Chapter Six
Bannack was nearly at the end of the main street of the locked settlement when the door to a building beside him opened and Ciyrs stepped out. He was so relieved that for a moment he wasn't even able to move, but when the healer started in the opposite direction, Bannack reached out and grabbed ahold of his shirt.
"Come on," he said, starting to pull him down the street back toward the house where Pyra and Lynx were.
"What's wrong?" Ciyrs asked.
"Lynx has been injured. We need to get there as fast as we can. I'll explain on the way."
Apparently understanding the urgency of the situation, Ciyrs started running beside Bannack, weaving in and out of the other warriors and the people locked in time as they made their way back down the street. Many of them shouted after them, but they didn't pause. As they ran, Bannack explained as concisely as he could what had happened to Lynx and what Loralia had told them about the venom. He was relieved that the healer had his bag still strapped across him and was already digging through its contents by the time they reached the front door to the house.
Bannack could hear Pyra and Lynx still struggling on the floor above them and despite the ferocity of the sounds, he was relieved because it meant that the huge lead warrior had managed to maintain control over Lynx and the infected man had not broken free and killed him. As long as they could hear the grunting and thrashing, he knew that they still had time.
They climbed the stairs two at a time, and when they entered the bedroom, Ciyrs dropped his bag to the floor. He held a strange-looking contraption in one hand.
"Where was he injured?" he asked.
Pyra's eyes snapped up to him as if he hadn't even noticed that the other men had come into the room.
"His back. I don't know how bad it is."
"Bannack says that it took several minutes for the reaction to start."
Pyra let out a loud grunt and forced Lynx back down onto the ground. By now both men had bloody gashes in their arms and Pyra had blood streaming down his face from where Lynx had apparently reared up and broken his nose.
"Yes. He didn't start acting like this until the Covra were already gone and I pointed out that he was bleeding."
"Hopefully that means that they didn't get too much venom in him and that I'll be able to get it out easily."
"Have you ever heard of this before?" Bannack asked from the doorway.
"No, but I've dealt with other venomous creatures. I'll do the best I can. Pyra, when you feel like you have enough control, flip him over onto his belly. Bannack, come around the side and as soon as he's over, grab onto one of his arms and help Pyra hold him. This is going to be painful, so make sure you are holding him down hard enough and expect some screaming."
He said it all with such calmness that Bannack almost thought that Ciyrs was joking, but when he looked at him, he could see the intensity in the healer's eyes and he knew that he was absolutely serious. Bannack hurried around to Lynx's other side, poised to help Pyra hold him down. A moment later Pyra released the hold that he had on Lynx with his knee in his chest and let go of one of his arms so that he could flip the man over onto his belly. Lynx thrashed, nearly forcing Pyra back, but Bannack grabbed hold of him and together they were able to fight him back to the ground.
They held him in place long enough for Ciyrs to press the contraption to the long gash down Lynx's back and start turning the handle at the top. Lynx let out a primal scream and his entire body tensed. Ciyrs turned the handle faster, seeming to intensify the drawing of the venom the more the warrior responded. Finally Lynx's body relaxed and he seemed to collapse onto the floor. Bannack could see his eyelids fluttering over his closed eyes and hear his labored breath, but his body didn't move even as he and Pyra started to ease their grip on him.
"You can let go," Ciyrs told them, seeming to notice how cautiously and reluctantly the two men were releasing their hold on Lynx, "He's going to be asleep for a good while. I'm going to have to heal him up now, and all of that takes a lot out of you." Ciyrs gestured for his bag and Pyra handed it to him, "Where do you want me to take him? He's going to have to have somewhere to lie down."
Bannack watched as Ciyrs started pulling bandages and healing ointments out of his bag and setting them on the floor beside Lynx's prone figure.
"Here," Pyra finally said.
Bannack and Ciyrs both look up at him sharply.
"Here?" Ciyrs asked, "Why?"
