Perilous Partnership (44 page)

“Jean? Alain?”

Jean rose to his feet at the sound of his name, searching Constance‟s face for any indication of the news she had to give him. “How is he?”

Constance gestured for them to come with her. “Let‟s go somewhere where we can talk more privately.”

Jean‟s heart pounded as he followed her down the hallway into her office.

“It‟s bad news, isn‟t it?” he asked. She would not have brought them here if she had good news.

“Not bad news,” Constance said, “not bad at all. Somewhat guarded still, in part because we don‟t understand why the bleed in Raymond‟s brain presented the way it did and so we don‟t know what that abnormality will do to his prognosis, but the surgery went well. The bleed had already stopped by the time we got him to the hospital here, so all we had to do was drain it. We did that by means of a small craniotomy directly above the place where the blood had pooled. He‟s in recovery now, but he will be in his own room soon.”

“You said there was part of it you didn‟t understand,” Jean said. “What part?”

“The fact that the bleed had repaired itself,” Constance said. “With the kind of head trauma he‟d had, we‟d normally expect to find the bleed still gushing when we went in, but the arteries had closed on their own, which is highly abnormal.”

“Jean fed from him as soon as we found him injured,” Alain said softly.

“That‟s what stopped the bleeding. We saw it time and again during the war, but it would seem to work on physical as well as magical injuries. It might be something for you to remember when you‟re dealing with injured wizards, especially if the partnerships grow more prevalent.”

Constance‟s eyes widened. “I couldn‟t help but notice that he had more than a few bite marks. While we had him on the table, we checked for other injuries, but other than some scrapes and bruises, he got away with the bump to his head and a broken arm. He‟s very lucky.”

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Jean was sure he would not call lying in a hospital bed with a hole in his head lucky, but he knew it could have been worse. He could have been crushed like Jude was. “So what happens now?”

“Now we wait for him to wake up,” Constance replied, “and then we‟ll see if you stopped the bleed and we relieved the pressure quickly enough or if there‟s some damage to his brain function. Just remember when he first wakes up that he‟s had a blow to the head, that he‟s been under anesthesia, and that he‟s on very strong pain medicine. If he seems a little out of it, that doesn‟t mean he‟s suffered brain damage. It means he‟s recovering from a double trauma and is doped up on meds to make that tolerable. It may be several days before we can truly determine if there‟s been a negative effect on his brain function, cognitive or magical.”

“Can I see him?” Jean asked.

“It will be a few minutes,” Constance replied, “but as soon as they have him settled in his room, you can go in.”

“You do realize that he won‟t be leaving until Raymond does,” Alain said with a smile for Constance.

Constance returned the grin. “I have a partner, even if our relationship is only a couple of weeks old. If it keeps getting stronger the way it has since Natalie first bit me, I can only imagine what it must be like for Jean.”

“One other thing to consider,” Jean said hoarsely, every fiber of his being aching to be with Raymond, “is that there have now been two, possibly three, cases of deliberate damage at l‟Institut. We don‟t know who‟s behind it—well, Raymond might, but he isn‟t in any state to tell us if he does—nor what they hope to gain by it. I don‟t think Raymond himself is the target, but he‟s vulnerable right now. I think it would be a good idea to only allow a very short list of people to visit until we know he‟s capable of defending himself again.”

“You, obviously,” Constance said, flipping open her laptop and pulling up Raymond‟s chart. “Who else? I‟ll make notes in his file so the people in the ward will know who to allow.”

“Alain and Orlando, Thierry and Sebastien,” Jean said immediately, “and Adèle Rougier, once Raymond wakes up. She‟s investigating the attacks and will want to talk to him.”

Constance nodded. “No one else will be allowed past the desk. Raymond will be in the ICU until he wakes up and we can determine if he‟s had any brain damage. Security is much tighter there.”

“Would you mind if I added to it?” Alain asked. “My wards might not be as good as Adèle‟s, but they‟ll hold.”

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“I‟ll have to check with the hospital administrators about that,” Constance said. “I understand your concern, but that‟s not a decision I can make.”

