Warrior (Relentless #4)(136)

“How is she?” Tristan asked from the doorway.

“She’s still out. They think she might be in some kind of shock.”

He came over to stand at the foot of the bed. “I’m not surprised after what she did. Jesus, what did she do?”

“So Nate is human again?” The words sounded surreal to my ears.

“As far as I can tell. Silver doesn’t burn him, and he looked ill when we offered him blood. The healers are checking him now.”

I gazed down at Sara’s still face. She looked so peaceful she could have been sleeping.

“Is it safe to have him so close to Sara?”

Tristan nodded. “We have a restraint on him as a precaution, and I’m leaving someone outside his door.”

“How’s he dealing with all this?” I asked.

Tristan exhaled loudly. “He’s in shock too. He keeps asking if this is real and if Sara is okay.”

“She will be. She has to be,” I said roughly.

“Didn’t she say healings made her tired? And you said she passed out after healing her werewolf friend. This could be her body’s way of recharging after using so much power.”

Hope surged in me. “Then she should wake up in a few hours.”

There was a commotion outside and a frantic voice said, “Where’s Sara?”

Roland and Peter burst into the room followed by Jordan. Roland went around to the other side of the bed to look down at Sara. “What happened to her?”

“She used a lot of power for a healing, and it knocked her out,” I said.

Roland frowned. “What the hell did she heal, an elephant?”

“Nate.”

“Huh?” His eyes narrowed.

“But Nate’s a vampire,” Peter cut in.

“Not anymore,” Tristan said. “At least we don’t think he is.”

“What?” Roland croaked. “That…that’s impossible.”

“I don’t think Sara knows that word.” I caressed the back of her hand with my thumb as I told them what had happened downstairs. “He’s next door. Go see for yourselves.”

I stayed with Sara while the rest of them went to see Nate, but I could hear murmurs, followed by the boys’ voices raised in excitement. Then there was a shuffling sound, and a healer shouted something. Tristan called out that everything was under control.

What the hell was going on over there?

Jordan came in and flopped down onto a chair near the door. “Well, you don’t see something like that every day.”

“What happened?”

“Sara’s friends stripped down like they were at a spring break party and changed to wolf form. Then they started sniffing her uncle all over. Apparently, they can always smell a vampire when they are in their fur. They said he’s definitely human again. Although, he might need therapy after this. I never realized how big a werewolf is in person. Pictures don’t do them justice.”

“Nothing ever matches the real thing.”

“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “And they must work out a lot. Nice butts. I mean before they went all furry. But don’t tell them I said that.”

A laugh slipped out. I could see why Sara liked her. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Jordan grew quiet for a long moment. “Is she going to be all right?”

“Yes.” I wouldn’t accept anything else.

Sara didn’t wake up that night or the next day. The healers had no answers, and I tried not to be angry because I knew this was a unique situation. But with each passing hour, I grew more afraid she might not come back.

Tristan and I began to talk about what to do if she didn’t wake up soon. He knew a few powerful healers who were not Mohiri, and he was already trying to track them down. I wished there was a way to contact Sara’s sylph friend. If her condition was the result of her Fae power, the faerie should know what to do.

Nate had been given the apartment next to Tristan’s, but he stayed in the medical ward to be close to Sara. He’d started eating food again and continued to ask about Sara. Roland and Peter spent a lot of time with him, and Tristan paid him regular visits. I went to visit him twice, and it warmed me to see the old Nate again.

Tristan and I asked him a lot of questions about his short time as a vampire. He remembered meeting a female vampire, but not her name or face. He couldn’t recall much from the change except the pain. He’d been compelled to forget anything that might lead us to the Master.

“I remember talking to Sara on the phone a few days before Thanksgiving. I was already…changing then. I remember the trip here and talking to you outside with Sara…”

His voice broke, and it was a few minutes before he could talk again. “The things I said to her… I told her Daniel’s death was her fault, and that I never wanted her. I-I didn’t mean it. I love her like she’s my own daughter.”

“It was the vampire talking,” I told him. “Sara knows that, and she’ll be too happy to have you back to care about anything else.”

If only she would wake up.

Sara had a steady stream of visitors as well. Roland and Peter were in and out all day along with Jordan. Tristan and Chris came by regularly to check on her, as did Seamus, Niall, and Sahir.