Chapter 9

"Right," I said agreeing to her points. Luckily I had some ideas of who was left in my gang to get in contact with, namely our accountant, Karl Meyer. But there was one thing I needed to know more about first, before leaving the brothers to track down the cure. "Could you tell me a bit more about the poison itself?"

"I thought I made it clear your subordinates were running out of time," said Natasha somewhat impatiently.

"Yes, and your point was well made, but any information you can give me about it will help a friend of mine take care of them while I am gone."

"When we are gone."

My initial response was that she should stay here in my apartment for now. She didn't know the area as well as I did, and more importantly she was clearly not human in appearance. Before I said as much, however, I considered the potential benefits of having her along. While I assumed Karl was still off the radar of the other dark elves out there, I couldn't say with certainty that I wouldn't encounter them on my way to or from the accountants place. Having backup along, especially backup familiar with the tactics of the dark elves like Natasha was, could only be a good thing if that were to happen. Given her appearance, however, staying in her baggy clothes and with her hood up was going to be necessary so she didn't attract attention.

"Alright, when we are gone then," I agreed. "But you will have to follow my lead and not attract attention to yourself. Can you do that?"

"Absolutely," she said with an excited smile that showed off her fangs.

"Alright. Then after you tell me about the poison, I'll check on the brothers and get my doctor friend down the hall to watch over them, and then we can go."

"Fine, but I don't think it will matter," she said with a sigh. She looked up and to the side, almost like she was reading off a list of some sort. "Though I do not know the name of the poison itself, what I have learned about it is that it will attack the organs of the individual afflicted with it, gradually breaking them down over time. Not even healing abilities will be enough to cure the poison, since it only gets more virulent with the addition of mana. Right now they are in the stage of unconsciousness, with fever dreams soon to follow. From now until they get access to the cure, they will not be likely to wake up either." She looked me in the eyes. "Since I don't use it, all we can hope is that we will come across one of the other groups that use it, since they will be likely to have the cure."

"I see." It was a good thing I hadn't attempted to use my new class ability on the brothers, since it would apparently have made their situation worse. Looks like I would just have to hope that we would come across another group of dark elves sooner rather than later. Shit. I now wish I had grabbed some guns and ammo last night on the way out. Though they weren't very effective against the dark elves, it would have been better than nothing. Still, without knowing if they had had reinforcements in the area, I think I ended up making the right decision to get us out of there while I could.

"So? Are you going to go check on them so we can get going?" Natasha asked. She shifted from foot to foot, clearly excited to get out of the apartment and experience more of my world without worrying about staying hidden away during the day.

I nodded, turning to go check on the brothers, but my eyes came to rest on her hand as I did so. Actually, it would probably be a good idea to see if I could get my new ability to work or not. The healing side of it at least.

"Actually, could I try an ability that came with my class first?"

Natasha froze, eyebrows furrowed, looking a bit nervous. "What kind of ability?"

"It is called Bloodburst." I explained. "It's a class ability that lets me heal you, though it doesn't work on status ailments."

"Oh," she said, visibly relaxing, "I've heard of that one before. Sure, go ahead."

She held out her injured hand to me, and I took it in my own. I marvel once more at how calloused her fingers are, yet also how soft and warm they are to my touch. Not knowing exactly what I was doing, I tried focusing on my intent to use the ability now that her hand was in mine. Concentrating hard on what I wanted to happen with my ability, I focused on the scab of her injured hand, willing it to heal.

She let out a slight grunt as the small would closed up in front of our eyes. For my part, I felt slightly more tired, but not appreciably so. Perhaps it would be more draining to do a more significant injury?

"Thanks," she said, clearly not surprised or awed by the healing I had just done. Likely she had seen others in her clan, perhaps even her family, do far more wondrous things before.

While I nodded, keeping my calm on the outside, inside my head I experiencing a blur of rapid thoughts. I had an ability that allowed me to heal others. I had just used it and I could use it again. While encountering and fighting the dark elves was amazing enough, it was so outside of the typical that it hadn't really driven home the changes coming in me yet. But this ability, that allowed me to heal others, was something I had directly done.

In the next second, everything came crashing down in my mind. I remembered the text of the quest I had been issued. Despite the wondrous nature of my new ability, and the potential good it could do for so many, it would be the better choice to keep it quiet for now and safe with those few he could trust absolutely. To do otherwise would risk the possibility of attracting the attention of people far higher up the food chain, leading to a loss of freedom at best and excruciating experimentation or worse. Yes, I would definitely keep this under wraps, at least for now.

"Sure thing," I said, having made my decision. "Could you clean up here while I go check on the brothers? After that, I'll check in with my doctor friend and we can head out."

With her agreement, I left her in the kitchen to tidy up a bit. The brothers lay in roughly the same positions in my bed that I had left them in last night. Lying still, and looking to hardly be breathing, I checked their pulses. Their skin was a bit warm, but their heart rates were steady. Even a medically unaware person like myself could tell that they were in a bit worse shape than last night. Since Natasha had said they likely wouldn't wake up before being given the cure, I wouldn't have to worry about giving them food for now. Perhaps Henry would be able to give them some chicken broth while he watched over them today?

Relatively assured that they were stable for now, it was time to go check on Henry. Though he would not really be able to do anything for them, I knew I would feel better if they were at least watched by someone I trusted.

Leaving the bedroom, I made my way out of my apartment. As I closed the door behind me, I heard some clinking of dishes from my kitchen and the sound of spraying water, followed by some muffled cursing. Though I had few dishes, I couldn't help chuckling to myself of the mental image of Natasha accidently spraying herself with water at my sink. I did make sure not to let me chuckles out before I was a bit down the hall, however. I thought our working relationship was starting to develop well, and I didn't want her to lash out at me in perceived embarrassment.

As I walked down the hall to Henry's door, I made a mental list of everything I would need to do today. After getting Henry to watch the brothers, I would be spending time with Natasha for the rest of the day. Hopefully learning a bit more about the Framework as I did so. We would go to contact Karl Meyer, the bookie of the Night Wolves and the next in command now that the boss was dead. If I had time, we could go see about gathering the rest of the low level members of the Night Wolves as well. But that could wait if meeting with Karl ended up taking to long.

Long term I would need to eliminate the threat of the dark elves in the city, given how they were coming after me and the rest of the Night Wolves. Most likely that would meaning killing them all before they killed us, but time would tell if that was what actually happened. Regardless, that was an issue for the days ahead, not now.

Now knowing what I needed to get done with for the day, I reached out and knocked on Henry's apartment door.