Driving Force (32 page)

“We’ve got to get him to a doctor!”

Reece smirked at her. “Got one here. Say what you like about Thorvald, that bear is organized. He knew there’d be casualties, so he brought medics and equipment. Look over to your right. They’re already setting up a field hospital.”

There were tents going up amidst the trees just past the mess of the clearing. Sierra nearly wept with relief.

“Help him!”

“We will,” Nick promised and reached for the stretcher Abel was bringing over. “Let us have him, Sierra.”

Her arms tightened in unthinking negation around Ian. Her instinct was to keep holding him fiercely close, as if somehow that would stop him from dying. She had to force herself to release him.

Reece caught her elbow to steady her as she staggered to her feet. Abel and Nick lifted Ian onto the stretcher and carried him over to a small tent where a tall woman in green surgical scrubs met them. Reece pulled Sierra to a halt just outside.

“No,” said Reece flatly. “I know you want to be with him, but you’d only be in the way. Asha will do everything she can.”

For a second she resisted, then made herself go with him. He drew her over to a boulder a few yards from the tent and pushed her down onto it.

“Sit there and wait like a good girl.” He gave her an insolent grin. “Isn’t that what you’d be doing if this were a regular hospital?”

“Yes,” she sighed, then tried shakily to smile. “I wish there was something I could do. I hate waiting.”

“Tough. You’re gonna have to.”

This time she did smile. She looked up at that feral, mocking, handsome face. What was it about Shifters that they were all so good looking? And why wasn’t she afraid of them, even now, when she had seen so clearly what they could do, was sitting here surrounded by blood and death? Reece, for instance, had a dangerous wildness and instability about him that should have terrified her. But she found herself liking him.

“Thank you, Reece.”

“For what?”

For being kind, in his own way. “For everything.”

“Out of character, the others would say.” The toothy grin flashed with a hint of fang behind it, but the fierce eyes were smiling. “You’ve got grit, kid. You behaved well. Looks like Raeder picked himself a winner. Now you stay here and keep out of trouble or he’ll have my hide once he’s better. Gotta go.”

When next she saw him, he and his pack were surrounding a section of the clearing into which Arrhan’s remaining followers were being herded. In human form with their black leathers and ear studs, they were easy to locate. A version of simple triage was taking place. Those with gashes that only needed to be stitched were being taken care of by medics then shoved into that area to wait. The more severely wounded and those already caught up in the involuntary shifts of the healing fever were being helped or carried into a huge tent.

On the other side of the clearing where another large tent had been erected, the same thing was happening among the allies. Everyone was dressed now. Some of the adolescent wolves had run back and recovered the clothing that had been discarded before the fight. Kurt and Thorvald were directing operations.

A stretcher was carried past her. She glanced at it, then leaped to her feet when she saw the face of the Shifter lying on it.

“Wait! Where are you taking him?”

“To the recovery tent,” one of the stretcher bearers answered. They both had the shaggy streaky-brown hair and rangy bodies that suggested they were wolves. “He’s in the healing flux.”

Kihain was cut up badly and bleeding heavily. The fever had already taken hold of him and he was shifting uncontrollably between human and lion.

“Kihain!” she said, but he stared right through her without recognition, his eyes unseeing.

“Do you know him?” the stretcher bearer who had appointed himself spokesman asked, wrinkling up his nose in distaste. “He’s one of theirs.”

Kihain’s human form wore the black leathers and the gold ear stud. Sierra could understand how the mistake had happened.

“No, he’s not! He’s ours! He fought on our side. You’re taking him to the wrong tent. He belongs with us!”

Both bearers scowled. “Our people will not like waking up with him beside them.”

“Then put him in a corner where he’ll be alone! I don’t want him with Arrhan’s bunch. They might take it out on him that he fought for us, and he’s helpless and can’t defend himself. Reece!”

Over at the containment area, Reece turned. She beckoned to him urgently. He was their leader. He could make them obey her.

But instead of coming over, he just waved a hand impatiently and yelled, “Give her whatever she wants.”

The stretcher bearers glanced at each other. Then, to her relief, they shrugged and headed toward the allied tent.

Left alone once again, Sierra waited. Time passed all too slowly. At last, the tall woman, Asha, came out of the field surgery and smiled wearily at her.

“We’ve gotten the bullets out.”

“Oh, thank you!” Sierra fought back the tears. “How is he?”

“He’s doing as well as can be expected.”

“But he will be all right?”

“We can’t tell just yet. It depends on how the fever takes him.”

“May I see him?”

“You can stay with him if you like. He’ll be in the ICU at the main tent.”

So he wasn’t out of danger yet. Not if he was in intensive care and they allowed her to be with him. That meant they thought he still might die.

The big tent had been partitioned by canvas walls into makeshift wards and cubicles based on the severity of the injuries. Foam pads on the ground served as beds and there was none of the electronic equipment that hospitals usually had. Everything was jury rigged, but the medics who moved among the patients looked as if they knew what they were doing.

When she found Ian, he was deep in the healing fever, shifting uncontrollably between forms. He had shifted once when the bullets were still in him, but that shift had been slow and sluggish. Now the change from human to leopard and back again was rapid. That should have made her feel relieved, but he was shifting frighteningly fast, with no pause between the changes, no period of rest as there had been when he was hurt before. Surely that wasn’t normal.

She tried asking questions, which were blandly evaded by the medics—the fever took many forms, this was one of them, they would just have to wait it out.

“Reece!” she called, seeing his rangy form pass by the open end of the cubicle. Luckily, the medics were busy with other patients and she was alone with Ian at the time.

