Crystal Healer (14 page)

I wondered exactly what the resident had said to the Senior Healer. "I have no objection, but your resident might."

Squilyp looked surprised. "Not at all. In fact, I assumed you and Duncan were off with Marel, so I wouldn't have signaled, if not for Jylyj's suggestion. He would rather have you than one of the on-call Jorenian healers." Humor glinted in his dark eyes. "I think you have made another conquest, Doctor."

I thought the exact opposite, but I wouldn't find out what Jylyj's motives were by hiding in my quarters. "I'll be there shortly."

This time I put a pistol belt as well as my blade harness under my tunic, and strapped my forearms with the twin sheaths I had worn on the battlefields on Akkabarr. Whatever Jylyj wanted from me, I intended to be prepared for the worst.

The Skartesh stood waiting outside the entrance to the surgical ward, as if watching for me, but greeted me in his usual reserved fashion and thanked me for replacing Squilyp. His voice sounded as tired as I felt, and the weight of the weapons concealed under my tunic dragged at me, as if to condemn me for my assumptions.

"We have two post-op patients just transferred from recovery," the resident said as we walked down the line of berths. "One male had a moderate reaction to the anesthesia and is not yet lucid. With your consent, we should start with his case."

Jorenians rarely had reactions to sedation, but when they did, they could become combative. "Have you put him in restraints?"

Jylyj nodded. "We had trouble shifting him to the berth. I had to use all the nurses to hold him in place while I strapped him down."

The patient in question, an enormous male with serious internal injuries from a transport mishap, was semiconscious and trying to move despite the restraints. As soon as he saw us, he began babbling nonsense and straining to lift himself away from the berth.

Much more of this and he would tear open his sutures. "Why didn't recovery administer neuroparalyzer?"

"They did," Jylyj said. "Three separate doses. It had no effect."

The only reason for that would be the presence of a counteragent. "Run a tox scan." I went over to the side of the berth and put my hand on the patient's brow. "ClanSon, you must be still now. You are only making your wounds worse by fighting."

The male stopped moving and stared up at me. "Who are you?"

"I am Healer Torin. This is Healer Jylyj."

The white eyes shifted from my face to the resident's and back again. "Where am I? What are you?"

I realized too late that my Terran features and Jylyj's Skartesh countenance would seem strange, even frightening, to a patient in his condition. "You are in HouseClan Torin's medical facility. We are the healers who are caring for you."

The male looked down at the scanner Jylyj was passing over his chest and fought wildly against the straps.

"ClanSon, you must be still," I began to tell him, but then one of his arms ripped free of the straps. I saw a huge blue fist coming at my face, turned quickly and took the blow on my shoulder. The force of the impact still sent me flying across the next berth and into a storage unit, which collapsed under me.

I winced, sitting up and reaching for whatever was stabbing into the back of my shoulder. I couldn't reach it, and my hand came away red with blood.

I looked over and saw that three nurses now surrounded the berth, holding down the patient while Jylyj reinforced the restraints and administered an infusion. By the time I staggered to my feet, the patient was unconscious.

Jylyj came to me and saw the blood on my tunic. "You are injured."

"Something's stuck in my back." Wet warm inched down my spine, and I felt the familiar dizziness that accompanied rapid blood loss. "I'll get a nurse to see to it. Check our patient for internal hemorrhaging. What knocked him out?"

"I don't know, but he's not bleeding inside. Jarn." Jylyj caught me as I sagged, and lifted me into his arms. He began issuing orders as he carried me into a procedure room.

I found myself facedown on a treatment table. "You don't have to do this," I told the resident. "A nurse can clean out the wound. Go take care of the patient."

"Must I put
you
in restraints?" He slit my tunic from hem to neck and pulled it aside. He didn't do or say anything for a moment, and then I felt blunt claws trace a strap of my blade harness. "Why are you armed?"

"I'm always armed." I lifted my head and tried to look over my shoulder. "What's making me bleed?"

"A piece of alloy. Hold still." Jylyj brought a suture tray over to the table and cut away more of my tunic, exposing my right shoulder.

"Don't give me a local; they have no effect on me." I felt impatient as he scanned the wound. "Whatever it is, just pull it out and repair the bleeders. It won't kill me."

"No, but it could paralyze you. One end has lodged close to your spine." Soft fur touched the back of my neck as he covered my face with a surgical drape. "You must not move when I am removing it."

"I won't." I gripped the edge of the table with both hands. "Do it."

He enabled a suture laser, then his fur brushed my skin. The thing in my back slid sideways, and I took in a sharp breath as pain slashed across my shoulders.

The extraction took only a few seconds, but it felt as if it took forever. My vision blurred, and I heard metal hitting a tray. The rawness of my wound turned scalding hot as Jylyj went to work with the suture laser.

"I've found three bleeders," he told me as he worked. "None of them are serious."

"Right." I gritted my teeth as the smell of my own flesh being cauterized filled my nose.

To Jylyj's credit, he worked very fast, pausing only to scan the wound for debris before he irrigated it, closed it, and began to apply a light dressing.

"I don't need that," I told him, lifting my head under the shroud. "Take this thing off my face."

"Something's wrong." Blunted claws curled over the back of my neck. "Stay where you are."

"It's no cause for alarm." I could feel the edges of the wound shrinking, and knew he was watching it happen. "I heal very fast."

"That would explain why one of the shallow bleeders repaired itself." The clamping hold he had on my neck eased, became almost gentle. At the same time, a deliciously warm sensation spread out over my back. "You're not Terran or Akkabarran. They don't heal like this."

"It's a long story." I didn't like the way my body was going limp. "What are you . . ." The rest was lost along with my consciousness.

