as it leeched the poisons, i noticed the silver-hued veins in her skin lighten until they looked just as healthy as the surrounding tissue. in fact, her flesh began knitting itself together before he'd even removed the tube. before i could point this out, however, he smoothly withdrew it and moved to the next wound. sweat dripped down my face and it wasn't because i felt squeamish. the pain in my own injuries had increased substantially. what had started as a sharp throbbing now felt like fire. i tore one of the bullet holes in my pants a bit wider and grimaced at the bluish-black color of the skin beneath.

devon looked where i was looking and drew in a deep breath. "good heavens! we should tend to that straight away."

i shook my head. "no, let's finish elyssa."

he glanced back at the darkening skin around her wounds and back to mine, obviously torn about which patient to work on first. "perhaps we should do yours first."

"do you have anyone else who can do this? an assistant?"

"no, and even if i did, i have only one extractor and one cleanser. the wound must be purged right after removing the bullet so the flesh doesn't try to heal and seal the poison inside."

"we finish elyssa then."

he returned an uncertain look but finally nodded and returned his attention to her.

lina returned as i placed the clamp over the darkening wound in elyssa's thigh. in her left hand, she held a jar filled with what had to be blood. "how's it going?" she asked, resting her hand on my shoulder.

for some reason, i felt hyper-aware of her hand and the heat radiating from it, though i wasn't exactly uncomfortable enough to ask her to unhand me or anything. my body had no complaints about a cute girl touching me, but my conscience had trouble with it, especially with my unconscious girlfriend right in front of me. sweat trickled down my forehead, coming to rest in a bead at the tip of my nose.

"smoothly," devon said. "but we are on a time limit here. the silver poisoning is spreading further with every moment and each wound will take much longer to clear than the last."

"what about justin?" lina said, her mouth open in disapproval. "why aren't you helping him first?" her eyes grew wide as she examined the blistering gash on my leg. "madre de dios! look at him!" she knelt and gently touched the skin. "why have you not removed this?"

devon sighed and, while extracting the bullet from elyssa's leg, explained in patient tones what he and i had just discussed. he inserted the tube into the wound. the last time it had removed watery blood. this time, the blood came out thicker and almost purple. it smelled like death. lina made a choking noise and backed away. it took almost twice as long before the skin looked healthy enough to heal on its own.

elyssa's breathing, which to this point had been quiet, burst into a shallow fluttery cadence, each gasp carrying a desperate note with it. her body shuddered and her hand gripped the edge of the cot so hard, the metal crumpled.

"what's happening?" i asked, trying to hold her still.

devon's calm demeanor transformed into that of a battlefield commander under fire. "lina, get me some diamond fiber, now!"

she raced from the room. he looked at me. "get her off the cot and onto the floor before she breaks that thing in half."

fighting against my own agony, i lifted her so he could slide the cot away and then set her down on the rug. one of her flailing hands smacked me in the face and a galaxy of stars burst into my eyes as i stumbled backward from my squatting position and cracked my head on the chair behind me.

lina returned with several thick crystalline strands of diamond fiber. the healer instructed me to hold elyssa down while he secured her extremities. her entire body abruptly went limp and my heart thudded against my ribs like a lead hammer.

"what happened? is she okay?" my chest constricted with panic. the oxygen seemed to have vanished from the air and i could hardly breathe.

"tie her down," devon commanded to lina.

she tossed a couple strands to him and, within seconds, they immobilized elyssa's arms and legs by pressing the diamond fiber to the floor where it seemed to meld into it.

nausea poured into my guts like molten vomit and the taste of acid splashed against the back of my throat. "is she okay?" my words came out thick and i couldn't hold myself in a sitting position any longer. tears of pain or worry-i didn't know which-obscured my vision.

"justin!" lina said.

"help me, girl," devon said, glancing back at me. "help me now, or we'll lose both of them."

