They both heard the scream at the same time. James was on her toes heading for the exterior doors. Her tennis shoes carried her faster than the heels that Norma wore, and she made it to the doors with the other woman right behind her.

  Shoving open the wood, James stepped outside and into the sun where she saw Lily laying on the grass, crying with two older boys bending over her in awe. She raced to the child and set down on her knees, looking her over.

  “What happened?”

  James’ breath was coming in short gasps. She gripped Lily’s cheeks and turned the red and puffy eyes up to her.

  Norma arrived and sent the boys on their way before she too knelt. James was running her hands over Lily’s neck while the tears spilt over the girl’s cheeks.

  “Baby, tell me what happened.”

  Lily sniffled. “I—I fell.” The words made her start crying harder, and James had to press her hands to her cheeks once again.

  “I need you to calm down, okay?” She waited until Lily nodded in response. “Tell me where it hurts.”

  “My arm.” The girl pointed to her arm and started crying again.

  James grabbed for the limb and carefully, with the least amount of movement possible, ran her fingers over the skin. She felt the sickening pull and slide of bone against bone and the awkward angle that it was being held at.

  “It hurts, Jamsey.”

  “I know, bumble bee.” James cradled the girl and picked her up, staring at Norma who had yet to move. “Her arm’s broken.”

  “The doctor is inside, but someone is coming to help Addison later today who will be able to heal Lily far more quickly.” Norma stood, and they started back toward the house with the crying girl’s face buried in James’ shirt.

  “She needs pain medication before anything happens.” James stepped through the threshold, and Norma shut the door soundly behind them.

  “This way.”

  They made for the girl’s room, and Norma left once James had her settled on the pillows. Lily was gripping James’ fingers with her good hand, the tears still spilling over her cheeks to cling to her chin before dropping off. The doctor that entered the room was the one that James had seen with Addison. She let out a breath and straightened her back when he came in.

  “So what happened, little girl?”

  “I fell ou’ the tree.”

  She nodded and started to sob again when he slipped his hands along her arm. She screamed when he pressed his thumb a little too deeply into the skin.

  James lifted a hand to Lily’s forehead and calmed her, slipping her into a state of half consciousness. “It’s okay, bumble bee.”

  The doctor’s eyes lifted from the child to the woman, and they narrowed as he studied her and the loving movements that she was making with her thumb on the girl’s forehead. Eventually, James looked at him and cocked her head to the side questioning his gaze.

  He could think of nothing profound to say, so he spoke what first came to his mind. “You are very good with her.”

  “Thank you.” His gray hair was in a circle about his head and something in his look gave her shivers. James turned to Norma who was still standing in the room. “When is this man supposed to arrive?”

  “Anytime, actually.” Her phone buzzed and she picked it up, looking at the text message. “He just got here. I’ll go bring him up.” The woman left James and the doctor alone as her heels clicked against the floor.

  “If I may ask…”

  “Go ahead,” James answered without paying attention. Her entire focus was on Lily and keeping her in such a peaceful state.

  He cleared his throat. “How did you do that?”

  “If you’re calm the child will be calm.” Her yellow eyes flicked to him before she looked back at Lily.

  The rest of the wait was in silence and James only turned her head away when she heard the footsteps and voices. Norma was explaining the services needed and his extra compensation. When the man entered, he had kind brown eyes and short buzzed hair. He was wearing jeans and a plaid over shirt, and James had to do a double take. He looked so like the pastor at the church.

  “So,” he started as he awkwardly moved from his heels to his toes and looked at the girls. “I’m Vic, I hear you’re in need of someone with the gift of the Body.”

  “We are. This is Lily.” James made by way of introduction, sparing only one quick glance to the boss. “She fell out of a tree and broke her arm.”

