Page 107 of Captured Immune

I feel that. I collect fifteen percent on my parents’ inventions and still buy plain shirts online that come in a three pack for twenty bucks.

Tao lifts my shirt up, then gasps. “Aiyah! What duh hell happened?”

“Royals,” I say, and it’s all the explanation he needs.

Closing his eyes, Tao hovers his open palms above my torso. “Three broken ribs and a lot of bruising. How long ago did dis happen?”

“Twelve hours, maybe?”

He slaps the side of my head. “Why you not come sooner?”

“Ow!” I rub the spot he hit. “We got here as fast as we could.”

“Not fast enough. Now be quiet so I can work.”

Tao’s warm palms press against my aching ribs. The light pressure he applies makes me wince until, gradually, the pain fades away. Several seconds later, the pain is completely gone.

Next, Tao places his hands on either side of my face. Soon after, my cheek isn’t throbbing anymore and my headache has vanished. The soreness at the back of my head disappears too.

When he drags my sweatpants down and tears the gauze off my thigh, he makes some moretsk-tsksounds. He places his hands over my thigh, and I hiss when he applies some pressure. This time, it takes at least a minute before the pain disappears. Once it does, I take a look at my thigh. Minus the remaining blood on my skin, it looks normal again. Not even a scar to show for it.

Tao leaves me for a second, then comes back with clean hands and a wet towel. After he wipes off the blood from my leg, he does one more pass on my body. Everywhere he hovers his hands, the aches diminish until they’re gone.

“Done.”

I sit up and press a finger against my ribs. No tenderness. No agony. I don’t even flinch. Why didn’t we start with this instead of Li’s crazy story?

Arella is in the middle of getting her arm wrapped with gauze when I kneel at her side.

“Wow.” Her eyes go wide. “You look brand new.”

“I feel it too.”

Tao taps my shoulder and hands me a bottle of Healing Water. “Foh her face bruises.”

“I’m almost done,” Li says as she finishes taping the gauze around Arella’s arm. “Although, I’m confused as to how the Healing Goo will work if she’s immune to our powers.”

I unscrew the cap off the lemon-lime Healing Water and hand it to Arella. She accepts it with her free hand and chugs.

“For some reason,” I say, “Arella’s not immune to healing products. I’ve used them on her before, and she takes to it. I think it has to do with the power coming at her fromoutsideher body. She can get burned by a fireball, but if someone’s got the power to incinerate her from the inside out, she’d be immune to that.”

“Interesting,” Li says, then taps Arella’s shoulder. “All done, beautiful girl.”

“Thank you.” Arella finishes the Healing Water, then tilts her head back to look at me with crumpled eyebrows. “When did you ever use healing products on me?”

“How do you think you recovered from that car accident so quickly? That Sprite I kept giving you wasn’t Sprite.”

She stares at the empty bottle in her hands. “Huh. I never would have?—”

Thud! Thud! Thud!Someone pounds against the front door upstairs. Instinctively, I seize Arella’s hand. She jolts out of her chair and squeezes mine back. By the concentration in her eyes, I’m certain she’s projecting her immunity onto me.

“Seriously?” Tao groans. “Can people not read my sign? We are closed until October one. Right now, not October one. I’ll go tell dem to go away.”

“Wait,” I whisper. “It could be the Royals. They might have tracked us here.”

“I’ll check.” Li narrows her eyes at the ceiling in the direction of the front door. “Three large men, and they don’t look like they’re here for herbal medicines.”

Thud! Thud!It’s louder this time.

---