Page 72 of Hex You

Mercy stood for a moment. She forced a smile. “I can walk.” She took a step and her knees turned into Slinkys. She would’ve fallen had Khenti not caught her. “Sorry,” she muttered into his shoulder as he carried her up the porch steps.

“There is no need to be sorry. You are as fierce a warrior as your familiar,” Khenti said.

“Xena!” Mercy peered over his shoulder. “She’s not doing great, either.”

“I shall return for her, but first, magnificent Green Witch and Gate Guardian, you need to be a potato couch,” he said, opening the door and striding toward their couch.

Mercy actually giggled. “You mean a couch potato. A potato couch would not be very comfortable, even if we baked it first.”

Khenti deposited her tenderly on the couch, kissed her on her forehead, and then smiled down at her. “Ah, I see my mistake.”

From behind them Emily and Hunter entered the house. Xenawas between them so they could wrap their arms around her waist and support her wobbly steps.

“H, please bring her here.” Mercy patted the cushion beside her.

They guided Xena to the couch so that she sat beside Mercy. She curled up next to her kitten and began licking her hands and smoothing back her untamable hair.

Hunter, Emily, and Khenti hovered around them.

Xena paused her grooming and looked at the trio. “Shall Xena now starve?”

“Oh, shit!” Hunter said. “No! Just tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you.”

“Yeah.” Emily nodded so hard her dark curls bounced around her face wildly. “I can, like, go get one of your nasty tuna pizzas for you—extra tuna, of course.”

“That would be almost as lovely as several plump, newly decapitated sparrows,” said Xena. “My Mercy must have sustenance, too, and quickly.”

Just the thought of sparrows and tuna pizza had Mercy’s stomach churning. “I’m not sure I can eat anything.”

“Soup!” Hunter almost shouted, then she cleared her throat and began again in a less manic tone. “I’ll look in Mom’s recipe book for how to make her—”

“Special soupy-bloupy!” Mercy said with her sister. Mag’s grin was authentic. “That sounds perfect, H.”

Xena frowned. “There is no meat in that soup. At all. I know. I often complained about it to my dearest Abigail.”

“What if H adds tuna to your bowl?” asked Emily.

“Emily kitten, that does sound quite delicious. I wonder why my Abigail never thought to offer to do that?”

Mercy and Hunter exchanged a look that telegraphedbecause that’s so nasty!Mercy laughed, but then she coughed so much that she gagged. H was beside her, patting her back.

“Em! Get Mag some water!” Hunter said. “And grab the first-aidbox from just inside the pantry door. We need to clean up those puncture wounds.”

“On it!” Emily disappeared into the kitchen.

Then Hunter turned to Khenti. “Go up to Mag’s room. Somewhere around her bed you’ll find a big T-shirt that hasWHAT KIND OF ASSHOLE EATS A LAMBprinted on it. We gotta get her out of those gooey, bloody clothes and then clean her wounds.”

“I shall in just a moment.” Khenti knelt before Mercy, who was still coughing and gagging, and took her hands in his. “Remember what Xena told you earlier? Slow your breathing. Match your breath with mine.”

Mercy clung to his hands and gasped for air, then she slowed her gasps to mimic Khenti’s. When Emily sprinted from the kitchen with a glass of water she gulped it as Khenti hurried up the stairs to her bedroom and returned almost instantly carrying her oversized sleep shirt.

“Better, kitten?” Xena asked, touching her cheek softly.

Mercy met her gaze. “Xena, am I really healed?”

Xena smoothed Mercy’s hair back from her clammy face. “My spark of immortality kept you from death—and it paused the spread of the poison. You will live, though I cannot tell you for how long. You still carry the Nure-Onna’s toxin within you, but do not fret, my precious kitten, your sister and I will discover how to cure you permanently.”

“But what happens toyounow?” Mercy asked.