Rixavox nodded, his eyes straying to the wound.“What of the other male?”
“Imprison him until I am recovered.Then leave him to me,” Vaxa’an rasped, his eyes flickering over to the male in disgust.“Find Privanax, as well.I need him to mend this.”
Rixavox nodded and Vaxa’an turned away, letting his ambassadors deal with this mess.His eyes found his female’s only to find that she was being held back by Bidan.He gestured for her to come to him once he was far enough away from the arena and then continued into the tunnel hidden behind the raised dais.Away from the seemingly endless pairs of eyes, he finally let himself stagger, hissing out a breath in pain, and leaning against the cool stone wall.
His Kat was there in an instant and for a moment it was just the two of them.His head lolled as a wave of blurriness crashed around him and she gasped his name, over and over again.
“Vaxa, don’t you dare,” she was whispering.His eyes focused on her face and he saw her cheeks were wet with tears.“Just hold on, Privanax is coming.”
He felt her hand gingerly press against the blade wound in his side and he groaned, his body feeling cold one moment and unbearably hot the next.
“Vaxa,” Kat said, her voice sounding panicked.
That was the last thing he heard before his world went black.
TWELVE
“Kat,” Privanax called, eyeing her from the bedroom door of her and Vaxa’s home.“You should rest this night.It has been a hard span.Youneedto rest this night.”
Kate’s gaze strayed down to her mate, who had had it hardest of all that day.It was only a few hours after the Trials had ended in a most confusing manner.Rixavox had needed to make two announcements to the crowd in order for them to disperse.She had heard that many questioned what would happen to the challenger, since technically, the Trials had been left unfinished.When Kate had asked Rixavox the same question, he told her that Vaxa had given him a choice: exile or death…or to help Lihvan with some future mission.When she’d questioned him further about this mission—all while wondering why Vaxa would give him an out for something like that—Rixavox had gone silent, telling her that it was a topic best discussed with her mate.
Rixavox had left with the rest of Vaxa’s ambassadors once Privanax had announced him stable.Kate had been wary, wanting Vaxa to be kept at Privanax’s lab just in case something should happen during the night, but the doctor had assured her that Vaxa would be fine after the emergency surgery to stop the internal bleeding and that he simply needed rest.
Privanax had told her that in the morning, Vaxa would be well-recovered, something she didn’t quite believe as she looked down at her unconscious mate.
Luxirians do heal fast, but surely, notthatfast, she thought.
Privanax left shortly after and she bit her lip, breathing in a deep breath, before retrieving a cloth and a basin of water from their hot spring.
She returned to her mate and gently began washing the blood off his body, blotting against the scrapes and gashes.This was simply a normal part of her life now, cleaning the blood off her mate, she mused.She’d done it over a dozen times now.
The rise and fall of his chest comforted her as she bathed around the incision that Privanax had cleanly closed.Already, she could see signs that his body was healing.Some of the shallower wounds he’d sustained already seemed to be on the mend.
She’d just finished washing him and had just set aside the cloth when she looked up to see him watching her.
Kate’s heart skipped a beat and she smiled.She’d been sitting on a small stool next to the bed so she wouldn’t disturb him and she moved it closer to his head so she could lean down and brush her lips across his.
“How do you feel?” she murmured, stroking back his hair.
“Like I took a blade to the side,” he answered.His voice was all smoke and huskiness.And he’d clearly meant to try to assure her, despite his words.
The sound she made was a cross between a laugh and a sob.“Don’t make a habit of that, okay?”
“I will try to keep that in mind, female.”
Without warning, the emotions that she’d kept so carefully bottled—or at least had tried to keep so carefully bottled—began the process of emptying out of her.She leaned her head down to the crook of his neck, breathing him in, and let out a loud sob, incredibly grateful and relieved that he’d come out of this alive.For now.She didn’t know if there would be another Trial to finish the first or what he planned for the other challenger.
“You know I cannot bear to see your tears,luxiva,” he said softly.
But she couldn’t help it.She remembered the body-numbing moment when Vaxa had collapsed in the tunnel from his injury, her panic trying to revive him until Privanax could make his way through the arena floor.He had been so pale, so weak…unlike the Vaxa she knew.It made her realize that her strong, formidable mate was very mortal indeed and while he had lived through the Trials and through the attempt on his life…would he be so lucky if something like that should happen again?
God, she’d turned into a weepy female.All she did was cry these days.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, lifting her face, wiping her nose in the most unattractive way possible.“Y-you know…the hormones and everything…”
Vaxa’s face softened enough for her to detect it, but he said nothing.He just let her compose herself and get her damn emotions under control, but he lifted a hand and put it on top of hers.
“Come,” he said, patting the furs beside him.She didn’t care that they were covered in his blood, she simply did as her mate bid and joined him on the bed, being mindful of his wounds.Keriva would be aghast at the sight of her dress when she eventually saw it, but to Kate, being with her mate was worth much more than a million of the finest dresses.
