Royal (Terk’s Guardians #9)

Chapter 8

“R oyal’s still asleep,” Janna told Calum and Rick, almost an hour later. “They both are.”

“They’re both in rough shape,” Calum said. “You need to be prepared for a protracted and slow recovery, particularly after a long period of incarceration like that.”

“I know,” she agreed. “I need to get him back to my place, where I can keep him safe. I didn’t want to say anything, but he looks terrible, so thin and pale. He used to look much more like the two of you.”

“They’ve definitely been starved. It’s not at all unusual in those situations,” Calum explained. “I know that Royal does energy work, but is a newbie, so you might want to talk to Terk about getting him some healing assistance.”

“Right.” She nodded. “I can help, and I can pay for that too.”

“You need to talk to Terk about it first because I’m not sure how that works. You’re not that far away from Terk’s headquarters, are you?”

“No, I’m only just up the road from you guys. Imagine my surprise when I realized you’d moved that close.”

“Right. We weren’t looking at the neighbors, before Terk bought the place,” Calum shared. “We were looking at the location from a logistics point of view.”

“Logistics?” she asked, with a laugh. “You just wanted a castle.”

He laughed. “You could be right. I admit that, once everybody saw the place, it was pretty well a done deal.”

“I looked at that castle as well,” she shared, “but it was far too big for me.”

“Good, because it’s perfect for us. I’m so glad it was there, ready and waiting when we got around to needing our own place.”

“You should have got around to it a long time ago,” she declared. “The government will twist you up and screw you over if they get a chance. It would have been good to get out before all that happened to your team.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t. Now we decide what jobs we take, and we charge them for the work we do. A lot.”

She chuckled. “I really like that idea too.” She gave Calum a satisfied smile. “I like that you get some control over what you do and don’t take on. And that they’re paying much more than the pittance they paid us to do the same job.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” Calum suggested. “You could use some rest yourself.”

“How far from the border are we?”

“We crossed the border a little bit ago,” Calum replied calmly. “It was one of the unmanned border crossings, and it’s nighttime, and nobody gives a crap. This is all pretty well wide open country anyway. You’ll see the signs changed to Polish, and hopefully we’re now heading toward an airstrip. We’re just waiting for the logistics to get us to the correct location.”

“If we can come up with a motel that’s safe, we should all hole up for a day or two,” Rick offered, “because it might take our team a bit to make the rest of the arrangements.”

“Definitely motels are up ahead,” she stated, looking far off in distance. “Is that a problem?”

“No, not necessarily.” Rick looked over at Calum.

Calum looked up from his phone and added, “I’ve just located one now.” He punched the address into the GPS on his phone. “We should stop at least to get food, maybe a shower, regroup, and see what we might need to get these guys out of the country and to Terk’s castle in England. I doubt Royal and Bruce have any papers, and that’ll be our next issue. We may have to smuggle them into England as well.”

“I don’t care what we do,” Janna admitted, “but, if the US government is helping, can’t they help with that too?”

“Maybe for Royal, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be very happy about us bringing Bruce in.”

She stared at him and then sank back. “See? That’s the part about not liking governments. I really, really don’t get how can they pick and choose people like that.”

“We have leverage in this case,” Calum pointed out, “so I don’t think it’ll be a problem, but it might take a little longer.”

While she didn’t want to hear that, it did make a certain amount of sense. From there on, they drove on about another hour before they pulled up in front of a large motel.

She stared up at it and grimaced. “As much as I want to go in there and have a hot shower, a good night’s sleep, and some real food, it terrifies me to think that it’s a trap.”

“It’s not a trap, at least we don’t think so.” Calum turned and looked at her. “Are you getting anything like that?”

She shook her head. “No, although I really don’t pick up on human issues very much,” she said, “which is why it was such a shock that this guy got into my head and stayed there. So, I don’t really sense betrayal or bad situations the way you guys probably do.”

“Doesn’t matter whether you do or not,” Calum noted. “I’ll go in and see if we can get a couple rooms. I tried to book online, but their site was down.”

Still uneasy, she watched as Calum hopped out and walked into the main office area, and by the time he came back out nearly twenty-five minutes later, she was quite antsy.

