Darkest Caress (22 page)

Cade wrapped a hasty dressing around the arm. “Let’s go.” He hauled Daegan’s torso up by the armpits as Vaughn took his legs.

“Where are you taking him?” Liv demanded, trailing after them.

“Downstairs. Hurry.”

Heart in her throat, she followed them through the medical area to what looked like a mechanical room of some sort. A thin stream of blood covered the floor as it dripped over Daegan’s arm and ribs. Cade and Vaughn completely ignored her, all but running toward a control panel against the far wall. She stared in amazement when Cade entered a code into the keypad next to it. The door slowly swung open to reveal a darkened corridor. He hit another button, started inside as some sort of emergency lighting came to life, illuminating the narrow stairway.

Inside it was cold and damp. She barely noticed as she hurried in their wake, descending the hundreds of stairs until they reached another steel door at the bottom. “Ready?” Cade asked.

She and Vaughn both nodded, although what she was agreeing to she didn’t know. But whatever she needed to do, she would.

“Keep him in until the wounds change color.”

In where?
she wanted to yell. He entered another code and the door squealed as it opened with a deep groan.

The salty scent of the water hit her. She stepped out onto a set of cement steps, found herself standing less than a hundred feet from the water’s edge. The tide was in, the water still as glass with the waning moon shining brightly on its surface. Vaughn and Cade rushed ahead, carrying Daegan straight into the water until it was up to their waists.

“Stop! What are you
doing
?” Liv kicked her shoes off and followed, thinking they’d gone mad. God only knew how many contaminants were in the water. Why the hell would they risk exposing Daegan to that? And the salt would be agony in his wounds. The cuts on her left hand burned like fire in the water.

Even as she thought it she flinched, but then they submerged Daegan’s upper body. His eyes flew open when he let out an agonized scream that made her flesh prickle. Liv plunged in after him, wading fast through the cold dark water. The chill of it stole her breath but she struggled toward them, keeping her eyes locked on her mate.

“You’re hurting him!” Why were they doing this?

Every muscle in his chest and arms stood out in sharp relief as he bucked and strained against the arms imprisoning him. She grabbed hold of Vaughn’s muscular arm, trying to wrench it away. “Stop it! Stop it, you’re hurting him!” Her voice cracked.

He shrugged off her attempts to dislodge his grip like she was an annoying mosquito buzzing around him. She shoved him, but it was like trying to move a brick wall.

“The water will clean out the poison,” Cade said in a strained voice, fighting to subdue Daegan. “We have to do this.”

Her heart slammed in her ears. “Why this way?”

“Our kind draws strength from the ocean. The salt and its energy will help heal him.”

She fought the urge to rip them off Daegan and cradle him to her. His cries had turned ragged, like his throat was too raw to keep screaming. It made her sick to her stomach.

“How much longer?” Vaughn bit out. He kept glancing behind them, searching the shore for something. Or someone. Was he checking for threats? Here?

“Another minute or two. Christ, let’s hope this flushes out the wounds well enough.” Then Cade turned his gaze on her. “Come here and touch him. Talk to him. Help him breathe through it.”

Without a second thought she waded forward to take Daegan’s pale face between her palms. She might not like their methods, but these men were his friends and were doing their best to help him. Right now she had no choice but to trust them. But God, watching him suffer was like taking an arrow to the heart.

She fought to keep the fear out of her voice. “Daegan, listen to me. I know it hurts, but the water will help you. Just listen to my voice and breathe nice and slow.”

He stopped thrashing. He trembled in the men’s grip, and when he opened his eyes they were glassy, unfocused. Blind with pain and fever. It scared her.

“That’s right,” she coaxed, stroking her thumbs over his cheeks. “Just breathe. In and out, nice and slow. It’ll be over soon, I promise.”

His eyes closed but he appeared calmer, his jaw tensed against the pain that must still be raging through him.

She looked up at Cade beseechingly. “Now?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

Without another word he and Vaughn hustled Daegan out of the water, running back to shore. Liv’s wet feet slipped on the sand as she followed, the sharp rocks hurting her feet. Her body was chilled by the night breeze blowing off the water. By the time they reached the concrete steps she was shivering, then in the middle of the secret tunnel her teeth began chattering. She didn’t care how cold she was. All that mattered was Daegan and stopping the spread of the poison.

