Page 35 of Salvation
“Is Sakura here?”
K’rona shook her head. “She left a short while ago. Why?”
Strike two. How had he missed her? “How’s Nero?”
She shook her head. “We put bindings on him before Sakura left.”
So not what he wanted to hear. “I have an idea, but I’m trying it on Storo first. Don’t tell Dacey yet, I don’t want to get her hopes up until I’m sure it’ll work. I’ll be back.”
A thousand questions rose in K’rona’s eyes, but there was no time to explain. He hurried back out the door and pounded down the street in the direction of the healers’ cube. “I could use a little help here now, God, Mother, whatever your name is.” His words drew curious looks from the Anferthians he passed, but that was the least of his worries. If they all thought he had taken a long walk off a short pier, then let them. Maybe he had.
He hit the front door of their cube and bounced back. ID reader…it was there for a reason, genius. He slammed his hand into the crystalized reader and the door popped open. “Saku!” There was no response, not even crickets. “Oh, comeon!”
The door to the lab opened, and Sakura looked at him, surprise written all over her features. “Are you trying to knock the cube down, Nick?”
God was definitely messing with him now. “I know what to do for the infected Anferthians.”
That got her attention. “You found anantidote?”
“Sort of. Your koko hey ya wanna mojo thing.”
“Kokoro heiwa no moto,” she corrected, as she strode toward him.
“Yeah, that.” He flicked his hand as a brief apology for butchering her language. Taking her by the wrist, he dragged her out the front door and down the street toward Storo’s. “You know how Dante can heal much better with a Terrian involved? Like the silent healers?” He glanced down at her and she nodded. “We need to do that, together.”
“But, we are both Terrian,” she protested. “And we’re bothactualhealers.”
“And both of us can access our Source, yet, for whatever reason, our Matiran friends can’t.” He stopped. “I wonder if that’s why it took Alex and I half the time to become healers?” And Sakura…she’d be a full-fledged healer soon, too.
“Huh?”
He glanced down at Saku’s beautiful, confused face. “Never mind. Come on.”
~*~
Standing on either side of Storo’s narrow bed, Nick contemplated his next move. Storo had succumbed into unconsciousness hours ago, his body’s way of escaping the pain. It was probably better this way. Knowing him, he’d just question every move and slow down the process.
Hand placement seemed important, but for the life of him he couldn’t say why. It took a few tries to hit on the right combination. “Right hands touching the patient, left hands covering each other’s rights.”
“Okay,” Sakura replied, and they set their hands accordingly. “Now what?”
She so wasn’t going to like his answer. “We have to, um, share our Gifts.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not exactly sure.”
She arched her eyebrows.
“Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I think we need togiveour Gifts to Storo. Put them inside him.”
“What?” She gaped at him. Yup, called that one right.
“I told you it was weird.”
The look she gave him brimmed with skepticism, but then she shook her head. “Why not? We have tried everything else.”
He gave her a half-smile and mentally braced himself for her next inevitable question.
