Tressa's Treasures (The King's Jewel Book 1) (19 page)

"One more time, Matt," he said. He leaned over so his ear was above the younger man's mouth. Matt mumbled again.

"Face," Alexander said, straightening.

"Good lad. Don't try to talk anymore."

I had tea bags filled with honeysuckle root and dried pinkberry leaves I had brought with me from Faery. I dipped two of them into a cup of the hot water and then squeezed out the excess with my fingertips, infusing them with the oil from my skin. Then I laid one on each of his eyes.

I sang an invocation as I soaked two more, repeated the process. This time I broke them open and spread the contents over the length of his jaw.

I put his nose back in place with a quick snap. My heart jumped to my throat when he yelped in pain. I continued my invocation but sang it softly, like a lullaby, trying to make it sound comforting while I held my fingers on either side of the break. I willed it to heal, again using my essence to begin the process and then pulling back to let his body do the rest.

"You have a beautiful voice," Matt said, his own voice groggy and heavy.

"He speaks," I teased, happy to see my ministrations were having the desired effect. I looked over at Alexander. "I’ll need your help to wrap his ribs."

Alexander nodded. I took a deep breath as I moved down the side of the table to work on Matt's chest, but my legs buckled beneath me. Alexander caught me before I could fall, helping me slide into one of the dining room chairs.

He knelt before me, looking up at my face. "Are you okay?" His brow was creased with concern.

"I'm almost done," I said, evading the question.

"You look terrible." Alarm rang in his voice. "If I had known—"

"I will recuperate," I assured him. "I just need to take care of his ribs and then I'm done."

Alexander hesitated, reluctant to let me continue, but then nodded.

He cut off Matt's shirt to save him the pain of removing it. I waited until he dropped the shirt onto the floor before I stood. It took all my effort to get up from the chair.

I reached for a bottle of pinkberry tonic, but Alexander covered my hand with his to stop me from picking it up.

"You've done enough. I'll wrap the ribs, I've done it before."

"We don't know how severely broken they are. If I get them partially healed, we won't need to worry about a rib puncturing a lung."

He looked at me, hesitating.

"Tressa, I'm scared for you. I really don't want you to do this."

With my free hand I reached up to pat his cheek, meaning it as a teasing gesture. However, when my hand shook, I nodded to concede his point.

"I won't do but a tiny bit more."

I smiled when he sighed but agreed; he was just beginning to learn how stubborn I could be.

I rubbed in the tonic, using only the smallest amount of healing energy. When I finished, Alexander refused to wrap Matt's ribs until he had carried me up the stairs and tucked me into my bed—showing me just how stubborn
he
could be.

The next morning, I awoke to find Alexander curled up behind me with his arm wrapped around my waist, holding me close against him. I kept still, not wanting to wake him while I enjoyed the way our bodies fit together: the feel of his chest moving against my back with each breath and how he clung to me as if afraid to lose me while he slept.

He stirred too quickly. He always seemed to know when I awoke, no matter how still I tried to be. I rolled over to stare at him.

His eyes remained closed. I took advantage of the moment to memorize his face. His dark wavy hair fell across his forehead. A trace of dark stubble covered his cheeks. I ran a finger down the line of his profile and across the scar on his jaw.

"Woman, what are you doing?" he grumbled as he stretched, his voice still groggy with sleep.

"Admiring you," I said, stating the obvious. He hooted with laughter. "How was the patient when you left him?" I asked.

My question seemed to remind him of his concern for me. He sat up, fully awake now, and began his own examination.

"What about you? Are you okay?"

I rolled onto my back and stretched my hands overhead. "Aye, fine, but hungry. I must eat something to finish regaining my strength."

"Why didn't you warn me what would happen to you?" he asked, sounding angry.

"I've never tried to heal a human like that before, so I didn't know. It took two, almost three days to make your bracelet, so that had a more subtle effect on me. Plus, your fae blood may have helped the healing power work."

He lay back down and pulled me onto his shoulder.

"As long as you're okay," he said.

"Xander, honey, the patient?"

"He's in your guestroom. I checked in on him about an hour ago. He was asleep."

"And Sophia?"

"She spent the night with Kendra. She's still there."

I settled back to enjoy cuddling for a while longer. "Did you talk to Matt about what happened?"

"Yeah, a little. It seems he's worried about Holly being back with her husband. He has it bad for that girl."

I nodded, in agreement.

"He's been watching her, trying to make sure Fred doesn't hit her again. He's even been hanging around her house. It seems the husband took offense to Matt's interest; he and two of his friends jumped him last night. Trying to teach him a lesson, I guess."

"Damn. I hope Tommy wasn't one of them."

"The cop? Matt said he wasn't."

"So why not go to the hospital?"

"From what I gather, Fred works there, for one. For another, he didn't want to bring in the law or any other undue attention to the situation. He’s afraid it would come back on Holly. He’s probably right to be worried."

"Why?"

"Matt said he overheard an argument before Fred and his buddies came down on him. Fred accused Holly of sleeping around. Fred thinks she's been sleeping with Matt."

I sprung up, horrified by his words. "Oh my god, we need to check on Holly. If Fred really thinks she's sleeping with Matt, there's no telling what he'll do."

"Hold up," he said, wrapping his hand around my wrist to stop me from leaving. "We will, but it was the middle of the night and my gut tells me she's okay. For right now, anyway. I would have called the police right away if I’d have thought otherwise."

