Page 62 of Lost Touch
And honestly…I didn’t blame him. Either of them, since Arik seemed annoyed but equally smug.
They’d thought of all of that in the last hour, mostly while sniping at each other. I’d have been smug if I’d been half as smart and knowledgeable.
On the other hand…
“That’s really interesting,” I said sincerely. “But does it help figure out how to fix me? And that’s secondary, anyway. Drew’s the one who’s really in trouble. I’m—stable, you know? I’m not getting any worse. I could live like this forever if I had to. He can’t. I told you how it’s gotten way worse just in the last few hours, right? As long as Drew’s okay, I’m fine.”
“We’re going to examine both of you,” Nate said with a glance at Arik, who nodded. “And he prefers to do these types of exams outside, so lucky you! We’re getting out of the basement that time forgot. Calder, you mind toting him along?”
“Nope, don’t mind at all,” Calder replied, getting to his feet and reaching down for Drew.
He even sounded sincere about that. He could’ve been in bed upstairs—with Jared, obviously. And I didn’t have any particular interest in Jared, but Calder had the right to be annoyed at the interruption, I thought.
“Drew’s going to be so glad to see you alive and okay when he wakes up,” I said. “And thank you. You have no idea.”
And then I blinked in astonishment as Calder—smiled. A friendly-looking, normal (mostly…the teeth weren’t quite standard) smile that made him look years younger and incredibly handsome.
Maybe Jared also had the right to be annoyed by the interruption.
“We’re glad to see you alive. And yeah, we are okay. You’ll get there too.”
He turned away and heaved Drew up onto his shoulder with no effort at all.
Well, that was his limit for emoting, apparently. But I felt a lot warmer as we went up the stairs again, even though we headed straight outside into the chill of the wee hours, a cool breeze sweeping through the trees and making everything rustle mysteriously.
What followed was one of the weirdest—albeit also most boring—hours of my life.
Arik and Nate laid me and Drew out side by side on the ground, and then they took turns circling around us, putting their hands on various parts of our bodies, muttering to themselves and to each other, and then doing it all over again. Sometimes when they touched me I had a funny sensation, like a prickling on my skin. Nettles, or something. And once, when Nate had a firm grip on my skull for a couple of minutes, I could’ve sworn I felt something hot explode inside my brain.
Since I still seemed to be alive afterward, I let it go.
But seriously. They expected me to pay for that?
Halfway through, Drew stirred and started to growl, and Nate casually knocked him out again.
It got incredibly dull and repetitive and incredibly cold and damp. We’d hit the very chilliest, darkest part of the night, the couple of hours before pre-dawn. They had a nice view of the stars out here, and I shivered and stared up at Orion’s Belt, barely visible over the treetops across the house’s grassy side yard.
Nate and Arik had retreated a few feet away to confer. I’d been letting them have at it, sneakily reaching out to brush my fingers over Drew’s and feel his warmth, but a few words caught my attention: “…needs a mate bond to stabilize him.”
My heart did a funny little flip. “Do you mean Drew?”
“Yeah,” Nate said. “I’m sorry. We’d need a lot more time to try to work on what’s wrong with him. More time than he’s got.”
Arik chimed in with, “His energies are fucked to hell. Mating bonds stabilize normal alphas and settle their instincts. He needs it more than most.”
A low laugh from behind me reminded me Calder hadn’t left.
“Yes, I realize I’m also mated to one,” Arik said tartly.
“I wasn’t arguing.” I could practically hear the shrug in Calder’s voice. “It worked for me.”
I pushed myself up to sitting, reluctantly letting go of Drew’s hand in the process. It fell limply to the ground, and it felt so wrong, that lack of strength in his touch.
“There has to be something else you can do,” I said, a little desperately. “If mating’s the only way to save his life, I’ll do it, of course. But he—he just got out of a mating contract he didn’t want. Doing this while he’s not in his right mind? Betraying him like that…” I trailed off, my stomach churning.
“Absolutely not,” Nate said. “No. And not for his sake. You said he was just about off his rocker, around the bend, etcetera.” He made a twiddling motion by the side of his head, as if I hadn’t gotten the point. “To mate you, he’d have to be conscious, and if he’s conscious, he’ll be insane. I doubt he could even get through the mating process without killing you by accident.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Arik was nodding along, and I heard Calder let out a sound of agreement.
