“Do you think they escaped?” she asked.
“Perhaps.” He gritted his teeth. “They should pay for what they tried to do but—” He let out a hiss and clutched at the wound.
“We’ll take care of that later,” she said. “Take a deep breath. It’s a long trip up.”
The climb up to her suite was slow and daunting as Darius struggled with his wounds. He tried to keep his face neutral, but she could see that he was in a lot of pain. She nearly cried with relief when they reached the top floor, and she quickly got him into her suite.
“I’m all right,” he said as he disentangled himself from her.
“You’re still bleeding,” she pointed out. “C’mon.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bedroom.
He grimaced when he looked at the pristine King-sized bed. “I’ll ruin the sheets.”
“That doesn’t matter. Ay basta! Stop being such stubborn man!” She practically pushed him down on top of the covers. Reaching for the bottom of his shirt, she lifted up the fabric gingerly. “Ugh. That’s nasty. But,” she peered at the two holes on his abdomen, “it looks like it’s stopped bleeding. Take that shirt off, and I’ll get some towels to clean you up.”
She headed into the bathroom and twisted the tap in the sink on, then ran two hand towels under the water. When she came back to the bedroom, Darius had his eyes closed and his breathing was even. Good. Sleep would help the healing process.
Just as she’d predicted, the wounds had stopped bleeding. His flesh was knitting itself back together, but the skin hadn’t regenerated yet. Gross. She cleaned up around the lesions, wiping the blood and dirt from his skin. It would be a few hours before he was fully recovered, but at least he wasn’t going to die.
As soon as she was done, she went back to the bathroom and tossed the towels into a plastic laundry bag, giving herself a mental note to throw them into the garbage before she went to work. Her blouse and suit were ruined, so those went into the bag too.
She stepped into the shower and twisted the tap on to the hottest setting she could stand. It felt good, the water washing over her and cleaning off the remaining blood that clung to her skin.
God, this was an awful day. First the explosion, then the kidnapping. She didn’t even want to think about who those men were. She was exhausted beyond belief. The only bright part was that Darius was here and he was going to be all right. She didn’t even care about what happened yesterday. He survived, just like he said he would. That was all that mattered.
When she was done, she wrapped herself in a robe and headed back into the bedroom. She stopped when she heard voices.
“Darius? Darius!”
His eyes were still closed, but his mouth was moving. “Ta … Ma … Thoms … Elena!” Arms reached out, then dropped down to his side as his body tensed. His face twisted in agony, and he let out a pained moan.
He was dreaming. But what should she do? Wasn’t it bad to wake up someone who was having a nightmare? Or was that sleepwalking?
His breathing was deep and heaving, and she reached out to touch his chest. If he moved around too much, it would set back the healing process. His muscles jumped under her touch, but then he settled back into the pillows.
He was talking again, but she couldn’t understand half the words. It sounded like he was pleading, and the agony in his voice made her heart clench. She climbed into bed next to him and lay her head on his shoulder. “Darius,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his warm skin. “It’s going to be okay.”
What was he dreaming about? And who was Elena? So many questions ran through her head. But the adrenaline was leaving her body, leaving exhaustion to take over. I’ll just close my eyes for a bit, she told herself.
Chapter Fifteen
Darius had recovered from many injuries in the past, from cuts and abrasions from fights to knife and gunshot wounds that had hit major arteries. However, he had to admit that waking up as his body healed had never been quite as pleasant as it was now.
Adrianna’s head was on his shoulder and an arm thrown over his chest. He could feel her steady breath against his skin as her parted lips were pressed up against his bicep. Her hair was splayed down her back like a mahogany carpet while the robe she wore had parted sometime during the night and her bare breasts were pushed against his arm. He reached over and lifted a lock of hair that had fallen over her beautiful face, brushing the smooth skin of her cheek.
He glanced down and saw that the wounds on his stomach had closed up. The skin was still pink and the skin webbed, but it wasn’t even swollen. Slowly, he turned to his side so he could cradle her body. Her eyelids fluttered, and by the time she opened them to reveal her mismatched eyes, he had fully enveloped her in his arms.
“Is it morning?” she asked sleepily.
“No, it’s not even dawn.” He held her tighter, hoping she wouldn’t try to get up. He just wanted to feel her like this for now. And maybe longer.
“I can’t believe you came,” she whispered. “It was a good thing too. I guess my parents weren’t being overly cautious. The mages must have someone keeping tabs on me and they knew that I was alone.”
She had already come to the conclusion that it was the mages that came after her. Of course, he didn’t know for sure if Anatoli was behind the attempt to kidnap her. Or if Mila had been telling the truth at all. If he didn’t say anything