  The doctor moved away but stayed in the room, letting Vic settle next to the girl. “How are you doing, pumpkin? I’m Vic, I’m gonna make you feel a lot better, okay?” Lily slowly nodded, and James couldn’t help but smile at his term of endearment. “It might hurt a bit at first, okay? I have to touch it, that’s why.”

  “Okay.” Lily’s voice was quiet and reserved.

  Vic gave her a sweet smile to set her more at ease.

  “Is it okay if I do that?” His fingers slipped along her bare skin until they were pressed just over the break.

  “Yeah.” Lily licked her lips and looked at James for conformation.

  James smiled back, giving as much comfort as possible.

  “Wow, you really did a good one on this, didn’t you? Were you trying to be a spy in the tree?” Lily shook her head, and James watched as a soft glow was emitted from where his hands touched the child. It was so muted that had she not been looking directly at the contact, she might have overlooked it.

  “Were you trying to be a sky diver?”

  “What’s tha’?”

  Vic hummed and his eyes grew wide with a smile before his hands jerked. James was fairly certain the bone had just been put back in place. “A sky diver jumps out of an airplane. They have a huge thing called a parachute that makes them slow down and the glide to the ground.”

  “They jump ou’ a plane?” Lily’s eyes grew wide as she absorbed the information.

  Nodding his head, he slid his thumb against her skin.

  “Yup, I bet it’s really scary. So, if you weren’t a spy and you weren’t sky diving, what were you doing?”

  “I was Jane, an’ Bobby was Tarzan. He was supposed ta rescue me.” She stated it as a matter of fact, and Norma popped her lips before leaving the room again. “But he didn’. I fell.” There was a tear at the corner of her eye, and James wiped it quickly.

  “Well, then maybe I’ll have to talk to Bobby about how to rescue a pretty girl.”

  Lily nodded her head with a pout on her lips and looked over at James. “Are you mad?”

  “No, baby, I’m not mad.”

  James stopped looking at the child when Vic moved away and stood slowly. His body swayed, but he stopped quickly enough, and she deemed he was fine.

  “All done.”

  “Tha’s it?” Lily said surprised, looking down at her arm, noticing for the first time the lack of pain. “It s’all better?”

  “Yeah, it’s all better,” James answered with a smile. “And please, Lily, no more climbing trees.”

  “Okay.” The girl grinned and blushed when she realized that everyone in the room was looking at her.

  James smiled. “Want some lunch? I bet Bobby and Damian would like to see you.”

  Lily nodded and scooted off the bed.

  “I’m going to visit with Addy, but you go ahead.” The girl bounced out of the room with a smile on her face, and James turned to the young man. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime, she’s a great kid.”

  “Well, you were wonderful with her.”

  James’ eyes flicked to the doctor who was still standing in the corner. He stepped forward like he was going to say something to her, but James cut him off and spoke to Vic.

  “You should visit with Addison.”

  “Right,” Vic answered and took a breath. “But that’s probably going to take more than one day. I’m already feeling drained.”

  He nodded his head and let the other two lead the way to Addison’s room.

  “Hi,” he said upon entering as James took up a similar position with Addison as she had with Lily. “I’m Vic, remember?”

  “Yup, I remember.” Addison smirked. “The little boy that just couldn’t stay out of mud puddles and played with far too many Barbie dolls.”

  Vic laughed and sat next to her on the bed. “That’d be me. Luckily, I grew out of the Barbie’s and I was able to climb out of the mud. All with no help from you, I might add.”

  Addison’s line of sight changed when she saw Rob slip into the room. “So, you’re here to work your magic?”

  “Yeah, at least as much of it as I can. Met Lily, she’s adorable.”

  “She is.”

  There was something in her tone and the way that her eyes flicked from Vic to Rob to James that set everyone at ease in the room. Then she stared patiently at James, waiting for an explanation.

  “Lily fell and broke her arm. It’s all good now.”

  “Poor baby.”

  “Yeah, but Vic fixed her up.” James squeezed Addison’s hand to reassure her.

