Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 46

"The whole leg?"

"Most of it." She plopped another spoonful of instant mashed potatoes onto his plate. "I guess the demon got tired of carrying it.

What do you figure; snack or weapon?"

"Either. Both."

"Yeah. So you're not going to have time to close all those new weak spots, are you?"

"Not if I have to lie around here much longer." Since he couldn't walk to the can and back without holding the walls, lying around seemed like the best bet.

"If you don't take time to recover, Henry says you'll die and then where will we be? At least with you alive when they come through, we have a chance. What do you think they'll look like?"

"Who?"

She rolled her eyes. "The new demons, dips.h.i.t."

"What difference does it make?"

"I'm curious, okay?"

"Leah says the more human evil looks the more dangerous it is."

"More dangerous than that one we chased from the coffee shop? d.a.m.ned thing had tentacles and claws and spikes and mouths in weird places and..."

He held up a hand to cut short the litany. "Maybe it works better as a metaphor in this case."

"Ooooo, metaphors." Burgundy lips pursed. "Someone doesn't want to be a TAD all his life."

"I want to direct." "You and half the lower mainland. Come on, sleepyhead, back to bed."

Next time he woke up, he definitely felt stronger. Still punctured, bruised, and unable to use his left hand, but stronger. There was a bit of blood soaked through the dressing on his side, but he could walk without holding the walls and he remembered to chew his food-at least as much as he ever did. He was back in control of his body instead of the other way around. But what would it hurt to give Jack and Leah the day to detail the weak spots? It would probably speed things up when he got back out there wizarding.

While Amy spooned red Jell-O into bowls, Tony phoned Zev because he wanted to talk about something that wasn't demonic, something normal. Too soon, he found he had almost nothing to say.

Depressing?

No s.h.i.t, Sherlock.

As the apartment grew dark, he realized he was running out of time.

"I know that look."

"What look?"

She c.o.c.ked her head and snorted. "The 'I'm about to do something stupid' look. Henry said I'm not to give you your laptop."

It didn't matter; he could call it to his hand no matter where it was.

It didn't matter; he didn't want it.

"I'm just going to lie down again."

"And sleep."

"Sure."

He closed his eyes. Concentrated. Twenty-four soon-to-be-arriving demons had a way of focusing the mind.

He needed to find the square hole to his square peg.

Or was he a round peg in a round hole?

He couldn't remember and wasn't sure it mattered.

If pain was a compulsory part of defining his place in the universe, he had it to spare. His wrist ached. Add it to the definition. His side hurt. Add it to the definition. His nose itched. What the h.e.l.l...

The universe began to take shape around him.

There.

No.

There!

This is pain. This is me. The part that doesn't hurt, that isn't me.

And this is how those parts fit together.Ladies and gentlemen, we are the world.

He really didn't have much time, but a quick look around from this vantage point might pick up some useful insights. Allowing his consciousness to move out from his body, he brushed against Amy and smiled to see her spirit as a blazing tower of light. Kind of like six or seven of those big opening night searchlights all shining up at the same point.

His wards were a gleaming crimson cage around the apartment, promising safety and danger simultaneously. Tony hoped they were supposed to, but what the h.e.l.l did he know? Way too many of the last few scenes were being shot on the fly.

Beyond the wards, another tower of light blazed so brilliantly he didn't need contact to see it.

Henry.

Weird that a Nightwalker's spirit would be so bright.

Not weird at all considering it was Henry's.

Henry.

c.r.a.p.

No more time to play tourist.

No more time to be an invalid.

Sinking back into his own body, he took a calming breath and forced himself to relax into his place in the universe, his square and/or round hole.

Hesitated.

Remembered.

Bad idea.

Trying not to brace against the antic.i.p.ated pain, he healed his wrist and the wounds the shrubbery had gouged in his side.

And then he rode that distilled pain deeper. He could see the contradiction in using magic to heal the damage the use of magic had caused. He could also see how to get around it. His back bowed until only his head and his heels were touching the mattress. Just before he lost consciousness, he heard Henry's voice and was glad Amy wouldn't have to explain the screaming on her own.

Chapter Fourteen.

TONY WAS HEARING VOICES. All things considered, that hardly seemed worth getting worked up about, so he lay there, drifting just below consciousness and listened to the rhythmic rise and fall of sound. After a while, he realized there were words involved.

