Had she been dreaming it again? Or had her friends really came to her rescue? Or was she still in Shroud’s basement?
Warm hands brushed the hair away from her face before something warm and wet replaced them. Gently, it worked its way down her neck, her chest – which stung a little – and her arms. Someone started stripping away her clothes that stuck to her skin and smelt, somehow, metallic.
Her whole body tensed at the sound of a male’s voice, some part of her expected it to be Shroud’s cool, accented voice but it wasn’t. It sounded almost like Jack. ‘Please don’t let it be a dream. Please, don’t let it be a dream’, she found herself wishing.
The fog in her head cleared at last and the weight that had kept her eyes shut was gone. Ruth’s eyes snapped open and they watched as Nikita stripped off her dirty clothes, cleaned the skin beneath and put on fresh warm clothes.
“Oh, you’re awake.” She smiled.
Ruth croaked, “Where am I?”
“We’re still at Megan’s. How’s your eye?”
“What?”
“You’re blue eye. Just before you passed out, it glowed brightly and you said something about… bones.”
“I saw them, right through your skin.” Ruth remembered, as Nikita helped her sit up. “Why is that?”
“Megan and I have a theory. Do you want to hear it?”
“Sure, I’m all ears.”
“Well, remember when I got hit by that bazooka and I was forcing my healing powers to work faster.”
“You got that extra blue stripe in your hair.”
“Right, we think it’s the same with you. May be you were forcing yourself to heal a little last night. But it’s not glowing so bright any more.”
“And I can’t see what’s beneath your skin.” Ruth moaned. “So if I get hurt again and force the healing, it’ll do that again?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“I thought I heard Jack.”
“He’s just gone to make you some breakfast. Megan’s taking care of Frost’s body for me.”
“So she’s dead?”
“Yeah.” Nikita said awkwardly, not meeting Ruth’s gaze.
“Where are Mason and Jesse?” Ruth asked to change the subject.
“They’re unloading the van. Looks like we’re setting up shop here.”
“Shouldn’t we be going after Shroud? He’ll be coming for us, I’m sure.”
“You need to rest first. No overexerting yourself, okay? We’re taking today off.”
“But…”
“We know, Ruth. It’s been an intense couple of days – to say the least – we’re just having a time out before the big face off with Shroud and his crew.”
“You know who we go after once we’re done with Shroud, right?”
“How can I forget? She tried to blow us up, remember?”
“Actually… I wasn’t talking about Mama.”
“Then who…? Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Him.”
“Exactly. What do you want to do about him?”
“Why does it matter?”
YOU ARE READING
Close To Embers (formerly known as Modern Love)
Science FictionSP: Double crossed, cheated, victimised and torn - yet the girls are still standing strong. LP: Not even a week had passed since the girls had parted ways to do Mama Goody's bidding. They were successful, if not unorthodox, in their roles. Flame...
