The Cure Read online

  Leah stood frozen, unsure of what to do. Thoughts of escape ran through her head, but brought with them an imagined bullet in the back from Del or one of his men.

  Do something! she urged herself. Her body refused to obey, remaining locked in place. Then the pig was charging right at her, and it was too late to avoid it. At the last moment her paralysis broke but she only had time to get half her body out of the way.

  The pig slammed into her at the waist with freight-train force, punching the breath from her lungs and knocking her onto her back. Hooves hammered her chest and face, shattering bones and sending thunderbolts of pain through her body. She tried to scream but a massive wall of flesh fell on top of her, covering her mouth and nose and pressing down on her injured ribs like a giant boot. Something exploded near her head and the muscular mountain sitting on her emitted a high-pitched shriek.

  Then the weight and pressure disappeared, leaving her free to draw in a gasping breath. When it released, the scream that had been waiting in the wings came with it, a long, drawn-out cry of pain that triggered even more agony in her chest. Her vision dimmed, everything taking on shades of gray. A loud ringing in her ears made all other sounds seem fuzzy. Only the misery in her bones was sharp and focused, dominating her entire world. Words reached her, but carried no meaning.

  “Look.”

  “Holy shit!”

  “Get the camera!”

  “I got it!”

  “Put her in the chair.”

  “Ow! I got a shock!”

  “Gentlemen, here is your demonstration.”

  Leah fought to breathe. Each movement triggered new agonies inside her until she grew numb to any further insults to her body. A wonderful feeling came to her, the pain washed away by a cool current, like sliding into a stream on a hot day or standing naked in a soft summer breeze. Her relief was a physical thing, similar to shedding a heavy weight from her shoulders. She felt free again and hoped she was returning to the dreamland she’d visited once before, the place she’d gone after the explosion in the warehouse.

  The place she’d been longing for ever since she’d felt it. Heaven, or something so close it made no difference. A place of peace and rest and no worries.

  Death.

  “Thank you, God,” she said to the encroaching darkness.

  And then it claimed her.

  Chapter Five

  Del McCormick wanted to shout with joy. From the ashes of destruction…

  Things couldn’t have gone better if he’d planned them. First the vet saying she’d lost her supernatural mojo, then the pig getting loose during the web conference—the potential for disaster was so high he’d been lucky to keep his cool in front of the prospective buyers, each of whom would’ve been more than happy to have him killed for wasting their time.

  And then the miracle.

  Someone shouted “Look!” and he saw the lady vet on the floor, bruised, bloody and definitely hurt. Bad. He was no doctor, but her nose was obviously broken and she had to have some busted ribs from where the crazy pig had danced on her. She had cuts all over from its hooves.

  And they were healing as they watched.

  He wasted no time putting the camera on her so the deep pockets watching the fiasco could get a good look.

  In the end, it was that same fiasco that convinced them—or at least most of them, two had dropped out—that DeGarmo’s self-healing wasn’t some kind of special-effects trick.

  In less than a minute, every cut, every bruise, every broken bone had simply faded away, leaving behind an unmarked—and presumably healthy—woman.

  After she was healed, he turned to face the six remaining prospects.

  “Well, gentlemen, you’ve seen what she can do with her own injuries. She’s just as adept at curing others, a talent I’m willing to demonstrate as well, but only in person. I take it all of you can be here tomorrow evening? Excellent. I’ll text the time to each of you. Please come prepared with cash.”

  Del hit the End button, closing down the webcams and the connections.

  “What are we gonna do with her?” a hulking man name Cyrus asked, pointing at DeGarmo.

  “Tie her to the chair. Carefully. Wear gloves. I have a little surprise for her when she wakes up.”

  Del eyed the unconscious woman. Lost your talents, huh? Either it was just a ruse, or that pig woke up whatever your concussion put to sleep.

  “Either way,” he whispered, “you’re gonna be a star tomorrow night.”

  Tal Nova stared at the telephone and silently cursed the day he’d heard about Leah DeGarmo and her powers. He’d just received word that Del McCormick was holding her captive, had her locked away in some Podunk Upstate town and was planning an auction of some sort for the top organized-crime families in the world. To sell her to the highest bidder.

  The past few days had been the worst Tal could remember since that night in college when his freedom had hung by a thread. After losing DeGarmo, first to McCormick and then to Emilio Suarez and his religious fanatics, he’d been called on the carpet by Marsh, who’d gotten wind of the whole shitstorm through his own underground sources. Tal managed to give a slightly twisted version of what happened and succeeded in convincing the old man that he’d been double-crossed by McCormick (true enough), had tried to rescue the vet (not exactly accurate) and had failed (definitely true).

  “Find her,” Marsh had told him. “I don’t care what it takes. She’s too valuable to lose, dammit. This is on your head, Tal. Bring her back to me, alive, unharmed and grateful. And, Tal,” he’d said, giving him one of those dead-serious looks of old, “I don’t have to tell you what happens if you fail, do I?”

  Tal hadn’t heard that warning in many years, but he was well aware of the threat behind it. Exposure as a murderer, many times over. Sure, he had his own dirt on Marsh, dirt that would put the old bastard behind bars for the rest of his life. Maybe even enough dirt to get his own death sentence reduced to life without parole.

