Chapter 16

I held onto Megan tightly for a few moments letting her anchor me as my mind spun with everything that had happened. I had killed something, not that I felt bad about it, it was a monster that would have torn that girl apart. It was just my first time killing anything bigger than a cockroach. I was surprised that I didn't feel anything.

Then again the lack of a body made it all seem surreal.

"Arnie?" the woman I had saved called out worriedly. Her voice was weak but now that she was safe she seemed more concerned for another.

It was only after hearing her voice that I remembered that there should be someone else here. I released Megan after placing a kiss on her forehead then turned to scan the room. The apartment had the same layout as my own. The entrance led to the living room, to the left of the door was a smaller space that could act as a dining room. The kitchen was just past the dining room against the same wall as the entrance while a hallway led past the kitchen to a pair of bedrooms. The living room had a large brown couch, and a matching pair of recliners stuffed into the small space facing a big screen mounted on the wall. The living room was a mess. The ash that had once been the twisted was in the center of the room while the rest of the furniture looked like it had been partially smashed and shoved away.

Since the living room was where I found them I started looking there. I moved over to where the couch lay, clearly broken in half and turned over so the seats were facing the ground. Just a single step towards the couch was all I needed to see far enough past the couch to catch sight of the boyfriend, or at least I assumed it was the boyfriend. It was easy to tell it was a man from his size. Unfortunately several of his limbs were so bent they had to be broken in several places.

I hurried to his side pressing down on the couch to steady myself, only to hear a whimper from underneath the couch. I pulled my weight off the couch immediately and balanced as well as I could while I reached down to check on the man behind the couch. Touching the skin around his neck to look for a pulse I didn't find anything. I wasn't an expert, but a closer look revealed the fact that his neck was also bent at an unnatural angle. He was dead.

I admit, I probably would have started to freak out right then and there. I had killed a monster, and there was a corpse laying right in front of me. The first dead body I had ever seen in my whole life. Only the fact that I knew there was someone else who was probably still alive, and needed help, kept me going. I grabbed the end of the couch and lifted it slowly to get a look underneath. A woman was curled up under the couch. She didn't look to be doing much better than the corpse, several of her limbs were bent in different locations and there was blood covering her face and hair. I guessed her to be an older woman from the patches of white hair I could see within the blood.

Seeing that she wasn't caught up in the couch somehow I rolled it off of her then moved closer to get a better look at her condition. Delilah joined me along with Megan.

"She won't last long." Delilah told me as I looked the woman over. She was breathing, but it was raspy and there was bloody foam around her lips. I remembered hearing something about that being a symptom of a pierced lung from one of the medical dramas I had watched, but I didn't know how much faith I could put in that. All I did know was that she needed help, and soon, or she wasn't going to make it, not with the amount of blood that covered her.

"What can we do?" Megan asked worriedly.

"Did anyone call for help?" I asked.

"The lines are busy." Megan replied.

I looked over at her confused.

"All we get is a busy signal." Megan clarified.

That worried me, a lot. Yesterday all the twisted had appeared within hours of each other. Which meant the one I killed wouldn't be the only one. If the lines were already busy, there might be even more than there had been yesterday. Which meant there would be no one to come to this woman's aid.

I looked to Delilah, who was watching us carefully.

Seeing me focus on her Delilah raised her hands. "Shadow is not a healing element. You need light or water, and even then she might not survive." she said then seemed to hesitate.

"What?" I asked looking at the shadow fairy.

"If you want to save her you could try to learn the healing ability, but even then it might not be fast enough, she is fading fast." Delilah told me.

"Is there something else I can do?" I asked eyeing Delilah suspiciously. I wasn't sure what it was, but she seemed to be holding something back.

Delilah hesitated then looked down at the woman before looking back at me. "If you were to help her awaken, her magic would do all it could to help her survive." she told me.

I sighed irritably. "I don't think she could handle a quickie in her condition." I told Delilah as I remembered what she had told me about awakening Heather.

Looking back at the woman I noticed that her eyes were open now, they were a dark blue, and were watching me intently.

"You wouldn't have to go so far master. A kiss would be enough, contact is needed for you to push your magic into her.

I hesitated for a moment, healing would be the better idea, wouldn't it? Delilah didn't seem very confident of her awakening.

"She doesn't have enough time for you to awaken an ability." Delilah told me.

I winced.

"Please." the woman said with difficulty. Her voice was weak and raspy.

I nodded then leaned down. As my face neared hers I drew on the energy I had felt flow through me as I summoned Delilah. As I did I imagined the energy flowing through me into the woman to awaken and heal her. I didn't know if the mental image would help, but I was sure it wouldn't hurt.

I didn't let myself hesitate, I pressed my lips to hers gently fearing I would cause her more harm. As soon as our lips touched I felt the magic in me flow into her like a river. The woman gasped against my lips but I held myself in place so the magic could flow into her. After a couple of seconds the magic stopped flowing and I felt weaker, not so bad that I was about to pass out, instead I had trouble holding my kneeling position. I leaned back and landed on my ass as I reached out to steady myself on the ground.

Together we watched the woman as she continued to stare at me with her dark blue eyes. Already I could see that she was taking deeper breaths and the rasping that had accompanied each breath was gone. Her skin looked less pale too. Then one of her arms shifted. I heard a pop and her whimper as it straightened on its own.

"Oh that was creepy." Karen said from behind me.

I looked back to see her, the girl I had saved, and her boyfriend standing behind me. The girl had a makeshift sling holding her arm and still looked battered. The guy also seemed bruised but didn't seem to be as bad off as the others besides a wince he made with every breath, maybe a cracked rib?

"Jonathan?" the girl asked.

I shook my head then turned to look at the corpse and shook my head again.

I heard sobbing behind me but I turned my attention to the woman as I heard another couple of pops accompanied by whimpers. She was still staring at me. I met her gaze only to be surprised when I noticed that her dark blue eyes had turned purple. There was one louder pop that caused her to scream in pain, then she groaned and whimpered as if the pain had gotten worse.

"Master!" Delilah called out to me.

"What?" I asked looking around fearfully, given the urgency of her call I feared that another twisted had appeared.

"You have to kiss her again!" Delilah told me sounding serious.

"What?" I asked looking at the shadow fairy to see if she really was serious.

She looked very serious. "Hurry!" she told me anxiously.

I wasn't sure why she was so insistent but I trusted her. So I bent down and briefly touched my lips to the woman's. While I intended it to be a brief kiss, her arms wrapped around my neck pulling me into a deeper kiss. I was about to pull away, until I felt the magic pour out of her and into me. She moaned against my lips as even more magic than I had given her poured into me.

When the flow of magic stopped I pulled away. She didn't resist but I saw she was watching me with tear filled eyes. I gave her an awkward smile then turned away unsure how I felt about kissing a grandma.

"She should be fine now." Delilah told us which elicited some relieved sighs and a sob from the girl I saved as she knelt down to hug the woman.