Page 77 of Dark Lover

Prayer wasn’t her thing. But the Rose women worshipped the old deities, and it was as fundamental as observing the Wisdoms in the Book. As she prayed, she was acutely aware that without Gerard, Ian would be alone in the world.

The white rain kept coming.

Gerard’s face relaxed, as if it had previously been set against pain. His eyelashes flickered. “You’re doing it, Ian,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer her, shaking like a leaf now.

She took Gerard’s wrist and this time she found a steady pulse. As she held it, the pulse became stronger and stronger. His chest seemed less mangled, the wounds became grayish-pink, instead of raw red. Ian moaned.

Gerard opened his eyes. He saw her and gasped with recollection.

The wounds turned pinker now, as the beginnings of infection were chased away.

“Don’t move,” Sam told him. “Maclean’s healing you.” And doing a damned good job, she thought. But she was worried about him. “Ian, maybe you should stop.”

Ian gave no sign that he heard her.

Gerard glanced up at Ian now. “A monk came,” he managed. “There’s no more time.” He took a huge breath. “I think I’m fine, sir,” he said.

“You’re not fine. Don’t speak,” Sam told him grimly. The monk had done this.

Had he decided to take out his rage on Gerard after being thwarted by Ian at the vault? Was this retribution, or a warning? He had known just where Ian lived and who to go after to get at him. And that meant that the monk had been keeping tabs on Maclean.

Ian’s terrible shaking suddenly become convulsive. He opened his eyes, and looked at her, gasping.

“You need to stop,” she cried, sliding her arm around him.

His eyes closed, and he keeled over, unconscious.

SAM WAS PACING when the medics from Five arrived. Nick was on their heels, and so was Jan.

Gerard knelt beside Ian. As the medics rushed in with their equipment, Sam ran up to them. “He was healing,” she told them. “He began to shake and moan and then he simply passed out.”

“A Healer, huh?” the big, brawny medic said, kneeling and strapping a blood pressure cuff on Maclean. “We don’t see many of those anymore.”

Sam felt helpless. Ian remained deathly pale and he had been unmoving for the past fifteen minutes. “There’s a pulse. It’s really weak.”

The female medic was listening to his heart. Nick laid his hand on her shoulder, surprising her. She tensed, facing him.

His blue gaze was searching. “Since when did you go maverick on me?”

She hesitated and glanced at Jan.

“I told him about the DVD.”

“Thanks,” Sam said, furious.

“It’s my job.”

“No, it’s not,” Sam said.

“What the hell happened?” Nick demanded.

“Gerard, the butler, had a bit of a run-in with an unfriendly. He was as good as dead. Maclean brought him back and then he passed out,” Sam said harshly.

His stare remained intense and speculative. “Did you know he could heal?”

She shook her head. “This is only the second time he’s ever used the power—it’s new to him. Nick, the unfriendly is from 1527. He was one of the guards that kept Ian prisoner for Moray.” The medics were giving him oxygen now and the female medic was injecting him with something.