So in the small, windowless panic room of the secured warehouse-where Micah busied himself in the early hours with stabilizing Vanessa-Hunter and Felix had gathered the supplies needed to turn it into the strangest one-person, mini-E.R. I’d ever seen.
“Wow.” I knew I should be more attentive to the room’s sole patient, and possibly more discreet about my awe, but the giant, clear Plexiglas tank positioned in the center of the room wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen. I bent over, peering inside, to see Vanessa’s silhouette suspended in a baby blue substance more viscous than water, air bubbles caught mid-rise. The room’s dim lighting couldn’t filter fully through the thick gelatinous substance, but I could see well enough to follow the length of her left calf to where it abruptly ended in a stump. There were bones growing from it, but they were newly formed and too small for her body, more like the talons on a bird of prey. Obviously there was still a ways to go before the foot fully regenerated. Straightening, I turned my attention to her head, which had received most of the destruction.
She looked like she’d been hit by a wrecking ball, eyes so swollen her irises were almost rimmed in red, newly grown right ear and nose tomato red, so the pigment didn’t yet match the rest of her face. This was actually preferable since the rest of her face was an unsightly mass of bruises and swollen tissue, and though she smiled, she did so with a mouth that looked overly stuffed with cotton.
Of course, the worst damage had been delivered to her skull. Drake had partially scalped her while cutting her hair, and though the skin was already healed, her entire head had to be shaved down to nothing so her beautiful mahogany curls could grow back in evenly. Though she couldn’t move much, she tilted her head slightly on her neck cushion, and rolled her eyes in my direction. “I’m not quite there yet, though my tongue has grown back nicely.”
No complaint, no anger, no blame. I clenched my jaw to hold back tears.
“More’s the shame,” Felix said, stroking the side of her head. It was the only part of her body not submerged in the gooey blue substance.
“Shut up, honey,” she said lightly, then stuck out her tongue in demonstration. “No taste buds yet, though. It feels like I gargled with habaneros.”
“That’s because you’re not drinking your reparative. I don’t care if it does taste like moldy ash.”
“Tekla!” I hugged our troop’s Seer before either of us expected it. I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t seen her since the battle in Chinatown. “Oh my God, you made it. How’d you escape the Tulpa?”
She’d been so focused, I remembered now. Her small features drawn tight on her face, like a balloon pinched together in the center. Though I’d long learned not to underestimate Tekla due to her small stature-a bird’s foot would fit better on her tidy frame-her ability to single-handedly hold off the Tulpa using nothing but her imagination and will had been outstanding.
“You were amazing,” I said, indulging in a bit of my own hero worship.
She shrugged, but I could tell she was pleased, if surprised, by my reaction. Maybe she was just used to people who were used to her. I was still new enough to this world that I recognized unusual martial skill when I saw it.
“No, really.” I touched her arm, forcing her to look at me. “You amaze me.”
She actually blushed at that.
And speaking of amazing talents…“Where’s Micah?”
“Resting in the crow’s nest,” Vanessa said, her swollen tongue giving her a bit of a lisp. “He’s been working on me nonstop.”
“And he’ll have my hide if I don’t continue to do the same.” Holding a glass in one hand, Tekla cupped Vanessa’s chin in the other and gently tilted it back. I sniffed. Water, herbs, and some sort of chalky substance I didn’t recognize.
“Not too much,” Tekla murmured, pulling the drink away. “You’re still healing on the inside too.”
“What exactly are you lying in?” I asked, bending over again.
“Sanative gel, shot with numbing cream. I’d never be able to sit still, much less manage lucidity without it.”
Frowning, I straightened. “Vanessa, I’m so sorry.”
She made a sound, halting me from speaking further. “Felix told me you’d say that. When are you going to learn? A battle-born death is always written in the stars, Jo.”
Yeah, I thought wryly, but the handwriting had been a little sloppy this time. “Then I’m happy it wasn’t meant to be.”
“And speaking of fates,” Tekla said, “Felix, if you’ll excuse us?”
Felix and I stared at her, both surprised by this abrupt, and obvious, dismissal. His need to argue-to stay put and protect and just be with Vanessa-slipped from him in waves, almost as visible as a bright pulse from a lighthouse. But Tekla raised her brows, and he finally nodded and left.
“He’s worried about you,” I told Vanessa, her gaze following him until he disappeared.
“He’s been so sweet.” She lowered her eyes and swallowed hard. “I hate for him to see me this way.”
I frowned. “You were ambushed by an entire Shadow troop. He’s not going to think anything less of you for succumbing to that.”
“No, I mean…” She ducked her head so it reminded me of a turtle retreating into its shell. In this case a very blue, viscous shell. “I mean, I look awful. Silly, huh?”
“Oh.” I was taken aback but tried not to show it. “No. It makes sense.”
She sniffed. “No, it doesn’t. I mean, all the things they did to me, and you know what I keep thinking?”
I shook my head.
“When’s my hair going to grow back?” Her voice cracked.
“It’s only because you know it’s going to take the longest to return to normal,” Tekla said reasonably. Worrying about a haircut after surviving a brutal attack wasn’t reasonable, but it was understandable.
“It’s okay,” I added, forcing a smile. “I would too, if I had your hair.”
But watching her nod, I knew it wasn’t okay. Like those men who threw acid in the faces of women who rejected them, this mutilation had been extremely personal, and of course it was designed to shame. However, unlike those mortal victims, Vanessa would blessedly heal from her injuries.
Even no-nonsense Tekla had to respond to the self-pity filling the room like waterlogged roses. At least, she tried. “Micah can make you a gorgeous hairpiece in the meantime. Nobody will know the difference.”
Vanessa closed her eyes, but a tear slipped out anyway. Sensing her embarrassment along with her sorrow, I changed the subject. It’s what I would have wanted. “So, why did we just get rid of Felix?”
“Because there are some things you can explain over and again to a man,” Tekla said, “and he still won’t understand.”
Vanessa sniffed. “Like the hair thing.”
I nodded. Because a head understanding was different from a heart understanding. I expected there were times the reverse was true as well.
“Like how you need to arm yourself differently when entering a world where women rule.” Tekla smiled as my head predictably shot up.
Even Vanessa managed a small grin. “Look, even threats of a scalping won’t deter her,” she said to Tekla, about me. “The girl does love a fight.”
“There won’t be any scalping in Midheaven. Women fight differently…in any world.”
“You don’t say,” I said dryly, thinking of Regan DuPree. Shadow agent. Leo. Bitch.
Regan had most often eschewed a direct martial approach, at least in dealing with me, taking a circuitous path instead by attacking those I loved. Fortunately, she was no longer an issue. A rogue was utterly alone. She was also a walking advertisement for skin grafts gone bad, because when the Tulpa discovered the deception, he’d raked the skin from her body in wounds that would never heal. I might have felt bad about this except that she’d once gotten me captured, tortured, and nearly killed by my greatest enemy. She’d also slept with my boyfriend.