The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (13 page)

They began shuffling out of the room as Jillian walked in. She
jumped at the sight of retreating Talas and the dead one at behind him
before she glanced at him.

“Mikko, are you alright?”

Kyran met her concerned gaze. “I
’
ll be fine. You have medical
training, right?”

“Yes, I'm a trained OB nurse, but I
’
ve performed a few surgery
rotations.”

Kyran gave her a nod. “Come with me. Ronan might need you
to assist.”

Kyran trusted his brother above all others when it came to treating
patients. They were well synchronized, and the thought of bringing
someone else in on the medical side hadn
’
t occurred to Kyran until
this very moment.

His thoughts trailed to his mother and her predicament. If he was
in her shoes, he could be injured and be of no help in the operating
room and where would that leave Ronan? They needed help, the kind
that Jillian represented.

They turned the corner into the infirmary and were greeted by a disgustingly sweet smell.

***

Alexis grabbed her IV pole and made the slow painful walk to the
door. She should have stayed in the bed. The more she touched, the
more she potentially put Kyran and his pack at risk, which she was
loathe to do after all he’d done for her. She did her best to insure that
she touched nothing with her bare skin as she opened the door and
stepped into the doorway.

To her right the hall was empty, but to her left there was a pretty,
round faced red-head with striking green eyes rounding the corner
with Kyran.

The female gasped. “Oh, gods, what’s wrong with her?”

Kyran turned his gaze towards her. “Dammit, Alexis, I
’
m sorry.
I’ll remove the dart now.”

Her eyes slowly traced over him, coming to a rest on the wound in his chest. “Take care of yourself, Kyran.”

A door down the hall to her right opened, and Ronan stepped out.
“Mikko, I’m ready.”

Kyran nodded. “Thanks, but we have to take care of Alexis first.”

Ronan sniffed, frowned, and turned his head to face the smell tha
t had apparently drifted his way. “It’s worse,” he mumbled.

Alexis sighed.
“The dose is high enough to cause major silver
poisoning in us and kill you guys. This is what I want, so don
’
t worry
about me.” Facing Ronan, she said, “Save your Mikko.” She shuffled
back into the room, closing the door solidly behind her with her blanket
covered hands.

Death by way of liver and kidney failure would take a hell of a
lot longer than facing down a pack of rogue Lycans, but it was more appealing.

Hunters didn
’
t focus on death, probably because it seemed to
happen so frequently, and likely the reason she wasn
’
t supposed to
mourn her brother
’
s death. Death – like shit – happens, and fixating on
it solved nothing. At least that was what she had always been told,
because according to the Hunters, the only closure needed is a dead Lycan.

Alexis faced the wall and curled up on the bed. She knew it was pointless to feel sorry for herself, because of all of her shitty options, death by silver was the best outcome.

KYRAN OPENED THE DOOR
to Alexis
’
room and waited against the
wall while Ronan and Jillian came in carrying in armloads of supplies.

“Alexis, this is Jillian. She
’
s a nurse. Ronan is going to lead the
surgery with her as aide. I would help, but too much movement will undo my healing.”

Alexis glanced over her shoulder, giving Jillian a cursory inspection
followed by a short nod before she leveled her gaze on him.

“Don’t bother, Kyran.”

As he pushed away from the wall, he motioned for the others to get prepped.

“I’m not letting you die, especially like this.”

She turned to fully face him. Her blue features – darker than the color of his eyes – gave her a weirdly appealing alien look.

“This death is better than the alternative.” She gasped and opened
the blanket away from the dart.

Kyran smothered the growl building in his chest. “How is this
better? Nothing could be worth this kind of agony.”

She closed her eyes but not before a haunted look passed through
them.

“They sent me down to clean up the mess,” she whispered.

Kyran frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Torin. After they sent him on his last hunt – a punishment for
dereliction of duty and what they believed to be treason – they called me into the command center.” She took a pained breath. “I’ve never heard him sound scared before that day. He’s older than me. He was the one who taught me that my size wasn’t a handicap, even though everyone else thought it was. He called command and asked where his back up was. They lied to him and told him it was en route. After
he hung up, I met my parents’ eyes. God, their faces. They actually
looked smug, like it was a practical joke waiting to happen, a lesson to be learned, and he would recover from it. I almost believed it.”

Kyran
stared
at her. She was so damn e
motionall
y solid, to the point
it made him sad. No one should suffer and be afraid to cry. No one.

She played with her hands before she continued. “Until he called
back. He was b
reathing
hard, and it sounded like he was running around
in the house they sent him to. He kept saying ‘back up isn’t here yet.
Where the fuck are they?
’
, but before he got an answer, likely another
lie, glass broke in the background…”

Her voice trailed off, and she trailed those haunted eyes to each
one of them, ending with a piercing look at Kyran. She had no anger in her brown eyes, just sadness.

For some reason, her lack of anger bothered him. He would be angry.
No, anger wasn
’
t sufficient enough to describe how he would feel if he
was staring down the person r
esponsible
for
Ronan
’
s hypothetical
death
.

