Hounds of Dawn by H.S. Torben

Author:H.S. Torben [H.S. Torben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simply Absurd Publishing
Published: 2023-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

27

Blue

She was probably alive. Death couldn’t possibly hurt this much. She wasn’t in Hell unless it had frozen over. Her feet were ice cubes, her fingers were numb, and the tips of her ears stung. Her head pounded with every beat of her heart. Every muscle in her body was stiff and sore. She struggled to open her eyes. Even those muscles protested. She finally got one open and assessed her situation. She needed to find Ava. She was in a bed buried in blankets. Panic set in. The last time she had blacked out and woken in a strange room, it hadn’t ended well. People died.

The room she was in was dark. Someone was lying on the bed behind her. Maybe it was Ava. Whoever it was felt small, almost like Lexi, when she snuggled with her. Something roared mechanically in the otherwise oppressive silence. Probably an air unit turned up all the way. A large figure sprawled in the compact chair next to the bed. She heard a single snore. It came from the floor below her.

Blue blinked. Her left eye still wasn’t cooperating. She checked her hands and feet as best she could. She wasn’t bound. She tried to throw the blankets off. Either she was very weak or there were a lot of blankets. Possibly both. Her eyes focused, and she realized the figure wore only boxers and was familiar. It was Ivan, she could tell by his size and the thick scar that circled his forearm. She tried harder to throw the blankets off and only drained what energy she had woken with.

“Take it easy,” he spoke. Blue didn’t realize he was awake. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. The room was small, and the movement put his face within inches of her own.

“Everyone OK? Make it?” she rasped. Her lips were dry, and her throat was parched. The words made her cough. It had been a long time since she felt this bad. Cold. She was cold all the time. Not usually this cold. A shiver wracked her body. That was good, though. Hypothermic people died when the shivering stopped. But she also felt like a truck ran her over after she got the plague, then the EMTs threw her in a frozen lake instead of taking her to the hospital.

“Yeah. All here. No additional injuries.” He gestured to a bandage on his chest. He reached over to the bedside table and retrieved something. When he reached up and touched her face, she realized he had a washcloth and was using it to wipe her nose and her chin. “Your nose is still bleeding. But it's slowed down.” He pulled the covers up to the nose he just wiped and tucked the blankets firmly in around her shoulders. Blue didn’t know what to think. She couldn’t remember anyone ever wiping her face or tucking her in. But if he wanted to harm her, he wouldn’t do those things. For now, she wasn’t in immediate danger.

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