She heard the Andarions above opening up their equipment and talking to each other in angry tones as they tried to locate them. Damn it, why didn’t she have a translator? It was so frustrating to not be able to understand a single word they spoke.
Biting her lip, she glanced at Caillen’s backpack and remembered his mirror devices from the cave. Would that work to jam their scanners?
Better than nothing. She searched out the devices until she had them in her hand. Her heart pounding, she carried them to the small trapdoor and placed one piece on each side of it before she turned them on.
Please let that be the right way to position and operate them.
If not…
She didn’t want to think about that as she went back to try and stop Caillen’s bleeding. In his pack, he had bandages and all kinds of things she couldn’t even guess the function of—gadgets, medicines, weapons. They were all marked, but she couldn’t read even one character of the highly stylized writing.
Why didn’t I learn Universal?
Because her mother had thought it a waste of time. Yet another reason she shouldn’t have listened to the woman.
She clenched one of the bottles in her hand and hesitated as she debated whether or not to give a dose to Caillen. Bter not guess on what it was or the dose since that might very well kill him.
Fine. She’d stop the bleeding with pressure.
The voices above her head grew louder and angrier. Had they found the door? Were they summoning troops to enter?
She held her breath in nervous fear, waiting for discovery.
Her gaze went to Caillen. His handsome face was so pale and his skin was covered in sweat. Don’t bleed out. If he died, she had no idea how she’d get out of here.
But it wasn’t just that. She owed him and if not for her, he wouldn’t be here wounded right now. This was all her fault. He could have been like other nobles and ignored her attack. Or he could have called security.
Instead, he’d risked his life and saved hers without a second thought. Something very few would do. A foreign tenderness filled her until a sound jerked her attention back to their pursuers.
Someone knocked on the trapdoor.
They’re coming in.
She grabbed the blaster, ready to fight it out. They weren’t going to take Caillen. Not if she could help it.
Above her head, it sounded like two people were arguing. After a few minutes, the voices drifted away out of her hearing range.
Were they gone?
Or was it the same trick they’d used at the cave with the probers?
She looked back at Caillen who would have probably known the answer.
Either way, she needed to tend him before he lost any more blood. Setting the blaster aside, she peeled his coat back, then raised his shirt. Her lip curled involuntarily at the sight of his mutilated chest. She’d never seen anything more gruesome and it amazed her that he was still alive.
How could anyone survive something so brutal? It said a lot about his will to live and his ability to handle pain. What had he been through that he was able to remain so calm in a fight? The skills he had weren’t innate. They were the kind that had to be honed by years of experience and she should know since she’d studied her whole life and hers were nowhere near as sharp.
As gently as she could, she took a bandage from his worn-out pack and pressed it against the worst-looking wound that was in the middle of the ornate tattoo he had running the length of his left side. It appeared to be a foreign bird whose face was painted on his shoulder.
Caillen’s eyes flew open as he let out a fierce breath. He grabbed her wrist so hard that she was sure it’d leave a bruise. But as soon as his gaze focused on her, his hold turned gentle.
He dropped his hand away from hers. Are they still here? he mouthed the words to her.
She nodded.
He pointed to his pack.
She handed it over to him and watched as he removed several items. The first thing he did was pull out a rubber stick that he put between his teeth. She scowled, wondering what it was for. Was it some kind of painkiller?
He grabbed a large foil pack and opened it, then spread the granules over his wounds. He bit the stick so hard, she heard it snap. By the rigidity of his body, she could tell it had to burn and ache. Still, he made no sound at all.
She took the foil pack from him and started applying it to all of his wounds. His muscles contracted every time she touched him. Poor guy.
But he was one hell of a soldier. He took it like a man.
Once she was finished, she handed him a bottle of water before she started bandaging his side. While she worked, he pulled an injector out and took a dose of pain meds.
Caillen sipped the water slowly as he did his best to not scream out from the sheer agony that pulsed through him with every heartbeat. He didn’t need to make himself sick, but he had to stay hydrated. Gah, it hurt.