Chapter 15 – Burdette - Revised

Jacob walked right up to the front door of Burdette's house before opened the door and walked in, supporting most of my body weight as I struggled to stand. Burdette was in the kitchen sipping a cup of tea, which she almost dropped when she saw us.

"Vampire," I said in almost a whisper.

Her eyes widened and she hopped up. She cleared off the large table in the center of the kitchen and bid me lay down on it.

Jacob helped ease me onto the table. He was very careful to keep his eyes above my shoulders as I lay face down.

"Burdette," said Jacob, as she bustled around taking out herbs and pots and towels, "She jumped and landed on her back on top of the thing, you might need to check her spine."

"Of course," she said not looking at him but tossing a towel straight at his face, "Put that on please." Jacob covered himself in the towel and pulled up a chair by the fire.

I felt Burdette drape a towel carefully over my legs and butt and then over the top of my shoulders.

"These cuts are deep, but they're only on the right side of you're back," said Burdette, hovering over me.

"Well at that point it only had one hand to hang on with," I grumbled.

"I see," she said.

Then she started prodding me along my spine. It was painful; she seemed to hit every tender spot and I winced with pain as she pressed on the small of my back.

"It's not broken but I'm going to adjust your hip because that seems to be out of line. It's going to hurt," she said in an apologetic tone.

I gripped the sides of the table and set my jaw, "Go ahead," I said through gritted teeth.

She put one hand on my hip and the other on my back and simultaneously pushed up on my back and twisted in my hip. I heard a click and a shock of pain along my spine and I cried out in pain, but when the pain passed I felt better; I hadn't noticed that my hip had been jutting out in an awkward angle and how very uncomfortable that had been. Then she began mixing herbs and powders and liquids from stained bottles.

She put the mixture in a tiny pot over the fire and turned to Jacob, "Are you hurt," she asked.

"No, I'm fine. I got there too late. Arianna had already killed it," he said with a small smile.

"Bravo Arianna," she said beaming at me.

I smiled faintly, my left cheek resting on the table.

"Emma will be in here as soon as they clean up. She has a nasty gash across her hip," said Jacob.

"Was it her I heard?" she asked.

"It was," I said and they both looked at me, "I heard her just as I was going into Emily's house. I told Emily to go back inside and phased," I said and then recounted the whole story to them.

"And this is the first vampire you've ever killed," said Burdette in amazement.

"The first anything I've ever killed. And the first vampire I've ever seen. They taste disgusting," I said earnestly.

Burdette smiled slightly, "Personally, I've never had to taste it but as they are undead, I don't think they taste like sugar-coated anything, huh?"

"No, they don't," I said.

She turned to the pot on the fire, "It's good and stewed, just have to stir it and let it cool," she said.

"Ok," I said.

The dizziness had gone away again but the gashes in my back, now shrunk to large cuts because of our ability to heal quickly, were still bleeding and throbbing. Jacob stood up and Burdette handed him something that I couldn't see and then there was something cold and wet on my back. It was bliss, the pain was numbed almost instantly and the cuts were washed of the blood. I turned my head and saw Jacob pressing a large wet cloth to my back.

"How does that feel," he said looking at me.

I smiled, "Wonderful".

He laughed softly. He removed the cloth gently and dipped it in a big bowl of ice-cold water by my side. Even after that short time, it parted company with my back bringing with it lots of blood.

"Damn, is it that bad," I asked trying to crane my neck to see.

"Don't swear, and don't turn your neck like that, you'll make a mess of your back again," Burdette reprimanded.

"Sorry Burdette," I said and lay back down, back straight.

"It could have been a lot worse," said Jacob, placing the cloth back on my back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his face; he looked worried.

For all his muscle and brawn Jacob was capable of being quite gentle. It didn't hurt at all when he took off and then replaced the cloth several more times. My back was clear of blood after a few minutes and he stopped with the cloth as Burdette came walking over, the small pot in her hands. Burdette placed the pot on the table; it was still warm. She stirred the pot with a big wooden spoon and then scooped some out into her hand. The heat of the now pudding-like mixture did not seem to bother her as she began taking pinches of it and pressing it gently into my cuts which were still fairly deep. The salve felt uncomfortable at first, stinging slightly, but then it cooled and it seemed to speed up the healing and took away all pain.

"Burdette, what is that stuff," I asked, surprised at how well it worked.

"A few herbs and roots, white wine, and tea leaves, quite a lot of things actually. My mother taught me, and my grandmother taught her, and these remedies have been used for years." she said, not stopping her work, "The white wine I added to sterilize."

"Burdette is the best healer in the tribe," said Jacob sitting back down next to the fire where I could see him, "Emily is pretty good now too."

Burdette nodded.