Palatine First (The Aurelian Archives) by Powers Courtney Grace

Author:Powers, Courtney Grace [Powers, Courtney Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Courtney Grace Powers
Published: 2012-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

XVI

1,201 Confessions

“Cap’n! Reece!”

Reece peeked between his eyelids and up at Gideon. The big Pan’s eyes were pinched at their corners, worried.

“What happ—arrrggghhh!” Reece curled his body around the wrist that he’d tried to move.

“Busted?” Gideon said with interest.

“I think it’s just a sprain. A…really bad sprain.”

“How’s your head?”

Reece tried to gather his scattered thoughts and remember why his head would be anything but fine. His brief flight down the tunnel swam slowly into his memory. He touched the back of his skull with his good hand and found a patch of wetness.

“I would’ve come sooner,” Gideon said, somber, “but Hayden hit the counter pretty hard. There was lotsa blood.”

“What?” Holding his wrist against his stomach to keep it steady, Reece leaned up and looked around, feeling weirdly sluggish. He and Gideon were alone in the dark tunnel, but there were voices, presumably Hayden’s and Mordecai’s, coming from the kitchen. “He’s alright, then?”

“He says so. Apparently head wounds bleed a lot, or somethin’. Mordecai insisted on gettin’ him stitched back together before he saw to you. Still, I think you’re gonna want to have a straightener on that bone sooner rather than later. Think you can stand?”

Reece considered. Bracing his back against the tunnel wall, he pushed himself to his feet and was pleased to find that his body still worked like it should, even after the whack to his brainpan.

As he started walking, Gideon at his elbow like a loyal wolfdog, his memories filled out.

“The Vee?”

“We’ve got him.” Hesitating, Gideon admitted, “Nivy clubbed him from behind while you were wrestlin’ with him. Didn’t think you’d want me to shoot him after she knocked him unconscious.”

“Wouldn’t have been very sporting,” Reece agreed dryly. Not that hurling your opponent through the air was exactly fair play. “Where is he now?”

“Tied up in the kitchen. Still under.”

“And Nivy?”

Gideon grumbled, “Except for bein’ all cocky about gettin’ the Vee, yeah, she’s fine.”

Stepping into the kitchen, squinting because the light made his head buzz, Reece looked around and flinched. There was a lot of blood. On the counter, on the floor, in a handprint against the wall. Even though Gid had said Hayden was alright, Reece’s eyes jumped to find him.

He was sitting at the kitchen table, staring sideways into a handheld mirror to watch Nivy’s hands work a needle through his tangled hair. In the corner of the room behind them, the Vee was trussed to a kitchen chair that faced the wall, like they had tried to put him out of sight, out of mind. Except a rare unsmiling Mordecai was in the corner too, and his revolver said he wouldn’t be forgetting any time soon.

Hayden glanced up from the mirror, saw Reece’s slightly nauseated expression, and mistook it for worried. “It’s not as bad as it looks. Just a surface scratch.”

“Right.”

“Is your wrist—?”

“Just sprained, I think, but I’m not sure.”

“Your head is bleeding, too.”

Nivy tapped Hayden on the shoulder and presented him with her needle, finished. Her fingers, stained red, pushed a strand of sweaty hair out of her eyes.

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