Miracle - Chapter 11: Chapter 11

"We're breeders, Maddy!"
She blinked at me, long and slow. "Connor, I think that rattlesnake spit addled your brain."
"Ugh, don't ever mention snakes to me again." My skin had already started crawling. I shivered, and had to run a hand up and down my arm to rid it of the prickly sensation.
"Okay, okay, sorry." Maddy plucked a cherry lollipop from her mouth and re-situated herself in the hospital room's guest chair. I angled myself toward her urgently, then hissed as the movement sent piercing pain through my chest.
"Hey, take it easy. You're beat to hell, have you even seen yourself in a mirror yet?" She reached over and adjusted the ice pack on my chest.
But I had more important things to think about than vanity. "I'm telling you, I know what they're doing. That place Ezra works for. They're making breeders for themselves."
"It doesn't make any more sense the second time you said it."
"Elioud Biogenesis. Elioud are the children of Nephilim. Biogenesis means life coming from existing life. The Nephilim are doing something to human babies before they're born, so that they'll grow up to be compatible mates. And when the kid becomes fertile, and 'ripens'—like when a girl gets her period—they come take them away and marry them so they can make their Elioud babies."
"Still doesn't make sense. First off, why wouldn't Nephilim be compatible with humans to begin with? I mean, if they're really half angel, half human, then their parents had to get it on somehow, right?"
Crap. She had a point.
"And second, if they're that into having kids, why don't they just make them with their own kind? You know, nice Nephilim boy finds a nice Nephilim girl and they knock boots till she's preggers? Been working for humans for a few thousand years."
Maybe Maddy was right, and the snake venom had messed me up. Normally I would have thought of that long before she did.
"Aw, bubba, don't look so down. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"You didn't," I said, though probably not very convincingly. I was so sure I'd figured it out. My reasoning instincts clearly weren't working like I was used to. And I was especially not used to Maddy being the one to out-think me. She was the mettle, I was the brains. That was always how it went.
"Gotta tell you, though, a girl could get used to this pheromone thing. Every guy in town wanted to drive me to Amarillo today. I got free breakfast from Carl at the Donut Stop and first thing this morning, guess who was in our driveway with an armful of flowers and a stuffed bear the size of Mom's Honda?"
I waited.
"Justin," she announced dramatically. "Can you believe him? He came to give me my phone back. I told him I hoped he liked snuggling with that bear 'cause he was never ever ever gonna lay hands on me again. He cried. It was poetic."
"I don't know, Maddy, I mean... don't you feel kind of bad for him? If we're really giving off chemicals that make people crazy, then it wasn't really his fault."
"Fuck that," she said firmly. "It was absolutely, totally, entirely his fault. I don't care if the two of us smell like fucking ambrosia, that doesn't excuse what he did. There are plenty of people in the world who don't turn into rapey creepy cowardly mofos when they're attracted to somebody. For that to happen, they had to already be a jerk on the inside."
There was a light knock on the hospital room door, and then it opened. "Excuse me. Um. Connor?"
"Pete," I exclaimed, casting a shocked glance over at Maddy. Had she known he was coming? She shook her head.
Dang, and here I was in a hospital gown with an IV in my arm, and my hair was probably gross—I hadn't been able to shower yet. I had gauze taped to my forehead, I could feel the swelling in my face, and from what Maddy had said, I looked awful. I set the ice pack aside and tucked my hair behind my ears nervously, since it was all I could do.
"Howdy," he said, peering around the door. "I thought I'd come by to check on you. But I can come back later if now's not a good time?"
"No, no, it's, uh.  It's fine. You can come in."
Pete stepped into the room, and I allowed myself a lingering appraisal. He was on the shorter side, not as short as me but under six feet for sure. He had a wide, stocky build and walked with a bit of bowleggedness, as if he spent more time on a horse than on his own two feet. He was in jeans, boots and a checkered shirt, with a cowboy hat that he was currently holding politely over his heart. His dark brown hair had been combed back from his face and gelled. I think he'd gotten dressed up to come see me.
To top it off, the hand that wasn't holding his hat was carrying a vase of daisies. "I, uh, wasn't sure of the right flowers for gettin' snakebit." He set them on the table next to my bed. "Hope these are okay."
"They're great," I assured him with a spark of happiness. First time a guy had ever given me flowers.
It's not real, I forced myself to remember. He doesn't actually like me, I'm just... chemically sexy.
I bit the inside of my lip and turned to him. "This is awfully nice of you."
His cheeks reddened a little. "Aw, it's no trouble. How are you feelin'? Where'd the critter get you?"
"My leg," I said, pointing to my right foot. It was under the blanket, so he couldn't see how swollen it was. "Twice. It still hurts, but they say it's going to get completely better."
