Chapter 3 #2
“Are you awake? Can you hear me?” I said, leaning in closer when he shifted his head, gray eyes slowly opening to stare at me.
There was recognition there, that had to be a good sign.
There was a lot of blood everywhere, but he wasn’t human, his body was far bigger than that of a man, so he could probably afford to lose more. At least, I hoped so.
A light started to shimmer along the edge of his shoulder and when I tilted my head, I could see it glow on some of his coils too.
“Awake, but wishing I wasn’t,” he growled out, and I huffed out a laugh in relief.
He sounded so perfectly cranky, it fit with his brutish exterior and if he had the energy to snark like that, he had to be okay, right?
He stirred with another groan that turned into an angry snarl when I reached out to help him.
Okay, backing off. Clearly, he was the macho type that didn’t like help.
But it wasn’t like I could go far, I’d been touching his side and some of his tail to inspect his shoulder and as soon as he woke, he’d wound part of that tail around my legs.
“Gather some of those leaves we’re sitting on.
You’re going to yank that damn spear out and then pack the wound with that.
Got it?” he said, or growled rather. I didn’t know why I could suddenly understand what he said, but it hadn’t really improved his disposition.
In fact, I was pretty sure he sounded friendlier when I couldn’t understand him.
Although to be fair, I’d be a bit snarky too if there was a spear sticking out of my back.
His suggestion did not sound like a good plan but when he snapped at me to hurry up, I quickly picked up some of those purple fronts.
“If you bleed out because of this, that’s not my fault,” I snarked back because I didn’t let anyone walk, or slither, all over me.
Injured or not, I wasn’t going to let that pass.
This dude obviously had a screw loose, because he laughed, then swore loudly when the movement made his shoulder hurt.
“Noted, now do it, before your dallying makes me bleed out. That would be on you.” How did he manage to make a snappy joke like that, when the situation was this dire?
I was pretty sure he’d passed out earlier, rather than simply fall asleep.
With my package of leaves resting at the ready on the coil of tail wrapped around my thigh, I braced myself to grab that spear.
I didn’t count to three or anything like that, I just prepared myself and then pulled as hard as I could with both hands.
With a sucking, tearing sensation, the spear blade came free from his back; taking with it a good section of scales.
I fell backward, half caught in the long coils of his body while he swayed forward.
The roar of pain ripping from him caused a flock of alien birds to lift to the sky with angry screeches.
The pile of leaves I’d prepared slid from his coil and I dove after them, scrambling to pick them up and slam them against the now gushing wound.
For a moment both of us froze in place as we waited to see if the bleeding stopped.
My fingers felt slippery against the purple surface of the leaves, blood slowly saturating them.
I scrambled to grab more, pressing it against his wound and pushing. If he bled out I was screwed. I knew nothing about this planet and I had no clue how to locate the others. I didn’t want to end up stuck here without any help, and that was a first for me.
Then I looked up into his face, into the oddly soft gray eyes in his harsh, dark blue features.
My breath stalled as a connection zinged through me, tingling along my nerves.
My heartbeat sped up, my pupils dilated, and my mouth even went dry.
I’d never had that kind of reaction to a look before but I knew, I knew that there was something about this alien male that was special, that called to me.
“Kalani,” he said, “I’m sorry about the other girl, I know you didn’t want to leave her behind.
I will retrieve her at first light.” I stared at him in confusion, was he crazy?
He was in no state to go chasing after more Naga to rescue Naomi, he’d get himself killed.
I mean, it was nice to know he cared about her fate too, but he shouldn’t be risking himself on a foolhardy mission.
My silence in response to his heartfelt promise clearly ticked him off, his expression grew grim and his gray eyes turned flinty.
He opened his mouth and his tongue flicked at the air, split like a snake’s and long.
Two large fangs protruded from his upper jaw, looking sharp and dangerous when he snarled like a wounded animal.
“You can’t possibly go rescue Naomi!” I blurted out before he could verbalize what he was snarling about.