“Tell them the other option is to have a wizard guarding Raymond‟s door round-the-clock,” Jean said. “I think they‟ll prefer the simplicity of the wards.”

“I‟ll check with them,” Constance promised, glancing down when her pager went off. “Raymond is settled in his room. I can take you to see him now.”

Jean jumped to his feet, impatience radiating from every line of his body as Constance led them through the historic halls to the Intensive Care Unit.

“Now just remember,” Constance said, “he‟s bruised and he has tubes and cables running everywhere to monitor all his functions as he wakes up, and his head is swathed in bandages and his arm‟s in a cast. Don‟t let the sight of him throw you. Given everything he‟s been through, his condition is on the good side of normal.”

Jean was not entirely sure that reassured him, but he appreciated her efforts.

They stopped at the nurses‟ station so Constance could introduce Jean and Alain to the nurse on duty. To Jean‟s surprise, when they reached the door to Raymond‟s room, he hesitated. After having been so impatient to see his lover, now that the moment had come, he was nervous.

“Do you want me to wait out here?” Alain asked.

“He‟s your friend too,” Jean said, his protest sounding weak even to his own ears.

“That he is, but he‟s far more than that to you,” Alain said, “and as soon as he recovers, he‟ll be even more.”

Jean looked at Alain sharply, but Alain simply smiled. “Go see him. You‟ll feel better when you hear him breathing and can feel his heart beating beneath your hand. I‟ll go let everyone know he made it through surgery and is recovering.”

“Alain,” Jean said, stopping the wizard‟s departure. “Please, come in with me. Raymond will need all his friends to get through this, not just me. The others can wait a few minutes longer to hear that he‟s going to be all right.”

“If that‟s what you want,” Alain agreed, releasing the magic he had gathered in preparation for the displacement spell. He gestured for Jean to go in. “I‟m right behind you.”

Taking a deep breath and ignoring the odors of blood and disinfectant, Jean pushed open the door and walked inside. As Constance had warned, Raymond lay motionless on the bed, tubes running out of his mouth and nose, nodes attached to his forehead and chest in various places to monitor brain function and pulse and who knew what. The bandage that covered most of his head was pale against what remained of Raymond‟s dark hair. He had an IV in one arm

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that pumped fluids and probably drugs into his body. Bite marks covered his neck and chest, fresh ones and older, partially healed ones, scattered in and around the bruises that discolored his skin. The other arm was encased in a bulky plaster cast. Jean was tempted to lift the sheet to examine the rest of Raymond‟s body, as if he could somehow catch an injury the doctors had missed, but he would wait until Alain had left for that. Instead he listened to the hiss of the respirator and prayed it was a precaution rather than a necessity.

Needing a connection to Raymond, he pulled a stool up to the side of the bed and clasped Raymond‟s fingers gently.

It was too much to hope that the touch would somehow be enough to pull Raymond from his drug-induced sleep, but Jean swore he could hear a change in Raymond‟s breathing, as if his lover had been on his guard, even unconscious, and could only now relax. “Rest,” Jean murmured. “I‟m here now to watch your back.”

“Guard his dreams,” Alain said, equally softly.

Jean looked up at him, his question in his eyes.

“It‟s something Orlando always says to me at night,” Alain said, flushing a little at the realization that he had spoken aloud. “He promises to guard my dreams since vampires don‟t need sleep the way mortals do. When we got him back from Serrier, I knew everything would come right in the end when he whispered that to me after we got home. Even after he woke up, part of me feared he wouldn‟t remember, that he‟d be changed somehow. He didn‟t recognize me right away, and that added to it, but when he told me to rest, he‟d guard my dreams, I knew we‟d make it.”

“That sounds like Orlando,” Jean agreed. He turned back to Raymond, thinking how much he wanted the same bond with Raymond that Alain and Orlando shared. “If you think it will make a difference, I‟ll guard his dreams and anything else he‟ll trust me with.”

“Then you‟ll be guarding everything he is and has,” Alain promised. “You scared him on the island with a commitment he didn‟t understand and wasn‟t ready for, but it doesn‟t make him love you less. And he understands a bit better now.”

“He told you?”

