Enchantment of the Heart {Fanfiction Sequel Book 2}

Family Ties

Haku smiled to himself. This had been a good idea; Rin was brimming with confidence, and her brown eyes shone with enjoyment. She was smiling. Not a rueful or sarcastic smile but a genuine smile of pleasure. It lit up her face and erased the lines worry had etched around her brow and mouth. For these few moments, Rin was free from her past. Haku had to admit that his human had a gift for these brilliant flashes of insight. His eyes flitted briefly to where she stood. His heart stilled in his breast. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but a steel-tipped staff smacked into his gut, he doubled over, and the opposite end of Rin's staff struck him across the side of his face. His vision blurred and he staggered. He desperately tried to focus his mind so he could numb the pain and stop Chihiro. He had not been concentrating when Rin hit him, and he battled with his body in an effort regain control of his reflexes. Rin danced backwards with a happy shout.

"I WIN, I WIN!"

Finally, Haku managed to access his magic, and the pain subsided. He straightened up only to see Chihiro's body convulse. A blue glow surrounded her. She gave a weak cry of pain and then collapsed to the floor in a boneless heap. Rin gasped, and her staff clattered to the floor. Haku was already running; by the time he reached Chihiro, the glow had faded. He fell to his knees beside her and gently turned her over; she was not breathing. Rin sank to her knees beside him. Haku's mind raced. He knew he did not have much time. He held his hands over Chihiro's chest, diverting his magic away from relieving his throbbing face and stomach and into the foreign anatomy of the human. He shuddered with the strain but had mastered the pain and was managing to maintain his focus. Pain was something he very rarely allowed himself to feel, but he had no time to heal himself; he needed all his magic to help Chihiro. First, he thought he should identify what was wrong and then attempt to correct it.

"I thought that thing only stunned people?" whispered Rin weakly.

"It stuns spirits, she is human," he muttered. Information started to creep into his mind; her heart had stopped beating but seemed to be twitching rapidly, her lungs were still... It was a frustratingly slow process, and as the seconds ticked away, he decided he would not have enough time to do this magically. He bit his lip and forcefully invaded Linca's mind, knowing that her knowledge of humans far exceeded his own.

"Help!" he practically shouted at her. Linca's mind calmly accepted what he told her.

"Her heart is fibrillating; she needs help to get it restarted; humans usually use an electric shock."

"That will kill her surely!" Haku protested.

Images from Linca's mind showed him people in bright uniforms using a machine to shock a human back to life and others practising something called "heart massage." Haku got the message and severed the connection knowing he would need all his concentration. He placed a palm over her heart and hesitated; he did not even know how strong a shock he should use. Linca was on her way, but even flying she would take over ten minutes. He growled at his indecision and then electricity jumped from his hand and dissipated into Chihiro's chest making her jerk. Rin gasped and put her hands to her mouth. Haku tilted back Chihiro's head, pinched her nose, touched his lips to hers and breathed down her throat. He was gratified to see her chest expand and her eyelids fluttered against his cheek. But when he turned his face away, the air rushed from her lungs, and she made no attempt to breathe for herself. Two more breaths yielded the same result, and she still had no pulse. He repeated the process, trying not to panic. This was his fault; he had told her never to touch his sword on a number of occasions. The sword protected itself from being stolen and used by anyone other than him, but he had had no idea that it would try to kill her if she touched it. Then again the thing had so many spells on it was almost semi-sentient. It had a mind of its own.