Pages of Glass by Stuart Jaffe

Author:Stuart Jaffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: urban fantasy, magic, books
Publisher: Stuart Jaffe
Published: 2021-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Everything stopped. Roni’s blood no longer pulsed through her body. Her lungs no longer inhaled the air. She heard no sounds, and her touch went numb. Only her eyes worked to any degree — and they only saw Sully.

He floated in darkness. A statue photographed upon an empty backdrop. He became a frozen moment. A searing image branded into her memory.

His glasses sat askew on his nose, the lenses reflecting light from the room as his head jittered in one direction than another. Little flashes punctuated by his wide eyes staring in loss. Then little flashes again. That slight piece of movement brought reality back into focus. With the power of a cyclone, all of Roni’s senses returned. She became acutely aware of the sharp pain in her chest as her lungs inflated. She could feel every artery and vein flowing with blood once more. If the world had stopped spinning, she had somehow remained grounded. And when Gram stepped into the bedroom and barked out orders, each syllable rang in Roni’s ears like gunshots at the side of her head.

“Gully, Garcia, get him on the bed. Gently.” Gram put an arm around Roni and squeezed her shoulder. Then: “Elliot, stop acting like he’s dead. It hasn’t happened yet. Pick up your cane and do what you were meant to do. Heal.”

Elliot lifted his tear-stained face. “You know I’m not capable of healing something this terrible. Heart attacks and strokes and aneurysms are difficult enough — but these kinds of things —”

“You can take care of that leg, can’t you?”

As Elliot gazed down Sully’s body, so did Roni. They had both panicked at the sight of Sully convulsing that neither had noticed the man’s right leg had shortened, his foot had been grotesquely pulled to the right, and a jagged bone poked out of the side of his thigh. Blood saturated the carpet beneath him and now pooled out around his leg.

Garcia and Gully stood over the two men. Elliot said, “Wait. Don’t move him. That’s his femur. If we move him, we could cause more damage.”

Sully’s moaning ceased as he passed out. Teanna swayed into the room. She must have been hit a lot harder than Roni realized.

“Should we hold him down or move him or what?” Garcia asked.

Gully shrugged. “Why are you asking me? I’m a golem.”

“You have his brain. He’s got to know something about this kind of thing.”

“First, I don’t have his brain. His brain is in his head. I have the parts of his mind that he wanted to share with me. That’s all. And second —”

“Be quiet,” Teanna said, her words coming out short and unsteady. She staggered forward. “This is what we do. Garcia, pull two slats from the bedframe. Gram, get me a belt. Gully, find some ropes or rip up a shirt.”

Gram opened a dresser and pulled out one of Sully’s belts. Teanna secured it around the top of Sully’s thigh and pulled tight until she staunched the flow of blood.

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