here.
«How's his blood pressure?» she asked.
«Steady,» he replied. Phury had passed out about ten minutes in, though his breathing had
remained strong and so had his BP.
As Jane wiped off the area around the eye and cheekbone and started to pack it with gauze,
Wrath cleared his throat at the doorway. «What about his vision?»
«We won't know until he tells us,» Jane said. «I have no way of ascertaining whether his optic
nerve has been damaged or whether there was any retinal or cornea damage. If any of that has
happened, he's going to have to go to another facility to get it repaired, and not just because of
the limited resources here. I'm not an eye surgeon, and I wouldn't even attempt that kind of
operation.»
The king pushed his sunglasses up a little higher on his straight nose. Like he was thinking of his
weak eyes and hoping Phury didn't have to deal with that kind of problem.
After Jane covered the side of Phury's face with gauze, she ran a length of bandage around his
head like a turban, then put the instruments she'd used in the autoclave. To keep from watching
her obsessively, V got busy throwing out the used syringes, pads, and needles along with the
disposable tube from the suction draw.
Jane snapped off her surgical gloves. «Let's talk infection. How susceptible is your kind?»
«Not very.» V lowered himself back into his chair. He hated to admit it, but he was tired. If she
hadn't made him take a load off, he'd be totally dead on his feet by now. «Our immune systems
are very strong.»
«Would your doctor have him on antibiotics as a prophylactic?»
«No.»
She went over to Phury and stared at him like she was reading his vital signs without the benefit
of a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. Then she reached out and smoothed his extravagant
hair back. The ownership in her eyes and the gesture bugged V even though it shouldn't have. Of
course she'd take a special interest in his brother. She'd just put the side of his face back together.
But still.
Shit, bonded males were a pain in the ass, weren't they?
Jane leaned down to Phury's ear. «You did well. It's going to be all right. You just rest and let
that fancy healing of yours go to work, okay?» After patting his shoulder, she turned off the
high-powered chandelier over the gurney. «God, I'd love to study your kind.»
A blast of cold came from the corner, as Wrath said, «Not a chance, Doc. We aren't playing
guinea pig for the Ekes of the human race.»
«I wasn't getting my hopes up.» She glanced around at all of them. «I don't want him unattended,
so either I'm staying with him here or someone else is. And if I leave, I'm going to want to check
on him in about two hours to see how he's coming along.»
«We'll stay here,» V said.
«You look like you're about to fall over.»
«Not a chance of that.»
«Only because you're sitting down.»
The idea that he was weak in front of her sharpened his voice. «You don't worry about me,
female.»
She frowned. «Okay, that was a statement of fact, not concern. Do what you want with it.»
Ouch. Yeah … just ouch.
«Whatever. I'll be out there.» He got up and left quick.
In the equipment room he grabbed a bottle of Aquafina from the cooler, then stretched out on
one of the benches. As he cracked the cap he was dimly aware of Wrath and Rhage coming over
and saying something to him, but he wasn't tracking.
That he wanted Jane to care about him drove him nuts. That he was hurt when she didn't was
even more of an ego fuck.
He closed his eyes and tried to be logical. He hadn't slept in weeks. He'd been plagued by that
nightmare. He'd almost died.
He'd met his frickin' mommy.
V sucked back most of the water. He was beyond off-kilter, and that had to be why he was
catching feelings. It really wasn't about Jane. It was situational. His life was a fruit salad of fuck-
mes, and that was the reason he was getting chicky about her. Because sure as shit she was
giving him nothing to go on. She treated him as a patient and as a scientific curiosity. And that
orgasm he'd almost given her? He was damn sure that if she'd been wide-awake it never would
have happened: Those images she'd had of him were a woman's fantasy about being with a
dangerous monster. They were not about her wanting him in real life.
«Hey.»
V opened his eyes and looked up at Butch. «Hey.» The cop shoved V's feet aside and sat down
on the
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