(3) Painstaker

Twenty-Seven: As You Wish

A few months went by, leaving summer in the fading past. Though, where we were, it was always winter, thanks to Dara's obsession with snowstorms surrounding her coven. I'd asked her about it once, and she responded by cutting out all of the lights in the room, rendering me both deaf and blind. I never asked again.

The skin on my abdomen and leg grew back, and the bandages were able to be taken off. The skin was redder than the rest, with ugly scars as the outline of the wound. Dara said I would need to undergo some type of witchy voodoo surgery to get rid of the scars. I decided to keep them. The scratches and bruises all over my body, however, had healed nicely.

The first time I stood, I fell flat on my ass. I was glad nobody tried to catch me, because that would have doubled the mortification. It took a few hours, but I managed to get my balance back. As for stamina, I was still working on that. The witch doctor, whatever her name was, advised me not to shift until I regained all of my human stamina. Which meant, I couldn't shift until walking ten feet didn't make me hyperventilate.

Getting poisoned sucked.

More than anything, I was glad to get out of that damn bed. I was sitting at a crystal circular table in a modern-looking kitchen. The wall to my right had a tall window, displaying the sun of the Bahamas; obviously, an enchantment. What I wouldn't do to be under the Bahama sun.

Three stacks of ribs were plated on a plate that matched the table, the chair, and basically every other piece of furniture in this freakishly bright room. All I could smell was lemon, which was the aroma from the room, and the barbecue sauce that was slathered on top of the meat.

"Yes," I exclaimed as I dug in. Flower and Sam sat with me, though they weren't eating as savagely as I was. I wasn't fed very well when on bed rest. "I have something important to say," I slurred through bites. "Just give me, like, 3 minutes tops."

Not looking up to see if they acknowledged me, I narrowed my greedy eyes on the delicious ribs and attacked. By the time I was done, there was sauce up to my elbows, and probably covering half of my face. Flower held a wet wipe in her hand, then slid it across the table in my direction. I nodded my thanks as I began wiping the sticky sauce off of my face and arms.

When I was done, I pushed the plate to my right, folded my hands in front of me, and flickered my eyes between the two of them. "I'm going to find Zeke," I began.

"Okay." I read Flower's lips. After telling her for the thousandth time that she needed to speak slower around me, she finally began doing it. In fact, sometimes she spoke so slow, I could take a ten minute nap and not miss a word.

I cleared my throat. "Alone."

They both stiffened. Flower started talking at the same time that Sam began signing at me. Overwhelmed, I didn't know where to look.

I raised my hands to stop them. "One at a time, please."

Flower went first. "You're still weak. You can't go alone."

Sam signed for me; 'it's too dangerous. You can't shift yet.'

"I know. I know. I just... need to do this on my own. It's risky, sure, but I have to. Honestly, Mel's probably bored of me by now, anyway. She doesn't need to look out for me. They have the amulet; they don't need me anymore."

Flower leaned forward, a frown marring her pink lips. "I don't like it, Beta Crystal. At all."

I grabbed both of their hands, squeezing them. "Look, I have to do this on my own. Seriously. I'll be perfectly fine. And if not? Well, that will suck."

Flower and Sam exchanged a look. They did that sometimes; spoke without actually speaking words. It was freaky how they could read each others minds. "Will you take a new phone? Update us."