He reached for the length of wood he’d been using as a crutch, and dragged it over to him. She watched as he struggled to get to his feet.
“Woah, woah. Hold on. Let me help.” Going over to him, she threw one of his arms over her shoulder. “Why are you getting up anyway?”
“Potty break, unless you want me to dig a hole in the dirt and piss in there.”
She screwed up her face, making him grin.
“And I need to exercise the leg. I can’t let it atrophy on me.”
“Need me to help you find a bush?”
“I’ll be fine once I stand. Throw another couple of sticks on the fire while I’m busy, would you?”
She released him and returned to the small pit they’d dug to cook the snake. Mattox hobbled over to a large shrub to relieve himself. When he finished, he found her waiting for him to return, a stern look on her face.
“Lie down,” she ordered.
He did as he was told, and eyed her curiously.
“I need to look at that wound,” she explained. “Plus, it wouldn’t hurt for me to wash out that bandage before rewrapping your leg.” She tapped his temple. “I need to check your head wound, too.”
“I’ll just start calling you Dr. Edge when you act like that,” he halfway growled.
“When I act like what?”
He felt her trying to undo the tourniquet’s knot at the back of his thigh. “When you order me around like that. You sound just like Iain.”
“Who’s he?”
“He’s our compound physician. He’s also my uncle.”
“I like him already, and I haven’t even met him,” she quipped. There was a tug. “Shit. Damn thing’s covered in dried blood. I’ll have to cut it off.”
“Need a knife?”
“No, thanks. I’ll use the one in this sheath.”
Crossing his arms, he used them as a pillow to lay his head. “Cara, we need to talk.”
“You talk. I’ll listen.”
“There’s some information my family was able to gather before the storm hit.”
“About what?”
“About who could’ve shot that arrow at you.”
He felt her pause. “Go on,” she urged.
“We believe it was a Blood.”
“A Blood? I thought those things attacked in mobs.”
“They do, usually, but not always. In the past few years, we’ve noticed a change, a difference come over them. Some of the Bloods, they don’t look as hideous as they used to. Not as…damaged. In fact, some of them could easily pass as Mutah.”
“The same way some Mutah look Normal on the outside?”
“The same way.”
