Page 47 of Salvation
Chapter Fifteen
“I’m sorry for waking you, Dante. Thank you for coming over so late.” Nick wrapped his fingers around the warm mug ofkumias he relaxed into the tufted softness of the living room recliner. His Saku was safe in her room, lost in an induced, dreamless sleep. She would wake up in the morning feeling rested after a night free of the dreams that had haunted her for far too long. And, most importantly, untouched by him. It might take some time before she was ready for a physical relationship, but he could wait.
“Of course,” Dante nodded over the rim of his own mug. “How do you feel, Nick?”
He gave Dante a small smile. “I’m fine.” How could he not be? Saku’s demon had been eradicated. Kenji no longer had power over her. “Her peace is my peace.”
Dante sipped his tea. “Very well done, young man.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“You handled the situation well. I am not sure what you told her to get her to agree toanagas namis. I have been working on Megan Trimble for years, and still she refuses to free herself from Kotas’s ghost.”
Poor Megan. While Saku had suffered at the hands of Kenji, the then fifteen-year-old Megan was being held hostage by Vyn Kotas. “Megan doesn’t believe she was raped, Dante.”
The master healer inhaled and exhaled through his nose. “No, she does not. She still lives in her fantasy that the traitor loved her. We can only wait and see how her attitude will affect their son as he grows. My sincere hope is that her choices will not come back to haunt us.”
Dante touched the bridge of his nose in the Matiran manner of prayer, then shook his head and smiled. “I must tell you I harbored a small concern when you contacted me. We are very lucky we did not have anothereno animtonight. You and Sakura are in the midst of a crisis here.”
His eyes widened briefly.Eno anim, the Matiran legendary mating of souls called to right wrongs during dark times. It’d happened to his sister and her husband, so it wasn’t a stretch that it could happen again. Amazing, and frightening, that this hadn’t even crossed his mind earlier. “I suppose the situation here isn’t dark and desperate enough for a soul mating to happen. Or maybe, having discovered how to cure the illness by joining our Gifts is close enough.”
“Hopefully so,” Dante replied. “Being a soul mate is not as romantic as one would think. Alex lives in legitimate fear that something will happen to Gryf while he is away from her and she will drop dead in front of the children.”
A shuddered tracked along his spine. The ‘one soul mate cannot survive without the other’ clause. Just the thought gave him the chills. The only break Alex got was when the kids were with their tutors and she was at the infirmary with Dante. “As much as I love Saku, I don’t think I’d handle that type of stress very well.”
“Yet, unlike Alex and Gryf, you two would have the advantage of working together,” Dante pointed out.
Yeah, there was that.
“Speaking of which, how goes the lab work?” Dante quirked an eyebrow at him.
He pushed himself upright and set his cup on the side table. “We’ll probably have the correct chemical mixture foratolcewithin a couple of days. There are three Anferthians due for theiratolceshots next week, which is a strong motivator to finish the project. If it’snotready in time, we’ll have to use the government-provided ampules—ones that have tested contaminate free. Not our first choice. Given the way the illness is able to camouflage itself once in the victim’s system, I don’t fully trust what we’re seeing in theatolceampules. But, Anferthian nature being what it is, we don’t want to keep them waiting either. Cranky Anferthians are not prone to reason.”
“They are a passionate race.”
“Hopefully not beat-a-healer-to-a-bloody-pulp passionate.” Wouldn’t that be just great?
Dante choked on his tea. “One would hope not,” he wheezed.
“Anyway, the vaccination experiment has been scrapped since Sakura and I are able to eradicate it through healing. She’ll work on replicatingatolcetomorrow while I make rounds through the villages.” He gave Dante a hopeful look. “I don’t suppose you’d like to come along?”
“It would be my pleasure, Nick.”
~*~
Nick stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, foam from his toothbrush bubbling around his lips. All-in-all, a successful night. Things really couldn’t get better. He leaned down and spat in the sink, then rinsed his mouth and toothbrush. Sharing his personal feelings regarding Sakura with her duringdiorgahad been a calculated risk, but she seemed to have accepted his memories. She’d even opted to keep them. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He’d ask her about that again in the morning, just in case she changed her mind.
Right now it was well after midnight, and he needed sleep. He stepped through the doorway into his room.
“We need to talk,” an accusatory-laden voice announced from the direction of his bed.
“Gaah!” His whole body startled. “Saku? What the hell?” Why was she awake, and how did she keep getting into his room?
“‘What the hell’ is right.” She scooted off his bed, marched toward him and poked him in his chest with one finger. “You put me intodormio.”
“You needed rest.”
“I did not ask you to.”
