Skinwalker

The sound of an air being released is the first noise I recognize. It’s coming from behind me as pressure loosens on my left arm. It takes a while for my ears to settle on that sound before another draws my attention. This time it’s a slow mechanical beep that ticks away in the background at a constant rate. It’s not incredibly fast nor is it very slow. It’s also not super annoying, just dull, and monotonous.

When I open my eyes, I see light coming in through a window and an artificial blue light coming from behind me. Upon further inspection, I see the lights belong to a screen that’s monitoring my vital signs. Putting it all together, it’s safe to assume I’m in a hospital being treated. For what exactly, I’m not sure.

A pain rips through my back when I reach for the control that’s resting alongside the bedrail and I immediately retract my arm to the place it once was. Inspecting the pain in my arm I see gauze dressing around my shoulder and a splint I’ve managed to remove tucked into the bedding.

The door into the room is open, immediately pulling my attention in that direction.

“You’re awake,” the woman sounds relieved.

The things that were in her hands are put on the table next to the door. She turns on a few dim lights and the expression on her face matches that of her tone.

It takes me a moment to place her because I’ve never seen her like this before. The first time we met she was poured into an outfit that made her look uncomfortable, her hair was pulled back, and everything about her was neat and clean, and orderly. Not very much like the version of her I met while she was imprisoned and poisoned by her own magic. There she was thin and unkempt with greasy hair, and dirty broken fingernails. Bruised and tattered, and on the brim of giving up.

“Cassandra,” I say with a raspy voice.

Now her brown curls are free and clean, just like the rest of her. She’s dressed well but not in the way she arrived at Tails all those weeks ago. This time she looks comfortable.

“What happened?”

She sits in the chair next to me and grabs my hand. “You took a beating, by the end,” she informs me. “Damage to the soft tissues in your neck, bruises on your esophagus, trachea, and vocal cords.” She pauses to conceal a frown. “You should probably take a break from talking for a little while,” she adds quickly. “You have a left sided fracture to something called a zygomatic bone, multiple muscle tears in the right shoulder, and a bruised right clavicle. You had to go in for surgery on your shoulder. The doctor said it looked like someone shot you, but the bullet had to be removed.”

Closing my eyes, I remember the confusion I felt with the pressure and the explosion. I had hit my face on the cement floor and the world lost all logic. I also remember someone coming to my rescue. Catherine. She dug her boney little fingers into my flesh, pulled out a bullet, and tasted my blood.

“They say you’ll heal up well.”

“How long have I been here?”

Cassandra looks at her wristwatch. “About nineteen hours; it’s just after 10PM.”

“Where’s Levi?”

“He’s in an ICU bed.” Before I can ask my next question, she adds, “He’s going to be alright. They’ve obviously never dealt with a cure before so they don’t know what to watch for and they’re taking extra precautions.”

I nod my head. To hear that he’s alive and going to be alright is a heavy weight off my shoulders. It doesn’t take long for a new one to replace it, though. “We have to leave.”

These doctors and nurses don’t know yet, but soon enough they’ll find out that I’m a subhuman. Every injury has an expected timeline in which it heals for humans. For subhumans, that timeline doesn’t exist. If they find me out, they’ll do more than discontinue my care, they’ll report me to their government. Forcing me to be listed in the subhuman directory and monitored for the rest of my existence.

“We’re in the capitol, at an infirmary that caters to our kind,” she explains. “It’s only ten beds but they’re able to do anything for us that a major metropolitan hospital can do for humans.”

Queen Scarlet has a small but useful hospital. Why would she have built one?

“Did the queen get the flash drive?”

Cassandra nods her head.

Realization comes to me. Queen Scarlet will have someone study the information on the flash drive and when they’ve learned everything they can, the cure will be created. The infirmary is to treat subhumans like Levi or…

“Is Alexander here?”

“He’s here. So is Logan. Someone named Neut was here but he was escorted out this morning,” she explains.

“Escorted…?”

“Arrested; crimes against subhumans.”

I nod my head. “Is he okay?” There’s confusion on her face. “Logan,” I clarify. “Is he okay?” I couldn’t care less about Neut.

“Logan’s a little worse for wear but it seems he will recover.”

“Did they cure Alex?”

She shakes her head.

Again, the weight of the world lifts from my shoulders. After believing he was dead for so long, then finding out he was alive, I couldn’t handle learning he had succeeded at turning his back on me. We’re the only two skinwalkers alive. It was lonely being the only one.

“He’s my brother.”

After a moment she nods her head. “I know.” There’s a pause and before I can ask my follow up question she speaks. “After spending time researching you and tracking you down, I probably know more facts about your life than is comfortable.”

I open my mouth to ask what she could possibly know and then I close it because the truth is, I don’t want to know. It’s strange to feel like someone you hardly know anything about has already betrayed you. She knew Alexander was my brother; she probably knew he was alive and didn’t say anything to me. What else has she learned in her time researching me? I put my neck on the line for her life and her brother in-law’s life, and this is how I’m repaid? I lie in a hospital bed with a fractured face and a messed-up shoulder, with Catherine having tasted my blood. I got the short end of the stick.

