Page 28 of Guiding Desire
He was still too late. The explosion sent a crashing wave of heat and pressure outward, hitting Orrey before it hit Senlas. Instinct kicked in, and Senlas eased hisHoldon his Conduit so he wouldn’t be crushed between the explosion’s pressure and the telekinesis.
The heat flared, the brightness flared, leaving echoes of fire dancing over Senlas’s corneas, but for that moment, it was over, and Senlas carefullyPulledOrrey into his arms.
The horror of seeing gashes, bloodshot eyes, burns as if Orrey’s face had been roasted over a bonfire didn’t kick in because Senlas didn’t allow it.
“Orrey, kitten, I have you,” Senlas said, spotted a trickle of blood from one of Orrey’s ears, knew his eardrums had burst. He still kept talking. “It’s fine, I have you.”
Orrey was conscious, or close to conscious, but not alert, eyes looking, not seeing. Sirens blared and people were running. From somewhere in the distance, a second bang echoed. It didn’t matter. Only Orrey mattered.
Something sharp had left a cut above Orrey’s left eyebrow, slicing that brow in half and revealing pale white beneath. Despite all that, Orrey began moving, fighting Senlas’s hold.
“Shelter; shelter!” he said, voice rough.
“You fucking idiot, Orrey,” Senlas said, clenched his jaw, andFeltfor the best leverage while focusing most of his power on making sure Orrey’s head and neck didn’t move much.
Orrey cradled in his arms and wrapped in his telekinesis, SenlasJumped. At first glance, it was flying, but doing it was more technical, anything but easy, and not something Senlas did lightly, not something he liked doing with a struggling Conduit in his arms. It was like doing a prime factorization of a four-digit number with someone distracting him with humming, only much worse because Orrey was bleeding.
There was no need to stop while SenlasFelthis way along buildings, along the ground below. If people had the headspace to look up and pay attention to him even though there had been explosions, he didn’t care.
Objectively, getting to the G&C clinic didn’t take very long. This way got them there faster than any other could have. Yet it felt like an eternity.
When Senlas reached the open space in front of the entrance, the space that this biggest clinic in the city would use for triage if ever things got bad enough, he wondered whether he should feel guilty for thinking only about getting Orrey here before anyone else who might have gotten injured. When Orrey groaned in his arms and blinked tears out of his eyes, Senlas decided he was fresh out of fucks to give.
He ran inside, Orrey carefullyFixedwith his telekinesis. “Help!” he yelled, and one of the triage bots that floated around the wide, glass-fronted antechamber of the hospital like balloons, swooped down. Before the bot could ask, Senlas said, “Guardian Warrak. This is my Conduit. He’s been hit by the blast of an explosion.”
“Follow me, please,” the bot said in a mechanically serene voice that made Senlas want toSeizethe thing andSmashit.
He followed it through a set of milky doors that readEmergency Ward.A medical team of four met him there.
“Injured Conduit?” the woman in the front said. Her collar was two rings of blue, one darker, one lighter. General physician and emergency surgery then.
“Yes. My imprinted,” Senlas said as he carefully put Orrey on the gurney. The medical team was all over him quickly, attaching leads and sensors. Senlas hated that they touched him, but he knew he needed it.
“This happened when?” the lead physician asked.
“Less than ten minutes ago. Explosions near Meridian Park. He must’ve seen something, ran toward it.”
The physician looked up from checking Orrey’s pupil response. “Ran toward it?”
“He used to be a protector until recently. Training kicked in. He wasn’t properly tested as a child, and I only found him yesterday.”
Physicians, as a general rule, had excellent control of their facial expressions, but despite all that, this one raised her eyebrows as if she wanted to say,And he’s in this state after only a day with you? What a failure of a Guardian you are.
“I see,” she said. “We need to take him in, assess his condition. The burns are minor, and we’ll inject broadband phages, just in case.” She nodded to one of her team, who were busy still with their examination and hooking Orrey up to sensors. “At this stage, treating his TM membrane—his ears, that is—and his eyes should give us good results with nanite recovery strategy. This cut”—she pointed to the one above Orrey’s eye—“we can 3D-print a skin base and inject stem cell therapy locally, or we can use a nanite cast to seal it. The stem cell therapy will give you the smallest scar, if at all. Nanites”—she bent over Orrey—“I’d say some scarring, but it’s quicker. And just skin sealant gel will certainly scar.”
“Do you really think I’d want him scarred? Give him the stem cell therapy,” Senlas said. His tone of voice must’ve reached the physician, pulled her out from just going through her list of dots and crosses. “He ismine,” Senlas added to truly drive the point home.
“We’ll take good care of him, Guardian,” the physician said.
“Guardian Warrak,” one of her team said and handed Senlas a screen. “Your Conduit’s.”
Senlas took the device and watched the gurney with Orrey on it vanish behind a treatment room door.
“I am here in case you need me, in case I can do anything to make waiting easier for you,” the damn bubble balloon triage bot said. Its voice was still too happy for how Senlas was feeling. For how angry he was, mostly at himself.
He was about to call Col when Orrey’s screen came to life, beeping with an incoming call. Senlas read the caller ID: “Mother ^_^” it said.
“Shit,” Senlas said, then answered.
