by Marcy Jacks
“Where are you hurt?” Kraigan asked, looking up and seeing that Jason was still staring at him with that same fear. Like a wild animal that didn’t know where to run before it was grabbed up by a predator. Jason hadn’t even had such a fearful look on his face when they had been on the run from humans and werewolves.
“Jason, listen to me. I’m not going to hurt you. Where are you injured?”
Jason blinked at him then looked down at himself. “Holy shit,” he said, as if finally noticing that half of his chest and neck were drenched in red. Kraigan wondered if he knew it was on his face as well.
“I…I don’t think it’s mine,” he said.
“What? Never mind. Who did this to you? Where are they now?” If Jason wasn’t bleeding out, then Kraigan’s next priority was finding out who’d put their hands on him so he could find and kill them. Kill them for days.
Jason looked around, blinking heavily as he spotted the spilled water on the floor. Kraigan’s heart ached to see him like this.
“I…I didn’t get a good look at him. He…he shut me into the water closet. I couldn’t see him, and then his hands were on my neck…”
Jason trailed off, the trembling in his body becoming stronger as he thought about what had happened.
Was it the blood on him? Being attacked in such a closed space where he couldn’t see and therefore couldn’t defend himself?
Or maybe Jason had never been all that brave to begin with. Jason had saved Kraigan’s life by not abandoning him when they were being chased by wild werewolves, but that could have easily been his stubborn nature seeping through, his desire to not want to leave Kraigan to die overpowering his need to run.
Jason had also been fairly shaken the first time he’d been attacked in the nest, but Kraigan had gotten there in time. He’d managed to put a stop to it all before anything too serious could happen.
He’d failed this time.
“Can you stand?” Kraigan asked.
Jason nodded, but he still held on to Kraigan’s shoulders as Kraigan lifted him to his feet. Jason felt smaller than he usually did in his arms. Kraigan couldn’t handle it.
“Come on. I’ll take you to the clinic. Are you sure you’re not injured?” The sight of the blood all over Jason’s mouth and throat wasn’t settling Kraigan’s stomach or his need to tear someone’s head off from their neck.
Still trembling, Jason nodded. “I…he got close. I bit him. I don’t know where, but it sprayed me in the face, and he let me go. I still couldn’t breathe when he dropped me. I think I fainted.”
Jason said the word as though he himself couldn’t believe it. Kraigan could, and he nearly smiled at the thought of proud, sarcastic Jason fainting after being attacked.
The fact that he’d been attacked reminded Kraigan of why this situation was not funny.
He took Jason to the clinic. The long walk seemed to take an eternity as Kraigan thought over anyone who could have been responsible for this.
He immediately thought of Tatsu, of how the man had been jealous, angry in fact, that Kraigan could have any feelings at all for a human.
Kraigan looked down at Jason’s face, thought about how he himself was struggling not to just lift Jason into his arms and carry him all the way to the clinic himself. He wanted to do that, wanted to hold Jason close and break down with the relief over the fact that he was alive.
Kraigan had not found him dead in the hall, did not have to weep over a body. That was exactly what he would have done. He wouldn’t have simply wept over it. He would have wailed and screamed and torn down the walls. The terror, the blind white-out of fear that had blanketed his mind with nothing but the horror of what he’d thought he’d seen had almost been too much as it was.
So scared. So fucking scared…
They made it to the clinic. Along the way, Kraigan continued to ask if Jason was all right, if he was having difficulties breathing, and on the way, they passed a servant’s cart coming back from the great hall. Kraigan grabbed a water glass for Jason. Kraigan was not certain if it would help his damaged throat as he sipped on the water, but anything was better than nothing, and his voice no longer sounded so labored.
Kraigan pushed open the door and immediately called for a nurse. He didn’t care what they were doing with that other man. People were going to come and help him, even if he had to threaten lives to make it happen.
It didn’t come down to that. Two nurses came at the sound of Kraigan’s harsh command, and even though that was nowhere near enough for him, they put something thick and soft looking around Jason’s throat to keep him from moving his neck too much, and then led him toward the back.
Kraigan held still for thirty seconds before he could take no more, and he’d moved to follow Jason and the two nurses when the receptionist called out to him.
“Warrior, you can’t go back there.”
Kraigan kept on moving, ignoring the woman at the desk. “Try to stop me, and you will regret it,” he snarled, letting his claws and scales come forth so she would know how serious he was.
Kraigan was not above threatening a female or two if it got him his way in matters of importance.
He was glad he moved into the back when he found the nurses struggling with someone. Not with Jason, but with the man they’d brought in earlier. The bandage was fresh on his neck, but it seemed they did not yet want him to leave. He fought and struggled with them, hissing his words as he pushed against the head healer. The healer called for an injection of some sort.
“I need to go! I need to go! I’m done! I want out of here!” the man said, half shouting, spittle flying from his lips.
Most of his panic seemed to be at the sight of Jason, who was now lying on a small bed, waiting to be cleaned up. Jason’s expression was now back to the one he’d worn when Kraigan had found him.
Wide-eyed terror, body trembling, lips barely moving, as though he wanted to speak but couldn’t.
