Page 38 of The Harbinger
“He—”
“I offered.”
“Grab her arm, Nikita. Let’s go,” Sergei said.
I moved them out of the way and cradled her in my arms, the scent of putrid bile triggering my stomach. Her frail body hung limp as I took her into the walk-in shower and placed her on the floor.
The nurse followed as Sergei stayed by the door and observed. Nikita turned the water on overhead, my Andy Demesure leather loafers repelling the droplets.
“Hand me the showerhead.”
I held my hand out, and she detached the showerhead from the holder and gave it to me. Warm water pulsed through the metal handle as I sprayed the sick from her hair. A moan pulled from her chattering lips as the water bubbled in her hair, then swirled down the drain. “Have Katya change the bedding,” I said, glancing over my shoulder.
The old man shuffled out of the bathroom, and Nikita grabbed the shampoo, drizzling it into Mia’s hair. She worked it into a heavy lather as I stood on my haunches beside her, holding her limp body up by her nape. As she worked the suds into Mia’s hair, she hummed a childhood song, the occasional words slipping through.
Water sprayed across her chest, pebbling her nipples, her hollow stomach leading to a nest of dark hair between her thighs.
Mia cried out as she woke, gripping the sides of her head with her palms, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head, the whites swallowing her gray irises. I dropped the handle and tapped her cheek until she came to, her hands roaming over her body as if ridding herself of the memory, tears streaking her face.
Nikita rinsed the shampoo from her hair and shut the water off.
“Hand me that towel.”
She maneuvered around us, pulling the towel off the hook beside the shower entry, and handed it to me.
Holding her close, I drew the towel down her throat and over her breasts, ribs, and belly.
Shivers wracked her body, traveling up her arms as another moan broke free. This one was not like the others.
Her teeth chattered when I slipped my arm beneath her knees and back, dead lifting her off the shower floor.
“Rest now,milaya. The worst is over.”
She nestled into my chest like a child, her exploitable innocence finding safety in my arms. If only she knew…
Katya finished tossing the last pillow onto the bed when I walked out of the bathroom, then exited without a word as I placed Mia on the freshly made bed.
Her damp blonde hair soaked the soft yellow pillowcase as she curled into a ball.
“I’ll give her a sedative and an anti-nausea. It should carry her through the rest of the night.”
Sergei pulled out a thin syringe and stuck it in a vial with a clear substance, filling it, then injected it into her arm.
Mia’s face scrunched with discontent, and she groaned. For a split moment, her brows drew down, and her lips upturned as if she’d cry.
“Why don’t you get some rest and meet me in the morning,” I said.
He’d been here every day since it started six days ago, exchanging his time with three separate nurses.
“And you will watch her? I’ll leave Nikita here until the morning.”
With the sedative in her system, she wouldn’t be going anywhere.
He packed up his supplies and left a small vial of pills on the nightstand. “For the nausea when she wakes.”
I walked him down to the front door. “Spasibo.”
Dmitri drove Sergei down the long driveway, and I walked back upstairs, joining Nikita, who had finished drying Mia off with a towel.