“W-what about the baby?” she managed, her breath coming in short rough pants.
Vaxa’an’s chest squeezed as he spied the rivers of tears running down her cheeks.
Privanax’s expression didn’t change.He was stoic, his face morphed into one of complete concentration.Vaxa’an would trust no other with his mate’s health.
“I am trying,lavrix’an,” was all he said in reply.
Guilt swarmed Vaxa’an’s body and he smoothed a hand down Kat’s cheek.“You will be fine,luxiva.”His voice was scratchy and so rough that he hardly recognized it.
He’d done this to her.Not only had he endangered her life by implanting his seed within her, he’d caused her stress and pain.They’d fought just before the blood had left her body.He’d known that his mate’s health was fragile, as she gestated his child…and yet, he’d driven her to this.This was his fault.He would remember her look of terror, and the cloud of blood in the water, for as long as he breathed in this world.He would never forget,couldnever forget.
“I am sorry, Kat,” he whispered to her, leaning over her small, pale body.“This is my doing.”
She shook her head.Vaxa’an could see the way her jaw clenched.
Before she could say anything, Privanax found his eyes.“You need to give her blood.She is losing too much.Perhaps it will help strengthen her body.”
Privanax abandoned his place briefly, collecting a steel object with a thin needle.He thrust it at Vaxa’an.“Fill this up.”
Vaxa’an didn’t hesitate.He plunged the needle into his arm and Privanax activated the object until it was pumping his blood from his veins, filling the small steel container at the end.He would gladly give his mate every last drop he had if it meant she lived.
Privanax took it from him once it was filled and then injected it into his mate.
Blood.There was blood everywhere.It drenched the table and Privanax’s hands and arms.It ran down Vaxa’an’s chest and thighs from when he’d carried his mate out of their dwelling.As a warrior, blood had never bothered him before.It was an essential part of war, of life.But hisluxiva’sblood…it made his head swim.
Privanax worked quickly and tirelessly.He constantly checked his scanner and the probe between Kat’s thighs.He mended her insides and stanched the bleeding.Vaxa’an didn’t know how long it took.It seemed as if they’d been in that room for rotations, each moment stretching into an eternity.
His Kat had exhausted herself.The medicine that Privanax had given her when they first arrived, to help with the cramping and pain, had finally kicked in and her back no longer arched at regular intervals.She was calm, quiet.The medicine was also a sedative since she nodded in and out of sleep.
Vaxa’an called on every ounce of patience and discipline he possessed as he waited.Finally, Privanax looked up at him, withdrawing from his mate’s body.
“Rebax?” Vaxa’an asked.
“She will heal,” the doctor answered.
“The child?”
Privanax nodded, his eyes straying to his monitor.“The heart still beats.”
Vaxa’an reached out a hand to steady himself, gripping the lab table where his mate slept.He closed his eyes, breathing deeply.
“What happened?” he finally asked, his voice guttural.
“You know why.The human body gestates young for a much longer time than Luxirian females, almost three times as long.The child is simply growing too quickly for her body to handle.She is tired, her body is stressed trying to keep up with the growth.I am sure her environment plays a role as well,” the doctor said, eyeing Vaxa’an.
He bristled at the accusation in Privanax’s voice but then shame filled him.
“We argued this night,” Vaxa’an admitted, his shoulders dropping.“The fault is mine.”
The doctor said nothing more about it.Instead, he said, “I would like to keep her here for the next span.I need to monitor her and the offspring.”
“I will stay with her.”
Privanax knew better than to argue.He simply nodded.“I will bring in a sleeping platform so you both may rest comfortably.I believe that she will be stable through the night.Her body just needs time to rest and to heal itself.”
Privanax washed himself then, double-checking his monitors once more, before wiping up his mate’s blood from the table.
He left the room shortly, giving Vaxa’an time to calm himself, to be near his mate, before the doctor returned with a sleeping platform he pushed on wheels.
