At any other time Adam would have agreed. But with his physical welfare now in his wife's capable hands, his overriding worry at the moment was that Soulis had somehow broken free. Even if he never returned to claim what he had marked as his own, Soulis would be poised to prey upon an unsuspecting world, freshly energized by the fire of Taranis. Until ht could be brought back under control, nothing else mattered. And Adam must be clear-headed to direct the operation, no matter what it cost him.
"Can't go anywhere yet," he said, fighting back a wave of nausea. "Got work to do here. You've got to stabilize me. I need a plasma extender in me, if you've got it, and something to lift my blood pressure, stat."
"Will you please let me decide what you need?" Ximena said as she stripped the packaging off a large bore needle and plugged it into the IV line on a bag of Ringer's lactate. "You're in no condition to do anything that smacks of exertion."
"Just do what I'm telling you!" Adam rasped, as she pumped up the blood pressure cuff again, searching for a vein. "I need my head clear! Do whatever it takes. And don't worry if I seem to slip away for a bit."
"You haven't even got any decent veins, your pressure's so low," she muttered. "Do you have any idea what you're asking?"
"Ximena, he knows," McLeod whispered. "Please - help him do what he needs to do."
Her expression was mutinous, but as she rolled her eyes, she ran her fingertips along the side of Adam's neck.
"All right," she said, tearing open an alcohol swab, "but I'm doing this under protest. If you die, I'll never forgive you. Peregrine, give me some light here on his neck. Adam, I'm going to have to go for the jugular, so bear with me."
"I've married a vampire," he whispered weakly, his faint smile twitching as the needle slid home.
While Peregrine set about scrubbing the blood from his chest with more alcohol wipes, and McLeod righted the heavy candie-holder to improvise an IV stand, Ximena began plugging various medications into Adam's IV. As he sought a level of trance to assist his body's recovery, he could feel himself already beginning to rally. Vaguely aware of hands shifting him to wrap more blankets around his body, he embraced a brightness reaching out to him from the heart of the Inner Planes, bringing with it the promise of restoration and remedy. Extending himself in turn to meet and welcome it, Adam suddenly found himself once again in the luminous presence of Andrew Kerr.
Relief flooded through him, for here at last was the link by which Soulis might be defeated - and McLeod was at hand this time, to be Kerr's voice. Spreading astral hands in a gesture of momentary suspension, but remaining deep in trance, Adam opened his eyes to seek out McLeod, who now was kneeling at his left side.
"Noel - I have contact with someone who can help us, but he needs a vessel. I can vouch for him without question. Will you let him in?"
McLeod traded quick glances with Peregrine.
"I think he's been knocking at the door ever since we arrived," he told Adam with a faint smile. "Aye, he has my permission to enter."
"Then take my hand," Adam whispered, closing his eyes again as McLeod complied.
Still poised with Kerr on the threshold of the Inner Planes, Adam saw the other Huntsman's face transformed with relief as his image likewise came to clasp Adam's hand. As the other's likeness faded, becoming no longer discernible on the astral, Adam sensed the transfer of essence and place and opened his eyes again, though he remained in trance. The presence that looked back at him through his Second's blue eyes was recognizably that of Andrew Kerr.
"Be welcome here," Adam whispered.
Nodding, Kerr released Adam's hand and scanned swiftly around them.
"Where is Soulis?" he demanded urgently.
His voice was lighter and clearer than McLeod's own gravelly bass. The sound of it made Ximena start and stare, but Peregrine only smiled faintly and shifted closer to watch and listen in wonder. With no time for explanations, Adam gave his full attention to his historical counterpart.
"Soulis has gone, at least for the moment," he told Kerr. "His spirit was conjured here by a black Adept called Raeburn, but he broke the bounds meant to contain him and took flight into the night. Redcap is also free."
Kerr, wearing McLeod's aspect, looked visibly shaken by this disclosure.
"This bodes ill, indeed, if those two are at liberty," he muttered. "The future of many is in jeopardy."
The blue gaze clouded, focused in some other time and place, and McLeod's breathing deepened.
"Aye," Kerr continued in the same troubled voice, "the tapestry begins to reweave itself even as we speak, as that which was destined not to be now once again becomes possible."
"Forgive me, but I'm afraid I don't understand," Adam said.
Kerr turned back to him, the blue gaze holding him fast, willing him to comprehend.
"Soulis was no common evildoer," he explained grimly. "So monstrous were his crimes that it was decreed his existence should be cut short - not just once, in what is now your own past, but for all time to come: by denying him all future incarnations. In releasing Soulis from limbo, this man Raeburn has restored the potential to incarnate. The consequences of that act now threaten to change the whole fabric of creation, from this time forward."
Adam's mind reeled at the prospect. "Is it possible to put things right?" he asked.
"It is," Kerr responded sternly, "but it will not be enough simply to send Soulis back to the Other Side. The doors to his own future must also be closed against him."
"Do you know how to do this?" Adam asked. "For I do not."
"I do," Kerr replied. "For as far back as my memory reaches, through many lifetimes, it has been given to me to see and know the shape of things to come. That is why I was chosen to be Soulis' executioner. You know his past and I know his future. If a means can be found to lure him back to this place, then together it may be possible for us to force him back across the threshold of existence, and consign him once again to the Outer Dark."
"You need look no further for a lure to entice him," Adam said grimly. "I myself am already the lure."
Swiftly, and in as few words as possible, he related how Soulis had intervened at the very instant before Raeburn would have slain him in unholy sacrifice.
"His touch was - unspeakable," he whispered, shuddering. "He left lolo's body to drink of the power of Taranis, but he expected to take me in lolo's place. I doubt he's gone far. In order to experience the full pleasure of existence, he still requires a physical body - one, moreover, which is accustomed to the stresses of walking between the worlds, moving on the Inner Planes. When he sounded me, he found such a host - and marked me as his own. It's only a matter of time before he returns to claim me - especially if I offer myself, without defenses."
"Then, your stake in this is personal, as well as for the common good," Kerr said gravely, "for if Soulis takes you a second time, he will destroy you utterly."
"With your help, he will not destroy me," Adam replied, "but you must guide me."
"I will do that, right gladly," Kerr agreed. "But be warned: Even discarnate, Soulis is a powerful adversary. And having drunk from the well of Taranis, he will be all the more powerful now. Have you friends you can summon to aid in your defense?''
"Many and trusty," Adam said with a fleeting smile.
"Then call them to us," Kerr said. "You and I cannot do this thing alone. I must remain here, anchored in this body, to perform the necessary workings when the time comes. Your other friends must be your bulwark while I keep watch between the worlds."
McLeod's grizzled head bowed, a soft breath whispering from his lips. Only then, released from Kerr's regard, did Adam find the will to glance back at Ximena. She was reading his blood pressure again, and glanced at him sharply as she felt his gaze upon her.