  “So,” Vic interrupted. “Ankles today, hand and the rest tomorrow?”

  Addison nodded, and James entered her mind. “Can he not cure the cancer, as well?”

  “No, I was hoping to speak with you first, but he can’t.” Vic’s hands were on her right ankle and the glow was once again emitting. “It takes a lot out of him to heal anyone, but he can only heal unnatural injuries. In other words, things that happened to us, not that developed in us. No cure for diseases, ailments, cancer. Only cuts, bruises and the like.”

  “Oh.” James watched as Vic closed his eyes and concentrated. “So, why’s he doing this?”

  “So that I can start my cancer treatments with a boost. I’ll do better the healthier that I am. We still have decided on the treatment yet.”

  James ignored that Addison answered her unasked question about treatments and fiddled with Addison’s fingers as Vic moved to her other leg.

  “I can help him.”

  “You can what?”

  “I can help him. Watch.” James dropped the hand she was holding and pressed her fingers over Vic’s that were against Addison’s left ankle. The glow increased and the Vic pulled back suddenly, gasping.

  “What the hell?”

  He was looking wildly between the two women and then stood back. His body tensed. He turned to Rob.

  “Did you see that?”

  “Yeah.” Rob licked his lips and surprisingly, remained quiet.

  Vic turned to James and glared. “What was that?”

  James took a breath. “I was only trying to help.”

  “Help?” His mind whirred and James could hear his thoughts as he worked through the problem that was set before him. “Help. Oh.” He took a deep breath. Vic glanced one more time to each individual before he turned to James. “Her arm?”

  “If you want.” James’ lips curved wryly, and she watched as Vic sat back down and put his hands against Addison’s arm and hand. James smirked at Addison and resumed her position. With hands over Vic’s, the glow began to heat the skin.

  Once the woman’s broken body was completely healed, Vic stood and slapped a hand against Rob’s shoulder.

  “I’m starving.”

  “Lunch should be almost over. We can probably grab some grub.” The two men left, followed quickly by the doctor.

  James leaned over and pressed her lips to Addison’s. “Want some?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll be back.”

  She left the room, shutting the door quietly behind her and ran face first into the balding doctor from her kidnapping.

  “Hey,” she started and backed up to give them some space.

  He pulled out a gun and aimed it at her chest, stepping close so that she couldn’t leave. James tried to step back with her hands in the air, but found that she was unable to move.

  She glanced to the door she had just left and whispered, “Whoa. Calm down, there’s nothing going on here.”

  “I wish I had known before.” His breath was hot in her ear.

  “Known what?” James stumbled back a step. Erickson’s form followed each move she took and he made sure to keep the weapon pointed at her chest, dead center over her heart.

  “Known exactly what you are. You think that I would have helped you escape if I’d known that?”

  James couldn’t think of a response. One more step and she was backed against the wall. Her legs felt like they had lead weights on them and her knees turned to jelly.

  “You were exactly what we were looking for.”

  He pulled the trigger and James dropped to the ground, trying to miss the bullet.

  It pierced her shoulder, and she felt the sting. Blood started to pour from the wound, the sickening feel of it between her shirt and skin caused her stomach to churn.

  “I was so stupid. I could have had everything that I wanted.” He lunged forward and wrapped a hand around her neck.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  James yelled up at him as she twisted to crab crawl into the only corner and safe place that she could find. Erickson was close behind her. She couldn’t get away from him fast enough. There were shoots of pain that rolled from her chest into her wrist each time she pressed her palm flat to the floor.

  “Who else? I’m the one who told them to take you.” He gave up and stood. “I’m the one who planned everything. Haven’t you figured that out already? I can see it, you know. Everything that you see in my mind, I can see.”

  James winced and stopped probing him. She had no defenses. Addison was just down the hall and completely unable to help. Lily was somewhere in the building and would be in just as much danger then as they had been before. She had to stop him. There was no other way around the situation. He needed to be stopped.

