30. Chace #2
Pouring all my focus upon Raven, I carried her upstairs and found a clean bed in which to make her comfortable.
She moaned and groaned with each slight movement.
Her vocalized pain clawed at my resolve, and my heart, as I laid her across the mattress, covered her with blankets, and fluffed the pillow beneath her head.
A dash to the bathing room and back armed me with a moist cloth I used to dab at the sweat lining her brow.
The question, Who the devil is Lucas? played on the tip of my tongue, but in her current condition, I refused to bother her with unnecessary matters. I remained silent and vigilant, cooling her skin with the cloth.
“Chace?” Her lashes fluttered, and her hand rose, finding and caressing my own.
“I’m here,” I whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Her lips parted, and her gaze dipped over me, her hand releasing mine and gliding like a petal through the air, straight to my chest. My body stilled, and my heart double-thumped.
“Promise?” Her fingers grazed across the line of my collar, and I bit back a groan.
What was she doing? She wasn’t well and needed to rest, and I should stop her, but…
In a moment. In a moment, I’ll curb her actions.
More recently, my rushed attention to less important details had me leaving my shirt only half buttoned.
My need to cover my ever-shifting tattoo no longer governed my actions.
Today was no exception. Something I was utterly grateful for as Raven’s fingers skimmed from my shirt to my skin and slid beneath the fabric.
Her hand stopped over my heart and pressed, palm flat, against my sternum.
My heart beat a frenzied rhythm, and I sucked back a sharp breath. Not because her hand was cold, although it was, but for the sheer closeness of her. The contact.
“I just needed to make sure this is real,” she murmured. “That you are real, and I’m not hallucinating.”
“I’m real.” My voice snagged on the dryness in my throat, and I swallowed hard.
The memory of our kiss in the street crashed to the forefront of my mind. The heat and feel of her beneath my skin. The way my body responded to her. The mere thought of her.
In general, I didn’t like to be touched. Unless I was the one initiating contact. But with her, things were different. Not only did I not mind, I craved more.
I blinked my thoughts clear. Here and now were not the place and time for such thoughts to be entertained.
“I healed him, Chace,” she whispered, her voice small, her hand retreating.
Gods, I didn’t want her hand to retreat, but to remain forever touching me.
“For once, I gave life instead of taking it.”
A reaper, giving life. Such an unexpected turn of events.
But Raven had given life to another before Earl.
I now saw her in a way I had not seen her before.
Definitely not before we’d set out on this reaping venture.
Her beautiful soul wanted to give to the extent that she forsook self-preservation.
I leaned in and brushed my lips against her temple, and her eyes fluttered shut.
I’d always known her to be alluring, breathtakingly gorgeous. Why hadn’t I realized before now how extraordinarily beautiful her soul was?
I closed my eyes for a breath, then gazed at her once more.
Truth was, I’d always seen her beauty, inside and out.
But because of family influences, I’d refused to acknowledge her true desirability, to allow it to sway my actions.
And now I could see I’d clearly underestimated the depths of her beauty… on all levels.
I dabbed the wet cloth to her brow, then the line of her neck, sweeping away the glisten of perspiration. My focus temporarily fixated on the steady pulse along her carotid artery.
What if the child healer can’t help her? What if she tries to heal another and the toll upon her body is even worse? What if…
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, shifted, and placed another at the bridge of her nose.
“Black Bird…” I whispered.
Her hand fit perfectly to the curve of my cheek. “It wasn’t so bad,” she said. “All I needed to do was bleed.”
A breath hissed between my teeth, and I jerked my body away to better gaze upon her.
“Raven. No.” I cupped the sides of her face. “You can’t give them your blood. If you do, they’ll keep taking and taking until there’s nothing of you left.”
“But I—”
“Please, Raven.” I crushed her to me, my arms tight around her frail body, and pressed her cheek to mine. “Black Bird.”
Closing my eyes, I inhaled her scent, memorizing it, and holding it close to my soul. Everything about her personal perfume called to me. Even now when she was battered and torn.
“Promise me you won’t give them any more of your blood.”
“But—”
“Two healings are enough.” I spared the first woman Raven had healed a flicker of a thought and shook my head.
“Eight. Nine if you count Winter. But I think…” She heaved a breath. “I think he was somehow different.”
I jolted, then shuddered. “What?”
“I healed eight”―she tipped her head―“plus Winter.” Her gaze drifted to the side. “The first one, Winter, when…” She paused, then sighed. “Earl today, and six others that day in the warehouse.”
Holy reaping hell.
My heart snagged on a beat. No wonder she was in such a state.
But, by the gods, she had healed eight or nine afflicted! She was…
I had no words to describe what she was, for none were magnificent enough nor strong enough to define her.
And yet, unholy god of death, she was going to kill herself. That’s why the Killian hunted her. I needed to get Raven back within the safety of the palace walls. But not in this depleted state.
Armed with this new knowledge, I trusted Winter even less than I had before. I would have to see her health returned, not Winter.
“Ace?” Aoes and Earl stood in the doorway. “Is there anything we can do?”
I waved them away, not turning my gaze from my bold Black Bird for an instant. She stared back, a sea of unspoken words in her gaze. She shuddered. A millisecond later, her entire body shivered.
I rubbed her arms through the blanket. “Cold?”
“Little bit.” Her teeth chattered before settling.
I shifted my weight, then paused. “Permission to warm you with my body heat?”
Her eyes blinked wide, and my gaze captured a world of ethereal wonder within the depths of her irises. Then she nodded, and her eyelids slid closed, robbing me of further exploration.
Uncurling beside her, my heart swelling with the permission granted, I fit my body to hers in near perfect form…
at least, by my assessment. Wanting to provide her with as much warmth as possible, I draped an arm over her, curled my leg atop hers, and pressed my forehead, my nose, to her temple and cheek.
Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, and I feared her body labored too hard in her feeble condition. But her breathing fell into a calm and steady rhythm, so I closed my eyes and held her.
“Help is coming,” I promised. “The young healer girl, Kira, is coming here to help.”
“Kira,” Raven murmured. “She helped me before when…”
I skated my nose gently along her jawline. “When?”
“Her sister is afflicted,” she said, clearly changing the subject. “I could heal her.”
“No, beautiful Black Bird.”
Raven inhaled sharply, and my eyes popped open, studied her. Her eyes remained closed, but her heart rate elevated.
“You’ve done enough,” I placated. “You don’t need to heal anymore.”
“But I want to.”
Admirable. Beautiful and admirable. And so devilishly bold.
“I won’t see you harmed. I want you safe, with me.”
Raven didn’t counter, and I didn’t push. I held her close as we slipped into a comfortable silence and simply existed. Waited on a child whom I prayed brought Raven’s restoration.
“I leave you alone for a handful of minutes, and you crawl into bed with her.”
Winter’s voice was a claw down my spine.