Leaning against the side of the small smokers building, he began to gather in his surroundings. The hospital itself was huge, named after some human from history.
There was nothing of the like when he was younger. Not even the tribe they loved so much had things like this. Back then, they were still fascinated with the ability to create fire. There were no huge buildings, and the tobacco they smoked came from pipes you made yourself, not these flimsy little things they called cigarettes. The closest thing they had to electricity, they called Verrah, the magic of the Elements, and Illusion. It seemed they gave one up for the other, a mistake in Gairett's eyes. No one in this time, from what he could tell, even tried Verrah. He sensed it nowhere. He made a mental note to ask Hale about it when he got his senses back.
Gairett pushed off the small building when more humans came over and lit more of those awful-smelling sticks. He walked again through the automatic doors. They were made of glass, and by the entrance were many small pushchairs, and tall canes. There were black mats on the floor and another set of sliding doors that went into the waiting area. As soon as he stepped through the other set of doors he got hit with the stench of the hospital.
Sweet Elements, where were these smells before? Had he overlooked them out of worry?
The air brought sickness and all that accompanies it, but the deepest and most overwhelming smell was death. It was everywhere. He could feel it in his pores, behind his eyes. It felt as if it was trying to escape by digging itself into his blood system. It sunk so deep he nearly added to the smell with his own stomach bile.
He clung to the side of the open door and tried to get his footing back. He was holding his stomach and fighting the urge to clean the entire building with his powers in one quick gesture when he spotted Anne.
"Gairett!" Anne had been sitting in one of the rather comfortable-looking chairs in the 'waiting room' and was now walking over to him.
"Are ya alright? You look green, hun. You not gonna wind up in bed like Velori, are ya? To tell ya the truth, I don't think I could handle her temper if she wakes and finds you in a bed." She reached out and tapped him on the chest. "She would blame someone, and sugar, it would most likely be me."
He stood back up and pushed away the smell as best he could as they started walking back over to the couches to sit down. "If? Why did you say if? What is wrong with her?"
"Oh well, they said her heart is being overworked. Somehow her blood has thickened. They explained it to me by likening it to cold syrup being forced through a straw. She looks so pale." Anne's eyes were sunken and dark from worry and exhaustion. She bowed her head and took a deep breath.
"The doctor said she'd hit her head in the accident, and that she's in a coma. She says she doesn't know how long she'll be in it. Or if she's even gonna come out. I told her Velori was a fighter, and no silly little bump on the head was gonna keep her from doin what she loves." She smiled a little and let out a small laugh before her eyebrows went back into a knit. "She did ask an awful lot about you though and the accident. She said the bite mark was odd. Like nothing she had ever seen. What happened out there? I'm curious myself Gairett."
"I told you. There was an animal. I didn't see it. She was on a raid, and I barely got to her in time." Gairett clouded her thoughts a little and spoke again with the voice he knew she wanted to hear. "Anne, you do not have to worry about me or Velori. She knows what she is doing. And you are right, she is a fighter. She will come through."
He had to fight to keep his voice at a steady tone. Not being sure what was going to happen, was making it hard to reassure Anne. "What else did the doctor say? Do you think she knows what it is she is doing?"
"Oh no, dear! I asked already. In fact, she brought three other doctors in with her, just in case I had any questions regardin' Velori's health, or her capabilities in handlin her. The other doctors told me she saved Velori." She gave a little shrug and shoved a lock of hair behind her ears.
"They said she's the best around, and that we're lucky to have her. You should have seen her look at our Velori when she allowed me in to see the child myself. It was as if she, herself, was worryin. I think if Velori comes through, it will be because of her. She really does seem great. Kinda like she . . ." Anne paused a moment, concentrating on something. She was looking down, her face was tight, and you could tell she was biting the inside of her cheek. She looked back up at him, and leaned in a little, causing the couch to make small sounds as she moved. Then she finished in a whisper. "Well, kinda like she's been round more than a young girl her age should. In the medical business I mean, of course." She began to nod. "Yeah," she sat back up. "She knows what she's doing. You can just tell."
"Who, me?"
Tayen had come up behind them and had been listening to the conversation. The second she saw Gairett, she thought her eyes were playing a joke. The last time she'd seen him, he was telling her goodbye, and that he could no longer bear being alive. He told her she was the one thing that helped, but even she wasn't enough to curb his feelings of utter loss. Remembering it was only boring a hole in her chest. So, she walked closer and heard his voice. It was him, and her always steady heart was no longer there. The air she was trying to grasp only came as short little seeps into her airway. She couldn't even feel the clipboard that she was holding. The tips of her fingers had lost their sense of feeling, so she tightened her grip on the clipboard, making her knuckles white with pressure. The high heels that had been killing her all day seemed like they had melted off, taking her knees with them. She couldn't even describe the circus that was doing flips in her stomach. The only thing she could feel was the smile that she had plastered on her face and how hard it was to keep it there. She wanted to go up in flames, turn to ice, do something to feel again.
It was him; he was back, and once again living because of someone else. And not for her.
She was a powerful sorceress; some man wasn't going to make her feel weak like this. She summoned her power and sent it through her cells, giving her skin warmth again. She forced air into her lungs and put the well-organized circus in her stomach on the back burner, and continued. "I'm not all that good. I just always tend to get the right answers."
Gairett looked up at her and jumped to a standing position. He was not aware that Tayen was near, and never would have guessed she was Velori's doctor.
Hale's words popped back into his mind, 'Playing doctor in the states.'
He felt the surge of Verrah and saw her skin flush red, and her eyes go obsidian. To him, Anne disappeared, the smells vanished, and the only thing he could feel or even sense was the lingering magic in the air, that came from her. Either that or seeing her again, he wasn't sure which, was making his surroundings blur and disappear.
She was wearing a white doctor's jacket and a name tag that was bent into her shirt. Her mass of auburn curls was pulled back from her face and pinched into a brown clip, leaving her hair spiraling to the middle of her back. Her petite waist was hidden away beneath her jacket. Her lips were full and in a small almost indiscernible pout. She was wearing a thick necklace made of Amber and gold.
Tayen was a full-blooded Navajo, so her skin had an unforgettable dark cream color to it. It closely matched the color of rich caramel. She came from the tribe they stayed with for so long. Her family became the closest thing they could call a human family. They were the ones that allowed the treasury to be built under their home. That's where the two met. While he, Mel, and Hale were living there for a while. Her mother taught her some Verrah, and she studied it ever since, trying to learn the secrets and rules, so she could bend them or break them. She had put her eyes and attention to Gairett back then and seemed to just show up wherever they went. She said once, that she knew from the beginning they were meant to be together.
The sight of her still took his breath away. He couldn't believe how she was still affecting him. Still in the same way as before, only now, his heart was beating fast and hurting. It was in pain, and all of it wasn't just emotional. His heart was physically aching and burning him. She did this to him, and he was simply looking at her.