But he popped his head into the back window and announced, “Here’s the room key card. We’ve got two adjoining rooms at the back. Rick will drive around, and you guys can get inside.” Calum waved his hand down the road. “Fast food is around the corner, so I’ll leave you guys with Rick, and I’ll go pick up some food.”

“Good enough,” she said, her stomach growling. “I’ll shower first.”

He laughed. “Yeah, your bag should be somewhere, but I’m not sure you have any clean clothes left.”

She winced. “Even if I have to wear the same thing again, I don’t really care. At least I’ll be clean for a minute. These guys don’t have any clothes at all.”

“Yeah, and what they do have makes them look very much like they’re part of the Russian army. We’ll change that before heading out, but that’s all part of the logistics after this. So, sit tight and get settled. I’ll be back in a few.”

And, with that, Rick drove around to the back. As she got out, she looked down at the two sleeping men and asked, “What do we do with them?”

“You wake up Royal, and I’ll carry Bruce,” Rick suggested, looking around. “We’re on the second floor, and we have outside access, but we really don’t want anybody to see us.”

She reached in and shook Royal awake.

He stared at her for a moment, clearly confused, then seeing the open door, he stumbled out. “Where are we?” he asked, wrapping his arms around his body.

“We’re at a motel. I’m taking you up, and we’ll get Bruce into a bed, where we can take a good look and see how bad he is.”

Royal nodded. “Both of us have a little bit of stuff in our pockets, whatever we grabbed from the guards. Not sure how much is left.”

“Grab everything you can from the back seat of the vehicle,” Rick ordered, as he searched the front seat and the floorboard. Janna searched the back seat and floorboard.

Then Rick bent in and scooped up Bruce.

Janna asked Rick, “Will you be okay to carry him?”

“Unfortunately he doesn’t weigh much at all, which is another sign of long-term captivity. We’ll have quite a job bringing him back to good health. It’ll take a lot of time, and he could have some really serious problems that we’re not aware of yet, like teetering on organ failure.”

“For now, let’s keep him alive. That will be a good start,” she muttered.

Then urging Royal to keep up with them so they could get him inside, she unlocked the door, popped it open so Rick could walk in with Bruce in his arms. She hurried Royal inside, then followed with a casual glance around, trying to see if anything here was of concern.

Everything appeared to be completely normal, which just made her even more suspicious, but she couldn’t do anything about it right now. She closed the door, keeping the world out, for the first time feeling as if maybe, just maybe, they would get through this. She raced over and pulled back the blankets on one bed, so Rick could lay Bruce down. She quickly unlaced the boots on his feet and removed his socks, wincing as she saw festering blisters. And then, with Rick’s help, they stripped Bruce of his clothing, down to his underwear, as they checked him over for more injuries and bruises. He was a bone rack, with lots of bruising and some sores, likely from lying on the bed in his prison cell for far too long in one position.

She frowned at Rick. “Did our room come with a first aid kit?”

He shrugged. “If not, I’ll go out later and get what we need.”

She ran into the bathroom, filling the sink with warm water, then grabbed a washcloth and proceeded to give Bruce a simple bath, while he was stretched out asleep but essentially unconscious. She looked over at Royal. “Are you as bad as he is?”

He shrugged. “Probably. I don’t know. I can’t say that I’ll be too impressive to look at either. It’s easy to ignore it when you don’t know, but, man, once you accept that you’re injured, the pain is a whole lot harder to ignore.”

Rick smiled and nodded. “But you’re holding up, and that’s what counts, so maybe you should have the first shower.”

He hesitated. “Yeah, I just don’t know.”

“Do you need help?” Rick asked, studying him.

Royal had stood upright for so long that he got shaky and unstable. “I need to sit, if that’s all right.”

That made Janna afraid, and she rushed to his side. “Look. If you can get in the shower, Rick and I can help you,” she stated, her tone firm. “We need you clean one way or another, and we need to know the extent of your injuries, especially those we don’t even know about. The only way to do that is to strip you down and get you washed up,” she muttered.

He hesitated. “I thought you would have one first.”

“I’ll get one later. We need to look after you guys first,” she stated, her tone firm. “Now, come on, into the bathroom with you.”

