Page 28 of Healing Creek (Arena Dogs #3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Grace was sharing a meal with Samantha in the food hall while the others discussed their course of action.

She’d rather have been able to once again petition her sister’s case, but she’d promised Mercury she would make sure Samantha ate enough to nourish both herself and the child growing inside her.

When Lo came bursting through the door, a dozen human and Arena Dog heads snapped in his direction. His chest heaved with panting breath.

Grace’s belly cramped and filled with dread. Cold certainty clutched at her. It had to be Creek. Jupiter had gone out after him and had not come back before the others went into the council room.

Grace leaped to her feet and met him halfway across the room. “What—”

“He’s alive.” Lo pressed his lips tightly together before continuing. Strain evident on his face. “The medical center. Go. I’ll stay with Samantha.”

She nodded then ran, barreling through the door and not stopping until she made it to the med-center.

Creek lay on the med-bed, unmoving, with a wooden spike through his shoulder and blood soaking his tunic. She slapped her hand across her mouth to hold in the scream.

Mercury and Jupiter stood next to the bed along with Zachary, who was running a scan.

Jupiter had turned and was staring at her with regret and apologies in his eyes.

A woman stood on the other side of the bed.

As tall as the other Arena Dogs, her features were a more delicate version of theirs.

Her shoulders were as broad as the other Arena Dogs, but a slenderer body contained her obvious strength. Grace gulped down her fear.

Zachary said something about blood loss and a skull fracture and brain swelling. A wave of nausea hit her, and she was glad her hand still clutched her mouth.

Zachary shook his head and talked about making Creek comfortable as he set up a hypo-injector.

Lightning struck her heart and she bolted forward. “Creek.” She wedged her body between Mercury and Zachary and laid a hand on his chest. It was moving, barely. His eyes were closed but his face was tight with pain. “Creek.”

His eyes opened, but they were glassy and panicked. He groaned as he turned toward the sound of her voice. He pushed air through gritted teeth. “Neri.”

The word stole the air from her lungs and fisted in her gut. She worked air back into her lungs with tears running down her cheeks. “It’s all right.” Her voice shook. “You need to rest now. Healing sleep,” she suggested.

Some Arena Dogs had incredible control of their bodies and even if he didn’t, letting go of fighting would surely allow him to lose consciousness. A breath rattled free of his chest and his eyes fluttered closed.

Zachary had the hypo against his neck. Grace latched onto his wrist with a whispered, “No!”

Zachary looked over her shoulder to Mercury.

“Do as she says,” he commanded.

Grace released the medic’s hand and gently pushed him back from the table. She turned to the Arena Dog who had trusted her with the care of his pregnant mate and hoped he would trust her through what she intended. She held his gaze, forcing determination into her features.

“I’ll need you to remove the branch while the others hold him down.”

“He’ll bleed out,” warned Zachary.

When Mercury dipped his chin in agreement, she turned back to Zachary. “I need a pressure sealer.”

“It won’t be enough.”

“And a transfusion kit.”

“For who? Do you even know his blood type?”

No and it didn’t matter. “I’m a universal donor.” Not exactly true, but she didn’t have time to do things the right way.

“You’re crazy. There is no need for that. We have blood doublers and plasma, but none of that is going to be enough and it won’t help his head injury. It might even make things worse.” He shook his head and backed away with his hands in the air.

Grace rolled up her sleeve and got things ready. “I need that transfusion kit.”

“I’ll get it,” Saturn offered, moving quickly to the wall of neatly labeled compartments. There were a lot of them. “Shit,” he muttered, and pulled open one compartment after another.

Grace took calming breaths, one hand on Creek’s forehead and one on his shoulder. “Jupiter, can you make the whole in his tunic a little bigger around the puncture?”

Jupiter did as she asked without hesitation, fisting his hand in the material and ripping.

She met Mercury’s eyes levelly. “When I have the transfusion going and the sealer ready, you’re going to pull the branch out. As straight out as you can. Not too fast, but not too slow. We don’t want to do any additional damage if we can help it, but we also need to stop the bleeding.”

Mercury nodded.

Zachary was out of her line of sight now, but he was still hovering, so she would put him to good use. “Zachary, align the bones in that compound fracture.”

“I hardly think—”

Mercury stopped him with a growl. She was grateful. She didn’t think she could make that noise, but just then she really wanted to.

With the help of Jupiter’s strength, Zachary realigned the bones broken in Creek’s arm. Her love didn’t even moan. God, he was so weak. Her eyes teared up, but she took another deep breath and put all thoughts but what she needed to do out of her head.

Saturn came up to Creek’s side with the instruments she’d requested. She quickly ran the transfusion line. She took the sealer in the hand opposite the line and fixed her gaze on Mercury. “Are you ready?”

He nodded. It was as if they all stopped breathing at once.

“Go,” she whispered.

Mercury did just as she’d asked…a steady pull directly up to remove the branch. Blood sprayed up from the wound and splattered against her hand. She slapped the pressure sealer over the wound then adjusted the settings.

The pressure sealer would do enough to keep him from bleeding out any further but the wound was still an open and jagged hole. Grace watched her blood run into Creek’s vein.

If the others thought she had lost touch with reality, they must have thought Creek too far gone for her actions to make matters any worse.

No one tried to stop her or even question her.

They couldn’t know that her blood was coursing with the tiny medibots that routinely kept her alive, repairing cells genetically flawed by her parents’ manipulation gone wrong.

Maybe she was crazy to think this would work.

That the medibots could repair such catastrophic damage quickly enough to save him.

She’d done something similar when her sister had fallen and broken a glass when they were children, so she knew the principal was sound. But Creek’s genetics might be so different from hers it might not work for him at all. She could only hope.

She looked up to see grim faces all around. All except Zachary whose mouth was hanging open.

“You can treat him now,” she said, drawing his attention to her. “Just none of that making him comfortable nonsense. He’s going to recover.”

His mouth snapped shut but his eyes remained wide.

“A blood doubler,” she suggested. With so much damage to repair, anything they could do to help him would increase his odds.

As if he could read her thoughts, the medic jerked into action, getting the doubler and getting to work.

Grace could feel her own blood loss beginning to take a toll.

Her head was spinning, and darkness crept in around the edges of her vision.

Her strength was drained, her body leaden.

But every drop of blood she could spare would be less time her medibots would take to accomplish the repairs she hoped would save his life.

Unfortunately, she could feel she’d already passed her limit.

Grace quickly and sloppily stopped the transfusion and moved away to let the medic step in to continue the process of healing Creek.

Somehow, he’d simply accepted that her blood would save him.

A man of medicine should be more skeptical.

Her brain wouldn’t allow her to focus on why that might be important.

The heat of a hand closing around her arm drew her gaze to Mercury as he wiped a spot of blood away from her skin.

She hadn’t bothered with pressure or a bandage. The wound was already closed.

“You heal faster than we do,” he said.

She tried to nod. She tried to speak. She could do neither. She heard him speak her name from somewhere far away. Her world tilted and she was held against a warm body. She was so cold.

“Jus’ need res’,” she tried to explain. Then she slept.