Chapter 91
Ninety-One
Ayla
Z asen had to hold Rymar back when they took Kanik away. That they rolled his entire bed out of the room surprised me. The whole building did, if I was honest. People hurried in, then out, and all of us tried to stay out of their way, but something was happening.
Beside me, Holly whined. I crouched to pet her, a little surprised when she pushed in close so I would hug her. Pulling in a deep breath, I shoved my face into her fur, trying hard to ignore the way my fingers were trembling.
Kanik had to be okay. I'd done what I could, but would it be enough? What if I'd missed something? What if I'd made it worse? What if I'd killed him ?
"Kids?" Naomi asked, peeking her head into the room. "Our trauma doctor is looking him over and prepping him for surgery."
"Surgery?" I asked.
Naomi gave me a soft smile. "Yes. They aren't taking any chances with him, but he won't come back to this room. I got one assigned to him, so let me take you there?"
"What about Holly?" Zasen asked.
Naomi scoffed. "She's not the first dog we've seen. Now, let's go up to the second floor, okay? Follow me."
Rymar clasped my shoulders, encouraging me to stand. Then he steered me after Naomi and Zasen. Holly followed, never leaving my side, but the exhaustion was starting to catch up with me. My legs felt weak. I'd jogged most of the way there and back. Yes, I'd had to stop to catch my breath, but I hadn't wanted to be too slow.
As we wove through halls, clearly heading somewhere, we passed a face I recognized. Omden's head jerked up, and then he hurried to catch up to us.
"Everything okay?" he asked .
"Ayla found Kanik," Zasen said. "He's alive and going to surgery."
"What?!" Omden gasped. "I need to tell Drozel!"
"Go!" Zasen said. "And if one of you can stop by my place?" He stopped, making the rest of us wait as well. "Omden, in the kitchen, there are a pair of bowls for Holly. Inside the pantry, I have a bag of dried meat. She's been going non-stop, and she pulled Kanik back. Can you have someone get those?"
"Of course," Omden promised.
"Wait!" I begged when he turned to leave. "I left my leathers on the floor of the bathroom. In the pocket of my pants is a package in yellow cloth. I need that. It's from my friend inside."
Omden nodded. "We'll get it, Ayla. Worry about Kanik first, but we'll make sure you're taken care of."
"Thank you," Rymar breathed.
Omden nodded at him, then took off running. Zasen nodded at his mother, and we all started moving again, but Naomi paused to smile at my dog. I liked that she was being rewarded for all of her work too, but what if it was pointless?
Finally, we were shown into a simple room. There were things along the sides, and a set of candles were placed on every surface. Without asking, Zasen headed over and lit a set - but only one.
"I'm going to go check on Kanik," she said. "This will be a while, so I suggest you rest while you can."
"I don't even have a shirt," Zasen said as he dropped down into a well-padded chair.
Rymar took the other, then leaned it back, showing it moved in a way I hadn't expected. But Zasen caught my hand, guiding me toward a long padded bench. It didn't look as nice as the chairs, but I wasn't about to complain.
"Ry," Zasen said, "there should be a pillow in the cabinet beside you."
"Yep," Rymar agreed, opening that without getting up. Then he tossed it at me. "The bench works as a bed."
"Okay," I agreed, realizing why they'd left it for me. "But I'm not tired yet."
"You will be," Zasen said. But a sigh came next. "How bad was he hurt, Ayla?"
"I'm not a doctor," I reminded him.
"I don't care," he promised. "How bad?"
"I didn't feel anything. His intestines seemed okay, and kidney, and it was the good side. I stopped the bleeders, but my hands weren't clean."
"They'll handle that," he promised. "Ayla, how much did he bleed?"
And that was what I was really worried about. "A lot."
"I'm the same blood type," Rymar said. "If they don't have enough..."
That made my head whip between them. "What? Enough blood?"
"It's another thing Dragons do," Zasen said with a little smile, but it didn't last long. "Ayla, how did you find him?"
I pointed at Holly. "Lansin taught her. That's how I send her to someone in the house."
"And she tracked him that far?" Rymar asked .
"She's a good dog," I said, pitching it so Holly would hear it as praise.
"Yeah," Zasen breathed. "The best dog." Then he laughed once. "I thought he was gone. I didn't even think of going after him, but you did!"
"They always take the dead," Rymar said.
I nodded. "I, um, didn't want them to eat him."
"You thought he was dead too?" Zasen asked.
