Chapter 31 Dark Street Air
Dark Street Air
Liam’s POV
I grabbed him before he could fall. I carried him to the bed immediately and placed him there.
“Dylan.” I got both hands on his shoulders and held him upright, his body curling against the pressure in his chest, his breathing shallow and faint. “Dylan, look at me.”
He looked at me but his eyes were glassy, struggling to focus, like he was trying to stay present in a room that kept moving away. His hands were still pressed flat against his chest, his knuckles pale with the force of it.
“Where is it paining you?” I kept my voice even because panic from me would make everything worse. “Tell me where it is.”
He wanted to speak but he couldn’t say a word.
I moved the tray off the bed in one motion and got him lying down, his head on the pillow, and leaned over him with my hand against the side of his face. His skin was cold and damp and his breathing had the thinness of someone whose body was working very hard to stay alive. I tried using my healing power to revive him but it didn’t help much, it just helped him to stay conscious.
Then he started vomiting some whitish substance, that was when it dawned on me that I had seen this before. A long time ago, in a different century, in a room that smelled of herbs and candle smoke where poisons are made. A poison that worked through the chest first, squeezing inward, designed to weaken the organs and kill slowly.
I rushed out to the balcony, touched the tea which was splashed on the floor and smelled it. It had the scent of tea but something was fishy. I rushed inside and picked up the telephone to call the room service to call an ambulance, but as I picked up the phone, Dylan held my hand.
“Don’t call anyone.” He said.
“You got poisoned, what do you mean I shouldn’t call them?” I asked.
“I’m telling you that I would be fine.” He said, trying hard to breathe.
I had to put the phone down and I sat beside him, cleaning the substance from his mouth. I pressed my mouth over his and breathed in air inside his mouth. That’s probably what he would think that I was doing but I was actually giving him my energy. I was giving him three centuries of whatever kept me alive. His body resisted but then his chest started beating normally again and again until the resistance diminished with each attempt until his breathing found a new level, still thin but moving, his chest rising and falling with more regularity than before.
I watched him getting back to his normal self gradually while I caressed his face.
After an hour, he came back fully. His fingers uncurling from where he pressed against his chest, his legs shifting slightly. Then he coughed and something dark and thin came out of his mouth and I cleaned it away.
He opened his eyes properly and looked at me.
He coughed again, but nothing came out, his body had cleared everything out. I helped him sit up and held a glass of water to his mouth and he drank slowly, his hands coming up to wrap around mine on the glass.
“What was all that?” He asked.
“What?” I asked. “There was poison in that tea.”
“Not that, how did I suddenly become alright? When you kissed me, it felt like something came inside and carried it away?” He asked.
“It’s nothing, I just thought about that and did what I could.” I lied and I hoped he didn’t see through the cracks.
He didn’t say anything for a moment, more like he was trying to process what I just told him. Then he looked at me steadily, more like he didn’t believe what I said and was trying to find a crack. “Are you hiding something from me?
“Not at all,” I said, trying to maintain eye contact. “You should get some sleep, we didn’t get enough sleep at night and this morning as well.” I said and he nodded in agreement.
He slept on and off, which I didn’t complain because his body needed it. I sat in the chair beside the bed and watched him to make sure he was safe. Where did things start going wrong? Who is Dylan? I had to ask myself that because I have been living my life for years without any interference from other spiritual beings, but ever since we got involved, it had been chaotic. I thought about the symbol on the chocolate packaging, the tagger in the woman’s hand and the voice in the corridor that had known his name and everything that had been building around us.
What was so special about him that someone had been constructing this for a long time, placing pieces, testing our responses, moving closer in increments?
In the evening, I personally ordered food for Dylan and made sure they tested them before he had it. Though he walked slowly, he was regaining himself. We talked quietly and laughed when one of us cracked a joke.
When his breathing deepened and his eyes finally closed properly around ten, I waited another thirty minutes before I moved out to get him medication to at least help his body clear whatever remained inside. I looked out through the window and the light of a pharmacy I had seen on the street was still on.
I took a sticky note and wrote that I would be back in five minutes.
When I stepped out of the hotel, the night air was so cold that I could tuck my palms in my jacket pocket.
I walked quickly, scanning the street automatically as I crossed. But I got nothing unusual until I noticed a lady down the street to the left, standing in the gap between two buildings where the light didn’t reach properly. She stood with that stillness that wasn’t human, her hands at her sides, her nails catching the faint ambient light from the street.
I looked at her and then I looked away and walked directly into the pharmacy.
I moved through the aisles with purpose, collecting what I needed, keeping my awareness on the door behind me. The shop was quiet, one other customer was at the far end, and the counter worker was reading something on his phone. I brought everything to the counter and set it down and waited while he scanned it.
Then I noticed something like air behind me. I turned around and I didn’t see anyone.
The counter worker finished scanning the last item and looked up at me. “That’s been taken care of.”
I looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“Someone just paid.” He gestured vaguely toward the door. “He said to tell you to have a good night's rest.”
I looked at the door but couldn’t see anyone. I picked up the bag and went outside.
I looked left, right, down both sides of the street, into the gaps between buildings but no one was there. The woman who had been standing in the dark to the left was gone too.
The feeling arrived low in my stomach, older than I thought, it was a warning signal. What if the lady is the same as blood hunter and Dylan was alone in the hotel room.
I ran toward the road. I was almost three steps to the other side of the road when I heard the engine, close and accelerating. A car was coming from the left where the road curved and the headlights hadn’t shown yet.
I couldn’t move fast enough without showing what I was.
The car came around the bend but then… Someone grabbed me by the back of my jacket and pulled, hard and sudden, and I was back on the pavement before the car passed close enough that I felt the displaced air from it hit my face.