Loud words.

"I said he was no use to us injured; that doesn't mean I told him to heal himself, and it doesn't mean he'd listen to me if I had told him, so just back off."

Previous Contents NextA woman's voice. He knew that voice.

Leah.

"I don't see the downside, guys." He knew that voice, too. Knew it better. Trusted it more. Amy. "Okay, he's gonna have to pig out again and get his strength back, but then he'll be good to go, and that'll happen a lot faster than it would have taken for his arm to heal."

His point exactly.

"Thank you," Leah agreed.

"This doesn't mean I'm on your side," Amy snorted. "I'm just saying."

"And what if, in his weakened state, his heart had given out? Or a blood vessel had burst in his brain? You couldn't hear his body fighting to survive what he'd done to it. I could." A new voice. A man's voice. A really, really p.i.s.sed-off voice. Tony had been thinking about maybe trying to open his eyes, but it suddenly seemed smarter to wait until Henry had calmed down a little.

Leah sighed. "The point is, Henry, he did survive. He gambled and he won."

"He had no idea of what the stakes were."

"He's trying to keep the world from being overrun by demons. He's trying to prevent a ma.s.s slaughter of innocents. He knows how high the stakes are."

"And how could he have done that if he killed himself?"

"But he didn't kill himself! Have you always been such a pessimist?"

Oh, yeah. That was going to calm him right down. Realizing that if he waited for Henry he'd be lying here all night, he forced his eyes open. Leah and Henry were facing off by the table. Amy stood a careful distance away, leaning on the counter.

"Hey." It came out less like a word and more like a cough, but it was enough to get the attention of everyone in the room. "I smell honey garlic..." He needed a second breath to finish. "... ribs."

Amy grinned. "Leah stopped for Chinese. You hungry?"

"Star..." Catching sight of Henry's expression, Tony decided that admitting he was starving might not be the best response. "I could eat... a horse."

"That's too bad; she stopped at the good place." Grabbing a towel off the counter, Amy opened the oven door. "I stuck it in here to keep it warm."

"How domestic."

"Oh, about this much. It's a mess in here by the way. You should clean your oven."

"I figured I'd just... move."

"Men are disgusting," Leah announced stepping over to the bed. She pulled a can of nutritional supplement out of her shoulder bag, popped the tab, and held it out. "Drink this first. It'll take the edge off and keep you from choking."

Although nothing hurt, he was embarra.s.singly weak and just starting to wonder about sitting up when Henry's arm slid under his back and lifted him up to lean against the pile of rearranged pillows. "You're good at that."

"Too much practice." "It was my choice, Henry."

The vampire's eyes were shadowed. "I know. But she suspected you'd try a healing when you were strong enough. She could have warned me or stopped you."

"She is the cat's mother," Leah muttered.

"My grandma used to say that." Amy appeared beside her holding a plate of food. "So you shouldn't. And you..." She switched her attention to Tony. "... should drink that so you can eat so you can get your strength back, so you can get back out there and kick demon a.s.s."

Henry watched him while he drank. The supplement was supposed to taste like chocolate. It didn't. It tasted the way people who'd never had chocolate thought chocolate might taste based on descriptions of the cheap waxy s.h.i.t they sculpted into rabbits at Easter.

Henry watched him while Leah quickly unwound the bandage on his left wrist and he flexed the fingers, checking that everything worked the way it was supposed to.

Henry watched him while he forked Chinese food into his mouth. Actually, all three of them watched, but Henry's gaze was the heaviest. Leah kept her expression neutral-probably so as not to provoke Henry-and Amy made pig noises.

"Want more?" she asked when he finished. "Never mind." She took the empty plate before he could reply. "Stupid question."

Beginning to feel better, Tony sat up straight and Leah leaned in to remove the gauze wrapped around his torso. Henry's hands were there first. She backed up, her own raised in exaggerated surrender.

Tony shivered as cool fingers touched his skin, checking that the punctures had healed and the bruises were gone. They lingered last against his throat where the bite mark had been. This time it was gone. The skin was smooth.

"Your choice," Henry said softly and straightened.

"What just happened?" Amy demanded as she set another filled plate of food on Tony's lap.

"Our little boy just grew up."

Pausing just long enough to glare in Leah's direction, Tony dug in as Amy snorted.