Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2) (22 page)

“No! You have to do something.” I fell to my knees beside
Nash’s head. “Cian, you bastard, you aren’t allowed to leave me like this.” I
looked back up at the medic. “Do something.”

The medic shrugged and looked at Isaac. “Better you than
one of the others.”

Isaac glanced at Christina who nodded quickly. With a
resigned sigh, Isaac pushed back his sleeve. He raked a fingernail across his
wrist and blood began to drip. “This will help, Harry. The silver will prevent
the full healing effects of my blood as well, but it should be enough to hold
him together until we can get him to the hospital. There could be consequences
however.” He looked at me as if waiting my decision but the consequences were
nothing compared to losing Nash. I quickly nodded my head.

“Do it.” I reached out to Nash’s head and ran my fingers
through his hair bending over to brush my lips across his forehead. “Hold on,
old wolf, hold on.”

Isaac dripped his blood directly into the worst of Nash’s
injuries and then held his wrist to Nash’s lips.

“Drink, Cian,” I whispered. “You need to drink.” For a
moment, I thought that it was too late. Nash was too far gone, but then his
tongue flicked out and tasted the blood on his lips. He began to suck weakly.

In the distance the ‘whoop-whoop’ of a helicopter echoed. I
looked out over the horizon to see its dark shadow moving in across the sky.
The sun was just beginning to rise, the first rays breaking over the horizon.
Isaac pulled back his wrist, the skin already partially closing up. He stood
up to make room as the rescue crew from the chopper arrived with a stretcher.
Gathering Christina in his arms he nodded at me and then started to walk back
towards an SUV with darkly tinted windows. He would find it extremely painful,
if not deadly, to be out in the dawning sun.

I got to my feet and staggered back out of the way. Tess
grasped my shoulders, a look of dismay on her face as she noticed my condition.
The pixie bites burned and my wounds from the redcaps had reopened to a slow
trickle.

“Oh my god, Harry. You look like shit.”

At her words, I burst out laughing. “I feel like it too.” We laughed
with borderline hysteria as they
hooked Nash up to a heart monitor and IV. They loaded him onto the stretcher
just as a ray of sunlight cut through the clearing. I looked to my undead
army. Tess followed my gaze and gasped. As the rays of the dawning sun hit
each wolf, it raised its head as if in salute, and then faded away.

As the last wolf faded, the enormity of what I had done
seemed to sink in and I was suddenly blanketed by exhaustion. It clung to me
like a weight. I had a second to look at Tess and say, “Oh damn, I think I’m
going to f…” and the world went black.

Patches of conversation kept intruding, disturbing my
peaceful rest, but I didn’t seem to have the energy to wake up.

“Damn, she’s a mess…”

“…is all this blood hers?...”

“I count thirty-three, no, make that thirty-four. Where the
hell did the pixies come from?...”

“Type and cross match…lost a lot of blood…”

“We’ll have to debride the wounds on her belly…dirty
buggers, redcaps…”

“What’s with her aura?...

“…her aura is in tatters…”

“…the wolf? Never seen a worse case of silver poisoning…”

Wait! Wait! What was that about the wolf? Come back and
talk to me! I thrashed against the restraints holding me down. “Nash!” I’m
not sure if I even spoke aloud.

“Shh, it’s okay Harry. Calm down.” Tess’s voice soothed me.
“Just lie still. Nash is fine; he’s going to be fine.”

“…do something about her aura. She’s going to go into
shock.”

“We need the healer in here stat!”

***

I awoke to a steady beeping sound which was really annoying
until I realized it was probably my own heartbeat on a monitor. I was on a bed
in a room full of medical equipment. For a brief moment, I panicked thinking I was
back in one of the rooms in Bellemare’s lab. I tried to sit up only to find
that I couldn’t. Something was pinning me down. I lashed out, trying to push
away the heavy weight and discovered it was an arm, an arm attached to Nash!
How I ended up in a bed beside him, I didn’t know, but I was glad to see Nash
was alive, even if he was still out like a light. At
least he was breathing. It turned out the heart being monitored was his and
thankfully, it was strong and steady.

I pushed his arm off my hip and sat up to assess the
situation. I was dressed in a set of green hospital scrubs. My side, which
had been torn open by the redcap, was tender, but a quick examination showed me
that, for the most part, it was healed, a large rectangular patch of pink, new
skin the only reminder of what had happened. The pixie bites had been healed
as well.

I rolled onto my knees and crouched beside Nash to take a
better look at him. His face had at least a day’s worth of stubble, which only
helped to give him even more of a sexy, rugged look. He was shirtless and I
paused to admire his muscular chest complete with a generous dusting of downy
dark hair – all in the name of ensuring his injuries had been healed, of
course. He was sporting his own swath of healthy new skin, a sign that the
healer had been in to see him as well. I was tempted to peek under the sheet
to see if his thigh had been similarly healed, but it would be my luck that
someone would walk in on me and think I was being pervy.

