AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He gave me a grim nod, although I could feel turmoil bubbling virulently through our bond. Kai didn’t let it show on his face, however. Instead, he leaned over to place a tender kiss right on the side of my head. “Deep breath for me, sweetheart.”
I took the deepest one I could, and that was a good thing, because once that boiling water hit the front of my open wound, I nearly vaulted off the table. I would’ve if I weren’t already so weak. But Kai’s strong grip held me down as he kept pouring and pouring, going for what seemed like forever as he made sure that plenty of the heated liquid went down into my wound.
“Kai!” I screamed, unable to stop myself. He was doing exactly what I’d asked him to, exactly what I needed him to, and yet I couldn’t help the way my cry clawed its way out of my throat.
Much to Kai’s credit, he kept going, and once he was done, he gently rolled me forward to finish the exit wound on my back. Somehow, it was less excruciating than the front but still had me screaming.
By the time he finished, I was shaking, crying, and drooling to boot. I could smell another uptick of stressed ketones in Kai’s scent.
“There’s a lot of blood. Why is there so much bleeding?”
“Is there?” I rasped wearily. “That’s a good thing. It means you’re getting rid of all the silver-poisoned flesh.”
“That’s good?” I could hear the doubt in his voice, but he didn’t press it. “What’s next?”
“Take the boiled rags, dip them in whatever hot water is left. Did you get the St. John’s Wort I spotted hanging in the larder?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Good. Mash that into the rag and then scrub as much of my wound as you can.”
“Scrub?!”
“Yeah, scrub. Try to get it as deep in as you can.”
“Ayla…” My poor mate. He sounded so broken. I knew he could feel everything I was feeling, and the guilt of being the one hurting me was stabbing him deeper than any silver knife, but he had to keep going.
“It’s okay,” I answered weakly, because it was. I hated everything that was happening to me, but I believed Kai would succeed. I trusted him to take care of me. Even though I had silver poisoning rushing through my veins, I felt safe. Because as long as I was with Kai, I knew that he’d fight for me tooth, nail, and with all his soul. “I promise, it’s okay, Kai. But you’ve got to keep going, okay? I’m depending on you.”
He drew in a deep, shuddering breath, then gave me a resolute nod. “I’ll take care of you.”
“I know, my love. I know.”
With that, he followed my instructions one more time. If I was in and out of it before, I was losing consciousness for whole minutes at a time before snapping back as Kai meticulously cleaned my wound. If we were doing such a procedure at Fort Canid, I would have made sure my subject had plenty of pain killers and a muscle relaxer flowing through their veins.
Unfortunately, since my medical bag was left in Camdaria, I had to just white knuckle it.
I was certain my knuckles were actual alabaster by the time Kai finished the cleaning and then took me into his arms. His scent was all over the place: relieved, horrified, stressed, but exuding comfort, too. I appreciated it, especially since it helped pull me back toward the lucidity I’d drifted away from.
“There’s even more blood now, Ayla. That’s good, yes?”
“Yes,” I said, trying to catch where we were in the process. “You…”
“What is it I need to do?”
“Pack the wound. It… It’s…” I licked my lips, trying to find the words I was looking for. My thoughts were like static, too ephemeral to get a full handle on them, but they were growing more substantial by the moment. “It needs time to drain. Can’t… can’t seal the poison inside.”
“I remember that from my own wound. What do I pack it with?”
“Any of the clean, boiled clothes left. We’ll get, uh… we’ll get…” What were we getting? My head was just so heavy, and my chest was heaving from the effort of it all.
“Medical gauze later?”
Ah! Yes! That! “Yes, gauze. We’ll get gauze and witch hazel later.”
“Funny. I always thought your eyes were the most brilliant blue.”
The truly corny joke tore me right out of the well of misery trying to swallow me down, and I let out a gasp that was about the closest to a laugh I could get to. “Kai,” I wheezed reproachfully.
