The Bleeding Crowd (9 page)

He accepted it, taking a bite. “I’m sorry if
I stained anything. I tried to keep some cloth...”

“Don’t worry about it.” Dahlia sat down. She
paused. “Ben?”

He looked at her, taking another bite of
chocolate.

“Why are you here?”

“I told you, I needed a doctor. A good
doctor.”

She nodded slowly. “Tell me how you managed
to get here.”

Ben looked at his arm, touching the bandage.
“My friend. He knows a thing or two about electronics. He made it
look like you sent for me.”

She frowned. “He can hack into our
computers?”

“He’s a genius or something,” Ben said,
giving her a pleading look. “Please. You can’t tell anyone. You’ll
get him moved off to god knows where. He only did it to help me. He
could have let me die.”

Dahlia frowned. “It’s a security risk.”

“Please.” Ben held her gaze.

She sighed, hands clenched, and then forced
them to release. “I can’t deal with guards tonight. I think we’ve
both had more than enough excitement for the day.”

He gave her a weak smile. “Thank you.”

She stood. “I’m going to give you something
to help you sleep.”

“I don’t need anything.”

“Trust me. When the anesthetic wears off,
you’ll want a sleep aid.”

“And you?”

“I think I’ll manage without anything.”

“Then I’m fine.”

She sighed. “What about tea? Will you drink
some tea?”

“Tea helps you get to sleep?”

“Valerian tea,” she said. “Valerian’s a
natural sedative.”

Ben frowned, eyeing her with caution. “Are
you going to force me to take something?”

“Pretty much,” she said. “Doctor’s
orders.”

“I suppose I’ll take the tea then, Doc.”

“It will help you fall asleep,” she said. “I
don’t have anything else that’s a painkiller other than willow
bark, and I can’t give you that.”

“Why not?”

“Blood thinner.” She moved to her bag. “The
last thing we want to do to you right now is hinder clotting.”

“You’re handy to have in an emergency.” He
watched her put some water on a hot plate.

“As are most people with medical training,”
she said.

“Will you let me compliment you for
once?”

“No.” She smiled to herself, waiting for the
water to boil before infusing valerian and pouring it into two
mugs. “Drink this.”

He carefully levered himself up, taking a
sip. He grimaced. “It tastes funny.”

“It tastes like valerian.” She took a drink
herself.

“I don’t like it.”

“Drink it anyway,” she said. “Hold your nose
if you have to.”

“What good would that do?”

“What do?”

“Holding my nose.”

“Smell adds a lot to taste.” She shrugged.
“If you can’t smell it, you don’t taste it as much.”

“Really?”

“Try it out.”

“I...” He lifted his right arm slightly.

“Right.” She moved to the bed, using her free
hand to pinch his nose gently.

He took a sip, his nose crinkling.

“Well?” She let go.

“I still taste it, but it’s better.”

She smiled. “Well, the only way not to taste
it at all would be to get rid of your taste buds.”

“I’ll survive then.” He waited for her to
pinch his nose again before downing the rest of the tea.

She took the cup from him and sipped
hers.

He watched her stand. “Where are you
going?”

“I’m just going to wash up.” She paused in
the bathroom doorway. “Go ahead and go to sleep. You need your
rest.”

He watched her move into the bathroom and
shut the door behind her with a click. She had locked the door. He
frowned, but gave into the calm feeling the tea caused and sank
into the pillows.

Chapter Six

Ben woke just as the first signs of light
came through the parts of the window not covered by the blackout
drapes. It couldn’t have been much later than daybreak. He shifted
slightly, giving up on that thought quickly. He would swear he
could feel every cell in his left arm all the way down to the bone.
A dull pain squeezed at the area every time his heart beat.

It had been a bad cut. He hadn’t bled that
much since that slice on his stomach years ago. Something moved on
his stomach. He frowned, the corners of his mouth sliding up as he
saw the slender fingers coming to rest near his solar plexus. He
moved his left arm with a slight hiss to ensure it was away from
her hand before looking at the woman next to him. Dahlia was still
on the other side of the bed with only her torso leaning towards
him so her arm could reach him. She hadn’t changed. Her jeans were
on the floor near the bed and a nightgown lay nearby, as if she had
started to change, but then had decided to just sleep before
finishing.

