Think your arm can take it?” He asked.
With help, I rolled up on my side. There was some pain, but not enough to make me flinch. Someone removed the pillow and put something else under my head. This new thing was not soft and it put my head at an awkward angle, my scalp down further than my chin. My neck was stretched to the limits. Making the skin taut and exposing the wound that Xavier had cauterized on the scene.
“I’m going to give you a couple of shots, but it may still hurt. I need you to remain really still,” the doctor told me.
I grunted at him. Xavier held my gaze, squatting down to make eye contact easier. His face said it all.
This was going to be dangerous. If I moved, there was a good chance I would start bleeding again. They were already running a transfusion IV into me.
I was feeling better though, even without the new blood. The searing pain that Xavier had pressed into my neck had made me feel better, brought me back into survival mode. My heart rate was steady and strong. My breathing regular and my O2 saturation levels normal. Even my hemoglobin count was good, despite the loss of blood. They had done a count when they drew it for analysis of whatever had been injected into Lucas and myself.
“Tell me his hands are steady,” I said to Xavier.
“They are,” Xavier answered.
“Just remember, if he frucks up, you have to deal with Nyleena,” I smiled.
“He isn’t going to mess up. I’m sure he’s dealt with worse.”
“You realize I can hear you?” The doctor asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Just checking, now hold very still,” the doctor’s hand moved some of the skin on my neck.
An x-ray had shown that the needle was beneath the burnt flesh. It hadn’t moved or entered my blood stream. However, it also showed that most of the burnt flesh was going to need to be removed to get at it. The vein it had nicked would need to be stitched. I didn’t know if the doctor had ever done that before, but Xavier had assured me he was the best in the hospital.
Pressure. The local was doing its job, keeping the pain from washing over me. But the feeling of pressure was disturbing. My brain searched for a way to deal with it and came up with nothing. If it had been somewhere that I could see the doctor working, it might have helped.
“Just relax,” Xavier said to soothe me. I had a few choice words that I could respond with, but talking would be moving. Instead I closed my eyes and remembered the encounter.
Dark brown eyes had stared at me. Surprised when I retaliated. Even more surprised when I fought against the effects of the drugs and won. The voice had been familiar. I couldn’t place the whisper, just knew I had heard the voice before. Chain-mail, where had it come from? Why did he have it? It had been poorly constructed given the tip of my dagger had been enough to start breaking the links.
Were there links found at the scene? Did they look for them?
The snapping sounds. Two of them, but only one had made him scream. The first one had been something else, something unrelated maybe, something the dog had stepped on or movement of our bodies on the ground breaking something. The second one had been significant. He had screamed. Had it been a break or a dislocation?
More pressure on my neck. I felt fingers moving around inside the skin. What the hell was he doing? I opened my eyes. Xavier must have read my mind. He dug out a small mirror and held it at an angle.
I could see the doctor working on the vessel in my neck. That was the fingers. My attacker would need a doctor, possibly two or three. He still had my dagger. It had been shoved into his shoulder. Why hadn’t he removed it? That is the instinct, to yank it out. He hadn’t.
“All done,” the doctor announced.
“Great,” Xavier stood up and began inspecting the work. He took my mirror with him. “That is definitely going to leave a nasty looking scar.”
“Ah well,” I croaked.
“You alright?” He looked at me concerned.
“I have a million questions.”
“We’ll get to those later. For now, they have your results. You were injected with triazolam,” Xavier said.
“Ok?” I asked.
“I’m sort of surprised. It knocked Lucas on his ass. You got two doses and stayed conscious the entire time. That shows either serious willpower or it means you are immune to the drug. Did you feel dizzy, sleepy, unsteady?”
“Yes,” I told him.
“Then it was willpower. Impressive,” Xavier stepped back from me. “You should take a nap. We are checking the hospitals for your attacker. You got some good blows in on him. Do you want me to set your nose now?”
“Is it broken?”
“Because I would offer to set it if it wasn’t,” Xavier said.
“Sure, might as well get it all over with,” I said.
“Are you sure you don’t want a plastic surgeon or an otologist to do it?” The doctor asked me.
