The Legacy: A Custodes Noctis Book (20 page)

“Come on.” Rob hauled him to his feet and pulled Galen’s arm over his shoulder. He was vaguely aware when Rob pushed him through the door in the bathroom and down on the floor. Rob’s hand was on his back as the reaction set in and he vomited. A cool cloth was pressed against his forehead. “It’s okay,” his brother said soothingly.

“Sorry,” Galen muttered. He stayed, trembling, on hands and knees for another minute before shifting to look at Rob, crouched beside him. “Sorry,” he repeated.

“Nothing to worry about.” Rob grinned at him. “I lived in the dorms, so I saw it a lot in college. It was me, once or twice.” He chuckled at a memory. Galen saw it flash in his brother’s eyes. “Think you can get up?”

Galen nodded and Rob pulled him back on his feet, steering him carefully towards the couch. His brother helped him sit down and then hovered in front of him. “I’m okay.” He smiled at Rob and then looked over at Mike. The doctor had a shocked expression on his face. “I’m okay, Mike.”

“Not in any way are you okay. You had a seizure, two actually. I thought…” Mike glowered at him. “And now you’re barfing your guts out? Not okay.” Galen noticed his brother nodding along with the last statement.

“For the last time, it wasn’t a seizure.”

“Then what was it?” Mike was angry. “Galen? Well? You were seizing. Your heart stopped earlier today.”

“What?” Galen looked up at the doctor. “You said…”

“I might’ve lied a little.”

“Uh… Might want to mention that kind of thing, Mike.”

“Shut up, Galen,” the doctor said with a frown.

“Do you think that has something to do with…?” Rob asked.

“I don’t know, Rob.”

“Would you two please stop that?” Mike asked.

“What?” Rob said, looking from Galen to the doctor.

“You know. That starting to say something and then trailing off. Some of us have no damn clue what you’re talking about. And some of us are your doctor and really need to know what the hell is going on.” The last sentence had increased in volume so that the last word came out as a shout.

Galen grinned sheepishly at the doctor. “Sorry, Mike. We’re trying to figure it out, too.”

“I don’t get it,” the doctor said, shaking his head. He bent over Galen to look in his eyes and check his pulse.

“What?” Galen asked, looking at his friend.

“You two. Just like your damn father and uncle. Cryptic talk, nearly dead before my eyes, all those looks. You two are as bad as Parry and Bobby, maybe worse. Already,” Mike grumbled.

Galen laughed softly. “Oh?”

“And I do need to know, Galen. All joking aside, something’s going on.” Mike met his eyes. “It has something to do with what happened ten years ago?” He paused. “And…Does it have something to do with what happened five years ago? When Parry and Bobby were killed? Galen?”

As Galen opened his mouth to reply, the downstairs door banged open. Galen froze looking at his brother.

“It’s me!” Rhiannon shouted. She stormed up the stairs sounding like a charging elephant and burst into the room. Her face was red. She looked at the three of them and then walked over towards the couch. She had something in her hands. “What’s going on?” she asked, frowning at Galen. “Never mind, I have a good idea.” Mike sighed audibly. “What’s your problem?” She turned on him and then shrugged. “Got here as soon as I could.”

“Well?” Galen asked, looking at her.

“I called Greg and some others to let them know we were going to need help,” she said, dropping on the couch beside Galen. She looked at him, her eyes anxious.

“What did you find?” Her gruff exterior didn’t fool Galen, he saw worry and fear in her eyes. He knew something was seriously wrong without a touch.

“This was in the front seat of Rob’s jeep,” she said gently. She held out the object, a hospital gown. Rob grabbed it before Galen could put a hand out. “Rob? Honey?” Rhiannon’s voice was soft.

Galen looked at his brother. If possible, Rob was even whiter than before. He held the gown, youth-seized and covered in the remains of dried blood. One finger was toying with a small hole in the arm of the gown. “Rob?” When his brother didn’t answer Galen stood and put his hand over his brothers. “Rob?”