And Kraigan put it together. This man had done it. The blood on Jason’s mouth, neck, and chest were from when he’d bitten this man hard enough to make him drop Jason and flee. That wound had been on the throat, it seemed, and it was a shame that Jason hadn’t bitten deeper.
Jason had said he couldn’t see his attacker, but it was likely he’d heard his voice, just like he was hearing it now as this idiot gave himself away as the attacker.
Kraigan didn’t make an attempt to hold himself back. Before the nurse could stumble over and inject the man with the sedative, Kraigan pushed her out of the way and slammed his fist into the man’s face.
Like when he’d punched Tatsu last night, the satisfying sound of cartilage crunched under his fist.
His fist with the bruised and swollen knuckles. Damn, that had hurt, but the pain had been more than worth it.
Chapter Thirteen
“Are you insane?” roared the healer, rounding on Kraigan.
Jason watched, transfixed and feeling as though he was having some sort of out-of-body experience as Kraigan snapped back at him.
“This male broke the law and is no longer your concern. I’m taking him with me,” he snapped. Then he grabbed the dragon by the scuff of the neck while the guy held on to his nose, blood gushing through his fingers, his eyes squeezed tightly shut from the pain.
Kraigan’s eyes met Jason’s as he turned to leave. Jason didn’t want him to leave, tried to silently beg him to stay, but then he was gone, and as they made their way out, Jason was fairly sure he heard more pained noises coming from the prisoner Kraigan had just taken.
Had that really just happened?
The healer and the nurses didn’t seem to think so. They stood around in a stupor, staring at everyone and everything until the healer himself finally snapped out of it. He clapped his hands to push the others back into awareness as well. “We still have a patient here! Someone see to him!” he snapped and then marched out.
Probably to find out what was going on. Jason would tell the nurses. Right when he was d
one napping. He was so tired, and now that he was in a bed, he just wanted to sleep.
* * * *
Kraigan slammed his fist into the male’s face three more times before the healer came to stop him.
One look at what Kraigan was doing to the man, however, and he seemed to think better of it. He turned around, face pale and mouth open, and rushed back inside to the safety of his clinic.
Good man. That was smart.
“Stop, stop!” the male pleaded. Some of his dragon scales had formed over his face and body as he attempted to protect himself, but they cracked under the pressure of Kraigan’s fists.
“Did Jason ask you to stop? Or were you too busy trying to strangle him to hear anything?” Kraigan demanded. He was still seething. The rage was still building within him, boiling over, with nowhere to go but through his arms and fists and into the male’s increasingly soft and tender face.
Kraigan was certain that he’d broken more bones than just in the male’s nose.
There was no response but a weak and helpless wail. The guy spat out a tooth and some bloody saliva, and Kraigan had enough. He decided to bring the man to Dravick, and then he was going to go and see Tatsu. If the warrior had anything to do with what had happened to Jason, then he would going to punch his fist through Tatsu’s chest, grab his heart, and rip it out himself.
* * * *
When Jason opened his eyes, it felt as though he’d never closed them. His head was throbbing, and his throat was swollen beyond repair, but he was happy because Athy and Adam were standing above him. Athy held on to Jason’s hand, her eyes swimming as she stared down at her brother, and Adam’s relieved sigh let Jason know that he’d been just as worried as Athy, though he was doing his best to hold it back.
“Welcome back,” Adam said.
“Don’t scare us like that again,” Athy said, still holding on to Jason’s hand, stroking it softly as though he was a little kid and she was his mother or something.
Which was completely wrong since he was the older of the two.
He cleared his throat. It hurt, but he could still do it. “I’m thirsty,” he said.
Adam quickly pulled back, reached over, and came back with a glass of water.
Jason drank eagerly from it, hating his best friend when he pulled it away too soon.
“You’ve been sleeping for two days now.”
“Two?” Jason asked, frowning. Could it have really been that long? But it wasn’t like his sister or Adam had any reason to lie about that.
Two days…
“What happened with…I don’t know his name. The guy that came after me?”
Athy’s smile was wide and bright and about as vengeful as he’d ever seen her look. “Kraigan beat him to within an inch of his life, and he didn’t look like a man at all when I saw him. Kraigan accused Tatsu for a while, and a fight almost broke out among the warriors, but Tatsu denied it. He has an alibi, and I think Novik and Dravick believe him, but Kraigan has been suspicious for a while.”
Kraigan.
“The man who attacked you will spend a year in the pits with the others, the men who attacked Aaron,” Adam said, his voice soft, as though it were too soon to be bringing that subject up again.
Jason nodded, settling himself into his pillows. They felt softer than when he’d come in. Someone must have changed them.
“How is Kraigan?” he asked, wondering if he even should be asking that at all. The man had been angry that someone had attacked and tried to kill Jason, again, but that did not mean they were an item anymore.
The heartache returned at the thought, but it was tempered by the thin hope that Kraigan must care for him at least a little bit if he bothered to get revenge for Jason.
Adam’s grin was catlike, as though he could not wait to share the news with Jason. “He’s been in here almost nonstop. He’s going to be angry that he was away while you woke up.”