In the relative warmth of the medical room they placed Daegan back on the metal exam table. Liv flinched at the sight of him. He was almost blue with cold, his lips pinched and turning purple around the edges. She helped strip off his wet pants and underwear, covered him with a thick blanket from the desk across the room. When Cade unwound the bandages to expose the bullet wounds in Daegan’s arm, she pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from crying out. They were brilliant red and swollen, as though they’d been cauterized by the salt in the water. She took up position at his side, cradling his hand between hers while Cade started an IV in Daegan’s arm and Vaughn disappeared through the steel door to the secret passageway.

Cade was just injecting some sort of medication into the line when Vaughn came back in. “Perimeter’s still clear. No one followed us out there.”

Cade nodded and set the drip running. “This will make him feel a whole hell of a lot better.”

“What is it”?” she asked.

“Propofol. A very powerful anaesthetic. Trust me, he’s not in any pain now.”

It seemed true enough. Daegan’s eyes were closed but not squeezed shut, and his body appeared to have sagged in relief. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully.

She rubbed his good arm in an effort to warm him. “He’s freezing.”

“Go ahead and find something to warm him up with while I check these,” Cade answered, bending to dig at the holes again. Liv hurried to the cabinets and dug through them to find some more blankets, then wrapped him up tight.

Cade grunted in satisfaction, picked up a suturing kit to close the wounds. “Looks better, but we’ll have to wait and see now.”

She dried Daegan’s damp hair then rubbed his feet briskly to get his blood flowing again.

When Cade finished he stripped off his gloves, flicked a glance at her. “Better get out of those wet clothes and dry off before you get sick.”

Realizing she was still shivering, she nodded. “What happens now?”

“There’s nothing more I can do for him now. The rest is up to him. And you.”

She raised her head, stared at him in astonishment. “Me? What can I do?”

Cade met her eyes as he finished securing the final dressing. “You need to stay with him.”

“Of course I will.” How could he think otherwise?

“No, I mean
right next
to him. He needs you to be close to him, to touch him.”

She squeezed Daegan’s hand, smoothed a damp lock of hair away from his pale forehead. Despite his color and dip in the cold water, the fever raged inside him. “He’s still so hot.”

“It’s the amber. I think I got all of it, but I don’t know how much was already absorbed into his bloodstream. It’ll be awhile until we know how severe the damage is.”

Liv swallowed hard. “But he’ll be all right, won’t he?”

“He’s strong,” Cade answered without looking up. “We should know by morning if he’s turned the corner.”

Morning seemed like an eternity from now.

“We’ll move him upstairs now. I’ll unhook the IV in a bit so he’ll be more comfortable when he wakes up.”

“Okay.” She prayed he’d wake up.

Once they’d settled him in the king-sized sleigh bed, Cade handed her a bottle of pills. “Give him two of these if he wakes up in a lot of pain. If I got most of the amber out fast enough, he should rebound fairly quickly. Our kind heals faster than mortals, and I think he’ll surprise you.”

She felt so helpless. “Isn’t there something else we should be doing? An x-ray at least?”

“Nope. The fracture in his humerus was incomplete and it’s already in position to set. What he needs most right now is a deep sleep and your touch.” Before she could ask him anything else he shocked her by lifting a hand to her face to cradle her cheek in his palm. She stilled at the unexpected contact, staring up into his clear green eyes as he brushed his thumb over her bruised cheekbone. “You all right?”

“Yes,” she managed in a whisper. In that moment she understood exactly why he’d developed the sexual reputation he had. His touch didn’t arouse her, but it held an undeniable power all its own. There wasn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t respond to that kind of animal magnetism on some level.

He assessed her for another few seconds before dropping his hand and stepping back. “Go change and try to get some sleep. I’ll be downstairs if he needs me.”

She cast a hesitant glance at Daegan. The last thing she wanted to do was leave him, even just to go to the bathroom.

“One more thing,” Cade said when she finally turned away toward the ensuite.

