Page 58 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)
Nathan could no longer feel Walter. His eyes went to Wade and Cam as they sat up, and Cam slowly transformed human again. Wade had seen. She was staring at her brother’s body as Jim gathered the boy into his lap, the body limp and so obviously dead. Sasha stared as he moved to stand beside Nathan.
The same mist as before poured from Leven’s throat, trying to escape, but Jim was ready for it this time. He had no trouble catching the sidhe with his powers and holding it still now that it no longer had a human host protecting it.
“Not so powerful alone, are you?” Jim said coldly at the mist swirling above him.
“So now you’re going to listen. Go to the contract holder and tell them you have us waiting and ready to be snatched up.
Make sure they know to come for us…or I’ll come for you .
” Then Jim’s fingers curled as if clutching at the spriggan’s invisible throat.
Nathan saw his brother’s blue eyes flash slit amber with power, then the mist flew toward Sasha and vanished just before it struck him. Sasha blinked in awe.
“What did you do …?” Wade accused, dashing full sprint for her brother in Jim’s arms as she came fully alert and realized Leven wasn’t breathing.
Nathan didn’t want to look. He still couldn’t believe his brother had done that—that he even could do that. Cam moved to stand behind Wade, stunned. Yet Jim remained strangely calm.
“If I can stop his heart…” Jim said, lifting a hand that crackled with electricity again. He looked down at Leven’s open eyes and brought his charged hand to the boy’s chest with a shock. “Then I can start it again.”
The first jolt did not start Leven’s heart, or the second, but the third ended in a great gasp as he was brought back to consciousness. Brought back to life .
Jim brought Leven back to life.
Wade dove for her brother and clung, the poor boy coughing and sucking in air as he looked around him with wide eyes.
Nathan gasped as if he’d been holding his breath. Each one of them had played a role in bringing the spriggan down, in getting it out of Leven and saving the boy, but Jim had taken the largest risk.
When Nathan looked to his brother and found tears freely streaking down his face, he knew Jim had acted with faith that he really could bring Leven back. Faith wasn’t something they had much of these days, so Nathan decided to consider it a good thing.
“Good job, Jimmy,” he said, blinking back tears of his own.
Jim looked at him…and smiled.
They took Wade and Leven to the hospital.
Leven turned out to be miraculously unharmed, but Wade had a concussion from her encounter with unconsciousness and was asked to stay the night.
They slept in stray hospital chairs in the waiting room, with no one minding their presence enough to kick them out.
Leven stayed in Wade’s room, and didn’t say more than a few words to any of them other than, “I’m sorry. ”
Nathan couldn’t really sleep, partly from the less than comfortable accommodations, and also because of everything that had happened. He was pleased to see that he was the only one suffering from this affliction, however, and slipped off down a stray hallway as soon as Sasha and Jim were asleep.
He walked and walked, making sure that his general direction was always away from Jim, and once he was certain he was also away from any patrolling nurses or open rooms, he found a window to lean against and whispered, “Walt?”
Walter appeared beside him, flickering only for a moment before he remained solid. “Yes, Nathan? You really should get some rest.”
Nathan frowned but said nothing. He stared at Walter with furrowed brow, waiting for his Spirit Guide to get with the program. He might have dismissed the feeling of being held up by Walter when he fell from the catwalk, but he knew he’d felt Walter’s hand—really felt it.
Eventually, Walter broke eye contact, glancing out the window instead. “I don’t know what to tell you, Nathan. Often I am afforded just as few answers as I am able to give you. I don’t know how I’ve been able to…touch more recently, but I’ve noticed it for some time now.”
“Faust?” Nathan prompted, recalling the moment he’d killed the man. “I wasn’t strong enough to out-muscle him, but somehow I found the strength…almost like someone was pushing my arm forward.”
Walter’s eyes drifted to the floor.
“I took it for adrenaline then, didn’t even think about it. That was you? The catwalk too?”
“Even before then,” Walter said, “though more subtly until now.”
“And you don’t know why?”
Walter sighed, and his warm brown eyes, glowing unnaturally in the dark hallway, met Nathan’s gaze.
“I know there is purpose to it, purpose that will be revealed to me as is necessary. It isn’t the place of a Spirit Guide to intervene directly, you know that.
But Nathan…you are different. You are special.
And something is happening to me, to prepare me, for what you will need of me someday. ”
Nathan blinked at Walter dumbly. “But I…I’m no hero, Walt. I’m no one special.”
“Nathan, you are surrounded by special, unique individuals, and so you assume, because of all they can do, you are lesser, but you’re wrong. What you can do will be something so much more than the use of power or supernatural abilities.”
Questions surged within Nathan, more than what had been answered.
He flinched when Walter raised a hand toward his arm and, for a moment, Nathan felt it—he could feel the warmth of Walter’s hand through his shirt, resting on his shoulder.
He could feel the weight. He could feel Walter standing beside him, when before his Spirit Guide had only ever been a ghost. Walter looked at Nathan and smiled as if the simple act of being able to touch his shoulder was more than he would ever ask for.
Then he vanished.
“Excuse me, sir? Are you all right?”
Nathan spun around. A nurse had snuck up on him from down the hallway. “Uhh…I was just…praying.” He shrugged, smiling helplessly, which at least matched how he felt. “Couldn’t find the chapel.”
The nurse smiled. She was older, maybe even over retirement age, but had a strong resolve about her that said she’d work until the day she dropped.
She nodded. “Of course, dear. The chapel’s on the other side of the building, so you’re welcome to continue as you are.
Might want to whisper more though. People’ll think you’re talking to yourself.
” She nodded to him with a wider smile before turning back down the hallway.
Sometimes Nathan still wondered if he was talking to himself when Walter appeared, but having felt him, having actually felt his touch…
Nathan had so many questions, but he knew he wouldn’t get any solid answers, so he simply whispered, “Thanks, Walt. Keep up the good work. I just hope I’m worth it.”