Chapter 31: Burn

Passion burns beneath the skin.
Evil burns from without to within.

A Fool's Book of Wisdom

Helen worked quickly, securely fastening Kimberly's ankles and wrists with strips of her torn petticoats, as she raced to finish before the young woman awoke. Balling up several pieces of cloth, Helen cautiously stuffed the wad of material into the dangerous maw of the infected, but thankfully, still unconscious woman. As she began to wind a final length of twisted crinoline over the woman's mouth and around the back of her head, the blonde let out a muffled moan.

"Oh! Merde! Goddess, please grant me just two more seconds..." She muttered.

She stumbled back from the bound woman just as the pale blonde's eyelids fluttered open. Helen let out a sigh of relief when she saw the woman's eyes were once more their natural brilliant green and not the solid black of the demon. Helen marveled at the young woman's obvious bravery. She did not move, nor did she struggle against her bonds, but simply lay there observing Helen with sad green eyes. The older woman's heart filled with sorrow and regret, as she contemplated the course of action she planned to undertake. Her heart futilely railed against the injustice of Kimberly's predicament. If she wished to save the young woman, her mind informed her with a cold, clinical detachment that she had no other choice. Kimberly hovered dangerously close to the turning point. Helen had to act now. She fingered the bonds and sighed. There was no other option open to her. There was no way she could allow Kimberly her freedom. It simply was much too dangerous ... dangerous for the both of them.

"Not to mention the fact that what I must do to her will hurt like bloody hell."

She sighed.

"I can only hope for the best, I suppose. Plan for the worst and hope for the best." She snorted softly. "Ha! That optimistic outlook clashes with the way I have viewed life these many years. Perhaps I need to reconsider my philosophy. After all, I found forgiveness, my face and Khalid. But, I dawdle; now is not the time for such perusing. Now is the time to act. Later I can allow my thoughts to ponder what course I shall set for my life. I can think only of you now, Kimberly."

She slowly reached out her hand to brush the limp strands of blonde hair from the woman's face and then patted her cheek softly. Helen paused a moment, drew in a deep breath and slowly released it.

"Ma petite, do not worry." Helen crooned. "I am a healer and I know what to do to help you. But, I must warn you that this will hurt. There is no way around it, as I do not have any of my potions with me. Can you try to hold still? Can you do that for old Helen?"

The wide, emerald orbs met Helen's sapphire blues and studied her intently. After a moment, her eyes broke away from Helen, her shoulders sagged and she slowly nodded her head.

"Very good. I must place my hands on your wound. Will you allow me to do that? It will only take but an instant." Helen spoke calmly, but a small voice inside her head mocked her. "An instant? Helen, please! Do you make the leap from the basest pessimist to the most foolish optimist all in one day? An instant, indeed!" Helen mentally shook herself to clear her mind of the distraction and focused her mind once more upon the pale blonde.

Again, Kimberly's head bobbed up and down in ascent. Carefully and cautiously, Helen crawled to Kimberly's side, raised her arms and pressed her hands atop the torn flesh.

"Brûlez¹!" She intoned.

The command issued forcefully from her mouth and echoed about the dreary chamber. Helen quickly removed her hands from Kimberly's neck and scuttled away from the bound woman. She watched in silence as the wound began to emit a warm, golden glow. Helen scrambled to her feet and backed even further away, stopping only when her back met with the cold stone of the wall.

"Goddess! I despise this! I am certain that the spell's creator never imagined someone would use it in this fashion, well, at least not without something to relieve the pain. But, I have no choice now, do I? Oh, the poor thing! I cannot even offer her the escape of sleep, as I need to see her eyes to know the infection has burned itself out of her system."

Suddenly, Kimberly let out a muffled scream and her body stiffened, her back curving into an impossibly tight arch. Flecks of gold began to sparkle and dance about the woman's neck. As the bright sparks grew larger, the woman's body began to buck and writhe on the floor. An unearthly keening escaped from the improvised muzzle and sent shivers down Helen's spine. She felt the hair rise off the nape of her neck and could almost swear that every single hair on her body stood on its end as she watched Kimberly dislocate her jaw with a fascinated horror. Her hands clutched at her stomach as she fought the wave of renewed nausea, which threatened to overwhelm her when she saw a large, black slug-like appendage snake out of Kimberly's mouth. The deformed tongue slithered about for a moment before expelling the makeshift gag and then retreated inside the inky maw. A brilliant flash of white, which Helen suddenly recognized as a wickedly long fang, rubbed against the bindings wrapped around the blonde's head. Watching that dagger-like tooth rub against the cloth sparked a realization within Helen and spurred her mind into motion.

"Oh no! Helen is not a fool, girl. A bit slow sometimes, but not a complete idiot. Hmmm ... Think, Helen and think quickly. You have one more chance to get it right before she frees herself or the one that did this to her returns. Think!" She muttered.

She forced her eyes away from the sawing canine and lowered her gaze to the wound on Kimberly's neck. Helen gasped in dismay. The wound no longer shone with the brilliance of the sun, replaced with a ghastly shade of sickly green and oozing bubbles of inky black. Without giving her actions a second thought, Helen leapt forward and pressed her hands to the wound. Her posture straightened, her shoulders lifted and she proudly raised her chin. Her sapphire eyes seemed to turn into the very gems they resembled, cold, hard and fiercely beautiful. She blinked slowly and turned to look down at her hands, which she had wrapped about the throat of the bucking and writhing body of the howling woman-beast. Her eyes narrowed. Flecks of umber and amber swirled within their depths, growing larger and seeming to overpower the cold gemstone eyes with their fire.

"Arrêtez-vous! Tenez! Gelez²!"

Her words rang clear, strong and with an air of undeniable authority. Yet, it was not truly her voice, but a strange blend of Helen and another, younger woman.

"Brûlez, démon! Brûlez! I cast you back into your own fires. Brûlez!"

Her hands continued to maintain their firm grip on the wounded neck and the skin beneath her splayed fingers began to pulsate with a deep crimson.

"Brûlez!" She commanded.

The crimson became scarlet, the scarlet a burnt orange, which at last burst into streaks of brilliant gold and blinding silver. Kimberly's head whipped from side to side. The woman took no note that her mouth had worked itself free from the cloth bindings as she alternated between shrieks of fury and screams of pain. A cry of agony, which hovered close to ecstasy, escaped her almost human mouth. The jagged canine teeth lengthened and then retracted, lengthened and retracted, until suddenly Kimberly arched her back and with a strength born of the demon blood, she forced her hands apart. The strips of cloth fluttered free of her wrists, yet the young woman made no move to shove Helen away from her. Instead, Kimberly grasped Helen by her upper arms and dragged her down on top of her into a tight embrace.