Page 102 of Incubus
Jim’s eyes widened and, for a moment, Nathan thought Jim was going to jump to his feet and take off running, and honestly, Nathan wouldn’t have tried to stop him. But Jim’s panic faded and he started patting down his body until he got to his jeans. Out of his pocket he pulled a green vial, a more pleasant sight than anything else Nathan could imagine right then.
“I shoved some extras in my pockets before we left. Just in case,” Jim said.
Nathan reached over and grabbed Jim behind the ears, planting a ridiculously firm kiss on his brother's forehead. “I love you, Jim. Even totally blitzed, you think better than I do.”
They acted quickly, ripping Sasha’s T-shirt away so that his chest lay bare before them. Nathan positioned himself to pull the jagged metal free, but Jim shook his head and handed Nathan the vial. If Jim was thinking clearer then his powers should be working better too. Nathan had to assume as much since Gabriel had been blown away.
Gabriel.
Nathan jerked back to look behind them where he was certain he had seen Gabriel fly, but there was nothing, not even an unconscious body.
“Nate.”
Returning his focus to Sasha, Nathan nodded for his brother to act. Jim's strength ensured a clean pull of the metal out of Sasha’s chest for Nathan to immediately pour on the antidote. Nathan took a deep breath when the gaping wound left behind from the metal sizzled and closed up, but then he had to frown. The wound left a scar, large and misshapen over Sasha’s heart. None of the others had left scars. Nathan even glanced down to where the wound Jim had made used to be, and there was nothing there but smooth white skin.
“Nate,” Jim said with some impatience again.
Nathan nodded. He opened Sasha’s mouth, remembering that he had done this before, that it was going to be okay now, and tipped the remaining green liquid down Sasha’s throat.
Green light shot through Sasha’s body beneath the skin, but his eyes did not spring open and wake him with a gasp like Nathan expected. Sasha’s body remained heavy and still, with no change at all save perhaps a steadier rhythm to Sasha’s breathing.
“Why isn’t he waking up?” Nathan said, trying to hold his panic at bay.
“Maybe…it just takes a little longer for something this serious,” Jim said.
Nathan nodded, still staring down at Sasha and waiting for those eyes to open. When a minute passed and still nothing, it was more than he could handle, and he grabbed hold of Sasha’s shoulders in an angry lunge, shaking him. “Wake up!” he cried. “What’s wrong with you, just wake up!”
“Nathan.” Jim’s hands reached down to pull Nathan away, gripping Nathan by the wrists and forcing his eyes up. “This isdifferent, okay? That was iron right to the heart. All the rules are different now. He should…he should be dead. Nathan...where did this metal come from? Where did Gabriel get it?”
“Uhh…” Nathan shook his head and tried to concentrate. It was right behind Jim, the box that Sasha had knocked over, spilling out all of those similarly horrible parts. Nathan pointed to it and Jim immediately went over to inspect the box himself.
Jim’s expression changed as he looked over the mostly empty box, and he held it up for Nathan to read the side. Nathan didn’t understand at first. There was a serial number, some name for what the parts were and what they did, and then what they were made of.
Nathan gasped when his eyes landed on those words. It said: ‘Iron Alloy’.
IronAlloy.
“It’s not pure iron,” Nathan said. “But then why isn’t he waking up? It shouldn’t be that bad. It isn’t iron. He should be okay.”
“Maybe it’s not that simple.” Jim walked back to Nathan and crouched down again with sorrowful eyes cast on Sasha. “Iron to the heart would have killed him. An alloy still has iron in it, just diluted. That might still be enough to…” Jim’s eyes flicked up, meeting Nathan’s steadily. “Enough to put him in a coma.”
“But...we used the antidote.”
“That might only be enough to keep him alive, Nathan," Walter said, still close beside them, "not enough to wake him. You need to get him out of this building, away from the iron in the air. Even with the antidote, I can sense that his condition is worsening.”
Nathan was listening, he was, he just didn’t like what he was hearing. If the antidote wasn’t enough to wake Sasha then he had no idea what would.
"There’s iron in the air, Jim," Nathan said. "It was hurting Sasha while he was awake. Walter says it's making him worse. We have to get him out of here.”
They started to lift Sasha, but it wasn’t easy, and Nathan knew he was managing to move mostly on adrenaline.
“What about Gabriel?” Nathan asked when they moved past the spot Gabriel’s body should have been.
"I don't know," Jim said. "I hit him with a blast of telekinesis again, but I wasn’t really thinking. When I saw Sasha..."
"It's okay. But keep an eye out. He could still be around."
Along the way to the door, Nathan noticed a few smears and drops of blood on the floor. He hoped that whatever injury Gabriel had sustained would keep him from regrouping before they could get away.
