But as I lay there, screaming from the fire in my hand as it spread through my palm, when she lunged for me I heard another piercing scream drown out mine, like a chainsaw cutting through rebar. The hunter's teeth snapped just an inch from my face, before she was suddenly dragged rapidly back, like a videotape in rewind.
I stared uncomprehendingly as she disappeared from my vision, and heard a terrible snarl of fury, then a wild keening cut short followed by the sound of metallic tearing, shredding, like something being ripped apart.
A familiar voice was suddenly beside me, and it momentarily cut through the haze of the burning in my hand.
"No," the voice moaned, frantic with agony. "No, no, no, no!"
The fire had moved from my palm to my wrist now, but I tried to concentrate on the voice, the voice that, even screaming in horror, still sounded like an angel.
"Beau, please," Edythe begged. "Beau, listen to me, please, please, Beau, please!"
I tried to find my mouth to answer, but it was disconnected from the rest of me. I'd stopped screaming, but only because I was out of air.
"Carine!" Edythe's high, strangled voice again cut briefly through the pain. "Help me! Beau, please, please, Beau, please!"
I could feel her cradling my head in her lap, and I felt the tips of her fingers pressing into my scalp. I looked up into her face, and it was unfocused, just like the hunter's.
"He's lost some blood, but the head wound isn't deep," a calm voice said. "He has some broken bones. Leg, arm—possibly some ribs, too."
I heard a hiss, mingled fury and torment.
I blinked once, and suddenly my vision sharpened back into focus. Edythe gazed down at me, her perfect face twisted and tortured.
I stared up at her, trying to focus on her instead of the pain. But it was overpowering, trying to take over everything. They were trying to take care of my leg and arm, but they didn't seem to realize that those weren't that important. Not compared to the other pain.
"Hand," I managed to spit out through gritted teeth.
"Archie," Carine said calmly, as though she hadn't heard me, "make splints for his leg and arm. Edythe, straighten out his airways. Which is the worst bleed?"
"Here, Carine." Then she added in a hoarse whisper, "Please—something for the pain."
Carine pulled something from a black bag and handed it to her.
Edythe bent over me, and I felt her cold hands on my face. "Keep breathing, Beau. Breathe. Here—this will help."
"Edythe—"
"Shhh, Beau, it's going to be okay, I swear, it's going to be fine."
"It's burning," I said, staring up at her through a haze of agony. "Hand—fire."
Edythe's eyes dropped to my hand for the first time, and she sucked in a sharp gasp. "Carine," she said, and she couldn't seem to get her voice to come out above a whisper.
Carine lifted her eyes and immediately saw what Edythe had seen.
"She bit him," she said very quietly, and beneath the calm was an undercurrent of revulsion.
"You have to do it, Edy." A new voice—I vaguely recognized Archie. "You have to let this happen."
"No," Edythe hissed, but she stared down at me, eyes wide with horror.
"There may be another way," Carine said in a low voice. "The wound is fairly clean. You may be able to suck the venom out."
Archie had frozen. "Can...that work?" he asked, sounding stunned.
"I don't know," Carine answered quietly. "But we have to hurry."
I could see fear in Edythe's eyes.
"I don't know..." she said softly. "I don't know if I can do that."
"It's your decision," Carine replied. "I can't help you either way. If you're going to be taking more blood, I have to get this bleeding under control."
"If you try, there's a good chance you'll kill him yourself," Archie said in a low voice.
Edythe's face was drawn, but I watched as her doubt was suddenly replaced by blazing determination. She held my hand tightly in place, though I couldn't feel the ice of her fingers through the burning. Then, just as the hunter had done, Edythe bent her head to my hand.
I screamed and bucked as I suddenly felt the fire dragged down my wrist, back into my hand. The pain was unreal. I dimly felt something holding my leg to the floor, and Carine kept my head locked in place with her stone arms as I struggled.
Then something miraculous happened. The pain began to recede, leaving my hand blissfully numb as the fire focused into an ever-smaller point. My thrashing slowed, until at last I lay still.
At the same time the pain subsided, I felt my consciousness begin to slip.
"Edythe," I tried say, but I couldn't hear my own voice. However, she heard me.
"I'm here, Beau," she said softly, and I felt her hand close around one of mine. Her voice was strained, but with an odd note of triumph.
"Stay..." I mumbled. "Stay..."
"I will," she whispered.
I sighed. The fire was gone, and the other pain seemed dulled by the sleepiness slowly spreading through my body.
"Is it all out?" Carine asked from somewhere far away.
"His blood tastes clean," Edythe said quietly. "I could taste the morphine."
"Beau?" Carine called to me.
"Mmmm?" I mumbled.
"Is the fire gone?"
"Yeah," I sighed. "It is. Thanks, Edythe."
Edythe was gazing down at me, and her ocher eyes were gentle. "I love you," she said softly.
"I know," I said, and felt my mouth almost tug into a grin.
"It's time to move him," Carine said.
"I'd rather sleep," I muttered, teetering on the edge of consciousness.
"You sleep, Beau," Edythe said soothingly. "I'll take care of you."
I felt myself raised from the floor. I felt like I was floating, all the pain gone.
"Sleep, Beau" were the last words I heard before I finally drifted off into oblivion.