“What?” Jason looked to his sister, and Athy nodded eagerly, as though this news excited her as well. “Adam and I sent him away to get something to eat. He should be back soon, but he’s hardly left your side. He’s suspicious and growly at everyone who comes too close to you, even me and Adam!”
Jason’s face muscles conspired against him to smile, even when he was unsure if he should. “He does that?”
Adam and Athy nodded. “Yes,” said Adam. “He’s really taken with you. I never would have thought it. I always thought you two didn’t like each other, but he comes in and changes your pillow, and he holds your hand for hours. You should have seen it.”
Jason wished he had seen it, but in that moment, he wished for Kraigan himself even more. He had so many questions he wanted to ask him, wanted to know why the man had sent him away but then seemed to care so much that he couldn’t leave Jason’s side. He wanted to know why Kraigan still felt the need to follow and protect him, even though he’d said they were done.
And why Kraigan had apparently been holding on to his hand for two days.
Jason wished he could feel that, could dig into his mind where all the things that happened during unconsciousness were kept so that he could have, at the very least, the memory of Kraigan’s hand in his.
Kraigan had never held his hand before, and now, the only time he had, Jason would never remember it.
“When did you say he was coming back?” he asked, still being careful with the volume of his voice. Talking at all made him feel as though someone was scratching dead, dry twigs down his throat.
“I’m right here.”
Kraigan’s voice was almost softer than Jason’s in that moment. Softer than Jason had ever heard the man speak, and he almost hadn’t heard him at all.
He turned his head, and his ears hadn’t played tricks on him. Kraigan really was right there, looking at him, a plate with sandwiches and fried potatoes in his hands, as though he’d run to get his food at Adam and Athy’s insistence, only to run right back.
Because he couldn’t bear to be away?
Jason couldn’t bear it, and he couldn’t stand that Kraigan was all the way across the room. He moaned and held his hand out, wanting Kraigan to come to him so badly that it hurt.
Kraigan immediately set his plate down on an empty bed and rushed to Jason’s arms.
Jason held on tight, and it took him a second to realize Kraigan was holding him back, not squeezing him tightly like Jason was doing to him, which he would have liked, but he already realized it was because Kraigan didn’t want to hurt him with his strength.
“We’ll be outside while you talk,” Athy said.
Jason wasn’t looking at her or Adam. He was too busy pressing his face into the crook of Kraigan’s neck and shoulder, sobbing like a small child. He was fairly sure he heard Adam put up a small resistance before his sister managed to get him out.
She was great like that. She always knew when emotional things were happening and when a man needed to be by himself.
Or, in this case, alone with his lover.
Kraigan rocked him, and it took Jason a moment to realize the man was speaking. “So fucking scared. So scared.”
He was? Jason didn’t think Kraigan was ever scared of anything in his life.
Kraigan pulled back, and the ghostly look on his face made the white sheets on each clinic bed look dark. Kraigan’s hand touched Jason’s throat. It was a soft touch, but it still burned. “I thought I’d found you with your throat slashed open. I nearly…I couldn’t…” Kraigan shook his head, unable to get the words out.
Jason had never seen the man struggle like this before. It was almost frightening to see Kraigan, who was so big and so strong, who rarely showed any outward emotion, nearly break down in front of him.
Jason wanted to tell Kraigan it was all right, that he was fine, but Kraigan opened his mouth and started speaking first. “I love you.”
Jason froze. Every muscle in his body tensed at hearing words like that, and he tried to pull back, but Kraigan refused to let him go. “Please don
’t. Not yet.”
“Kraigan,” Jason said, but he didn’t know what else he was supposed to say after that. He didn’t say a word as Kraigan just held him.
It seemed to take the warrior a minute or so before he could compose himself, pulling back from Jason and looking him in the face.
His expression was so miserable Jason couldn’t stand to see him like that. He touched Kraigan’s face, expecting to see tears at any moment, but they didn’t come. Kraigan was too strong, even for that.
Jason shook his head. “You got scared, and that’s okay. You don’t have to say things like that just because I’m okay now.” He wouldn’t dare think of holding Kraigan to promises the man might not be able to keep, but he also couldn’t stand to hear Kraigan say something that he might not mean either. His chest ached too much as it was. Everything hurt, and hearing that made it worse.
Kraigan shook his head. The man could barely stand to look him in the eyes for more than a few seconds at a time. Jason had never seen him this vulnerable. Not even when his leg had been broken and the bone had popped through the skin.
Thinking about that wasn’t such a great idea in that particular moment because Jason wanted to throw up.
“I…I would not say it if I did not mean it,” Kraigan said.
Jason’s arms began to throb as pain built up right where Kraigan tightly clutched him, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want Kraigan to let him go, and Kraigan seemed determined not to.
“You said we were done. You threw me out of your room,” Jason said, his throat swelling and aching all over again, and this had nothing to do with those hands that had tried to choke the life out of him two days ago.
Kraigan’s expression fell further, if that was even possible, and then he shook his head. “I know. I…I am trying to make you understand, but I am not good with this.”
That was obvious, but he was trying, and his body was warm, so Jason decided that he wouldn’t say anything. He would let Kraigan speak.