"Twice? Man, that's rough. Glad you're okay."
"Me too."
"I was in town last night when they brought you in, so I kinda heard what happened. Is it true? Some guys from your school set a rattler on you?"
That was the Reader's Digest version. I gave my sister a sharp glare. Just how much had she gone around telling people? Tyler was dangerous, surely she'd realized that. He had family in high places, so nobody was going to lock him up for his crap. If ever there was a time to be keeping our mouths shut...
She just gave me a defensive what? look and stuck her lollipop back in her mouth.
I sighed. "Uh. Yeah. Pretty much."
"Damn." His eyes roved my damaged face.  "Wish I'd known, I woulda come to stop 'em."
I was really glad he hadn't. The night had been humiliating as it was. I was glad he hadn't seen me like that, especially since God only knew if it would have sent him into raging predator mode too.
He nodded to Maddy. "Don't know if it brings you peace of mind, but Justin's suspended from the rodeo until they can investigate."
Maddy folded her arms across her chest. "Serves him right."
Pete turned back to me and cleared his throat. "So, um. That big guy on the motorbike, who brought you in. I was wonderin', is he, like... your boyfriend?"
I wasn't sure at first if he was directing the question at me or Maddy. At least, not until he blushed and added, "It's just that he seemed real worried about you, so..."
"Oh," I said, shaking my head. "No, he's... he's not."
He smiled then, like he was relieved to hear it. "Then once you get released and all, maybe you might want to, um..." He was turning his hat in his hands. "Maybe we could go get a coffee, or somethin'."
Whoa. "You and me?" I asked carefully.
He nodded. Blinked at me through curly brown lashes. My sister was wiggling gleefully next to me, and I did my best to ignore it because inside I was feeling the same.
Unbelievable. The first time in my life that I was getting to experience the awkward thrill of being asked out—something I hadn't ever thought would happen, at least not so long as I was stuck in Prickly Pear—and yet it wasn't real. I'd never imagined it was possible to feel so excited and disappointed at the same time.
"Pete, are you... gay?" I was pretty sure I already knew the answer, but he needed to think about it if he was going to go around asking other guys on dates.
"I dunno." He didn't seem mad that I'd asked. "I ain't never liked a dude before. But there's somethin' about you, I kinda wanna... be around you, I guess."
"And that doesn't bother you?"
He shrugged. "Don't see why it should."
"Won't your friends give you a hard time if you start, you know, hanging out with me?"
He actually smirked, this adorable little crook to his mouth that revealed a dimple hiding in his right cheek. "I reckon if they did, they wouldn't be much in the way of friends, right?"
Oh god, he was so sweet. I was starting to see what Maddy meant about the benefits of our condition. If all guys reacted the way Pete did, I'd be the luckiest gay boy on earth. And maybe this meant Maddy was right about her other point too...  that only people who were bad all along would treat us the way Tyler and Justin did. Maybe we weren't poison. We just brought out poison in other people when it was already there.
And in the case of a guy like Pete, what came out was goodness. Gay or not, he was a genuinely nice person. That right there was reason enough to want to date the guy.
And then there was my sister's elbow, jabbing me repeatedly. She was squealing a little, under her breath.
"So, you think I could give you my number? In case you wanna call when you get outta here."
"I... Yeah. Yeah, sure. Only you'll have to give it to Maddy, my phone's dead."
Maddy jumped up from her chair and practically threw her phone at him. "Totally! We'll totally call you. For sure."
As he was putting it into her phone, the door opened again. This time it was my white-coated Nephilim doctor, Bo. Or rather, Dr. Sarias. As he had flatly informed me earlier, only friends called him by his nickname. He was startlingly tall, but also super thin. Dark hair and eyes, pale skin, handsome Asian features. He looked older than Ezra, but still almost too young to be a doctor. Unlike the rest of us, he had no Texan drawl. And he seemed very annoyed to find Pete in the room with us.
"Who let you in here?" he demanded. "This patient isn't allowed visitors, except family."
"My apologies, Doc," Pete said with a tip of the head. "I'll be gettin' on, then."
"Yes, you will," Dr. Sarias snapped, and held the door open.
Pete gave me a small bow, with a hopeful smile. "Be seeing you, Connor."
"Bye, Pete. Thanks for the flowers."
Dr. Sarias closed the door firmly behind Pete, then turned to me and Maddy. "You two. That adventure in the desert wasn't enough to teach you? Maybe Ezra has patience for this but I don't, so I'm telling you plainly. Stay away from human males. All of them, doesn't matter whether it's your father or your boyfriends or your youth pastor. Just stay away."
"Only men?" I asked as Maddy bristled. She really didn't like being told what to do. But I found that comment interesting. "Our pheromone things, they don't affect women?"