He placed his right hand over her left,
lifting it to his mouth to kiss the inside of her wrist. Her eyes
opened, working to focus on him in the darkness for a moment. She
froze and then jerked away, moving him enough to knock his hurt arm
against his side. He winced.

She pulled her arm back to her chest, giving
him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Is your arm all right?”

He released a breath. “It’s manageable.”

Scrambling to the side of the bed, she stood.
“I’m going to change the dressing. The cleaner we can keep things,
the better off we’ll be. Do you need a painkiller?”

“It’s okay.” He shook his head. “I have a
high pain threshold.”

She nodded. “Wait here.”

He didn’t move, letting her come back with
supplies to wash, salve, and then re-bandage his arm.

“Are you sure you don’t want something for
the pain?” She studied the wound and frowned. “It’s inflamed. It
has to hurt.”

“I’m fine.”

“Really, Ben, you don’t need to put on a
strong face. There’s no reason to be in pain.”

“It’s good for you,” he said. “Builds
character.”

“I disagree.”

“Are you going to keep harping on this until
I agree to take something?”

“Maybe,” she said.

He sighed in resignation. “I thought you
didn’t have anything to give me except that blood thinner
stuff.”

“Willow bark,” she said. “I don’t have
anything strong, but there are some over-the-counter pain killers I
have around. One of them should help if nothing else.”

“Fine.” He sighed.

She moved to her dresser in silence.

“Thank you,” he said.

“For what?”

“For the obvious,” he said. “You could have
let me bleed to death.”

“I’m a doctor.” She shrugged. “I took an oath
saying I would heal those who came to me for help.”

“You could have turned me in.” He watched for
her reaction.

“Believe me, I’m still considering it.” She
handed him two red pills and a glass of water. “Truthfully, I
should.”

“Should you?”

“Having a man able to hack into our system?
Having anyone able to hack into our system for that matter. That’s
pretty much the definition of a security risk.”

Ben held her gaze. “We have nothing else,
Dahlia, let us have something.”

“Let you have a way to throw our entire
communication systems off?”

“Not like we can do anything. We can hack in
and do a few things, we can’t overthrow the government or
anything.”

“The little things add up,” Dahlia said.

“You turn me in, and I’ll never see daylight
again.”

“More likely your friend’s the one who would
get the brunt of it.”

“I’d rather be thrown in myself than pushing
it off on my friend.”

Dahlia sighed, rubbing her temples with her
fingers. “Do you understand what sort of position you’re putting me
in, Ben? If someone else finds out about your friend’s little
talent and finds out that I knew about it, but didn’t say
anything... I’d be just as culpable as either of you.”

“I just said I wouldn’t sell out my friends.
That includes you.”

She sighed. “We aren’t friends, Ben.”

He frowned. “We aren’t?”

“We can’t be friends. There’s no possible
scenario where being friends would be possible.”

“I’m sure there is. Obviously I don’t know
what you’re thinking, but I consider you someone I care about
enough to at least protect you from someone if I could.”

She scoffed, placing a hand on her hips.
“What have I done to deserve your ‘protection’?”

He nodded at his arm. “If nothing else, I owe
you. I’m not selfish enough to ask for someone’s help, and then
refuse to give them any when they need it.”

She didn’t respond.

“I know you don’t have a reason to help me
anymore than you already have,” he said. “I mean, I’m just a man,
right? A mutation? I’m asking, if not out of friendship, out of
compassion. Pity, even, if you can’t offer anything else. Help me
just a little more.”

She paused another beat. “I don’t pity
you.”

He laughed with derision. “You’re lying,
ignorant about my situation, or heartless. From what I know about
you, I don’t think it’s the last two.”

“You’re in a bad situation.” She crossed her
arms. “I don’t think there’s anyone here that’s ignorant enough to
think you aren’t. It isn’t that I don’t have the sympathy to
appreciate that situation, because I do. But pity... no. You have
someone you care enough about to want to protect them, enough to
sacrifice yourself to protect them. If nothing else, that makes you
human. You might deserve sympathy, but no human deserves something
as condescending as pity.”