“What?”

“Remember he’s linked to you, so he can feel any strong emotions you emit. If you can’t hold it together he’ll sense it and waste precious energy he needs to heal worrying about you. You have to be strong for him through this.”

She nodded, glanced at Daegan while a fierce protectiveness rose within her. “I will be.”

Liv took the pills into the bathroom to set them on the granite vanity, then stripped off her wet clothes and put on the black terrycloth robe hanging on the back of the door. It smelled faintly of Daegan and that clean, spicy scent brought a lump to her throat. When she came out, Cade was gone and Vaughn stood next to the bed, staring down at Daegan’s still form with an unreadable expression.

She walked around to the other side, crawled up to kneel next to her mate, took his limp hand. It was large and strong compared to hers, but he’d always touched her with such gentleness and care. He’d willingly taken those bullets to protect her. She blinked fast to stem the burn of tears, reaching out to smooth his dark hair away from his forehead. Unconsciously he turned his head toward her, as though he truly did crave her touch.

She bit her lip, fighting the torrent of emotion. Strong. She had to be strong and not sap his energy, and she wouldn’t embarrass herself by losing it in front of icy-cold Vaughn. But God, what would she do if she lost Daegan?

Vaughn remained at the bedside, unmoving, as though he felt obligated to stand watch over his leader. Or was it because he didn’t trust her to take care of him?

Once she had control, she thought about what to say that might break the growing tension in the room. She searched her memory for a happy time in her childhood, focused on that as she stroked Daegan’s hair.

“I had a dog once,” she said to Vaughn, impatiently swiping a stray tear away with the heel of her free hand. Stupid to cry. It didn’t help anything and it made her look weak. “A chocolate lab named Hershey when I was a little girl. He was my best friend. My only friend. After I lost my parents, he was the one I talked to all the time, and I know he understood. No matter what, I knew he loved me, completely and unconditionally.” She was babbling and probably making Vaughn uncomfortable, but she couldn’t stop the words. “When he died I felt like I had nothing, and I was too devastated to get another dog because I knew I could never replace him. That probably sounds crazy to you. Did you ever have a pet?”

Vaughn met her gaze almost reluctantly then shook his head, but she could see an echo of pain in his strangely colored eyes. The yellow shards should have disturbed her but they didn’t. Unless she did something to jeopardize Daegan, Vaughn was no threat to her.

She sniffed, wiped away more tears with the back of one hand. “Just in the last few months I was starting to feel really lonely and thinking about getting another dog. But then I met Daegan, and in the space of a few days everything’s changed for me. I realize I barely know him, but I feel like I’ll shrivel up and die if he doesn’t make it through this. Like my whole world will end, even though I only just met him. That doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

“Yes, it does.”

Surprised that he’d spoken, she looked up into the Reaper’s scarred face. The unguarded moment of raw grief she read in his expression made her heart clench. Swallowing, she turned her attention back to Daegan. All she wanted was for him to open his eyes and look at her, smile or somehow acknowledge that he knew she was there next to him. Some sign that he recognized her, that he’d be okay. She wanted to hear his deep voice again, saying that lovely endearment she still didn’t know the meaning of. She stroked his hair helplessly, wishing there was something more she could do.

Vaughn stayed next to the bed for another minute, then turned to leave.

“Wait.” She shifted on the bed so she could see him better.

He stopped, looked over his broad shoulder at her.

“He said something to me earlier. In the car, and a couple times before. In another language I didn’t understand.”

Vaughn raised an onyx brow, waited.

It felt right to ask him. “He called me
mo ghrá
, but I don’t know what it means. Do you?”

He held her questioning stare for a moment, his eyes flashing a stark sadness before turning ice cold. He looked at the floor before responding. “It’s Gaelic,” he answered quietly. “And it means ‘my love.’”

My love.
The words echoed deep inside her.

He might have meant it only in an affectionate way, but she didn’t think so. Not the night he’d made love to her, anyway. The context when he’d used it, the tender way he’d said it told her otherwise. She
was
his love, or would be eventually. In the short time they’d known each other, he already believed and accepted that.