Eve held back her sob, though more tears rushed into her eyes.
Had this been one of the reasons why he’d seemed to pull away? Because he’d known the consequences if they’d been discovered? Had he been afraid that Madame Allegria might come afterhertoo?
“One more thing,” Valerie said quietly. “His Rut started tonight. Has he told you about it?”
“Yes,” Eve said.
“I think the pain has suppressed it, for now. But in the morning, once he’s recovered some of his strength…it might return. I just don’t know. She’s never done this during their Rut.”
Eve’s lips pressed together and she nodded. “Thank you for bringing him here, Valerie. For helping him.”
Valerie squeezed her hand and then without another word, she slipped through the door. Eve secured it and double-checked to ensure the windows were locked and the shielders were activated. Then she raced back upstairs to Khiva.
The room smelled of metallic blood, of the dull tang of the healing salve. Eve carefully maneuvered herself onto the bed, careful not to jostle the mattress, so that she was curled up near his side. The bandages they’d put on him were already beginning to turn blue with blood.
She took his hand in hers and pressed a kiss to his turned cheek. He was still unconscious but the steady, shallow breaths he took soothed some of her nerves.
Gently, she stroked over his bare scalp because he’d always liked that, her chest swelling with too many emotions that they all just jumbled together in one big ball.
She didn’t know what to feel. She didn’t know what to think.
The only thing she knew for certain was that she loved him too and she would do everything in her power to never have to see him in pain again.
Chapter Thirty
Khiva woke when he felt tugging at his back and he groaned, fighting through the fog of deep sleep to resurface.
“I’m sorry, Khiva,” he heard a soft voice whisper. “I’m almost finished changing your bandages.”
Evelyn.
The knowledge that she was there with him gave him slight clarity and he blinked his blurry gaze, realizing that he was not in his own sleeping quarters, or even at Madame Allegria’s for that matter. He recognized the bed he was in, if for no other reason because he could scent her there.
He was in Evelyn’s home.
Once he remembered that, everything else returned to him as well. Including the dull, throbbing pain that radiated down his entire back.
Madame Allegria. The whipping. Asking Valerie to take him to Evelyn. After that, only brief flashes of memory. Going in and out of consciousness.
But he remembered, most importantly, that last night he’d told Evelyn he loved her. Beyond that, he remembered nothing.
Had it been real? Or had he just dreamed it?
Khiva felt Evelyn spread a cooling gel over his back and he closed his eyes in slight relief. His whole body felt cold,exceptfor his back. His back burned like his skin had been set on fire.
After she secured fresh bandages over the healing salve, he sensed her move. In the low light of morning that filtered in through her windows, he watched as she knelt by the side of the bed, so he could see her face.
Khiva gave an automatic trill, pleased, relieved to see her. But then he realized how red her eyes were, evidence that she’d been crying again, and that she looked exhausted.
“Leeldra,” he rasped, his voice unrecognizable, his fingers reaching out to touch the softness of her cheek.
She turned her face into his palm and pressed a kiss right in the center. “How do you feel?”
“Better,” he replied, wanting to soothe the worry and concern he sensed in her gaze.
“Some of the cuts have begun to close, just as Valerie said they would,” she said. “But some of them are too deep and will take longer. There might be permanent scars.”
“I never,” he said quietly, “wanted you to know, to see this. It was my pride once again.”
