Knowledge Hurts

Chapter 2: Healing

Chapter 2: HealingIt was a relief to find werewolves, vampires, shape shifters and one lone wizard getting along agreeably when I left the bathroom. At least they weren't trying to kill one another. Nick and Conal's men had spread themselves out amongst the beds, caring for our patients and I saw Nonny and Jerome leaning over Acenith, carefully cleaning the ragged stumps where her fingers had been hacked off. My stomach churned and I looked away. “Shower's free,” I called out, stepping down from the altar.

“Yes!” Marco shouted gleefully. He snatched up a pile of clothes from the end of one of the beds but Nick stopped him with a pointed glare. “I can wait,” he muttered, looking a little disenchanted. “Conal, you can go first.”

I knew it was some sort of pack hierarchy at work but I grinned at Marco. “There's more than one shower, Marco. In fact, there's enough for all of you. Go get cleaned up.”

Marco joyfully collected up his clothes again after seeing Nick nod his assent and the men exited the room in the race for a hot shower.

Conal passed me at the altar and smiled reassuringly. “You alright, Sugar?” he asked in a low murmur. He knew me too well. Although rescuing the Tines was something we'd talked about repeatedly in the past few weeks, having them here was creating a ferocious apprehension that I hadn't been prepared for. Explaining my relationship with Conal to Lucas was going to be more difficult than I'd ever envisaged. Recreating ties with my friends was going to be complicated.

“Yeah, I'm okay.” I swallowed nervously, brushing my still damp hair behind my ears.

Conal brushed a soft kiss against my cheek. “It's going to be fine, he'll understand.” He threw me a wink and disappeared into the bathroom.

I stepped down from the altar and approached the beds slowly. The men were tucked beneath the sheets, leaning back against pillows. The women had loose hospital gowns to cover their nudity and give them a degree of reassurance in trying conditions.

Jerome drew me to one side. “They're in a bad way, Charlotte. It'll take weeks for them to recover from these injuries, even if I could set up an intravenous line and feed them blood twenty four hours a day, it'd take weeks to heal the damage they've sustained. Nick tells me a lot of these injuries were caused by silver…” He trailed off, shaking his head in disgust. “Never dreamed it could affect vampires in this way, thought that was a myth, but here we are…” He stared down at me, his expression somber. “Nick says you can help them. If you can, you need to be doing it now. Vampire physiology is different, but they're in serious trouble and their bodies are in shock. I can't suggest what will happen if we don't do something soon.”

“Tell me where to start, Jerome. I'll do my best.”

He eyed me for a long moment, his grey eyes serious. “Let's start with the ladies first. That's what Lucas will insist on anyways.” He limped towards Acenith's bed and Nonny moved to one side so I could see Acenith's ravaged face. Her eyes were wide and glazed, pain shadowing her pretty features. Her hand had been carefully cleaned and rested against a soft pillow.

“Hey, Acenith,” I greeted her quietly, brushing my fingers across her forehead.

“Charlotte…” Acenith croaked weakly.

“Don't speak,” I cautioned her. “Just let me try to help you.”

She nodded feebly and shut her eyes, too exhausted and overwhelmed to do anything else. Nonny had given her a careful sponge-bath, as much as was possible in her current traumatized state. I wanted to cry as I looked at the dreadful disfigurement covering her cheek, where holy water had been dribbled until her face resembled a melting candle.

Nonny patted my arm and gave it an encouraging squeeze. “You can do this, Lottie.” She slipped away and headed towards Rowena's bed where Epi waited for her with a fresh bowl of water and clean towels. I watched them for a minute, saw them gently washing the accumulated grime and dirt from Rowena's abused body.

“Lottie.” Jerome brought my attention back to the here and now.

Drawing the Hjördis from my pocket, I ran a careful eye over Acenith, trying to decide where to start. “Jesus,” I muttered under my breath, not sure how to handle this. They were all so incredibly damaged - injuries which didn't come under a classification of either blood or poison.

Jerome squeezed my shoulder and I nearly snapped at him, until I saw the empathy in his eyes. “I know it's tough, Lottie, but you need to focus. One thing at a time, it's all you can do.”

After a quick discussion with the spirits, I began to work, their gentle murmurs soothing. The sigils were ones I hadn't known before, but I trusted their advice. I drew an intricate sigil on the back of Acenith's hand, close to where her fingers had been so cruelly amputated. I didn't realize she'd opened her eyes until I heard a sharp intake of breath and found her staring as the stumps began to glow. We watched as new fingers began to extend from the shattered bone remains. As knuckles and joints were created, a layer of muscle and tendons followed, wrapping around the bone before the skin followed, carefully molding itself around fingers. Then fingernails formed, perfectly shaped and evenly trimmed. The skin glowed for a few seconds more as it knit over itself at the tips of her fingers, then slowly dissipated, leaving us staring at her hand in open-mouthed disbelief.

“Holy mother of God…” Jerome gasped. He lifted her hand, requesting she wriggle her fingers and make a fist to confirm she had full movement. “Did that hurt?”