  Erickson raised the gun again. The shot rang through the hall echoing off the walls. The sound ricocheted through James’ ears as a loud static started to take over. There was a whisper against her skin.

  “All I needed was a sample, and then I would have let you go.”

  James’ mind was reeling, she couldn’t concentrate. Sensations and feelings were flowing through her body that were hers and weren’t hers. She was no longer able to separate them. The needle pieced her forearm and the blood was drawn. It felt as if the fluids were being sucked from her in a most unnatural way.

  The voice whispered over to her again. “That’s all I needed, and you would have been free to go. Why didn’t you just tell me? It would have saved that precious little girl so much harm. All the harm and hurt done to her was your fault.”

  Taking a deep breath, James pushed up against the wall. “Somehow, I doubt that we would be unharmed.”

  James let out the breath, her ears rang, and her eyesight blurred. She took a long drag of air and the wind was sucked from her body. She gasped. She couldn’t focus, all she saw was fire and all she felt was heat. Heat was on her skin, heat was inside her, heat was all around her. The screaming started to fade, every sound died, and her world became black. She was surrounded and caressed in the bliss of nothingness.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Her eyes opened to the concerned face of Addison staring down at her. When Addison saw the reaction a sweet smile graced her features and James smiled back.

  “She’s awake.”

  The words slipped over Addison’s lips, and her green eyes moved to someone else who was in the room. James didn’t move her head, she didn’t want to lose eye contact with Addison; it was so good to see her up and about. There was a hand that was cool against her cheek and James felt the need to look at whoever it was.

  Norma.

  The blue eyes were filled with concern, but there was a smile lingering on her lips just as it was with Addison’s. “Hey there, glad you’re finally awake.”

  James licked her lips and coated her throat with salvia, swallowing a few times. Drawing in a deep breath, she closed her eyes in an attempt to speak. “Finally?”

  “Yeah, you’ve been unconscious for a few hours.”

  Nodding, James turned back to Addison. “What happened?”

  “You were shot.” The tender timbres of her voice lilted over to James’ prone form. James was lying on the bed and tried to adjust her body. The words Addison spoke didn’t register. “Can you help me sit up a bit?” James asked as she looked to Addison for assistance.

  Helping her up, Addison leaned in close and pressed a quick kiss to James’ cheek. “It’s all okay though, I removed the bullets.”

  “You removed them?”

  “Yeah.” Addison’s brow furrowed and she stared down at the woman. “Vic said he’ll finish the healing tomorrow, but we have to ask you some questions.”

  James shifted her head up and down and waited for the inquiry to begin.

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “Lunch, I was going to get it.” She swallowed again. “Is there water?”

  Norma stepped in. “Let’s make sure you’re comfortable first.”

  The pixie leaned forward, slipped her arms under James’ body and lifted her slightly to rest more fully against the headboard. She stuffed a pillow under James’ arms to hold her shoulders up. James looked around and realized that she was in Addison’s room.

  “Here.”

  A cup with a straw was held out in front of her, but when she went to reach for it her arm didn’t move. James tried again before growing frustrated. She looked down to see that her right arm was tied in a sling to her chest. Her lips parted but no words exited.

  “Here, drink first, and then we’ll explain.”

  Listening, James put her lips around the thin straw and sucked in some of the cool liquid, letting it soothe her throat. It felt glorious. She drank the entire glass before resting her head on the pillow that magically appeared at her back.

  “What happened?”

  Addison and Norma shared a careful look before the former spoke. “What do you remember?”

  “Lunch, I was going to get us lunch.”

  “Is that all?” Norma’s thin fingers were gripping James’, and she squeezed lightly.

  James took her time and searched her memory for any inkling of what had taken place. Obviously it was something important if her shoulder was immobilized and her girlfriend was talking about bullets. Stopping suddenly, her hazel-yellow eyes locked onto Addison’s worried face.