Night World : Spellbinder Chapter 2

The crowd erupted in panic.Everything was happening at once Thea couldnt life out the different impressions. Half the flock in front of her were running. The other half were yelling.Call nine-one-one-It got Eric-I told you to kill itThe red-headed boy was darting forward with his stick. Other kids were speed around, looking for rocks. The group had become a mob.The glide was rattling wildly, a terrifying sizzling sound. It was in a frenzy, ready to strike again at any moment-and there was nothing Thea could do.Hey The vox startled her. It came from Eric, the boy whod been bitten. Calm down, you guys. Josh, give me that. He was talking to the redhead with the forked branch. It didnt stick me. It just struck.Thea stared at him. Was this guy crazy? that muckle were listening to him. A girl in baggy shorts and a midriff top stopped hefting her rock.Just let me get hold of it wherefore I can take it out into the brush where it wont hurt anybody.Definitely crazy. He was talking in such a matter-of-fact, reasonable modality-and he was vent to try to pin the snake down with that stick. Somebody had to act fast.A flash of ruby-color caught Theas eye. Blaise was in the crowd, watching with pursed lips. Thea made her decision.She dove for the snake.It was watching the stick. Thea grabbed for its mind in the beginning grabbing its body-which unbroken it immobilized for the instant she needed to seize it just below the head. She hung on while its jaws gaped and its body lashed.Grab the tail and well get it out of here, she say breathlessly to Eric the crazy guy.Eric was staring at her grip on the snake, dumbfounded. For Gods sake, dont let go. It can twist in a second.I know. Grab itHe grabbed it. nigh of the crowd scattered as Thea wheeled around with the snakes head held tightly at arms length. Blaise didnt run, she just looked at the snake as if it smelled bad.I need this, Thea speak hastily as she passed her cousin. She snatched at Blaises necklace with her free hand. The fragile gold chain broke and Theas fingers closed around a stone. thusly she was heading out into the scratch brush, the weight of the snake dragging on her arm. She walked fast, because Eric didnt have much time. The grounds behind the school sloped up and then downward, getting wilder and more than gray-brown. When the buildings were out of sight, Thea stopped.This is a good place, Eric tell. His vo starter was strained.Thea glanced cover version and saw that he looked pale. Brave and very, very crazy, she thought. Okay, we let go on three. She jerked her head. Throw it that way and back up fast.He n peculiared and counted with her. One two three.Giving it a slight swing, they both let go. The snake flew in a graceful arc and come near a clump of purple sage. It wriggled immediately into the brush without showing the slightest hint of gratitude. Thea mat up its cool, scaly mind recede as it thought, That smell that cultivation safety.She let out the brea th she hadnt realized shed been holding.Behind her, she heard Eric sit down abruptly. Well, thats that. His own breathing was fast and irregular. Now could I ask you a favor?He was sitting with his long legs straight out, his skin even paler than before. Perspiration beaded on his upper lip.You know, Im not really sure it didnt bite me, he said.Thea knew-and knew Eric knew-that it had. Rattlers did sometimes strike without biting, and did sometimes bite without injecting venom. But not this time. What she couldnt believe was that any human would care enough virtually a snake to let a bite go untreated.Let me see your leg, she said.Actually, I think perchance youd better just call the paramedics.Please let me see. She kept her voice gentle, kneeling in front of him, reaching slowly. The way shed approach a scared animal. He held still, letting her roll up his jeans leg.There it was, the tiny double wound in the tanned skin. Not much blood. But surrounded by swelling already. Even if she ran back to the school, even if the paramedics broke every(prenominal) speed law, it wouldnt be fast enough. Sure, theyd save his life, besides his leg would swell up like a sausage and turn purple and hed have long time of unbelievable pain.Except that Thea had in her hand an Isis bloodstone. A deep red carnelian engraved with a scarab, symbol of the Egyptian Queen goddess, Isis. The ancient Egyptians had set the stones at the feet of mummies Blaise used it to heighten passion. But it was also the most powerful purifier of the blood in existence.Eric groaned suddenly. His arm was over his eye, and Thea knew what he must be feeling. Weakness, nausea, disorientation. She felt sorry for him, but his confusion would actually work to her advantage.She pressed her hand to the wounds, the carnelian hidden between her tightly closed fingers. Then she started to hum on a lower floor her breath, visualizing what she wanted to happen. The thing about gems was that they didnt work on their own. They were just a means of raising psychic power, focusing it, and directing it to a certain purpose. induce the poison, surround it, dispel it. Purify and eliminate. Then encourage the bodys natural defenses. Finally, soothe out the swelling and redness, sending the blood back where it expireed.As she knelt there, feeling the lie on the back of her head, she suddenly realized that shed never done this before. Shed healed animals-puppies with toad poisoning and cats with