Ruthless Game (GhostWalkers, #9)(78)
“I’m able to visualize in my head what’s going on in someone’s body under extreme circumstances.” She chewed nervously on her lower lip, trying to find the words to describe how the talent manifested itself. “I feel heat in my fingertips first. And then my palms. Eventually my hands get so hot it feels as if they’re burning.”
Paul nodded. “The nerves are raw, and the heat starts running up your arms.”
Rose’s gaze jumped to him. He understood. He actually understood the manifestation. They smiled at each other. “The first time it happened, I was seven, and one of the girls, Thorn, stopped breathing. We all loved her so much. I was panic-stricken. We all were. Whitney had just left the room, and Thorn suddenly dropped to the floor. She’d been defying him, and he’d used electric shock on her. I ran to her, and my hands burned. I knew I had to . . .”
“Touch her. Put your palms on her,” Paul interrupted.
Rose forgot everyone else in the room. She nodded, her heart pounding hard. “It was more instinct than anything else. Once I touched her, I could see her heart wasn’t pumping. It had stopped. I could see it in my head.”
“And in response, you felt the electrical current needed to jump-start her,” Paul said, “running through your own body. It’s as if our bodies provide what’s missing from those hurt or injured in some way. I always refer to it as psychic healing.”
“How does it work?”
“I don’t know. I’ve tried studying what happens to me when I run across someone damaged. Each response is different. I see the patient in colors. Is it like that for you?”
She shook her head. “Not really. When I lay my palms on their skin, I see inside their bodies, not through my eyes but in my head, as if skin to skin, I absorb them into me.”
Kane’s fingers tightened around her, startling her, drawing her attention. She looked at him, almost afraid of what she’d see. Seeing inside someone was a strange, freaky experience. Having her own body react to theirs was almost an intimacy, a bonding between the two bodies, hers providing whatever the other needed. She didn’t tell anyone if she could help it and she never elaborated on what happened—she didn’t want to think about what happened. It was frightening and exhilarating. It was also very, very painful.
Her eyes met Kane’s. There was nothing but awe. Respect. Love. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she swore her knees went weak. He had a way of looking at her. Hungry predator. Intense desire. Amazing, absolute devotion. All the emotions were there for her, and he didn’t try to hide them. It was always a little difficult for her to believe he could feel those things for her, but she was trying.
“You saved my life.” Kane brought her hand up to his mouth. “Didn’t you?”
She shook her head. “I gave you a chance. I’m not adept at healing. I can only do it in a crisis. I managed to repair the severed artery, but I wasn’t certain it would hold, so I actually held it together until we got to the airfield. They’d set up for surgery right there. The doctor who did the surgery fixed everything else as well. The bullet ricocheted around in there and did a lot of damage. You were in surgery over three hours, and they nearly lost you twice, Kane.”
“He would have died in the helicopter if it wasn’t for you,” Javier said. “We’re all very grateful to you.”
Rose was so startled, she actually took a step back. Javier seemed to disappear and then just emerge from the wall itself. She put a hand to her throat, shocked at the way he was looking at her as well. She had gone from potential enemy to reserved acceptance. She was grateful she was on his good side.
“I don’t know what happens,” she admitted. “My body takes over my brain and just acts. I barely remember what I did.”
“You cut him open and put your hand inside of him,” Javier said.
She shivered, remembering his reaction. Javier had placed a knife to her throat. The gesture had seemed casual but was anything but. She’d kept working, knowing she didn’t have much time. She’d found the severed artery and repaired it within minutes, shouting for Mack to give Kane her blood immediately.
It had all been hazy from the moment she’d pulled Kane into the helicopter, “saw” the severed artery, and cut him open. Mack hadn’t hesitated, starting the transfusion immediately, even as Gideon gave him plasma. She’d been so frightened, wanting to grab Sebastian and leap from the helicopter, taking her chances with the unknown rather than with these grim-faced strangers without Kane.
Oddly, it had been Javier who helped her. He held her stable through the flight, using his own body to prop her up. He’d asked one of the others to slip makeshift pillows under her arms to help keep them up and then had her covered with a warm blanket as she crouched over Kane. Her blood flowed into Kane’s body in a desperate attempt to keep him from bleeding to death, while her fingers, deep inside his body, had reinforced her repair of the artery. She would never forget that incredible helicopter ride as she tried to breathe for Kane, willing him to live with every ounce of strength she possessed.
“Whitney never found out about you?” Kane asked.
She shook her head. “I told you, even as children we knew we had to hide our gifts from him. He might help us develop them, but had he known about me, he would have put the other girls in jeopardy just to see me use it. He can be very cruel. He doesn’t look at it that way. Everything he does, for him, is justified in the advancement of science.”