“Can’t we give her gunna paste?” Beth asked.
Chris answered her. “We can’t take the risk of her choking on it. Xavier will help her.”
I think I passed out then. The next thing I remembered was being jolted awake as I was lifted into a van, strapped to a gurney. I knew Hamid was with me before I heard him order the driver to get us back to the command center.
“I’m going to give her something to help her sleep now,” Xavier said in a low voice.
The thought of going under again terrified me. I tried to move and cry out, but I was incapable of doing either. I hated feeling so completely helpless.
“You’re not alone,” Hamid said into my ear as a needle pricked my arm. “I’ll stay with you as long as you need me.”
Chapter 11
A beeping sound woke me. My eyes were dry and scratchy, and it took some effort to open them and stare at the white ceiling. Carefully, I turned my head to one side to discover I was in the medical ward at the command center. The lights were low, and I could hear nothing except the heart monitor I was hooked to.
I tried to lift one arm and then the other, but they lay on top of the sheet as if they belonged to someone else. My body should have healed itself.
Oh, God, was I paralyzed? Or maybe I really had died and this was my hell.
“Hello?” I rasped, fighting to keep the panic from my voice.
A chair creaked beside the bed, and Hamid’s face appeared above me. His eyes were dark with concern, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “How do you feel?”
“Can’t…move,” I said through gritted teeth. “What’s…wrong with me?”
“It’s just the drugs. You were in bad shape, and Xavier had to immobilize you to help your spine heal.”
I swallowed dryly. “How bad?”
He ran a hand through his hair as he listed my injuries. “Fourteen broken bones, including four ribs, fractured spine, punctured lung, ruptured kidney, fractured skull and cheekbone.”
“That explains why I feel like death warmed over,” I croaked.
A shadow passed over his face, and I realized what I’d said. I’d stopped breathing, and he had literally breathed life back into me.
“S-sorry.” I coughed. “Water.”
He held a cup with a straw in it to my mouth, and I drank greedily.
“More?” he asked when I had drunk it all.
“No.” I licked my dry lips.
He set the cup on a table. “Are you in pain?”
I took stock of my body. My head hurt, but from the neck down, there was nothing. Panic threatened to suffocate me again, and I had to remind myself it was temporary.
“No.” I stared at the ceiling so he couldn’t see my weakness. “How long?”
“A day and a half. Xavier said you’re healing well, but you’ll be in here for a few more days.”
“Great,” I muttered, already feeling the drugs pulling me down again. I fought against them.
“The more you sleep, the faster you’ll recover,” Hamid said. “I’ll stay with you.”
“You don’t have to stay,” I murmured, even though his presence soothed away the fear that clung to me. I tried not to think about what that meant.
He didn’t respond. I heard him sit, and though I couldn’t see him, I could feel him there.
I sighed and let sleep take me again.
* * *
The next time I awoke, sunlight shone in through the high windows and I could hear the murmur of male voices somewhere in the room.
I turned my attention to my body and made two discoveries. The first was that I could move my arms and legs. The second was that moving hurt like a son of a bitch. I pressed my lips together against the pain but a small grunt slipped out.
Hamid and Xavier appeared beside the bed.
“It’s good to have you back,” Xavier said with a smile. “Don’t try to move. I’ve started cutting back on the drugs to allow your Mori to take over the healing, but you’re not in any shape to move around yet.”
I grimaced. “So I’ve noticed.”
“Xavier will give you something for the pain,” Hamid said.
“Don’t need anything,” I lied. I coughed, and it felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
Hamid took my hand in his. “You’ve been through a lot. Crying does not make you weak. And neither does taking something for the pain.”
I scowled and tried to pull my hand from his. “I don’t cry.”
He smiled, and for a moment, I completely forgot the pain.
“It’s good to see you haven’t lost that stubborn streak,” he said.
I huffed and tried again to extract my hand from his. “Don’t you have something better to do with your time than hanging out here?”
“No.”
I turned my head to watch Xavier, who had gone to a cabinet and returned with a syringe of pale blue liquid. “What’s that?”
He injected the stuff into my IV. “Just something to help with the pain.”
“I said I don’t need anything.” I blinked as drowsiness hit me, making my words slur. “God damnit. I’m going to kick your ass when I get out of this bed. Both of you.”
Hamid chuckled. “I’m looking forward to it.”
My retort died on my tongue as I succumbed to the drugs.
* * *
It was dark outside the windows the next time I opened my eyes. I turned my head, expecting to see Hamid in the chair, but it was empty. There was no sign of Xavier either. I must be doing a lot better if they’d both felt it was okay to leave me here alone.
