Chapter 20Varos

Chapter

Twenty

VAROS

T he feel of something moving on my lap had my head jerking upright and looking around wildly. The brush of fur on my hand had me looking down to see Max curled up, looking up at me with his large purple eyes. I lifted a heavy hand to gently scratch behind his ears the way I had seen Sasha do. At thoughts of her, I looked toward the bed to see my mate laying with her head on a pillow and blankets pulled up to her chin.

I moved Max to the side and rose slowly, walking toward my mate hesitantly, scared to see if she was still alive. I knew that I would feel it in my soul if she were dead, but that didn’t stop my head and heart from being terrified.

I spoke her name softly, the sound barely audible in the room. Carefully, I gripped the bed covering and slowly lowered it, revealing her naked body, which had cloth draped over her breasts and pelvis to protect her privacy. But it was the wound on her abdomen that had my attention.

“We cleaned her as well as we could. We weren’t able to find a demon or human doctor close enough to care for her, so I did what I could with the knowledge I had. I’m sorry, the stitches aren’t done very well.” Juliette’s voice pulled me from the daze I had been in as I fixated on the wound and the small black stitches that had pulled it closed.

“We hope that her demon healing will prevent an infection. But since her wound wasn’t closing on its own, I stitched it closed. That’s what we do with humans who have injuries. Humans heal at a much slower rate than demons and often need medical intervention to help the process. I, uhh, am trying to find a way to get her some fluids and antibiotics that I can give her through an I.V. drip.”

With a frown, I tore my eyes away from the wound and looked at Juliette, taking in her tired appearance and the way she was wringing her hands. “I am only understanding about half of the words you are speaking. You closed her wound and are concerned about something else. I know what infection means, but I am uncertain how that applies to her wound not healing.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I am having a difficult time trying to process that you have never seen a human or just about anything in this realm.” She walked to my side and bent over, looking closer at the wound. “Since humans heal so slowly, bacteria can cause a serious health risk. It can make the already damaged tissue worse, even killing it off. Sometimes, bacteria can get into the blood stream, killing off healthy cells inside the body. Many times that humans die from injuries isn’t because of the wound itself, but because of the infection they get.”

My voice was more gruff than I intended, making my new sister’s eyes widen. “You think Sasha could die?”

She shook her head quickly as she looked at me. “No! No, that’s not it. Damn, I am screwing this up.”

“ Amica mea, calm. You have done nothing wrong.” Varek walked over and gripped my shoulder. We had yet to properly reunite, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave my mate’s side long enough. “What my mate is trying to say is that Sasha is healing slowly, and as such, she needs care the way a human would. Antibiotics are just a precaution.”

I ground my teeth and nodded my head once. This wouldn’t have happened to her if she hadn’t come to the Underworld to save me.

“Why don’t you take a shower? I brought you some clothing to change into.”

“I’m not leaving her,” I rasped.

“Look,” Varek pointed to a door across from the bed. “That’s the restroom. It has a shower inside and everything you’ll need to get clean. You won’t be but a few feet away from your mate and will be able to hear everything while in there.”

I shook my head. “I’ll wait until she wakes up.”

“Brother,” he sighed, “do you think your mate will want to see you like this? You are covered in her blood.”

I blinked down at myself, seeing the stiffness of my black clothing. Knowing that it was because of Sasha’s blood had my gut clenching. Finally, I reluctantly grunted my agreement. When my mate woke up, I wanted nothing to remind her of this experience. I allowed my brother to lead me into the next chamber to see a much smaller room.

A glass cubicle stood against one wall, and a chamber pot that looked like nothing I had seen before sat in the corner. A basin sat across from the glass cubicle, but I didn’t see a pitcher for water, nor did I see a tub for bathing.

A chuckle sounded from beside me, making me turn to glare at my brother. He walked over to the glass and pulled it open. “This is a shower. Turn these knobs to control the temperature.” He demonstrated, and streams of water immediately shot through a metal device from above and drained through metal slits in the floor. “Take as long as you need. On the wall are different soaps for your hair and body. The one marked ‘shampoo’ is what you would want to use on your hair. The conditioner goes on after you rinse the shampoo out. You’ll be surprised at how soft your hair will feel afterward.”

I gave him a look that conveyed my total uncaring for having soft hair. He chuckled and then waved his hand, indicating the chamber pot. “That’s called a toilet. You sit on it to take a shit, stand to piss. Or sit, whichever you prefer. When you’re done, just press on this lever, and it goes down the drain.”

A wooshing sound filled the room, and the water swirled around the inner bowl until it disappeared. Then, the bowl filled back up with water within seconds. I shook my head. Water that didn’t need to be heated, chamber pots that emptied themselves. What else did this realm have to offer?

“Alright, brother. I’ll leave you to it. Take your time. My mate and I will watch over Sasha and your… pet.”

“His name is Max.” I pulled the shirt from my body, noticing how my flesh was stained red. “He belongs to my mate.” I looked up and stared him in the eye. Varek smiled, then backed up, closing the door as he went. Before the door clicked shut, I heard a muttered “understood”. Somehow, knowing that my mate was well protected, I was able to breathe a little easier than I would have thought possible while not being able to have my eyes on her.

