Acheron Highway: A Jonathan Shade Novel (19 page)

“And as long as whatever magic brought back the dead is working, you’ll keep going as you are.
 
That could be five years or five seconds.
 
There’s no way to tell.”

“I can’t have someone die just so that I can live.
 
That wouldn’t be right.”

“It’s a moot point, my dear.
 
While there are several healers who could perform the magic required, I don’t know of any who would do such a transference.
 
It’s morally questionable at best even if you had a volunteer.”

“Magic has kept Miranda going so far,” I said.
 
“Her blood hasn’t even settled.”
 
I wanted to mention that to see if Von had a reaction.
 
She didn’t so I let it go, figuring the magic must account for it.
 
“Who’s to say that if we try putting the heart back and giving it a jolt to get it going won’t work?”

“That would be some serious magic.”

“Whatever magic was used to animate the dead had to be incredibly strong.”

Von nodded.
 
“No argument, but that magic has to be fading.”

Brand coughed to get everyone’s attention.
 
“That depends.”

We all turned toward him.

“Gradual magic,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Von considered that.

I’d never heard of it.
 
“Gradual magic?” I asked.

Kelly shrugged.
 
“No clue,” she said.

“The wizards who engineered me used to talk about gradual magic.
 
It starts slow, like a trickle, and then it gets amped up gradually and it builds up to levels a normal wizard can’t usually reach.
 
Then it gradually recedes too.
 
It’s like turning on a hot water faucet.
 
The water starts cold but gradually heats up, and you can fill the tub with super hot water.
 
The water stays hot for a time but gradually cools down, and pretty soon the heat is gone and you just have cold water.
 
If you turn the tap on low, though, you can get a lot more hot water because the water heater keeps up.”

“You were created that way,” Von said to Brand.
 
“A team of wizards each gave a little magic while one manipulated you at a genetic level.”

“I don’t remember that, but they sure talked about it a lot.
 
Said they could reach further and hold it longer that way.”

“At first, there were only a few dead people up and about,” Kelly said.

“Then they increased,” Brand said.

“And then some asshole arranged for them all to be put down,” Von said.

“But the water gets cold,” I said.
 
“How long does that take in this sort of thing?”

“In the case of Brand and the other second-generation warriors, we estimate ten years.”

“And first generation?” I asked, knowing Kelly was thinking it.
 
After all, she was first generation.

“There were no limits on the first generation.
 
That’s why they were destroyed.”
 
As Von spoke, she stared at Kelly.

“When did they create you, Brand?”

“Four years ago.”
 
He looked at Von.
 
“Are you saying I’ll die in six years?”

She laughed.
 
“In six years, the magic will wear off and you’ll gradually revert to a normal man.”

“I think I’d rather die,” Brand said.

“We haven’t seen any fresh dead people up yesterday or today,” I said.

“The magic may have peaked.”

Or the Underworld might have run out of spirits to send or Persephone was honoring her word, but I kept those thoughts to myself.

“If it’s gradual magic, we might be able to save Miranda as long as it’s done before the magic fades.”

“I suspect it will still require a life.”

“I’m not willing to have someone die for me,” Miranda said.
 
“However, I am willing to take a chance that maybe we don’t need a life to be given.”

“For her wounds, we’ll need at least two healers,” Von said.
 
“We only have two on staff, and one is on vacation in London.”

“I know a freelance healer,” I said.
 
“Let me make a call.”

“There’s still another point to discuss,” Von said.

“What’s that?”

“Price.”

“Miranda works for DGI.
 
This should be covered by her medical plan.”

“Not after she dies.”

“Oh, come on.
 
Doesn’t this qualify as a special circumstance or something?”

Miranda shook her head.
 
“It’s all right.
 
How much are we talking here?”

Von looked up and ticked off things on her fingers, mumbling as she went.
 
She finally shrugged and looked at Miranda.
 
“Forty thousand dollars, give or take, depending on how much Jonathan’s healer friend charges.”

“Fine,” Miranda said.
 
“I can cash in my 401(k).
 
It won’t do me any good if I’m dead.”

I looked at Von and wanted to throttle her.
 
Instead I simply said, “You get nothing unless she gets her life back.”

#

Lina rarely left her house in Five Points, but she agreed to make an exception for me.
 
It took her an hour to get to DGI, so we went out to breakfast while we waited.
 
Miranda didn’t eat, probably thinking about how much the afternoon was going to cost her, but Kelly, Brand, and I made up for her lack of appetite.

When we got back to DGI, Lina was there waiting.
 
We stepped off the elevator, and Lina saw me.

“Jonathan!”
 
She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me.
 
Lina stands about five four, weighs in at more than two hundred pounds, has skin the color of a Hershey bar, and has a smile that always reaches her eyes.
 
She hugged me tight and kissed my cheek.
 
“Wish I could fix your neck for you.”

I shrugged.
 