When I opened my eyes some time later, I saw the ceiling of the procedure room. Jylyj had turned me over, removed the remains of my tunic, and draped me with a modesty shroud. I saw him hovering, and glanced down at the sponge he was using to clean the blood from my neck.

"How long was I out?"

Dark eyes met mine. "Only a few minutes. Reaction to the blood loss, I think." He used a folded square of linen to dry my throat. "How are you feeling?"

I moved my injured shoulder, which felt vaguely sore but otherwise normal. "Much better. Tell me you did not signal my husband."

"I did not signal your husband." He lifted me into a sitting position, and I slapped a hand against the drape to keep it from falling away from my breasts. That was when I realized what else he had removed.

I looked around the table. "Where are my blades?"

"I put them and the harness in the sanitizer." He brought me a scrub tunic. "They were covered in blood. So were your pulse pistols, but I cannot clean those with this equipment."

"I will hand clean them later." I held the drape in place as I awkwardly worked the scrub top over my head. "What about the patient?"

The Skartesh removed the stained linens from the table. "He is resting comfortably."

I eyed him. "How did you manage that?"

"I infused him with karokain to neutralize the existing chemicals in his bloodstream." Jylyj helped me work my arms into the sleeves. "It seems prior to his accident, he was taking neuromuscular stimulants."

"He has Satala Varena Syndrome." Jorenians suffered from few diseases, but very active males in midlife sometimes developed a dysfunction of the nervous system that caused progressive deterioration of the muscles. "One of the drugs used to treat it is made from the primary counteragent for neuroparalyzer. Have you--"

"I have him on an oxygen feed and will keep him under close monitor," Jylyj said, answering my question before I could finish asking it. He rested one of his paws on my shoulder to steady me. "If his lungs begin to fail, we will intubate."

Being alone with the resident and the way he kept touching me made me feel uncomfortable, and I swung my legs over the side of the table. "He will need to resume his medication for the Satala as soon as possible."

"I have scheduled the appropriate dosage to be administered as soon as he stabilizes. Let me help you." He put his arm around my waist as I moved off the table, and frowned down at me. "I see some blood in your hair." He used his claws to move aside some tangles. "Did you hit your head?"

"I don't think so." This close to the resident, I could smell his scent, which was as warm and soft as his fur. There was something about it that reminded me of the pungent herbs Reever sometimes used when he prepared food. I reached up to touch my scalp and feel for a wound.

"No." Jylyj caught my fingers and held them. "There is nothing there." He bent his head, bringing it closer to mine, and his breath touched my cheek. "The blood must have come from the shoulder wound."

I went still as I felt him stroking his claws through my hair. "Jylyj, I will brush out my hair after I cleanse."

He made a vague affirmative sound as he brought a length of my hair to his nose and breathed in. The paw he held against my abdomen spread and pressed against me.

"Doctor." I made my tone sharp and clear. "I'm fine now. I think we should go and complete rounds."

Jylyj raised his head to look into my eyes, and his teeth flashed. For a moment I thought he might try to bite me, until he removed his paws and stepped back.

"Yes. Of course." He turned away, his back muscles rigid. "I will join you after I finish cleaning up in here."

I left the procedure room and went to the post-op patient who had hit me. The nurse taking his vitals gave me a concerned look.

"Healer Jarn, are you well? We were worried--"

"I'm fine." I scanned the patient, but the readings only confirmed everything Jylyj had told me. If anything, the patient's condition had improved dramatically.

I didn't know what to think about what had happened between me and the resident in the procedure room. It reminded me too much of the time I had been abducted by PyrsVar on Vtaga. After taking me to his desert hide-out, the alterformed Jorenian had made plain his intention to force me to become his mate.

What Jylyj had done was far more disturbing. He had behaved almost as if he didn't realize what he had been doing--or couldn't stop himself. Even more bewildering were my feelings of confusion and guilt. Had I done something to make him believe I would welcome such attentions from him?

PyrsVar had frightened me, but I had fought back and freed myself before he could force himself on me. I didn't know what to do about the resident. Reever and I shared the same passion for each other, so I welcomed his touch. Aside from dealing with PyrsVar's lust, I had no other experience with aroused males.

An Iisleg male could make use of almost any woman. The only reason I had not been used was because I had been taken in by the skela. Forbidden by tribal law to touch the living, the dead handlers were never used by the men of the tribes.

To my knowledge, hardly any ensleg males were permitted to freely make use of their females. According to Reever, Terran females had to give their consent before a male could couple with them, and some required marriage first. Jorenian customs were even stricter than that; they were obliged to pledge their lifelong loyalty and fidelity to one female before they were permitted to couple for the first time in their lives.

Jylyj had not behaved like any other ensleg male I had met since living on Akkabarr. Still, after serving on Joren for so long, he had to know that he could not help himself to any female he desired. From what Darea had told me, rape was one of the rarest and most despised crimes on Joren. Males found forcing a woman to couple were not even given a hearing--they were immediately disemboweled.

I felt a sudden, compelling desire to get as far away from Jylyj as I could. "Who is the on-call healer for this shift?" I asked the nurse.

She checked her datapad. "It is Healer Atovea."

"Signal him and have him report to finish rounds with Resident Jylyj." I handed her the chart and walked quickly off the ward.

Once I returned to my quarters, I secured the door panel and stripped out of my garments. Reever could read my thoughts as easily as a display screen, and if I kept dwelling on the incident he would eventually discover what had happened. Whatever the resident had or had not meant to do to me, I had to stop thinking about it.

I spent the next hour in the cleanser, washing the blood out of my hair and Jylyj out of my thoughts.

Seven