I stripped off the trousers and then reached my hand inside the glass cubicle, checking the stream of water. I wouldn’t have cared if it were ice cold as long as I could get cleaned up and return to my mate’s side as quickly as possible. I just wanted to know what I was stepping into. I had been told that these ‘showers’ were hot, but I hadn’t quite understood that they truly were.

I walked inside, ducking my head under the spray, allowing it to soak my hair thoroughly. The heat seeped into my muscles, and I closed my eyes. I rested my forearms against the glass wall as I breathed deeply. It had been over three thousand years since I had experienced a warm bath, and never one that got as truly hot as the water that was spraying down on me. Something broke inside me as the thought flitted through my mind, and for the second time, my knees failed to hold my weight. I collapsed to the shower floor and let the water wash away the proof of my pain.

I hadn’t cried since I was a young boy, always too proud to allow others to see me as weak. As I was kept in chains, as I suffered through tortures that lasted for days, even as I starved, I never shed a tear. The emotional pain I felt at the fear of never seeing my brothers or mother again, though debilitating, wasn’t enough to break me. I wasn’t sure what was causing me to fall apart now. Maybe it was fear for my mate. Maybe it was finally sinking in that I was free. It was probably everything hitting me at once. I was free . I had a mate. My mate was dying.

I wanted to curse at the gods for giving me my life back, for giving me everything I could have dreamed of asking for. My brothers, my mate, my freedom. Instead, my heart was crumbling in my chest. My mate had done this. She’d practically carried me out of the dungeon up multiple flights of steps, then across fields and through the forest until she found a safe place, all while I’d treated her as the enemy. She never gave up on me. Her care and nourishment brought me here.

I lifted my head back, letting the water stream into my face, pretending that the moisture there was only water. Then I let out all my rage and pain with a bellow that rattled the glass enclosure dangerously. When the last sound left my body, I stopped pretending and let the tears flow.

I was uncertain how long I knelt there, it could have been hours, but I finally had no more to give. With a hand pressed to the wall, I rose to my feet. With bleary eyes, I looked around, uncertain what to do next, when my gaze landed on a strange contraption that looked as if it were filled with three different types of liquid. I remembered what my brother said about soaps and shampoos.

Studying the labels, I chose one that I believed was the shampoo he’d instructed me to use on my hair. I took a sniff, finding it pleasant, but unable to place the scent. I brought it to my hair and began to scrub. Then I used my claws, remembering the thousands of years I’d spent with only the very occasional bucket of icy water tossed over my broken body to wash away some of the blood. I rinsed the shampoo and then immediately took another handful, filling my palm until the liquid dripped over the sides. Again, I scrubbed furiously. As soon as I was done, I ignored the conditioner and went for the other soap.

My entire body was lathered with thick suds. There wasn’t a single spot that I missed as I scraped with my claws. I watched as some spots turned bloody, but instantly healed from the scratches I’d made.

After rinsing, I hesitated and then took a small amount of the conditioner, applying it to my tangled hair. I could tell an immediate difference in the texture. I took a few more pumps until my long hair was coated before rinsing that as well.

With nothing more to do and with the water no longer as hot as it was at the start of my cleansing, I twisted the handles. A blast of icy water had me sucking in a breath. I quickly turned until the handles could no longer twist, and finally, the cold water shut off. I stood there dripping for a moment, then noticed a thick drying cloth hanging from the top of the glass door. I held it in my hands and began to pat down my body. I’d never felt such a soft drying cloth before. As a boy, our drying rags were always a touch rough, making the experience a bit… unpleasant. This realm was definitely different.

I opened the door and stepped out onto another drying cloth laid out on the floor. I stepped over to the wash basin, noticing the clothes folded in a pile that Varek had set out for me. Staring at the looking glass covered with steam, I hesitated, then swiped my hand over it until I could see my distorted reflection.

The first thing I noticed was the broken horn that I suspected would never grow back. That made me think of my mate. If I couldn’t heal from the damage that fucking metal had done, could she? As I stared, I decided I no longer wanted a reminder of my torment and allowed the glamor to take over. Demons rarely, if ever, used glamor in the Underworld, though most were taught early as yet another skill we all possessed. It took just a slight bit of concentration, and then, instead of the soulless black eyes I was used to, bright green eyes appeared.

I looked around, opening drawers, until I found a brush similar to the one Sasha had used in the cave. I ran the brush roughly through my long black hair until the snarls were all removed, and it fell over my shoulders smoothly.

I dropped the drying cloth from around my waist, where I had tucked it securely, and picked up the garment on top of the pile of clothing. It was another black shirt, nearly identical to the one my mate had given me. I pulled it on over my head and then reached for the undergarment resting on top of the trousers. It was unlike any I’d seen before, but once I had them in place, I could appreciate the design of the longer legs that came down to my upper thighs.

The trousers fit much more comfortably than the previous ones had, and I knew they must have come from one of my brother’s wardrobes. On the floor were foot coverings, but I ignored them for now. I had no intention of leaving the room until my mate woke. Until then, I would stay by her side, regardless of how long it took.