Glancing at him, I see his face is coated in perspiration. He looks pale, and his breathing is strained.
Dammit, Anton. Why can’t I take you to a hospital?
But I already know the answer. Hospitals ask questions, questions we don’t need or want to answer.
And it’s easy for people to get to us at a hospital. They generally have very shit security. Considering they are there to help people, not protect people.
I get us home in thirteen minutes.
I’m sure he’s got a few speeding fines to deal with, but that really isn’t my concern right now.
“Help!” I call to the security guards as I bring the car to a stop. “He’s been stabbed; I need to get him inside.”
Three men immediately come running to the car and pull the passenger door open. Anton topples out, muttering incoherent nonsense.
“Where do you want him?” one of the men asks. The confusion on his face is no surprise. They were told not to let me escape, now they are taking orders from me.Don’t worry, I’m confusing myself by still being here.
“Upstairs in his room,” I demand.
It takes all three of them to carry him because his body is so limp and awkward to lift. While they are getting him up there, I search the bathroom for a first aid kit. I need to stop the bleeding.
One of the guards sticks his head into the bathroom. “Here,” he says, holding up a massive red canvas bag. I breathe a sigh of relief and rush to take it from him.
“Do you know first aid?” he asks.
“A little, but he said something about the knife being laced with something. Poison maybe?” I tell him.
The man nods. “It’s a dirty trick, but not uncommon. Come on. I’ll help.”
“What is it?” I ask, following him to the bed to lean over Anton.
The guard lifts him while I pull his jacket off, then his shirt. I toss them aside.
The man drops him back onto the bed. “Let’s stop the bleeding. The wound doesn’t look bad if we can stop the blood loss. He’s looking pale.”
“What is it?” I ask again. “The poison?”
“It’s more of a drug than a poison. They call it Devil’s Tongue. Because of it he’s going to be fighting demons in his dreams for the next eight or so hours and running a fever. And that wound is twice as likely to get infected, so we need to move fast.”
I nod, silencing myself and waiting for instructions. I might not like Anton very much, but it sounds like he’s about to go through hell, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.Not even the man who kidnapped me.
“Pour this over the wound.”
I do as I’m told and the entire area starts to fizz. It makes me yelp in surprise. Anton murmurs. He sounds delirious, and his head is shaking and jittering, but his eyes stay closed.
“Is it supposed to do that? Fizz like that?” I gasp.
“Yes. Take this. You need to push it into the wound to stop the bleeding and disinfect inside.” He hands me a wad of gauze that has been soaked in something.
I gag a little but fight my disgust as I start pushing the gauze into the open hole above his hip.
Anton, suddenly fully awake, tries to grab my hand and screams in pain, but the guard grabs his wrists and pins him down.
His eyes roll, and he loses consciousness again. I let out a sigh of relief. My heart almost leaped out of my throat.
The guard talks me through everything, and after fifteen minutes, Anton is bandaged and no longer bleeding.
We both step back. I take a deep breath and wipe my forehead with the back of my arm. “Is he going to be okay?” I ask.