I nodded again. "But I can move faster than them. Holly could follow Kanik's scent. I thought that since Tobias didn't have the code, then I could follow them back and watch the way we do when sneaking up on game. I can see in the light and the dark. I could figure out the code, and if they took him inside..."
"What?" Rymar demanded when my words trailed off.
"Callah is going to start a rebellion," I explained. "She's going to help us, but in a way they won't expect. We're going to stop this, don't you see? And if they'd killed him and took him in there..." I looked between both of them, sure they'd be angry with me for this. "Then I was going to show the women what they are eating. I would make them look at him, my friend, and see how righteous they really are!"
"No," Zasen said. "We need to plan an assault, not let them kill you!"
"But what if you're wrong?" I asked. "What if you'd just kill the good people, because the bad ones are at the back?"
"We have to stop them!" Zasen snapped.
A yawn slipped out, but I nodded. "Yes. We have to stop them. Me, Meri, Callah, Tobias, and now Sylis. You can't, Zasen. You can't even see down there! I thought about it the whole time I walked, and our old plan won't work. We can't get in! That means we need to rip them apart from the inside, and Callah's just created a weapon they will never see coming."
"What's that?" Rymar asked.
"Women."
For a moment, silence hung in the room, but then Zasen nodded. "We'll see. They clearly take security more seriously than I expected, so we can't do anything else, but I don't like it, Ayla. I don't like risking women who have been abused. They shouldn't need to do that."
Then he stood and moved to the end of my bench, positioning himself in the corner. I glanced at his chair, debating using that, but Zasen crooked a finger at me, calling me closer.
"You are about to drop. We got a little sleep, so now it's your turn. Come here, Ayla. I do not bite."
"But he is soft," Rymar said.
"And I'll make sure you don't roll off," Zasen promised. "There isn't a good place to rest here, but you need to sleep a little, because I have a feeling you won't go home to do it."
"No," I agreed, shifting closer to him.
Then he tugged me around, shifted his leg, and twined us together so he could hold me against his chest like a child. With a chuckle, Rymar got up and opened another cabinet. From there, he pulled out a thin blanket. That went over me, Holly lay down on the floor as close to me as she could get, and Rymar flopped back into his chair.
"And now," Zasen said, "we wait."
S omething squeaked. Holly jumped to her feet, bumping me in the process, and I heard voices speaking softly. The squeaking happened again, and I opened my eyes in time to see a bed being pushed into the room by four people.
What was on it woke me up completely.
Kanik was covered with white blankets. His head was rolled to the side, but his chest rose and fell, proving he was only sleeping. The purple tip of his tail hung from the end of the bed, and while I wanted to rush to him, Zasen's arms tightened around me.
"Well?" he asked the people pushing the bed.
"The doctor's coming," a tailless woman promised, "but he's going to live."
The relief of that hit me harder than I'd expected. A moment later, a man about Zasen's size walked into the room, with Naomi right behind him. Belatedly, I noticed Holly's bowls on the floor in the corner when the doctor passed them, which meant Omden had made it back and I'd slept through it.
"Python," Zasen greeted the man, finally releasing me, but only to help me sit up.
The doctor walked over to me and offered his hand. "Phoenix?"
"Yes, sir," I said as I accepted his grip.
"I would like to compliment your work. Kanik's wounds were filthy, as you suspected, but the bleeding was managed nicely. We still gave him a unit of blood, and repaired a minor laceration of his small intestine, but there was no leakage. Somehow, the shrapnel that wounded him managed to cauterize much of what it pierced - and missed everything vital."
"So he's okay?" Rymar asked.
"He is," the doctor agreed. "Thanks to this young woman, Kanik is going to be just fine. He'll be on bedrest for two weeks, then limited activity for a month after. I expect he will heal much faster than any of you think, though. Mostly, his wounds are external. Infection is our biggest concern, so we have him on a strong dose of antibiotics for the next fifteen days."
Behind him, Naomi sighed in relief. "Thank you!"
"Now, I'm going to finally get some sleep," the doctor said. "Naomi, I've had their friends notified that he's out, so there will be more in here shortly."
But I was already on my feet, hurrying to Kanik's side. Moving the blankets, I found his hand, then clasped his fingers. Lazily, they tensed, curling around mine, and on the bed, Kanik pulled in a breath and opened his eyes.
"Ayla?" he asked.
I gasped. "Kanik! You're awake. You're fine!"
