by Jenn Vakey
The look that overtook his face told me I had given him the wrong answer. It was a test. One that I’d failed. I might have let him make physical contact while training, but this was entirely different. There was no going back at this point, though. I just had to see it through.
I held the tube up for him to take and turned away from him. I could already feel my cheeks flushing, and it wasn’t something I wanted him to see. Grabbing my hair and moving it over my shoulder to expose the upper part of my back not covered by my shirt, I held my breath and waited.
“You actually didn’t do terrible today,” he said, stepping up just behind me.
I smirked, my nerves practically coming alive in my body. That was only magnified when his hand started moving over my skin. It wasn’t just the nervousness I was feeling. My skin felt like it was tingling, my insides burning. Even my breathing started to grow slightly heavier. I didn’t understand it. Was that just what it felt like when guys touched girls? If that was the case, I could almost see why they implemented that rule. Because behind all of the fear, it actually felt good.
Or was it just like this because it was him? Was there something about him that made me feel like this?
No, it couldn’t be him. That would mean that I felt something for him, and that just couldn’t happen. Not if I was going to get my job done.
“I’ll have to take your word for that,” I said moments later when I realized I still hadn’t responded. “Does it always hurt so badly after?”
His warm hands moved over my back, massaging as they rubbed the cream in. Then he moved my hair back and started rubbing it into my shoulders.
“No,” he answered. “You’re just not used to it.”
I nodded, surprisingly unable to find any words to string together that made sense in that moment. It felt better than good. All I could do was close my eyes and just enjoy it. I was so confused. By the way I was feeling now, and by what any of this actually meant. I had no idea if this was nothing more than a friendly type of touch or if it meant something more. Damn Eden for leaving me so unprepared to deal with situations like this. It was so much easier there. When someone was interested, they sought permission to start courting, then you were married. By the time any touching happened at all, it was easy to know what it meant. Now he was in my room, rubbing his hands over me in a way that was surprisingly both firm and gentle. Even when he talked it sounded softer than before. I had no idea what was going on.
“Better?” he asked, slowly pulling his hands away.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said. My face felt like it was on fire. I quickly reached for the sweater on my bed and pulled it on just so I could buy enough time for it to hopefully go away. Then, when I knew I couldn’t avoid it anymore, I turned to face him.
Apparently not enough time had gone by, because the first thing he did was turn his eyes to my cheeks. As if it were even possible, I think they reached a brand new shade of red.
His expression might have stayed the same as it always seemed to be, but I could see a smirk there in those green eyes of his. Like he took pleasure in extracting those reactions from me.
He didn’t comment on it though, which was probably the best thing he could have done in that moment. Instead, he just held the tube back out for me to take. “I’ll see you at training tomorrow,” he said, then turned and left.
I followed after him, pushing the door closed before I leaned back against it.
His hands were gone, but I could still feel the ghost trails from where they had been. I wanted so badly to hate the way it felt, but I couldn’t. Instead, I found myself actually wondering what other sensations I had been missing out on in my life in Eden. “Don’t go there,” I whispered to the empty room. Even letting myself indulge in those thoughts or actions was trouble. He was a murderer, whether it was apparent or not. There might be a twinge of guilt there for what I knew I had to do to him, but he was a means to an end. The only way that I was going to get my sister back.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After the strenuous workout, even my cluttered thoughts weren’t enough to keep me from drifting to sleep moments after I closed my eyes. Although my sleep was anything but restful. Lillith filled my dreams. Not my Lillith, the sweet, innocent girl who always could find a reason to smile. There was no smile. Just screaming, begging for me to make the pain stop. But I couldn’t. I was tied to the same chair Adler had me in that last night in Eden. Lillith was in her own across the room, turned so that we faced each other. And the things they did to her...
The men wore the white of the Healers, but they didn’t act like it. They used small knives to cut through her skin. Slicing her open as they told her they were just looking for what made her Tainted. She called my name over and over, pleading for me to do something and make the men stop. I couldn’t move. I tried so hard, thrashing around against my restraints, but it was hopeless. All I could do was sit there and watch what they did to her. To beg for them to take me instead.
“Wake up,” a voice said, cutting through the room. Lillith didn’t react to it, but I could hear it. It sounded so close, like it was calling me away from all of this. “Leeya, wake up.”
My eyes shot open as I bolted upright in bed. My breath was coming so quickly that I was having to fight just to get enough of it in my lungs. My body shook, tears soaking my face.
“Leeya,” someone said, then I felt a hand on my cheek.
I jerked my head toward it, almost pulling away as the room started to come into focus. The lamp beside my bed was on, but everything else was still so dark. Still night. Then my eyes found him.
“You with me?” Rhydian asked, his eyes searching mine.
I blinked several times, trying to make sense of what was going on. Why was he in my room? Weren’t there rules against that? And why was he touching me? But I couldn’t seem to ask any of them. The dream was still tugging at me, almost like it was trying to pull me back under. If I tried to speak, there was a very good chance I would fall apart. I didn’t want him to see me like that. All I could do was nod.
