This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be about to lose Pavel only minutes after realizing he’d been an idiot and he couldn’t live without the guy.
Zane barely registered as the rest of the Retinue flooded into the room, didn’t process Kelevra yanking the blaster out of his sister’s hands or ordering the guards to stand down and get out. Instead, he was busy envisioning the map of Yurn anatomy in his head, tracing it over Pavel’s body in an attempt to locate all of his vital organs.
If he was correct, the bullet hadn’t hit his heart, but it was close. Too close. And if he was wrong and Pavel’s insides more closely matched those of the D-vitar…Or, wait, did his organs rearrange when he shapeshifted as well? Damn it! These were all things he had to know! They needed an ambulance.
“You really can’t help yourself, can you,” Pavel chuckled but then coughed, blood staining his lips. His eyes were lockedon the discarded multi-slate. “You’re so sneaky, bashert. It’s so hot.”
“Shut up,” he hissed, then softened his tone and more kindly said, “Don’t speak, okay? Just…conserve your energy. You’ve been shot and it’s in a really bad place. We need—”
“Brother.” Ledger dropped down on their other side and pulled Pavel out of Zane’s arms. When that earned him a growl, he lifted his own weapon and pressed the barrel of his gun to the center of Zane’s chest. “Calm down, both of you,” he said that last part to Pavel who had started fighting him the moment he’d seen the blaster. “I’m helping and neither of you will be harmed.”
“You are not a doctor,” Zane snarled, wincing when Ledger laid Pavel down flat on the ground and tore the pajama shirt open to expose his chest. The second Ledger's fingers went to the open wound he gasped and pressed forward against the gun. “What are you doing?!”
“For the love of—” Ledger tore the shirt more and found the bandage on Pavel’s other side where he’d taken the bullet from Aodhan. He ripped it off, motioning at the smooth skin beneath it and then demanded sternly, “There. We good now? Fuck off before you actually get my brother killed because you won’t let me remove the bullet and start the healing process.”
Zane didn’t know what he was looking at.
Heknew, but like… “How?”
There was no sign of damage at all, not even a scar. No hint that Pavel had been shot less than four days ago.
“I can explain,” Pavel began, gritting his teeth and making a pained sound when Ledger dug his fingers into the hole in his chest and literally dragged the bullet out of him. “Mother fucker!”
“He heals super fast,” Ledger stated calmly, dropping the bullet to the ground before tearing the rest of the clean bandageoff of his brother’s side and slapping it over the new wound. He pressed against it and turned to Zane. “Like, almost instantly. Within a minute or two, this will be gone and he’ll be right as rain. A little woozy due to blood loss—thanks for cutting it close by complaining, by the way—but otherwise fine.”
“He heals…instantly…” Zane frowned. “Wait. But I patched him up again the day after…” His eyes narrowed. Pavel had left him in the office and disappeared for a while. When he’d returned, he’d been wearing different clothes, so of course Zane had naturally assumed that was the cause of the delay, but… “You injured yourself to make me believe it, didn’t you.”
It wasn’t a question, but Pavel still had the good sense to respond.
“I was going to tell you, just…later.”
“After you’d had enough time to manipulate me through guilt, you mean.”
“Yeah, that.”
‘Good Light.” Ledger sat back and tipped his head up at the ceiling as though asking for divine intervention. Instead, he was met with the circular device still secured there. “That’s right. You owe me therapy and a memory scrub, asshole.” He shoved onto his feet, using Pavel’s chest as a springboard. “Not everyone wants to see your naked, writhing bodies. Absolutely disgusting.”
“Pretty sure I kept my clothes on,” Pavel called out to him as Ledge turned and headed over to the others who were busy keeping Lyra surrounded.
Zane reached out and pulled the bloody bandage off, using it to wipe at the remaining gore before he scowled. “There’s not even a scratch on you.”
Pavel grinned. “Surprise?”
“Fuck you.” He tossed the bandage at him and rose to his feet, thinking better of it and pointing down at him warninglybefore Pavel could follow. “This is a new mark. We are not even for this.”
“Not even after I took the bullet for you?”
Shit. He had a fair point.
Refusing to look at him, Zane held out his hand.
Pavel took it and he hoisted him up, then the two of them turned to the group still occupying their living room.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” Zane said by way of greeting Kelevra. When he’d snagged the phone from Pavel’s other pocket earlier after the explosion, he’d dialed Kel and muted the incoming part of the call so no one would realize they were being listened in on. His hope had just been for the prince to overhear and then maybe take their side if it came to a fight between them and Lyra. “How did you get here so quickly?”
“We were already on our way,” Madden answered for Kel. He was standing behind Lyra, keeping his distance respectable, but clearly there to block her off if she tried anything funny. He took them both in as they approached. “You two good?”
Unlike Lyra, they hadn’t brought any other backup with them, but then again, with the entire Retinue here, they wouldn’t have needed to. Ledger moved off to the side, Madden stood his ground, and Rin stood in the kitchen, watching them from a safe distance—probably so he didn’t lose his cool and attack Kelevra’s sister, honestly.