"oh my," said another familiar voice. i looked up into bella's concerned face. "can i help, devon?"

he spoke to her, his voice clear as ever, but for some reason, i couldn't hold onto his words. couldn't make sense of what he was saying. a dull roar, like distant ocean waves crashing against a rocky shore rumbled in my ears and i felt my mind drifting away.

i fought against the oncoming oblivion, but the strength in my body melted away like butter on hot asphalt. lina's face appeared close to mine, her brown eyes wide, her lips moving. tears glistened and ran down her cheeks.

the last thing i heard was devon saying, "we're losing her."

chapter 22

i stood at my bedroom door, looking up and down the hall, the doorway at one end bathing the silhouette of a man in a top hat in brilliant white light. the other end of the hallway oozed dark wispy shadows from a gaping hole in the wall. i looked at my tiny hands and said, "hello?" in a midget voice. i was back in a dream i'd had before, obviously the result of the traumatic memory of when my grandpa conroy abducted my baby sister.

but something was wrong with the scene before my eyes. first of all, i felt anchored and lucid. usually, this part of the dream was terrifying and hectic as powerful forces tore at me and tried to drag me one way or the other. aside from the wailing of a baby echoing from all directions, there was no other sound in the house. i reached a tentative foot into the hallway and tested the floor. hardwood creaked beneath my padded pajamas.

my curious gaze wandered the hallway, going back and forth between the light and the dark as i tried to recall what had been different the last time i'd dreamed this. no tornadoes of destruction? check. no intense vacuum threatening to suck my body one way or the other? check. no maniacally evil laughter? check. i wasn't complaining about the lack of elements wishing me bodily harm, but some tiny niggling thing was bugging the heck out of me and-something in the jenga pile i call a brain finally clicked.

the dark end of the hall was an empty roiling void. the last time i'd been here i could have sworn there was a silhouette of light and now there was nothing.

"i will be your light in the dark," i said, remembering elyssa's words. it took me back to the dream i'd had recently, about the tiny mote of light. what did that mean? had elyssa's memory loss altered her role in my life? or was this just some stupid dream? i ran for the dark, hoping against hope if i looked hard enough, i'd stumble across her. just as the pitch should have swallowed me whole, i met an elastic force. my body rebounded, sending me skidding across the floor on my bottom until i came to a halt in front of my bedroom again.

i lashed out with a string of profanities, which sounded even more obscene in my little boy voice. my butt felt warm from the friction. dreams were not supposed to feel so real. then again, memories my mother had blurred from my mind had been trying to resurface and it seemed certain i was headed for serious brain damage and emotional trauma all wrapped up in a nice little package.

crossing my legs, i propped my elbows on my knees, chin on my hands, and pouted. "wake up," i said. "boo! ahh!" i pinched myself so hard tears formed in my eyes. i slapped my cheeks until they went numb with pain. grabbed a flower vase off the narrow table in the hall and upended it over my head, sending water streaming down my face.

so much for that little test.

the ground trembled and the low baying of a horn split the air.

i pitched face-first toward the brightly lit end of the hallway just as a petite silhouette appeared in the door and walked my way. the light around her shadowy form seemed to disintegrate into particles, and tiny beads of white danced in the air, as if momentarily caught in a tornado, before soaking into her. the uncanny sensation of someone else watching me drew my attention to the dark end of the hall where a figure swathed in a white glow emerged from the gaping maw of pitch. the surrounding darkness fragmented and fell into the glowing outline as though drawn into a black hole except it was more like a white hole.

i dove for my bedroom and bounced off an unexpected wall. the door had vanished. i staggered back to my feet. gripped the flower vase in my tiny hand for a moment before dropping it and resigning myself to whatever horrible fate was about to give me a butt kicking of epic proportions.

the mysterious forms drew closer, two silent wraiths obliterating the environments around them. as they closed to within several yards on either side of me, the wooden floors and wall of the hallway splintered and shredded to dust, until i stood astride only a narrow three-foot precipice of creaking hardwood with a blinding white vortex to my right and the black of oblivion to my left, each with a figure the polar opposite in color at its core. i realized, with a start, both figures were females, both by the long hair, the curve of hip, and the graceful strides as they glided across thin air.

the woman from the brightly lit end of the hall was fair of skin, wearing a long white dress a greek goddess might have favored. a mind-bending weave of golden hair perched like a crown atop her head. a vortex of shadow surrounded her like oily wisps of dark smoke, fragmenting the light into crystalline shards. the other female wore a simple black dress. silky raven tresses cascaded over the olive skin of her shoulders. a nimbus of swirling white surrounded her like a misty shroud, destroying the endless dark.

the wispy veils whorled around both figures, making it nearly impossible to discern their facial features. all the while, they reminded me of my terrifying night in el dorado and the shadow creatures pacing around my tiny safe zone. as these new beings drew to within ten paces on either side, i braced for whatever horrors were about to come.