Immortal Moon (12 page)

“It’s okay,” Anya answered the young
attendant, her voice soothing. “It looks worse than it is. I just
need to see a med-mage if possible.”

The attendant smiled at her. “Absolutely.
I’ll just need to see your credentials.”

Before Jarrett could respond by showing his
Kukri tattoo, Anya said, “I don’t have any.”

The attendant shook his head. “I’m so sorry,
I can’t help you. We have a strict policy. If it were life or death
I could overlook it, but…”

“I have credentials,” Jarrett growled,
annoyed.

He shifted Anya’s weight again so that he
could push his right wrist out to the man. Both the attendant and
Anya looked down. It was, of course bare. But Jarrett opened his
senses and pushed a little power through his body, focusing on his
wrist. Within seconds a black-lined tattoo appeared on his skin.
The fleur-de-lis over crossed swords proved he was a Black Blade
Guard agent, the curved blades of the swords denoted his position
in the Kukri division.

“I’m Agent Jarrett Campbell, Kukri division,
and I am authorizing treatment of this civilian,” he said, his
voice polite, but firm. “I wish to see the highest ranking med-mage
on duty, please.”

The young attendant nodded. “Yes sir. Go
through this door, take the first hall on the left, then the second
hall on the right and the trauma room is at the end of that hall.
I’ll scry back and let the healers know you are on your way.”

“Thank you,” Anya called back to the
attendant as Jarrett carried her through the door behind the
desk.

“Should have just walked around the building
to the trauma entrance to start with. It would have gotten us in
quicker,” Jarrett mumbled under his breath.

Anya shook her head. “Give the boy a break.
He was just doing his job. Speaking of jobs, why is your Blade
tattoo invisible?”

Jarrett stopped for a moment, mid-stride and
stared down at her. “Three words. Covert. Spy. Assassin.”

Anya stared at him blankly for a moment, and
then closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Oh, yeah.”

Resuming their journey down the maze of
halls, Jarrett explained, “There are several covert divisions of
the Black Blade Guard. All those agents have ID tattoos that are
specially spelled so that they appear only if the agent pulses
energy through them with the intent to show them, or in case of the
agent’s death.”

“That makes sense. I had never thought about
it. I guess any time an agent goes undercover they get the same
spell on their tat?”

“Yeah,” Jarrett nodded. “But for regular
agents that have to identify themselves on a regular basis, it’s a
nuisance, so they don’t use it. And it looks like we are here.” He
indicated a set of double doors a few yards away.

Anya let out a sigh and wiggled
uncomfortably in his arms. “Yay. I’m getting a little tired of
being hauled around.”

Jarrett, on the other hand, wasn’t the least
bit tired of holding her close. Vampiric strength and stamina came
in handy sometimes. He was eager to get her healed. Though he knew
the bruises and blood looked worse than what they were, he didn’t
like seeing her in pain. He was also a little anxious about the
muscles in her leg. A few minutes, or even hours, probably wouldn’t
make a difference in whether or not her leg could be healed
thoroughly and properly, but he didn’t want to take any
chances.

He pushed through the double doors into a
large room with a circular desk in the center and narrow beds
separated by curtains lining three of the walls. A tall,
dark-skinned man looked up from where he stood near the desk and
started towards them.

“Can I help y…Anya? What happened?” Then
dark fury flashed in his eyes as he moved his gaze to Jarrett.
“What did you do to her?”

“Don’t be a pratt, Luca,” Anya said from
Jarrett’s arms. “He didn’t do anything to me. I was at Pete’s Fight
House. I had a match with a dude the size of a building. I
won.”

Luca stared at her a long moment, then,
ignoring her quirky smile as she said the last word, he shot a
dagger stare at Jarrett. “You let her go up against an opponent
that big? What were you thinking?”

