Page 32 of The Demon's Delight
“You’ll do no such thing! And I don’t know that I’d go that far, but I appreciate the compliment.” I sighed, sitting down next to him. I was mentally readying myself to pull his broken wing out of his body, and he was worried about food and the comfort of a fully stone shelter.
“You don’t give yourself nearly enough credit, Hailon. Now or… ever. At least not that I’ve seen.”
Here we were again with the flattery. I shook my head. Even bleeding, the demon simply couldn’t seem to help himself. Not that I minded, of course, it was just very foreign.
I excused myself quickly and dashed to the water where I washed my hands as best I could and wet down the cleanest of our extra cloths.
“Are you ready?” I asked. He’d gone even paler than before. There was no more time to waste.
“I’m at your whim, Hailon. How do you want me?” The way he arched his brow told me he’d intentionally chosen words that lended heavily to innuendo. I understood then that he was exaggerating his flirting—his humor was a way to cope.
“It’s okay to be afraid,” I whispered, and his bravado faltered. His smile slid from his face, and I could plainly see the worry in his eyes.
I lowered him to his side, heart thudding heavily every time he so much as held his breath in discomfort. Once he was as positioned as well as I could get him, I sat myself between hisbody and the stone wall, sending up prayers to whatever deity might be listening that I could use a little bit of help with this task.
“On three,” I said softly, wrapping my fingers around the tip of his wing, one foot on either side of where the exposed bone stabbed through his back.
“I’m not falling for that again,” he huffed, fingers flexing against the dirt floor, like he was trying to claw his way through to brace better.
“Your choice. One, two…” He scrunched his eyes closed, and I pushed with my legs and pulled with my arms. The nauseating sucking sound his flesh made as the bone pulled free drowned out my final count. He hadn’t done more than pull in a harsh breath to indicate he felt what was happening. “Okay. It’s okay.” I crouched over him, one hand trying to staunch the bleeding at the front, the other from the back. I closed my eyes and reached for my ability, channeling the power through my hands.
Beneath the layers of his flesh, my magic sought out what it interpreted asthe badand began to remove it, which sped healing. First came sealing up the little bit of organ that had gotten nicked. It was something very much like a human kidney. Then came stopping the bleeding. I could do the finer work on this, his wing and his leg all at once, I just had to get the urgent issues taken care of first.
“Hailon.” Seir’s voice was soft, one large, warm hand covering mine over the wound in his abdomen. I looked away from where my hand covered the hole in his back and found his eyes golden, glowing. “Thank you.” That hand lifted, cupping my face as he gave me a weak smile that went straight through to my soul.
Then, he passed out cold.
Chapter 15
Hailon
“Seir!” I shouted his name several times. “You’re not dead, you ridiculous demon. You’re going to be fine.” I repeated the words as though my insistence would ensure they were true. I was reassured, however, when I found his heartbeat strong under my palm, and his breathing steady. “Don’t do that again!” I said fiercely when his eyes opened, tears prickling and a lump in my throat.
The injuries I could deal with, there were logical steps I could take to repair flesh and bone. But I didn’t know how much blood volume a demon had, their pain tolerance, their healing capabilities. What if I’d missed a compromised organ and he was bleeding to death on the inside? I spiraled into panic, my breath coming as pants and vision going blurry.
He sat up, both hands gently cradling my face. The feel of his warm, calloused skin grounded me. “Hey. Look at me. Hailon.” I met his eye, finding the same concern I was feeling reflected back at me. “I’mfine,” he insisted. “Okay? Really. I’ve survived much worse than this with far lower standards of care. Everything is going to be alright.” I nodded but didn’t havecomplete faith in his assessment. He was still too pale, and his face had a sheen of sweat on it. “Do you trust me?”
“I’ve already told you I do.”
His mouth eased into a gentle grin. “I know, I remember. I just like hearing you say it.” He brushed away a tear from my cheek with his thumb. “I promise, if I were worried, I would tell you. Okay?”
We stared at each other for several heartbeats, the intensity of his gaze making my pulse stutter, breaths providing less oxygen. Finally, I managed to nod.
“I… need to keep working.”
“Of course. How can I help?” He drew his hands away from my cheeks, and I realized the intimate gesture had left me more reassured than I expected.
We negotiated a way for him to lie comfortably where he was, at least long enough to set the bones in his wing.
“You will heal some on your own, right?” I asked, using one of the wet cloths to wipe away the dried blood on his back before gently lifting his broken wing.
“Yes. Even if you did nothing else, I would be well enough to continue on my way in a few days, though perhaps with a splint on my leg, a noticeable limp, and lots of soreness. Here, allow me.” He pulled the mangled end of his wing over his hip and, without any hesitation or warning, snapped the crooked bones back into their proper places. His jaw was clenched tight, but he fixed it himself with brutal efficiency and barely a grunt of discomfort.
My stomach rolled, and my mouth dropped open. “How… Why would youdothat?”
He shrugged, looking both wings over as best he could before closing his eyes and rotating his shoulders in a circle. The wings retracted to their place within his body, leaving mestunned and speechless once again. The physiology of demons was otherworldly and fascinating.
“Do you need a break?” he asked.