That wasn’t making it better, his head lowered as he glared at me over his shoulder; his badly injured shoulder.
He couldn’t seriously think he would be fit enough in a couple of hours, he was alien, but he didn’t have super healing, did he?
I rushed on, leaning in more closely as I spoke so I could check if the bleeding had finally stopped.
“You’re not a superhero, you can’t take on all those enemies with a wound like this.
We need to get medical aid.” I swallowed roughly as emotion suddenly welled up inside me when I imagined, again, that he might succumb to his injuries.
The soft touch of his fingers against my hair made me twitch in surprise.
“Huh, it’s even softer than it looks,” he murmured, his clawed fingers sliding into my tight curls to rake through them.
He wasn’t snarling now, he was completely fixated on my hair, and his touch was very gentle, even with the long black claws tipping his fingers.
It was actually adorable to see him switch from offended brute to this tender male.
“Focus dude, you can touch my hair later. Tell me how to bandage up this wound, and then we need to figure out how to get you to a doctor, a healer? Whatever you call it.” His lips quirked in what was almost a smile as he slid his clawed fingers from my hair.
Swinging his head around the small rock-sheltered little nook we were in he nodded thoughtfully.
“If it stopped bleeding you should burn it closed with the knife, heated in the fire,” he said.
“And my name’s Iave, not Dude.” The tip of his tail was suddenly waving in front of my face, a knife dangling from a loop from it.
I was the one snarling now, albeit silently.
I was not going to burn his damn wound closed, that was barbaric and it would probably only make things worse.
As it was, if he escaped infection and didn’t die, he would have a massive scar on his back from this.
“I’m not doing that,” I snapped, and I grabbed the knife and tucked it in the back of my pants to make sure he wasn’t about to do it himself.
“And you can act all tough and macho, but that doesn’t work on me, you need a healer.
You’re just going to get us both killed if you set out on a hare-brained mission now.
” I glared at him, he glared right on back and then he rolled his deep gray eyes with a hiss.
“Fine, the Shaman is not far from here. We will visit him first,” he conceded.
And then finally he helped me pack his wound with more leaves and moss and tied it in place with the belt that usually secured his ax to his back.
I fastened it as tightly as I could so it wouldn’t slide off while we rested for a few more hours.
It wasn’t until after he’d given me a slightly soggy cake of animal fat, grains, meat, and dried fruit to fill my stomach that both of us settled down again.
I didn’t protest the sleeping arrangements, it was cold and the fire was now banked, with only a few glowing embers left.
Iave on the other hand was warm and it felt nice to have his long body pressed against my side, some of his coils spilling over my legs.
This way I could also feel the steady beat of his heart and the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
It was reassuring to know that he was still alive.
A human wouldn’t have survived that kind of injury, or the pain of that spear ripping from his back, let alone the massive amount of blood loss.
But Iave was a Naga, and the rules were different for him; I had to remember that.
Already, with some food in him, and that wound packed so it couldn’t bleed, he seemed much better.
“How come we can suddenly understand each other?” I asked him, my curiosity getting the better of me even though the practical side of me knew we really needed to get some sleep.
My fingers danced over the warm, dry surface of his scales.
Lines and swirls in savage patterns glowed along his chest and the front part of his tail, softly lighting the night dark with a pale blue light.
“Because we are touching,” Iave replied, his voice was low and husky now, barely a whisper in the dark.
It sounded like he was already close to drifting off and I liked that, how sleepy he sounded, how intimate that was.
Which was a thought that sent sparks of panic through my brain; I didn’t do intimate.
I wanted to ask more about this. Could he understand anyone when he was touching them?
Was that a thing every one of his species could do?
Or was that a thing specific to him? No, I recalled that the woman who woke me, Vera, was able to understand the Naga that was holding her. So it had to be a species thing.
When I turned my head to look at him, I realized he was breathing deeply but quietly, his eyes closed. Asleep already. Now if only I could quiet my own turbulent thoughts and do the same.