Chapter 24 - Wings
Tamsin saw blood.
Her vision was a crimson mess. Splattered into her face was warm, rusty fluid.
Through the veil of red, she saw Bo's face.
Bo was seething. There was a deep, long cut trailing from the center of her neck all the way to the side.
The cut was made by the blade of a short sword.
Tamsin moved her eyes from the gushing wound, to the blade, then to the hand that was holding the weapon….
It was her own hand.
She was the one who was holding the short sword.
She was the one who wounded Bo.
Wait...
Wait...
Where did that pain come from?
Tamsin looked down. A dagger lodged in her lower left abdomen.
It was Bo's dagger.
No, this is not right! Something's wrong! No! Tamsin yelled in silence. She yelled at the top of her lungs.
Where am I? Who is she?!
Tamsin asked herself over and over as she stared into those brown eyes. They were filled with agony and rage.
Tamsin glanced at the wound on her neck again. It wasn't fatal, but it made her fear that she had wounded something gravely, so gravely that there would be no turning back.
Something was shattered, forever.
Panting heavily, she stared at Bo.
No. This wasn't Bo.
This was someone else.
This was someone she had once known. Someone she had been close to. Someone she had hurt.
Tamsin searched for the name in the sea of memories.
Her name. What was her name?
It was right there. It was right on the tip of her tongue.
For some reason, she just couldn't get that name out of her chest.
The girl, her wound and her eyes faded.
Tamsin was swallowed back into the darkness, but only briefly.
Vaguely, she was back in Valhalla's library, then in Acacia's office.
The glitter of the rim of the whiskey glass. Ancient inscriptions that no one could read but her. The end of the world. Prophecies. The lake on a map. The Beast. Acacia's face. The opening and closing of her lips.
The Vargr.
Bo.
Coma.
Bo….
Coma…. Bo in a coma….
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
With a deep, desperate inhale, Tamsin's eyes shot wide open.
She immediately pulled her arms, only to realize that she was on her back and she could barely move any part of her body.
She was in a patient bed, where her legs were spread and bound to the side of the bed with restraints. Her arms, placed on each side of her body, were also tied to the bed rails. In addition, three wide, strong straps - one across her chest, another over her waist and the third over her laps - firmly fastened her entire body to the bed.
"Fuck!" Tamsin cursed. She struggled against the restraints out of sheer anger, and of course, they were strong enough to hold down a Godzilla.
The only relief was that the numbness in her body had subsided - whatever drug Acacia had slipped into her whiskey had worn off.
"Fuck…" Tamsin muttered again as she lifted her head to take a look at herself.
She had nothing but a plain white tshirt and a pair of gray jersey pants on, both with Valhalla logo, an outfit she'd usually on a patient would wear at a specific section of Valhalla's hospital in which they'd keep mentally unstable Valkyries and Einherjar.
Her original clothing, those she had been wearing when she had met with Acacia, was not with her. She had no socks, shoes, or any of her weapons that she'd usually carry with her.
She turned her wrists and moved her fingers, trying to find something sharp within her reach, maybe a loose screw under the side of the bed, a nail that was sticking out, or a pen someone had left behind.
There was nothing there.
She tried calling out Knut. To her surprise, the raven did not show.
"The hell?" Tamsin frowned hard. Knut would always show whenever she'd call him.
Did they drug him too? She wondered, but didn't feel anything abnormal. She and Knut shared a connection. If he was unwell, she'd know...
Tamsin paused when she noticed the pair of devices mounted in the corner of the ceiling. One of them was a security camera, while the other one looked like a security camera but it didn't have a lens. Instead, it had an array of small, blue lights that would blink simultaneously every few seconds.
Could that be…an anti Fylgur force field generator?
Tamsin knew that such a device existed - it was designed and developed by Valhalla for the purpose of keeping Fylgur out - but had not seen one in person until now. She had heard that it would consume a lot of power when activated, and it would only work in a limited range.
Frustrated, Tamsin struggled violently in bed.
"Acacia! Are you out of your damn mind locking me up here like an animal? Why don't you show yourself? Show yourself so we can talk like adults!"
Tamsin screamed, shouted and cursed. She begged to be let out. She yelled herself hoarse yet got no response at all.
Panting hard, Tamsin started to panic.
How long had she been kept here? Hours? Days? What happened to Bo? Did they already put her in a coma? She must figure out how to escape and save Bo, but how? What if it was too late?
Angry, frustrated and scared,Tamsin broke into tears. She clenched her jaw as silent sobs left her in short bursts.
Then, she heard something at the frosted window that was several feet away from her patient bed.
Someone was poking and prodding at the window with a stick.
Tamsin couldn't see exactly who that might be, but from the shape and the size of the shadow, she was fairly certain that it was Knut.
Thrilled, she yelled, "get me outta here!"
