Lara Adrian - Midnight Breed 05 by Veil of Midnight

Author:Veil of Midnight
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-02-03T12:28:24+00:00

Chapter

Eighteen

Renata stood at the pedestal sink in the bathroom, spat the last of her toothpaste down the drain, then rinsed with several handfuls of cool water. She’d gotten up much later than she intended. Nikolai said she had looked like she needed the rest, so he’d let her sleep until almost ten in the morning. She could have slept another ten days and she’d probably still be tired.

She felt awful. Achy all over, weak-limbed. Unsteady on her feet. Her body’s internal thermostat couldn’t seem to decide between freezing cold and overheated, leaving her racked with alternating shivers and waves of perspiration beading on her brow and the back of her neck.

With her right hand braced on the sink, she put her other under the running faucet, thinking to clamp her cool, wet fingers around the furnace that burned at her nape. One slight shift of her left arm and she hissed in pain.

Her shoulder felt like it was on fire.

She winced as she carefully unbuttoned the top of a big oxford shirt she was borrowing from Jack. Slowly she shrugged out of the left sleeve so she could remove the bandage and inspect her wound. The tape stung as she peeled it away from her tender, aggravated skin. Coagulating blood and antiseptic ointment coated the thick pad of gauze, but the wound underneath was still swollen and seeping.

She didn’t need a doctor to tell her that this wasn’t good news. Blood and thick yellow fluid drained from the angry red circle surrounding the bullet’s open point of entry. Not good at all. Nor did she need a thermometer to confirm that she was probably spiking a fairly high fever due to the onset of infection.

“Shit,” she whispered at her haggard, sallow face in the mirror. “I don’t have time for this, damn it.”

An abrupt knock on the bathroom door made her jump.

“Hey.” Nikolai knocked again, two quick raps. “Everything okay in there?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s all good.” Her voice scraped like sandpaper in her throat, little better than a hard rasp of sound. “I’m just brushing my teeth.”

“You sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine.” Renata wadded up the soiled bandage and tossed it into the trash bin next to the sink. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

The answering pause didn’t give her the impression he was going anywhere. She cranked the water to a higher volume and waited, unmoving, her eyes on the closed door.

“Renata…your wound,” Nikolai said through the wood panel. There was a gravity to his tone. “It’s not healed yet? It should have stopped bleeding by now…”

Although she hadn’t wanted him to know what was going on, there was no use denying it now. All of his kind had impossibly acute senses, especially when it came to detecting spilled blood.

Renata cleared her throat. “It’s nothing, no big deal. Just needs new dressing and a fresh bandage.”

“I’m coming in,” he said, and gave the doorknob a twist. It held, locked from the push-button mechanism on the inside. “Renata. Let me in.

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