CHAPTER EIGHT-THE HOSPITAL

The dark mist cleared into the night that surrounded him in little specks of charred coals as Teddy scanned the poorly lit parking lot and the rain poured down over them. “Alright, Tess. We’re here. You’re going to be okay now.”

Like he was on the road to deliverance from the nightmare they found themselves immersed in, he staggered across the parking lot towards the emergency department sign. “Third, you’re Sean and Sara Osulf now. Your father is Howard. Sean and Sara Osulf, your father is Howard.”

For being so petite, she was like a floppy, wet sack of hundred-pound potatoes the way her limbs flailed around as he walked.

He tried to keep hold as he gritted his teeth, then stopped and tossed her up in the air. “It’s okay. I got you. Had to move you around a little; you’re slippery as hell.”

The blast of air that beat down on them when they came through the automatic doors splattered her blood across his face. As the coppery smell of it entered his nose, the vision of his pregnant mother bleeding all over herself made him gasp. “Not now. You can’t help them anymore.”

“Oh, my God!” The rolling desk chair the plump, gray-haired nurse sat on crashed into the wall behind her as she ran to him, and she screamed into the hall. “Somebody get me a goddamn stretcher now!” The nurse came to him and slid her fingers to Tessa’s neck to check for a pulse as he lugged her across the lobby.

While they raced back to the room, the nurse grilled him for information. “What happened to her, baby?”

“I’m not sure, ma’am. We just came back from dinner and, and she yelled for help, and…” When he realized he could hand her off and think for a moment, Teddy’s weak knees gave way, and he collapsed into a chair beside his sister’s bed.

The staff yelled back and forth as they surrounded Tessa and put needles into her body and oxygen into her nose, and rolled her back and forth looking for wounds. Being bathed in blood from head to toe, they were sure she must have been in some terrible accident.

The nurse came to his side and knelt down. “You’re covered in blood. Are you alright, son?”

With his eyes fixed on the bloody little foot missing a shoe, Teddy nodded as he came to realize why he survived tonight. “Yes, ma’am, I’m alright. I don’t like chocolate.”

“This happened after she ate something?” The nurse glanced up to the young doctor that checked Tessa’s eyes with a penlight. “He thinks someone poisoned her, Bill.”

She rested her warm, wrinkly hand on his as she tried to divert his attention. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

While watching them work on his sister, Teddy tried to reach out to her in his mind, but no matter how he stretched, he couldn’t meet her fingers yet.

She teetered on the edge of a cliff most of her life, but this was the first time she ever fell over it. “Sean Osulf, that’s my sister Sara. Our father is Howard.”

“Well, Sean.” With a groan, she pushed herself from the knee she kneeled on and held out her hand. “I’m going to take you to a room to wait while we figure out what’s going on with your sister. Alright?”

As his green eyes turned a solid black, he glared at the nurse and shook his head.

Through a voice from the very depths of the netherworld, he made his demands. “No. I’m going to sit right here, and you’re all going to do what I tell you. When we leave, none of you are going to remember anything at all about this.”

When the warlock’s voice reached their ears, the staff continued working, and the nurse bowed her head. “Yes, of course.”

He casually wiped Tessa’s blood from his hands onto his pants as the warlock took control. “There will be a man that will come and ask for us by those names I gave you. Bring him to me immediately. Now, clean her up and leave us alone.”

Tilting his head from side to side as he thought about it more, he grabbed the nurse’s arm when she turned to leave. “Also, find me some coffee while I’m waiting. Black, lots of sugar.”

They stabilized Tessa and the staff left the room as the warlock finished his coffee and let Teddy back in. Turning up his nose in disgust at the sweet, hot concoction on his palate, he set down the coffee and criticized the part of him that never worked right. “And just where the hell have you been all night, asshole? I could have used you about an hour ago.”

As he stared at the tile blocks beneath his feet, he tried to remember everything Rafik said and did. “Burdock Root.”

He picked up her bag of holding and rummaged through it.

Although she was a creature designed to kill, she always fancied herself a healer and had quite a stock of supplies with her at all times. “Great balls of fire! This is a mess. How in the hell am I supposed to find anything? Well, that’s just perfect!”

His head shook as he lifted her black bikini top from the bag and dropped his eyes to her with a sigh. “You brought a bathing suit. Really? Like that old, pasty-ass Viking is taking us on some tropical vacation or something.”

When his fingers found the metal case, he took it out and opened the lock. He touched each tiny, green glass bottle until he found Burdock Root and dumped out a handful.

Thoughts invaded his mind about tonight as he tossed them around in his hand and stood from his chair. “Blood. You exchanged blood.”

He bit his lip and scrunched up his nose as he tried to remember the various rites and rituals of the old religion. Rafik’s people were more secluded and secretive and practiced a purer form of witchcraft than modern societies like Savannah. “It sounds the same, though.”

When he pushed her tongue aside with his fingers, he placed as many tablets as he could fit underneath, then pressed his forehead to hers. “You’re going to be alright, Tess. I think that mate of yours gave you the antidote. You rest up, Sugar, and I’ll take care of everything else.”

Once the television flipped on, he sank in the chair and moved on to the next step. “Fourth, sit your ass down and wait for Daddy.”

A low whimper began in his throat as he bit his lip and blinked away his tears. “I’ll take care of her, Daddy. You don’t have to worry about anything; I’ll never let anything bad happen to her again.”

He pulled his chair closer to the bed, took her hand, and rubbed his thumb over her ring finger. “No brand.” With his lips twisted to the side, he clicked his tongue as he searched for clues, then he pushed himself back against the seat and scratched behind his ear.

“I’m not sure how to tell you this, but I think you’re married, Tess. My grasp of the old language isn’t very good, but I’m quite sure that boy did a rite of binding on you.” He shook his head and sighed and hoped he was wrong. “Maybe Haldir will know more about all that.”

A small moment of humor finally tore through the fabric of reality as he chuckled to himself. “Just like you to find yourself in a real-life Romeo and Juliet type situation, though, isn’t it?”

Another hour crept by, and the hypnotizing ticking of the clock tried to force him to sleep, but Teddy’s eyes snapped open when he heard the raspy, deep voice echoing in the hallway. “Where the fuck are my children?”

When the door swung open, Haldir rushed to him and threw his arms around him. “Are you okay?”

He nodded and trembled against Haldir’s chest as his entire body jerked with each sob. “He poisoned them. They died right in front of us.”

Haldir held him against his chest as he stared at Tessa lying helpless in the bed. A sickness rose in his stomach as he focused on her pale face and purple-tinted lips. “How’s she doing?”

Teddy wiped his tears on his shirt as he pulled away. “I think she’s going to be alright. She got the antidote.”

A sigh of relief came from Haldir as he patted Teddy’s back. “We have to go now. They’re looking everywhere for you both.”

When he got to Tessa’s side, Haldir’s fingers shook as he slid them through her crunchy hair. “Oh, shit, Tess. I’m so sorry.” He shook his head at Tessa’s voice in his ears complaining about the outfit she bought for the dinner date he was going to miss as he slipped off her oxygen. “It won’t happen again.”

A loud thud came from the waiting room, and Teddy’s eyes snapped to the Viking as he put his finger to his lips and shook his head.

While screams started flying outside the door, Teddy wrapped the straps of the bags around him as Haldir silently ripped the tubes from her body and lifted her from the bed.

With his arms wrapped around Haldir, Teddy closed his eyes and buried his face into his back as the wicked winds swallowed them.

The hospital room bent around them as a dark form opened the door and swung its arm.

Like a warbled, silent movie that melted before his eyes, Haldir watched the knife flying at them disappear into nothing.