He glared down his jutted nose at Nia, then down at Garrett on the floor. “’Tis inconvenience enough to let blood on my fine hearth rug. ’Tis further still to burden unsuspecting folk with your troubles.”
Nia opened her hand to display the diamonds in her palm. “Will this cover our burden on you and possibly get us some supplies to help my friend?”
The man’s eyes widened, his nose dropping from the air. Accepting the stones, he held them toward the fire light. “My sincerest apologies…”
Nia’s heart sunk to her feet.
Clearing his throat, the man continued, “For mistreating you as a peasant. Clearly you’ve the means to open my home and place all you need at your disposal.”
Relief washed over her as his servant woman appeared at his side. He explained the same to her.
Nia wasted no time on pleasantries; instead she barked her orders to the woman. “I need your strongest ale, lye soap, sugar, kelp or soda ash, thin material, a pot full of water to boil, a needle, and some string.”
She dashed back to Garrett’s side and stuck the fireplace poker into the red-hot coals. After helping him out of his jacket and shirt, she busied herself removing the large pieces of debris from both wounds. The servant appeared again, hung a large kettle over the fire, and filled it with water. She laid the sackcloth, sewing needle, and thread next to Nia before running off again. Within minutes she was back with the other needed items.
Wrapping Garrett’s fingers around the bottle of liquor, Nia whispered, “Drink as much of this as you can hold.”
He set his jaw, inhaling as deep a breath as he could manage. “Do what you have to do, no matter how much I scream. Got it?”
“If you stay coherent past cleaning out the wound, I’ll buy you a new car.”
Lifting the decanter toward her, he winked. “Deal.” Garrett tipped the bottle to his lips, guzzling nearly half before setting it down. “Damn, that’s some nasty stuff.”
“Roll onto your good side,” she barked.
Chipping the sugar cube and grinding the pieces into a crystal powder, she then combined the soda ash into a bowl. After adding some boiling water, she stirred the mixture into a paste and set it aside. The rest of the water in the bowl was poured across the back wound to clear away the finer debris. She followed up with the alcohol to kill any outer bacteria before grabbing the fire poker. The tip was as red as the coals she’d removed it from. A soft hand fell on her shoulder.
Looking up, the servant held a leather strap toward her. “’Tis better he bite this in twain.”
Nodding, Nia accepted the leather bit and placed it between Garrett’s teeth. “Bite down.”
The hot poker seared into his wound with a loud hiss quickly drowned out by Garrett’s pain filled screams. Cauterizing the bleeding was a necessity, though the sound of his suffering squeezed at her chest. Tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision. Wiping them away and regaining control of her emotions, she carried on with the necessary torture of her partner. Looking into his contorted face, Nia was glad when he finally passed out.
Ladling out another bowl of the boiling water, Nia scrubbed her hands with the soap. Made bright pink by the lye, she then dipped her hands in the steaming water, rendering them lobster red, but hopefully free from any bacteria. She then dropped the needle into the water and let it soak a moment before threading string onto it.
Poking her finger into the exit wound, she was very thankful she hadn’t slept through her anatomy classes in college. She felt around for any severed intestine and found a small hole. Spreading the skin apart as far as she could with the fingers of one hand, she poked the needle in with the other, sewing up two separate areas. The bleeding completely subsided after that. She smeared some of the poultice into the wound and placed a clean cloth over it before rolling Garrett’s limp form onto his back. She repeated the process on the front, finding no intestinal damage. Relieved to discover the bullet’s path missed all of his organs, she put the remaining salve into and around the gash and covered it. Requiring help from the servant, they were able to wrap his entire abdomen with tied together strips of material to keep the cloths against his skin. Grabbing a few blankets from one of the chairs, Nia folded one, tucking it under Garrett’s head; the other she used to cover him. After cleaning herself up, she leaned against the wall. Exhaustion finally took over, her mind going blank, her eyes fluttering closed.