Then, she wondered if she was getting way too desperate. She had never underestimated how capable Knut could be, but getting her out of a secured facility, with an anti Fylgur force field generator on and with her immobilized? That wouldn't be possible, would it?
Knut stopped poking at the window. He lingered there for a few seconds, hovering, before he left.
Great. Tamsin rolled her eyes.
She clenched her jaws and started to struggle again, and that process eventually wore her out.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! She bit out and closed her eyes.
Then, she heard the deafening fire alarm.
Like a knife, the alarm cut through the silence, not just the silence inside her room, but the silence out in the hallway as well.
Tamsin heard doors open. She heard people running, beds rolling down the hallway and nurses talking.
The door to her room opened with a loud beep. A female nurse rushed in and pushed Tamsin out while she was still restrained in the bed.
"Well if there's a damn fire could you at least let me out of these?" Tamsin complained loudly.
"Sorry, no," the nurse said firmly.
They exited the building along with the crowd and waited outside while watching heavy smoke and flames roaring through the shattered window of a room on the fifth floor.
Tamsin turned her face sideways, so she wouldn't be blinded by the sunlight. Vaguely, she saw some movements in the tree line.
Several ravens gathered there on the ground hunting for food. While everyone else's attention was drawn to t he fire, one of them hopped swiftly towards Tamsin.
The crowd gasped when the room under the original burning room caught fire and had a small explosion.
It was then that the raven who approached Tamsin bravely landed on the bed rail briefly before flying away.
No one had noticed that the bird had tucked a razor blade under Tamsin's right hand.
The fire was put out quickly, and everyone went back inside.
After returning Tamsin to her room, the nurse checked to make sure that all restraints were fastened tightly.
"How the hell am I supposed to eat or go to the bathroom like this?"
The nurse gave Tamsin a big, fake smile. "Relax, you can go without a meal or two, and in case you haven't noticed, you are wearing a diaper."
Tamsin cursed.
"Alright, enjoy your stay," the nurse told her.
"Wait, can you at least turn off the light?" Tamsin pleaded. "It's like staring into the damn sun."
The nurse pondered her request, and eventually gave her a shrug. "I suppose that wouldn't hurt..."
Tamsin watched her closely as she held the razor blade between her index and middle finger. She bent her wrist as far as she could to cut the restraint on her wrist. At the precise moment the nurse flipped the light switch, Tamsin reached to cut through every single belt that was holding her down.
She pounced at the nurse. The nurse barely let out a gasp before she was knocked out.
In darkness, Tamsin quickly stripped both of them and switched their outfits. She tossed the unconscious woman into the bed and positioned her face away from the camera.
With the nurse's badge, Tamsin opened the door.
Outside it was still a bit chaotic. Nurses were returning patients to their rooms while chatting about how weird it was that a trash can full of hand towels mysteriously caught fire in the bathroom on the fifth floor.
No one paid attention to Tamsin as she walked out the building.
Tamsin made her way into the hospital building Bo would be in without drawing any attention. Finding out which room Bo was in was the hard part. She first tried to take a sneak peak at the computers at the nurse station, but she didn't find Bo's name on there.
Fuck. They must have put her under a different name or something. She thought in frustration.
She couldn't ask anyone there without risking being recognized. She tried talking to a couple of staff there but none of them knew where Bo might be.
As a guard came her way, she ducked into a storage room. As she was monitoring the hallway through the cracked open door, she sensed a presence in the room.
She spun around with the razor blade in her hand, only to find Fenrir lurking in the corner.
He was excited to see her and greeted her with a soft, quiet yip.
"If you know where she is, now is a good time to take me to her," Tamsin told him in a whisper.
The wolf squeezed his way through the door and led her to the stairwell. They climbed fourteen flights of stairs, before they entered the hallway.
Tamsin immediately moved into the utility room beside her as she saw a group of guards patrolling the entire floor.
"Great. How are we supposed to get through them?" Tamsin hissed.
Fenrir titled his head at her and stared at her for a second or two, before he sat down by the air vent in the corner of the room.
Fine. Tamsin rolled her eyes and lifted the cover. Fenrir squeezed in noisily, and Tamsin followed.
They traveled through the air vent tunnel until Fenrir stopped and lay down beside an outlet under them.
With her breath held and her heart racing, Tamsin took a peek through the slanted vent cover.
She let out a deep sigh of relief when she confirmed that Bo was in that room, but grew nervous as she noticed that Bo was asleep.
Bo wasn't alone, either. Alex and a nurse were in the room with Bo. The two of them were talking about something in a barely audible whisper. The nurse had a syringe in her hand.
"Alright," Alex said as she gave a nod at the nurse. The nurse nodded back and inserted the needle into the iv on Bo's arm.
Tamsin had no idea what that injection might be, but she thought she shouldn't wait any longer. She removed the vent cover and jumped down.
Launching herself at the nurse, she knocked the syringe out of her hand and knocked her unconscious.
