Page 91 of Heart of the High King
Chapter 37
“You doing okay?” Rafe asked Aleksander. The High King sat in the chair next to him at the giant conference table in the hospital. His mate was dressed in a suit, though he’d forgone a tie, and the dark navy of his shirt brought out the unusual coloring of his eyes and hair. Rafe doubted there was anyone ever born as beautiful as Aleksander was both inside and out.
Aleksander leaned close as the people who made up Sorcery D’Vaire and the Reverent Knights found seats. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t be?”
“You don’t like to leave the house.”
“Dra’Kaedan teleported us to the hospital. All I had to do was walk down a hall. I’m fine. How are you?”
Rafe was swamped with nerves, and he wondered how long it would take the people in the room to realize the futility of the situation. It was impossible to say how Aleksander was going to react when he had no choice but to accept that Rafe was a lost cause. When Dr. Suricata and the human doctor that had helped with Rafe’s treatment walked in full of apologies for their tardiness, Rafe was glad that he didn’t get the chance to answer Aleksander’s question. Beyond being overwhelmed, Rafe had no idea how he was feeling.
Conley introduced Dr. Suricata and Dr. Park to everyone as the room quieted. “Ladies and gentlemen, I want to remind you that everything we discuss in this room is not only Rafe’s personal records but part of an ongoing investigation. Nothing and I mean nothing about anything we reveal can leave this room, is that understood?”
There was a chorus of affirmative responses; then Dr. Suricata smiled brightly. “First, I want to congratulate Dermot—I mean Rafe—and His Highness on your matebond. That’s wonderful and has great implications for what we might be able to accomplish.”
“We arenotsealing our matebond,” Rafe stated unequivocally.
“It’s not off the table,” Aleksander countered.
“I’m not letting you tie yourself to me for the sake of my health.”
“You damn well know it has more to do with than just your health. What we aren’t going to do is pretend we don’t have feelings for each other.”
Rafe met Aleksander’s annoyed gaze and tried not to notice everyone staring at him. “I know, Sander, but I’m a mess.”
Aleksander grabbed Rafe’s hand and got close enough to him that their foreheads were nearly touching. “That doesn’t matter to me. That’s not how caring for someone works.”
“Can we just get this over with?” Rafe asked Dr. Suricata, wilting under the intensity of the emotions on Aleksander’s face.
“Absolutely. As I’m sure you may be aware, I was not Rafe’s original physician. He was first admitted to at least two different human hospitals. Perhaps the RKs can get into the specifics of his early treatment?”
“Based on Rafe’s accounts, and what the doctors were able to piece together from his initial injuries, he was kidnapped and taken to a secluded place where he was confined for five months. During that time, he sustained many injuries, including burns and wounds from chains, whips, strips of dragonskin, and other instruments of torture. I apologize for the graphicness of these photos, but these were the initial ones taken at the hospital,” Drystan stated and used a projector to fill the room with pictures Rafe himself could barely identify as a person.
“The photos are actually worse than I remember him looking,” Chander confided while Drystan flipped through the different angles of his mutilated body.
“Without your quick thinking to tie Mortis’s soul to his, Rafe would not be with us now,” Dr. Suricata told him.
“These were taken after the druids healed him?” Killian asked.
“Yes, the emergency room physician was more focused on healing Rafe than how he sustained the injuries, so the fallen knights weren’t contacted until after that. These are just before he was taken to the operating room. It was the first of many surgeries the first few days in the hospital, which were perilous given his state of malnutrition, dehydration, numerous pervasive infections, and overall poor condition. As you know by now, the swelling was exacerbated by the druids’ choice to consume wizard potions. That is not a practice we’ve ever used here in Las Vegas. It led to Rafe’s tissues losing so much of their blood supply, they became necrotic. He lost part of his colon, a portion of his liver that has mostly grown back, a kidney, his gallbladder, spleen, appendix, part of the stomach, and a portion of his right lung. Nothing else could be addressed until they got him stable.”
“Whoever his human consultant was, from the records I can see there were few drugs given to reduce inflammation. I understand things like this are rare in shifters but surely a good physician would have suggested even something as standard as a steroid to help his body,” Dr. Park stated. “If Rafe were human like my patients, I doubt he would’ve survived. He was given baseline antibiotics for the numerous infections when he should’ve been treated with the best medicine has to offer.”
“His care was put in the hands of Dr. Odocoileus. Rafe spent two months in a coma, and there were more surgeries once they were certain he would survive. A rod was inserted into his leg, pins into his ankle, and grafts were started to help close the massive wounds on his hips that went down to the bone,” Dr. Suricata stated, flicking through photos of the surgical scars and the still open sores he dealt with on his flanks. “The orthopedic surgeries failed. His body refused to heal around them, and we had special braces made so he can support his weight on a walker. No one was confident but Rafe that he would walk again, and he surprised us all. His body is aging very rapidly, and we believe that is due to the loss of his dragon. Something that could likely be counteracted with your matebond. The other thing it may help combat is the stage four pancreatic cancer which has metastasized throughout his body.”
“I refuse to seal our matebond,” Rafe said while Aleksander rubbed his hand gently. Afraid to look at him, he kept his attention on Dr. Suricata.
“The reality is, you may have no choice. If you intend to go ahead with any healing by Sorcery D’Vaire, you’ll need surgeries. Magic rebuilds cells, and you have foreign bodies in you including the rod, the pins, and donor graft skin. All of that must be stripped away, and you may lose blood as they try to seal those wounds since we can’t do stitches while the sorcerers are healing you. The best and only donor available to you is your mate because you’re neither human nor dragon but somewhere in between. His beast also isn’t going to tolerate another person’s blood being transfused into you,” Dr. Suricata stated, making Rafe frown. The shifter almost sounded as if she approved of the idea of trying to heal him, which made no sense since she was more aware than anyone how fucked up he was.
“Dr. Suricata is correct. We have no choice in that matter. Magic will cause any foreign bodies to rip through the skin,” Vadimas stated.
“Tell me what ideas you have,” Dr. Suricata insisted.
“We believe the best route is through dark magic. My mate and I would oversee healing Rafe while the other members of Sorcery D’Vaire with warlock, necro, and wizard blood can fuel our wells, which would enable us to help considerably. We have in our possession the only remaining Cwylld stones that nullify sorcery. Our thought was to stick Rafe in a copper-lined room afterward to protect the stones from draining anyone else and allowing them to do their work to limit the amount of swelling. What we need is to figure out a good starting point, which is something we’d like you to suggest,” T’Eirick stated.
“Your plan is to pump him full of magic when you know he’s intolerant? In his condition? You’ll kill him,” Dr. Park argued.
“Dr. Park. He is not quite human, and these sorcerers are some of the best on the planet. They are also all considered D’Vaires. I am confident not one of them would do anything to harm their own High King,” Dr. Suricata retorted.