If Jarrett hadn’t thought the same thing a
hundred times over the last half hour, he would have punched Luca
in the mouth. Instead he said, “Since you know her name, I’m
assuming you’ve met her. So I’m going to give you a moment to mull
over how idiotic that question is.”

Luca glared at him. “Fair enough. Sorry
Anya, I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t make your own
decisions.”

“Yeah, I know. Look, I know I’m not actually
authorized to get treatment here, but…”

Luca shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.
I run the place, so I get to decide who is authorized. I’ll take
care of you myself.”

Jarrett said, “If you don’t mind, I’d like
her to be treated by the highest level med-mage on duty.”

Luca shot him a withering look. “That’s me.
I’m the highest ranking med-mage in Nash. Now if you’ll let me take
her, we can get started.” He held out his arms.

Unconsciously Jarrett pulled Anya tighter
and took a step back. “I’ll carry her wherever you need.”

“That really isn’t necessary.” Luca’s voice
had a hard edge.

Jarrett assessed the other vampire. He was
tall, but still a few inches shorter than Jarrett, broad shouldered
and muscular. He could possibly be a force to be reckoned with, but
Jarrett bet the man had never had any hand-to-hand combat training.
He was, after all, just a doctor. If push came to shove, Jarrett
was confident he could take the med-mage.

“Yes, I really think it is,” Jarrett said,
his tone brooking no argument.

“Seriously, you two, all this testosterone
flying around has me giddy with excitement, but do you think you
could put a cork in it. My leg hurts like a bitch and I’d like to
get it healed so I can walk out of here before the two of you pull
out a measuring stick,” Anya groused.

“Sorry,” they said in unison, and Jarrett
felt like a heel. But he still wasn’t handing her over.

Luca sighed. “Follow me.”

Jarrett followed Luca to one of the narrow
beds and laid Anya down on it.

“Thank you,” Luca said. “You can wait over
there.” He pointed to a couple of chairs near one wall.

Jarrett walked behind the bed, crossed his
arms, and leaned against the wall. “I’ll stay, thanks.”

Anya looked at him and rolled her eyes,
clearly indicating she thought he was acting like a child. But, she
turned to Luca and said, “It’s okay, he can stay.”

“Okay,” the med-mage said, obviously unhappy
with the situation. He pulled the curtain around them so they had a
modicum of privacy.

“Pete checked my leg and said there was a
torn muscle, but he advised I have a full diagnostic,” Anya
said.

“Okay. Let me check you out first, then
we’ll get you healed,” Luca told her, his voice tender.

As Jarrett watched, the other man ran his
hands over Anya, making notes on a pad of hemp paper. Although it
was all very clinical, Jarrett felt like the jealousy raging
through him was much more justified now than it had been with Pete.
He didn’t know how well Anya and the med-mage knew each other, but
it was clear Luca had feelings for her that were more than just
friendly.

But then, Jarrett really couldn’t justify
his jealousy, could he? Anya wasn’t his. If this man wanted Anya,
it was her problem, not Jarrett’s. He still didn’t like it. But
most of all, he didn’t like feeling like this. He hadn’t felt
jealous or possessive of a woman in centuries. And now wasn’t the
time to feel it again. Not with this woman.

Even if he did want to be with someone for
more than a few days at a time, it couldn’t be Anya. She was a
norm, he was a vampire. She would grow old and die in just a blink
of his eye. He had absolutely no business getting attached to her.
Yet as he stood there and watched her talking to the med-mage,
Jarrett knew it was too late. He was already attached. All he could
do at this point was go with it, and once he left Nash, make sure
his work didn’t bring him back for a decade or two.

“Pete was right in his assessment,” Luca
said, breaking Jarrett out of his musings. “You do have a torn
muscle, but I can heal it with no problem. You don’t have a
concussion and your other injuries are minor. I’m going to have one
of the other healers work on your cuts and bruises so I can focus
on your leg, is that okay?”

“Sure. Thank you,” Anya said, smiling up at
him.

