Surviving Passion (25 page)

            Dan was mounted by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs. He slumped forward in the saddle, but still clutched his dagger tightly, urging the horse back toward the fray.

            Selena’s eyes widened. He couldn’t be re-engaging? The others saw him coming and assembled to Jake’s front. Cal exchanged subtle glances with Dan. Selena watched, feeling paralyzed again. Fear and incredulity clung in her throat as Dan rode for a pass at Jake’s back. For the third time since she’d known him, time slowed. The horse’s hooves thudded steadily on the ground. Looking like a beaten god, Dan readied himself. Just as he drew near, Cal sprang forward, slashing at Jake’s feet again and again.

            Jake was forced to jump up and back to avoid the blade just as another came down on him from above. Selena blinked and Jake was on the ground, his dark blood pooling around him. Just like that, it was over.

            Selena’s pulse roared in her ears and was deafening in the abrupt silence of the seconds that followed. She stood there dumbly, struggling against the pull of collapse. Forcing herself to breathe, her heart rate began, very slowly, to decrease. Tears of relief welled in her eyes as she stumbled toward them. Bear, Cal and Shane stood still, working to catch their breath as Selena had.

            When she drew near, Dan slumped forward in the saddle. His friends rushed forward to catch his limp frame as he slid from the horse. Selena ran to his side as they set him on the ground. She forced herself to blink away her tears as she examined his wounds. Her work was far from over. When she had found a suitable strip of cloth, Selena was able to tie off the shoulder wound, which was bleeding the most profusely.

            “Get him onto the dining room table,” she told the men. Her own voice sounded far away. As Cal and Bear lifted him, Selena saw Ben coming from the storeroom with the women and children following behind. Gina broke into a run and threw herself into Shane’s arms, clutching him desperately. He gently returned her embrace. Susan’s hand was on her heart as she held her daughter and watched her husband carry Dan up the stairs.

            Selena turned to follow them and Blaire was close behind. The men disappeared inside.

            “Jesus Christ,” Blaire whispered as her eyes fell on Clint’s mangled throat.

            Selena passed the body without a second glance and went inside. With some difficulty the men managed to lay Dan out on the long dining table.

            “Weighs a ton,” Cal remarked quietly before turning his eyes to Selena with trepidation. “He gonna be alright?”

            “I don’t know,” she told them honestly as she moved to his side again. “It’s going to be a war against infection. I need to clean him,” she told Blaire. “How fast can you get me boiled water?”

            “Twenty minutes,” the woman told her before bustling out.

            The men stared at her, waiting. She went to Cal and checked the arm wound he had received in the night. It wasn’t bad.

            “Bear, help Cal tie that arm,” she instructed. “I’ll have to work on it later.”

            As they turned to go she added, “When you’re done, there’s one man that got away. Find him. Kill him.”

            The pair of them walked out as Selena began to cut Dan’s clothing carefully away with her knife. She assessed his wounds. The shoulder was her primary worry, but there were many other lacerations and several nasty bruises that had already begun to purple.

            She had him covered when Blaire returned with the first giant pot of hot water and several small towels she had boiled in it. Selena appreciated the woman’s foresight. There was also a pair of tongs from the kitchen for removing the towels from the piping hot water.

            “Make sure no one comes in,” she requested. Selena did not want to be distracted and secretly, she was afraid this would be an emotional process after the traumas she had endured. She felt suddenly grateful for having such a reliable friend to help her with the task that lay ahead.

            Selena draped the towels on the edge of the pot to cool and tied her hair back to keep it out of the way. She first cleaned her own hands and face thoroughly before setting to work on his shoulder.

            Blaire busied herself with many tasks in the quest to bring some order back to the camp, but popped in frequently to check if Selena needed anything.

            “I am going to have to stitch this closed,” she told the older woman the next time she poked her head through the door.

            “Be right back,” Blaire answered before disappearing again.

