“Everyone survived. There were no human or Orb casualties.” The doctor explained, stuttering over the last part. He wasn’t exactly doing a good job of hiding his Orb bias. “Your co-worker, Babs, suffered from some smoke inhalation, but she was discharged several days ago.”
Fuck, this was bad. Really bad. But it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
“And the blood center?”
“Still structurally sound, but it’s seen better days.” Kroven said, nodding along and gesturing at the doctor. “They’ve closed it for now, but you should focus on resting.” He turned to the doctor. “Right?”
“Correct. I need to run some tests, make sure that you waking up after sustaining those injuries wasn’t a fluke.”
“Then I can leave?”
The doctor hesitated. “We’ll…revisit that conversation once I’ve run your current vitals, okay?”
Leaning back against the support of the bed, I sighed, nodding because I knew that it was best for me to go along with whatever the doctor was saying. I wanted to go back to my apartment. I wanted to be alone with Kroven at his house. I wanted to check the blood center and assess the damage myself. But right now, I was chained to my weakened body. There was no way I could handle that level of effort right now.
As if on cue, my body started to ache. I winced as my legstensed up. After all, I had been asleep in this god forsaken bed for over a week.
“Can someone bring me some things from my apartment?” I said this to the doctor, but it was Thayer who answered me.
“I knew you’d ask for this sooner or later.”
He revealed my iPad from somewhere behind his back, a strap of a backpack lingering from the chair. Had Thayer camped out at the hospital ever since I’d been asleep? My conflicted feelings toward him were crashing and capsizing inside me violently, transitioning from volatile anger over not being told about this secret twin brother and insurmountable gratitude that he knew me well enough to know I’d need something to pass my prison sentence in this bed.
I gratefully took the iPad from him and held it close to my chest. “Thank you.”
“Just focus on getting better, okay?” This was from Kroven, and his hand caressed my cheek.
The doctor had another coughing fit, saying he was going to send in an intern to monitor my vitals and excused himself. Thayer nudged his brother and gave me a smile as he stood. “We’ll give you guys a minute. I’ll run to the apartment and grab some clothes for you.”
“Thanks.” I nodded, letting my eyes slide over his twin a little too long. The twin just gave me a nod. No smile, nothing more. Something about Troian made me feel like I was on the edge of my seat, in the worst way. I didn’t like it one bit, but I wanted them out of the room so I could focus all my attention on Kroven.
Once the door clicked shut behind them, Kroven lifted up and sat back down on the bed, both of us meeting for another embrace.
“I was so terrified, Bas.” Kroven’s tone choked with emotion. “They told me you might not ever wake up.”
I pulled back, confused again. “That’s so…weird to hear. Scary, sure, but over a week? I was just knocked out.”
“No.” Kroven said sternly. “You were intentionally kicked in the face, knocked your head against the floor of the blood center, and then those pieces of shit stampeded over your body! I heard that Babs attacked them while screaming for you. She fought against them so hard until she was able to get to you.”
“Babs fought them for me?”
Kroven nodded. “She clawed her way toward you. Apparently they didn’t think fighting back against her was in their best interest and they fled soon after that because of the sirens.”
He looked away from me then and the only reason I thought it was weird was because he still had his hands on my shoulders, still needing to touch me and the feeling was immediately mutual. I reached for him, turning his face to meet mine as I saw the tears parading there, waiting to descend.
“Kroven, what is it?”
Not answering right away, he shook his head as he closed his eyes. He wiped his face prior to staring daggers into my eyes. “I realize that this isn’t the most opportune time to do this, but what happened at the blood center has taught me that it’s now or never.”
His hand soothed the edges of my jaw, and I leaned into his palm like a cat in heat. Which was pretty accurate despite my lack of feline features.
“I love you, Bas.”
All sound left the room once I replayed his words. As little time as we’d been spending together, as different as we were from each other and as societal pressures labeled us a not-quite-right interspecies couple, Kroven loved me. I’d been toying with the idea to tell him myself, I finally realized, before the riot at the blood center had happened, I’d been gearing up to tell him the same thing.
That was the thing. I felt the same. I’d thought it was way too soon, but the truth couldn’t be ignored.
I was without a doubt, head over hells in love with the sangamar.
