Chapter Nine
Whispers roused Evie, pulling her from the darkened depths of unconsciousness. Her thoughts foggy, she tried to focus on the murmurs around her, but they were indistinguishable. She hurt, pain her only companion in the waning darkness. The voices quieted, and the darkness tried to drag her back under, all hint of light fading. Evie fought against the bonds of sleep that held her prisoner, struggling against their embrace. Desperate, she lunged for the small pinprick of light before it disappeared completely.
Voices spoke again, all male. One whispered gently to her, too low to hear but soothing in its tenor. A hand stroked her hair as other voices rose in argument from further away.
Awareness returning, she tried to open her eyes. As if glued shut, they refused to cooperate. She fought against the lethargy and forged closer to the light, opening her heavy lids at last. Blinking rapidly, she tried to focus in the overly bright room.
She lay prone on a hospital bed inside a sterile white room. Beeps and hissing air drew her attention, and she rolled her head toward her left. Another patient lay in the bed next to hers. The curtain, pulled mostly closed for privacy, revealed large, sock covered feet that stuck out of the bedcovers.
The warm hand in her hair drew her head the other way, where she encountered a pair of worry-filled, mahogany eyes. Soturi Xander sat next to her bed. He gave her a relieved smile, but didn’t remove his hand from her head. The small bit of soothing contact made Evie long to close her eyes and submerge herself in the glow of warmth that spread through her body. She wanted to move closer to him, to feel his touch over the rest of her body. As she shifted, her pain, momentarily forgotten, screamed for her attention. She hissed as the ache stabbed up her side.
Sympathetic eyes met hers and Soturi Xander offered her a reassuring smile before calling out to the two other men in the room, “She’s awake.”
An unfamiliar man strode over, his eyes focused on the chart in his hands. Whatever he read, it captured his full attention because his gaze never flickered up as he walked.
Dressed in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck, Evie almost mistook him for an ordinary, human doctor. Her assumption changed when he surveyed her critically with antique gold eyes that shone with an inner fire. Under his open white coat, he wore a pair of worn blue jeans. A light blue T-shirt stretched tight across his torso, accentuating the deep crevices of his chest and abs. White Converse sneakers adorned his feet, and Evie couldn’t help her sigh of appreciation at his choice of footwear.
“Hello, Miss…” he hesitated, glancing at the chart once more, “Saunders. I am Kuuri Jaoel. I am a healer here at the university.” He shifted, placing the chart down on the corner of the bed. “You collapsed in the gym. Do you remember what happened?”
Evie shrugged, intent on hiding the truth. “I guess I overdid it.”
Soturi Xander snorted and shook his head in disbelief. “I was busy with another group, so I didn’t see what happened, but her sparring partner said she just collapsed.”
“Do you know why you fainted, Miss Saunders?” The healer gave her a hard stare before he continued, “Have you been eating, or are you one of those humans who believes they can survive on almost nothing, hoping it will help them be more attractive to a potential mate?”
“Shit, man. Your bedside manner sucks lately. You can’t ask her stuff like that!” Soturi Xander roared loudly. Anger shimmered brightly in the depths of his eyes, the mahogany brown darkening in reproach.
An older man in his mid-thirties came forward at Soturi Xander’s words. He also wore a white coat to designate his healer status. He dressed more conservatively than his younger counterpart in slacks and a dress shirt under his coat. Oddly enough, his black and green striped tie offset the formality of his outfit with an artistic rendering of Slimer from Ghostbusters on it. His eyes sparkled with mischief, laugh lines noticeable at the corners.
“I am Mestari Kuuri Ardon, Master Healer for the Suoja Guild. My title is a mouthful, so feel free to shorten it to Mestari Ardon. Everyone else does.” The master healer used his stethoscope to listen to Evie’s chest, his mannerisms non-threatening and his tone filled with kindness. “Don’t mind Kuuri Jaoel. He’s still new to the whole human interaction experience and is grumpy because he’s stuck here and not out in the field.”
Kuuri Jaoel made a rude noise, but his respect for the master healer kept him from saying anything else.
Mestari Ardon leaned over her to check her pulse. Up close, he looked like the other Surmata she’d met, but there was something else in his appearance as well, something other.
“What are you?” she asked bluntly, before slapping a hand over her mouth in horror. She couldn’t believe how rude she sounded.
The healer laughed at her while pointedly ignoring her blunder. “Let’s check you over, okay? Kuuri Jaoel needs the practice since he’s lacking experience with human patients. I will be standing by to help if needed. Are you okay with that, young lady?”
Evie nodded, not sure she wanted the sulky healer to help her, but she really didn’t have a choice. She was the interloper here, having just arrived at the school and already in need of assistance.
The scowling healer shot Mestari Ardon a dirty frown before he came up on her left side, opposite from where Soturi Xander sat next to her bed. Without addressing her directly, he reached up for the instrument around his neck, removed it, and placed the ends into his ears.
Evie shivered as cold metal pressed into her chest. The few times Evie had seen doctors in the past, they heated up the end with their breath at a bare minimum, while others had little portable covers to keep the metal a comfortable temperature.
