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“PERHAPS it is best,” Barlaam said after the female had gone limp in Adric’s arms. “The arm will have to be set. And she has suffered some serious blood loss. I’m surprised she was still standing when you found her.”
“What about the head wound?”
“A concussion, perhaps. She’s going to be hurting a great deal when she wakes. I have this. It’s a bit of what Kindara is calling Demaspirin. It’s a pain-killer made from demons. It seems to be working well.”
“On Dardaptoans. I’m not sure it’s all that great for humans. Maybe we better get Josey in here?” Jade asked. She had grabbed a cloth and was washing the dried blood out of the red hair.
“I have been healing a lot longer than your sister.” Her mate’s tone was rueful. Adric suspected the female bedeviled his friend quite frequently. Would his be like the blonde female? Wickedly clever and sexy?
“And if you’re wrong?” Adric did not even want to think of the consequences. “Could it hurt her?”
“Kindara seems to think that it won’t. And I trust her judgment.” Barlaam handed the vial to Adric. “The entire thing in her mouth if you decide to give it to her. I’m leaving the decision up to her mate. Regardless, if she is to remain human the bone will need to be set or it will not heal correctly. Jade, perhaps you should get your sister to assist.”
“Of course. Knew you’d see it my way.” She blew her mate a kiss and left the room, closing the door behind her. Barlaam watched her indulgently.
When he turned back to Adric his expression had turned serious. “Are you going to convert her?”
“I do not know. I am leery of taking the choice from her.” Forcing something so life-altering on a fragile human was never a decision to be taken lightly.
“It is one thing to give her a choice when living in a safer world like Gaia. I waited, fought the idea, and an elhydra almost ripped Jade away from me.”
“What are you saying, Barl? That I should convert her now?” It didn’t sit right with him, but over the past five hundred years he had done many things that didn’t feel right, but were done for the greater good.
“Give her the vial. It will knock her completely out for the next ten hours. Do the conversion tonight, and your Rajni will feel only a partial bit of the pain from it, if any at all. Trust me, watching her go through it when she’s awake and aware is not an easy thing to do. Even Jade fought me and we both were well aware of what we were doing.” The healer had paled and he shuddered. “If you convert her tonight, the arm will most likely be half healed by morning. If you don’t...a human is an easy target in the demon world. I am surprised the girl survived this long. We’ll need to get the rest of her story when we can. If there are other humans out there by mistake, we need to find them. Quickly.”
“Yes.” Adric had a lot to think about. He finished with the cloth he’d taken from the healer’s mate. His female’s hair was now as cleaned as he could make it. Her face, too. She’d been so dirty. Now her cheeks were pale and there were small freckles over the bridge of her nose. “Is the arm...?”
“It is definitely broken. Punctured the skin, which led to most of the blood loss. But she’s anemic, as well. And that is not a new thing, I don’t think. I suspect malnutrition and limited access to resources. How long has she been out there, I wonder?”
The girl returned with her slightly older sister. This was the deaf one. She also resembled his female a great deal. Even the cheekbones were the same.
She didn’t say anything, just waited for instructions from the healer, who signed his orders. Adric continued to hold his female while he thought about what the healer had said.
Wouldn’t it be best to get the conversion over with for her? Dardaptoans weren’t as vulnerable as humans. And in a world at war, that could make all the difference. Look at her now. Pale, injured, sickly—how was he to reverse that and make her healthy again?
He thought of his sister-in-law, Mallory. He remembered the story of how his brother had met her. He’d kidnapped and converted her that first night.
She’d eventually forgiven him, though it hadn’t been an easy road for them. But they’d pulled through.
Mallory hadn’t been lying there in front of his brother bleeding and broken, either.
Converting her would help her heal. Converting her would ensure she was safer than if she remained human. Converting her would mean they’d probably have much longer time together. He wasn’t too proud to admit that some of his reasons for considering it were selfish. He was a Dardaptoan—and he wanted his mate. As soon as the healers were finished, he would do it.