            Within a few minutes, she returned with surprisingly suitable materials for the task. As Selena carefully stitched, she felt twin spikes of anger and sadness for what he had been forced to endure. She would never forget the haunting image of Dan struggling to rise from the dusty, blood-spattered ground. The flash of this memory tugged a quiet moan from her throat and caused her eyes to well again. She ground her teeth and tried to shake off these thoughts, fighting to keep her hands steady. This was not the time for emotional distractions. She had to focus on closing the wound as skilfully as possible. Once finished with it, Selena allowed herself to relax a little and turned to the rest of him. She tenderly wiped away the grime that covered his skin, studying every part of him as she cleaned, testing for deep tissue injuries or broken bones. At times, his ample muscle made this difficult to discern. Then Selena began to feel strangely guilty. She knew it was ridiculous after all they’d been through, but the job of healing him encouraged her to memorize his body, and it seemed like an unfair thing to do without his permission. But these thoughts as well were thrown quickly to the wayside. She had no time for such trivial nonsense when his life was still at risk. Carefully running her fingers along either side of his rib cage, Selena felt for any inconsistencies. There seemed to be no breakage and she was fairly sure no fractures either. That was a very good thing.

            By late evening, the room was aglow with lanterns and the water pot had been replaced five times. The process of bandaging and dressing the wounds had taken several hours. Though all gashes but the shoulder wound were fairly shallow, Selena was determined to be completely thorough. Blaire checked in again as the process neared its end.

            “How’s he lookin’?” the woman asked with concern, as she entered the room.

            “Lucky,” Selena told her, placing a dry towel under his head as a pillow. “Luckiest man alive. But it’s not over yet.”

            Blaire nodded gravely, adding, “That man’s tough as nails. I’ll put money down that he’s runnin’ around day after tomorrow.”

            Selena didn’t argue, but in truth, she was still worried. He hadn’t woken up at any point while she worked over him. It seemed he was more spent than even
she’d
imagined.

            “Do we have a litter to move him with?”

            Blaire nodded, “We’ve got a good sturdy one in storage. I’ll bring it to the door.”

            “The boys?”

            “They found him,” Blaire answered with a grim smile. “Back already.”

            “Good,” Selena said in earnest. Knowing that all of them were dead was the best justice she could hope for, but it was not nearly as satisfying as she would have liked. Every single one of them should have suffered much, much more.

            “Jimmy is dead,” Blaire informed her, looking regretful.

            “I know,” Selena answered with a weary sigh, bracing herself on the table and hanging her head.

            “You need to take care of yourself,” Blaire told her looking concerned.

            “Not yet. Can you get Cal back here? I should fix him up first.”

            Blaire did as she asked and soon Cal strode in, looking tired but satisfied. She gestured towards a chair and he collapsed in it gratefully.

            “How’s he doing?” Cal inquired with a nod in Dan’s direction.

            “Okay so far,” she told him as she cleaned the long slice in his arm. To his credit, he never winced. “This one doesn’t need stitches,” she informed him.

            “Dan is one crazy son of a bitch,” he said with a wag of his head as she worked.

            Selena’s brows knit together. She knew that they had heard Jake call him out, but only she had seen that fight. She wished every one of them had seen what she’d seen, that they’d witnessed the extent of his sacrifice. Just now though, she didn’t want to relive the past twenty-four hours.

            “So, what happened?” he asked her searchingly.

            She sighed in resignation and recounted the events as briefly as possible, excluding Clint’s story about his father and Dan’s. She would get to that later when she had more energy.

            Cal quirked a brow before inquiring, “You did that to Clint?”

            Selena didn’t answer. She wanted to shake the particularly savage moments from her mind. But his response surprised her.

            “Right on,” he said, genuinely.

            A crazy little laugh bubbled from her chest and she quickly stifled it, looking apologetic. He grinned back. How could he be so casual about the fact that she’d torn the man to pieces? Then she remembered that Cal had always felt the strongest distaste for Clint and that was
before
the betrayal.