The cranky healer listened to her heart. “Can you sit up?”
Evie’s arms shook with pain as she tried to comply. The healer watched her with a furrowed brow, then stopped her upward movement, gently laying her back down.
His gaze hardened with recrimination. “You’re injured. Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“It’s not bad. I fell down and hurt my side.”
He shifted his gaze to the front of her torso. “Miss Saunders, have you ever had a Surmata healer attend to you before?”
“N-no.” Evie shook her head.
“We are different from your human doctors. We don’t need fancy equipment in order to diagnose your condition. I will need to lift your shirt in order to get a visual of your injury. Once I do that, I will place my hands on your bare skin. A soft glow, one you may not even notice, will appear, encompassing your body. You should not experience any sensation from it. After that, I will go quiet for a few minutes, assessing what my abilities tell me about your body. It could take a few minutes, depending on the severity of the injury. Once I know the full extent of the damage, I will then know how to treat it.”
“You can heal people?” Evie questioned, not quite understanding everything he said.
The older healer spoke up, “No, Miss Saunders. While we can heal our own kind, our abilities do not extend to the human race. We can diagnose injuries but not diseases. We can staunch bleeding or minimize some of your pain, but that is all. We still need to use the traditional methods you’re more familiar with in order to treat wounds.”
Evie’s eyes darted to the younger healer, unsure how she felt about exposing herself to the grumpy man. But it seemed unavoidable.
“Now, young lady, Soturi Xander and I will step away for a moment. I need his opinion on another matter.” Mestari Ardon patted her hand in reassurance. “We’ll give you privacy while Kuuri Jaoel examines you. Lie still, and let him have a look at your side. You flinch every time you move, so I know you’re in some type of pain. The sooner he examines you, the sooner he can treat it.”
The older man walked away. Soturi Xander offered her a reassuring smile, sent a warning glare at Kuuri Jaoel, then got up from his chair and followed the master healer to another part of the room. As he left, he pulled the privacy curtain closed. Evie resisted the urge to call him back. She already missed the feeling of security she had around him, like a favored blanket one cuddled under on a cold night.
Evie did as instructed, lying still while the younger healer lifted her shirt. Surprisingly gentle, he tried not to jar her side. Evie awarded him with a minute smile of appreciation, which he grunted at. When he had her shirt lifted until it bunched under her breasts, she heard him inhale sharply. His eyes flickered back up to hers, and burning embers of rage flamed up. He deliberately kept his touch soft as he stroked her side, feeling around the wound.
“What the fuck did this?” he growled out through clenched teeth. “It looks like someone tried to use you as a punching bag,”
Unwilling to confess, Evie stayed quiet.
His lips tightened in annoyance at her silence. “Not gonna talk? That’s fine. I really don’t give a shit, anyway. Just stay still while I check it out.”
Evie watched in fascination as he closed his eyes, placing his palms against her skin, one low on her belly, the other over her injury. The feel of his rough callouses against her naked skin almost had Evie arching off the bed as tingles raced up and down her spine. He kept his touch light as his hands started to glow.
A slight, warming pulse built within her body, spreading as it followed the glow that moved to cover her from head to foot. The glow receded on all the areas except for her injured side, right over her ribs. As she watched, the glow intensified, the light’s brightness forcing her eyes half closed in protection. The warmth heated even further until her skin felt hot to the touch, almost boiling. It encircled the agony in her side, diminishing it slowly until it disappeared altogether.
As the glow dissipated, a shocked gasp escaped Evie. The bright purple and blue bruises disappeared to leave smooth, unblemished skin behind. No pain remained, no hint of the injury apparent.
“What the fuck!” Wide eyed, Kuuri Jaoel stared down at her body. Disbelief and denial flickered across his face.
What happened to unnerve him so suddenly?
He stood there, contemplating something without speaking. With a shake of his head, he seemed to disregard the answers coming to mind. “Must have just been a surface bruise. Off you go. Next time, make sure you eat before class.”
Evie scrambled off the bed, yanking her shirt down as she went. With no pain anywhere in her body, she moved without restriction. “How’d you know I haven’t eaten?”
Kuuri Jaoel looked tempted not to answer, but he relented, “I could tell from the exam I conducted. Your stomach is empty, so it’s been a while since you’ve had solid food.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he marched away, jerking the curtain open.
“Kuuri Jaoel,” she called out. The healer paused in the doorway to look back at her over his shoulder. He wore a troubled expression on his face, and his jaw clenched to the point Evie thought his teeth might crack. “Thank you,” she murmured.
The dark look in his eyes lightened for a brief moment, and he offered her a small smile before closing the door.
She glanced around, but Soturi Xander and the older healer had vanished from view. Disappointment stabbed at her heart. She’d hoped to see Soturi Xander before she left. Shrugging it off, she hightailed it out of the room in case there were more questions.
Her plan to remain invisible wasn’t working out. She’d received more attention in the last two days than she had in the last two years.