I place Eloise’s limp body on it. Everline smacks a red button on the wall, and an alarm sounds.
Two nurses run in, nudging me aside to work on Eloise. One seems to be attaching her to an EKG while the other pushes me out of the way to gain access to her arm to start an IV.
The doctor clicks on an overhead lamp.
“Eloise?” I say frantically from the head of the table, her face cupped in my hands.
“You should go to the waiting room. There will be blood,” Everline says.
“I’m not going anywhere.” I growl and bare a little fang. “I’m her mate!”
“I know who you are, shade. Everyone in Night Haven knows who you are.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Everline sneers and grabs a pair of shears from her lab coat. “Let’s take a look at this wound.”
She cuts away her clothing neatly and efficiently and hands it to me along with her daggers, still in their sheaths. I hate the sight of my mate lying naked and wounded on the table. She looks too small, too pale, too unconscious. I’m oddly relieved when Everline partially covers her with a thin white sheet.
The doctor turns her on her side, inspecting the deeper wound on the back of her leg that is now free from my binding. “This is a puncture wound. Do you know what bit her, Damien?”
“Bit her?” My heart beats faster. From my place next to Lazarus, I couldn’t see the details of the challenge or what Eloise saw in the archway before she stepped through. Valeska mentioned an earring. What exactly did Eloise face tonight?
The doctor grabs an instrument from a rolling table and scrapes inside the wound, holding up the result. Her brown eyes shift to mine. The ooze that covers the instrument is silver and viscous. Earring. Oh no.
A rush of fear courses through me. I lift her clothing to my nose, the brackish mildew scent of Stygarde’s Black Lake filling my nose. I draw one of her daggers. It’s still stained with black blood, and when I smell the blade, my memories are transported to Tenebris. I will never forget that smell. This is the blood of a creature that almost killed me as a child. A creature whose bite caused my brother to languish in bed with fever for a week.
“She was bitten by a Black Lake salamander,” I say, feeling like I’ve been punched in the stomach.
The doctor arches an eyebrow at me. “The pattern of this bite runs from below her ribs to her thighs. No salamander could do this.”
“It’s from my world. Not from earth. They’re the size of your sharks and venomous.”
Dr. Everline and her nurse exchange glances. Everline nods and the nurse scurries off, returning seconds later with a bag of blood. “Now, I understand she’s your mate, Damien, but she’s running out of time. I’m going to have to do surgery to repair this wound. You’re an infection risk. I can’t start until you leave.”
I’m about to argue, but a hand lands on my arm.
It’s Marabella, and her face is grave. “Every minute you stand here, Damien, is a minute Dr. Everline can’t do her job and a minute closer to death for Eloise. Come walk with me. She’s in good hands.”
I press a kiss to Eloise’s cold, pale forehead and then force myself to follow Marabella from the infirmary. The door clicks closed behind us, and it’s all I can do not to slide back under the door in my shadow form. But Marabella urges me toward the back door. She nods toward a guard and then types a code into a pad near the door. When it opens, I find myself in a carefully manicured Japanese garden.
“Do the grow lights bother you? I can have them lowered.”
I test my abilities in the light, and while the brightness isn’t exactly comfortable, my shadows are still under my command. This garden is brightly lit, but the light isn’t painful. I’m not mortal. It’s not sunlight.
“They’re fine. How good is Dr. Everline?” I grumble.
Marabella starts walking. I fall in beside her.
“With humans? The best. Between you and me, she has connections among witches and has a stockpile of healing herbs and spells to enhance her medical practice. We regularly use her enchantments to improve the girls’ recovery time. I told her to spare no expense on Eloise.”
“Thank you.”
She smiles wickedly. “Oh, I can’t claim to be doing it out of the goodness of my heart. Your mate’s welfare is extremely important to me.”
“You bet on her today, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
