She shook her head. “Stitches won’t help if it’s internal. That blade smelled like magic because it was. The magic disables our rapid healing.” Her voice cracked and I let a curse word fly. “Just keep pressure on it until I can get him to a healer fey.”
My eyes bugged. Light fey were healer fey, and Sawyer said they were currentlynotour allies. They were also in the next territory over. We didn’t have that kind of time.
“Light fey aren’t in our alliance anymore,” I reminded her, watching as tears rolled down her cheeks.
I could see her jaw clench shut, her beautiful face marred with dust and determination and a whole lotta panic. “We don’t have any other options. He’ll bleed out before I get him to the Witch Lands.”
“He’ll bleed out before we get out of this territory!” I shouted, hoping my bestie would see reason. I didn’t want to be the only one making the hard decisions here, but Iwouldshove a hot metal rod poker into his wound in a minute if I had to. I had to do something, I wouldn’t just let him die without trying.
Leaning down, careful not to put a knee on the Paladin wolf wound around my leg or my injured friend, I peeled Walsh’s hand away from his stomach and choked on a half sob when sticky dark blood bubbled out. The last bit of consciousness left him then and his eyes rolled into the back of his head before his whole body went limp.
“No!” I shouted in a strangled cry. Why did I do that? I was just trying to assess the damage. He’d gotten stabbed saving my dumb ass, I couldn’t let him die.
“STOP!” I shouted to Sage. The jerky ride wasn’t doing us any favors, and we were far enough away now that we had some good distance between us and the barn. She looked back, saw Walsh’s unconscious form and paled, yanking the reins. We skidded to a jerky stop, and by instinct I stuck two fingers into the hole in his belly, grimacing at the wet, warm flesh that swallowed my digits.
“Don’t you fucking die on me, Walsh,” I growled. My wolf stepped up next to my side, pressing into me, and then went semitransparent. Without question, I needed to be whole for this. I couldn’t even think straight right now; having my wolf with me might help. She jumped up, crashing into my chest as the Paladin wolf at my feet watched us with searing yellow eyes.
A thought struck me then. We had a med-kit…andSawyer was pre-med.
‘Sawyer, Walsh has been stabbed in the gut. We have a med-kit. Can you walk me through saving him?’
I braced myself for his no doubt frantic reply, wondering if I was even capable of piercing his flesh and doing stitches or whatever was needed. Luckily, my fingers shoved inside of him seemed to have stopped the blood, for now.
But the reply I needed never came. Horror struck me. He didn’t answer me this morning either. I’d thought he was just asleep, but now I wondered…
Oh God.Problem for future Demi. I needed to focus on Walsh now, and I was on my own.
“Open the suture kit!” I yelled to Sage, who just stood over Walsh’s unconscious form and stared. The Paladin wolf at my feet whined and I wished she’d give me room, but she seemed hell bent on sticking close to me like a damn ankle weight.
Sage’s hands shook as she ripped open the suture kit I’d dropped at my feet. My mother taught me to sew a button at age twelve, so I could totally do it…
The form at my feet tightened, and I was about to nudge the wolf away when I realized she’d started shifting.
Unless she was a fucking doctor, I didn’t want to have to deal with her right now. The fingers I’d stuck into Walsh’s stomach to keep the blood from gushing out was grossing me out more and more by the second. I couldn’t deal with one more thing.
My eyes flicked to the small naked brunette who was now crouched in a ball, head down as she barely peered at me through short, cropped bangs. I’d never seen a more fearful and submissive wolf in my life. She mumbled something softly, too soft for me to hear it, and I felt annoyed. “Speak up!” I snapped.
Walsh was going to fucking die and I was going to have to tell Sawyer he died saving me. It was all my fault and I would live with this guilt for the rest of my life.
“Do you want him healed, Alpha?” the girl said, louder this time.
My eyes flicked to Sage at the same moment hers met mine.
Alpha?
Why would she call me that? I shook myself from my thoughts, focusing on the most important part of her words.
“Yes. I do.Verymuch,” I told her.
Please be a trauma surgeon.
She nodded, rubbing her hands together, which shook her breasts. She didn’t seem to mind being naked, crouching over Walsh with her bare ass out for all to see. My gaze again flicked to Sage as if to say,What the fuck was happening?
She just shrugged, and we both looked at the timid brown-haired teen expectantly. I inhaled, trying to get a better read on her. She was definitely submissive as all hell, but I’d never smelled so much magic on one person in all my life. Now that I had a moment to think and assess her, I took another inhale, watching Sage do the same.
Hope thrummed through my chest when the coppery hot wire scent of magic hit my nostrils strong and powerful.
Was she a healer? Or was she going to stick some herbs in his gut and hope for the best?
