I chuckled, slapping his face with a bloody hand. “You rock.”
“Yes, and since I’m not the only one who likes you, do try not to die.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I don’t want a goddamn scar!” I shouted three days later at the arguing doctor, then held my stomach, grimacing at the fiery burn that produced, pressing my hand against the hospital gown I wore. “Find me a plastic surgeon to fix it!” My cheeks flushed beet red. “It’s embarrassing enough it happened. I don’t want a permanent reminder of my own senselessness.” After all, I hadn’t even seen the idiot coming at me. That was mortifying in itself. One minute I was killing two others, then the bastard had snuck in and gutted me with my own sword before Leric killed him. “Plus, I’m too small a woman who is unhealthy, lopsided, and has mothering hips.” I sniffed delicately. “The last thing I need is something else to feel inadequate about.”
Everyone blinked, my Lajaks staying blessedly mute around the fringes of the room, Leric just staring silently with a hand over his mouth, but the doctor did not. Instead, he inhaled heavily, stating with extra-insincere patience, “Ms Jules, you are a very lovely woman,”
“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit.” I tossed a cup of ice at his head, which produced a pained grunt from me, and a ducking move from him. “I. Want. It. Fixed.” And damn, if my chin didn’t tremble…and it was actually true, because I didn’t want to be scarred, the cut hideous.
Elder Farrar sighed heavily, leaning down where he stood on my right side of the hospital bed, murmuring, “You really are a pain in the ass when you’re sick.”
I growled, my embarrassment quickly turning to anger, my gaze snapping to Sin across the room. “Quit telling them this shit about me!”
“He didn’t have to,” Cain rumbled on my direct left of the hospital bed, reaching down to flick an ice chip off my blanket. “I believe we’ve all figured this out on our own by now.” Navy blue eyes met mine through thick black lashes, and he stated evenly, voice deep and rough, “And the incision isn’t that bad.”
Instantly, I hissed, “It’s hideous.” I hated anyone, much less him, had even seen it when the nurses cleaned the healing wound. “I want it gone.” My eyes flicked back to the doctor. “I don’t care about all the medical jargon you’ve been spouting for the last half hour, the minute chances of something happening while I’m put under again. I just want the damn thing gone, so quit arguing, quit listening to Leric.” I pointed at myself. “I am the damn patient. Me. My body. And it is my damn choice, so find someone to make it happen.” I slammed my finger at Leric. “And you, just shut your fucking pie hole. I already know what you think of my body. You don’t care whether I’m scarred and uglier than I already am compared to your Miss Perfect. You only care that I don’t die in some rare occurrence, so just shut it.”
Leric gazed at me patiently. “Kitten, you know for a fact I find you attractive.” He sighed heavily, then dropped his hand from his mouth, and told the doctor, “Do as she says.”
“Oh,” I waved an irritated hand as the doctor turned, walking through the room, nodding his head, “sure, run off as soon as,” my nose scrunched, “The One orders it, not the damn patient.” The door shut behind the doctor. “Goddamn prick.” My narrowed gaze landed on Leric. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I wanted him gone. He was annoying the shit out of me, hovering as he was for the past three days.
“Actually,” he bent, rifling through his bag, “I thought I would teach you how to play chess, seeing as you’re not going anywhere.”
I blinked slowly. “Leric…get out of here.”
His gaze flicked back to me. “No.”
I counted to ten before I stated gruffly, “I realize you’re going all protective possessive on my ass right now because I’m injured, but you need to leave. I need a break. Go see…her. Get out of my hair for a little while.”
He straightened. Inhaled heavily. Then chucked the bag he held, which conveniently slammed against the wall right where Cain had stood before he rotated his body. Furious silver eyes stared at me in the silence. “I realize you don’t trust a damn thing I say, but I’m here because I care about you. It isn’t all the damn bond.” His tiger growled at me, pissed off, as he ran his hand through his rolls of hair. “You scared the shit out of me when you got hurt, but fine…you want me to go see Lissa, not be here while you recover…I will.” The door slammed behind him as he left.
I blinked slowly at the door, then inhaled slowly, and closed my eyes. “My life’s a big pile of shit.”
Elder Farrar hummed quietly. “Maybe, if you were a little nicer to those around right now it wouldn’t be so bad.”
“Doubtful,” I muttered, pulling the blanket up higher, carefully rolling, moaning quietly at the ache, toward the scent of a forest before a rainfall. “How the hell I continuously get paired with unobtainable or uninvited men is beyond me.” I shook my head on the pillow, blinking my eyes open. “It’s a damn cursed life I lead.” I yawned huge, the drugs in my system making me drowsy. “I’m gonna sleep now, but if you see me start to glow, wake my ass up. I really don’t want to end up in bed with Leric and his bitch.”
Cain grunted, bending down to ask, “What was that?”
King Zeller answered steadily, stating, “When she has nightmares, she somehow calls out to him in her sleep, and ends up next to him when he answers her call.”
I flicked a glare to King Zeller. “That was private.”
He held up his hands, even as Cain straightened, lids hooding his frosty gaze. “I was just explaining fact.”
I sniffed. “It hasn’t happened in a while, but anyway, like I said, just make sure to wake me up. If I try to kill her, I’ll probably rip my stiches out, possibly tear my incision even worse. I’d hate for it to be any uglier than it already is.”
Cain’s wolf huffed. “You did tell him to go to her.”
“Thank God he did,” I muttered, closing my eyes again. “He was getting annoying as hell.” I shrugged a shoulder. “But I’d rather not get in a fight now, so make sure to wake me.”
Three long, oh Christ, long weeks later—after my surgery for my cuts on my stomach and back, my sword having sliced clean through me, I was released from the hospital with a regiment of pills I had to take to fight off infections, plus, a shit load of sedatives for when the pull to the Barren occurred, since I was unable to fight, Leric having to do it all in my absence. Elder Farrar took me through the golden mist of nonentity, so I could travel easier back to the hotel. When we landed inside the airy hotel suite, no real partitions in this hotel room unlike the others we had stayed in, I blinked, wondering how he had done that, but I tilted my head and saw Cain sitting on the recliner, reading from a book, wearing only a gray t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans, feet even bare, understanding Elder Farrar had used him as a reference guide. Elder Farrar practically dumped me on the bed I shared with Sin, muttering to Cain, “No one will be here for an hour, so you have some time alone. And for the love of God, make her less cranky, since we’re stuck here for another three weeks until she’s fully recovered.” My eyes widened enormously as the suite’s walls suddenly shimmered with a Mage privacy magic before he grouchily slammed the door shut behind him.