Page 52 of Healer
“Just rest, my love.” The human endearment lingered sweetly on my tongue. I liked the Earth word for claiming her. When she healed, I would claim her in both the Vaktaire and human way and never let pain touch her again.
“I hurt,” Agnes moaned, her body jerking in the aftermath.
“I know.” I brushed the damp strands of hair from her forehead, inwardly cursing the slowness of the Medi-unit.
“Tired.” Her gray eyes grew distant and hollow.
“Sleep, my Aggie. I’ll be right here.” I promised, repositing the blanket over her shoulders, which ripped a grunt of pain from her lips.
“Please, Hakkar?”
“What is it, my love?” I slid from the chair, going onto my knees in order to move closer. So desperate to touch her... to soothe her and yet so afraid of the pain any attempt might cause.
“So... pain… so tired. Please?” The words came out in panted gasps, but her eyes remained clear and determined.
“What is it, my Aggie?”
“Let me go.”
Her words shattered my already battered heart into a million pieces. Our gazes locked, the depth of her request swimming in the grey depths of her eyes.
What she asked of me... was unthinkable.
She was my mate.
What I felt for Anges wasn’t quantifiable in mere words. I felt as bound to her as those who had performed the valakana ritual in front of high priests on my home world. The words may not have left my lips, but my soul screamed them over and over again.
Agnes was mine. My mate. My world.
I believed with every bit of my soul that once we rendezvoused with the Bardaga, I would be able to rid her of this heinous affliction.
But what if?
As a man of science, I knew all too well that sometimes a cure could go awry. What if fate or the goddess stilled my hand in healing Agnes?
What if her physical state only worsened?
What if I found myself unable to take her pain away?
I knew pain—I’d been shot and stabbed more times than I could count. But to suffer pain so imaginable one sees death itself as a relief? That I could not imagine. Even though there had been instances on the battlefield where I hastened those suffering a prolonged an agonizing death.
Every time Agnes cried out, something deep inside me broke. Somehow... one way or another, I would rid her of this pain. If I couldn’t heal her… if there was no other way.... A life without Agnes seemed unimaginable. A life where she lingered in excruciating pain seemed worse.
Thankfully, the ready chime of the Medi-unit pushed the morbid thoughts from my brain.
“It will be okay, my Aggie. I’m going to take the pain away.” I allowed my fingertips to stroke along her cheek in the faintest caress.
“Thank… you.” Fat tears hovered on her lashes. The faith she held for me shimmered in her gray eyes, both humbling and terrifying. She assumed I would do as she asked—to do for her what she tried to do for herself when hope seemed futile.
Not yet.
I still had hope.
Hope for her… hope for us and a happy future together. The steady hum of a working Medi-unit proved that.
I began at her feet, hovering the unit so that the pulsing blue light touched every inch of her skin. Agnes sighed heavily as the cramping in her muscles relaxed, and the twitching declined.
“Thank you,” she whispered, sighing with relief. Her eyes found mine, so full of gratitude that it shook me to my very core.