Then I leaned in, pressing my mouth to his. I didn't want to wait anymore. He'd told me it didn't matter if I did it right. I just wanted to make sure I kissed him before I never got the chance to do it again. I was tired of waiting, of being scared of what they might, or could do. I was done with being scared of them because they were men!
He murmured, then lifted his other hand to cup my cheek, pulling me a little closer. He didn't part his mouth, though. He simply smooshed his lips to mine before relaxing his hand, trailing it down my cheek.
"I didn't ask, but I hope that was okay," I said.
"Dunno," Zasen said. "You might need to try it again."
"Definitely," Kanik said. "Yeah, that makes all of this better, but I'm sure I have horrible breath."
So I grabbed his hand in both of mine, and lifted that to my lips instead. "This works." Carefully, I kissed the back of his knuckles, making my way across them.
"There ya go, Kanik," Rymar said, claiming a spot on the other side of the bed.
Zasen moved to the foot, clasping Kanik's leg through the blankets. "You scared the shit out of us, man."
"Yeah," Kanik agreed. "I scared me too." Then he tugged me closer. "I need another kiss."
I leaned back in without hesitation, deciding this was good. This was nice! I knew Zasen and Rymar were watching, which made me feel amazingly self-conscious, but Saveah said not to hide it. She said they'd talk anyway, which meant this was fine.
My lips had just found his when someone entered the room and gasped. I jerked back, my instincts saying I shouldn't do something so wanton - and saw Meri gaping at me in shock.
"No," she breathed.
"Meri, it's okay," I tried to explain.
But she grabbed her stomach. "No, no, no!"
And something wet hit the floor. My friend groaned, bending over her belly, no longer staring at me. Guilt slammed into me. Had I horrified her by kissing a man? After everything she'd been through?
"Shit," Zasen gasped, rushing to her. "Ayla, her water broke. She's in labor!"
No. That didn't make any sense. Labor? Like… the baby? I was too tired to think straight, but she'd been fine when we'd brought Kanik in!
"What?" I looked at Rymar, hoping he'd explain.
But it was Kanik who answered. "Ayla, take care of her," he said. "The same way you took care of me. I'm fine."
"I got Kanik," Rymar promised as Zasen scooped Meri into his arms, unconcerned about her mess.
"I need the Griffin!" he bellowed, carrying her towards the hallway. "Someone get me a room. We're having a baby!"
And that was what made everything finally slam into place. Meri was in labor! Her baby was coming. Now. It was coming now, and I didn't know how to help her - but I would try. I had to.
"No!" Meri wailed, even as she clung to Zasen's neck for support. "I don't want it! I don't."
"In here, Wyvern," a nurse said, waving Zasen to a room.
I chased after them, and the moment Zasen put Meri on the bed, I moved to her side, taking her hand. "Meri?"
"I'm not ready," she told me. "Ayla, I don't want Gideon's child!"
"Okay," I said, "but it has to come out."
And she stilled. "Okay?"
"I don't know what we'll do," I told her, "but I'll do something. You're my friend, and I take care of those."
"I don't want to be taken care of!" she screamed before grabbing her belly and curling in pain. "It hurts!"
"You're okay," I said. "Lean back, Meri. It's going to be okay."
"I need the Griffin!" Zasen yelled from the doorway. "Someone find Naomi, because this woman is going to have a baby!"
"A nurse is on the way," someone out there assured him.
"See?" I asked Meri. "We're all taking care of you. There's nothing wrong with that, because once this child is out of you, then you can take care of me back."
"Yeah?" Meri asked.
I nodded. "Just like you took care of Kanik, Meri. We don't have to be weak anymore. We also don't have to do it alone. I got you. I will not leave you."
But she laughed. "I don't want the baby. I don't want it! I'm going to find me, and you don't hate me for it?"
"Never," I swore.
She just nodded. "But I'm scared."
"It's okay," I promised, smoothing her hair back with one hand while my other clutched her palm as hard as I could. "Change is scary, but you will always have me. Always. And Callah too. We don't need anyone else, Meri. We're up here, and maybe we aren't growing plants, but we're doing something so much better."
"Yeah?" she asked, gripping my hand desperately.
"We're taking back our lives," I told her. "We're doing it our way, together, and I will never hate you for that. I'm proud of you, Merienne."
"Yeah," she panted. "And I'm going to be a Dragon. Not one like you, but still a Dragon, because I can do that here."