****
As Garrett opened his eyes, pain slammed into his groggy brain, spreading through his body. The past day’s events slowly trickled into his consciousness. He turned his head and saw Nia propped against the wall next to him sound asleep, the last sunrays of the day filtering through the holes in the shutters, surrounding her in a soft glow. Laying a hand on his bandaged side, he inhaled a staccato breath as he pressed against the wound. Putting his life completely into his partner’s hands was new to him. Assuming he lived, it would undoubtedly be a bonding experience.
As he moved to adjust himself to a more comfortable position, it soon became clear that his goal wasn’t feasible. Bolts of pain shot through his abdomen, forcing an unintended yelp from him. Snapping from her slumber, Nia was at his side in an instant.
“Welcome back,” Nia cooed while stroking a finger along his stubbled chin.
“How bad was it?” Panic stabbed at him along with the throbbing pain in his abdomen.
He watched a smile spread across her face, putting him at ease. “Not nearly as awful as I’d feared. I had to stitch my initials in your intestines. Other than that, it was a clean shot. A little to the left and you would have had kidney damage. The Big Guy was looking over your shoulder this time. As long as we can keep the infection at bay, I’m stuck with you as my partner.”
Garrett tried to laugh, but his belly screamed at him. “Is that such a bad thing?”
“Nah,” she scoffed, “You’re growing on me. Just be thankful Lexie isn’t your partner. She’d have left you for dead and shacked up with the preacher man back there.”
Laughter again tempted him. He popped a hand up in her face. “Stop the standup act. You’re killing me.”
He watched her face turn somber, “Sleep.”
“I can do that.” Garrett lifted the blanket on his good side, hoping his puppy dog eyes were working. “Lay with me?”
Sliding under the cover, he wrapped his arm around her and she lay with her head on his chest. “Okay, but let’s not make any more out of this than there is. Just a night of mind blowing sleep between two people who need it. We’ll see if we can maintain a working relationship later.”
“Ouch.”
Nia popped up on her elbow with a worried look creasing her beautiful face. “Did I bump something?”
Sleep tugged at his eyelids. He graced her with a smile before allowing them to close, “Only my pride.”
Nestling back into his embrace she muttered, “That was mean.”
“It’s what I do, my little black pot.”
Chapter Thirteen
Nia woke again with the rooster’s crow and the servant woman stoking the fire into a roar next to her. Stretching and smiling at the woman, she pushed away the intense fear of the unknown that nagged at her. She sat up, focusing on the only clear thing she could control, and felt Garrett’s forehead. A bit warm, Nia convinced herself it was due to nothing more than the fire.
His eyes blinked open, a smile sliding onto his face. “Do you still respect me this morning?”
“Still?” Nia gave him a wink before turning somber. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been shot, someone shoved a hot poker into my gut then stitched me up.”
Shaking her head, Nia stood and held out her hand to him. “Let me help you up.”
“I’m going with ‘no’ as my final answer. I don’t even need to phone a friend.” Other than a raised eyebrow, his face was void of expression.
“Women who have c-sections are forced to walk the day after. I think a man with a little chunk
of meat missing can sit in the chair for me to clean his wounds.” She wiggled her fingers.
As he grabbed her hand and grunted to a standing position, he scolded her, “I was shot. The bullet went all the way through. It wasn’t a little chunk of meat.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, mister. I’m the one who had to stick my fingers in there. I just wanted to piss you off enough so you’d get up and make it easier for me to change your dressing.” She framed the chair with her hands as though she was a product model, enticing him to buy it then helped him sit.
As Nia went about repeating her dressing procedure from the evening before, Garrett asked the question she’d been dreading. “When are we going to talk about the huge purple elephant standing in the middle of the room?”
Well, he sort of asked the question.
“Why? There’s nothing we can do about it right now.” She had desperately tried to keep her true feelings from her words, evidently not hard enough.