"Tamsin?" Alex narrowed her eyes on her. "You shouldn't be here."
"Yeah? Well here I fucking am!" Tamsin bit out as she rushed to check on Bo.
She tried to wake Bo up but the brunette was not responding at all.
"What have you done to her?!" Tamsin hissed at Alex
"Nothing yet," Alex answered calmly.
"What?" The sudden relief and doubt was too much for Tamsin to handle.
"If you are wondering whether she's in a coma or not, the answer is no, not yet. She had a bit of a reaction to the implant device, so we've decided to postpone."
"I think the word you are looking for is CANCEL. I'm getting her outta here," Tamsin announced as she removed the iv off Bo's arm.
"Please don't do that, Tamsin. She's still unstable and needs to be monitored by medical professionals.
"No, I think she's done with medical professionals for now. We are leaving." Tamsin let out a loud sneer as she lifted Bo's arm and wrapped them around her neck. She carried Bo in her arms and headed to the door.
Alex sighed. "Tamsin, do you really think you can make your way out of here?"
Tamsin didn't care. She exited the room while carrying Bo, just in time to meet Acacia and her team of heavily armed guards.
"Tamsin," Acacia frowned. "Where exactly do you think you are taking her?"
"Any fucking where but here," Tamsin bit out, holding Bo tighter to her chest.
Acacia clenched her lips as she stared at Tamsin. Then, she turned her head to the guards and commanded, "seize them."
Tamsin backed into the patient room that Bo had been in, and barricaded the door out of desperation.
"Tamsin, stop this," Acacia told her. "There is no escape."
Instead of responding, Tamsin grabbed the iv stand and wielded it like a lance.
The door was soon breached. Guards poured in. She hit them with the iv stand and anything she could find in the room, while they beated her with batons.
She was eventually dragged out of the room, while Bo was put back in bed.
With her eyes swollen, her arms twisted behind her back and her body pushed against the floor, Tamsin pulled her head up and hissed at Acacia, "don't do this..."
Acacia shook her head slightly, before she turned to Alex. "Is she ready?"
Alex, who had just reconnected all monitoring devices to Bo, replied, "not yet."
"How long then?"
"Maybe in another two to four hours."
"Good." Acacia gave her a nod, before she turned to Tamsin and the guards that pinned her down. "Take her back to the psych ward. This time, I want her fully sedated, and ten guards outside her room at all times."
"No...no, Acacia, don't do this to her. I'm begging you," Tamsin muttered. Tears streaked down her face while blood gushed out of her nose.
Acacia did not answer her. She didn't even look at her twice.
"No!" Tamsin screamed as she was hauled away forcefully by the guards.
Before they reached the elevator, though, the lights in the hallway suddenly flickered, going dark briefly at the same time.
Everyone paused.
The lights came back on, only to go dark again. This time, it was accompanied by the loud buzz coming from the loudspeakers mounted on the ceiling.
It was as if the system had encountered strong interference.
The lights kept flashing. The statics from the loudspeakers became louder and louder, and eventually turned into the loudest noise one could possibly imagine.
At the end of the hallway, there came a low growl, like the rumbling thunder right before a violent storm.
A large figure emerged, its eyes glittering.
Slowly, it headed towards them. Every step it took, the lights above it would flare and then explode.
During one of the brightest flashes, Tamsin had a brief but clear look.
She wondered if her eyes were too swollen for her to see clearly, or that she had suffered from head injuries which made her hallucinate, because she didn't understand how Fenrir could have suddenly grown several sizes.
She couldn't understand how Fenrir could have four pairs of black wings, or have long, curly claws that resembled the claws of a raven, or be covered in both brown fur and black feathers.
Fenrir stopped in front of them. He scrunched his nose back and bared his fangs.
"What in the name of Odin..." Acacia murmured as she gaped at Fenrir.
She quickly turned to the two guards who stood right beside her and ordered, "shoot him."
"No!" Tamsin shouted as she freed herself from the stunned guards. She threw herself in front of Fenrir.
Shots were fired. Sharp pain tore into her left shoulder blade, her right leg and her arm. She collapsed, gasping in pain.
Fenrir let out a furious growl and beat his wings, creating a powerful blast that knocked everyone off their balance.
He pounced at the two guards who shot Tamsin, crushing their skulls with a stomp of his claws.
Lowering his head, he grabbed the back of Tamsin's collar with his teeth and tossed her onto his back.
The last light had finally died, and Fenrir let out a blaring roar.
Acacia yelled out her order to attack in panic. Her guards screamed and shouted while struggling to hold their position.
Another round of shots fired. Fenrir jumped into Bo's room. He carried both women on his back and crashed through the window.
In the rain of glass shards and bullets, Fenrir soared. With one set of wings folded over Tamsin and Bo securely, he spread his other three pairs of wings, fiercely like a raven.