Haventon Born (The Haventon Chronicles Book One)

Haventon Born Chapter Sixteen

Tanya's cousin Daniel turned out to be a pleasantly spoken young man with the same mid-brown hair as his cousin. To Leisa, his eyes looked blue, but she knew enough about werewolves to know that was some sort of mental illusion, which even affected vampires. Meredith was already there and was listening to Tanya's explanation of the situation when he arrived. She looked up at him and gave a smile.

"Ah ha! So you're Daniel?" Meredith stood and held out her hand. "So nice to finally meet you."

"And you're Meredith," Daniel said equally mildly. "Sarah talks about you a lot." He did not even hesitate before shaking her hand. "I wish more werewolf hunters were like you."

"That makes two of us. Yes, and I think we need to talk about how to keep your crazy cousin safe," she said. "Things have definitely got more risky recently."

"So I hear," he said. "But I think we have more pressing matters to deal with." He turned his attention to David who was sitting in one of the armchairs looking rather grey and breathing heavily. "Hey, Dave. How are you feeling?"

"Hi Daniel," he said quietly and then coughed violently. "My chest aches and I can't seem to catch my breath."

"That doesn't sound too good." He walked around the back of the armchair and laid his hands on David's shoulders. "I'm going to take a look," he said. "See how bad it is and then fix it, or start to."

"How bad what is?" David asked.

"The smoke inhalation from the fire. It sounds like your lungs are damaged," Daniel replied.

"But I was okay immediately afterwards," David said. "Once I woke up anyway. I mean my chest hurt a little but not like this."

"It can take a while to kick in and adrenaline is wonderful stuff for overwhelming immediate collapse from injury. Don't worry; you'll be okay - though this may not be entirely pleasant." He looked over at Tanya. "Have you got a bucket, Tan? There's a load of crap in his lungs which I need to shift before I can heal the tissue damage."

"Crap?" David asked.

"Soot, toxins, fluid - that sort of thing. If I don't get it out you'll drown slowly on dry land, but getting it out..." Daniel winced eloquently. "Well, it won't be fun." He placed the bucket Tanya had fetched from the kitchen between David's feet. "Put your head over this and don't forget to breathe," he said.

"Why would I forget to-" David's question as he complied was broken off by a racking coughing fit. It felt like he was tearing the lining from his lungs and his mouth filled with fluid. He spat it into the bucket and saw it was thick, black gloop. Never mind remembering to breathe, he couldn't breathe! Spots started to dance before his eyes and just when he thought he would pass out, the coughing ended. He retched up some more tarry gloop and then gasped for breath between sobs.

"Easy," Daniel said, rubbing his back gently. "It's nearly done, just a little more. Catch your breath if you can."

"More?" David groaned. "I don't know if I can stand that again."

"I'm sorry. I know it's horrible but you'll be okay, I promise," Daniel said. He waited until David's breathing levelled slightly. "Here we go again."

More coughing, more gloop - greyer this time and getting paler by the mouthful until it was clear. It still hurt like hell though and he still couldn't breathe properly for the racking coughs, but eventually he stopped bringing up rubbish and the coughing stopped.

"Well, that's done. The next part will be easier - for you anyway. This is going to be hard work for me." He placed his hands on the back of David's chest and soothing warmth seemed to spread into his aching lungs and his breathing slowly became easier. He wasn't sure how long it was before Daniel removed his hands, but once he did, his chest felt normal again.