Page 57 of Dark OZ

Tenlongminuteslater,I slammed to a stop in front of a 24-hour pharmacy. I hadn’t even cut the engine, and Crowe was already climbing out of the car. I leaned over Danny’s still form. His heart was beating, his breathing shallow. My pulse, on the other hand, was rushing in my ears.

Danny looked a bit better than Thea. His skin still had some color to it, whereas her’s had turned a sickening shade of gray. If she died tonight, I didn’t think Crowe would recover from it. Not after Vanessa died before our eyes all those years ago.

Morphea. Morphan. My father called it our family’s legacy. When in reality, it was a curse. Father damned us all the day we left Italy’s shores. The only thing I was inheriting was the loss of the few good people in our lives. Even out from under my father’s thumb, he was still managing to crush me. If Danny died tonight, I would burn Ciopriani Villa to the ground and ensure the only thing left to inherit were ashes.

I laid my hand over his heart. My father would answer for this in his blood.

“Leave him.”

I looked through the window at Crowe, holding Thea’s scarily lifeless body in his arms. He couldn’t be serious. How could he even suggest such a thing?

“He’s too big to carry on your own, and it will take too long to come back for him. Thea doesn’t have that kind of time.”

“If we don’t make it back fast enough…” If we left him here, it was as good as killing him ourselves. As I glanced between Danny and Thea, it felt like all of the blood in my body was draining away.

“He’s a stubborn bastard, he’ll fight. Her body will give out before his will. If we wait any longer, Theawilldie. She’s already dying. I can’t do this without you, Nick.”

Not waiting for a response, he took off into the store. He was right. As much as it pained me to leave Danny behind, we’d already wasted too much time.

At this hour, the store was largely empty. A teenager was sitting behind the front register. He was scrolling through his phone, earbuds thumping loud enough that we could hear the bass as we rushed to the back of the store. I doubted he even noticed us. At the back was a small woman in a white lab coat. I loosed a breath of relief. I was so afraid that there wouldn’t be a pharmacist on staff this late.

Her mousy brown hair was tied back in a low bun; a long strand had come loose and hung down, covering her small features and large almond eyes.

With a single sweep of my arm, I cleared the counter. Displays of mints, chapsticks, and keychains scattered around us. Crowe laid Thea’s body out. Her breaths were so shallow she didn’t look like she was moving at all.

I pushed into the back. Making the pharmacist squeak in surprise. I pulled my gun out, pointing it straight between her eyes. “I need two doses of Naloxone in an injectable form. And some activated carbon.”

The woman looked from me to the gun, to me, then to Thea, and back to the gun. I glanced at her name tag.

“Look, Sarah, I just need to save her life. Can you help me?”

Her eyes darted over to Crowe, who had one hand on the butt of his gun and his other wrapped around Theas. “You’re killing her with every second you hesitate,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I… I… I don’t have Naloxone as an injectable here, but I have it as a nasal spray.”

“That will work. Go get it.”

“There’s carbon chewables in aisle seven.”

“I’m on it,” Crowe said, already disappearing down the aisle.

The woman disappeared and returned with two sealed boxes. Tearing at the cellophane, she asked. “What is she overdosing on?”

“She’s not OD’ing, she was poisoned with Morphan,” I snapped, grabbing the box. She was taking too long. “And so was my brother, who is still out in the car.”

“WAIT! Wait.” The woman snatched the box back. Her eyes went wide the moment she realized what she’d done. I stood tall, letting my entire 6’4 form tower over her. She shook and held her hands up, eyes trained on my gun. “Please, please. I’m trying to help. I did my dissertation on the study of anti-venom. It’s-it’s- not the same, but if this is what you say it is, Naloxone won’t be enough. It will stop the hallucinations, but it won’t stop her body from shutting down. You need to mix an anti-paralytic with it.”

The pharmacist turned, not waiting for a response from me. Her shaking hands fumbled through the boxes on the shelf. Until finally settling on an amber bottle.

“What is that?”

I stalked her as she moved further into the back, throwing the supplies down on a workbench.

“Nitrophenyl. It’s an anti-paralytic used to treat botulism. It’s the best I have here. But it should, hopefully, counteract the effects of the holocyclotoxin. That’s what’s paralyzing her.” She clicked on a light, while simultaneously pulling a pair of tin snips from a side drawer. She made quick work of the nasal spray bottle. Pouring the contents into a test tube while dragging a mixing rocker that looked just a like tiny seesaw closer. “Don’t just loom over me. Go to aisle six, find an aerosolizer, and set it up. I’ll be there as soon as I’m done mixing it properly.”

I studied her for signs of deception.

“Go!”

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