He nodded himself, then pulled his hand away as he stood up. “There’s been an incident,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Our Healer isn’t available.”
I didn’t question him after that. Like so many other things, this one was burned into me. When there was a problem and a Healer was needed, it was my job to move. So I did.
I jumped up quickly, pulling my hair back into a tie. I was just about to ask him what had happened when I saw his eyes moving down my body. Over the tight nightshirt that I was wearing. Fighting back a growl, I grabbed a sweater out of the dresser and pulled it over my head, then followed him out. I didn’t even bother to put my shoes on. I knew he didn’t trust me. For him to come and get me to help, something had to really be wrong.
We walked at a fast pace through the door and out into the night air. It was cooler than during the day, making me glad I had grabbed my sweater. From there, he took me back to the building that I had awoken in just days before. He even held the door open for me, which was a surprise.
I didn’t need him to direct me once we got inside. I could hear different voices, one filled with panic.
When I pulled the curtain back in the main room, I saw a woman lying unconscious on the table. There was a man near the foot of the bed, his eyes red like he’d been crying. Blood was covering his hands and shirt. Faida was talking to him from where she stood near the head of the table, and seemed to be trying to keep him calm. I couldn’t focus on them, though.
“What happened?” I asked, moving toward the woman’s head. The entire right side was covered in blood, and there was a pool forming on the bed and floor beneath her. Faida, gloves stained red, was holding a stack of gauze against the wound. They didn’t seem to be doing much to lessen the flow.
“It was an accident,” the man said, shame spewing out with the words. He ran his fingers roughly through his short brown hair, not concerned at all that they were still coate
d in his wife’s blood. With the amount of dread he was showing, she couldn’t have been anyone else to him.
I grabbed a pair of gloves from the table behind me and put them on as Faida stepped back to give me room. She pulled the gloves quickly off and moved toward the frantic husband. My attention turned to the woman as I started looking around the side of her head for the source of the bleeding.
“No one doubts that, Jaron,” Rhydian said calmly. “She just needs to know the details so she knows how to treat her.”
I looked up just in time to see Jaron nod. Then he took in a deep breath, his grey eyes not leaving his wife’s face. “It was a nightmare,” he said, his voice so soft that I had to really listen to hear it. “I think she tried to wake me up. She knows better, but she hates to leave me like that. It was that chest with the metal corners. It flew right at her and hit her in the side of the head.”
That was all he said about it. I knew there was something more to the story, but that wasn’t important now. No one else seemed alarmed by what he said, and they would know better than I would. So I turned my attention back to the injured woman, moving my fingers around until I saw where the blood was coming from. There was too much of it for it to be a simple cut. Something else was going on. Then I found the gash.
I almost cursed, and probably would have if there hadn’t been a very guilt ridden husband just feet away. Instead, I just bit down on the inside of my cheek and pushed my finger into the deep wound. I could feel it through the finger of the glove. The steady pumping of the blood coming from the cut in the superficial temporal artery. I was working just off of touch, but I managed to find the tear and push my finger down over it, stopping the blood from spurting out.
“I’m going to need help,” I said, looking back up and shifting my gaze between Faida and Rhydian. “I can’t do this with one hand plugging the artery. Where’s the Healer?”
“This is our Healer,” Faida said, the weight of the situation in her words.
Crap.
I looked over to Rhydian, silently asking what I was supposed to do here. Without me needing to ask, he moved over beside me and reached for a glove of his own. I could tell by the panicked look in his eyes that he had no idea what he was doing, but he was trusting me to talk him through it. And that was apparently exactly what I was going to have to do.
“You'll have to block it while I get the patch ready. I had some in the stuff I brought. It’s red, labeled ARP.”
Faida didn't hesitate before pulling a cabinet open behind her.
The moment the glove was in place, I grabbed Rhydian's hand and slid it down over mine. “As soon as I move my hand, it's going to start pumping again,” I told him, his worry filled eyes set on mine. “You'll feel it. Just push your finger down on it.”
When he nodded, I slid my hand back and waited. It took only a matter of seconds before he was nodding again.
I walked over to Faida just as she pulled the patch out for me. Before taking it, I looked down at the amount of blood. There was too much of it for a hydration patch. So I reached behind her and pulled something else out.
“Put this over her heart as soon as I have the patch on,” I told her. “Unless her numbers drop any lower. Then it can't wait.”
“What is it?” she asked, taking it from me.
“New tech. It will get her blood volume back up.”
There wasn't time to explain more. I grabbed the red packet she handed me and pulled it open. Using the tweezers that were inside, I carefully gripped the edge of the small patch, careful not to let it touch me. It was no larger than a pea, but it was designed exactly for situations like this.
Walking back to Rhydian's side, I took a breath and nodded to him. When he stepped back, I held open the wound with one hand and carefully placed the patch over the artery. Almost instantly it started bubbling, then the blood flow slowed. Then stopped.
I nodded to Faida and watched as she placed the patch over the Healer’s heart. Her numbers started to go up, but I could only hear it on the machines. I was watching the patch, making sure it held. After a few moments, I finally let myself breathe.