“Not with that attitude. Before I got shot, I found some information about how their time travel works.” Garrett grabbed Nia’s hand, leading her around to face him. She dropped to her knees and sat back on her feet. “We need to find some special crystal—which I couldn’t find information on—and be down in the dungeon on a sunny day. Apparently, when the sun reaches a certain place in the sky, the rays hit a panel on a stained glass window and form a beam like the manmade version back in our time. If we can hold this elusive crystal in that beam, then we can get back to where the other crystal is.” He dropped his chin, looking directly into her eyes. “Which is home.”
Nia’s mind slipped back to the crystal hanging in the cage. The realization hit her that the vermin who killed her parents only wanted her mother’s necklace.
Why did her mom have it?
A childhood memory slipped to the front of her mind: a birthday; her mom’s birthday, her father handing her mother a small box wrapped in shiny gold paper with white lace ribbon. Nia watched it all in her mind as though it were happening in front of her again.
“Oh, Jim, you really shouldn’t have. This is too much!” Her mother’s hand flew to her throat as she held the sparkling gem out in front of her.
“Well, it isn’t a diamond, so don’t get too excited. It’s a white sapphire. Only a few of them like this in existence.” He took the necklace from her hand, wrapped the gold chain around her neck, and hooked it for her. “If it was a diamond, you’d be worth every cent, though.”
Nia felt a hand on her shoulder, which snapped her out of her reverie. She finished wrapping the bandage around his freshly dressed wound and looked up into Garrett’s eyes. “They aren’t crystals, they’re white sapphires.”
Garrett’s eyes widened. “Did you get intel on this before they sent you back?”
Releasing the huge breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding, she said, “Not really. I mean, it’s complicated.”
“I don’t really have anything pressing right now.” He offered her a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, what the hell,” Nia tried to swallow back the tears. They made a path down her cheeks despite her best efforts. “My parents were viciously killed by vampires when I was in college. I just happened to be home for the summer when they popped by for a midnight snack. I watched them…” She looked back into Garrett’s eyes, but he quickly averted his gaze.
Looking back at her hands he now held within his own, he said, “I don’t need details when it comes to vampire killing techniques.” His voice held no emotion.
“Those bastards were just after a necklace my dad had given my mom. They killed them both because of one of those sapphires. I don’t know if my father had any idea what they actually wanted or not. He was already dead when I came down the stairs. I know my mother didn’t have a clue.” The tears poured from her eyes. “I tried to save her…”
Garrett slid from the chair in front of Nia, wrapping her in his arms. His voice murmured in her ear, “I’m sorry, Nia.”
Pain and remorse again filled the hollow void in her chest. She leaned back, feeling his forehead. His hands framed her face, he used his thumbs to swipe the tears from her cheeks. He held her head firm as his lips lowered toward hers. She offered no resistance, allowing his kiss to push the awful memories away and replace them with hungry need. The heat of the fire, both outside and within her body, rose as her tongue flicked against his. She allowed herself to become lost within his embrace, entwining her fingers in his silky tresses. Pressed against him, she longed for the intimacy and closeness sex provided. Nia dragged her nails across his shoulders.
His low moan was mixed with pleasure and pain.
Nia dropped her forehead to his. “Sorry, I got a little carried away.”
“Never ever apologize to me for that.” Garrett’s hands slid down her arms to her hands, pulling them to his lips. As he kissed each knuckle, he said, “You would be in some serious trouble right now if I didn’t have a hole in my side.”
Nia pushed stray hairs from his face. “Well, if we’re throwing out instances that can’t happen right now, then I would have rocked your world.” She looped his arm around her neck and helped him back over to his makeshift bed in front of the fire. Once she tucked him in, watching him fight to stay awake, she whispered, “I’m going to go see what they did with the horse and wagon. I’ll be back later.”
Garrett offered a halfhearted nod as he closed his eyes.
The servant woman met Nia in the entryway as she was about to walk through the front door. Her greasy gray curls brushed over her shoulder as she gave Nia a sideways glance.
“Is there a problem?” Nia asked the woman blocking her exit.
