My Darkening Ember

Chapter Twenty - Six

"Fascinating," he pushed back his glasses with the tip of his finger, gliding over to me like he was on the ice while studying me up and down like an animal.

"You survived the poison?" He breathed.

"Well yes," I answered blankly.

"That was a rhetorical question," he quickly snapped back, running to a corner and grabbing a leather bag. "Mind if I take some blood?"

"Is that a rhetorical question too?" I said looking for something soft in his eyes. I didn't find it and his blank stare made the room uncomfortable until I finally stuck out my arm, rolling up my sleeve.

His eyes went wild like a lion spotting prey as he grabbed my arm, pushing his face down to the bloody bandage, and unwrapping it. As the last round slipped off my arm, he gasped so loudly that Mayra rose from her chair and Xander took a step forward.

"By the mighty gods," he gasped and I looked down. My eyes widened and my mouth dropped.

My skin was healed with no evidence of a knife ever to have touched me. The burn was still a blacked tattoo but my wounds had gone.

"What is this?" I whispered. How did I heal? I desperately unwrapped my other arm only to be faced with the same smooth, untouched, skin. I felt the panic rise.

"Thank you, doctor." Xander cut in. He grabbed for the doctor, lifting him onto his feet, and ushering him out of the room.

"What the hell is this?" I still glared at my arm in shock.

"Xander-," Mayra began but he cut her off, holding up his hand as he closed the door behind the doctor.

"We don't talk about this here or anywhere, with anyone." He spun, trying to leave when I yelled out.

"Tell me right now what the hell you did to me." I was angry, maybe more frustrated over the fact that he simply refused to say anything. I had miraculously healed from my wounds at a speed that wasn't humanly possible. I had risen from the dead after hours of being a cold corpse and I had yet to be given answers. Something was happening to me, something dark and frightening. If others found out, they would find a way to murder me for real.

Xander turned to face me. "Not here." Stern and cold, as I knew him.

"I'm not leaving. I have no wounds, no scars, and no signs of being dead for seven hours. It's not possible. It's not human." I raised my voice, getting more and more unsteady by the second. My revelations made Mayra gasp. I guessed she had no idea. 

Xander took a slow step toward me, not a threatening one, just slowly. "Do you want to die? If you still have a death wish then keep talking. I'll gladly let the doctor continue his examination and let him tell everybody about his miracle patient. How long do you think you will last then?"

My lips were sealed shut. What could I say? That I was frightened? He wouldn't understand that emotion. 

His eyes glared at me before he turned to walk out, only saying one last thing before leaving my sight.

"We leave in an hour."

I took a deep breath trying to steady myself, as I slumped back on the couch staring at my arms in disbelief.

"What happened to me?" I let my eyes gouge into Mayra's knowing she would break. If she knew something, she needed to tell me. But her mouth opened for a moment only to shut it again, her eyes trying to find comfort anywhere else. I buried my head in my hands, wanting to cry. I felt terrified.

"It's going to be fine." Was all she could muster for comfort.

"How the hell is it going to be fine? I don't know what he did or what I am. How is it even possible to heal from wounds like that? To cheat death? Tell me, Mayra, tell me what you know." I pressured her before realization hit.