Eir tilted my hand and allowed the blood to drip into a small white bowl. Then she placed a swab onto the cut and told me to press tightly. Before I moved, she had already turned to Aidan. Lifting his shirt, she revealed the wound, and I had to silence a cry of horror. The ragged flesh had festered, the edges yellowed with pus. The skin of his abdomen was now covered with a network of black poisonous veins. Eir moved with such gentleness it made my heart ache. She bent over Aidan, holding the small bowl above Aidan's abdomen. She tilted it, allowing a single drop to land on the open wound.
I held my breath as the red of the blood hit the red of the gaping injury. And I almost fainted when it sizzled, steam rising from ruined flesh. I gasped and leaned forward. "What happened? Is he okay?"
Eir waved me away. "He is fine. Look at the wound." Mrs. Lee and I bent closer to see the effect of the single drop of blood. Where my blood had hit Aidan's wound, the threads of black veins had disappeared, leaving a small patch of broken skin clean and smooth.
"I'm going to try some more and if it works like this, we will need more blood, Brynhildr." Eir spoke softly, her eyes gentle as they went from Aidan to me to his mother. Then she tapped Mrs. Lee's arm. "You don't need to be here for this," she said, clearly wanting to shield her from the worst of her son's treatment.
But Mrs. Lee shook her head vehemently. "I'll stay," was all she said, her voice firm and unrelenting.
Eir didn't press the issue. She moved away, then returned moments later with a chair for Aidan's mother, who shifted it to sit beside me instead of at her son's feet. She took my free hand in hers and patted it softly. I was so moved by her caring that when I looked at her, my eyes were filled with tears. She was Aidan's mother, yet she was still making sure I was okay, sitting beside me to support me.
Eir came closer to me. "For now, I will make the incision and you can hold your hand over the wound. Let the blood drip directly into the wound. I've already removed the bullet so there should be no residual poison left."
I held out my hand. She reopened the cut she'd made earlier. Blood welled to the incision and I hurriedly extended my hand over Aidan's wound. My blood dripped slowly onto his bare flesh and each time it sizzled as if his body were made of hot coals.
I sat there for a long while, dripping blood and watching to see it make a difference to Aidan. But I could see little change in his condition. Soon I began to feel faint and figured I was losing too much blood. When my head rocked forward, Aidan's mother caught me around the shoulder before I fell.
"I think she's losing too much blood," she said softly to Eir.
The goddess moved around me to check the cut. "She is getting weaker, but she still has sufficient blood to provide. We need to continue the process as long as possible. We will stop when the blood flow ceases."
I felt more than a bit dizzy so I remained where I was, head on Mrs. Lee's shoulder, hand stretched out over her son's body. I must have passed out after a while, because the next thing I heard was the urgent sound of footsteps rushing into the treatment room.
I blinked slowly and opened my eyes to see Joshua and Edrik bringing Enya into the room. She hurried to her brother, dropping to her knees beside the bed, her eyes filled with tears.
"How is he?" she asked.
I blinked and slowly became aware that she was talking to me. My head was aching and I lifted my hand to press my fingers to my temples. That was when I saw the bandage wrapped around my wrist.
Her mother answered for me. "Enya, dear, she is very weak. Give her a moment."
"What happened to her?" she asked, her voice shaky with worry.
"She's given Aidan her blood. She should be resting."
"Why did she give him blood?" Enya asked, and the tone of her voice now was no-nonsense.
Eir answered. "Bryn's blood was instrumental in the creation of this poison so we thought perhaps her blood would help to revive him."
"Has it worked?" she asked softly.
My eyes were closed so I couldn't see her face, but what I could hear was the anticipation in her voice.
"So far we have seen a little change for the better. It looks like her blood is healing him somewhat. I'm just not sure it's enough though."
"What do you mean?" asked Enya. She sounded like she was having a tough time keeping it together, and I understood what she was feeling.
I turned my head to look at Joshua and found him right beside me. "Did you get it?"
He cleared is throat, then glanced at Aidan before looking back at me. "We got the laptop. All the details were there except for how they put the poison together. It looks like they were getting small shipments of the stuff to test."
