Page 43 of Fighting Gravity
“To the bone? It was that deep?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus. I haven’t been this banged up since…” I trailed off.
He didn’t need to know those things.
“Since what?” he said, still looking at my leg.
I shrugged. “Since… the last time I was banged up really bad.”
His eyes lifted, not letting me off the hook.
“You my therapist now? You’re not the first guy to try and kill me, that’s all.”
“This wasn’t my doing. It was the noc'ran
“Well, you’re not much better. Trust me, weighing my options was pretty discouraging.”
Norm startled me when he lifted his hand toward me. I flinched away thinking he was about to choke me into submission when he slid his finger gently over the side of my neck, coating it in the same gel.
“What the hell?” I exhaled.
“You had deep abrasions on your neck,” he said, lowering his voice now that he was so close to me.
Too close…
I swallowed hard, my throat bobbing under his thumb. “Right. I, uh… I had to pry the collar off before I escaped so my head wouldn’t explode.”
His dark eyes shifted toward mine and I stopped breathing for a second. The black mirror of his gaze consumed me in a shadowy hell for a moment.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I whispered. “You were my only option, remember?”
Once Norm was finished, he draped the side of the blanket over my bare legs again and stepped back, leaning against the counter to regard me in my weakened, healing state.
“Gek’tal are immune to noc’ran venom,” he said.
I nodded exaggeratedly. “Oh. That’s good to know.”
“But only because we build a tolerance. Children are exposed to many things in their training. The process is grueling and slow, but eventually, our bodies learn to metabolize toxins.”
“Sooo, you’re saying the smarter thing would have been to not intervene. I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I try to wrestle a giant porcupine-alligator away from you.”
“Actually, I was going to say you surprised me.”
“Why?” I scoffed. “You didn’t expect me to be so stupid?”
“No, I didn’t expect you to survive.”
The hint of a smile wilted from my face. To know that I was that far gone and still came back somehow was a bit of a wake-up call. I swallowed hard, trying not to get emotional, but the past couple weeks hadn’t exactly been easy to stomach.
“It’s not my first rodeo, I guess,” I sighed.
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means I probably should have died a dozen times. Some sadistic god likes to pull me back from oblivion every time.”
“Your gods must have plans for you.”