“It will heal on its own.”

“Have you talked to Frank?”

“I suspect you’ve spoken to him since I have.
 
You’re looking vibrant this morning.”

She smiled.
 
“It’s a new skin cream I bought.
 
I saw their infomercial about how it will make you look ten years younger, so I couldn’t resist.
 
Now if they could come up with a way to lose eighty pounds without cutting back on meals…”

“Come up with something like that, you’ll be a billionaire.”

“I’d give it all away to charity.
 
Well, not quite all, but most.”

I gestured toward Miranda.
 
“Lina, this is Miranda.
 
She’s going to be your patient.”

Lina nodded and took Miranda’s hands in hers.
 
“Let me look at you, dear.”

Miranda looked uncomfortable, but Lina gave her a smile and Miranda relaxed.
 
“I appreciate you coming out here to help me.”

“It’s not every day I get the chance to help bring someone back to life,” Lina said.

“I really don’t feel dead.”

“So I’ve been told.
 
Let’s see if we can get you back.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

They set up in a special room I’d never seen.
 
It was two floors up and prepped like an operating room at a hospital.
 
OK, I say that, but really aside from having a table for the patient, it wasn’t much like a regular hospital.
 
No monitors for vitals or anything like that.
 
No tables for surgical instruments.
 
Instead, there were energy lines glowing along the ceiling.
 
It was as if the wizards at DGI had gathered up a bunch of
ley
lines and just strung them across the ceiling like a giant
spiderweb
.

I suspect that a regular person would not have seen the energy lines, but it didn’t occur to me to ask Miranda.

Kelly and I watched from a monitoring station through one-way glass.
 
We had to stand since the room we occupied was really more of a small corridor or a long closet.
 
Brand waited downstairs.

Lina, Von, and a middle-aged woman named Grace stood around the table.
 
Miranda lay on top of it.
 
They removed her shirt but not her bra.
 
The incision in her chest looked the same as it had when I’d first seen it.
 
No further deterioration or infection.

“I hope this works,” Kelly said.

I hoped so too.
 
My heart pounded in my chest as I considered the possibility that Miranda would die.
 
Excuse me, the possibility that she would
remain
dead.
 
While there was still hope that her life could return to normal, I wanted to hold on to that.
 
I wondered if I’d just broken into Zach’s house that first day and found her heart if it would have made a difference.
 
What if they could have saved her then but now it was too late?
 
I didn’t want to break into his place on Tuesday because I didn’t know the heart was there, and I try to operate within the law as much as I can, but now I regretted it.

When had I gotten emotionally attached to the outcome?
 
I hadn’t intended that.
 
When I first met her, I saw Miranda as a dead girl and nothing more.
 
She was attractive, sure, but I’d never considered her for any kind of relationship.
 
I still didn’t, but I could see the potential there.
 
She didn’t seem bothered by all the magic and the dead folks and the skeletons.
 
She practically took it all in stride.
 
I wondered if that was because she was dead.
 
Would her reactions change once her heart was restored and beating?

Who was I kidding?
 
Once this was done, she’d pay me and be out of my life forever.
 
She’d go back to her normal life.
 
Yes, she’d know there was magic in the world, but give her a few months, and she’d rarely think about that.

She needed someone normal.
 
She needed to be with someone who wouldn’t put her life in danger every few months.
 
I wanted her to have a good life.

Lina reached above her and pulled down one of the energy lines.
 
The line glowed brighter and pulsed where she touched it, and when she released it, the line tightened up and returned to the ceiling.
 
It appeared to dim a bit but soon brightened again.
 
Healers give of themselves to heal and require recovery time, but having the
ley
lines within reach meant they could recharge in an instant.

Lina opened the jar and removed the heart.
 
She held it in both hands and closed her eyes.
 
Her brow furrowed.
 
She nodded and at that moment, Von and Grace each reached up and pulled down energy lines, snapped them apart, and held the ends a few inches away from Lina’s hands.

Lina opened her hands so the heart rested in the bowl created by her upturned palms.
 
Von had her back to me, but I could see Grace speaking.
 
I couldn’t hear her through the glass, and my lip-reading skills are limited to things such as seeing football coaches swear on the sidelines, but it looked like she was doing a countdown.
 
Three, two, one.

They touched the ends of the energy lines to the heart, and sparks showered around it.
 
They pulled the lines back, and the sparks dropped.
 
The heart remained inert.
 
Grace nodded to Von again, and once more I thought I could make out her lips forming
three, two, one
.

They touched the ends again.
 
More sparks.
 
They pulled back.

The heart remained still.

Lina shook her head.

They went through the routine one more time, and the results were the same.

“It’s not working,” I said.

“Maybe the heart has been dead for too long,” Kelly said.

“Maybe.”

Lina returned the heart to the jar of formaldehyde.

I squeezed past Kelly and left the little monitoring station.
 
