Spartans couldn’t regenerate anything that was hard tissue, like appendages and limbs, but we could fuse.
If you stitched an injury within a few hours of receiving it, our bodies would re-heal the damaged appendage, and the same applied to the body parts donated from other Spartans.
My wife’s body was going to accept my ear. It didn’t have a fucking choice.
Hell and Hound prowled protectively around us, flame eyes flickering, ready to maul anyone who dared approach.
A Titan screeched close by, but I didn’t turn and look.
Augustus would handle it. I trusted him with my life, and hers.
But when the fuck did the Titans start mutating into bats?
I finished the last stitches as Alexis drifted in and out of consciousness.
Rain splattered across bronzed skin, and her golden curls were a tangled halo around her head as she lay in a muddy puddle of pink.
Even for a Spartan, even for a Chthonic, she’d sufferedgrievousinjuries, and yet she was somehow still breathing.
I’d never seen anything like it.
She’d single-handedly fought off two Titans that could fuckingfly. It was mind-boggling.
Achilles and Patro were also missing, which meant they’d abandoned her.
If they aren’t already dead, they will be soon.
Alexis gasped brokenly and I used the hem of my shirt to wipe away the gore around her ear.
Tracing my finger over the stitches, I inspected it closely for signs of rejection—the pale skin color was already turning bronze. Her body was accepting it.
I could do nothing but kneel beside my wife as I waited, shaking, my tears mixing with rain.
Alexis rolled onto her side and coughed jerkily.
My heart stopped as I stared down at the damage on her back. It was so much worse than I’d initially thought—skin flapped unattached and the white knobby bones of her spine were visible. Her back was torn to absolute shreds.
There wasn’t enough skin to even pretend to stitch up.
“Don’t move!” I ripped my shirt off and pressed the fabric against her ruined flesh.
“Shut u-up.” Alexis struggled in the mud.
I tried to stand to stop her, but I slipped and fell to the ground with a grunt. The Titan we’d captured in South America had left talon marks through my thighs, and for some reason my back was also hurting. I had more wounds than I’d realized.
“How—” Alexis coughed as she turned her head. “You know … come … here?”
Rain dripped from her long lashes.
“We werealwayscoming back for you.”
Hell and Hound sat down next to her, whining as they nuzzled at her side.
It didn’t escape my notice that neither of them were worried about helping me.
Alexis laughed weakly, her ruined back shaking. “Good … doggies.”
The deadly class six beasts wagged their bony tails, preening under her attention, licking her face as she giggled.
