Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future

| look around and see the orange glow of fire in the living room. | run to the bedroom door and look around to find the room is engulfed in flames. The fake tree Ashley had set up for Winter Solstice looks like it's melting, causing noxious fumes amid the rest of the smoke. Some of the branches are starting to catch fire. | can hear people in the hallway screaming.

Oh my Goddess. We have to get out of here! | run back into the room yelling and coughing, "Bronx! Wake up! We have to get out!"

| shake him as hard as | can but he doesn't budge. His skin is cold and he looks pale, even though the room is getting hotter by the second. | focus past the smell of fire. He smells like whiskey and wolfsbane. He's been poisoned! :

“Oh shit, oh shit. What should | do?”

"Don't panic, Kas. You're a healer, you can save him. We learned about this. Come on!" | hear Lex call out.

“Lex, are you strong enough? Can you help me?”

“| can try Kas. Go ahead. Let's save our mate. But hurry, we have to get out of here!" she sounds confident. | wonder if it is for my benefit or if she really feels that way.

| fight back tears of panic as | strain to roll Bronx over on his back. Once he is prone, | do my best to take a breath. Then | place one hand on Bronx's chest and one on his forehead and let the breath out. The familiar healing warmth fills my hands as energy flows through me. | feel the poison releasing from his body, being absorbed into mine, and starting to dissipate but not faster thatn I'm absorbing it. | feel the numbing tingles of the poison in my fingertips but he still isn't waking up. Am | too late? Please Moon Goddess, don't let me be too late. :

| put my hands on him again, trying to hold back tears. Now is not the time to break down, Kas. Keep your shit together! "BRONX! Wake UP!”

| send a surge of energy through his body. His skin is still cold and pale, | lean my face against his chest. He's not breathing.

“No no nono no- this is not happening! Not today! No! Lex, | need you to give me every ounce you can. See if you can connect with Saint. We need everything right now!” “Alright, Kas. Try again. I'm concentrating all my energy.”

| put my hands on him one more time. The fire is burning my lungs now. | feel the healing warmth but also the glow of my spirit opening up further than | think it should. | can feel the heat of the fire getting closer, making me start to sweat. The momentary lapse of concentration makes me release too much energy at once and accidentally burn his chest slightly.

Suddenly, Bronx sits up with a gasp, gulping the tainted air and coughing as if he had been underwater too long.

There's a fire!" | feel drained but Milo and James were also drinking from the bottle,

Bronx. That whiskey was

and puts my blanket over my head. He sprints out of the apartment. | can

crying, "He won't wake up.

lifts the blanket off of me. Milo is laying on a sofa.

| put one hand on Milo's chest and one

He doesn't have as much poison in his system as Bronx did. | feel it spreading through my body, building up inside me. It seems like forever and the flames are making me choke and cough but he finally

Milo and they pick me up, rushing all of us

my system, but it is fading from

have to find James! He and Delilah

over a mile away. Can you shift? Lex can get

poison already. | can give you my energy if you get to him ontime, but not if | shift

enough, Bronx, I've absorbed all that wolfsbane from you and Milo. If | shift, | won't

standing close by and overhears us, "Alpha Regent Bronx, please

there, it looks like Delilah is casting a spell, let's go! Let's go!”

she yells in a

to the spot where we see the light coming from. Delilah is there, crying, with her hands over James, trying to pull the poison from his body

at full strength right now. | can't do it myself, okay," | look her in

nods as she sniffles, tears

hand and | put my other on James’ forehead. | close my eyes and start to feel the poison dissipating from his body absorbing into mine. James

and dizzy. My stomach churns as | lean over the side of the bed and start vomiting black, tarry goop onto the floor. It bubbles sickly and smells like concentrated wolfsbane and bile. | instantly start feeling better with the poison expelled from my

we have

Go back to the packhouse. | saw the fire from the window, they need

me down the stairs. My lungs are still burning like they're on fire but Lex is trying her best to heal them. Bronx sets me on the passenger side of the truck and makes our way back to the packhouse. The firefighters almost have the fire extinguished, but we