“It
is
back. Coming for us. We’re missing something, Galen. Something that happened then,” Rob whispered.

“Rob? What is it?”

“Don’t you recognize it?” Rob frowned. “No, you might not. But Galen, this gown, it’s mine. It’s the one I had on in the hospital after the ritual in the clearing. It’s the one I had on when it…”

“What?” Mike demanded. “When what?”

“When it all began again,” Rob said softly.

Chapter Twelve

The room was quiet, they were all looking at Rob. “When what began again?” Mike asked.

“Rob?” Galen said softly, giving his brother a gentle shake. Rob looked up at Galen.

“I tried to tell them, but there was something wrong, I tried, Galen, I tried.” Rob suddenly sounded thirteen again. “There was something wrong with Dad and Uncle Bobby.”

“I know.” Galen tried to gage the wave of emotion flowing from his brother, he could sense the fear, the terror the thirteen-year-old had experienced, but there was an undercurrent of something else.

“And whatever was wrong with them let it happen.”

“Let what happen?” Mike demanded.

“They came for me in the hospital…”

Past

Ten Years Before

Day four to Day five-Rob

Rob was warm. There was something soft under his head. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime he was not in pain. Something was wrapped, tight, around his chest and his arms. It smelled like a doctor’s office.
He heard something beside him.

“Galen?”

“Rob?” his father answered him. Rob felt a hand on his shoulder. “Rob?” Gentle warmth flowed out from the touch.

Rob opened his eyes. His father was standing beside his bed. “Dad? Where’s Galen?”

“He’s down the hall, in a different room. That way his snoring wouldn’t keep you awake,” his father said with a smile. “Bobby’s with him.”

“Down the hall?”

“He’s just in a different room, Rob, that’s all.”

Rob reached out for his brother and caught the soft feeling of his sleeping brother.  “He does snore pretty loud,” Rob said, smiling at his father.

“Yeah,” Parry smiled back. “Bobby can snore, too, so I understand. Even closed doors can’t shut out the sound at times.”

“I remember when we went camping last summer and I got up before Galen. I was sitting outside the tent and thought it was a bear growling,” Rob chuckled, a band of pain tightened across his chest. “He’s okay, though, right, Dad?”

“He’ll be fine. Bobby’s sitting with him so he doesn’t just leap up and come racing down the hall when he wakes up.”

“And he would,” Rob said with a sigh. The pain was back.  “Dad? Can I sleep a little longer?”

“Of course, Rob,” Parry said, putting his hand on Rob’s head. The warmth flowed from his father’s touch, Rob felt himself starting to drift. “You need to rest. When you wake up, if your brother is up, we can all go home.”

“Thanks, Dad,” he said sleepily and let himself drift away.

Someone was moving quietly around in the room. “The poor dear, he went through so much,” a soft voice said.

“I did hear the doctor say he would recover, though, and the scarring shouldn’t be too bad,” another voice answered. Rob wondered if they were talking about him.

“They said his brother saved him.”

“Yes.” There was something in the way the voice said that—it worried Rob. “Yes, he did, but at what a cost. I heard that he…”

“Galen?” Rob said opening his eyes. It was hard to focus his eyes. He guessed they’d given him something for the pain, he wondered why his father had let them.
He could help at least this much.
A nurse was beside the bed, Rob looked at her. There was something not quite right in the way she looked.

She looked over at the other woman. “Get his father, please. He stepped down to talk to the doctor.” She patted Rob’s hand. “Your Dad will be right here, sweetheart. Just a second.”

“Where’s my brother? Galen?” She looked down at him. Her eyes were sad, they seemed to say sorry. “Where’s Galen?” He reached out for his brother, Galen was still asleep, but there was something wrong with it, it didn’t feel soft anymore, it had an odd gray tinge to it.

“Rob, lie down.” His father pushed him gently back into the bed. “You have to be careful. You need to heal.”

