Sunny - Mona Lisa Eclipsing

IT TOOK A few moments for the initial hysteria to die down. None of the shouted questions had been answered because as things had started to quiet down, Kelly said, “My hands no longer hurt. Take off my dressings.”

Since I was closest, I ended up unwrapping the gauze from her hands, wincing when I saw the tender, wet redness of her skin from fingertips up to forearm.

“That looks tender,” I observed.

Her reply was, “You should have seen what they looked like before.”

That surprised me. “You mean they’re better?”

“Much better,” said Dr. Hubert, coming over to examine her. “She had second-degree burns. Now they’re only first-degree. But that’s nothing compared to this patient’s improvement.” Fascinated, the doctor ran his hands carefully down Jarvis’s arm. “Does this hurt?” he asked.

“No, sir,” Jarvis answered.

“Unbelievable,” the doctor muttered, lightly pinching up a fold of skin. “Full epithelium—dermis, subcutaneous tissue, and fatty latter. Everything’s been restored.”

He marveled over Jarvis’s healing while I puzzled at Kelly’s hands. “You were touching Jarvis”—kissing him actually—“when I healed him. Some of the healing must have spilled over to you a little.”

“This isn’t a little,” Kelly said. “My hands were blistered, the skin broken, weeping out clear fluid.”

“They still are,” I noted.

“That’s the ointment they smeared on me,” Kelly said. “Yuck, I have to wash my hands.”

I caught a nurse’s eye. “Can you bring some clothes for Jarvis and something to wash the goop off his skin with?” It took her a little bit of time to make her way out of the room. Unfortunately, it had gotten even more crowded in here. All the nurses and interns who had been banished had rushed back inside during the light show we had just put on.

“Watch them,” Agent Stanton muttered tersely to the agent beside him and went to examine Jarvis, giving me, Dontaine, and Hannah as wide a berth as he possibly could.

Great, I thought. I heal someone—two someones, actually—and now Agent Stanton was afraid of me.

“I didn’t know I could heal a Mixed Blood,” I said to Hannah. Even if it was just a partial healing.

“It is more than I would have been able to do,” the healer said.

It suddenly hit me then. I had healed without sex, without orgasm. With only just some neck nuzzling.

The nurse pushed her way back into the room with some blue scrubs identical to ones the doctor and interns were wearing, with a washcloth, towel, and basin of water in her hands.

“I can wash him,” Kelly offered.

“Let the nurse do it, Kelly,” I told her. “That way she can see for herself that he’s really healed. And you should probably take it easy with your hands; they still look pretty tender.”

“They don’t hurt.”

“That’s likely just a temporary effect. You’ll probably start to feel pain again in another hour.”

Agent Stanton finished his inspection of Jarvis and made his way back beside the other two agents.

“May I examine him also?” McManus asked.

“Ask him.” I turned to Jarvis, who was being carefully washed by the wide-eyed nurse. “Jarvis, this is Mr. McManus, the attorney I hired to represent you. Do you mind if he examines you also?”

“No, milady.”

I made a help-yourself gesture to McManus.

“Okay,” Stanton said. “What the hell did you just do?”

“Monère Queens have the ability to draw down moonlight,” I said, trying to explain, “which acts as a revitalizing energy source for us. We are able to share this light with other Monère.”

“It’s daylight. There’s no moon outside,” Stanton said flatly. None of the feds were going for their guns, but their attitude of let’s-play-along-with-the-poor-deluded-girl was gone now. They were treating us, treating me, like a definite threat now.

“The light we draw down is stored within us, inside our body. With Dontaine’s help, I was able to pull it out and share it with Jarvis.”

“You also healed him. Or did he heal himself?”

“No, I healed him. But my healing ability is a little different from Hannah’s, harder to access and more erratic.”

“And more powerful,” Hannah asserted.

“I’d trade that for better control,” I said.

“You are getting that,” she said with a smile. “Very well done, milady.”

“You called Kelly a Mixed Blood,” Stanton said. “What do you mean by that?”

“It means that she’s half human and half Monère.” I could tell by Kelly’s startled glance she hadn’t known that before. “That’s probably why I was able to partially heal her.”

“Can you heal other people like that?” Dr. Hubert asked. “Other patients here?”

“No, I’m sorry. Our kind of healing only works for those with Monère blood. Hannah can tell you more; she’s worked with humans before.”

“Humans?” Agent Stanton said in a sharp tone. “So you admit that you’re not human.”

That drew McManus’s attention away from Jarvis.

“The Monère are a race of people who once lived on the moon over four million years ago before our planet became uninhabitable,” I said.

That drew a lot of startled looks, but no one jeered at my claim, not after what they’d just witnessed.

The nurse was done washing Jarvis and had helped him put on the blue top. Without a shred of self-consciousness, he stood, letting the sheet drop, and pulled on the pants.

I didn’t like the way Agent Stanton was staring at us. Definitely time to go.

“Kelly, perhaps you’d like to change out of your hospital gown as well,” I suggested.

“I’d rather she stay with me, milady, if you please,” Jarvis said.

I asked the nurse to bring Kelly’s clothes. She readily agreed and scurried away.

“How soon can you discharge Jarvis and Kelly?” I asked Dr. Hubert.

“I’d like to keep them for another day for observation,” he answered.

“That’s not usual practice. There’s no reason now for them to remain in the hospital.”

“ Nothing about this is usual,” he replied.

“Then they’ll sign themselves out against medical advice,” I told him as the nurse returned with Kelly’s clothes. Obviously feeling the tension, the smart girl stepped into the bathroom to change.

“Jarvis, do you have any shoes?” I asked.

He retrieved a battered pair of sneakers from a small closet and slipped them on.

“You’re just going to leave?” Dr. Hubert said, scowling deeply.

“Yes. Sorry, Dr. Hubert. Thank you for everything you and your staff have done. If you can bring the AMA forms, Jarvis and Kelly can sign them and we can be on our way.”

The doctor stalked out of the room, and Kelly came out of the bathroom, fully dressed.

“Anything else you two need to get?” I asked.

Kelly and Jarvis shook their heads.

“Okay, then. We’ll sign the AMA forms on our way out.” Or not. When I tried to walk out of the room, two FBI agents blocked our way.

“Excuse me, please,” I said politely.

“Sorry, ma’am, can’t do that,” said the shorter of the two.

“Why not?”

“Because we have to take you into custody,” Agent Stanton answered behind us. They had boxed us neatly between them.

I glanced at McManus and he quickly stepped up to the plate. “For what reason are you taking my clients into custody? They haven’t broken any laws.”

“Doesn’t matter. They’re not human,” Stanton said. “They’re coming with us.”

Ah, so that was how it was going to be.

I laid a hand on McManus’s arm, halting his protest. “That’s okay, Mr. McManus. We’ll see you downstairs in front of the hospital. Jarvis, please bring Kelly along. Stay close to me.” I could have used compulsion to make the two agents step away but wanted to introduce that in a more delicate manner, so for now I simply sprang over the two agents and dived over the policemen standing guard outside. I hit the ground in a neat roll and sprang back to my feet, the others behind me, moving at supernatural speed.