  Maybe we’ll get adjoining cells.

  Of course, that would never happen. Marsh was a man with too many connections, too much money, to spend any time in the kind of prison where ordinary criminals ended up. No, he’d spend a few years free on bail while his lawyers fought the charges, and then if he did go to jail it would be a minimum-security facility where he’d get to watch TV, eat normal food and not have to worry about getting shanked in the yard.

  And me? A black man convicted of multiple homicides? I’ll be in general population, lucky if I last a month.

  Which put him in a real dilemma, now that he’d located DeGarmo. If he brought the vet to Marsh, played the hero, she’d undoubtedly expose him to Marsh and the police for what he’d really done, and then Marsh would carry out his threat. And if he didn’t bring DeGarmo back or she died in the process? Same result. So he was fucked either way.

  So what do I do?

  There had to be a third option. There always was. He’d built his career by finding creative solutions to impossible problems, had always considered himself pretty good at what the corporate world referred to as “strategic planning”. Sure, Del had bested him this time, but only because Tal had never expected a professional like McCormick, whom he’d worked with so often in the past, to double-cross him.

  And that’s on me. I should have known better than to trust anyone, not when it came to something as unbelievably valuable as DeGarmo. Should’ve had Suarez and McCormick killed the minute I was done with them.

  That was a mistake he’d learn from if he had the chance. Now, though, there were more pressing matters. Still tossing ideas around in his head, he opened a stick of gum and folded it into his mouth. The cinnamon burn triggered a release of saliva and woke his senses better than the strongest coffee.

  Options…options. Anything to avoid prison or death.

  Wait. That’s it. Death. Learn
from your mistakes.

  What was the way to deal with loose ends? You get rid of them. Like he should have done with McCormick.

  And what was Marsh but a loose end?

  Like the fiery cinnamon cutting through the staleness in his mouth, a new idea exploded in his brain, cutting through the fog of stale ideas.

  Tal smiled and reached for the phone. If all went well, in less than forty-eight hours he’d not only have his current problems solved, but he’d be looking at a very rich retirement.

  Leah couldn’t stop smiling.

  She had a date! A first date. With a guy she actually was attracted to. The kind of date you should be on time for.

  And not show up smelling of formaldehyde, either.

  Which meant she had to hurry and finish her dissection of the cat she was working on if she wanted to get back to the dorm, wash the stink off her hands and put on a clean top.

  Turning back to the split, skinned and pinned corpse on the dissection board, she reached for her scalpel, her thoughts alternating between the lobes of the lungs and Hank Finn’s totally kissable lips.

  “Ow!” A sharp, stinging pain brought her attention back to the present. She looked down and saw she’d grabbed the wrong end of the scalpel. The surgical steel had sliced a two-inch gash along her thumb. As she watched, blood welled up and flowed out in a miniature waterfall.

  “Oh damn.” Instinctively she grabbed her injured thumb with her other hand and looked around for something to pack the wound. Paper towels, Kimwipes, anything. Naturally, there was nothing there.

  “Shit. Shit shit shit!” Now she was really going to be late, doubly so if she had to go to the college infirmary for stitches.

  Maybe just some Band-Aids… Praying for a shallow cut, she opened her hand and peeked at her thumb.

  Under the red smears, a thin separation showed, with dried blood already crusting over the top.

  “Wow.” Leah breathed a sigh of relief. It was no worse than a paper cut. And yet it had bled so much…

  I wonder if—

  The buzz of her cell phone interrupted her thoughts. She pulled it from her purse and flipped it open with one hand.

  “Leah, are you still in the Anatomy lab?” Kelli Chen’s exasperation with Leah’s perpetual lateness was evident even through the tiny speaker in the phone. “My God, girl, get your ass in gear!”

  “On my way,” she assured her roommate. I can always come in early in the morning and finish.

  Lessons and cut both forgotten, Leah hurried for the door.

  Leah’s first thought when she woke up was that she’d fallen asleep on the couch again while reading, something she did more often than she liked to admit. A classic sign of a lonely life. Her dream echoed in her head, and she wondered why she’d thought back to that day in college. Back then, she hadn’t been aware how her Power worked on her own cuts and bruises, kept her from catching the flu like other people. It was only after vet school that she’d really looked back and all the little clues came together. After that, she never really thought about it. So why now? She had so much more—

  Reality came barreling back, driving away memories and happy thoughts in an instant. She opened her eyes, afraid of what—or who—she might see.

  Across from her was the table with the computer monitors. She tried to move and found she’d been tied—chest, arms and legs—to a wooden chair, probably the same one she’d sat in when Del had threatened her earlier.

  Earlier when? she asked herself, which brought back other memories. The pig. Getting knocked down. Then…blacking out? From the numbness in her arms and legs, and the cold that had her shivering, she had to have been out for a while.

  Someone cleared their throat off to her right and she turned her head.

  Del sat in front of a computer, smiling at her in a way that immediately set her on edge. He looked as smug as a person possibly could, his grin a sure sign she was in worse trouble than she imagined.

