Chapter Seven #4
Steele followed his gaze down to what looked like a pile of blankets, and a pretty slim one at that.
He didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t this girl.
She looked like a little kid who’d had the crap beat out of her.
Master was married to a short little thing, but this one rivaled the one the entire club called a fairy princess. She wasn’t Keys’ type at all.
Keys crouched down beside the woman, gently rolling her until the light spilled across her face.
She really did look young. Her skin was pale with a dusting of freckles.
She had bruises and swelling around her eyes and mouth.
Surprisingly, her nose was untouched. But Steele could see the congealed blood in her ruby-red hair.
Keys had tried to clean the wound, but it was a mess.
“Lyric.” Keys spoke in a voice Steele had never heard him use. Soft. Gentle. Nothing like his usual demands. “I told you about my brother Steele. He’s going to examine you. It’s important, Wildfire. Just stay still.”
Her hand moved, reaching for his, and Steele shot a glance to Czar when Keys took it without hesitation.
Their eyes met. That was the last thing Steele or Czar or any of them thought Keys would do.
He didn’t comfort women. He despised tears and clinging.
He let others do that part if it was necessary.
They usually covered for him because it bothered him to be touched when he didn’t want it.
Steele knelt beside the woman. Keys sank completely to the floor. “Do you want me to lift her up? She can sit on my lap if that would be easier.”
“I’m just going to pass my hands over her body and then take a long look at the wound in her head. You said she’s been sleeping a lot.”
“She has a difficult time standing, and she’s had a pretty vicious headache,” Keys reported. “She seems to have gotten worse, not better.”
Steele didn’t waste any time. The woman didn’t open her eyes, not that he blamed her.
Her face had taken a beating. When he moved his palms over her, visualizing her internal organs, he found several deep bruises on her chest and ribs.
Her stomach. The wound in her thigh needed attention.
Her arm was scraped. But her head…She needed immediate care.
He wasn’t going to wait until they got them home. He was going to work right there.
“This is going to take some time,” Steele announced. His gaze met Keys’ over the woman’s head. The raw pain in Keys’ eyes told him Lyric meant something to him. It didn’t make sense, but then it didn’t have to.
“What is it?”
“Small hematoma. I need to drain off the fluid and repair the blood vessel. Fortunately, it is very small, or we’d be in trouble just from the passage of time.
These things usually require immediate surgery to prevent permanent damage.
” Steele shrugged out of his jacket, preparing to get down to work.
He glanced up at Savage. “My med bag is in the chopper. I’ll need to knock her out. ”
It took only a few minutes to get his bag. He moved the surgery site out of the cave, where he could control the environment a little better. He had Keys lay his patient in the chopper, where he immediately went to work.
His type of surgery wasn’t exactly the same as if he were performing as a neurosurgeon in the hospital, but essentially it was close.
He used his mind to drill the three tiny holes in her skull and then create an opening in the dura, the membranous covering of the brain, to drain the hematoma.
In the hospital, his patient would be under general anesthesia.
Because he was using psychic surgery, the process was cleaner and he could control how invasive he had to be.
He was meticulous in repairing the small tear in the blood vessel, grateful it was no more than a pinhole. The slowness of the leak had saved Lyric’s brain from damage. He was able to fix that small puncture, drain off the blood and ensure she would recover fully.
Exhausted, he inserted only one small drain, which he would remove once they were home.
Swaying a little, he looked up at Keys. “She’s going to be fine.
She’ll need a few days of recovery. You’ll have to curtail her activities, and we’ll do some rehab with her.
Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll take a look at the damage to your head. ”
“What about her leg?”
“We can do that at home. It isn’t infected.”
“Yet,” Keys said. “I’d rather you take care of that and look at me once we’re home.”
“Not happening, brother.” Steele accepted the bottle of water Czar handed him. “I put her first for you, Keys, but I’m looking at your head.”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
“You aren’t acting like it. Just do me the courtesy of letting me look, and we can get the hell out of here.”
“Got a prisoner to transport,” Keys said.
“Yeah, he’s already taken care of,” Czar said. “Cleanup’s done. You’ve been here for hours. Just let him look at you so we can get the hell off this mountain.”
That was an order from Torpedo Ink’s president, so Keys complied.