"They act on the Y chromosome," he answered. "The only women you'd have to worry about are those who have one."
My eyebrows went up. That was the most non-cis-normative, scientific answer I'd ever heard. This guy really wasn't from around here.
"How long?" I asked. "How long do we have to avoid them for?"
"You? Better plan on forever. As for your sister, it won't be a problem once she's enrolled."
"Enrolled in what?" we asked in unison.
He looked between us with a shiver. "Has anyone ever told you that's creepy? Ugh. You'll find out soon enough, I'd imagine." Holding up a clipboard, he said, "You're due for another dose of antivenin. First, though, I have to do a blood draw."
Pete's flowers were nudged aside to make room for his draw kit, which consisted of a rubber strap to tie around my upper arm, an alcohol swab, a hollow syringe with a needle, a cotton ball and a Band-Aid. The strap went on first, and then he tapped the inside of my elbow until he saw a vein he liked. I averted my eyes as he stuck the needle in. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as what Ezra had done to my leg last night, but still made me a little queasy.
"How did Ezra make antivenin for me?" I asked, staring at the far wall with determination. "He mixed some of my blood into something that turned it white. Then he put his blood in it. But I kind of lost track, after that."
"That's the extent of it," Dr. Sarias responded. "Our white blood cells develop antibodies to toxins instantaneously. Ezra took a sample of the venom from you, isolated it, then added his blood to form the antibodies. Once he had enough he injected you with them. It's close to the same process humans use to make antivenin, except they use horses or sheep to create the antibodies, and it takes months. We do it faster."
"But isn't injecting someone else's blood dangerous? What if Ezra and I had different blood types?"
Dr. Sarias pulled the needle out of my arm, making me wince. "As a matter of fact, Nephilim blood types are completely untolerated by humans. If you'd been a normal human it likely would have killed you."
"But I'm not," I said slowly. "Because of whatever you treated my mom with, way back when."
"That's right." He stuck a cotton ball over the little hole he'd made in my arm, and taped it down with the Band-Aid.
"What was it? What does it do?"
"Can't tell you."
"That's just stupid," I complained, watching him pack up my blood sample. "It's our bodies, our lives you guys are messing with. We have the right to know."
"I tell you, we both die. And so does my friend, most likely. So no, I don't think so."
"What do you mean?"
"My people take our internal matters very seriously. And Ezra's stuck his neck out way too far for you already. Keep asking questions, and you'll get him in a lot of trouble."
I pressed my lips together and gave Maddy wide eyes. Why hadn't Ezra told me that? He'd just said I would be better off not knowing. Seeing as how it didn't seem possible for the Nephilim to make my life any worse, that wasn't much of a deterrent. But he'd never said that he could face consequences too.
Dr. Sarias stabbed me in the upper arm with another syringe of the antivenin. He wasn't especially gentle about it. I knew I should leave him alone, but there was one other thing that was bothering me too much.
"If this is going to put Ezra in a bad spot, don't tell me," I said, watching him sigh and roll his eyes toward the ceiling, "but how come it's okay for you to be seen here with me, but it's not okay for him? He's always sneaking around, then running off. Even Maddy had never seen him before until last night."
The question must have been a good one, because he seemed to be weighing whether to answer. He capped the empty syringe and tossed it in the nearby sharps disposal can, then turned back to me. "Ezra's Reserved."
"He's... shy?"
"No. He's Reserved. It means he's not permitted to interact with humans."
"What? Why?!"
"Nephilim law. I'm helping you as a favor to him, because if his little rescue mission from last night is discovered he'll be in a world of hurt. Not to mention what'll happen if he gets caught making all these visits down here."
I opened my mouth to ask more, and Dr. Sarias shook his head, pointing his index finger at me sternly. "That's all I'm telling you. If you care about him at all you'll discourage him from this, tell him to stay home where he belongs. I don't want to see him put in the ground because of you."
I gulped.
"I'll be back in three hours for another draw and dose. With any luck we'll get you out of here tomorrow, and we can all go back where we belong."
He left the room, and I sat back against the hard hospital pillows. "You think that's true?" I said to Maddy. "That Ezra could get in trouble for helping me?"
She shrugged. "Dunno. That doctor seems pretty serious about it, though."
I wanted to ask him, but I didn't have his number. Nor did I have my phone, for that matter. "Can you charge my phone tonight? And bring it here tomorrow? It's in my backpack."
"Sure. Have they said whether you can get out of bed yet? We've got three hours 'til the doctor comes back, you might want to shower."
I made a face at her. "You saying I stink?"
She grinned. "I just don't think puke is your best fragrance."
Ew. Yeah. A shower was definitely up next.