Alain chuckled. “No, but it didn‟t take a genius to figure out where the questions were coming from. Don‟t worry. I won‟t tell anyone. If you choose to keep your vow private, I‟ll respect that.”

“Merci. I seem to be saying that a lot recently,” Jean said.

Alain shrugged. “I‟m pretty sure there comes a point when such things are understood between friends. Are you okay now for me to go update everyone

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else? I know Raymond is used to thinking of himself as a loner and a recluse, but you both have more friends than you may realize.”

“It‟s something we‟re coming to see,” Jean said. “I‟ll be fine. Let everyone know we appreciate their concern.”

“I‟m going to send Thierry back until we get the hospital‟s decision on the wards,” Alain said, “just so you know. He won‟t come in unless you invite him.

He‟ll just make sure no one else disturbs you.”

Alain disappeared before Jean could say thank you again. Jean turned back to Raymond, still motionless on the bed. “I told you they were our friends.”

He fell silent after that, all the words he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

Careful not to disturb any of the tubes or wires, he stroked Raymond‟s cheek, feeling the stubble of two days without shaving. He wondered if Raymond had slept in that time or if he had pushed himself as he had done during the war, subsisting on catnaps between shifts. “You don‟t get to do that anymore,” Jean said softly. “You have to take care of yourself, because if you don‟t, I‟m going to take care of you, and you may not like that as much as you think you will.

No more scaring me like this. No more running into condemned corridors. I knew that wing was evil from the moment we stepped foot in it, but of course you didn‟t listen. You had to go running down it like it was the safest place in the city.”

His voice broke as he spoke, though no tears could ever fall, that sign of grief taken from him when he was changed. “You have to wake up,” he went on, clearing his throat. “You have to open your eyes and let me tell you that I love you. I know I said it before you left to come home, but you can‟t keep me from saying it again.”

A knock on the door drew his attention to Thierry standing on the other side, peering through the glass. Jean motioned for him to come inside.

“Any change?” Thierry asked.

“Alain only left two minutes ago,” Jean protested.

Thierry laughed. “Yeah, but Raymond has been redefining the possible for so long that I figured he‟d be awake and raring to go already. Adèle says Raymond brought Leighton in through the wards, but that the other person, the person who collapsed the wing of the abbey, came through on their own without changing the wards, so whoever it is, it‟s an inside job.”

Jean‟s face tightened. “Then I‟m glad only you and Alain and Orlando and Sebastien are on the approved list to see Raymond. Until we catch whoever it was, I don‟t trust anyone but the four of you, Adèle, and his doctor.”

“That‟s probably wise,” Thierry agreed. “Give him a few more hours and then make sure you feed from him again, even if it‟s just lightly. He‟ll get

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better faster that way. You remember what happened after the Rite d‟équilibrage went wrong. They weren‟t sure I‟d ever wake up or what shape I‟d be in if I did, and I woke up right as rain the moment Sebastien‟s fangs broke my skin.”

“They still had you on bed rest for a week to be sure,” Jean reminded him.

“But I was awake when they weren‟t sure I would be and my magic was intact when they were sure I‟d burned myself out fighting the elemental magic,”

Thierry insisted. “In the grand scheme of possible outcomes, I couldn‟t have asked for better when I got Sebastien as a lover as well as partner out of the scare. I know you fed from Raymond at l‟Institut, so give his body a few hours to recover from everything, but don‟t wait too long. Let your partnership bond help him heal.”

Jean nodded and Thierry withdrew, leaving him alone with Raymond again. He looked down at the hand lying so still in his. It would be so easy to lift it to his lips and bite the skin at the base of Raymond‟s hand, where the artery pulsed so close to the surface. The thought that his bite might be enough to wake Raymond from his stupor tempted Jean at more levels than he cared to contemplate, but he resisted the urge for the moment. It had been only a few hours since he had fed before, and while it certainly had seemed to help Raymond at the time, his body had already undergone significant trauma. Jean could be patient a few more hours before he tried again. Closing his eyes, he started to rest his head against Raymond‟s thigh before realizing he had no idea if that would hurt his lover worse. Lifting the sheet, he saw only bruises and the bite marks he had left on Raymond‟s legs, reassuring him on that score.