Page 62 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
He wiped his hands on his pants before taking the stairs two-at-a-time to the third-floor ICU, an internal clock urging him on despite no clear reason for worry.
When he entered the ward, the nurse on duty, a young Albanian named Mirjeta who’d returned home from studying in the U.S. on the promise of a job working for her belovedzoti, escorted him to Mihàil’s private room. Knocking, she peered around the open door as a soft female voice answered from inside. After a few quick words, she looked back at Miles, nodding for him to go in.
Inside, Miles found Olivia slumped in a chair next to the head of the bed where Mihàil lay asleep, the face of theElioudgeneral bandaged to cover the empty socket of his left eye, the rest of his body swathed in sterile wraps. At first, Miles thought that Olivia slept, but then he noticed her toying with the small silver disc of her St. Michael’s pendant, the only jewelry she typically wore besides her wedding rings and, rarely, simple earrings or a bracelet.
She looked worn and pale, not as vibrant and glowing with rose-hued life as he was used to, her long, fine blond hair trailing in disarray around her shoulders where it had escaped from a silver clip. Miles’s heart squeezed in his chest. He hadn’t realized until just this moment how much he relied on Olivia’s unwavering, no-nonsense optimism and faith even when odds seemed stacked against theElioudand their mission.
She looked up at him, and he could see faint traces of crying in her face.
“Hey,” he said in a low voice, nodding. He folded his arms, uncomfortable and not sure how to start. “How’s he doing?” He lifted his chin toward the silent figure in the bed, formerly larger-than-life and magnetic in a way Miles had never encountered in a commander before.
“As well as a man who’s fighting for his life can,” she said. Something must have passed over Miles’s face because she blinked and focused on him, dropping the pendant and her hand into her lap. And he saw her take up her mantle aszonjëagain. “Willem came in earlier and left that.” She nodded toward a distinctive sculpture dominated by an intricate stained-glass center on a table next to the head of the hospital bed. “He calls it the Resonator Rose. He’s using it to shore up Mihàil’s harmonics so that his body can heal, which is beyond my own abilities right now.””
Miles heard the self-reproach in Olivia’s voice.
He recognized it for what it was. He’d felt it himself, often, when still with the Agency. The sinking guilt that said you hadn’t done enough to prevent something catastrophic, that you couldn’t make it right.
Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time for a pep talk. At least, not the gentle kind.
“Maybe you can get him to make one for you, too,” he said. “Because I don’t need to read harmonics like anElioudto see that you’re tapped out. Don’t beat yourself up over this. It’s not your fault. You need to pull up your big-girl panties now and put on a brave face. We need you.”
Olivia pursed her lips but didn’t respond to his comment. Instead, she said, “I gather you came to give me a status update for Dianne and Helsing?”
Miles nodded. The clinic, still under construction, had fully functioning shielded harmonics to protect patients and enable guided healing resonance. That meant that Olivia hadn’t been able to tap into their comms network while here. Besides the ops center at the estate, it was the one building in Fushë-Arrëz whose power supply hadn’t been affected by the geomagnetic storm.
“Draka and Giant have recovered Demon Slayer and your sister. They had a little trouble with some locals, but they extinguished it quickly and got on the road. We don’t expect any other problems at this time of night. They should make it back in another hour. I can send someone to get you, but if you’ll take my advice, you’ll go home to your baby and sleep.”
Olivia sighed and stood. “That sounds good, though I think a shower and somesalepalso sounds good. I’ll follow you to the TOC in a few moments for a more official status report.”
Miles paused at the door, watching Olivia lean over Mihàil, her hand hovering before she kissed his peeling lips.
Ryan knew they were in trouble when the temperature dropped inside the Defender, his breath fogging the faint light of the console as frost began to creep along the edges of the windows. On the bench seat next to him, Dianne murmured and shifted, her arms going around her torso as she tried to stop the sudden shivering quaking her.
“Here,” said Ryan gruffly, lifting the thermal blanket that András had pointed him to in a storage container built under the seat. “Scoot over.”
She slid into his side, her shaking briefly making her teeth rattle. She sighed and relaxed against him, her head sinking against his upper chest. “You feel so good.” Ryan only had enough time to frown at his reaction to that observation when she added, “But that probably means you’ve got a fever.”
He ignored the uneasy truth in her words. Fever or not, he was with her until she was safe or until he couldn’t breathe anymore. His body could fail, his eyes could blur. But if she was in his arms, he wasn’t letting go.
Ryan gritted his teeth and looked out the obsidian window glass. They could see nothing outside. The GPS failed forty-five minutes ago, leaving them blind as they climbed the Accursed Mountains toward Fushë-Arrëz. They’d had to pull over so that Beta could drive using herElioudradar to navigate. Then the electrical system started to misfire, and András laid both hands on the dashboard, closing his eyes as he channeled a steady flow of harmonic energy from his reserves into the vehicle to keep it running.
Ryan had never felt so helpless. Or so angry. It was almost as if the evil beings played with them. He sensed the real fun wouldn’t start until they were in sight of the fortified Kastrioti estate.
“How much longer until we reach Mihàil and Olivia’s?” asked Dianne, drawing him out of his introspection as her chin moved against his chest. She yawned. She’d stopped shivering and sounded sleepy. He was grateful that the fear he’d felt emanating from her through the quirky bond that had developed between his harmonic gear and her protective tunic, which even now glowed softly where it touched him, had subsided.
A gentle vibration, making him think of a cat’s purr, rippled along her skin, soothing him. Without conscious decision, he squeezed her against him. It feltright. It unnerved him. How could he protect her when their fates felt stitched together in ways he didn’t understand?
If he couldn’t shield her from marauding humans or Hellspawn, he could at least hold fear at bay a little longer.
“We still have an hour before we reach their house,” he said, brushing a soft kiss on her forehead. He was so tired, he wasn’t even sure where the impulse had come from. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”
“Mmm,” she said, “I think I will.” She settled further against him and was quiet for a long time. He thought she’d fallen asleep, but she said in a low voice, “I want you to wear the ring with my cousin Emily’s key on it.”
“Why?” he asked, startled.
“Because you’re my hero,” she said, her shadowed face unreadable. “You almost died for me. I want you to have it. It’s the only thing I have that means anything to me.”
Ryan didn’t know what to say to that. He had a vague memory of her chanting before the team arrived. If anything, she’d saved him.
