The blackness that engulfed Arthur Vance’s mind was not the peaceful sleep of tiredness. It was the choking, cold empty pocket of a nervous system shutting down under total neuro-blood-vessel strain.
The body struggle occurring within Arthur Vance’s skull was a matter of raw, painful micro-neurology.
In the medical terminology of his former life, Arthur was experiencing an acute brain perfusion crisis coupled with severe brain hypertension. The sudden, violent termination of the ninety-five percent neural overdrive had left his lower brain bathed in body-energy waste products. Muscle burn, free radicals, and unsequestered neurotransmitters that fired random, hallucinatory sparks across his brain cortex.
Yet Pip’s golden forehead pressed against his chest bone. Then, the sensation was not merely spark stimulation. It was a wave of pure, ancient life-force that rang directly with the cellular mitochondria in Arthur’s heart muscle. The old family Jinwu bloodline within Pip carried the deepest hum of solar fusion. The ancient fire that ignited the first stars of the universe. That cosmic deep ring jump-started Arthur’s failing sinoatrial node. That forced his heart output from twenty-eight beats per minute to a surging, oxygen-rich seventy-two beats per minute in less than five seconds.
Blood surged back through his vertebral arteries. Then, the pitch-black void in Arthur’s vision fractured like thin ice underfoot.
