The Pack (18 page)

    “Silver burns heal quickly to skin and I am immune to Mandrake
.
I was
poisoned
once
a long time ago
,
she
will
be immune too now that the toxin
has been in her system
.” She plopped the bullet back in the jar, placed the glass container
back on the night
st
and
, then
sat
on the bed
laying
he
r
hand over Mercy’s chest and closed her eyes
.

     “Wait
,
” Lucan said coming to her sid
e. “What if this does not work?
” He laid
his hand on hers
and she smiled up at him ignoring her brother
’
s protective growl
behind them
.

     “I can assure you I know wh
at I am doing.” She
closed her eyes
once more
focusing
on the girl in the bed
.
The room
began to
hu
m
with energy
and her face became blank as if she were in a trance. A bright light flowed fro
m the healer’s body into Mercy
’s and her body
arched off
t
he bed as
she let
out a loud scream of agony
.
Under her
skin,
serpent like movement began as
the
healer moved
th
rough her
seeking out the poison
,
forcing it
t
hrough her
system
until the foul substance
ran from Mercy’s mouth in steady stream
to
saturat
e
the pillow beneath her.
Mercy let out
pitiful moans, beads of sw
eat forming on her forehead, her hands clenching
the sheets
in a death grip
as the healer worked to deplete her body of the Mandrake.
Everyone
in the room
waited on tender hooks,
un
til at last
her body fel
l to the bed still and silent
once more
.

    
The healer
pull
e
d her hands away from Mer
cy and
took a cl
oth
her brother
offered to wipe
Mercy's face
as Lucan lifted her head and removed the fouled pillow.
  Mercy
lay quiet
,
her breathing
regulated,
her heat beat
ing
at a normal pace
.

    
Lucan took her
hand in
his own brushing
his lips over her brow
his worry for her paramount to anything else
.
He was not
her real father, but she
had become
the daughter of his heart and
the idea
he might never see
her laugh
or smile
again brought tears to his eyes.

     “She’s goi
ng to be fine.” The healer
said, her gentle voice breaking through
his upset
.
“I got everything
,
she will be up and around in no time.”

     “T
hank you,” he told her lifting his eyes to meet hers unashame
d of the tears rolling down his cheeks
.

     “S
he had already expelled most of the poison
from her system. I only helped with the last little bit,” s
he
explained as she gathered
her things from the
nightstand
. “When
she is better I would like to meet her,
someone needs to show her how
to use her healing
so this will not happen again
.”

     “Thank you
….ah ..
.”

     “Ni
na,” she supplied with a shy
smile
.
“
My name is Nina.”

     “Thank you Nina, we will tell her
about all you did for her
.”

    
She nodded
,
but looked to Alec with concern.
“Wh
oever shot your young friend didn’t want
to wound him
,
they wanted him dead.
Silver and Mandrake can be
deadly
alone
,
but together they are lethal
to our kind
,
lucky she was close by.
” She turned to he
r brothe
r
looking resigned
. “We need to g
o
,
father
will not be happy I detoured.”

     “Thank you both,” Grego
ry sa
id polietly giving Lucan a pointed look
.

     “Yes
,
thank you. Kirk
,
I am sure she would welcome your visit tomorrow after s
chool,”
Lucan added
begrudgingly
.

     “Thanks,
I
will come by as soon as I can,” h
e said before escorting his sister out
le
aving them to care for their own
.

    
Alec
bolted
upright
from his sleep
grabbing his chest,
images
of the bullet slamming into his chest
flashing through his mind like a movie.

    
A strong
reassuring hand pressed him back down to the pillows
.
“Settle down son,
”
h
is father
said
.

     “Dad
?”
He
peered
up at the man who
meant the world to him realizing
if he was there
,
things had to be
bad.
His hand went to his chest, but aside from a slight ache
there,
he felt fine, so why was his dad there?

     “Relax your fine now,
”
Gregory assured him.

    
H
e recalled being shot
,
the pain
,
and the fe
ar he was going to die
before Mercy ever found out what she meant
to him
.
H
e knew she
had come
to him
as he lay dying
and
somehow
taken away the pain
, he still felt as though her essence was inside of him
.
His wolf growled in the back of his mind and images of Mercy laying on the bed her body sick and fevered took over. He struggled to get upright needing to see her, needing to know she was alive.

     “Easy bo
y, she’s fine,
sleeping
soundly,
” Gregory
said keeping
his hand
on his shoulder
, forcing him to remain on the bed.

     “Mercy,” h
is voice trembled
with fear
as he glanced
over at her sleepi
ng form on the bed next to his, p
ale and
lifeless,
her chest barely rising with each breath she took
.

     “She’s fine,
”
h
is father
said again
removing his han
d now his son seemed to be
in a more reasonable state of mind
.

     “Who did this?” he asked sitting up slowly,
still
disoriented
and shaken
.

     “We are s
till working on the details,
but the bullet had been dipped in Mandrake
,
a sure sign they wanted you dead
. I
f not for Mercy you would be
.”

     “
I felt her
inside me
,” he told him
,
awed by the
experience
. “I can still feel her,
as if she is part of me.
” It
so
unded crazy
, he knew but now he felt more bonded to her than ever
.

     “Lucan
is stunned. N
o on
e imagined
she had healing abilities, but I suppose we should have given her
circumstances of her birth
.” Gregory glanced
over his shoulder at the girl in question wond
ering how
she managed to hide it
from everyone around her
.

     “
I
have
alw
ays thought she was special
because
she is
mine
, but it seems that there is more to her than that
.” Alec said swinging
his legs ov
er the side of the bed to stand
with help from his father
. “Will you give me
a few minutes alone with her?”

     Gregory no
dded and help
e
d him towards her bedside before
walking
to the door
,
but
once there
turned back
to look at his son.
“You should know Kirk
was the one
who found the
healer who saved her. Lucan gave
him permission to come
by
later today.” He expected an outright no or some form of denial
,
but
his son surprised him with his calm reply
.

    
“H
e did what I could not when she needed help
, so I agree with his decision,
but it changes nothing
.
Mercy
is
mine
and nothing will stop me from pursuing her until she admits she wants only me
.” He sat next to
Mercy and took her hand,
his eyes changin
g to
amber
as he thought about her and Kirk together
. “
I won’t let hi
m win, not when I
have
waited so long f
or her
to grow up and be mine
.”

    
His father chuckled and left
the room thinking that
his son might
fi
nd that
not all women fell with ease for
his good looks and charm
.
The lesson would be a good one
for his heir, i
t would tea
ch hi
m
some
humility and
make him understand what a
precious
gift he had been given
.

    
As h
e walked down the hall
,
he recalled
his
own
bond mate
,
the woman
he
had
lost far to
o
so
on in
life. T
he familiar
ache that always p
lagued him
when he thought about her
returned and he placed his hand over h
is heart feeling her loss
as strongly as he had the day she died
.

*****

     “Angel I don’t understand
h
ow you worked your magic,
bu
t thank you for saving me.” Alec whispered leaning
down to kiss her cheek
. H
er head mo
ved
slightly, so
instead of kissing her cheek
,
he m
eet her soft warm lips
. She
responded
instantly
to his touch
,
her lips parting
,
giving
him access to her
full
soft mouth
. He moaned,
pulling
he
r against him as the kiss lingered on
and
might have never let go
,
but
the
loud
slamming of the front door
brought him back to reality. Regretfully h
e
pulled away
despite her
soft murmur of protest
.