Sure enough, a minute later, the door to the room opened and
an older woman bustled in. She was dressed in a set of scrubs similar to mine.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” She smiled at me. “How are you
feeling?” She stopped on Nash’s side of the bed and grabbed a clipboard and
then began checking the monitors, jotting down the readings.

“I…I’m okay. Why am I in Nash’s bed?”

She peered over her clipboard at me and gave me a knowing
smile. “Don’t you worry yourself dear, doctor’s orders.”

“Doctor...?”

“Of course, dear. We’ve found that mates usually heal much
quicker if they are in close contact with each other.” She set the clipboard
down and began to switch out Nash’s I.V. bag.

“But why isn’t he awake? What’s wrong with him?”

I caught a quick frown before she managed to school her
expression with a pasted on smile. “Detective Nash is going to be just fine
dear, you wait and see.”

“But he’s unconscious! That doesn’t seem fine to me.”

“Well, he is just recovering from acute silver poisoning.
These things take time. If you need to know more, you’ll have to speak with
the doctor, dear.” She pursed her lips and turned to leave but then
stopped and turned back. “His condition started to improve immensely the
moment we put you in bed beside him. Isn’t it just amazing what the mate bond
can do? You stay by his side, let him know you’re there and I’m sure he’ll be
up and about in no time.”

She turned to leave again so she didn’t see me roll my
eyes. “Wait! What time is it? Do you know how long I’ve been here?”

“Why it’s early morning dear, just past 6 am. They brought
you both in yesterday around this same time.”

“I’ve been asleep for 24 hours?” I looked at her in shock.

“Pretty much. You’ve missed several visitors, in fact one
of them, that nice vampire Isaac I think it is, was here watching over you all
night. He only just left about an hour ago.” With that, she let the door
swing shut as she stepped out into the hall.

Mate bond. I was
really
getting tired of hearing
that word, but I guess if I was helping Nash get better, I could spend a little
more time beside him, hardship that it was.

I settled myself back down in the bed, my head resting on
his chest. The nurse had turned down the sound on the monitor so it was
comforting to hear the lub-dub of his heart under my head. I closed my eyes
and drifted off again.

***

“Harry! Psst! Harry!”

“Aww, don’t they just look so cute together? So peaceful.”

“He’s got his hand on her ass. He must be getting better.”

“Harry, wake up.”

The last voice was Tess again. The other two sounded very
familiar, but I couldn’t quite place them.

“Maybe we should just let her sleep?” I opened my eyes to
see Christina looking back at me in concern.

“Nonsense, the nurse said she was already awake once this
morning. Besides, I brought breakfast.” Tess dangled a large white bag in
front of her.

“You brought me Dorfman’s? BMGs?” I sat up in bed, pushing
away Nash’s hand, which
was
on my ass, by the way. Dorfman’s Donuts
made the best donuts in town. Their Bacon Maple Glazed was out of this world.
Moist, dense cake donuts, glazed with maple syrup frosting and liberally
covered with strips of crispy bacon. “Gimme!”

“Nice to see you too, Harry.” Tess laughed and grabbed me
in a big hug.

I squeezed her back, happy to be alive and able to do so.
“Oh my god Tess, I’m so glad to see you.” I looked over her shoulder at Christina.
“And you. Are you okay Christina?”

“Nothing a few years of therapy won’t cure,” she joked
half-heartedly. Eileen, the other familiar voice in the room, came over to
stand beside Christina, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

Tess turned and opened up one arm, gesturing the other two
women over for a group hug. It felt good and the reality that the nightmare
was over and I was safe finally sank in.

“Alright, alright, enough with the mushy stuff. I have got to
pee.” They laughed and the mood lightened. “No, seriously, I really have to
pee,” I said struggling to put the bed rail down.

With a laugh, Christina helped get the rail down and I
shuffled over to the private washroom.

“I brought you a change of clothes too, Harry, in case you
want to take a shower and get dressed first.”

I walked out of the washroom, drying my hands on a paper
towel. “Are you kidding? When there are Dorfman’s BMGs calling my name?”

We settled down, finding chairs for Tess and Eileen. Christina
and I sat on the bed. I figured if knowing I was safe was helping Nash get
better, then knowing his sister was also safe should help too. It couldn’t
hurt at any rate.

We quickly demolished the dozen donuts Tess had brought with
her while she and Christina brought me up to speed on what I had missed. There
really wasn’t a lot to tell. Isaac and Tess had found the holding cells and an
uninjured Christina, just as Nash’s SRU team raided the place. As all hell
broke loose, they helped the SRU secure all the missing wolves, including Christina’s
friend Diane, and get them to safety. Finally, when they had everyone safely
in vans on their way to the hospital, Isaac, Tess and Christina joined the
remaining SRU members in a search of the building for me and Nash.