“My nose was crooked long before today. I think it’s been broken seven or eight times before. One day, the cartilage will completely detach and then I’ll go see an ENT or plastic surgeon,” I answered.
Xavier grabbed hold of my nose. He did something complicated and I felt it slide back into place. I smacked his stomach because it was the only place I could reach.
“I know, it hurt, you didn’t have to hit me,” Xavier said.
“It made me feel better,” I smiled at him.
“I could have made it more painful,” he smiled back.
“I could have made you a eunuch.”
“Point taken,” he turned away from me. “Let’s get her into the room with Marshal McMichaels.”
“They keeping Lucas?”
“He has a severe concussion from face-planting on concrete. Ironically, he also got a broken nose and needed stitches on his forehead.”
“He’s always been too perfect,” I yawned and let them put the sides up on the bed.
“Do you want something for the pain? When the local wears off you are going to be in a world of pain. Dr. Reece says you have to be careful about painkillers though,” the doctor whose name I had never heard asked.
“No, I’m ok,” I told him.
“When you change your mind,” he said it with emphasis.
I closed my eyes. The bed continued to be wheeled down the hall. The wheels squeaked ever so slightly.
We turned left and continued down another hall. I didn’t need to open my eyes to know. My body felt every movement. We crossed a metal door brace in the floor and took a right turn followed immediately by another, sharper right turn.
“You look pretty good, considering,” Lucas’s voice came to me.
“Thanks, now Trevor is going to have a reason to put me in scarves and turtlenecks,” I answered without opening my eyes.
“He jumped me from behind and jabbed me in the ass with a hypodermic needle. It had some sort of sedative that worked really fast. I pretty much fell where I stood.”
“That seems like an extreme reaction,” Xavier said.
“I know,” Lucas said. “I just went down like a sack of potatoes.”
“No benzodiazepine tolerance,” I chided.
“Lucas has no tolerance to anything. An Advil makes him need a two hour nap. If I hadn’t made them remove the Demerol drip, he’d be sleeping like the dead now,” Xavier answered. “You on the other hand, should opt for a Demerol drip.”
“You say that like I’m staying,” I finally opened my eyes.
“You are, at least overnight,” Gabriel answered.
“Shit, I’ve already spent a night in jail, now I have to spend the night in the hospital?”
“Yes and no disconnecting your monitor wires or driving the nurses up the walls,” Gabriel glared at me.
“Xavier please give him Valium so he’ll chill,” I said. “You can wheel him in another bed and hook him up to a monitor. He needs an EKG anyway. His blood pressure might be ca
using heart arrhythmia or something.”
“Three in a room is a little crowded,” Lucas said.
“It’d be like an orgy with Ace as the filling,” Xavier chuckled.
“Ew, I don’t want them. One’s a redhead and one is gay. How does that help me?” I whined.
“Ok, we’ll stick Lucas…” Xavier started.
“That’s enough,” Lucas interrupted.
“I’m serious Aislinn,” Gabriel brought our attention back to him. “I’ve had nurses threaten to kill you every time you’ve been hospitalized. The last time, they asked if they could put you in a coma until you healed. You have got to be nice to them.”
“Yes, dear,” I said.
“Why do I bother?” Gabriel flopped into a chair and took out a real cigarette.
“If you light that, the nurses will be threatening to kill you,” Xavier said. Gabriel looked at it as if it had appeared by magic.
“Do I really stress you out that much?” I asked.
“At times, yes, you do. Like when you punch reporters and get arrested or have to spend the night in the hospital.”
“I promise not to be an asshole while I’m here tonight, but it had better just be for tonight. I can feel the vile hands of disease scurrying around the floors and hear them scratching at the walls.”
“I didn’t think you feared death?” Gabriel asked.
“I don’t, but it doesn’t mean I want to press my luck. I kind of enjoy living. My life expectancy is short enough chasing serial killers, why add contagious flesh-eating diseases to the mix?”
“That being said, do you want to give your statement now?” Gabriel asked.
“Sure,” I went through the sequence of events. I included the details about the eyes, the chain-mail,