Page 8 of Her Immortal Mate

4

MAE

Istare at the nearly empty supplies of our makeshift infirmary, my fingers trailing over the few remaining dried herbs. The bloodroot stocks are critically low, and we're completely out of feverfew — or at least that's what I've started naming the plants. A patient groans from one of the cots behind me, reminding me exactly why we can't wait for the next supply run.

The head healer's tent sits behind the massive medical tent. My hand moves to the flap before I pause. "Healer Thora?" I call out instead.

"Enter." Healer Thora's gravelly voice carries through.

I push inside, squaring my shoulders. "We need to gather more medicinal herbs. The wound infection rate will spike if we don't restock bloodroot soon."

She peers at me with a scrutinizing look. "The forest edge is crawling with hostiles."

"I know the risks, but we're out of options. I can identify what we need quickly before I'm seen."

She seems to process this for a moment. "Very well. I'll assign you protection." She hands me a small item — which I've learned means that she's identifying she talked to me. Since wecame from another planet, pen and paper weren't exactly on our packing list. "Go find Brinda. She'll provide someone suitable."

My heart hammers as I make my way to the military tents. The flaps are pinned open, voices drifting out.

"Hello?" I hover in the doorway, the item clutched in my hand.

Brinda looks up from where she's bent over a cobbled together diagram with – my breath catches – Eike. Of course he's here. The universe clearly hates me.

"What is it, healer?"

I hand her the item, very carefully not looking at Eike's towering form or the way his wings shift in my peripheral vision. "Healer Thora sent me to ask for an escort." I swallow as she stares at me. "To gather herbs."

"Herb gathering?" Her eyebrows rise. "Outside the perimeter?"

"We're critically low on several essential medicines."

She grunts, considering. "Bauer, you'll escort her. Your patrol shift just ended – you know the terrain."

My stomach does a complicated flip. Eike's silver eyes lock onto mine, his expression unreadable, but I see the pale pink of his lips. I want to protest, to say he needs to feed, but maybe this will give him the chance.

Or maybe there's nothing left to feed. I've heard there's rationing going on with the dark elves killing everything they can find to weaken the vrakken forces.

"When do you need to leave?" His deep voice shouldn't affect me the way it does.

"As soon as possible. Before we lose the daylight."

He nods once, wings folding tighter against his back. "I'll meet you at the eastern perimeter in fifteen minutes.

Great. Just great. Hours alone in the forest with the one vrakken who makes my pulse race and my tongue tie itself in knots. This should be fun.

I kneel beside a patch of silvery leaves, careful to keep my movements slow and deliberate. "This is moonvein," I explain, gently touching the delicate plant. "The sap works better than any painkiller I've ever seen."

Eike circles the small clearing, wings extended. His eyes scan the treeline. "And you learned this since arriving?"

"Trial and error, mostly. Though some plants here look similar to ones back home." I dig carefully around the base. "These roots are what we need."

He moves closer, and I try to ignore how his presence makes the hair on my neck stand up. "As an EMT, you used herbs?"

I place the roots in my satchel, ignoring the way my body reacts to the fact that he remembered that about me. "We still had to learn it in training. In case. It actually came in handy some." I spot another cluster of herbs. "Oh thank god - blackspine."

"The thorny one?"

"Mm-hmm. Helps prevent infection." I pull on thick gloves. "What about you? Before all this?"

---