He was sitting with his long legs straight out, his skin even paler than before. Perspiration beaded on his upper lip.
"You know, I'm not really sure it didn't bite me," he said.
Thea knew-and knew Eric knew-that it had. Rattlers did sometimes strike without biting, and did sometimes bite without injecting venom. But not this time. What she couldn't believe was that any human would care enough about a snake to let a bite go untreated.
"Let me see your leg," she said.
"Actually, I think maybe you'd better just call the paramedics."
"Please let me see." She kept her voice gentle, kneeling in front of him, reaching slowly. The way she'd approach a scared animal. He held still, letting her roll up his jeans leg.
There it was, the little double wound in the tanned skin. Not much blood. But surrounded by swelling already. Even if she ran back to the school, even if the paramedics broke every speed law, it wouldn't be fast enough. Sure, they'd save his life, but his leg would swell up like a sausage and turn purple and he'd have days of unbelievable pain.
Except that Thea had in her hand an Isis bloodstone. A deep red carnelian engraved with a scarab, symbol of the Egyptian Queen goddess, Isis. The ancient Egyptians had put the stones at the feet of mummies; Blaise used it to heighten passion. But it was also the most powerful purifier of the blood in existence.
Eric groaned suddenly. His arm was over his eyes, and Thea knew what he must be feeling. Weakness, nausea, disorientation. She felt sorry for him, but his confusion would actually work to her advantage.
She pressed her hand to the wounds, the carnelian hidden between her tightly closed fingers. Then she started to hum under her breath, visualizing what she wanted to happen. The thing about gems was that they didn't work on their own. They were just a means of raising psychic power, focusing it, and directing it to a certain purpose.
Find the poison, surround it, dispel it. Purify and eliminate. Then encourage the body's natural defenses. Finally, soothe away the swelling and redness, sending the blood back where it belonged.
As she knelt there, feeling the sun on the back of her head, she suddenly realized that she'd never done this before. She'd healed animals-puppies with toad poisoning and cats with spider bites-but never a person. Funny how she'd known instinctively that she could do it. She'd almost felt that she had to do it.
She sat back on her heels, pocketing the bloodstone. "How are you feeling?"
"Huh?" He took his arm away from his eyes. "Sorry-I think I sort of blanked out there for a minute."
Good, Thea thought. "But how do you feel now?"
He looked at her as if he were struggling under pressure to be gentle. He was going to explain to her that people who got bitten by rattlesnakes felt sick. But then his expression changed. "I feel... it's weird... I think maybe it's gone numb." He peered doubtfully at his calf.
"No, you were just lucky. You didn't get bitten."
"What?" He scrambled to roll his jeans leg up higher. Then he just stared. The flesh was smooth and unmarked, with just the slightest trace ot redness left. "I was sure..."
He lifted his eyes to hers.
It was the first time Thea had really gotten a chance to look at him. He was a nice-looking guy, lean and sandy-haired and sweet-faced. Long legs. And those eyes... deep green with gray flecks. Just now they were both intense and bewildered, like those of a startled kid.
"How'd you do that?" he said.
Thea was shocked speechless.
He wasn't supposed to respond like this. What was wrong with him? When she could talk again, she said, "I didn't do anything."
"Yes, you did," he said, and now his eyes were clear and direct, full of an odd conviction. Suddenly his expression changed to something like wonder. "You... there's something so different about you."
He leaned forward slowly, as if entranced. And then... Thea experienced an odd duality. She was used to seeing herself through the eyes of animals: a big, hairless creature in false skins. But now she saw herself as Eric saw her. A kneeling girl with yellow hair falling loose over her shoulders and soft brown eyes. A face that was too gentle, with a very worried expression.
"You're... beautiful," Eric said, still wondering. "I've never seen anybody... but it's like there's a mist all around you. You're so mysterious...."
A huge quivering stillness seemed to hang over the desert. Thea's heart was beating so hard that it shook her body. What was happening?
"It's like you're part of everything out here," he said in that wise, childlike voice. "You belong to it. And there's so much peace...."
"No," Thea said. There was no peace at all in her. She was terrified. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew she had to get away.
"Don't go," he said, when she shifted. He had the stricken expression of a heartbroken puppy.
And then... he reached for her. Not roughly. His fingers didn't close on her wrist. They just brushed the back of her hand, sliding away when she jerked.
But it didn't matter. That light touch had raised all the hairs on Thea's forearm. And when she looked back into the gray-flecked green eyes, she knew he'd felt it, too.
A sort of piercing sweetness, a dizzying exhilaration. And-a connection. As if something deeper than words was being communicated.
I know you. I see what you see....
Almost without knowing what she was doing, Thea raised her hand. Fingertips slightly outspread, as if she were going to touch a mirror or a ghost. He brought his hand up, too. They were staring at each other.
And then, just before then- fingers made contact, Thea felt a jolt of panic like ice water.
What was she doing? Had she lost her mind?
Suddenly everything was clear-too clear. Her future stretched out before her, every detail sharp. Death for breaking Night World law. Herself centered in the Inner Circle, trying to explain that she hadn't meant to betray their secrets, that she hadn't meant to... to get close to a human. That it was all a mistake, just a moment of stupidity because she'd wanted to heal him. And them bringing the Cup of Death anyway.
The vision was so clear it seemed like a prophecy. Thea jumped up as if the ground had lurched underneath her, and she did the only thing she could think of to do.
She said scathingly, "Are you nuts? Or is your brain just overheated or something?"