Luca stepped beyond the curtain for a
moment, then was back, a female healer following him.

Jarrett’s abilities to manipulate energy
were minimal, and he couldn’t normally sense when magic was being
used like some high-level mages could, yet as the two med-mages
worked on Anya, he could feel palpable shifts of energy inside the
tiny cubicle.

The woman first rubbed a salve over Anya’s
cuts, and Jarrett assumed it was to clean and disinfect them. Then,
she placed her hands over each cut and bruise, one by one, and
pushed power through her hands. When she lifted her hands away, the
bruise was gone.

“It’s good that you got here so quickly,”
the female healer said after removing the first, darkest bruise.
“I’ll be able to heal these completely. The deepest bruises might
have a slight yellowish tinge for a few hours, but all
discoloration should be faded by morning. There shouldn’t be any
pain at all. If you had waited, that would not have been the case.
Once a bruise is a few hours old, it becomes more difficult to
heal.”

Anya turned her head and looked at him. He
flashed a grin and a wink that clearly said ‘I told you so.’
Translating it well, she stuck her tongue out at him and turned
back to pay attention to the healers.

While the woman healed the smaller injuries,
Luca worked on Anya’s leg. He placed his hands over it and seemed
to be pushing bursts of energy through his hands as he moved them
up and down. After about half an hour, he pulled his hands away to
reveal Anya’s ankle. It was back to its normal color and size.

“Okay, Baby Girl, you are all done,” Luca
said, pulling her pants leg down and flashing her a flirty smile
that made Jarrett’s urge to punch him in the teeth come back with a
vengeance. “It’s healed and the pain should be gone, but that was a
fairly serious tear, so the muscle will be weak for a little while.
I want you to stay off it for about twelve hours. After that, you
should be back to normal. We can put you in a room here until you
feel you can walk back to the pub tomorrow.”

Jarrett pushed away from the wall. “I’ll
take her home.”

Luca didn’t look at Jarrett. “You’ll need to
stay off your leg, completely. That means you’ll need someone to
help you to the restroom and bring you food and drink. You’re
better off here with the nurses than at home where everyone is busy
working.”

Jarrett pushed away from the wall. “I’ll be
taking care of her, no need to worry.”

Anya looked up and smiled at him and his
heart leapt in his chest when she took his hand in hers. “It’s
okay, Luca, Jarrett will make sure I stay off my foot and am well
taken care of.”

“Well, okay then,” he turned to go, and then
turned back. “You were right to come here tonight.”

She crinkled her nose. “To be honest, if
Jarrett hadn’t insisted I come here, I would have gone to the
public clinic down the road.”

Horror flashed across his face. “I’m glad
you didn’t. I know which one you are talking about. There are very
talented healers there, but none that can do deep healing. You
would have been sent across town. That kind of delay would have
made the healing take longer and be more painful. You would have
likely been on crutches for several days, if not weeks. Look,
Sweetness, if you ever need healing again, come here and ask for
me. If I’m not here, have me called in.”

She smiled up at him. “Thank you, Luca. That
is so kind.”

“Anything for you, Baby Girl. I have to keep
my favorite bartender able to pour drinks and listen to my
whining.” He walked over to her, bent to drop a kiss on her
forehead, and then left the tiny cubicle. Jarrett stared after him,
fists clenched at his side.

After leaving
the clinic, Jarrett carried Anya back to his boat, and then went
out to get them some food. After they ate the fish tacos he’d
purchased from a vendor’s stand on the dock, he helped her shower
away the dirt, sweat, and blood. Then they settled into bed.

They lay there for what seemed like a long
time. To Jarrett, lying with Anya snuggled into his arms, neither
of them asleep or talking, just quietly being together, felt more
intimate than making love. It was something he’d never experienced
before, and he didn’t dislike it. But, after a while, the question
that had been burning all night at the back of his mind made him
break the sweet, peaceful silence.