I made a right turn and pushed through the door into the operating room.

“You can’t give up that easily,” I said.

“We can’t get the heart going,” Von said.

“It doesn’t even beat when we fill it with guided magic,” Grace said.

“She’s been dead too long,” Lina said.

“Maybe you’re using magic where technology would be better.”

“I’m listening,” Lina said.

“When Mary Shelley wrote
Frankenstein,
she based it on experiments with electricity at the time.
 
Scientists were able to get bodies to twitch and move using electrical currents.
 
Nowadays, doctors use defibrillators with electric shocks to get a stopped heart to beat, right?
 
Perhaps if you hook up her heart and do the same thing, it might work.
 
Or maybe it’s not beating because it has nothing to pump.”

Lina nodded.
 
“It can’t hurt to try putting the heart in before we restart it.
 
It needs to be attached anyway.”

“The magic failed,” Grace said.
 
“It didn’t fail because the heart was outside the body.
 
It failed because the heart has been inert for days.
 
Besides, healing dead flesh is much more taxing than healing live flesh.
 
Living tissue knows how it’s supposed to be, so it’s easy to guide.
 
Dead tissue has no memory of what it was, so it has to be manipulated.
 
It’s exhausting.”

I pointed at the
ley
lines.
 
“Constant source of energy should help with that, right?”

“To a point but it’s still going to take a toll.”

“Can you please try it my way?” I asked.

“We don’t have a
defib
here.”

Miranda cleared her throat.
 
“There’s a stun gun in my purse.
 
It’s a direct contact electroshock, not a
taser
.
 
Will that work?”

“It’s worth a shot,” I said.

“We’re already here,” Lina said.
 
“I’m willing to try it.”

Von frowned.
 
“You realize you’ll get the full force shock of the stun gun while you’re trying to heal the heart.”

“I’ve experienced much worse than that,” Lina said.
 
“I’m with Jonathan on this.
 
If there’s even a slight chance this could work, a little discomfort is worth it.”

“We should add this to the bill.”

Lina shook her head.
 
“It’s my discomfort, not yours.
 
I will not charge her for that.
 
I’m here to do everything I can to save this woman, and if I hear you talk about money one more time, I’ll reshape your face and charge you to put it back.”

Von stepped back as if slapped.
 
“Very well.
 
It’s your call.”

“You got that right,” Lina said.
 
I had good friends.

“I’ll get the stun gun,” I said.

#

Ten minutes later, I was back at the monitoring station with Kelly.
 
Grace opened Miranda’s chest and held it open while Lina reattached the heart.
 
Von pulled the energy lines down a few times so Lina could keep up her strength while she guided the healing.
 
Guided is probably the wrong word.
 
She had to infuse the flesh with life force then teach it to mend.
 
That was a large part of why they’d tried to start the heart first.
 
Once it was beating, they could have hooked it up, and the mending would be much simpler.
 
My suggestion required the combination of magic and electricity.
 
However, electricity tends to interfere with magic, so they needed to have the heart properly installed before they tried to get it started again.
 
They needed the tissue to be cooperative.

Once the heart was in place, veins attached, and everything properly sealed, Lina placed her fingers on Miranda’s heart.

Von held up the stun gun and waited.
 
Lina took a deep breath then nodded, so Von pushed the front of the weapon to Miranda’s heart and triggered it.
 
Lina jerked back in an involuntary shudder, and Grace steadied her.

I worried that Lina wouldn’t be able to focus, but evidently what she said about dealing with worse pain was true because she hung in there like a trooper.
 
She stepped back and grinned.
 
She shot a thumbs-up toward the one-way glass.

#

Twenty minutes later, Kelly and I entered the room.
 
Lina looked a bit tired, but being able to recharge using the lines of force helped a lot.
 
Miranda sat on the edge of the table, buttoning her shirt.

“The scar will fade over the next few weeks,” Grace said.

“I don’t mind a scar,” Miranda said.
 
“It feels so good to have my heart beating inside my chest.
 
All of the sudden, I feel like I’m actually alive again.
 
I can’t thank you enough.”

“Wait until you see the bill,” I said.

Lina looked at Von.
 
“Did you have her sign any forms before we started?”

“Why?”

“As I understand it, if she didn’t sign anything while she was dead, she’s now alive and should be covered so it won’t cost her a penny.”

“That’s not how it works.
 
She was dead and dead people aren’t covered.”

Lina smiled.
 
“But now she’s alive and living people
are
covered.
 
I’ll bill DGI for my services, of course.”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

They took the argument out of the room, but my money was on Lina.

Kelly nodded to Miranda.
 
“Make them give you a few weeks off before you go back to work.”

“Maybe one week.”

Miranda reached out and grabbed my arm.
 
I turned to face her.
 
“Big smile,” I said.

She gave me that smile then pulled me close and rose to embrace me.
 
“Thank you so much.”