"And what about all the weapons they had there?"
"For testing. Someone was trying to adapt the bullets for different types of weapons."
"Including submachine guns," I said, despair washing over me. I'd seen the weapons strewn across the lab. It all made so much more sense now. The range of weapons, the lab equipment, the ammunition.
Loki was working on developing the poison to be used in battle against the einherjar. If he brought that to the final war, it would be a massacre.
I looked over at Eir. She was speaking softly to Enya and her mother, her expression gentle and comforting. "My lady?" She looked across at me, and I asked, "Is there a way we could set up a transfusion for him? Run my blood straight into his veins?"
Eir hesitated, and I knew why. She was reluctant to do anything that might harm me. But the way I saw it, I had to do everything in my power to save him. I cleared my throat. "A little trickle of my blood seemed to heal his body. So maybe a transfusion will make a real difference and flush out the toxins from his system."
The goddess then turned to Joshua. "Help me bring the other cot over to her. She needs to lie down and get comfortable. This process will make her extremely weak. More than she is right now."
He didn't waste any time, just followed Eir across the room. Then suddenly he was back carrying another cot with him. He waited while Mrs. Lee removed her chair and then helped me to my feet. Enya took my seat out of the way while Joshua placed the cot beside Aidan's with just the small table between them.
Joshua grabbed me around the waist and helped me to the cot, setting me down gently. He helped me lie back and tucked a pillow under my head.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked, his forehead distorted by a worried frown. He looked tired and strained.
"It won't hurt me. But it can help him." I didn't say anything else. Joshua then ran his finger down my cheek. He leaned over and kissed me on the lips, uncaring who was witness.
"I'll be right here if you need me."
I nodded, then cleared my throat. "Tell me what happened after we left," I inquired, hoping his words would take my mind off the poking and prodding.
He laughed softly and shook his head, staring at my face. "We got the virus and all the computers as well as the ammunition that was being adapted for the poison. Derek used his computer magic to find us the nearest Bifrost entrance, which happened to be in a disused flourmill outside of St. Petersburg. We used Yuri's van to get there and came straight here."
I looked past him. "Where's Aimee and Siri?" I asked. My throat was so dry I ended up coughing.
"They were getting Derek's stuff stashed in the war room. They should be here soon." Edrik came to stand beside him, and I gave him a poor excuse for a smile.
"Valkyrie," he said, his face serious. "Enough of all this lying around and doing nothing. We have work to do."
I chuckled, then coughed. "Yes, sir. Just give me a minute and I'll be back on my feet in no time."
"I hope so. Or you will have me to answer to," he responded sternly. I could see how affected he was by everything that was happening around me. His gaze flitted from the needle in my vein to the tubing that led across the bed to Aidan's arm, then back to my face again. He was pale with worry.
"I'll be fine, Edrik. It's just a little blood," I said softly.
His gaze flitted to Aidan's wound, then back to my face. Then he gave my free hand a squeeze before shifting out of my line of sight.
As much as I wanted to see them, I fell asleep before Aimee and Siri arrived.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
When I woke up, I could feel it. The deep sense of loss and grief. It sat in my bones, weighed down my heart, and ripped me to shreds.
Aidan was gone.
I stared up at the ceiling, barely registering that I still slept in the bed beside him, that my hand was now free of tubing and tightly bandaged. When I could finally bring myself to turn my head to the right, I could see the empty cot, stripped of its sheet.
Shifting onto my elbow, I boosted myself up to a sitting position and scanned the room. Eir was mixing something in a pestle and mortar and looked up at me, her attention probably drawn by my movement.
"You are awake," she said, smiling gently at me. She looked relieved to see me up.
I smiled at her, then looked away, my eyes flitting to the empty bed.
"I am so truly sorry, Brynhildr. We did everything we could to save him. Your blood worked for a while, but it was not enough." She sighed as she sank onto the cot and sat beside my knees. She took my hands in hers and held them for a while. "You must not blame yourself, Bryn. I can see it in your eyes that you are already closing yourself off. There is no time to retreat into grief."