Rob looked at his father.
He doesn’t sound right, he doesn’t “look” right. What’s wrong?
“Why won’t you tell me about Galen? The nurse said…” He was fighting his father’s hands.

“Rob,” his father looked at him, stern, then his eyes softened. “Okay, but you have to promise you’ll lie still, okay?”

Rob stopped. “Dad?” He took a deep breath.
“What’s wrong?”

His father kept a hand on his shoulder, there was none of the special, familiar warmth in the touch, just a hand. Rob shifted a little. It didn’t feel right. “He’s very sick right now.”

Rob knew what that meant. It was the way adults told little kids someone was dying. “Dad?” Rob looked at his father. There were tears on Parry’s face. “But, Dad, you said Galen was okay, you said we could leave when he got up.” He paused, trying to stay calm. Something was very wrong with his father.
 
“I’m thirteen now, about to start my training, you can tell me more than that.”

His father sighed and smiled. “You’re right, Rob.” Parry sat on the bed. “Galen isn’t in very good shape right now.”

“I thought you said he was okay. Dad, I saw you heal him, what happened?”

“Heal?” His father looked at him with a frown on his face. “Heal? You’re right. I…” Parry blinked twice and for a moment Rob thought he saw something moving in his father. “He’s in ICU right now.”

“Can I see him?”

“Not yet. You need to stay in bed, Rob. You were hurt pretty bad.”

“I need to see Galen.”

“No,” his father’s voice was sharp.

“Dad? How bad am I hurt? Will I be okay?”

His father sighed. “Yes, Rob, you’re going to be okay. They said you’d get better, all the way better. You need some treatment, but you should be fine. You might have a few scars, but hopefully not all that many.” His father looked a little sick as he tried to smile at Rob.

“Treatment? Can’t you just fix it, Dad?”

“Me?” Parry blinked, confused. “No, you need something to help with the pain. The doctor said you needed treatment.”

“Dad? What’s wrong?” Something was definitely wrong with his father. Even though the drugs were in his system, Rob knew something was wrong. “Dad?”

 “I’m sorry, I didn’t even realize how bad you were until you blacked out, Rob. They had those ritual bandages on you, and the shirt. And I didn’t realize how bad it really was.” He broke off with what sounded like a sob. The look he gave Rob was sad. It made his father look old, defeated. His eyes were bright with tears.

“But Dad, you fixed it there, you helped me there,” Rob insisted.

“What?”

“Dad?” Rob looked at his father and sighed.
I need to talk to Galen, something’s wrong. First Dad says we can go home, now he says Galen is in ICU. And now he doesn’t even remember healing me? 

“Now, you need to sleep. The nurse will give you something, and you need to sleep.”

“Why can’t you help me sleep?” Rob said a little desperately, afraid of what was happening. “Can I see Galen when I wake up?”

“No, Rob, but maybe later, tomorrow.”

“Dad, I need to see him, only for a minute. At least tell me what room he’s in.”

“Rob,” his father said quietly. The nurse came back in the room, Rob looked at her, there was something wrong with her, she had black spots around her, like Ashley the waitress. “Okay, he’s in 415, just down the hall.”

“Room 415?” Rob was starting to get dizzy again.

He was alone in his room when he woke up. It was quiet. He could hear a TV coming from another room, further down the corridor. The window was dark. He looked up at the ceiling. It had the kind of tiles that were full of small holes. He smiled, remembering when he’d had his tonsils out when he was seven. Galen had come to California to be with him and sat with him all day.

When the time had come for Galen to leave for the night, Rob finally admitted to his brother he was scared to be alone in the hospital. He knew his brother wanted to stay, but the rules wouldn’t allow it. Galen had gently squeezed his hand and let a little healing warm Rob, then he told Rob about the holes in the ceiling.
He told me they were worm holes. He said if I was really quiet at night I might get to see the worms, they were magical and they glowed and granted wishes. I remember waiting, hoping to see them. I wasn’t scared anymore.