She cleared her throat and stared at the wall behind him. “The next
thing we heard was the screams. God, he screamed so long, and yet he
still managed to push his locator, as if no one knew where his body
would be.” She ran her hands through her hair. “They hung up, and
then everyone in the room turned to me. They didn
’
t say anything, but
the message was clear: Toe the line or it would be me making that call
.
My next assignment really sealed it in.” She shook her head softly, like
she was warding off any potential comfort. “My parents sent me to
Florida to clean up the mess, gather his personal affects, and deal with
the house. He
didn
’
t receive
a proper burial. Hunters don
’
t bury traitors
, not that there was enough to bury anyway.”

Ronan stepped in front of her and kneeled by her bedside. Kyran and Jillian stepped behind him, ready to cosign whatever he said.

Ronan reached out and touched her blanket covered shoulder. “Let
me first say, I
’
m sorry for your loss. Second, your parents suck on a
cataclysmic level. I doubt there is a word to describe the magnitude of their suckage.”

She laughed and blinked back tears. “My parents are the way they
are because of the Hunters. They know no other way. Torin’s story isn’t
entirely unique, but it’s proof you can't save me. Even if I live today, I’ll be dead soon enough.”

Kyran sat on the edge of the bed, mindful to avoid touching her.

“No, you won’t, because I won’t let you die.”

She sighed and sat up fully, being sure to keep herself fully covered
in the blanket.

“
I don’
t know what it is about your hero complex, but this is what
I want. Deal with it.”

Kyran sat silent for a few minutes before he gave her a reluctant nod. “It’s not a hero complex to not want someone to die in pain.”

She studied him for a minute as if she didn’t believe him before she let a relieved smile trace her features.

“You can take the dart out and give me pain medication,” she said.

Ronan and Jillian finished their prep, which included donning
hazmat suits like the ones the CDC would wear on infectious disease cases.

They put her under before either of them turned to Kyran and
gave him a questioning stare.

He snorted. “Get the dart out, but make sure to keep her under.
Prep her for hemodialysis as well as liver dialysis. I have to see if Ire will get me the equipment we need.”

Kyran left to send a prayer to Ire, the goddess of health. He’d need
all the divine help he could get in order to ensure that his Hunter lived.

***

Alexis rolled over onto her side and groaned. She struggled to
remain in the clutches of death, but its foggy grip was disappearing
to the fringes of reality. She didn’t know what Kyran had done or how
long it had taken, but she was alive.

She pushed the several layers of comforters away from her naked
body before she opened her eyes and scrutinized the room. The dark décor was unlike the room she’d previously stayed in.

The room was decorated with the affectionate flair of monochrome
black. Considering the fact that she was still living, the depressing color
should have fit her mood. She rolled out of the bed, feeling better than she had any right to, and padded over to the sound of running water.

Deciding that her questions couldn
’
t wait, Alexis pushed open
the bathroom door, and narrowed her eyes on her wolf, who stood
entrenched in the cascading waters of a temptingly hot shower. The
water made rivers down his torso, flowing over the muscled ridges
as he worked a bar of soap over his chest.

What she wouldn
’
t give to be that bar of soap. He really should
come with an X-rated guide and a whip. No man should be allowed to
do mundane things and look so damn good doing it. Then again, he was a Lycan.

With an inward sigh, Alexis figured that she could dream…that
he was human.

“Close the door. You’re letting the heat out,” Kyran said.

He didn
’
t acknowledge her in any other way as he returned to
working the bar over his body.

For that, she wanted to kick him the shins, but it would be childish
at best. She could shoot him. Maybe stabbing him would be better. That
just might get how unhappy she was to be living across. Maybe.

She walked over and opened the door to the shower and tapped him on the shoulder. When he focused on her, she gave him the only thing – besides words – that conveyed how she felt.

She punched him.

KYRAN SET HIS JAW
and
slanted his eyes
down at
his angry
roommate.
She had a right to be mad, but she would have to get over it. He had a
lot of reasons that she couldn’t die, but most of them he didn’t want to admit to himself.

“You might want to wait until your strength returns before you
start hitting people. I think you could do better than that if you did.”

“Why?” Alexis ran her hand through her midnight tresses. “Why
would you save me after everything I told you?”

Kyra
n turned around and placed his
hands against
the wall, dropping
his head into the spray. He stayed that way for a few minutes, trying
to come up with a reason beyond him needing her to end the war, which
wasn
’
t exactly why he’d he saved her anyway. He couldn’t tell her that
the real reason he saved her was because he wanted her here with him
.
Not only was it stupid and impossible, but it would likely alienate her
from him when he needed her to trust him.

She snorted. “I hope you don’t think ignoring me will work. I’m a Hunter; I’m trained to have a great deal of patience.”

“No, I didn
’
t think it would work.” He peered at her over his
shoulders; his eyes squinted to keep the water that ran down his face from his eyes.

“Then I need an answer, and it better be a fucking good one.”

Kyran ran his hands over his hair and let his eyes fall shut. When
he opened them, he caught the blatant desire in her eyes. He hid a smile
behind the hair he let fall back into his face.