He stopped and came in. “How’s he doing?”

She looked up at him from the foam pad they had given her too so that she could sit or lie beside Ian.

“I don’t know. They won’t tell me. All medical people seem to hate to commit themselves. ‘As well as can be expected.’ What the hell does that mean?”

Reece gave a snort of scornful amusement. “Typical.”

“I need to know the truth, Reece. Can you find out for me?”

He looked down at Ian’s constantly shifting form. “Has he been doing this all the time?”

“Yes. Is that normal?”

“No. He’s gone into overdrive. The condition’s pretty rare. It’s probably because of the stress he was under before he was shot and the adrenaline running through him at the time. His body thinks it’s vital for him to recover as quickly as possible.”

“But that’s good!” She looked at his grim face. “Isn’t it?”

“Not really. A lot of major organs were hit and he’s trying to repair them all at the same time and on a priority basis. That’s a huge strain on the system. It’s completely instinctive, a kill-or-cure reaction that happens when the Shifter believes there’s an immediate threat of death if he doesn’t recover at once. Because of enemies or natural disasters or something similar. You follow?”

She nodded. “But there’s no need for it! Arrhan’s dead and there’s no longer a danger!”

“His body doesn’t know that. The adrenaline triggered the syndrome and now it’s got to run its course.”

Wait it out, the medics had said. They hadn’t been lying, just not telling the whole truth.

“Couldn’t they sedate him, slow it down somehow?”

“That’s as risky as the overdrive. Shifters don’t react well to sedatives. That could arrest the fever entirely and then he won’t heal at all. He’ll just die.”

“Oh God!”

“He needs that fever. But that fever could burn him out. Catch-22.” He gave her a wry but not unsympathetic look. “Are you sorry I told you?”

Sierra drew a long, shuddering breath. “No. I’d rather know the truth. Thank you, Reece.”

“
De nada
.” He gave her a malicious smile. “It’s always fun to bring bad news. Gotta check on one of my youngsters who was stupid enough to go up against a lion alone and got himself munched on. See you later.”

She watched him go. Still unconscious, Ian made a guttural sound beside her. She bent over him, stroking the sweat-damp strands of his hair away from his face.

“Stay with me, Ian,” she whispered. “Stay with me. You can’t die. I couldn’t bear it.”

His eyes opened but they were blank and blind. He didn’t see her.

“I love you,” she said intensely. “I always have. That’s what you wanted to hear, isn’t it? But I never admitted it, not even to myself. I’m telling you now. Hear me. I love you.”

Segueing into the leopard, segueing back, endlessly convulsing, he didn’t hear.

She kept talking to him, as she had talked when he was fevered before. It had seemed to help then. Now it appeared to make no difference. Neither did her touch, but she held his hand anyway, uncaring that its texture changed from smooth skin to soft fur incessantly or that she had to be careful not to press too tightly upon his pads when his hand was a paw to avoid forcing his claws from their sheaths.

The medics came and went, their faces uncommunicative. The agonizing night wore on.

Her back ached from sitting without support cross-legged on the thin foam pad, but she didn’t dare to lie down. If she lay down, she might fall asleep. Illogically, she felt as if only her fixed attention was keeping Ian from slipping away forever. She knew it was irrational, but she couldn’t relinquish her vigil.

“Sierra,” he whispered.

She jerked out of the almost-trance she had fallen into, nearly toppling over. “Ian?”

His eyes were open and aware. He was seeing her.

“Oh God, Ian, you’re awake! And you’re not shifting anymore!”

He had stabilized into his human form. She wanted to fling her arms around him, hold him tight, but didn’t dare in case that hurt him or interfered with the healing process.

He frowned, his fingers tightening on hers. “What happened?”

“We won.”

His eyes widened as the memory came back, then he smiled. “Got the bastard.”

“You sure did.”

“Everything will be okay now.” He touched his chest. “He shot me, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but I think you’re recovering now.”

The gashes and bullet holes on his body were completely gone now, not even scars remaining. Only stitches marked where his wounds had been. But she didn’t know what might be going on inside him. He was still hot to the touch.

“I’ve got to find the medics. They said to tell them the minute there was a change.”

“Don’ let ’em keep you away,” he muttered, his voice slurring.

“Promise.”

She found the statuesque woman doctor talking to medics in the next section.

“Awake, is he? Excellent news.” Asha nodded to one of the medics, who headed for the cubicle at once. “Now I’d like you to go wash, eat and walk around a little bit.”

Sierra was stiff from her long vigil, but she didn’t want to leave Ian. “I’m staying with him!”

“Of course you may. But we have to do a few tests. Come back in half an hour.”

“All right,” she said reluctantly.

Dawn was just breaking as she made her way out of the tent. In the dim gray light she could see the shapes of wolves and lions prowling around the containment area where Arrhan’s followers were huddled. Arrhan’s body was gone, as were all the other bodies that had been scattered across the clearing. Taken away somewhere for burial, she guessed.

Ian was still human when she got back to him. The medic had removed his stitches and covered him with a blanket. When she touched his hand, his skin was definitely cooler. The fever seemed to be lessening.

“Overdrive, huh?” he murmured, smiling drowsily up at her. “How about that? Real good thing.”

“It could have killed you!”

“But it didn’t.” He yawned hugely. “Sleepy. You should sleep too. They said you were up all night watching over me.”

“I’ll sleep.”

He reached out to tug her mattress over so that it butted right up against his, then pulled her down to lie beside him.

“We both will. Together. The way it should be.”

She couldn’t help smiling. “Ian, this is supposed to be a hospital. There are people coming in and out of here all the time.”