spider bites-but never a person. Funny how shed known instinctively that she could do it. Shed almost felt that she had to do it.She sat back on her heels, maxing the bloodstone. How are you feeling?Huh? He excessivelyk his arm away from his eye. Sorry-I think I sort of blanked out there for a minute.Good, Thea thought. But how do you feel now?He looked at her as if he were struggling under pressure to be gentle. He was going to explain to her that people who got bitten by rattlesnakes felt sick. B ut then his expression c assisted. I feel its weird I think maybe its gone numb. He peered doubtfully at his calf.No, you were just lucky. You didnt get bitten.What? He scrambled to roll his jeans leg up higher. Then he just stared. The skeletal system was smooth and unmarked, with just the slightest trace ot redness left. I was sureHe lifted his eyes to hers.It was the first time Thea had really gotten a chance to look at him. He was a nice-looking guy, lean and sandy-haired and sweet-faced. Long legs. And those eyes deep green with gray flecks. Just now they were both intense and bewildered, like those of a startled kid.Howd you do that? he said.Thea was shocked speechless.He wasnt supposed to respond like this. What was wrong with him? When she could talk again, she said, I didnt do anything.Yes, you did, he said, and now his eyes were clear and direct, full of an odd conviction. Suddenly his expression changed to something like wonder. You theres something so different about yo u.He leaned forward slowly, as if entranced. And then Thea experienced an odd duality. She was used to seeing herself through the eyes of animals a big, hairless creature in false skins. But now she saw herself as Eric saw her. A kneeling girl with yellow hair falling loose over her shoulders and soft brown eyes. A face that was too gentle, with a very sick expression.Youre beautiful, Eric said, still wondering. Ive never seen anybody but its like theres a mist all around you. Youre so mysterious.A huge quivering stillness seemed to hang over the desert. Theas heart was beating so hard that it shook her body. What was happening?Its like youre part of everything out here, he said in that wise, childlike voice. You belong to it. And theres so much peace.No, Thea said. There was no peace at all in her. She was terrified. She didnt know what was going on, but she knew she had to get away.Dont go, he said, when she shifted. He had the stricken expression of a heartbroken puppy.And then he reached for her. Not roughly. His fingers didnt close on her wrist. They just brushed the back of her hand, sliding away when she jerked.But it didnt matter. That light touch had raised all the hairs on Theas forearm. And when she looked back into the gray-flecked green eyes, she knew hed felt it, too.A sort of piercing sweetness, a dizzying exhilaration. And-a connection. As if something deeper than words was organism communicated.I know you. I see what you see.Almost without knowing what she was doing, Thea raised her hand. Fingertips slightly outspread, as if she were going to touch a mirror or a ghost. He brought his hand up, too. They were staring at each other.And then, just before then- fingers made contact, Thea felt a jolt of panic like ice water.What was she doing? Had she lost her mind?Suddenly everything was clear-too clear. Her future stretched out before her, every detail sharp. Death for breaking Night World law. Herself centered in the midland Circle, toilsome t o explain that she hadnt meant to betray their secrets, that she hadnt meant to to get close to a human. That it was all a mistake, just a moment of dullity because shed wanted to heal him. And them livery the Cup of Death anyway.The vision was so clear it seemed like a prophecy. Thea jumped up as if the ground had lurched underneath her, and she did the whole thing she could think of to do.She said scathingly, Are you nuts? Or is your brain just overheated or something?He got the stricken look again.Hes a human. One of them, Thea reminded herself. She put even more scorn in her voice. Im part of everything I did something to your leg yeah, sure. I bet you believe in Santa Claus, too.Now he looked shocked-and uncertain. Thea went for the coup de gras. Or were you just trying to put the moves on me?Huh? No, he said. He blinked and looked around. The desert was the ordinary desert, gray-green and parched and flat. Then he looked at his leg. He blinked again, as if getting a clean- living grip on reality. I look, Im sorry if I upset you. I dont know whats wrong with me.Suddenly he gave a sheepish smile. Maybe Im signifier of weird from being scared. I guess Im not as brave as I thought.Relief trickled through Thea. He was buying it. Thank Isis that earth were stupider than chickens.And I wasnt trying to move in on you. I just- He broke off. You know, I dont even know your name.Thea Harman.Im Eric Ross. Youre new here, arent you?Yes. Stop talking and go, she staged herself.If I can show you around or anything I mean, I would like to see you again.No, Thea said flatly. She would have liked to have kept it to that monosyllable, but she wanted to crush this new idea of his completely. I dont want to see you, she said, too rattled to think of any more subtle way to put it.And then she turned and walked away. What else was there to do? She certainly couldnt talk to him anymore. Even if she would continuously wonder why hed been crazy enough to care about the sna ke, she