“Non,” Acenith whispered, still staring at her hand as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. “It was warm and I felt… a tingle, but no pain. Like épingles et aiguilles…pins and needles.”

I continued to work, leaning over her arm. The silver burns proved easier than I'd expected - the spirits identified the need for poison sigils because silver acted like toxin to a vampire. On the down side, they were also harder to deal with, because of the sheer number of them. We rapidly discovered a sigil could heal only a small amount of the damage before it faded and required repeating. It was going to be a long, time-consuming haul to repair all the damage. By the time I'd completed the poison sigils on Acenith's battered body, the men had started returning from the showers. Rafe headed towards us and brushed his fingers tenderly across Acenith's matted hair. “How's she doing?”

“Getting there,” I muttered, as I conferred with the spirits regarding the holy water burns to her face. “Do you want to sit with her?”

Rafe grinned. “Nah, I'll leave that for Ripley when he's feeling better.”

I glanced up. “I thought…”

“Your plan worked,” Acenith whispered hoarsely. “Ripley and I,” she glanced across the room to where Ripley lay, her eyes filled with affection, “are together.”

I smiled happily. “I'm so pleased for you both.” Aware this situation might be awkward, I slanted my gaze to Rafe, wondering how he felt about Acenith and Ripley.

Rafe took Acenith's hand and squeezed her fingers, winking at me as he did so. “Acenith's a good friend. She asked me to help out and I did.”

A giggle erupted from my chest. “It was all a set-up?”

Rafe nodded. “Somebody needed to give Ripley a good kick up the a*s so he'd see what was right in front of him.”

Jerome returned from Lucas's bedside, his forehead creased in the almost perpetual frown he'd sported since we'd arrived. “I've spoken to Lucas, I'm worried about how much blood we can get into some of our patients,” he glanced at Acenith, who'd lain back against the pillows with her eyes shut, exhausted after our small talk. “I want to intubate those who are struggling to feed from the bottles.”

“We can do that?”

Jerome shrugged, the motion non-committal. “Can't feed them intravenously, but a nasogastric tube might do the trick. Intubate through the nose, directly into the stomach and feed them blood from bags. Lucas thinks it should be achievable.”

“Okay, let's do it,” I agreed easily.

“Charlotte, we won't have enough blood to keep up with demand,” Jerome warned. “You obviously didn't know how dire things would be and you don't have enough supplies to last out.”

“We'll get more,” Rafe announced, releasing his gentle grip on Acenith's hand. “How much do you need?”

“A lot,” Jerome admitted, glancing around the room and mentally calculating. “Given their injuries, we're looking at probably… eight to twelve pints apiece over the next twenty four to thirty six hours.”

Rafe was already moving, calling to Nick and Ralph who'd returned from the showers and they conferred for a few minutes in the corner. Nick strode over a few minutes later, his gaze taking in the work I'd already done with Acenith. “We're heading out to get blood. Be back as soon as we can.”

“You won't…” I began but Nick interrupted.

“We know the rules, Lott.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Keep working. We'll get what you need.”

Jerome bustled about, preparing to intubate Acenith while I gingerly approached her face. If this failed… I shuddered at the thought. They'd all received injuries from holy water, but to see Acenith's beautiful face so hideously disfigured… I was terrified I couldn't fix it. Would she be scarred like this forever?

Epi bustled across as I wavered in indecision, his owl-like eyes examining her injuries. “You have done well, child, but why are you hesitating now?”

I swallowed. “Her face… if this doesn't work…”

“She will still thank you for saving her life,” Epi announced. “Go on with your work and stop vacillating. Others are in need of your assistance.”

He hurried off again and I rolled my eyes. “Old bastard,” I muttered under my breath.

Jerome snorted and didn't bother to hide the amusement in his gray eyes. “Looks like you've got two of us to deal with now.”

Acenith's eyes fluttered open and she gazed at me for a moment, her usually sea-green eyes faded and listless. “Your friend is right,” she murmured. “I will thank you, regardless of whether I am completely healed or not. I have faith in you, Charlotte.” Her eyes closed again, her lashes creating dark fans against her too-white cheeks.

I licked my lips and did what I'd been told - stopped vacillating. With final verification from the spirits, I drew the sigil they'd recommended on Acenith's cheek, shuddering when my hand came into contact with the wax-like rivulets of skin running down her cheek like a gruesome living candle. Stepping back, I held my breath and watched. I noticed Jerome had also stopped and was watching Acenith's distorted features with undisguised interest.

Her eyes opened and she gasped, inhaling sharply as the damage on her cheek glowed and began to flatten and smooth out, the streams of damaged tissue integrating as though they were being melted into place by a hot iron. It took a few minutes, but by the time the sigil had vanished, so had the damage.

Jerome brushed his fingertips across the smooth skin, as if he couldn't believe it was real without physical touch. “Did that hurt?” he questioned bluntly.

Acenith shook her head minutely. “No, it was… again… a warm, a tingling sensation.” With a visible tremble in her fingers, she carefully touched her cheek and her eyes widened in astonishment.

I grinned broadly and whooped with delight, before encasing Acenith in a gentle hug. “Get some rest, I'll be back to visit later.”