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When it was less than one hundred feet away, it emitted something from one of its orifices, shooting it through the air to splatter her legs.
She felt a tingly sensation.
It felt hot and gooey, and when she tried to move, she found she was stuck in place. And the thing was still coming for her!
She screamed out Trevor’s name, but she didn’t have to—he was already there, plunging his Death Sword into the melon head, and then he cut the creature in half.
She watched him set the body on fire and then walk towards the head that had rolled some feet away.
She felt an odd twinge of pain begin to scurry up her legs. The twinge became a stabbing, sharp pain and seemed to increase in strength. She wondered if she had twisted a muscle trying to get out of the goop.
Trevor was in a fury as he stomped towards her and shouted, “I told you to stay put. Why don’t you ever listen?”
“Well, you are welcome,” she snapped in spite of the fact that in addition to her being stuck in goop, her legs felt like they were on fire. She found one hand was quite paralyzed, so she brought up the other to point at him and was surprised to hear her voice was no louder than a whisper. “I was saving you from being eaten.”
“I am a Seelie Royal. Did you think I was unconscious? I was waiting for the beast to come closer so that I could plunge my sword into its throat!” He threw up his hands with exasperation and then seemed to see for the first time that she was standing in a horrific substance.
“What the hell?” he said.
“Well, then,” said Jazz, ignoring this. “There you are—and who expected that thingy to come out of its insides?” And, so saying, she felt herself sway.
Something was wrong, very, very wrong, and the last thing she remembered was Trevor, crying out her name as he reached for her.
* * *
Trevor’s lip curled with fury as he exploded the slimy substance away from her with a flick of his wrist. It turned to gray dust and filled the air with a thick cloud of putrid odor before the breeze dissipated it.
Even as he did this, he saw that she was unsteady and reached for her as she began to pass out. He caught her as she crumpled and held her cradle-like in his arms.
He couldn’t think.
He had to find a warm place for her human body. He had to break all the rules, just as Breslyn would do, and save her, for he had no doubt she had been covered in a poison that had gotten into the pores of her skin.
He shifted with her, and came to stand at the oddly shaped and impenetrable glass building. All at once, and without his asking, a ten-by-ten-foot sliding glass door appeared and opened. A robotic voice invited politely, “Enter.”
Trevor carried her inside and found himself teleported with her still in his arms to a large and comfortable-looking chamber. Warmth enveloped him, and he saw that a fire burned invitingly in a corner pot-bellied stove. It struck him as odd, but he was thankful, for it would help warm his Jazmine Decker.
At the far end of the room was a huge and canopied four-poster bed with soft blue velvet hangings, and he deposited
her there.
He stroked her head and fixed her long, tangled blonde hair, blinking it smooth and then gently pushing it away from her face. He took off her gloves and rubbed her hands with his own. He dropped a kiss on her nose and then on her frozen lips and murmured, “Jazmine Decker, you will be fine. Do you hear me, sweet Fios? I shall warm you and heal you.”
He took her pulse, bent over her to put his head to her heart, and heard its faint beating. “There you are, sweet Fios, my Fios.” He sighed, laid hands over her chest, and said out loud, “Now, I will absorb the poison from your body.” A tendril of power traveled from his body, through his hands, and into her, but very little of the poison was drawn from her. He frowned. “What is wrong, by Danu? It is not working!” He was frantic; suddenly, for the first time in his long young life, he was afraid, truly afraid.
The robotic voice said, “She is dying. You cannot heal her, as the poison has already begun shutting down her human organs. You may use our facilities to make her last moments comfortable.”
“Dying? No—she is not. I won’t let her,” Trevor spat as he turned around, looking for a body to match to the voice.
“You are Seelie. You may not interfere with the human life force—they live, they die.”
“Damn you. She is not going to die.” He took her hand in his, which he discovered was shaking, and his insides clenched. “I have never healed anyone, human or otherwise. I am not certain why it isn’t working. The poison should have been drawn out of you, Jazmine Decker. Listen to me, sweet love, don’t go … I won’t, can’t lose you. Please, Jazmine Decker, fight the poison. Let your Fios fight the poison.”
The robotic voice clucked at him. “A Fios is not immortal. She cannot fight the poison.”
“Damn you!” he shouted. “Why didn’t you allow us entrée at once? YOU knew what was out there. If you had let her in—”
“Destiny moves on its own,” the voice said, interrupting him. “I was created to guard and protect only my mistress and promote non-interference in all other matters. However, my mistress was once human and has instilled other directives in me, and at times they collide, as they did when I observed that your Fios was dying. It is not interference to give shelter at such times.”
