Her eyes widen as if she realizes that she’s missed something going wrong. “I don’t know. Does that matter?”
I close my eyes. “It would make sense.”
“What?! What would make sense, Deli?” She shakes me, panicking. “What the hell is going on? What is wrong?”
I’m having trouble, so explaining this will not be easy. I’m using a lot of my strength to slow the blood flow now that I know it’s a problem. “I’m, uh, having a little trouble, um, making this close.”
Her eyes widen and I can tell she’s upset, but we don’t have time for her self-recriminations. “Wh-what do I do? Tell me what to do.”
“I think that’s it. My healing is biological—we think—but, um, there’s some magick to it, given draining and such and uh, I’m thinking.” I run my fingers over the jagged scar on my collarbone and again over the one on my ribs. “I’ve never had this happen before, so I don’t know.”
“Think, Deli. Don’t ramble; help me.”
“It’s not too deep, but it’s bleeding a lot.”
She presses her hand to the wound and growls, “Blood… you should drain me. Would that do it?”
I don’t want the first time we do that to be about this at all. I know she and Rafe have and it’s not spiritual, but it’s something that shouldn’t be shared the first time because her insecurity caused me to stab myself. It means more than that. Besides, I don’t think it will help. She doesn’t have enough of me in her yet for my mutation to affect her bloodstream. She hasn’t joined enough to pull from my magick, either.
“Damn it, this is my fault. Tell me how to fix it! Should I call the boys?”
Talia’s crying now, and I don’t know how I can make her feel better and figure out my predicament while losing blood. I close my eyes again, trying to focus my thoughts, murmuring, “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who stabbed myself like a fool to make a point. I’m stopping the blood as much as I can, but it’s taking a lot of my energy to do so.”
“I’ll call Taurus. He can help.”
“He’ll freak out,” I mumble, hoping for another way. He won’t freak out; he’ll rip her a new one for letting it get this far. He’ll unleash the wrath, and she can’t take that right now.
“What do I do?!”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had healing fight me like this. I don’t know if we’re bonded enough or if you’re strong enough to figure out what’s wrong. Even if you could, I don’t know that you could do anything about it. Fuck,” I wheeze, trying to breath and finding it difficult.
I really fucked things up this time.
Her head rears back as if smacked, and I know she’s taking my words wrong. I’m not together, so I didn’t pick my words, and now, we’ll have an issue later. “I’m calling them now. That's all I know how to do.” Her voice is soft, and I know it cost her some pride to admit that. Her eyes close, and I can only imagine the images she’s sending them as a message.
“I didn’t mean it the way you took it. I meant you haven’t drained with me. You haven’t had enough of my mutation to fix it. It was not a judgment of the relationship.”
Before she answers, Taurus apparates into the room, hand entwined with Rafe’s until he lays eyes on me. Shoving his way through our mates, he’s next to me in a blink, expression enraged. “What the bloody fuck happened?”
Talia shrinks back against the wall, looking worried and upset. I feel his anger, Rafe’s worry, and her shame all flooding into me, so I can only assume she’s communicating with my husband mentally. Her picture messages don’t filter through to me, and mind speech does, so I have to mishmash what I get from them to figure out what she’s saying. Rafe looks at me, then at his wife and his mate, padding over to her to calm her down.
“Stop. Stop,” I whisper. “It’s not her fault. She needed help. She’s not used to this like you, my love.” I look up at him, trying tosmile. I loll my head to the side and smile at her, too. “You aren’t there on your own yet, Sin. There is no shame in that.”
I feel him connecting to me and wincing at the pain as he reels back. He lets the demon out inside so he can cradle my beast and keep her calm, then poke around to see what’s wrong. I don’t fight it, as he is not so inclined to poke where he doesn’t belong like she is. He must be lashing out at Talia mentally, but I can’t see it on his face as he leans down and opens his wrist, holding it out to me to start the process. He’s as gentle as one would be with a newborn as he sorts through the mess I’ve made.
There’s a sob and I feel a void, my concentration breaking for a moment. Blood pools and I blink, vision going fuzzy. “Damn it, where is she going? We haven’t fixed the cat yet.”
Before I can stop him, my primary crashes through the gates in my mind, finding where I’m hiding the severity and the cause of the problem. “Oi, love, she can’t drink. She’s got a nicked lung. We have to fix it first.”
~Drinking can only help, mate. ~Taurus growls low.
“I think we need my wife, though.” Rafe looks at me, and I nod a little.
~Then fucking get her back. I want to see her right now. ~
Rafe takes off with a speed he rarely uses, intent on getting her back to help fix me. I look up at my husband and sigh. “It’s not her fault. I did it.”
“Sod off, woman. It is her fault. No more games—tell me what to do.”