“There's a gray canister and a tube of gel,” I said, looking back up to Faida as she turned to retrieve them. As soon as the canister was in my hand I sprayed it in the opening. Another piece of Healer tech, which would kill any bacteria and eliminate the possibility of infection. Without asking, she took it back and replaced it with a tube of clear gel.
I squeezed some of the gel in the opening and pinched the edges of the wound closed. Then I counted. After ten seconds, I pulled my hands free and studied the area. The cut was completely closed now, the skin already starting to mend itself. I would never stop being fascinated by the way it worked.
“Thank you,” Jaron gasped, closing his eyes as he let out a shuddered breath. Faida gave me a grateful nod, then went back to comforting the frightened husband.
It wasn't something I needed to watch. I didn't know these people, and it was a private moment. So I pulled my gloves off and turned around toward the sink to wash my hands. I had nearly finished when Rhydian stepped up to do the same.
“Leave the patch on her chest for half an hour,” I told them. “The gel in it will stimulate blood production, and she'll be back up to her normal levels by then.”
“Thank you,” Faida said, and I could tell it was more than just words. This wasn't like Eden where we didn't know most of the people needing treatment. This whole community was like a family.
“Come on,” Rhydian said from just beside me. “I'll walk back to the dorm with you.”
The offer surprised me, but I wasn't about to turn it away. My adrenaline was still pumping, and I wouldn't have really liked being alone so shortly after. Even if it was only a few minutes extra of company.
We stepped back outside and I had to stop to take in a breath, letting the cool air calm me.
Rhydian waited patiently, his hands tucked into his pockets. He even looked less angry than usual when I couldn't seem to keep from smiling.
“Jaron has telekinetic abilities,” he said when we started moving again. “I could tell you were wondering.”
Telekinetic, meaning he could move things with his mind. It made sense now. His wife tried to wake him, but in his panicked state, he had made an object fly toward her.
“That's actually pretty cool,” I admitted, trying not to feel jealous for my lack of abilities.
Rhydian looked down at me and gave me the first real smirk I had seen from him. My chest tightened at the sight. It was like the act had completely altered the way he looked. There was actually something almost playful about it. It took my breath away. “You mean like this?”
Before I could question it, one of the benches sitting ten feet away lifted up on one end. Not much, but enough that I knew it wasn't natural. I stared at it, then turned my wide-eyes back to him, smiling.
He looked back ahead, adopting again that level expression. “It's probably a good thing you can't do it, otherwise you could have thrown me clear across the room when I woke you up.”
I nodded, understanding what he was saying. The nightmare that he knew I had been having. That was why he had touched me, trying to anchor me to reality. And it had worked. Probably not something that I ever needed to bring up to him.
“Thank you for helping,” he went on, giving me the out I needed by changing the subject.
“Done doubting me?” I asked teasingly.
He gave a lazy shrug, not bothering to face me directly. “You could be a Sentry with Healer training.”
I laughed. I couldn't help it.
The lights were low in the hall of the dorm when we walked in. The sounds of snores echoed through it from cracked bedroom doors. Rhydian and I just walked in silence. There wasn't really anything to say. Everything had been clouded in a sense of dread since I left Eden. This was the first thing that happened that really made me feel good. Like I was accomplishing something. I would be lying if I said
I didn’t like the fact that Rhydian seemed impressed. Not that he was really showing it. I wasn’t even sure why I liked his reaction so much. As I thought about it, I decided it must have been just because things were moving forward with my task. He was starting to trust me, which was something I needed to happen. I had no chance of getting my sister back without it.
“Goodnight,” he said, moving to his door across from mine. He didn’t linger, or even glance back at me. That was okay. We didn’t need to be friendly for him to trust me. In fact, it would likely be easier if we weren’t.
“Goodnight.”
CHAPTER NINE
The nightmares didn't come again. I actually felt refreshed when I woke up the next morning. I even caught myself smiling as I got dressed and pulled my door open.
My eyes instantly turned to the open door across from mine when I walked out. Rhydian’s room. I don’t know why I felt that little twinge of disappointment when I saw it open and the room empty. It wasn’t something I was used to feeling when it came to a guy. It was… confusing. Chalking it up to my desire to get this all over with, I turned and walked toward the door at the end of the hall. He was practically everywhere I looked, so I knew I’d eventually cross paths with him.
“You, my friend, are the talk of the town this morning,” Aarys said, giving me a strange look when I sat across from her in the dining hall.
“Why?” I asked, my mind instantly jumping to Adler’s task. Did they know? Had one of their sources in Eden discovered that I had also been taken with Lillith? That there had to be something going on if I had made it to Alkwin?
My heart raced, despite my mind telling me I was being ridiculous. Aarys’ tone was light and cheerful. That was the opposite of what it would be if they had learned the truth. Hell, I would have probably been dragged out of my room the instant they even suspected there was something going on. Still, I couldn’t stop the panic from flooding my veins. This was Lillith’s life on the line. Nothing could go wrong.