The conviction in his eyes made me relax back down onto the bed.

"I was thinking,” he continued. “Now that Eileen's gone, Holly doesn't have a safe place to live away from her husband. From what you told me, her parents are on his side."

I nodded. "Aye, it seems that way."

"Why don't you tell her she can stay with you? If she has somewhere to go, maybe she'll do it."

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"

Matt and I had been encouraging Holly to leave without giving her a place to go. The idea was so simple, so obvious; I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it earlier.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand and called her number. It went straight to voicemail, so I left a message asking her to call me. In case Fred screened her messages, I didn't leave any details.

"If she doesn't call back by this afternoon, I'm going to ask Tommy to check on her," I said.

We lay quietly for a bit. Finally, my conscience wouldn't let me ignore my patient any longer.

"I need to check on Matt, but with all the laying of hands I did on him yesterday, nothing will camouflage my appearance anymore."

"Yeah, I noticed he reacted to it last night."

"Perhaps you should warn him before I go into the room. Come on, let's go."

"Not until I get some breakfast in you. Wait here; I'll bring you something. I'll talk to him while you eat."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ALEXANDER

When I entered the room, Matt was trying—with difficulty—to rearrange himself in the bed. I quickly went to help him. He sucked in air through his teeth when he leaned forward to let me prop his head with some pillows.

"Damn, that hurts," he said as he slowly leaned back.

I waited until he looked as comfortable as he was going to get before starting.

"Matt, we need to talk about Tressa. Do you remember anything from after I brought you here last night?"

"Not much—at some point I started hallucinating or something." He touched his jaw, testing it in various spots. "I thought they broke it. Thank god it's just sore."

"That's what we need to talk about. It
was
broken, along with your hand and a couple of ribs. I brought you here last night because Tressa isn't who you think she is," I said. I thought for a second and sighed; this would not be easy to explain.

"I know this is going to sound nuts, so bear with me... Tressa is a faery." I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for his reaction. He had always been good with accepting my hunches; maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"You're telling me your girlfriend is a faery?" Matt laughed. He grabbed around his waist and grimaced as his body shook. "Stop it man, it hurts to laugh."

I nodded.

"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. But your jaw was broken last night, and now it isn't." I held up my right arm. "It may not look it, but she fixed my hand, too."

"Come on, Xander, you're making me think you're the one who got hit in the head. You think Tressa is some kind of magical creature?"

"I take offence to the 'creature' part," Tressa said as she entered the room carrying a steaming mug.

Matt's mirth died. His eyes bulged and his sore jaw fell open. After a silent few seconds, he turned to gape at me.

I completely understood Matt's reverential expression. Tressa was breathtaking. She glimmered like a fine jewel and moved so gracefully she nearly floated. I still couldn't take my eyes off her, even after all this time.

"How's the patient today?" she asked, setting the mug on the nightstand next to Matt.

"Ugh," Matt tried to talk but merely grunted. He could only gawk at Tressa while she assessed his wounds. She spoke to him during her examination in a soothing tone, using her voice to help him relax.

She inspected his hand last, rolling her finger over the fractures. Satisfied with what she felt, she removed the splint and replaced it with a sling she tied around Matt's neck.

"All things considered, you're healing pretty well. I'm sorry I couldn't finish the process," she said.

I stiffened as I started to protest; I wouldn't let her hurt herself again, especially with Matt looking so much better. She waved me off to indicate that she wasn't intending to do any more for him, and I relaxed.

Matt turned to me, finally finding his voice. "My god," he said. "I wasn't hallucinating!"

I refrained from saying I told him so, settling instead for a smirk.

"How long have you known?" Matt asked, still wide-eyed.

"Not long."

Tressa continued with her doctoring. "I brought a tonic for you. It will help your bones heal. You should eat soft foods for a day or two. How is the pain?"

"Umm, not bad I guess," Matt conceded.

"There's ibuprofen at my house," I said.

"That's a good idea. He’ll need to take something; we're going up to the Manor House. We'll have lunch there."

"No, Tressa. I don’t want to impose on your grandmother. I'll just have Xander take me home," Matt protested.

"Have lunch first. I want to keep an eye on you for a few more hours, and I'll need you around when I explain to my grandmother why I opened your eyes. It would be best if she could see you to help her understand the extent of the problem."

She handed Matt the mug and encouraged him to drink. He took a tentative sip.

"This tastes good," he said with surprise. He took another swallow. "Opened my eyes, is that what you call it?" Matt asked.

"Why don't you get that medicine, Xander? Matt and I can chat while you're gone." She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head toward the bedroom door, signaling to give her some time alone with Matt.

"So did you break a rule or something?" Matt asked as I was leaving the room.

"Many," Tressa said.

Two hours later, the three of us sat with Órlaith in the living room of the Manor House. The women had insisted that Matt lay on the sofa because of his injuries. Though Matt had protested it wasn't necessary, the tension in his face relaxed when he lay down.

While Tressa explained what had happened the evening before, I amused myself by watching Matt. The younger man attempted to scrutinize Órlaith furtively. I understood from experience the shock of seeing the regal Sidhe Queen Mother sitting in place of the nice elderly woman he thought he knew.

I turned my attention to Tressa, looking for any residual effect from her ordeal the previous night. True to her word, she looked fully recovered.