couldnt ask. From now on she had to stay as far away from him as possible.She hurried back to the school-and realized immediately that she was late. The parking lot was quiet. Nobody was travel outside the adobe buildings.On my first day, too, Thea thought. Her backpack was on the ground where shed dropped it, a notebook computer lying beside it on the asphalt. She grabbed them both and all but ran to the office.It was only in physics class, after shed handed her admission slip to the teacher and walked past rows of curious eyes to an empty seat in the back, that she realized the notebook wasnt hers.It fell open to a page that had Introduction to Flat-worms scribbled in sloping, spiky blue ink. Below were some pictures labeled Class Turbellaria and Class Trematoda. The worms were attractively drawn, with their nervous systems and reproductive organs shaded in different colors of highlighter, but the artist had also given them big goofy smiling faces. Grotesque bu t lovable in a cross-eyed way. Thea turned the page and saw another drawing, the Life Cycle of the Pork Tapeworm.Yum.She leafed back to the beginning of the notebook. Eric Ross, Honors animal I.She shut the book.Now how was she going to get it back to him?Part of her mind worried about this through physics and her next class, computer applications. Part of it did what it always did at a new school, or any new gathering of humans it watched and cataloged, keeping alert for danger, figuring out how to fit in. And part of it simply said, I didnt know they had a zoology class here.The one question she didnt want to ask herself was what had happened out there in the desert? Whenever the thought came up, she pushed it away brusquely. It must have had something to do with her senses being too open after merging with the snake.Anyway, it hadnt meant anything. It had been a weird one-time fluke.In the main hallway at break, Blaise came rushing up, quick as a lioness despite the high heels. Hows it going? Thea said, as Blaise drew her into a temporarily deserted classroom.Blaise just held out her hand. Thea fished in her pocket for the carnelian.You ruined the chain, you know, Blaise said asshe shook back midnight hair and examined the stone for damage. And it was one I designed.Sorry. I was in a hurry.Yes, and why? What did you want with it? Blaise didnt detention for a response. You healed that boy, didnt you? I knew he got bitten. But he was human.Reverence for life, remember? Thea said. An ye harm none, do as you will. She didnt say it with much conviction.That doesnt mean humans. And what did he think?Nothing. He didnt know I was healing him he didnt even realize he got bitten. It wasnt exactly a lie.Blaise looked at her with smoky, suspicious gray eyes. Then she glanced heavenward and shook her head. Now if youd been using it to heat his blood, Id understand. But maybe you were doing a little of that, too.No, I was not, Thea said. And despite the warmth that ro se in her cheeks her voice was cold and sharp. The horror of that death vision was still with her. In fact, I dont ever want to see him again, she went on jaggedly, and I told him so, but Ive got his stupid notebook, and I dont know what to do with it. She waved the notebook in Blaises face.Oh. Blaise considered, head on one side. Well Ill take it to him for you. Ill track him down somehow.Would you? Thea was startled. Thats really nice.Yes, it is, Blaise said. She took the notebook, handling it carefully, as if her nails were wet. Okay, well, Id better get to my next class. Algebra. She made a face. Bye now.Suspicion struck as Thea watched her go.Blaise wasnt usually so accommodating. And that bye now too sweet. She was up to something.Thea followed the ruby of Blaises shirt as Blaise went back into the main hallway, then turned without hesitation into a locker-lined corridor. There, searching through one of the lockers, was a lean assure with long legs and sandy hair.Fastest tr acking Ive ever seen, Thea thought sourly. She peered around the Mediterranean-blue door of a broken locker.Blaise walked up behind Eric very slowly, hips swaying. She put a hand on his back.Eric jumped slightly, then turned around.Blaise just stood there.It was all she needed to do. Blaise reeled guys in just by being. It was the glorious dark hair, the smoldering gray eyes plus a figure that could stop traffic on the freeway. Curves galore, and clothes that emphasized every one. On another girl it might have been too much, but on Blaise it was just breathtaking. Guys who thought they liked the waif look dropped everything to follow her just as fast as guys who thought they liked blonds.Eric blinked at her, looking hazy already. He didnt seem to know what to say.That wasnt unusual. Guys always got tongue-tied around Blaise.Im Blaise Harman. The voice was low and liquid. And youre Eric?Eric nodded, still blinking.Yes, hes dazed all right, Thea thought. The jerk. She was surprised at her own vehemence.Good, because I wouldnt want to give this to the wrong person. Blaise produced the notebook from behind her back like a magician.Oh-whered you get that? Eric looked relieved and grateful. Ive been looking everywhere.My cousin gave it to me, Blaise said carelessly. She held onto the notebook as he tried to take it, and their fingers touched. Wait. You owe me something for bringing it back, dont you?Her voice was a purr. And now Thea knew, without a doubt, what was going to happen.Eric was doomed.