Blood, Body and Mind by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

let her go, anything to stop her crying. But he could not.
    “ I think someone has beaten you, love, that’s what I think.” He moved closer as he spoke until she cringed against the wall. “Sara, honey, turn around and let me see the extent of your injuries. I won’t touch you, but I need to look at them.”
    She started shaking her head at him. “Okay, so it is what you think. Why? What can you do? Can you make the hurt go away? I want to go now. You have no rights over me, do you hear me? I want to go away from here.”
    She stiffened suddenly and he jerked around to defend her. Anger boiled into the room from the man he’d forgotten about. Colin.
    “ Who will kill him? Aaron, what’s going on?”
    He hid the grin that fought hard to turn into a laugh at the sight of Colin standing there. Colin was holding his broadsword in his hands, at the ready, in a pair of khaki shorts and an Ohio State Football t-shirt.
    “ Colin, please go with the others. I will explain in a moment. I can take care of this.” At least Aaron hoped he could.
    With a cool look toward the girl through the bathroom door, Colin left.
    “ And you aren’t going anywhere. Not now. The doctor will be here soon, and then we are going to talk about this. Sara, I really need—”
    “ He will find out where I am again. I won’t be able to protect her this time either if he does, don’t you see? I can’t let him hurt her again. I couldn’t protect her before. It is imperative that I protect her at all costs. I cannot fail her again. Then there’s the baby. Babies are all we have in the world, you know?”
    While her babbling was disjointed, it wasn’t very helpful either. He? He who? Baby? Christ, she was pregnant too?
    “ You’re pregnant? Who is he? Your husband, is he the one who beat you? I’ll kill the bastard.” Some people, he decided, should not be allow to live.
    “ What? No, I’ve never even had sex. No, April’s baby. I want you to let me go.” She was crying harder now.
    Aaron would think about all she said later. For now, all he could think about was that she was hurting. He finally got her to come out of the bathroom with the promise that he would not make her bare herself to him. He went to his room to get her the softest shirt he owned for her to put on. She had explained to him how she had trouble pulling a shirt over her head and that was when she realized just how much pain she was in. He helped her into the shirt, not looking at anything but her eyes. She managed to drop the towel only twice, leaving him with the briefest idea that the beatings had not been done only to her back and legs.
    By the time Thomas got there, she was lying in the now clean bed, and crying softly. Aaron stood at the door to the bedroom and waited, clenching and unclenching his fists. He could not remember being so angry in all of his considerable years. Nor had he ever felt so useless.
    “ Sara’s hurting. I demand that you make it stop,” he said in way of a greeting.
    “ Can I see her first? It might make things easier that way.”
    Aaron could only glare at him. He had been Thomas’s friend for two hundred years and at that moment, he thought he might gladly stake him.
    Aaron took a deep breath before he spoke again. “I would very much appreciate it if you could please examine her. Then I’d like for you to see if you can take away her pain. Please, Thomas. She’s hurting.”
    Aaron felt Thomas’s stare. Aaron could not imagine what he was thinking.
    “ All right,” Thomas finally said, “go downstairs and I’ll see what I can do.”
    “ I’ll be right out here. Yell if you need me, or if she doesn’t cooperate. She’s...she can be stubborn at times,” Aaron told him.
    Aaron thought that was a bit of an understatement. She was frustratingly stubborn and infuriatingly obstinate.
    As Aaron shut the door behind him, he heard Thomas say to Sara, “Come now, child, let’s see what all the fuss is about.”

~ CHAPTER