Helpless (Steel Demons MC #5) - Crystal Ash Page 0,6
ignoring my glare.
"I thought you were following my care instructions," I retorted.
"Babe, look." He turned around, showing his back to me. "Am I high, or does this shit look almost fully healed?"
My mouth fell open at the sight of him, and I stepped off the porch to get a closer look.
The healing tissues were still tender and red in many areas, but the top layer of skin had definitely hardened in record time. None of his muscles or deeper skin layers were exposed to the elements anymore. He'd have a large burn scar covering most of his back, but I'd never seen such accelerated healing in my life.
Wait, yes I had.
Hades, back at the Sandia outpost after I pulled the shrapnel from his flank.
"Do you feel this?" I poked Jandro between his shoulder blades.
"Ah. Little tender, but yeah."
"What about here?" I poked two more spots on his back and received the same confirmation. Without warning, I slapped his fine ass so hard that my palm stung.
"Ow!" He rubbed the spot I hit, spinning around to face me. "What'd I do?"
"Your nerves have reconnected!" I laughed, grabbing his face and reaching up on tip-toes to smack a kiss on his lips. "You didn't have any feeling in those places when I touched them two days ago."
"Well, shit." He returned my grin, pulling me in by the waist for another kiss. "My girl fixed me up good, huh?"
"Not me," I shook my head. "It's all your body. This healing is ridiculously fast. You're at least two weeks ahead of where you should be."
We looked down at the same time to find Freyja winding around our ankles. She met our eyes with a green gaze, bumping her forehead against Jandro's shin with a loud purr as she weaved her body between our legs in a figure-eight pattern.
"After my narrow brush with death," Jandro's forehead slid against mine, "I'm not about to question things that are supposed to be impossible."
"Someone's watching out for us," I agreed, nudging the black cat with my foot.
"A few someones." Jandro rolled his shoulders back, then his head around his neck. "Still feels weird, though. Like I'm a snake in a new skin."
"That's basically what it is," I said. "I'm amazed you didn't need skin grafts. You should still keep it covered when out in the sun and moisturize—"
"I know, bossy medic," he chuckled. "I just came out for a couple minutes. I felt like a caged rat inside all the time."
"So what were you yelling about earlier?" I asked. "I could hear you all the way from inside the house."
His cheerful face fell into a scowl that I barely recognized on him. "Come look at this."
He led me to the chicken coop, which he'd built out of scraps from his auto shop and leftover lumber soon after bringing the birds home. It wouldn't win any beauty contests, but, knowing him, it was solidly built.
Foghorn, the rooster, and two of the hens, I think Leti and Chela, milled about outside the coop. As Jandro approached, Foghorn stuck his neck out and crowed loudly at him.
"Yeah, I got my eye on you, cocksucker," Jandro pointed at him. "I know what you did."
"What the hell?" I followed Jandro around to the back of the coop. "Did he hurt one of them?"
"No, worse." He leaned down and opened one of the nesting box doors. "Look!"
The third hen sat in a clean nest of hay. Nothing seemed unusual until Jandro reached in and pushed some of her feathers aside.
"Oh my God!" My hands pressed to my chest as I saw four tiny beaks and beady, dark eyes peering out from under the mother hen. "Baby chicks! Jandro, they're so cute!"
"They're gonna grow up and multiply," he groaned, slapping a hand to his face. "Not thrilled about transporting more animals as we move, but I guess we'll have more to eat soon."
“What?” I stared at him in horror. "No! They're your pets!"
"Mari, we're gonna end up with a flock of five-hundred if we don't do something."
"Then get the eggs as soon as they’re laid. It's not Foghorn's fault, he’s just going off of instinct."
"Yeah, it is," he muttered. "Damn cock fertilizing my eggs."
I snorted, earning a sheepish grin from him. “That came out wrong.”
“Sure it did.” I patted his arm. “Congratulations on the new babies, papi Jandro.”
“It’s not me, it’s that motherfucker!” He pointed accusingly through the coop to Foghorn on the other side, strutting around proudly like the pimp he was.