Page 44 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
More humiliation. And in front of guys he could beat down like punks if he wasn't so injured. Damn. Would his degradations never cease?
Lydia moved past Carson to return to Seth's side. "Can I stay with him?"
The beefy man with long, curly blond hair scoffed. "Girl, I don't think you want to see this. Carson's a whiz at medicine, but dayam." He gestured toward Seth's injuries. "This is some seriously nasty shit. Unless you're a doctor, too, you'll just be in the way, and you'll probably lose some lunch before all is said and done."
Lydia bit her lip in indecision.
"C'mon," the blond man said more gently this time. "My name's Dev, and we won't be far away. Just in the next room, okay?"
Still she held on to Seth's hand and that succeeded in bringing tears to his eyes. But he blinked them back before anyone else saw them.
"I'll be okay, Lydia. Go with him."
Her topaz gaze glowed with her reluctance. But finally, she nodded. "If you need anything, call for me and I'll come."
He let go even though it pained him to do so.
Dev took her out of the room.
Carson glanced at the man with short, black hair. "Colt? Can you let Margery know it's safe to come in now?"
"Sure, Doc. I'll also let Fang and Aimee know we've got company."
"Thanks." Carson draped a warm, thin blanket over Seth's loins to give him a modicum of modesty.
He hated to admit it, but he was grateful for Carson's action, and he despised the fact that he couldn't dress himself or conjure enough powers to do it.
The Greek Phonoi and Dolophoni had stripped his armor off not long after they'd driven him into the Wall. Those bitches. If he ever laid hands on either group, he'd tear them apart.
But last night, he hadn't stood a chance. Not when his powers were already low and they assaulted him with reapers and dagnytes first. He still had no idea why Thorn would have aligned himself with the Greeks. Normally he stayed out of such things. The dark lord despised demon politics.
Not that it mattered. The important thing was that Seth had to get enough strength back to protect Lydia before they found her.
Seth glanced over to the door Colt had left through to see a tiny woman with red hair several shades lighter than his and blue eyes, come in. She wore some kind of blue shirt and a white jacket with a long white skirt that had running shoes peeking out from beneath the hem. Her hair was coiled into a bun and she had a pair of cat-like glasses.
She offered Seth a kind smile. "Glad to know the danger's past." Pushing her glasses further up on her nose with her knuckle, she joined Carson beside him. "The woman's named Lydia, by the way."
"Yeah I know," Carson said as he laid out things Seth couldn't identify. "He called her by name before she left. Our guest here is Seth."
She smiled at him again. "Hi, Seth. I'm Margery, Margy or Marge, Mars or about a dozen other nicknames people use for me. I'll answer to just about anything so long as it's not an insult. And in case you're wondering, I'm the other doctor who works here with Carson. We're going to get you patched up real fast, okay?"
Frowning at her outgoing ebullience, Seth wasn't sure what to make of these individuals. His powers were so weak that he felt exposed and unsure. Defenseless. He hated to be this vulnerable when he didn't know who or what he was up against.
What their abilities were.
Never mind their intentions.
Carson shined a light into his eye that had the broken blood vessels.
Cursing, Seth grabbed his hand and shoved the light out of his face.
"It's okay," Carson said patiently. "I'm just trying to assess what all has been done to you."
"Isn't it obvious? I had the shit beat of me." What kind of physician couldn't tell that by looking at him from across the room?
Did they not know what they were doing?
Carson laughed. "Yes, I'm aware of that. But I need something a little more specific before I treat you." He stepped forward again. "May I look in your eyes? I want to see if you're in shock or have a concussion."
Seth nodded, and did his best to not strike out at him. But it was hard when Carson's merciless light made his head hurt even worse than it already did.
Once Carson finished with that, he slid the light into his jacket pocket. "Do you mind if we wash the paint off your face?"
Yes, he did. Greatly. "Why?"
"Well, it's going to make it a lot harder to clean and dress the cuts you have and I'm pretty sure you're going to need sutures on one of them. Not something we want to do over greasepaint. That's if you don't mind?"
What did it matter at this point? Could he really look any weaker to them than he already did?
"Okay."
Margery came forward with a warm cloth to clean his face while Carson examined the cut one of the Phonoi had made through his stomach.
One day, he was going to find that bitch and pay her back tenfold for that cut. She'd had the nerve to laugh after she did it.
Once Margery had his face clean, Carson felt the bones around the eye Noir had punched. Seth could only imagine how beautiful that "kiss" was after last night's punch.
Carson sighed. "All right, Seth, I know you're not a shapeshifter. And by the severity of these wounds and the fact you're still alive, never mind fully conscious and not screaming your head off, I'm going to assume you're some kind of immortal. Not a Dark-Hunter with those eyes. So what are you, then? Demon? Vampire?"
Seth choked on the word he hated. "Demigod."
Carson exchanged an unidentifiable look with Margery that Seth wasn't so sure about, then asked, "Greek?"
"Egyptian."
"Ah. Okay, I'm a little rusty on your pantheon. We don't come across you guys much here. And let's face it, I can't exactly Google real facts about ancient gods. So I'm hoping you can help me out a little. Do you know, offhand, if I can give you anything to relieve your pain?"
