Helpless (Steel Demons MC #5) - Crystal Ash Page 0,79
best I can do for him right now is to literally get that infected blood out of his body.”
What about a blood transfusion? If you drained him and he got fresh blood from another source.
“That might work, once someone gets here with my supplies and we find a blood type match,” I sighed. “But Shadow’s blood type is rare. Partial matches are okay, but a perfect match is ideal. And since he’s AB+—”
Grudge’s eyes suddenly widened as he sucked in a sharp breath. He tapped his chest repeatedly.
“You?”
“Hm!” He nodded emphatically, continuing to point at himself.
It took me a few seconds, but finally clicked into place. “You’re AB+?”
He nodded again, a grin pulling at his lips.
I shoved a hand through my hair, which had to resemble a tumbleweed at this point. “Well, damn. We still have to wait for someone to get here, but that…makes things a lot easier for us.”
Grudge chuckled on his way to Shadow’s bedside. As he grabbed Shadow’s shoulder in an affectionate way, I took a moment to look at the two men more closely. Same dark hair. Same quiet, observant demeanor. Grudge wasn’t nearly as broad or tall as Shadow, but their builds were similar. It was hard to tell from his much longer beard, but I’d bet money on them having similar facial structures too. And the two of them having the same rare blood type? That felt like too many coincidences.
“I think you two are brothers.” My exhaustion still had me blurting my thoughts out like a drunken sorority girl.
Grudge looked at me, unfazed by my observation. He pulled out his notepad and wrote a slow, thought-out response.
I think we are too. It explains our similarities, and also how we’re both different from other people. He paused in thought before writing more. There’s a lot we know about each other that only the two of us understand, that we’ve never breathed a word of to others. T & D don’t even know everything about me.
“Did you both grow up in the same type of environment?”
He nodded, elaborating on his notepad. Different locations, but yes. The same abusive cult of women.
“I’m sorry, for what you both went through.”
Not your fault, M. You’re one of the good ones. He’s lucky.
“I’m sure he doesn’t feel like it right now.” I ran a hand over Shadow’s forehead and cheeks again. He was warm, but not burning up at the moment. I estimated his temperature to be somewhere between 99 and 100. “We should drain him a bit now.”
Just tell me what to do, Grudge quickly scrawled out.
For now, he had to do little more than hold a bowl to catch Shadow’s blood when I pricked him. I wrapped a strip of gauze around Shadow’s arm below his bicep and tied it off tightly to find a vein.
“Please don’t thrash on me, love.” I leaned over him, brushing a kiss across his forehead. “I’m trying to make you better.”
He mumbled wordlessly, moving his head back and forth a bit, but otherwise didn’t resist.
“Ready, Grudge?”
“Hm,” he nodded.
I inserted the needle and watched the dark blood wind through the tube to empty into the bowl in Grudge’s hands. The coppery smell filled the air and I imagined the infection flushing out of Shadow’s system into that bowl. It didn’t work like that, but aside from this, positive thinking was all I had left at the moment.
“Okay, that’s about a half pint,” I said. “Let’s stop there for now.”
I removed the needle from Shadow’s arm and bandaged the insertion spot while Grudge went to throw the contaminated blood away. When I went to sit down at the edge of the bed, it was Grudge gently shaking my shoulder that made me realize I dozed off.
“Jesus, sorry…”
“Mm-mm.” He shook his head, lips pressed into a thin line, and pointed to the other side of the bed where Freyja sat curled up.
“I’m fine, really. We should wake him and see if he eats—”
“Hmm!” Grudge wrapped a hand around my shoulder and gently pushed me toward the empty side of the bed. Then he released me and made a shooing motion.
“Okay, fine.” My eyelids were already drooping again, and that pillow did look super comfortable. “I’ll rest just for a few minutes. Can you make sure Shadow eats and drinks something?”
“Mm-hm.” He was already pulling an extra blanket down from the closet to cover me with.
“Thank you…”
I surrendered to the fatigue and let it pull me under.