Page 62 of Alien's Heart
Ruth
Ruth woke up in a hospital,which wasn’t great, but it was better than being in that barn. The acrid scent of smoke still lingered in her nose, making the memories of the ordeal all the more pungent. The fire in the fields. When Geral emerged from the darkness, she’d been too exhausted and lightheaded from the smoke to fight him off.
Medics informed her that she suffered from smoke inhalation and second-degree burns but was expected to make a full recovery.
“Where’s Nox?” she asked.
“You have a fractured rib and second-degree burns on your legs and the right side of your body,” the medic said, sidestepping the question.
Ruth couldn’t feel much of anything. Her legs were swaddled in bandages and it hurt to breathe.
“What happened to Nox?”
The medic pressed a stethoscope to her chest. “Do not be concerned. Now breathe deep.”
Ruth knocked the stethoscope away. The more the medic refused to answer her, the more she worried. How hard was it to say he was in the next room? Or in surgery?
Or he didn’t make it?
The thought terrified her, and the medic’s silence only confirmed it.
No. Please, no.
Her recollection of what happened in the barn was hazy. Mostly she remembered choking on smoke and struggling to breathe. Nox had been cuffed and he fought Geral, knocking over a lantern. The wooden structure went up in an instant. She was lucky she got out alive.
But it wasn’t luck that saved her. Nox did.
She swiped at watering eyes, afraid that her love sacrificed himself for her.
Amazingly, her voice remained steady, despite the grief churning away inside her, as she said, “Tell me what happened to Nox right now or I’m leaving to find him.”
Somehow. Ruth wasn’t sure how quickly she’d be able to get around with a broken rib. She didn’t care where he was—hospital, morgue—she’d find him.
“Your friend—”
“My mate,” Ruth interrupted. She had never said the words aloud. It felt right, like the first good decision she made in a long time.
“Your mate has severe burns and was taken to a medical facility in the provincial capital that can give him the treatment he needs.”
Ruth breathed a sigh of relief. “He’s alive.”
“Yes. Now if you’ll let me finish this examination, I can update you on your mate’s condition.”
It took another two days before the hospital cleared Ruth to leave. In that time, she was interviewed by the Watch and bombarded by Serene and her endless supply of family members. Finally,finally, the medics released her.
Ruth went straight from her hospital room to Nox’s bedside in the capital, thanks to one of Serene’s cousins. Not the one who had his arm broken by Nox. That would have been awkward.
Nox’s severe burns were, in fact, horrific. He covered her body with his when the roof partially collapsed, burning his entire back, and somehow managed to carry her out of the barn.
Ruth cried when she saw Nox lying in a vat of blue goo, a machine breathing for him. The glow from the machines turned his once vibrant complexion into a ghoulish pallor. Part of an ear had been removed. The pieces of him not submerged had been slathered with the blue goo, including his face. Thankfully he was unconscious and unaware of the pain.
She hoped.
Medics rattled off numbers—area covered by burns versus area of unaffected skin, how long he went without breathing, and how long he would remain in a medically induced coma. Ruth barely heard. The odds of his recovery were good, but he wouldn’t be the same. His ear had to be removed and part of his tail amputated. The burns would heal but leave scars, potentially limiting his mobility.
“Do you understand?” the medic asked.
“I don’t care. I’ll take him any way I can,” she answered.
