

  “Careful, Corporal,” the doctor said. “Let’s take it slow. The fae just finished healing your wounds.”

  “The fae?” Werner asked, his voice sounding as raspy as Sam’s.

  Philip turned his head to take in his audience. Slowly he scanned their faces, his eyes momentarily resting on Ryan. From there, his gaze shifted to take in his naked body and the thin sheet draped over his buttocks.

  “I’m naked.”

  Sam worked to hide her smile. Leave it to Werner.

  “You okay, Gollet?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “You have an I.V.”

  “We’re just replacing fluids,” the doctor said, coming to her side, removing the I.V., and covering the small puncture mark with a band-aid three shades too dark for her ivory skin.

  “Jeffery donated to my health,” she explained. “This is my brother, Ryan. He healed you.”

  Ryan gave Philip a half-hearted wave. “And now you need to carry out your end of the deal.”

  “What deal?” interjected Philip.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” Sam said before turning to her brother. “I’ll do my part. I promised. When will Dave be home? I need to see him first.”

  Ryan narrowed his eyes at her for a moment before responding. “Tonight. His shift ends at six.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Good.” Ryan heaved himself up off the ground, dusted of his hands, and left.

  Those remaining stared at each other for a long moment, no one sure what was supposed to happen next. Finally, the doctor took charge.

  “Corporal Werner needs rest, despite all that your brother did for him, and I’ve no doubt you could also use a few hours of sleep.”

  Sam nodded, feeling the exhaustion she had been ignoring for hours. She suddenly wondered if she could make it the few feet to her own room before she collapsed. Without speaking, Sam turned and left the room. She used the wall for support and hobbled down the hallway to her own room, where she collapsed on the bed.

  For the second day in a row, she slept in her clothing.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sam woke to a cramp in her neck and an annoying throb in the crook of her arm. She stretched the arm out to find a sizable black bruise where the I.V. had been—no doubt from all the times she had accidentally forgotten she had been leashed to it. Sam sighed. She just couldn’t seem to catch a break and be completely healthy, not even for a day.

  She closed her eyes again and tried to consider her situation—working for the humans while her home disintegrated around her. In her nineteen years, she had never set foot outside the reservation. It was all she knew, all she understood, and yet it was changing before her eyes and not even doing it subtly.

  Fae were killing fae, vampires and werewolves were coming to her aid, humans were trying to win her heart. Sam shook her head, her hair scuffing against the pillow. How has it come to this? she wondered. I should be going after the artifacts. They could be doing ancestors-knows-what out there!

  Sam tried to rein in her frustration, but the more she thought about her situation, the more she wanted to punch something. Instead of doing what was right, what was needed, she was running around, chasing her tail.

  Willing herself not to punch anything, Sam hoisted herself from her bed and dug into her duffel bag, pulling out a fresh shirt. She stripped from the soiled one and replaced it with her favorite t-shirt—gray with print stating “Free Bates” splashed across the chest.

  Sam had just returned from the bathroom and began to shift her belongings from the duffel bag to the footlocker when a knock interrupted her efforts.

  “Yes?”

  Philip poked his head in, checking on her activities, before stepping in.

  “You look better,” Sam said before he could speak.

  “I hear I was pretty bad off. And that I have you to thank for my continued health.”

  Sam blushed, shaking her head. “You saved me. Least I could do in return.”

  “Sam, look at me,” Werner ordered as he knelt before the footlocker—the only thing between them. “What did you promise in return for your brother’s healing power?”

  Sam pushed a little smile to her lips. “Nothing big. We’re just going to have to stop by my parents place before we go to my training tonight.”

  “Don’t lie to me. What was the promise?”

  “Dave is being poisoned. My brother wants me to find out who’s doing it.”

  “Poisoned? Like Mrs. Newberry.”

  “I suspect so.”

  “Meaning by Joe, the drug dealer. Who is dead.”

  Sam bit down on her bottom lip. “You heard about that.” It wasn’t a question. It was obvious he had.

  “Yes. Halstead talked to me some last night, or rather this morning, I should say.”

  “Yes, Joe is dead.”

  Philip ground his teeth together. “So, if they have a stockpile of the poison…”

  “There is nothing we can do for Mrs. Newberry… or Dave.”

  “Did you tell your brother this?”

  Sam shook his head. “He wouldn’t have saved your life.”

  “Sam, what are you going to do when he learns you might not be able to save your father’s life?”

  “He is not my father!”

  Werner let out a long-suffering sigh. “You may have separated that man from the role of a father, but to your brother that man is still your father. Can’t you see that? To him, he will always be your father; therefore to him, you have abandoned him and your family.”

  “You think I’ve abandoned my family?”

  “I didn’t say that. I’m trying to help you see it from your brother’s point of view, and I’m trying to help you see how your brother is going to take it when you tell him you can’t save the man who, for most of your life, was your father.”

  “You mean the man who beat me and told me I was worse than nothing?” grumbled Sam, her bottom lip beginning to tremble against her will.

  Philip shrugged. “I never said he was a good father.”

/>   Sam suddenly chuckled, choking on her unshed tears.

  “You shouldn’t have made that promise, Sam. The doctors would have seen me through it. I know you don’t think much of our human ways, but our docs really are quite skilled.”

  Sam didn’t laugh at his joke. She couldn’t even smile. “You didn’t hear them, Philip. You didn’t see your wounds. You didn’t smell your flesh burning. You didn’t hear it crackling, sizzling, even after I put the fire out. You weren’t conscious for hours as we waited to be found, trapped under the rubble. You weren’t left alone, thinking we were going to die, with no one to talk to, slowly dying of dehydration.”

  Sam knew the tears had leaked from her eyes, but she couldn’t stop them, not now that they had started and the images of the previous night had returned. Werner grabbed the edge of the footlocker and shoved it aside in one swift move before scooting forward on his knees. Sam watched his gestures in wonder, completely at a loss for what he was doing until his strong arms wrapped around her.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “I didn’t know. I didn’t realize.”

  After a few minutes, Sam gave a mighty sniffle against his shoulder, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She had just left wet marks on a soldier’s olive green t-shirt. Slowly, she pulled away, afraid to see the judgement on his features. To her amazement, there was nothing but gentle concern.

  “We were in the rubble for hours?”

  She nodded as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “I finally heard them calling for us, once they got close enough, but I’d lost my voice from the smoke. So I couldn’t call back.”

  “How’d they find us?”

  “I banged a pipe against the stairwell.”

  “A pipe, but wouldn’t that be metal?”

  Sam nodded.

  He pulled her into another embrace. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  She shook her head against his shoulder, not trusting her voice. Once again, Sam pulled away from Werner’s embrace. If she stayed in his arms, she would do something even more embarrassing than cry.

  “I’m okay,” she said, willing it to be true.

  He smiled at her, not calling her out on the lie. “I didn’t know you liked Downton Abbey,” he said, pointing to her shirt and changing the subject.