“Ye be aware of the winter solstice?” Her face scrunched in confusion.
“Yes. It is winter.” Nia’s face now mirrored the befuddled woman’s in front of her.
“Ye best beseech the All Mighty lest ye be struck down with croup.”
If she hadn’t pointed to Nia’s feet, the woman’s words may have been completely lost on her. “Oh, you mean my bare feet.” Nia wiggled her toes. “I lost my shoes.” She mourned the beautiful stilettos she’d had to leave behind, not that they’d have done her much good where she was.
The woman motioned for Nia to follow her. Winding through a large dining room of sorts lined with benches and a huge wooden table, they then entered a tiny room with only a twin-sized bed and a cedar chest. She opened the top of the chest, producing a ragged pair of shoes and woolen socks.
Thrusting them toward Nia, she uttered, “’T’would pain me to know ye passed due to me own selfish nature.”
Taken aback, she found herself in awe that the woman before her was willing to give away her own possessions when she obviously had so little. Nia reached in her bra and pulled out the watch. “I’ll pay you for them.”
Eyes wide, jaw agape, the woman watched Nia pop another of the larger stones from its metal casing and hold it toward her. “Truly ye jest.”
Nia grabbed her calloused hand, placed the stone in her palm and closed her fingers around it. “I insist.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, she pulled the course socks over her frozen feet and laced the makeshift shoes over top. Her toes tingled back to life. Smiling as she left the tiny room, she looked back and said, “Thank you so much.”
The shocked woman merely nodded, a smile pasted on her face as she stared at the newfound wealth in the palm of her hand.
Finding her way to the front door again, Nia flipped the hood over her head and wrapped the cape around her body to protect against the brisk wind as she walked into the deceitfully brilliant sunshine. Puffy white clouds skittered across the sky, blocking the sun on occasion. She hugged the cloak tighter to her body and walked to the dilapidated barn housing the horse they’d come in on and various other animals. The faint sound of a cow’s moo brought a mother cat and several tiny striped kittens scurrying through the entrance in front of her, bringing a smile to her face. They disappeared around the corner
in their quest for spilt milk.
Nia walked up to the beautiful black mare and stroked her glossy coat. “Thank you for saving us last night.” She nuzzled her face against the horse’s mane, the mare leaning back against Nia as though the words were understood.
A large, hairy arm snaked around Nia’s neck, yanking her from the peaceful moment and closing off her air supply. Adrenaline coursed through her as she swung her arm in a blind punch only to have her wrist caught and wrenched by another man who stepped before her.
Matted brown hair and beard, pitted face, and a brown rotten grin greeted her. “Parson Travis commands a word.”
Nia dug the nails of her free hand into the arm around her neck, gasping for air. Hairy-man released her just enough to inhale a deep breath laced with the stench of body odor. “I’ll have to speak it into his good ear, I guess. He’s not going to like the one I have picked out.”
The black mare tugged at her binds as the two men securely tied Nia’s wrists and ankles, tossing her sidesaddle in front of Hairy on his horse. The element of surprise had been in their favor. Nia’s mind still assessed her captors and surroundings for ways to escape. Nothing looked promising, but she had never been one to give up easily. This was one attribute that made her a superior agent.
An unwelcomed hand cupped her right breast. She elbowed the man attached to it in the rib cage. A wild laugh escaped his lips as he bit down on her ear with what was left of his teeth. The roaming hand came to rest under her chin, craning her head back against his chest.
His rancid breath wafted up her nose as he spoke, “Thrash about. Tis not but a pleasure all the more. Ye be begging to be taken atop my gelding as we ride.”
A stiffness matching the saddle horn on her left side pressed into her right as proof of his words. She remained as frozen as the galloping horse would allow while Hairy fondled her breasts, though her mind raced with ways to torture him when she was free. They followed back down the same trail she’d ridden the night before, the dense forest not nearly as intimidating in the light of day.
Secrets of the Sapphires Page 10