Page 143

“Your shoulder wound, brother… it is mostly superficial. A clean shot. Not even any shrapnel. It might hurt some, especially when the drugs wear off, but do not worry so much about this one. It’s been cleaned thoroughly, stitched, and bandaged.”

Mika gave the woman a warning look.

She aimed that same stare at Loki next.

“…Your leg is more serious, brother. Illeg says it is not broken to feel, but our hand-holds got hit out in the field, so we could not confirm that for certain. There may be a fracture there, something Illeg and Holo didn’t catch. So whatever you do, do not put any pressure on this thing until we can look at it on the carrier. With proper machines. All right?”

Reaching out with a hand, Mika pressed on his forehead again, pushing him back to the pillow. She’d done it to stop him raising his head, which Loki barely noticed himself doing.

When he obeyed her, she rubbed his chest again, feeding him light through her fingers.

Again, Loki felt the human woman’s irritation.

“You got hit pretty hard in the head, brother,” Mika said, still in English for the human’s benefit. Her voice grew a little sharper, and a little louder. “Definitely a concussion. We don’t know how serious. Jax’s pack got shot while you and Rex were bringing him in. Those stinking armor-piercing bullets managed to raze off part of his rifle, and it hit you in the back of the head, my brother. Pretty damned hard, we think. It knocked you out, and the others tell me that’s no small feat with your thick skull.”

Loki grunted.

He didn’t know if something showed on his face, but Mika sighed, giving him a few reassuring clicks and purrs as her fingers fed him more light.

“Still. It is likely nothing serious, brother,” she assured him. “We do not think so. No head injury can be treated as safe until we get it checked out, however… and like I told you, no hand-helds survived our last run across the White House lawn. We’ve got your leg splinted, cleaned, and stitched up. Your head is bandaged in back, and we gave you a few shots, which is probably the only reason you’re not whining like a baby right now…”

Loki frowned at that, and Mika laughed.

“A reaction! Finally.”

She rose smoothly to her feet. Turning to the human woman, Mika indicated towards something next to her, a little lower than where Loki’s head rested on the pillow.

Loki guessed it was a table.

“See if you can get him to eat something,” Mika said, addressing the woman directly that time. “At least make him drink some of this water. All of it, if you can.”

The human looked nervous, maybe at the idea of being left alone with him. She only nodded though, her dark, sharp eyes glancing at whatever Mika waved a hand towards.

“Okay.” Mika gave a single nod of her head, seer-fashion. She gestured a sign of respect and affection to Loki. “I’ll be back in an hour, brother. Longer if I hear anything obscene going on in here.”

She gave him another wink and a grin. As she walked away from the bed, Mika shook a finger teasingly at the woman, too.

“Don’t hurt him, cousin!” she scolded. “Not too much funny business, okay?”

“Okay,” the woman said.

Loki felt a faint tremor in his light from hearing her voice.

It sounded husky and low in the dead air of the room.

It hit him again that she’d remained on her feet, hovering over the bench but looking like she’d rather be hovering over him. He watched as she shoved her ring-clad hands into the front pockets of her form-fitting jeans, shifting her weight between slim hips.

She didn’t look at him, despite blushing from his stare. Instead, Gina continued to watch Mika as the smaller, shorter female fussed over the table.

Loki didn’t look at Mika.

He didn’t manage tear his eyes off the human woman’s face once in all that time. He found himself barely conscious of Mika as she admonished them both a few times more, warning Loki to stay awake, to not do anything stupid, to be cautious of his leg.

Then the Seattle seer was leaving.

Loki barely noticed until she was already closing the door.

* * *