Page 20 of Venomous Heart
This put too much strain on him. His heart can’t keep up.
“Arlen!” Ava shouted, and her cry finally reached the Eok through whatever fog held him enthralled in violence.
Arlen glanced down at Ava and Uril, then back at the dying men in his hold. His eyes lost their crazed glow and his lips relaxed, covering his fangs. The snarl died down as he tore his gaze from the men and stared at her.
“You’re killing them.”
Arlen frowned, then glanced at the men. Disdain spread across his features, but he lowered them until their feet touched the ground. He still had them by the throat, but his hold loosened and they gulped air greedily. Their color returned fast, but they maintained a terrified silence and they weren’t fighting Arlen anymore. It was better that way. Anything they might say or do was likely to get them killed anyway, and Ava sensed she couldn’t save them next time.
“Uril needs to get back inside,” she pleaded as Arlen looked down at the boy first with confusion, then concern. “I need to examine him.”
Arlen’s attention went back to the men as another Eok warrior emerged through the doorway, joining them.
“Kahl.” Arlen spoke without looking at the newcomer, whose Prussian blue skin was covered in marks a shade lighter. “Take these two to the holding cells. I’ll deal with them later.”
“What happened here?” The newcomer stared at the men, their eyes still bulging with fear, then looked down at Ava and Uril. He frowned at Uril’s appearance, then glanced back up at Arlen.
“They attacked Doctor Ava and the boy.” Arlen kept his death stare on the two men. “They have a lot to answer for.”
Arlen opened both fists in tandem and the men fell to the ground in a heap, struggling to get up but not managing it. Khal turned cold, hard eyes on the men, then approached. A single hard growl from him had them cowering like puppies and they stopped struggling, lying there in a tangle, looking every bit as terrified as they should.
“There’s a third one.” Arlen jerked his chin toward the forest. “He’s limping badly. He can’t have gone too far.”
“He’s limping, but he can walk farther than you think.” When both Eoks stared blankly at Ava, she shook her head. “He was a patient of mine. I repaired his leg three days ago. I inserted Iridium rods into his tibia.”
Arlen and Khal cursed under their breath in unison. Arlen spoke harshly into his commu-link, ordering a chase of Will Harl through the jungle. The next moment, Khal retrieved the two fallen men by their collars and dragged them unceremoniously inside the building.
When Arlen finally turned to Ava, his face was still set in harsh, angry lines, but his mouth softened when he looked at Uril’s unconscious form. Without a word, he picked up the boy, then walked away like he weighed nothing more than a doll.
Those walls weighedheavy on her, and all the concentration in the world wasn’t enough to prevent her from feeling like they were coming closer by the second. Ava cast a wary look around the vast bedroom. The same powder blue walls, the same childish decorations that Uril had put there over the years. As though nothing had changed.
Except one thing. One thing that changed everything. Knut was gone. There was nothing holding them prisoner within these walls anymore.
They why do I feel like running away?
Ava shook the thought away. There was no escape, not until Uril was better, until the Exo-Heart was beating in his chest. He was sleeping now, but a thin layer of clammy sweat covered his brow. Ava pushed a stray lock away from his face and Uril scrunched up his nose but didn’t wake up. With what she had given him, he should sleep until the next morning.
Ava looked away from Uril and down at her small medical screen.
He doesn’t have as much time as I thought he did. He doesn’t have enough time at all.
The thought was laden with pain—pain and guilt. The latest numbers told her exactly what she had feared. The holes in Uril’s heart were getting larger, the membrane of his heart growing thicker as the muscle worked harder to keep oxygen flowing into the bloodstream. As a result, Uril’s heart was already fifty percent larger than it should have been. The muscle was getting weaker as the organ grew larger and less efficient. It would only get worse, a vicious cycle whereby the heart pumped harder and harder, the chambers growing larger, until it became nothing but a large balloon full of holes. And then Uril would die.
No. I promise you, I won’t let this happen to you.
Ava put down the screen on the side table and it landed harder than she intended. The noise startled her, and she let out a cry when a tall figure appeared in the doorway.
She pulled the blanket up higher over Uril’s chest, then went to meet Arlen in the hallway. As he watched her approach, there was something on his face that was different. Something that wasn’t cold and polished, but not exactly warm, either.
It was like the reluctant attraction she sometimes spied in men’s eyes when they looked at her. Like they resented her for making them feel that way. Tingles of awareness shot up through Ava’s body as she got near Arlen, then shut the door behind her.
He stood there in silence, looking down at her with his unreadable face, all icy control and unshakable calm.
Only now she knew there was a beast below the surface. A beast that had nearly killed two men with its bare hands. A beast she would never forget.
But a beast that had saved her and, more importantly, Uril.
“Thank you,” she whispered, not wanting to wake the boy. “If you hadn’t arrived when you did…” Her voice broke and she couldn’t finish. She didn’t need to. Arlen was fully aware of what had almost happened.
