Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11)(59)
Author: Charlaine Harris

As blunt as Claude could be, Bellenos had him beat. It was actually almost entertaining. I asked Bellenos to carry Dermot down to the guest room on the ground floor, and I preceded them to make sure the room was okay. After a cursory look to make sure the bedspread was pulled up over the sheets, I moved aside for Bellenos, who was carrying Dermot as easily as he would a child, though Dermot was certainly less maneuverable on the narrow staircase.

While Bellenos settled Dermot on the bed, I zipped into my room to dress. I can’t tell you what a relief it was to unwind the fringed and flowered shawl and put on some jeans (not shorts, out of deference to Bellenos’s human skin aversion). It was too hot to even think of a longsleeved shirt, but my offensive shoulders were properly covered with a striped T-shirt.

Dermot was fully conscious when I returned to check on him. Bellenos was kneeling by the bed, stroking Dermot’s golden hair and talking to him in a language I didn’t know. My great-uncle was alert and lucid. My heart settled into a happier rhythm when Dermot even smiled at me, though it was a shadow of his usual grin.

"They didn’t hurt you," he said, obviously relieved. "So far, Niece, it seems living with you is more dangerous than staying with my own kind."

"I’m so sorry," I said, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking his hand. "I don’t know how they were able to get into the house with the wards in place. People who mean me harm aren’t supposed to be able to enter, whether I’m here or not."

Despite his blood loss, Dermot flushed. "That would be my fault."

"What?" I stared down at him. "Why?"

"It was human magic," he said, not meeting my eyes. "Your little witch friend, she’s quite good for a human, but fae magic is much, much better. So I deconstructed her spells, and I intended to put my own around your house as soon as I finished sanding the floor."

I really couldn’t think of a thing to say.

There was a sticky little moment of silence.

"We’d better tend to your head," I said briskly. I cleaned it some more and dabbed the wound with Neosporin. I certainly wasn’t going to try to sew it up, though it seemed to me that someone should. When I mentioned stitches, both of the fae seemed utterly disgusted by the idea. I put some butterfly bandages on the wound to hold it shut. I figured that was the best I could do.

"Now I’ll treat him," Bellenos said, and I was pleased to hear that he intended to do something more active than carry Dermot down the stairs to the bed. Not that that hadn’t been a help, but I’d expected a bit more, somehow. "Of course the blood of the one who harmed him would be best, and maybe we can do something about that, but for now . . ."

"What will you do?" I hoped I could watch and learn.

"I will breathe into him," Bellenos said, as if I were a fool not to know that. My amazement startled him. He shrugged, as if I were too ignorant for words. "You can watch if you want." He looked down at Dermot, who nodded, then winced.

Bellenos stretched out on the bed beside Dermot and kissed him.

I’d certainly never thought of curing a head wound that way. If my lack of knowledge of fae ways had been a surprise to him, this was a surprise to me.

After a second I understood that though their mouths were together, the elf was breathing the air in his own lungs into Dermot. After detaching to take in another lungful, Bellenos repeated the procedure.

I tried to imagine a human doctor treating a patient this way. Lawsuit! Though I could tell it wasn’t sexual–well, not overtly–this was a little too personal for me. This might be a good time to clean up. I collected the used sterile wipes and bandage wrappers to pitch into the kitchen trash can, and while I was by myself, I took the time to have a snit.

Yeah, fae magic was probably great, when you used it. Amelia’s spells might have been human and therefore inferior, but they’d been in place to protect me. Until Dermot had removed them . . . and left me with nothing at all. "Jackass," I muttered, and scrubbed the counter with enough pressure to kill any germs by force. That was about as mad as I could get, since Dermot’s mistaken sense of superiority had ended with his incurring a severe head injury.

"He’s resting and healing. Very soon, he and I have things we must do," Bellenos said. He’d come into the kitchen behind me without my sensing so much as a change in the air. He really enjoyed watching me jump. He laughed, which was weird, because he did it with his mouth wide as if he were panting. His laugh was more a breathy "heeheehee" than the human guffaw.

"He’s able to move?" I was delighted, but surprised.

"Yes," Bellenos said. "Besides, he tells me you have vampires coming later, and he would need to be elsewhere, anyway."

At least Bellenos didn’t chide me for expecting vampire guests, and he also didn’t ask me to cancel my plans to accommodate Dermot’s injury.

I’d considered calling Eric’s cell phone to postpone our powwow. But I thought that it was entirely possible that Hod and Kelvin were part and parcel of the same struggle, albeit a clumsy part.

"Wait here for a minute, please," I said politely, and I went to talk to Dermot. He was propped up on the bed, and I spared a second to thank Amelia for making it before she left, though I needed to change the sheets, but I could do that at my leisure–okay, time to stop making housekeeping notes, since Dermot was looking all pale and brave. When I sat by him, he took me in a surprisingly strong embrace. I returned it with interest.

"I’m sorry this happened to you," I said. I bypassed the whole warding issue. "Are you sure you want to go to Monroe? Will they really take care of you? I can cancel the thing for tonight. I’d be glad to nurse you."

Dermot was silent for a moment. I could feel him breathing in my arms, and the smell of his skin surrounded me. Naturally he didn’t smell like Jason, though they could have been twins.

"Thanks for not ripping me a new one," he said. "See, I’ve mastered modern human speech." He managed a real smile. "I’ll see you later. Bellenos and I have an errand to complete."

"You need to take it easy. You were hurt pretty bad. How are you feeling?"

"Better by the moment. Bellenos has shared his breath with me, and I’m excited about the hunt."

Okay, I didn’t quite understand that, but if he was pleased, I was pleased. Before I could ask him questions, he said, "I failed you about the wards, and I didn’t stop the intruders. While I lay there, I feared they’d found you."

"You shouldn’t have worried about me," I said, and I was sincere, though I was sure grateful he had. "I hid over at Bill’s and they didn’t find me."