Pyra gestured at the bed against the wall, the one with the woman that Bannack had completely forgotten even existed. It looked even stranger now to see her lying there, not reacting in any way to everything that had just happened around her.
"He says that she is his mate."
"But she's…"Ciyrs started to protest and Pyra held up a hand to stop him.
"I'm well aware," Pyra said, his voice sounding tired as if the fight with Lynx had taken everything out of him physically and emotionally, "but it is none of my business who he thinks is his mate. We all know what it's like when we first found our mate. It might not have been the easiest thing in the world, and it might not have made terribly much sense at the time, but we knew. Even those of us who tried to deny it," he shot a glare at Bannack, who tried to pretend he didn't see it, "and if being with Eden and watching all of you find your mates has taught me anything, it is that we never know what's going to happen. If he thinks that this woman is supposed to be his mate, I think that he should be here with her. If nothing else, make him more comfortable so he heals better."
Bannack and Ciyrs nodded, and Bannack could only imagine that the healer was thinking back, just as he was, about when he found his own mate. It wasn't an easy process, and one that changed his life from the very first moment that it started. As hard as he had tried to deny his immediate and intense love for Loralia from the first time that he saw her, he had felt the changes that came over him even before he had laid eyes on her. The intensity, aggression, and anger that had coursed through him had been like nothing he had ever experienced, and though he was able to explain those feelings away as being a part of his reaction to the impending battle, he had not been able to give the same explanation to the overwhelming arousal that had come over him as he approached the underground mirror realm and did not ease until he had finally accepted his love for Loralia and completed his bond with her.
If Lynx had experienced anything like Bannack had when he first met Loralia when he saw Rain, he could only imagine how difficult it was to compound that with not knowing if he would ever see her alive, and then to be infected by the Covra. Being near Rain was the best thing for him as he went through his challenging recovery.
"If the two of you could step back a little," Ciyrs said, holding his hands out to guide Bannack and Pyra back away from Lynx, "I'm going to heal him now."
Bannack and Pyra followed the instruction, taking a few steps back away from Lynx so that Ciyrs could kneel closer to Lynx's prone form. He was not breathing as hard now and his eyes had started to settle, but Bannack knew that wouldn't last. Ciyrs could heal virtually any injury or illness if he got to it fast enough, but the process was neither simple nor pleasant most of the time. The healer pulled Lynx's tattered and bloodied shirt off and tossed it aside before positioning him so that his back was fully accessible.
Ciyrs rubbed his hands together and took a breath before placing them over the gash on Lynx's back. A faint glow appeared under his palms and a moment later Lynx let out a low groan. His body writhed and Bannack could see his hips rise up slightly. It was one of the uncomfortable reactions to the healing process, an unexplained level of arousal that was nearly as sudden and intense as the reaction that came from being close to meeting their mate. This reaction was the primary reason that the warriors preferred to be alone when they were getting healed, and why, even though Ciyrs had been able to transfer some of his impressive healing abilities to his mate when he first healed her, he didn't like it when Elianna healed the men.
After a few minutes of Ciyrs keeping his hands over the gash in Lynx's back, he pulled them away and checked the injury again. Reaching back into his bag, the healer withdrew several bottles and a handful of long bandages. Bannack watched him coat the gash with several thick layers of ointments and ground plants and then look up at Pyra.
"Help me sit him up so that I can bandage him."
Pyra crouched down beside Lynx and propped him up, helping Ciyrs stabilize him as he wrapped the bandages tightly around his body. When he was fully bandaged, the three men lifted Lynx off of the floor and carefully placed him on the bed beside the woman locking in her sleeping state. Though there was enough room on the large bed to place him so that he wasn't touching her, Pyra tucked him under the covers and moved Lynx's hand so that it rested against Rain's arm. Bannack was glad to see this simple gesture. Even though neither of them were conscious, maybe the physical contact would provide some level of comfort and peace.