They had found us of course, only to have us disappear with
Navarre right in front of them. Finding us a second time wasn’t all that
difficult after Navarre had set his magical dome in place. Then it had just
been a matter of agonizing over what the hell could have been going on inside
the dome.

“I thought Isaac was going to rip the SRU’s mage apart,
when he couldn’t get the dome down or find a way to get through,” Tess said, her
eyes wide with awe.

“He was very worried about you Harry,” Christina added
quietly, her voice catching.

“So what happened to you, Harry?” Eileen leaned forward
eagerly. Something must have shown in my expression because she quickly added,
“If you’re feeling up to talking about it that is.”

I really didn’t feel up to it yet, so I took the out she
gave me. Despite having slept for nearly 24 hours, I was actually feeling
tired.

“Don’t worry about it now Harry, rest up.” Christina patted
my arm. “Wait until everyone is here so you only have to tell it once.”

That sounded like a good plan to me. Eileen and Christina
left shortly after, saying they would be back during visiting hours. I had
expected that Tess would have to leave for work, but she shook her head.

“Nope. I’ve got the whole day off and so I’m going to sit
here and keep you company. Besides, I promised Isaac I would keep an eye on
you during the day.”

“I don’t need a babysitter you know.” I rolled my eyes.

“No, but if Nash keeps getting handsy in his sleep, you
might need a chaperone.”

***

After I had showered and changed, I cuddled up to Nash for
another nap. I basically spent most of the morning drifting in and out of
sleep. When I wasn’t napping, I did manage to get the whole story out to
Tess. She was incensed at everything Navarre had done.

“That fucker. Good thing you killed him Harry, or I’d have
to hunt him down and do it myself.”

I frowned from where I was curled up on Nash’s bed. I felt
uncomfortable at the thought that although I had wanted Navarre dead for
everything he had done, I was the one that took his life. Even though it was
the undead that killed him, I was ultimately responsible. In the space of a week
I had killed two people, not to mention all
the countless redcaps whose deaths I had caused without even a pang of
remorse. What was I becoming?

A growl from Nash startled me and the arm that was wrapped
around me pulled me closer against his body, holding me tight.

“Nash?” I struggled in his grip to sit up so I could see
him. “Nash are you awake?”

The nurse, the same one from earlier, came in to check on
him in response to Tess pushing the call button.

“He growled and his arm moved,” I said, finally managing to
turn over to face Nash.

“That’s a good sign, dear. What did you do to upset him?”
The nurse gave me a stern look.

“Nothing! I’m just lying here.”

“Well, you were just wallowing in self-pity a second ago
Harry,” Tess supplied with a smirk.

“I was not.” I bit my lip. “Okay, so maybe I was feeling a
little sorry for myself. I think I’m entitled.”

“Of course you are, dear,” the nurse patted my arm. “But remember
he can sense what you’re feeling. Try and keep it to happy thoughts right now
if you can.”

Unbelievable! I had forgotten about the fact that Nash
seemed to be able to read my emotions just like Isaac could through the blood
bond. I was so going to kick his ass when he got better for marking me or
whatever the hell he did.

Nash grumbled again, his arm tightening around me.

“See dear, you’re doing it again.” The nurse came around to
my side of the bed. “Maybe you should just settle down beside him and try and
relax.” She eyed Tess. “It really isn’t visiting hours yet you know.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll try and keep from getting worked up, but
my friend stays.”

I made a show of snuggling down against Nash’s chest. The
nurse looked at me skeptically with one eyebrow raised and then settled a
blanket over my shoulders.

“You do that then, dear. I’ll be back to check on Detective
Nash in a while.”

***

I must have drifted off because the next thing I remember is
hearing voices.

“Kee! Kee!”

“Shh, inside voice please. Uncle Cian is sleeping. So is
Auntie Harry.” Evaine’s voice was quiet.

“Harrreee!” Michelle squealed.

I figured by that point it would be impossible to play
possum. I’d have to be unconscious like Nash not to be woken up by the
toddler’s happy squawking.

“Hi Michelle, what do you have there?” I looked at the
little girl in her mother’s arms. She had a fistful of helium balloons.

“Bloons!” She held out her little fist, the balloons
bouncing up towards the ceiling.

“Wow, what pretty balloons.”

“Hi Harry. Sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you. We just
wanted to drop a few things by to make the room a little brighter.” She looked
over her shoulder to Kevin who was carrying a large flower arrangement. “Mrs.
Potts says ‘hi’, by the way, and not to worry about a thing at the shop.”