Part 27 (1/2)

”How bad is it?” Rei rasps.

”It's ... I don't know. I'm going to pull your s.h.i.+rt up so I can see.” My voice, my hands, everything shakes. I pull his blood-soaked T-s.h.i.+rt up and over his head, then wad it up and use it to apply more pressure.

”I think it punctured a lung.” It's clearly an effort for him to talk.

”Shhh. Taylor's looking for the phone so we can call an ambulance,” I tell him, then I yell, ”Where's that phone, Taylor?”

”I can't find it!” She is tossing stuff helter-skelter, making an even bigger mess.

”Use mine. In my pocket.” He moves to get it, but I intercept his hand. His fingers are freezing.

”I'll get it.” I reach into his front pocket, and this nauseating sense of deja vu nearly undoes me. I've already pulled Rei's phone out of his pocket once today, using no hands, and I left it on the console in the car. A sudden, brutal thought forms in my head that Rei might run out of blood before I could get it and call for help. It's a sucker punch thought. Even though I know with every certainty that life exists after death, I am not ready to lose my best friend to the hereafter.

”I left it on the console, didn't I?” Rei is way too calm.

”No, I left it on the console.” I whisper this because I don't want my angry voice to be the last thing Rei hears.

”It's okay, Anna.” He coughs into the crook of his elbow and stares at the blood that's now splattered there before he looks back up at me with steadfast eyes. ”You know you're my best friend and I love you a lot.”

We are not doing this. We are not saying goodbye. I switch the b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+rt for a clean dishtowel. ”I thought Seth was your best friend.”

”Nah.” He rests his head on the table and watches me. ”It's always been you.”

”Don't they have more than one phone in this house?” Taylor swoops past me.

”Office...” I point down the hall without taking my eyes off Rei.

Thinkthinkthink, Anna!

I can get rid of Rei's headaches and whatever energy I purged into my father helped heal the cut on his head. Maybe I could buy Rei a little time if I could slow the bleeding down. I just need to keep him alive until we get to the hospital and they can take it from here.

I close my eyes and shut everything out. I know the laws of physics dictate that positive attracts negative, but the positive energy I need to heal Rei is only attracted to positive. I push away my fear that Rei might be dying, bury the animosity I feel towards Taylor, squash the worry about what Yumi's reaction would be if she walked in on this fiasco right now. Think happy thoughts, Anna, I tell myself. I pull that positivity around me, into me, I imagine Rei's back healthy and whole again. Gingerly, I touch his back, wade my fingers through the rivers of blood until I feel an indentation and Rei flinches. Random thoughts pop into my head, like what if I mess something up? What if I seal off an artery or do something irreparable? No. I can't think about that now. I need that fearless faith I had the other night when I knew the light would keep Taylor away.

”Light.” I can't tell if Rei means to whisper this or if that's all he's got left. I open my eyes, and there it is, the light Taylor hates so much. It's formed a cylinder a few feet away from where Rei sits. ”Is that for me?” There's no fear in his voice, just a solemn curiosity.

I shake my head and close my eyes again.

”There's no phone down there, either,” Taylor's voice comes down the hall and becomes teakettle shrill. ”Why is that light here?”

I can't make her stay quiet, but with an enormous effort, I can tune her out just by reminding myself what's at stake here. Rei. That singular thought is enough to focus my attention on what I need to do. I purge the energy through my fingertips until I feel empty, then fill myself back up with that infinite supply of the positive energy floating around in the universe and purge again. I concentrate on Rei and the vibration I'm so familiar with, still weak but I'm vaguely aware that the scary wheeze in Rei's breathing has gone.

”Anna, what are you doing?” Taylor's voice is right in my ear, which makes it harder to tune out.

Rei takes a deep breath. ”The light's gone.”

”Really?” I open my eyes.

”Am I still bleeding?”

I wipe away the blood, but I can't even find where the knife went in.

Even Taylor looks impressed. ”How did you do that?”

I shrug as I search Rei's back for a scar, a blemish, anything to show me where the knife went in. Underneath all that blood, there is nothing but perfectly smooth skin.

”You're really okay?” I ask him quietly.

”I am now. Are you?”

I consider all that's just happened and what I just did. Healing a headache seems like no big deal-Yumi does that all time. But healing a six inch deep knife wound is something altogether different. What else can I do if I try? Heal my father's pickled liver? Speedset a broken bone? Cure a child's cancer? Is this new ability an amazing gift or a curse? I don't know yet. ”We tell no one about this,” I tell him.

”Agreed.”

I wet a dishtowel with warm water. ”Want me to get some of that blood off your back?”

”Thanks.”

Even Rei's back is solid muscle. I start by was.h.i.+ng away the streaks of blood around his shoulders and try to remember I am on a humanitarian mission here. I have to rinse the towel clean several times before I reach the waist of his jeans, which are sticky with blood. ”How do you feel?” I ask.

”Still kind of weak,” he admits.”Where's Taylor?”

I look around the kitchen at the blood, the garbage splattered all over the walls, the blood, the dishes and utensils all over the floor, the blood, the broken gla.s.s, and oh look ... more blood. But no Taylor.

”I don't know where she went.”

”This is out of control, Anna. We need to find her and do something.”

”I know. We will, but I want to clean up before your mom gets home, and besides, I think better when I clean. You should sit.”

”I'll help,” Rei valiantly offers.

”You will not. You'll park yourself in that chair and push fluids before you go into shock from losing so much blood.”

”Wow.” Rei grins at me and sits. ”Yes, ma'am.”

Rei sips his juice while he watches me. I must be pumped full of my own natural adrenaline, because it doesn't take me long to put everything away and scrub the blood off the floor. I look around. ”Did I miss anything?”

Rei shakes his head. ”You did a great job. The only thing still a mess is me.”

He's still a little pale, and even though I've washed most of the blood off his back, I know what he wants.

”Do you feel good enough to take a shower?”

”Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just afraid to leave you alone. What if she comes back?”

I shrug. ”You shower fast. Although,” I consider the possibilities, ”maybe you should leave the door unlocked, just in case you pa.s.s out or something.”