            “Thanks,” she answered when she had collected herself.

            A silence passed before Cal fixed her with a worried look.

            “I know it’s probably not my place to ask this,” he fumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with the hand on his good arm and watching her carefully. “Are you okay? I mean … he didn’t …”

            “No,” Selena cut him off in a whisper. “He didn’t have the time.”

            Cal nodded, looking genuinely relieved.

            “You should get cleaned up and rest,” he told her more soberly as she finished with him.

            Selena nodded, casting her gaze back to where Dan lay on the table.

            “Can you find some lightweight clothes? He can be moved to his bed. Blaire’s bringing the litter.”

            He nodded and headed for the door.

            “Cal …”

            He turned.

            “
Very
carefully.”

            He grinned. “We’ll try not to drop him.”

            As Cal strode out, Selena returned to Dan’s side. She looked down on his beautiful face, half expecting his eyes to flash open and pin her with the piercing gaze she had come to know so well. But they remained closed and his breathing was steady and slow. Selena had never seen Dan anything less than perfectly alert. It was strange to see him looking so peaceful, so vulnerable and wounded. This twisted her heart. She reached out, intending to brush his face with her fingertips, but stopped herself. She owed it to him to wait until he was conscious before expressing her feelings. Selena took a long, deep breath. Abruptly she felt the need to be alone and to clear her head.

            The evening air was still warm when she walked down the steps and made her way to the swollen pond. Fearlessly, she shed her clothing and strode into the water until it reached her hips, then stood staring up at the myriad of glimmering stars in the sky.

            “Thank you,” she whispered reverently, closing her eyes.

            She let herself fall into the water’s cold caress. For the first time in her life, she felt completely safe. Selena revelled in the cleansing water that enveloped and surrounded her skin. It was hard not to feel like some divine force cradled her in its protective embrace, and she relaxed completely, surrendering to whatever lay ahead. She had never thought much about the idea of a God, but after such a vastly merciful outcome to the torturous events of the past two days, she had to wonder. Every moment felt like nothing less than a miracle.

After Selena had finished bathing and dressed in a clean set of clothes, she made her way back to the dining hall. Clint’s body was gone now. She entered and saw that Dan had been moved to his own cabin and Blaire was at work cleaning the table he had lain on. Everyone else was there as well, sitting scattered around the other two tables. Their faces were drawn, and Sara sat weeping softly in her chair, holding a very quiet Jay on her lap. An assortment of random food items was laid out before them and they ate slowly, conversing in respectfully low tones. Blaire looked up as she entered.

“You look much better,” she offered as Selena hurried for a plate. Then the woman frowned, “That’s right. When was the last time you ate?”

Selena shook her head in answer, feeling dizzy just thinking about food. She grabbed whatever was available and struggled not to take it in too fast. Aware that the others were watching her curiously, Selena ignored them. She knew they had a lot of questions, but didn’t look like they wanted to bother her until she had taken care of herself. They were tired as well, but Selena guessed that they needed each other’s comforting presence in order to feel secure again.

When Selena wasn’t quite so ravenous anymore, she turned her attention to the others, steeling herself for whatever their thoughts, questions or judgments might be. Blaire finished cleaning and joined the others. They were feeling Jimmy’s loss and she was sure they were concerned for Dan as well. It had been a close call for all of them, and they were deeply shaken by all that had happened and all that could have happened.

“I told them the story,” Cal said to Selena. He was quiet, but the others stopped to listen all the same.

“We owe everything to the both of you,” Bear put in sincerely, sounding like he was speaking for them all.

Selena wagged her head. “Seems like a lot of what happened, happened because of us.” Her eyes turned to Cal. “There was more to the story than what I told you. Clint was here to avenge his father.”

Even Sara’s attention was on her then. She recounted Clint’s story about the deaths of the two fathers.