Read Online Courage by Angela B. Macala-Guajardo - Free Book Online Page A

four doctors reeling backwards, and he staggered and tripped over the wheelchair. The air around him began to swirl, just like it always did. He scrambled to pull the power back inside, not wanting to hurt anyone, and especially not wanting to interfere with Donai’s efforts, but all he could do was compact it in a sphere around him.
    And then he heard a dead Aigis say, ‘ Please listen! ’
    “No,” Aerigo whispered, reflexively tuning the voice out as it continued speaking. He didn’t care what it had to say right now. He’d already released his Mana without wanting to. “I can’t. Not more power.” He felt himself losing. The power pushed outward so hard that it felt like he’d been thrown under a gravitational force almost too strong for him to tolerate.
    “Everyone back away from Aerigo,” Jenna said. “Something doesn’t feel right about him.”
    More garbled words, followed by, ‘ You need to harness your Frava power !’
    “No. Please. I’ll be a monster again. Please no.” Aerigo’s barrier weakened and the energy snaked its way in and seeped into him, one little bit at a time. It felt as awesomely vast as before, and just as intimidating. “ Stop!” He yelled, and punched the floor. He tasted bile in his mouth.
    The voice let out a resigned sigh. ‘ So be it then. ’
    The vast power disappeared, leaving just the Mana power to deal with. He opened his eyes and saw a two-foot-wide crater at his feet.
    His stomach stabbed him with a sharp pain. Clutching his stomach, he ran out of the hospital at superhuman speed. He tried to pull the Mana power back in but it was like trying to hold water with a sieve. He pushed open the sliding glass doors and darted into the middle of an intersection, then sucked in a breath and directed his Mana skyward with a thrust of both arms. The Mana surged upwards and outwards, shattering nearby windows and sending cars flying. Aerigo staggered and fell as the last drop of power left him, feeling empty and powerless, then pushed himself to his feet once more and trudged back inside. He wanted to run but he was down to just caloric energy fueling his aching limbs. All three doctors glanced at him when he reentered the ER.
    “Skitt, her heartbeats keep lasting a little longer after every time I shock her. Clear!” Aerigo heard Roxie’s body lurch. He gritted his teeth as tears fell in time with Roxie’s heartbeat. “I think the antivenin is catching up. We’ll give her more once her heart stays beating.”
    Aerigo’s whole body began to shiver with stress overload. Arms around his aching stomach, he took a few wobbly steps to Roxie’s gurney. “I didn’t hurt any of you, did I?” he asked weakly. Roxie’s EKG was still beeping.
    “You just startled us more than anything,” Jenna said with a wan smile.
    Donai stood with the AED hovering over Roxie’s naked chest as he watched the EKG measure out the young woman’s heartbeats. After about fifteen seconds, she flat lined again. Donai shocked her and Jenna administered CPR. The two doctors repeated the process for what felt like ages to Aerigo, but must have been maybe five minutes. He winced and looked away every time they shocked her.
    When a whole minute passed without her heart stopping, Donai dropped the AED on the steel tray and breathed a sigh of relief. “I think we got her heart stabilized. No promises though. I thought we were gonna have a lot longer fight than that.”
    “She’s an Aigis. We heal quickly.”
    “You got her here just in time too,” Donai said with a smile. “The average person has fifteen to thirty minutes to live when poisoned by dragon venom, depending on where they were bitten.” He picked up the scanner by Roxie’s feet and began scrutinizing her insides. There was black, green, and brown plaguing every cubic inch of her body. She didn’t look any better than before going into cardiac arrest. “Skitt, find us lots of corticosteroid. And Jenna--”
    “Another gurney?”