Basilisk (The Korsak Brothers #2)(72)

I didn’t realize I’d said it aloud until Stefan told me to hold it together; we were nearly at the room. Adept as I was at reading people, a murderous mind is a terrible thing to waste; I had no idea what he was thinking. Since telling him and Saul almost all of what I’d held back, I’d been waiting for my brother’s reaction. He hadn’t shown one. He’d given me one last sandwich, had asked frequently how I was doing, had eased me out of the vehicle as I kept my arm wrapped around my complaining ribs, and had taken all the bags, but mainly he was quiet, deep within himself.

When the moment had come, it hadn’t come alone—but hand in hand with a trail of consequences. It wasn’t the truth that made a man, but standing face-to-face with the cost of deserting that truth. Whatever that cost was, I’d accept it. I took the key card from Stefan and opened the door wide, both of us visually checking out the room. That was the best I could do. Stefan could look under the beds for chimeras or bogeymen. My reserves were running out and I needed to save them. Saul’s door to the room beside ours shut, but not before I heard him on the phone arranging for a massage.

Eat, drink, and be massaged, for tomorrow we may die.

I went into our room. The beds were huge and the color orange was nowhere in sight. There were white puffy bedspreads. When the motels we stayed in had the option of charging by the hour, a white cover would last all of five minutes. There was a TV hidden away in a massive entertainment center, a refrigerator, coffeemaker, microwave, and the bathroom had a whirlpool tub and a shower. I saw it all in one swift scan. There was the soft snick of our door shutting, but I didn’t move out of Stefan’s way for him to dump our bags. Instead, I put my hand on his forehead, his chest, and then his abdomen. My ribs were a work in progress and my body fought my mind, but I was close enough to being whole that I was able to wrench enough control to assess Stefan. Normally I could’ve touched him on his arm and felt all of him at once. If there were anything wrong anywhere within him, I’d have sensed it. But close to whole wasn’t whole and I had to put more effort into it.

“You’re a human MRI, huh?” It was a comment, but the emotion behind it was impossible to interpret.

I nodded. No concussion, no brain damage. I moved my hand to his heart. “Improving my own self-healing wasn’t enough. All those sick animals I found, all the blind turtles, birds with broken wings”—and the chipmunks that escaped foxes but not soon enough. The rabbit with a broken leg, probably from a stray dog—“I fixed them. I’d thought for a long time: If I can take things apart, why can’t I put them back together? It’s the same principle, the same ability to manipulate cells. On the first day we moved to Cascade, I found Gamera in the woods, blind as a bat. That’s when I started to practice.” Last, I put my hand on his stomach. Good. There was no internal bleeding. He had bruises and cuts, but he was all right. He’d walked away from a collapsed building and I hadn’t. Human 1–Chimera 0. Life loved to mock our egos.

I wanted to go to bed and sleep for a few years, but in this place, I couldn’t imagine getting a speck of dirt on their immaculate bed. I headed for the shower, but I kept talking. “I thought it would be simple, but it wasn’t. It’s always easier to destroy than to create; easier to break something or someone down than to build it up. Luckily, Gamera was in no hurry.” I stripped down and neatly folded the clothes I’d changed into to try to pass as something more than a guy who lived in a box on the street. “It took six months to cure Gamera of cataracts—basic, simple cataracts. A doctor could’ve done it in less than an hour.” I stepped into the shower, pulled the curtain, and turned on the water.

It was hot, almost scorching, and good—too good. It loosened every muscle in me and I decided to take the shower sitting down. I should’ve used the whirlpool tub, but I wanted sleep more than jets to ease any residual aches. Washing my hair with one hand, I let the other one lie idle. No more aggravating the nowcracked ribs. No longer broken—bones were difficult—but I was getting there.

“I’m listening.”

I moved to scrubbing the dirt from my neck and chest. The EMTs hadn’t wasted any time in cutting my shirt down the middle to slap on the electrodes hooked up to the cardiac monitor. “You are? I thought you were putting on a wig and grabbing a butcher knife. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“Norman Bates? I doubt I could find an old lady’s dress that would fit my manly shoulders. Think the Terminator instead, and, yeah, I’m listening.” There was the creak of the door frame as he leaned against it. “You told us the rest, but the healing thing, but you were pretty succinct. You don’t seem a hundred percent sure about that. As you’re most often one hundred and fifty percent positive about everything you set out to accomplish, it seems weird. And no bragging on your brilliance? That’s not you. You’re your number one fan.”

One hundred and fifty? I was one hundred percent positive on the cure, seventy-five at best on being able to deliver it. “People are different from birds and chipmunks. They’re bigger and I haven’t healed one before.” Belatedly I remembered this wasn’t quite true and added, “Except for the kid in the taco joint. I cured his tonsillitis, the little monster. I should’ve left him as he was. Oh . . . and I worked on that cut on your forehead from the plane crash. I barely gave it a boost, enough so you won’t have another scar with my name on it.” Another memory popped up. “Ahhh, yeah, and you and Saul. The chlorine gas in Laramie was the real thing, not a weak version. I didn’t exactly tell the truth on that one either.”