Chapter 2 #2
“All right, Sazzie. Not yet,” he agreed.
“Are you going in today?” He gestured at the doorway to the primary healing room.
I hissed, upset when I realized just how much the Elder Shaman had seen, but my hiss only made his smile grow wider.
He was not a male easily intimidated, as my mother had discovered to her great frustration the previous week.
My stomach flipped as I recalled the events that had taken place—the shift of my world as I ended the one female who had controlled my life, and that of many others.
No, I was not going in. There would be no kindness or admiration from the human male once he learned what I’d done.
The temptation to steal a glance was too much, though, and I ducked my head around the corner.
Our eyes locked, drawn by an impossible force.
His eyelids dropped slowly, fluttering as though he was fighting to keep them open, and then he was out, asleep—his warrior body tense, like he was in a battle even when he was supposed to be resting.
His fists curled into the furs, his head tossed back to expose the corded column of his throat.
He looked like he was in pain, and, throwing all caution to the wind, I hurried into the room.
My hands found his balled fist, and it was instinctive to stroke my fingers over his heated skin, smoothing out the tension.
It seemed to help when I uncurled his fingers and ran my palms up his arm to his even tenser shoulder.
With several deep, shuddering breaths, his body eased.
Rolling to his side, with his face aimed my way though his eyes remained closed, he finally appeared to be resting peacefully.
“Remarkable,” Elder Erish murmured, his hands lying on the blinking panel on the other side of the nest. His white gaze was aimed at the wall, but I could see from the tilt of his head that he was listening to every move I made.
“That seems to help him, Sazzie. He hasn’t rested this peacefully before.
I think I might finally be able to try the next part of his treatment. Could you stay?”
Stay? I didn’t want to leave. It felt good to help, and it was very obvious that what I’d just done had helped.
There were days when it felt like all I did was destroy things; this was a novel change, and it felt good.
“He will remain asleep?” I asked, and when Erish confirmed this, I settled down on the edge of the cot. “Then I’ll stay.”
“Good,” Erish nodded. “I must boost his native nanobots—juice them so they start to replicate and overtake the invaders.” None of that made sense: replicate?
Invaders? And what in the blazing suns was a nanobot?
They had used that word a lot around Reid, but I still had no explanation for what it was or why it was harming him.
I didn’t ask, though—partially because it was ingrained not to, but also because I feared I wouldn’t understand anyway.
“He wanted me to pass on a message, by the way,” Erish said with a thoughtful hum in the back of his throat.
He shifted his head and looked at the doorway, though his white eyes wouldn’t be able to see that Elder Chen was still there, observing us.
My scales shivered along my spine, nerves fluttering in my belly.
Erish expected me to ask what, but I could not bring myself to speak.
“He said he’d protect you. That you’d be safe with him,” the Shaman eventually said, unable to keep the words to himself.
I saw the smile that flitted at the corner of his mouth and felt a surge of instinctive, protective anger.
Protect me? He thought that was funny, did he?
A Naga female who needed a protector? But I swallowed those feelings as quickly as they rose, because neither Shaman would mock me—it wasn’t in them.
That was a female thing to do, and I needed to unlearn those instincts if I wanted to be allowed to stay here.
“Thank you for letting me know,” I said as politely as I could, my throat dry.
It wasn’t until he nodded and returned his focus to whatever he was doing on the strange, ancient machine that the words sank in.
Protect me, keep me safe? That’s what Reid had said to Erish?
It was such a strange, unheard-of offer that I struggled to wrap my head around it.
Had I seen Corin and Zathar’s protectiveness of their human mates?
Yes. Had I envied that? Also yes. But I was Naga and though it was my greatest wish, I was deviant for desiring that kind of thing.
How had Reid known to say that? To have an answer to the biggest desire that weighed on my heart?
As soon as he started to stir, I had to leave. I couldn’t stay around a male who tempted me this much. I couldn’t put him in danger, and I couldn’t let him discover that I wasn’t who he thought I was.
Of course, nothing ever went as planned.
It seemed that this human in particular liked to throw us for a loop, doing the unexpected—the impossible.
Erish had only just finished the next stage of his treatment and left when he blinked open his eyes.
He caught me in that gaze, and I felt unable to move, trapped.
“Ah, angel. You’re here,” he said, his voice low and husky, but every word perfectly clear.
My hand was still around his wrist; that was why.
I knew what it meant, but…it was impossible.