Wild Night Road(31)

Lilith paced, chewing on her lower lip. While they’d hustled Erin inside, the redhead had floated in and out of consciousness, as evidenced by her slurred speech and repeated question, “Whuz goin on?”
Tasha dug into her oversized leather handbag, pulling out a small white plastic bottle with a blue label. “Erin’s head must be killing her. I know mine is.” She rose and headed toward the galley kitchen at the rear of the cabin. “Is the tap water safe to drink?”
Lilith halted her pacing. “Don’t give her anything.”
“Why not?”
She hesitated. How much more high strangeness could Tasha take right now? Not a lot, in Lilith’s opinion. When she’d told Tasha that Erin was likely suffering the effects of alcohol and rich food that had been before she’d gotten a good look at the woman’s aura.
The gray color she’d noticed was bad. It meant Erin had lost some of her life energy, the kind that was difficult-to-impossible to retrieve. But when that happened, there was usually a reason, and the thing sucking life out of the human was glaringly obvious. Any hearthwitch could perform the extraction.
Normally.
Not a lot of normal was in evidence lately.
Proper procedure dictated a witch locate the demon or spectral energy form that had latched onto the human and remove it as fast as possible. The deeper and more widespread the gray shading of the aura, the more vital essence the subject had lost. If it hadn’t gone too far, most people survived the ordeal.
Erin hadn’t reached the point of no return. Yet.
“A little ibuprofen won’t hurt her and might help,” Tasha said.
“Let me look at the bottle.” Lilith took it from Tasha and made a show of studying the contents. Synthetic pharmaceuticals often weakened the life force and so were generally a bad idea when dealing with a soul sucker.
Tasha rested on hand on her hip. “Plain ol’ generic stuff.”
Lilith passed it back to her with a sniff. “Don’t give her any.”
Looking around, Tasha said, “Where’s your medical degree?”
Should she tell her it was from the Sorbonne? Circa 1923?
Probably not.
“She’s your friend,” Lilith said. “It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t.”
Tasha tossed the small container up and down like a small ball a couple of times then sighed and tossed it on the round dining table.
Lilith started toward the ladder to the sleeping loft, congratulating herself. Maybe this new plan of letting idiots make their own choices was a good thing. Who knew? It might even work.
“This is beautiful,” Tasha said.
Lilith looked down from the third rung of the ladder. Tasha held up a large white feather, and the knots in Lilith’s heart began to harden again.
“Do you collect them?”
“No,” Lilith said in a harsh voice. “Put it down.”
Doing so, Tasha frowned. “Are you all right?”
The rune at Lilith’s throat burned again, as it had so many times this night. She’d ignored it, but she couldn’t any longer. The feather must have been here a little under twenty-four hours, and was the second one she’d seen.
Gaebryl’s signal.
One she’d been ignoring to the best of her ability, but if she didn’t respond soon, he’d be pissed.
Like that was any different from his normal temperament.
Like she had time to deal with a primadona seraphim.
Like she had any choice.
She sighed deeply and slid down the ladder, glanced at the old wooden clock on the rough mantle. Nearly 2 AM. If she hurried, she could make it to see Gaebryl and be back before dawn. With any luck, Tasha and Erin would sleep. Tomorrow, there would be time. Tomorrow, they could figure out what to do.
Tasha’s body was stiff and her expression had taken on what Lilith was coming to realize was a very stubborn look. She smiled. Stubborn was good. Tasha would need every bit of stubborn to deal with Gideon and Owen.
“You must be very tired and I haven’t been exactly forthcoming about…a lot of things,” Lilith said.
“Yes, and yes.”
Lilith gestured at the bottle of ibuprofen. “Pharmaceuticals are great in some circumstances, however I have a remedy I think might be better for your friend. Something that’s been in my family a long time.”
“Sounds good,” Tasha said, “as long as it’s safe.”
“It is. Safe. But I need to go collect a few ingredients.”
Tasha glanced toward the door. “You mean outside? In the woods? At this hour?”
“We shouldn’t wait.”
“Okay,” Tasha said doubtfully. She eyed the ladder leading up to the sleeping loft. “Do you mind if I crash up there?”
“Not at all. Get some rest. We’ll talk when I get back.”