“Does she even have a mate?” another woman asked. “How could she heal Jerber if she is truly mated to the Kindred male?”
“He cannot be the other half of her heart if she was able to heal Jerber,” another woman agreed.
“Kozen—have the Kindred sent us two UnJoined ones?” one of the men asked the leader of the village. “For how else could one of them heal another who they were not Joined to?”
Great, now they were questioning if she and Bravik were even Joined! Danni bit the inside of her cheek and tried to stay calm. But what were they going to do?
“We must have a test,” Kozen said, raising his voice to be heard above the crowd. “Be quiet now and listen.”
At once the crowd grew silent, though Danni could see that all eyes were still on her and Bravik. She shot the big Kindred a pleading glance—I’m so sorry.
In return, Bravik gave a small shake of his head—not your fault. He had handed the wounded boy she’d healed off to some others—possibly his parents—and was standing there quietly, though his big body was tensed and alert. Danni had the feeling he was ready to spring into action if the H’rakens turned against them—or against her—but she wasn’t sure if even the huge Kindred could take on all the men of the village at once.
“We will have a test,” Kozen repeated loudly. “We know that only truly Joined mates can heal each other, so one of them must heal the other.”
“Yes, but the foreign female just healed Jerber and she was not mated to him!” a man in the crowd protested.
“That is because my dear friend, Danielle, has special healing powers,” Navii said stoutly.
Silently, Danni blessed her new friend for standing by her.
“That’s true, I do,” she said simply.
“In that case, it must be Bravik who heals Danielle,” Kozen said. “If he can heal her, it proves she is truly Joined to him and the two of them must be mates—husband and wife.”
Danni felt her stomach drop to her feet. Heal her? How was Bravik going to manage that? She knew some Kindred were able to heal their females—Blood Kindred, she believed. It had something to do with their fangs.
But Bravik had the coloring of a Beast Kindred—although some of his teeth did look rather long and sharp—were they fangs? What kind of Kindred was he, anyway? And if he wasn’t the kind of Kindred that could heal his mate, had the two of them had enough exposure to the Mother Stone for him to heal her the way the H’rakens apparently healed each other?
Danni seriously doubted it.
So what in the Seven Hells—as Bravik would say—were they going to do?
The big Kindred seemed to be thinking the same thing because he was glaring at Kozen.
“And how am I supposed to heal my female when she’s not wounded?” he demanded, his voice coming out in a low, ominous growl. “Are you proposing to hurt her?”
The protective menace in his tone was clear and Kozen took a step back, an uncertain look on his face.
“There is no need for that!” Navii exclaimed, breaking the thick silence which followed Bravik’s question. “For she is already wounded and in need of healing! Remember, dear friend?” she said, turning to Danni. “How you cut yourself on the dough slicing blade not an hour ago?”
“Oh, that’s right.” Danni nodded. How could she have forgotten?
The H’raken women made huge batches of dough in their Communal Kitchen and they had a wooden block with a long blade mounted on one end of it for cutting the dough into smaller, more manageable pieces. Danni had been moving quickly and sliced her arm on the blade in a careless moment.
It wasn’t a deep cut but she had bled a great deal. Navii had wrapped her arm up tightly in a long white cloth bandage, recommending that she “have her husband heal it” as soon as she saw him again.
Of course, Danni had had no intention of doing any such thing. She’d let Navii wrap the arm with the idea of using the cauterizer on herself, later in private. And then, of course, she’d forgotten all about the cut on her arm in all the excitement of healing the adolescent boy.
But now she had a wounded arm that needed to be healed and Bravik was expected to heal it—would he be able to?
She shot him a wide-eyed look—what are we going to do?
But Bravik only shook his head—a gesture that seemed to say—don’t worry.
“All right,” he said, looking at Kozen. “If Danielle is already wounded, then I will heal her and prove that she is truly my mate and that we are Joined. Will that be acceptable?”
“Yes, my Friend Bravik.” The H’raken leader nodded solemnly. “If you can heal Danielle, we will believe that the two of you are truly Joined.”