"I need a minute."
She stood there waiting. After a long pause, he pushed himself away from the wall and started for the bed. He'd only taken a single step when he sank to his knees. Without thinking, she reached to touch his back.
He hissed and recoiled as he tried to crawl away from her. Pulling her hand back, she gasped as she saw the blood coating her palm.
She knelt beside him. "What can I do?"
His breathing ragged, he ground his teeth as if fighting an unbearable agony. "My powers are unstable. I'm in too much pain to direct them accurately."
"Okay. You can lean on me and I'll get you to the bed." She stood up and held her hand out for him.
Ash couldn't speak as he saw her there with her outstretched hand. He shouldn't be here and he knew it. Yet that was what had made him seek her out when he would never have sought out anyone else. She wouldn't hurt him or mock him. She would help. The only other person he allowed to tend him when he was weak was Liza. But not even Liza had ever seen him when he was this vulnerable.
He damn sure didn't want Alexion or Urian to know.
Taking her hand, he allowed her to pull him up. He ground his teeth as another wave of pain ripped through him. She wrapped his arm over her shoulders and carefully placed her arm around his hips where he wasn't hurting so much.
Together, they walked him to the bed and helped him to lie down.
"Don't tell Simi," he whispered. "I don't want her upset."
Tory nodded as she watched him pass out. Angry and aching for what had been done to him, she very carefully cut his shirt from his back. And with every inch of bleeding skin she uncovered, her fury mounted at the horrific mutilation. This was unbelievable.
She didn't care how much Artemis was unloved. If she had the bitch here right now, she'd tear every strand of red hair out of her selfish head!
"This is going to stop," she whispered to him. "One way or another, Ash, I'm going to find a way to put that goddess in her place."
Ash came awake to the odd sensation of something cold on his back. For a moment, he thought himself at Artemis's temple until he opened his eyes and saw Tory in a chair a few feet away from him, reading.
Everything came flooding back and when he took a deep breath, the pain in his back reminded him of how real his visit with Artemis had been.
Tory immediately set the book aside. "Try not to move."
"Believe me I am."
She knelt on the floor in front of him. "I put one of my Aunt Del's concoctions on your back. It's aloe, cucumbers and potatoes mixed with Vaseline and lanolin. I know it sounds gross, but it's really good to take the sting out of cuts and burns."
"Thank you."
She smiled as she rested her chin on the hand she had on his mattress. "I've got you covered with a sheet and I told Simi that you were sleeping. She went downstairs to eat so she has no idea that you're hurt. No one does."
He took her hand in his and kissed her fingers. "Thank you."
"Anytime, sweetie."
He treasured that endearment. Most of all, he treasured her.
She cocked her head while she toyed with his fingers. "Can you not use your god powers to heal yourself?"
"I could, but I promised not to."
"Why?"
Because I'm an idiot. No, he'd done it to protect her and if this was the price for her safety, so be it. "I'd rather not say."
She patted his hand. "Then I'll keep running cover with you and Simi—who was asleep when I tended your back. And speaking of, I think I finally met someone who eats more than I do. Geary would be impressed."
How did she do that? He was lying here with a ravaged back and she was blithely ignoring it and treating him like he was recovering from nothing more than a common cold. How was she able to take things like this in stride and not make him feel like a freak over it? "You're not going to ask me anything more than that?"
She shook her head. "I trust you, Ash. Completely." She held the book up. "You've trusted me with a lot of your secrets already. If you want to keep a few to yourself, I understand and I won't pry."
"You're too good to be real."
She smiled. "Not really. Remember, I'm the one who tried to hammer you."
He laughed, then grimaced at the pain.
She scowled in sympathy before she brushed his hair back from his cheek. "Is there anything I can get for you?"
Make me human, like you . . . But that was a stupid thought. "Please don't tell anyone I'm down. I should be better in a couple of hours. I just need a little more rest."
She rubbed his jawbone with the pad of her thumb. "You got it. By the way, your backpack is right here." She took his hand and led it to where it was set on the floor by the bed. "I haven't touched it except to put it there."
"Thank you."
"No problem." She stood up slowly. "Are you hungry or thirsty?"