Through a glass window, Nick saw a doctor who was scrubbing up in the next room frown and open his mouth to protest. Then his expression went blank. Stepping back from the sink, he dried his hands and left.
Seth’s telepathic abilities were truly remarkable.
Nick crossed to the small figure on the table in the center of the room. A lump rose in his throat. “Kayla.”
A sheet was draped across her hips and over her right leg, leaving the rest of her bare. The left side of her face bore multiple gashes embedded with glass, most of which still bled. Her eye on that side was discolored and almost swollen shut. Her left arm was broken. Her leg was, too, the femur visible through the jagged hole it had torn through her skin. Her slender torso was bare, badly bruised, her breasts exposed. And a long, jagged piece of metal stuck out of her chest.
He rested a shaking hand on her forehead. “Kayla.”
She moaned. Her eyelashes fluttered, then opened. “N-Nick?” she whispered.
He nodded and leaned down until his face hovered just over hers. “I’m here.”
“Hurts.”
“I know, honey. But it’s going to be okay.”
“C-Call Becca.”
“I already talked to Becca. She’s on her way.”
Dr. Ranz began to rattle off all the things Seth needed to heal.
Kayla glanced down at the metal sticking out of her chest, then met Nick’s gaze.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.” He pressed a kiss to her bloody forehead. “Just close your eyes and rest.”
Tears slid from the corners of her eyes, sparking a burn at the backs of his own. Something tugged on his shirt.
Nick glanced down and found her uninjured hand fisted in his shirt.
“Tell her… I love her,” she whispered, voice harsh.
Gently prying her fingers loose, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I will. It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
“Nick,” Seth murmured, “we need to do this now.”
Nodding, he withdrew the hand on her hair and straightened.
Kayla’s gaze clung to his, her clutch on his hand painfully tight.
Seth rested a large hand on her forehead. “Sleep.”
Her lashes closed. Her hand went limp in Nick’s as the tension in her body vanished and she sank into unconsciousness.
Seth kept one hand on her forehead and rested the other on her chest, fingers splayed next to the metal that protruded from it. His eyes met Nick’s. “You’ll have to remove the metal.”
Nick lowered Kayla’s hand and released her. His own hand shook as he curled his fingers around the chunk of metal he couldn’t even identify. He looked at Seth.
Seth applied pressure to Kayla’s chest to hold her still, then nodded.
Nick tried to ease the chunk free slowly, but it was really lodged in there. Clamping his lips together, he exerted more force and yanked the metal free.
Eliana gasped as blood gushed from the wound.
Nick stared down at Kayla, his fingers tightening around the metal.
Seth closed his eyes. Seconds later the blood flow stopped. The ragged edges of the wound slowly drew together, sealing, forming scar tissue, then fading away entirely. The bruising that graced it darkened to purples before rapidly slipping into shades of brown and yellow and disappearing altogether.
Seth’s hands began to glow faintly, heat radiating from them and raising the temperature in the room.
The broken bones in Kayla’s forearm shifted beneath the skin, repositioning themselves until they were properly aligned and weaving back together. Her femur sank beneath the skin. As it realigned itself and healed, the skin it had pierced drew together and sealed.
“Damn, I wish I had the ability to do that,” Dr. Ranz whispered.
Nick turned his gaze to Kayla’s face. The swelling around her eye decreased. Shards of glass embedded in the cuts that scored her cheek and temple glinted in the bright overhead light as they backed out of the wounds and fell to the table.
Seth opened his eyes. “She suffered partial vision loss in her left eye. I’ve restored it but will leave the bruising around it. I’ll also leave some cuts and abrasions on her face.”
Nick opened his mouth to object.
Seth cut him off with a shake of his head. “The accident made the news, Nick, on television and online. The network can’t cover it up and make it disappear the way they could a fall in the shower that doesn’t make headlines, and there really isn’t a need to. We’ll put a cast on Kayla’s arm for appearances, but she’ll feel no pain. This way the network can simply revise her records to make the injuries reported less severe, and I’ll have fewer memories to alter. Eliminating her visit entirely would pose too many problems.”
He saw the logic in it but…
Nick stared down at her battered face.
“She won’t scar,” Seth said softly. “I’ll make sure of it.”
He nodded.
Seth withdrew his healing touch and turned to Dr. Ranz. “She needs a blood transfusion.”
The doctor nodded. “I’m on it.” In short order, he set up an IV.
Nick adjusted the sheet so it covered both Kayla’s legs, then gently drew it up to cover her bare breasts.
Seth caught his eye. “I’m going to get to work altering memories.”
“Thank you.”
The Immortal Guardians leader left the operating room.
Dr. Ranz retreated to the scrub room and began talking softly on his cell phone, guiding the network in the changes they should make to Kayla’s records.
Eliana stepped up beside Nick as he reclaimed Kayla’s hand. “She’s okay.”
He released a long breath, trying to calm his frayed nerves. “I know. But it scared the hell out of me.” His hands still shook from it.
“Me, too.”
“Mortals are so fragile,” he said with some despair. “What if she hadn’t made it to the hospital? She could have died before I even heard about the accident.”
Eliana nodded. “You should tell her how you feel, Nick. She’s a gifted one. There’s no reason not to now.”
He shook his head. “You’re assuming one, that she’s interested in me—”
“She is.”
“And two, that she would be willing to transform and become immortal if things worked out between us.”
“Why wouldn’t she? Sarah did. And Melanie. And Krysta.”
He glanced down at her. “But they didn’t have children. How many parents do you know who wouldn’t dread the idea of outliving their children? And their grandchildren? And their grandchildren? Look what it did to Roland. Until Sarah, he never let anyone get close to him, and it still tore him up inside every time one of his descendants died.”
She bit her lip, her look turning pensive. “Jenna transformed for Richart, and she has a son.”
He shook his head. “Jenna had no choice. A vampire had already begun transforming her.”
Surprise lit her features. “What?”
“By the time Richart realized what was happening, her immune system had already been compromised, and her only options were death or becoming immortal.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Her son was only a couple of years older than Becca and felt responsible. So it would’ve crushed him—Richart, too—if she had opted to die instead.”