Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 197: Ashes To Ashes

Chapter 197: Ashes To Ashes

"I can feel his life force; I can see exactly what he has inside of him, and I can tell what I need to do to heal him. But I can’t take it out of his body," grunted Bin An Sha as he continued to press his hand onto the bare skin of the Reaver in front of us. "It’s like a cell wall; my energy can go into him, but nothing comes out."

Now, it was my turn to furrow my brows as I thought about what he said. To me, when I used my power, there were no walls, nothing stopping my power. It was like everything was in a constant state of flow, and I was like the conductor, able to manipulate it at will.

I just thought that it was because I was the Healer, but now that I found out others weren’t able to do it, I was starting to freak out.

"Let me try something," I mused, not really giving myself a second to think things through. I knew that if I really thought about what I was going to do next, I would easily talk myself out of it.

Gently, I pulled Bin An Sha’s hand off of the Reaver and then held it in mine. With our skin touching, I put my other hand on the Reaver. Closing my eyes, I could see myself inside the Reaver like I had every time I used my healing power.

Finding his life force, I watched it circling around me, playing with me like a small butterfly in a field of flowers. Pulling that force into me, I then directed it through my body and into Bin An Sha, giving him the energy without taking anything from mine.

I heard him gasp as the life force flowed into his body, and I watched as he became stronger, his healing better, his body... healed.

He was injured?

They weren’t recent wounds. Almost all of his bones had been broken and then left to heal on his own. I could see where his muscles had stretched and torn, only to knit itself back together. They were operational but not optimal.

I continued to watch, taking as much energy from the Reaver as I could before he crumbled to death under my hand.

I grasped blindly, trying to find the alternative source of power as my body started to compensate, giving Bin An Sha some of my power, some of my life force.

Suddenly, there was a body under my hand, and the energy I was pushing into Bin An Sha changed from mine back to a Reaver.

I could sense Rip holding up the creature, so I was also inadvertently touching him. He was like an obscure ghost that could see out of the corner of my eye but would disappear if I looked at him head on. I refused to take his energy; in fact, I split the energy I was pulling out into both of my men, strengthening them, making them whole.

And then I pushed even more.

Taking part of my own energy... no, that wasn’t right... taking part of what makes me, me, I wrapped it around both men, making sure that there was a part of me with them always.

I didn’t know what the consequences would be. I didn’t even stop to ask myself if this was something they wanted. I needed them to be safe and in my sight, all the time and something screamed at me that this was what I needed to do to make it happen.

"Firefly," gasped Bin An Sha, trying to remove his hand from mine. "Rip and I are good now. You concentrate on taking what you need to heal. We only have one more Reaver left, and I don’t want you to use that energy on us."

"Listen to him, Little Bird, we are good. Better than good. But you need to consume their force more than we do. Take what you need," added Rip, and in my mind, I could see him stepping away from the second Reaver, breaking the connection.

But he didn’t seem to realize that even if there wasn’t a direct connection between us, there was now an indirect one. All I had to do was think about him, and I could see everything.

Taking in a deep breath, I realized that he was right. There was nothing left to fix, nothing left to add. He was in perfect health.

And I wouldn’t accept anything less, ever again.

Nodding my head, even though I couldn’t really feel it, I forced my physical body to let go of Bin An Sha’s hand.

It was only a matter of seconds before the second Reaver disintegrated into ashes.

"More," I admitted. If I wanted to keep my men safe, I had to be in peak condition, and the only way I knew how to do that was to take everything I could from the Reavers.

Rip pulled the third and final Reaver to me and left him on the floor. Stepping back so I wasn’t tempted to continue to heal him, he went to stand at the other end of the room just as the Reaver’s neck snapped back into place.

With a roar, the creature lunged at me.

I was still too lost in my power to really have any sort of control over my body, and I stood there, my arm forward, my hand still in the same position.

I saw both Bin An Sha and Rip lunging toward the Reaver, but I ignored them. Reaching forward with my power, I grabbed all of his life force, not bothering to slowly funnel it into me. I pulled back and watched as my body was covered in a cloud of dust as the Reaver exploded into nothingness before managing to get to me.

Huh. That was new.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," I said softly as I slowly returned to my body.

I took in a deep breath as my soul seemed to settle back into its confines, only to violently start coughing.

"I’ll get the broom and dustpan," grunted Rip, strolling toward me and giving me a kiss on the forehead. "Good job, Little Bird."

"Go shower," chuckled Bin An Sha as he started to pat down my clothes and brush the dirt off of my face. "I’m not going to kiss you for the first time while you are covered in Reaver."