Gathering of Angels(27)

Claire smiled. “You always have a way of getting straight to the point. Yes, there is, and I wish you weren’t in the middle of it.”

“Too late.” She ran one hand over Claire’s hair, lifted the snarled ends. “I’m guessing you’ve been busy, since you’re dressed like a refugee from a cut-rate spa and you look like ten miles of bad road. Where’s Marcus? I’ve been trying to call him for hours . . .” Her voice faded, tears blurring her eyes as she looked down at her left hand. For the first time, Claire saw the sapphire on her finger. A beautiful blue teardrop embraced by two round amethysts. Even without her power, she could see the spark from it. The spark of Annie’s power. “What’s wrong with him, Claire?”

“He was injured, protecting us.” She closed her hand over Annie’s, not feeling the heat that she knew must be emanating from the ring. “He is dying. And I can’t stop it.”





TEN



Annie lowered herself to the bed, tears stinging her eyes. She blinked them back, forced a smile when Marcus opened his eyes.

“Hey,” she said. It took everything she had not to recoil when she looked into the death shadowing those green depths. “I heard you played the hero.”

“Not the outcome I—expected.” The few words left him breathless, leached what little color he had left in his face. It turned, for one hideously long second, into a death mask. Then he took in a harsh breath, an unnatural flush edging his cheeks. “Did not want to involve you, but I—discovered the truth too late.”

“No need to apologize. I’m here, and I’m going find out what the hell is going on.”

“You have seen Claire?” he whispered.

Annie stared down at her hands. “I cried like Miss America when I saw her.”

“What an—embarrassment.”

“Smartass.” A smile touched his lips. “Up for a little water?” He nodded, and she grabbed the bottle off the side table, slipping one arm behind his head. She lifted him just enough for him to take a couple of sips, startled by the heat that poured off him. Carefully, she lowered him back to the pillow, brushed lank black curls off his cheek. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

“Fatal.”

Annie closed her eyes, fought to control the need to cry. “There has to be something—”

“There is—not.”

“Hey, old man.” Eric’s quiet voice had tears filling her eyes. She looked up at him, and saw what she called his diagnosis face. He laid two fingers on Marcus’ wrist, checking his pulse, then moved around the bed to his left side. “Can I take a peek?”

“There is nothing—”

“Let me be the judge of that.” Eric studied the swollen skin around the blood soaked bandage. Reddish black streaks followed the line of his muscle, outlined the veins in his forearm. “Does it burn? Throb?”

“Both. Diagnosed by a—vet. Again.” A smile touched his mouth. He let out a hoarse gasp when Eric touched his arm, recoiled when he started probing around the wound. Eric followed, pinning his wrist to the bed. “Gods—please—”

“One more second—” As promised, he let go, ran one hand through his sun streaked hair. “If I were asked, I would say you have a raging case of blood poisoning. And for that there is something that can be done.”

Hope burned through her despair. “Are you sure?”

“There are treatments. But only if he agrees, and there isn’t much time for him to think about it. So you’ll have to decide, old man. Soon.” Eric touched her shoulder and she followed him to the door. “It may already be too late. No,” he stopped her before she could protest. “I have to give you every scenario, including worst case. The poison—whatever it is—has already spread, faster than it should have, given the amount of time. I’ll do everything I can, but you have to prepare yourself. And you’ll have to tell Claire—”

“No.” Marcus’ raw voice turned them around. “Claire is not to know—you will not give her hope where there is none.”

“Marcus.” Annie moved to the bed, froze when he jerked away from her reaching hand. “You can’t just give up—”

“My choice.” Swallowing, he closed his eyes. “Please go.”

Anger snapped through her. “Don’t you dare shut me out, Jinn.” He stared at her, color flooding his face. “Yeah, I know what you are. I did some research. Now listen carefully, I’m only going to say this once.” Leaning over him, she braced her hands on the bed. “You aren’t going to crawl in a corner and die, no matter how much you want to. Not only would it destroy Claire—” her voice caught, and his flinch told her she finally hit the right button. “It’ll piss me off, because by giving up, you let whatever’s terrorizing this town win.”