He stood, relying on his good arm to push him
up, and moved towards her. “I consider you a friend, Dahlia, even
if you don’t think I am. I wouldn’t sell you out. I do care about
you.”

“Don’t you dare.” Dahlia frowned.

His eyebrows furrowed. “Dare what?”

“Caring is what gets people in trouble in
situations like this.” She jabbed a finger at him. “I won’t turn
you in, which, yes, is stupid on my part, but I won’t if only for
some misguided compassion for all of humankind. It is in no way a
personal favor for you.”

He smiled knowingly. “Duly noted.”

“Get that smirk off your face before I change
my mind.” She glared at him.

He ran his good hand along her jaw line. “You
might be smart enough to avoid any misguided affection, but you
forget I’m at a lower evolutionary level than you.”

“Stop it,” she insisted.

“Just, let me, all right?” He stepped a
little closer, letting his injured arm drop to his side.

“Stop it before I call up the guards and have
them drag you away.”

He watched her chest rise and fall with rapid
breaths and felt her pulse speed up under his hand. He bent,
brushing his lips against her collarbone. When she didn’t pull
away, he kissed it again, moving to the hollow of her neck.

“Ben, stop it,” she said in a quiet
voice.

“I don’t want to,” he mumbled against her
skin.

“Seriously.” She pushed against his chest.
“Stop it.”

All at once, he jerked, stiffened and
stumbled backwards.

“Are you all right?” Her eyes widened and her
hands went to his waist, making sure he didn’t hit his hurt arm
against anything.

“Yeah,” he croaked. “My...”

“Your...?”

He steadied himself and then touched his
collarbone.

“Oh.” She looked at the scar there. “Did I
hit...? I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to. I didn’t push that
hard...”

“Yeah.” He gave a short laugh. “If you had, I
would be on the ground right now.”

“I’m really, really sorry.” She helped him
sit on the chair near her desk. “I really didn’t mean to... shock
you or whatever that chip does.”

“Well, it took my mind off my arm.” He
offered a tense smile.

She laughed nervously. “Not your week is
it?”

“Seems to be shaping up that way.”

“I can get you some more acetaminophen,” she
said. “You aren’t close to overdosing.”

“That those red and white pills?”

Dahlia nodded.

“I’ll really be okay. I’ve lived with that
chip as far back as I can remember.”

She frowned at that. “You don’t know how big
it is?”

He shook his head. “All I know is they put it
in there when I was two. Only reason I can figure that out is I
have a memory someone doing something to my shoulder that hurt like
a bitch when I was that young.”

“If it’s right under the skin like that and
not too big, it probably wouldn’t be that hard to remove.”

“Are you offering to take it out?” He looked
at her.

She froze as the implication hit her,
shrugged off the question. “Just hypothesizing.”

“Well, it makes no difference I suppose,” Ben
said. “They’d notice if it were missing. It has all our information
on it. They’d be a little suspicious if they scanned me on the way
home and couldn’t find anything.”

“Information chips.” She shook her head.

“What about them?”

“They sound uncomfortably close to how we
track the animals we have on farms.”

“Well, no offense, but you don’t seem to
consider us much better than anything you might raise on a
farm.”

“I might take offence if it weren’t true,
but...”

He nodded in understanding

She moved over to her closet, pulling the
shirt she had been wearing from the day before off and pulling a
new one on. “I’m going to get us a big breakfast. You need to keep
your strength up. You lost a lot of blood yesterday.”

“Okay, Doc.”

She pulled on a pair of pants. “Ben, don’t
call me Doc.”

“Sure thing, Doc.”

She rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.
Grabbing her key card, she slipped it into her back pocket before
heading outside.

Summer was finally abating, leaving the air
moist but crisp, almost as if a fog were going to move in. Soon it
would be time to break out her winter clothes.

“Top o’ the morning.” Cassandra popped up in
her usual bright fashion. She studied Dahlia for a long moment.
“You look awful.”