“How much longer do they want me here?”

“A day or two.”

Turning away from her, I say, “I’d like to be left alone.”

Levi is laying back in bed, with his eyes closed and the lights dimmed. There are various things attached to him that weren’t attached to me last night when I woke up. My time as a patient is over but his will be lengthier. The medical team is taking every precaution to ensure he doesn’t randomly keel over and die from the cure.

It’s been a few days since he’s received it and the medical knowledge, I’ve received from Brittany tells me it’s unlikely anything drastic will happen now. Those who died, did so within a few hours. If a subhuman survived for more than five hours after a cure was administered, they’d recover. If the cure was successful, their genetics would alter within twenty-four hours. If the cure failed, they remained subhuman, be given a healing period, and be retested with a different variation at another time.

I step into his room, close the door quietly behind me, and then cross the room trying not to disturb anything. I don’t want to wake him from his nap. I just want to be here with him, now. He’s alone. No one should be alone in the hospital when they’re forced to face an altered life.

I sit in the chair for hours next to him, him not so much as stirring. The nurse comes in on the hour, every hour, and checks on him and then me. She says he has been awake at other times, awake and interactive. His sister has been around more often than not but today she had things to attend to. Eventually, she’ll return.

Despite not wanting to see her, I sit next to Levi in the dark silence until she shows up. When she comes in the room, she doesn’t notice me at first. Instead, she drops a duffel bag of clothes on the floor and puts a grocery sack and a drink on the counter.

She finds a light, flicking it on and exposing me. “What are you doing here?”

I stand. “Lydia, please.”

“This is your fault! This happened to him because of you!” Rage moves her across the room toward me and even though she’s a mute, she’s still nothing to be trifled with.

“I know.” I back against the wall not wanting to argue with her. “I know,” I say weaker this time. That thought has crossed my mind hundreds of times and every time it does, the realization only gets worse.

“How could you let this happen to him?”

“I tried…”

“You didn’t try hard enough! You snuck around behind everyone’s back. You lied to everyone at the club, you hid your truth, you hid your past, and you risked people’s lives for your own sake. You’re selfish, Piper, and look what it’s cost! He was the last mage in our family and now that’s gone! There’s never going to be an…”

“Stop it,” Levi cuts in, abruptly ending his sisters’ lecture.

Lydia glares at me; she’s spent time preparing her speech for when she saw me, intending to cut as deep as she possibly could. Levi’s told her everything and she’s right, I have been selfish.

“You need to leave; you’ve ruined his life enough.”

I glance at Levi, who isn’t defending me and isn’t telling me to ignore his sister like he usually does. He’s just waiting for me to leave the room, just like he’s been doing all afternoon while he pretended to sleep. There isn’t a thing he’s interested in saying to me.

When his eyes finally meet mine, the grief I feel forces me to leave the room without another word. His silver aura is completely gone.

Outside of Levi’s hospital room, I pause, and lean against the wall next to his door, fighting back the tears that sting my eyes. I hear Lydia lecturing her brother for the decisions he’s made over the last few months. He should have never trusted an outsider. I was too mysterious. No wonder she never inquired about joining the pack. A shapeshifter who never shifted, it’s fishy. I never sat well with Lydia. There are half a dozen more complaints she rattles off before Levi tells her to shut up.

At a normal, human speed, Leona approaches from down the hallway. She’s wearing a black dress that hangs loosely from her body, straight to the floor with no sleeves and a plunging neckline. Her shoes make more noise than the monitors at the nurse’s station. The women sitting at the station glance in her direction before turning their attention away from her and to other things. All have silver auras.

“Shall we walk?” Leona says.

I nod my head and the two of us leave the hospital wing. Neither of us speak until we’ve crossed the doors that lead into the hall where the patient rooms end and the government building begins. It’s a drastic enough change that I feel I’ve been teleported from one place to another, if that were even a real thing.

“Is he well?”

“He’s alive and expected to discharge in a few days if that qualifies.”

“His sister is with him?”

“Yes.”

“She’s quite charming.” Though her statement is kind, her tone contradicts it. “What will you do next?”

I hadn’t thought about a next.

At Genetics Incorporated I had nothing but next. First, I do this. Next, I do that. Next, this thing must happen. Plans changed and next this other thing had to happen to accommodate the change. I had to adapt to accomplish my goals. The only next there was after Genetics Incorporated was to return to Arizona with Levi, move on, and pretend it never happened. That next that has now changed, and I haven’t come up with a new plan just yet.

“I don’t know,” I say after a lengthy pause.

We stop at a bank of elevators. Leona pushes the up button and then the down button. Once I’m outside, I will know the way back to my district apartment, and this is clearly where we will part paths.

The down elevator arrives. “Queen Scarlet still has a place for you.”

I step into the elevator, press the button that is labeled with an L for lobby, and give my friend a weak smile that means absolutely nothing. We both know I want no part of Queen Scarlet and her offers after this past week. What I want is my life back. If I can’t have that, then I’ll start over somewhere else before I ever go back to being the governments skinwalker.