Page 32 of Healer’s Reckoning (The Healer’s #3)

Cha pter 32

Ava

He pulls back suddenly. I can tell from his instant change in demeanor that something’s wrong. “Get inside the packhouse.” Before I can even compute what’s happening, he’s pulling me from the car. He grabs my hand and pulls me into a run back to the pack house. Somebody throws the door open, and we run inside.

“What’s going—”

“Intruders on pack land,” Bryce cuts off my question even as he pulls me down the hallway. There are more people showing up and surrounding us as we run down the hallway.

“My brother,” I gasp out.

“Cody’s getting him to a safe place.”

Seconds later, Alicia holds the door open for those of us coming in hot. “Let’s go; let’s go!” she shouts. I pause, unsure what’s happening. “I’ve got her, Alpha. Go!” Bryce turns to me. His face is a mask of cold; he’s definitely in alpha mode. The way his eyes are moving, I figure he’s probably giving orders to his pack a mile a minute. I don’t want to keep him a moment longer; his pack needs him.

“Be safe, Bryce. I’m fine.”

He stares down at me for a moment. “Stay next to Alicia.”

“I will. Go.”

He’s gone a second later, racing back down the hallway we just came from. “Let’s go,” Alica urges me. She looks out one last time, and then pulls the door shut and pushes a red button. A series of locks engage, and she pushes me towards a set of stairs. I head down the stairs and take in the group gathered—the youngest and oldest and most fragile in the pack. Alicia looks around a moment and helps everybody get settled.

I notice right away that Bryce’s parents aren’t here. “What about Bryce’s parents?” I follow Alicia and ask.

Without turning back to me, she answers. “They have their own safe room in their home, like most of those who don’t live here in the packhouse have.” She turns to face me. “They’ll be safe.” She rolls her eyes. “I mean, our former alpha will probably be out there anyway to see what the threat is.”

“What exactly is the threat?” I continue to follow her as she makes her rounds.

“We don’t know yet.”

She’s lying to me; I can tell by the way she looked away from me. A sick feeling settles in my gut. I tug on her arm, forcing her to face me. “It’s vampires, isn’t it?” I mouth the words because I know everybody in here can hear incredibly well.

“I don’t know anything for certain yet.”

She pulls away from me and pulls out a pack of water bottles and starts to pass them out. I help her. When there’s nothing left to do, I find a chair to sit in and wait. I wrap my arms around myself, trying to stay warm in the cold basement; but it doesn’t really help. I’m not sure if I’ll feel warm again, not after tonight. I feel sick. If the vampires are here, that means they’re here for me. I wonder how many of Bryce’s pack are going to get wounded or worse tonight because of me. I lean forward as my stomach cramps painfully. Out of nowhere, the words that Ajax told me when I was with the vampires come back to haunt me. Once you healers are mated, you’re of no use. I feel like I’m going to be sick. What if I would have had Bryce claim me? I mean, we’re not even close to that...but if I had, would the vampires not be attacking now? Would I be useless to them? Would taking Brandon again be pointless because they could no longer use him as leverage to get to me? Guilt comes on hard and fast. I stand up and start to pace, as much as I can in this small space. “Anything yet?” I ask Alicia. She shakes her head and turns back to the woman she’s helping, and I go back to my pacing. Time ceases to exist while we wait. I ask Alicia three more times for an update. But either she really doesn’t know, or she’s keeping me in the dark.

I’ve paced this place at least a hundred times when Alica suddenly jumps up and runs up the steps. I start up after her, but a woman puts her hand on my arm. “Wait, Child.”

I can’t see what’s happening at the top; but when Alicia comes down backwards, I realize she’s helping to carry a person. There’s another guy holding the other end of the male shifter. I stare at the man. He’s got blood pooling from a wound in his neck and more from somewhere under his shirt. I’m aware of voices, but they seem so far away. Then somebody shakes me. Hard.

“Ava!” I blink. Alicia is in my face. “Snap out of it. You're a healer. Heal him before he bleeds out. His wolf won’t be able to heal him fast enough.” I hear her words, but it takes a moment for them to register.

Panic fills me. I shake my head. “I can’t...I haven’t done enough...I don’t know what I’m doing...”

“ Ava, you’re a healer! For all that’s holy, heal him!” She grabs my arm and yanks me towards the man. I stumble, and she shoves me down next to the man. I stare at the blood pooling around his throat and can see the light fading from his eyes, but I can’t move.

“ Child.” Two hands enclose mine. “You were created to heal. Do not fear; do not doubt yourself. But if you do not do it now, this man will die. Can you handle the weight of that?”

