Conduit by Maria Rachel Hooley Read Free Book Online Page A

Sometimes it really was the little things
that made all the difference.
    Once Dr. Ronson had slipped out,
Jimmie exhaled a sigh of relief, glad not to feel like he was standing under
the lens of a microscope while the doctor watched everything which transpired. 
It was one thing with normal medical mysteries.  It was another with the
supernatural kind.
    Evan appeared and Lizzie’s bedside,
and even though Jimmie was used to him popping in and out as he’d been doing
the whole time he had been with Lizzie in the hospital, he still almost bumped
into the angel when he did materialize.
    Jimmie stared at Lizzie, a worried
frown tugging at his lips.  “How long is she going to stay like this?  I’d feel
better if she woke up.”
    “No, you really wouldn’t,” Evan
argued, his gaze shifting to the monitors.  Although everything was calm and
her vitals appeared normal, appearances didn’t count for much because of all
the things humans couldn’t see or know.
    “And why is that?” Jimmie asked,
folding his arms across his chest.  “Why is her lying there like she’s dead so much
better than her being awake?”
    “How do you think she’s dealing with
having souls trying to take over her body while she’s still in it?  It’s like
she’s a passenger for a car she can’t control,” Evan said coolly.  “Besides, in
addition to keeping a lookout for dybbuks , I’m also monitoring Lizzie’s
mental state, and right now, there are volatile emotions swirling inside, even
though she appears calm.  While the souls didn’t manage to get inside deeply
enough to claim control of her body, they did manage to wreak havoc by letting
her feel how damaged they really are.”
    Lev inhaled sharply.  “Can’t you just
shield her?”
    “No, not if I want to keep enough
strength so that I can fend off the dybbuks .  The best I can do is just
keep her in submerged in this state so that no one notices the panic she’s
feeling.  She’d definitely have the floor’s attention otherwise.”
    “Damn it,” Jimmie seethed, pacing
around the room.  “So she’s stuck in this nightmare she can’t wake from and you
refuse to do anything to help her?  What kind of angel are you?”
    “Not an all-powerful one,” Evan said,
his voice gaining an edge.  “Even if Lizzie were to regain consciousness, it
wouldn’t mean she would be free of the darkness which has laid claim to her. 
Lizzie’s path has always skirted the edge of the supernatural.  The
reincarnation, her relationship with Lev, the dagger, and now this.  Her fate
is so much more complicated than that of an average mortal, yet you want me to
be able to fix everything.”  He glared at Jimmie.  “Yes, I am a supernatural
creature, but even so, some things are still beyond me.”
    At that, all of them fell into
silence, and the only sound which even remotely seemed to break it was the
sound of the clock on the wall ticking its way toward oblivion. 
    Approximately thirty minutes after
Dr. Ronson had gone, a nurse finally arrived with the discharge paperwork for
Jimmie to sign.  As Lev waited by the window, the nurse went over the
instructions with Jimmie.  She, too, probably thought she was going over them
with Lizzie, but the real Lizzie was still beyond hearing a word she said.
    Lev, too, wondered if she really were
better off in that state.  He tried to remember being an angel and feeling that
sure about anything, but he couldn’t.  How had anything ever seemed so secure? 
Since he’d been human, it had been anything but.  Most of his former life had
dwindled to flashes of memory that came and went as they pleased.  The only
thing he could do was trust that if Evan thought this was a good thing, he had
no choice but to trust him because now he was human and vulnerable.
    Just as the first nurse finished
going over the paperwork, a second one appeared with a wheelchair, determined
to drive the patient down to the parking lot.
    Although Lev really