Page 17 of Griffin Undone
I had a dare of my own. “Keep going, brother. It won’t hurt as much as you think.”
The sound of the blanket lifting ripped through the tension more effectively than my knife. With a palm heel to Sun’s breastbone, I threw him backward into the brick wall. I was beside Katherine before Sun’s body hit the floor.
The healer didn’t even glance our way, his entire focus on the female. “Sun, step out.”
Sun picked himself up and walked to the end of the bed. “And him?” He jerked his head toward me.
“If you think you have the power to keep me from her, Prince, go ahead and try.”
“I will do what—”
“Like fucking hell you wil—”
A sharp whistle pierced the air. In the silence that followed, the Aomai seared us both with an unseen stare. “Stop the pissing contest. Sun, out.”
Sun opened his mouth, probably to argue. The Aomai cut him off before he could utter a single syllable. “Out. We’re wasting time. I need to inspect her.”
“No one should see this but you.” Anger vibrated through Sun’s words.
The healer gestured to Katherine’s bare shoulders. “He’s obviously already seen her. Go.” Without waiting to be obeyed, the healer shifted his attention to me. “Get something to clean her wrists with. And one of your shirts.”
Sun hadn’t moved, so neither did I. The healer’s barked, “Now!” got the action started.
I went for supplies, stowing away the need to fight—the healer, Sun, it didn’t matter. If I was fighting, I couldn’t feel the fear—and I could finally acknowledge that’s what it was, fear—that crept in every time I glimpsed Katherine’s waxy, pale skin and the shallowness of her breath. But hell, if the healer could restore her—and Sun wasn’t touching her—I would gladly be the Aomai’s damn errand boy.
“Take care of that hand,” the healer said as I approached. Katherine’s struggles had reopened the wounds on her wrists, and even now blood trickled sluggishly across her skin. I knelt, wet a cloth in cool water, and wrung it out before taking her hand in mine. Ignoring the healer’s unseen but definitely watchful gaze, I cleaned and bandaged, careful not to tighten my grip when the blanket was lifted to reveal a canvas of creamy skin, rounded curves, and ugly wounds.
The healer shook his hooded head, but he didn’t speak and I sensed no judgment aimed my way. After running cautious hands along Katherine’s body and grunting over the circle of bruises around her right arm, the Aomai switched sides with me. On his way, he threw the blanket to the end of the bed.
I blocked out the sight of full breasts and soft curls centered between creamy thighs—and my body’s reaction. It was harder to forget that another male was witnessing the same sight.
An equally thorough exam of that side of Katherine’s body followed. When he finished, the healer covered Katherine again, then sat on the bed opposite me, his hip at her side, facing her.
“Come in, Sun,” he called.
Sun entered the room, shooting me a look that dared me to protest, but I turned away dismissively, making clear what I thought of Sun’s threat. Instead I watched the Aomai.
He tilted Katherine’s chin, exposing the wound on her neck. “What is her name?”
I stayed silent, unwilling to give the healer the tiny bit of information I hadn’t realized I coveted until that moment.
Without comment, the male shifted his hand to Katherine’s head, sifting his fingers through her tangled hair as if searching for wounds. My grumble at the gesture was ignored. “All right, little nameless psych. Let’s see what we have here.”
“There aren’t any open wounds on her head, just the bite,” I told him. “Might want to watch o—”
The advice came too late. A brush of the healer’s hand directly over the swollen, reddened mess of her neck triggered Katherine’s defenses. She thrashed, cried out, the sound harsh but clear despite her unconscious state. The healer jerked back as a brutal slice appeared along his inner forearm. Much deeper and, if he’d been human, he’d be bleeding out.
I sucked in a breath as bloody tears trickled from beneath Katherine’s closed eyelids.
“What the he—” Sun leaned close to examine her. “What is happening?”
The healer turned his hooded face toward Sun. “She’s protecting herself—and it’s costing her.” He left the neck wound alone, instead reaching out a hand to me. I passed him the cloth I’d used on her wrists. The healer cleaned the blood from Katherine’s face before holding the cloth to the wound on his arm.
“She’s dying.”
Panic shot down my spine to ignite in my gut. I narrowed my eyes at the black void where his face should be. “I don’t understand how a bite could do this to her. Shouldn’t her Archai genes have kicked in by now? Why isn’t she healing?” Archai needed medicine as much as humans in severe cases, but cuts and bruises and basic breaks healed on their own within a couple of days. And yet streaks of blood had appeared at her nostrils, more at her eyes, just as it had the last time she’d used her power. I watched warily for the least sign of convulsions.
The hooded head shook back and forth. “Her body is overwhelmed. The blood loss, shock to her system, the triggering. She shows signs of long-term malnutrition and dehydration, most likely from poverty.” He ran a hand lightly over Katherine’s forehead. “Then there’s the constant, uncontrolled sparking of her psych power—very strong power. All of the above combined…”
