I tilted my head, confused for a moment. Was I at the wrong house? A moment later, Sebbie looked out as well, saw me, and gasped.
“Corbin!” he cried, pushing Toby out of the way to run out to me.
I almost chuckled at Toby’s disgruntled look, but then Sebbie was standing next to me, and he was all I could focus on. His body was up against mine, his arm around me to help support me. “Are you injured anywhere else?” he asked, his voice calm, even though I thought I could hear his racing heart.
“No,” I muttered, breathing in the scent of him. He’d never been this close to me before, and his presence was like being surrounded by a soft, gentle snowfall. I hadn’t realized how hot I was until he was cooling my skin.
“He’s fine!” Toby called, but then he was standing in front of me, looking at my arm, and he was gasping, too.
“Was it a hellbound soul?” Toby asked. “Should I get the others? Do we need back-up?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Got cut on a rock,” I said, which was a partial truth. I felt pressure on the wound, and the murder all cawed again.
“Hush, loves. I’ve got this,” Sebbie told them. “And no plotting right now, Toby. Go get some clean water, bandages, and any first aid supplies you have.”
To my surprise, both the crows and Toby listened to him. Toby ran inside, and the crows all settled down into a quiet rustling and cooing. Sebbie led me into the house, guiding me as if I couldn’t walk. When he pushed me down into a kitchen chair, I realized that perhaps he was right to guide me. I was weaker than I’d expected to be.
“Blood loss will do that to you, but you’ll be just fine,” Sebbie said, and he looked at me and smiled.
So beautiful.
Sebbie blushed, and I vaguely wondered if I’d said that out loud. He was, though.
I hadn’t realized it, but before he’d come outside, he must have grabbed a kitchen towel, because he was holding one tightly onto my bleeding arm. It wasn’t bleeding as much, although the blood had soaked through the towel in some areas.
Toby rushed back in with Jude behind him, both of them carrying stuff.
“Do you have any gloves?” Sebbie asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Jude answered. “No bloodborne infections in this one.”
Sebbie turned and looked at him, and Jude actually stepped back. I might have giggled a bit at that.
“I just mean we all get regular check-ups, and Corbin is negative for anything you could get. You don’t have to worry about his blood. I know you’re a nurse and are taught to be careful about that stuff,” Jude added.
“There are universal precautions, and it isn’t just for the caretaker. What about infection? Hmm?” Sebbie asked.
He was standing over me, still applying pressure to the wound and looking at it carefully. He was short, so the distance between our faces wasn’t that great. I reached a hand up to brush a curl away from his face. He was just so pretty.
“Not gonna get infected,” I murmured, and then I leaned back in the chair, closing my eyes because everything had gotten a little fuzzy.
“It sure as hell isn’t,” Sebbie said, and I smiled at the assurance in his voice.
I would be fine. My little reaper was here to take care of me.
Chapter 6
Sebbie
I’d been hit on,cursed at, propositioned, and anything else you could think of over my years as an EMT and then nurse. When people were in a lot of pain, half conscious, or drugged up with pain meds, anything was possible.
I didn’t take it personally. I knew people weren’t themselves in those situations. Having a six-inch piece of wood sticking through your hand or your bone sticking out of your leg made people understandably off kilter.
Still, when Corbin called me beautiful, I couldn’t help my reaction. I knew he was just woozy from blood loss, but it actually threw me off my game for a moment. So of course I kicked into nurse mode, because Corbin was injured, and I was going to take care of him.
It didn’t take long for the wound to stop bleeding, and when I looked at it, it didn’t seem nearly as bad as I’d initially thought it was. It had looked deep when I’d first seen it, and there had been a lot of blood on him. I’d assumed he’d been walking for some time with the injury, but based on how shallow it appeared and how quickly it stopped bleeding, maybe it had happened near the house.
“Did you hurt anything else when you fell?” I asked, grabbing the supplies Jude and Toby had brought over to start cleaning the cut. Cuts, actually, because there was more than one.
