The Isis Collar

12

I refused to scream. But I was turning the air blue with cursing and yelling. “Bruno! Stop it! I swear to God I’m going to rip your head off if you don’t let me up!” My knuckles were white from straining against the titanium restraints. The metal was bending but not enough for me to get loose. Everything looked red. It was too close to sunset for this crap. I don’t like being tied down and Bruno knew it. At that moment, I couldn’t remember why I’d agreed to this at all, except that he had me really worried about my leg.

His voice was calm from across the room. From my position on the table I could just see him on his knees, drawing runes on the floor where a thousand other symbols had been drawn by countless undergrads. This room had been built for that very purpose, to allow students to examine dangerous creatures without much worry of reprisal. Rizzoli was watching from the corner of the room, but Dr. Sloan was nowhere to be seen. That surprised me a little. He’s usually first on the scene to examine stuff. “Celie, if I let you up, you will rip my head off. The bat in you is talking right now. Your eyes are bright red and you’re glowing so much that I don’t need the overhead light. Those bindings are the only thing between me and my head. So, dream on. You’re staying right where you are until I’m done with this casting.”

Being held down was really starting to mess with my head. It was too close to the past, not just right after I’d been turned into an Abomination, but further back, to when I was twelve. I tried to keep the panic out of my voice without much success. “Bruno, you really need to let me up. I’m starting to flash back.”

He stood up and looked at me, his eyes filled with sympathy. “I know and I wish I could make it better. But it’s too close to sunset. This can’t wait until morning. You could be dead by then. Would it help if we knocked you out with drugs?”

He looked like glowing bands of shiny color to my vampire sight. He smelled heavy with sweet, rich blood and my stomach growled audibly. He jerked back a few inches and I strained to follow. His words had sunk in but just barely. Panic was rising in a black wave that lapped at my sanity. “Yes. You need to do that. Because if you don’t, I’ll call you. I can feel it inside me. I’ll call you to me like your brother was called by Lilith and everything will change. Give me the drugs, Bruno. Please. I don’t want this thing inside me to get out, but the restraints are too much for me.”

His heartbeat sped up and he began to smell of fear. I felt a needle pierce my arm and I felt my body react without my will. The blood flow to that arm slowed to nearly a stop. “It’s not working. My body’s stopping the drug from getting to my brain. You have to do something more drastic.”

Bruno’s colors turned more blue. He was sad and worried, which wasn’t as exciting as fear. “I don’t want to hurt you, Celie. Isn’t there another way?”

Anger flared for no reason and I knew the vamp inside was taking control. The only thing I could think to do was let it take over. Maybe Bruno would see there was no other choice. He’s so sweet and I knew he wouldn’t want to hurt me, but I also knew he would react in self-defense if he had no choice. I snarled and bared my teeth, then raised my head abruptly to grab those colors. He reared back, fast and hard, and I couldn’t follow because of the metal band around my chest. But the band did bend a little. “Whoa! Okay, I guess not. Just promise you won’t hate me in the morning.”

His glow increased until it was blinding. I shut my eyes to escape from the bright sunshine, but the light crashed through my eyelids and all I knew was pain. I screamed, long and loud. It kept getting brighter and more painful while I screamed as fast as I could draw breath.

Then came a burst that was like the rising sun. It hit me in an agonizing flash and everything went black.

It was dark and filthy. I had finally stopped flinching when bugs crawled on me. I had too many bites to count, but I couldn’t scratch them because of the ropes that bound me spread-eagled on top of a wooden table. “You don’t want us to hurt your sister again now, do you, Ivy?”

She was sobbing. I wanted to say something to her, but I couldn’t. They’d used duct tape over my mouth.

“All you have to do is call the ghosts, get them to tell us where the money is hidden.”

A second male broke in. And while the first man had at least tried to sound gentle, this one didn’t bother. “C’mon, kid. Call up the ghost or I’ll use the cigarette again.”

“I can’t! She won’t talk to me.” Another burst of tears from Ivy made me crazy. “She’s a mean lady.”

“Do it!” Pain! Oh God, the pain. My back arched off of the table, my shrieks stifled, but still audible through the tape. Burning, searing pain on the skin of my upper thigh. The scent of burning meat, my flesh. Tears streamed down my face as I struggled against the ropes, but all that did was make me bleed worse.

“We’re going to find out from the ghosts where that buried treasure is or it’s all over for you and your sister, kid. Do you want that? Huh? Do it or someone is going to die!” I pulled against the ropes that didn’t feel like ropes anymore. They were heavier and stiffer, like metal, and it was hard to expand my chest.

The darkness was beginning to suck me down, the dirt and bugs covering me until I couldn’t breathe. Maybe if I stopped struggling the dirt would cover my ears and I wouldn’t hear the screaming anymore.

“Celia!”

“Celia. C’mon, Celie, wake up. You need to wake up or this isn’t going to work.” The voice was deeper now, a sound of strength and warmth, filled with pain and love and fear. Fear for me. The power of that voice pushed away the men and my sister’s dying screams, back to where they usually lurked, waiting for me to try to fall asleep at night.

My eyes fluttered open and I could see Bruno through the golden glow of a quarantine circle. I became aware once again of the pain in my leg. It was worse now than when I’d agreed to lie down on the table. “What’s happening? How long was I out? God, my leg hurts.”

“Yeah. I’m sure it does. The muscle is necrotic, and with every step you take, you spread the damage further. Your flesh is dying, Celia, and it’s going to keep dying unless we can stop this disease.” Bruno’s voice was harsh and angry, but I didn’t think he was mad at me.

He was scared—and that frightened me. “But you can fix it, right? It’s magic, so you can heal me?”

His eyes closed and I thought I saw a tear roll down his face. Surely that was just a trick of the light playing and his magic? Then he spoke and I knew better. His voice cracked as he said, “No, Celie. I can’t, any more than I can heal the common cold. But the CMDC is sending over a specialist from the unit they’re setting up at St. Anthony’s.”

That seemed odd, because St. Anthony’s isn’t one of the bigger hospitals in the region. It’s a community hospital and I knew they had set up a program of rotating specialists from the major hospitals in L.A., but a permanent unit? “They’re setting up a special unit here, instead of in L.A.? Why?”

“Yeah,” Rizzoli answered grimly. “They are. For a good reason. The hospital here has a bigger morgue.”