Dark Blood(14)

“Which is why it isn’t done. Let us try again. Skyler is a powerful healer. We’re Dragonseekers, Gregori on his own can aid us.”

“You’ve all tried, Gregori included,” Fen argued. “He’s Lycan, they regenerate very fast. He’s mixed blood and they regenerate even faster. He isn’t healing, and you know it.”

“The wound was too severe,” Branislava admitted, her voice pleading.

Zev turned his hand over and took hers, placing her palm over his heart. “Don’t be upset. I’ll heal. I always do.”

She shook her head and looked down at her lap.

Fen sighed again. “Actually, Zev, you’re supposed to be dead. No one could have healed that wound. By weaving your spirits together, she cheated death, so to speak. She knew you wouldn’t go into the other world and force her to go with you.”

Zev shrugged. “I don’t give a damn how it was done. As far as I’m concerned she was more than courageous, betting on me when all of you believed I would die—that I was supposed to die. I’m here. I’m alive.”

He caught Branislava’s chin in his hand and tipped her head up, forcing her to look into his eyes. “We’ll do this together. We’ll find out who is behind all this and then, I promise, we’ll sort things out between us.”

“You might have to do the sorting out between you before you find out who’s behind this mess,” Dimitri muttered under his breath.

Zev shot him a quelling glance. “Don’t listen to him. What’s between us is just that—between us and no one else. Understand?”

Branislava nodded, giving him another small smile that sent his heart into overdrive.

“Tell me about this healing process with the prince and why he so rarely does it.” Zev tore his gaze from Branislava and looked directly at Fen, refusing to allow him to sidestep the question.

“One or the other can heal like anyone else. Gregori is known to be one of our greatest,” Dimitri said, when his brother remained silent. “The combination of Mikhail and Gregori is more like a nuclear bomb going off. If they aren’t precise, if they miss one small calculation, take the heat too high or . . .”

“I get it,” Zev said. He sighed and tapped out a rhythm with Branislava’s palm over his heart while he considered his various options.

It isn’t done because it’s considered too dangerous.

The hole in his gut hurt, a constant throbbing reminder of the huge wooden stake blown into him by a bomb as it tore apart a table. He really preferred not to remember how that enormous splinter nearly as big as his fist ripped through his body.

How much longer before I heal naturally in the earth?

There was a small silence. He turned his head to look at her, bringing the tips of her fingers to his mouth. He used the edge of his teeth to scrape along the pads of her fingers, waiting for her reply.

Wolves are very oral, aren’t they?

It was the last thing he expected her to say. Laughter welled out of nowhere. He didn’t laugh as a rule, and it hurt like hell to do it, but he couldn’t help himself.

Yes, I suppose we are.

Amusement set her green eyes sparkling like emeralds. I like that you have a sense of humor.

“I’ve found, being around Fen and Dimitri, that I need a really good sense of humor,” he replied aloud, raising his eyebrows at the two men claiming kinship with him.

“You’re a riot a minute,” Fen said. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned one hip against the wall. “You tell me what you want to do in this situation. If you want to take the time to heal naturally in the earth you will heal—eventually. You’re Carpathian and you’re strong. It could take months, even a year, but you will heal.”

Months? A year? Branislava had been in the ground with him. She knew whether or not that wound was healing fast or slow.

In my opinion you’re healing very rapidly for such a mortal wound, but Fen’s right, it could take several months, probably longer. You shouldn’t have survived.

Zev sighed. “Did Mikhail ask you to waken me? Or was it your idea?”

Fen looked uncomfortable, but he didn’t answer.

“Fen argued for days not to bring you out of the earth,” Dimitri said. “Mikhail and Gregori insisted it was imperative. Both believe that without your knowledge of the Lycans and the council, we don’t have a chance avoiding an all-out war, let alone securing an actual alliance.”

Zev bit down gently on Branislava’s fingertips as he considered the various possibilities. This woman sat in silence beside him, contemplating changing her entire life to become the lifemate of a virtual stranger in order to keep him from killing every single male who came near her. Duty. He sighed. He’d spent more than one lifetime doing his duty to his people. When did it end? He was damned exhausted.