I tentatively moved my arms and legs and let out a relieved sigh when I felt no pain. The IV had been removed, too. Good. Maybe I could get out of this room now.
It was a struggle to sit up. The pain might be gone, but I was as weak as a newborn kitten.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stopped moving as a wave of dizziness hit me. I would have lain down again, but my bladder suddenly decided it needed emptying. Not to mention I felt like I hadn’t bathed in a week. I was also starving, but that could wait until I took care of more pressing matters.
I was a mess, but God, it felt great to be alive.
I managed to stand and started making my way to the bathroom in the ward, using the wall for support. It took a few minutes, but I got there. I didn’t have a change of clothes, but I found clean hospital gowns and towels in a linen closet next to the bathroom. Score.
The bathroom had a large walk-in shower stocked with shampoo and soaps. I let out a blissful moan when I stepped under the spray of hot water. I was in heaven.
The dizzy spell hit me the second I took my hand from the wall to stand on my own. I leaned against the tile, taking slow deep breaths as black spots floated before my eyes.
When my legs began to wobble, I swore in frustration. There was no way I was making it back to the bed without falling flat on my face.
I hung my head in defeat. Not one of my more brilliant ideas.
I didn’t register Hamid’s presence until the shower door opened. Before I could protest, he turned off the water and stepped into the stall.
“You shouldn’t be out of bed.” He wrapped an arm around me and bent to slip the other one behind my knees.
“I stink,” I whined as he picked me up. “I just wanted to get clean.”
He set me on my feet again, and with one arm around my waist, he reached out and turned on the shower. He moved us under the spray, unmindful of the fact that he was fully clothed, and began to lather my hair with shampoo.
“What are you doing?” I asked and then moaned when his strong fingers massaged my scalp. God, that felt amazing.
He didn’t answer as he continued his ministrations.
“This is a serious violation of rule number two,” I murmured, earning a chuckle from him.
He finished washing my hair and turned us so he could rinse out the shampoo. The arm around my waist moved, and his hand grazed the underside of my breast. Heat shot to places that should be nowhere near this man without several layers of clothes between us.
When he shifted us so he could shut off the water, my hand brushed against him and I discovered I wasn’t the only one affected by our close contact. Need coursed through me, and it was all I could do not to turn around and pull his head down to mine. It was a good thing I was too weak to do much, or I’d be in serious trouble right now.
Hamid opened the shower door and lifted me out of the stall. Sitting me on the vanity, he grabbed a thick white towel and dried me off. He was tender, but surprisingly, there was nothing sexual in his actions despite what I’d felt in the shower. I studied his face, but he was as unreadable as ever.
Once I was dry, he helped me into a clean gown and used the towel on my hair. Then he stripped off his wet shirt and carried me back to the ward. Instead of laying me on the bed, he sat me in the chair and proceeded to strip my bed and make it up with clean linens. I tried not to watch the ripple of his muscles as he moved, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from him.
“You’d make a great nurse,” I said after he had settled me back in bed and adjusted it so I was sitting up.
He walked over to the neighboring bed and picked up a tray of food I hadn’t noticed because I’d been too preoccupied watching him. He laid the tray across my lap, and my mouth watered at the smell of chicken and alfredo sauce.
“Eat slowly. You haven’t had solid food in three days.” He went to the door. “I’ll be back soon. If I find you out of bed, you’ll be getting those bodyguards.”
“It’s not nice to threaten a patient,” I called after him.
My stomach growled painfully, and I dug into my meal. By the time Hamid returned, wearing a change of clothes, I’d cleaned my plate, and I was resting comfortably against the pillows he’d propped behind me.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked when he lifted the tray from my lap. I was surprised I hadn’t seen Sara and Beth by now.
He set the tray on the other bed. “They’ve been here a few times while you slept. I expect you’ll see them tomorrow.”
I couldn’t think of any other way to ask my next question, so I just came out with it. “Why are you here with me instead of one of them? Don’t they need you on the investigation?”
“They do, but you needed me more. Your Mori was weakened and in distress, and having mine close by calmed it. It’s common among bonded pairs.”
He said it so casually, as if his presence here was for a medical purpose only. But then, if I died, Orias’s spell could fail and the barrier might be reopened. That made my health pretty important to a lot of people and probably put me before their investigation.
To my dismay, my throat tightened. I didn’t want him having any tender feelings for me, so his answer shouldn’t bother me.
Get a grip, Jordan, I scolded myself. I was just being emotional after what I’d been through. Being nearly beaten to death would affect anyone, right?