Don’t doubt yourself. I don’t listen to the voice screaming in my head that I don’t know what I’m doing. I take a deep breath and then reach out and put my hands on the man’s neck. I refuse to turn squeamish when my hands slip on his blood. Just send healing power into his body. It will work. It will work. I repeat my mantra to myself over and over and over again. It takes a little bit, but the blood spilling out begins to slow down. And the wound begins to knit itself together. As soon as it’s healed, I turn to his other wound. I pull on his shirt, but it won’t budge.

“His shirt needs to come off,” I say. Somebody rips it away, and a second later, I see the man’s bare chest. I put my hands on the deep laceration a few inches below his heart and begin my same mantra. It will heal. It will heal. This wound also begins to close in front of me.

“Next one, Ava.” I think it’s Alicia that says it, but I can’t be sure. I turn to the next body. This one already has the shirt gone. This one’s injuries are not as severe as the first one, but he still has to be healed or he risks going into shock. I begin to heal the first of three chest lacerations. The next victim is a female. She’s got a vicious bite in her neck. It takes a little longer to heal. I’m in the middle of healing it when I hear a ruckus.

“Get him to the healer now!”

There’s a lot of noise, and a shifter is almost dropped in front of me. Somebody screams, and there’s an uproar around me. Everything seems to fade far away as I stare in horror at Cody’s mangled body. His head is almost completely detached from his body. I still hear screaming, and that’s what pulls me from my shock. Alicia is on her hands and knees next to Cody, all-out screaming. Clarity somehow finds me in that moment. If I don’t do this, Cody will be dead in seconds. I don’t even know if I can save him. “Alicia, either help or get out of the way,” I yell over her screaming. I give her a solid push. “Stop and help me.”

I drop to my knees above his head, so that my knees bracket his head. I try to line it up as best as I can and will myself not to think about anything but healing him. Otherwise, I’m liable to throw up all over him. “Alicia, hold his head stable,” I order. I don’t wait to see if she’s going to listen. I don’t have time. I put my hands on the mangled ruins of his neck, wondering if this is even possible. I can’t look away because of the delicacy of this one. But I repeat my mantra over and over again in my head. This will work. It will heal.

I don’t know how long I’m in the healing state; it feels like hours. My back is screaming, my legs are both asleep, and I have a pounding headache; but still, I don’t release my hold or stop. I closed my eyes some time ago, when the pieces start reattaching. I haven’t looked now for a while, because I don’t want to know if I still have a long ways to go. I keep telling myself it’s almost over and hope it’s true. I feel the edges of full burnout coming; it’s never happened to me before but Sage explained in detail what it was like, so we healers would know what to expect. I’ve felt if for a little while now but still push on. Black dots start to crowd my vision, and I know I don’t have much longer. I dig deep to send the rest of what I have into Cody, hoping it will be enough. It will be enough; it has to be enough. I start to slump forward, and I jerk back. I can’t give in now; I don’t even know if Bryce and everybody else is okay.

I hear commotion on the stairs behind me but can’t turn around. Somebody puts their hands over my own and pulls them away slowly. I fight to keep them there, even though I can no longer see what I’m doing. “It’s enough; he’s okay.”

I try to force my eyes open to check for sure that Cody really is okay, but I can’t. My eyes feel weighted down, and I can no longer hold myself up. My last thought is to wonder if Bryce is still alive.

The next thing I know, I hear a voice I recognize but can’t quite place. ... “Burnout? What’s that mean?”

The voice is hard and demanding, and I know I recognize it. It’s right there, but it fades away before I can wrap my mind around it.

The next time I try to wake up, it feels like my eyelids are glued to my eyes. I finally manage to open them but immediately shut them. My entire body feels like somebody took a sledgehammer to it. I wince and try to swallow, but even that hurts. “Easy,” somebody says. I feel a hand on my forehead, and it helps me relax. “Just take your time,” the low voice continues. “Your body will wake up when it’s ready; don’t rush it.” With those words that somehow seem to soothe the deepest parts of my soul, I relax and slip right back into the waiting darkness.

The next time I open my eyes, I do it without nearly as much difficulty. I blink up at the ceiling and take in my surroundings. I recognize my room at Bryce’s. I turn my head and see a chair next to my bed, but it’s empty. I turn my head towards the door and pick up on the sound of low voices. I can’t hear what’s being said, but I can hear the angry undertones. Whoever is talking is not happy. I think about getting out of bed to figure out what’s wrong, but just the simple feat of sitting up is exhausting. I finally manage to get my legs over the side of the bed and put feet on the floor. After a moment, I push off from the bed and stand still a moment. I take a step, and the world immediately tilts around me. The floor comes rushing up at me but strong arms catch me before my face crashes into the floor.