He shook two pills into his palm and held them out to her. She took them with her left hand, the good one, and washed them down with a few sips of water.
With that done, she finally allowed herself to look at her injured hand.
It was wrapped in white bandages, the fingers immobilized by splints beneath the gauze. The wrapping extended from her fingertips almost to her elbow, keeping everything perfectly still.
Thankfully, she couldn't see the damage beneath, but she remembered it.
Mostly she remembered the blinding pain, but she also remembered the twisted, misshapen digits, the swelling, and the nauseating wrongness of the crushed bones.
"What did the doctor say?" She couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice. "Will it heal alright?"
Something passed across Dimitri's face too quickly for her to identify, but then he smiled. "The doctor promised that your hand will look as good as new."
He didn't sound sincere.
There was something he wasn't telling her. She could press him to tell her what he was hiding, but she had no energy for that. Not now. She felt like she'd been hit by a train, and in a way, she had been hit by a train made of four immortal warriors who had wanted to kill her and Dimitri for something they hadn't done.
The memories came flooding back. The harbor, the ships, the security protocols she and Dimitri had observed. The immortal with the shaved head and his accusations. The way they'd surrounded her and Dimitri, cutting off escape. The hand that had grabbed her wrist, twisting, forcing her to her knees. The boot coming down on her fingers with all the weight of a massive, immortal body.
And Dimitri. Fighting, somehow holding his own against four trained soldiers who should have torn him apart in seconds.
The tears came without warning, spilling down her cheeks in hot streams.
"Mattie." Dimitri leaned closer, his arm coming around her. "What is it? Did the pain get worse? Should I call the doctor back?"
"I thought they were going to kill you." The words came out broken, fragmented by sobs. "I was so sure, when they attacked you, I thought I was going to watch you die."
"Hey. Hey, look at me." He waited until she met his eyes, his gaze full of love and warmth. "I'm right here. I'm fine. Better than fine, actually." A hint of a smile curved his lips. "I held them off."
She made a wet, hiccupping sound that was half sob and half chuckle. "You fought off four immortal warriors. That's impressive."
"It was admirable, wasn't it?" he teased. "A sight to behold. I was a titan, fighting for my woman."
She knew he was trying to lighten her mood, and she loved him for it even as she marveled at what she'd witnessed.
"How did you do it?" She shook her head, still not quite believing what she'd seen with her own eyes. "I know you're stronger now and faster, but you've never trained as a fighter. You're a scientist. Those were soldiers, trained killers, who've been fighting for God knows how long. How did you hold them off long enough for Dave to arrive?"
He considered the question for a moment, or pretended to, because then he grinned, with a boyish, almost cocky expression. "It was the power of love," he said solemnly. "Love gave me supernatural strength to defend the woman of my heart."
Despite everything—the pain, the fear, the trauma of the past day—Mattie smiled. "You're ridiculous."
"Wrong adjective. I prefer romantic." He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead, his lips warm and gentle against her skin. "But honestly? I don't know how I did it. I guess it was desperation. I knew they were going to kill us, and something snapped. It was like my body had some genetic knowledge and knew what to do even when my mind didn't. Maybe the transformation to immortality also activates some ancestral memory of combat skills."
"You fought like a god," Mattie said quietly. "It was beyond impressive. It was...I don't have words for what it was."
His smile widened, and there was a gleam of pride in his eyes, perhaps, or satisfaction that she'd never seen there before.
"You shouldn't say things like that," he teased. "It will go to my head."
It would, wouldn't it?
The thought crept in unbidden, cold and insidious. Dimitri was becoming stronger, faster, and more confident in his new body with each passing day. He'd fought off four immortal warriors, persevering until help had arrived.
He had every right to feel superior because he was superior now, at least physically. And where did that leave her?
A weak, fragile human who was a liability to him. Someone who needed his protection. Would he start to see her as lesser? Would the change in his body eventually change his heart as well, until he looked at her and saw not a partner but a burden?
It would break her heart. More than the attack, more than her crushed fingers, more than anything else that had happened on this terrible island. Losing Dimitri's love would destroy her.