  “Hey, Doc. Welcome back. How do you feel?” His smile grew a little wider, like a little boy with a secret he couldn’t wait to share.

  “Cold. Not that you care.” In no mood to play his game, she let her disgust for him show in her words. Once again her death had been postponed, and she was tired of waiting. Maybe if she antagonized him enough…

  “Oh, but I do care. I care a lot. In fact, I’m happier than you can imagine to hear you don’t have any aches or pains.”

  Aches or… Leah frowned. He was right. Other than being cold and stiff, she felt fine.

  The pig.

  She remembered it coming right at her. Its hooves. Snapping sounds… Bones breaking? So much pain…

  No. It had to be part of her dream. A false memory from hitting her head again. That was it. The pig must’ve knocked her over, she’d hit her head and imagined the rest.

  She looked around again. There was no sign of any destruction, although a faint but suspicious red swatch on the floor had her thinking about the explosion she’d heard just before blacking out. A gunshot? More than likely.

  “Doc.” Del snapped his fingers. “Pay attention here, okay? Remember what you were telling me earlier? How you’re no use to me because you lost your powers? Well, I think you’ll find this interesting.”

  He touched a button on the keyboard and the monitors came to life. A video started, showing a room Leah instantly recognized as the one she was in. Each monitor showed the same scene from a different angle, and as she watched the video play out, a sick feeling started in her stomach. At the point where the frantic pig charged her, Del paused the clip.

  “Now watch this part carefully.” He tapped one of the monitors. When the video started again, she found herself tensing as the animal trampled her. The sounds of screaming and bones breaking filled her ears.

  It wasn’t a dream. It was real. No, it couldn’t—

  “This is my favorite part,” Del said, raising his voice over the sounds from the monitors. On one of the screens, the camera zoomed in and she saw two men lift her into the chair. One of them cried out as his hand touched her, but he didn’t let go.

  Leah’s body started to tremble from something other than the cold.

  No. Please, no…

  The camera zoomed in farther, forcing her to watch as the massive damage to her body healed and disappeared. When her crooked nose slid back into its normal shape, Del touched another key and the screens went blank.

  “Lost your powers, huh?”

  She understood his smile now. He looked like he’d won the lottery because he had. She’d proven what she could do to the people who’d been watching, and now she and John would be prisoners for life.

  “What…what are you going to do?”

  “That’s a good question, and I think you deserve an honest answer. Tomorrow night some very bad men are going to come here, and I’m going to sell you to one of them. Of course, they’ll want a live demonstration of your power, so your cop friend might have a few uncomfortable minutes. But if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to convince whoever buys you that you and your lover come as a pair.”

  “You’re a real piece of shit.” Leah allowed all her contempt and anger to color her words. He was basically admitting he’d be selling her into slavery, except she’d be raped in a different way. “Do you know what they’ll do with me?”

  Del shrugged. “What the hell do I care? As long as I get my money, your next owner can spend the rest of his life having you keep his kids’ pets alive. Of course, I’m guessing that what you’ll end up doing will be a lot more dangerous, but then I figure you know that as well as I do.”

  “And that doesn’t bother you?”

  Without warning, Del stood up and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her head against the back of the chair. He’d moved so fast she didn’t even have time to cry out.

  “Listen, lady. Y
ou don’t know what makes me tick. There’s a lot of shit in this world that bothers me, but I know better than to try and get in its way. If these people want someone dead, then that’s what’s gonna happen. All I’m doing is selling them a new weapon, no different than a gun or a knife. And, trust me, I thought long and hard about this. I know what happens to people who know a secret. I’ll be spending the rest of my life looking over my goddamned shoulder.”

  He let go and sat down again, his face returning to his normal calm expression.

  “But at least I’ll be looking over my shoulder in a beautiful beachside villa instead of a crummy New York apartment.”

  Leah stared at him. She wanted to scream out her frustrations, tell him what a horrible person he was, but she saw it would be no use.

  Because he was crazy.

  You wouldn’t know it if you walked past him on the street, might not even notice it if you sat down and had a cup of coffee with him. But it was there, a deeply buried nugget of insanity, cloaked by ordinary looks and a friendly smile.

  Not insane enough to shoot his golden goose, though, came the bitter thought. No, he was much too smart to do that.

  And even if he did, what would it matter? He’s not going to kill me, and apparently any other injury will just heal.

  “Hey. Anybody home?”

  With a start, she realized she’d become lost in her thoughts.

  “What now?” she asked, expecting that she’d be locked up again until she was needed.

  “I’m a man who keeps his promises,” Del said, standing up. “You kept your part of our bargain, and now I’m keeping mine. Unless you don’t want your conjugal visit?”

  “My…?” Then it hit her. “John? I can see him?” As much as she’d told herself earlier that the best thing for both of them would be for her to be gone, the desire to be with him had never faded. In the battle between emotion and logic, logic might think itself the winner but emotion always ruled in the end.

  “He’s all yours from now until tomorrow morning. I’d make the best of it, if I were you,” he added, opening the door and signaling to his men. Two of them came in and untied her.