He got up and unsteadily headed into the washroom, while she finished working on Bruce. When he called out, she stepped into the bathroom, Rick behind her, to see Royal completely nude. Her hand went to her mouth as she cried out. It was much worse than either of them imagined.

Royal smiled at her. “Hey, I’m alive, and, thanks to you guys, I might make it.” He was a rack of bones. His ribs stuck out everywhere, and his hip bones jutted out prominently.

Janna whispered, “Did they even feed you?”

“No, not really, not very much,” he admitted. “Only some weird gruel. I don’t think they were all that interested in keeping us alive.”

She frowned. “Can you even handle a shower? Would you rather take a bath?” She walked around checking him for injuries, and, sure enough, like Bruce, he had several sores that needed attention as well. She frowned at those. “Those bed sores are not good. We’ll fix those right away.”

“Sure,” Rick replied, “but it’ll take time.”

She looked over at Rick. “Maybe not as much time as you think.”

Rick nodded. “Let me talk to Clary and Cara.”

“Come on, Royal,” Janna said. “Let’s get you under a shower.” She turned on the hot water, stripped down herself, and stepped in with him, where she scrubbed his head several times as he sat on the shower seat. Using the soap and shampoo that was here, she quickly scrubbed him from top to bottom, and then did it all over again. By the time she was done, she called out for Rick, as she hid behind the shower curtain. Rick stepped back in and helped lift Royal out, then wrapped him up in towels and escorted him to the nearest empty bed.

She stayed in the shower and scrubbed herself down until she felt clean again. It also gave her an excuse to let the tears flow freely. Just seeing Royal so painfully thin, with open sores, knowing how different he was from the robust man she had known before, just broke her heart. To think that people could be so cruel, when there was absolutely no need for it, and yet those guards had thrived on it. They had thrived on hurting somebody else.

What kind of people were they that they did something like that, not just one day but day after day?

When she finally ran out of tears, she stepped out, put her jeans and T-shirt back on, then washed out her underwear and bra, hanging them on the railing, hoping they would have a chance to dry before she had to put them back on again. Out in the bedroom, she looked over at Rick to see him checking on Bruce.

“How are they?”

“They’re both asleep now,” he said, turning to look back at her. He nodded approvingly, staring her down. “You look better.”

“Yeah, sorry about leaving you to it,” she replied. “I had no idea Royal was that bad, so it was pretty upsetting to see the condition he’s in.”

“Prisoners of war are like that,” Rick noted calmly, his gaze ever watchful. “Are you okay?”

“I am,” she said, “though I’m looking forward to having some food coming our way.”

“Calum will be here in a few minutes,” Rick explained. “I asked him to pick up some medication and ointments and a first aid kit too, so we can start treating all those sores. If you’re okay for a few minutes with these guys, I’ll have a quick shower.”

She nodded. “Oh, sorry, I left my underclothes to dry in there. I’ll get them.”

“Don’t bother. It’s fine,” he muttered. “No worries. I have a partner. Calum too.”

She laughed. “Yeah, good for you. The only man who ever got that close to me is lying here, skin and bones, looking as if he’s almost dead,” she muttered.

“He’s not, and, thanks to you, he’ll make it, so remember that.” Then with gentle hands he turned her to where Royal was crashed on the bed. “If you’ve got any energy left to give him, he could use some healing.”

Then, with that, he stepped into the bathroom and took a quick shower himself.

*

Royal woke with a start and stared around the room, blinking at the unfamiliarity of it. The light was at half-mast, and he was on a bed, the softness of it was something that he wanted to exclaim over. He had gotten so used to that hard bare cot.

When he felt someone’s energy on him, he whispered, “Where am I?”

“You’re on the bed beside Janna,” said the man in the shadows. “You’re safe. We met you out on the highway and brought you and Bruce to a motel. We’re in Poland. You haven’t eaten, but you’ve been scrubbed head to toe, and your wounds have been treated for the moment,” said the same man.

As the man stepped closer, Royal recognized him from the highway and sank back in relief. “God, it seems as if I’ve been asleep forever.”

“We cleaned some of your wounds. Some of those sores were pretty rough too, raw open sores. You’re not in good shape, so we ended up giving you some painkillers that knocked you out, but unfortunately we didn’t get you any food first.”

“Food would be lovely,” he replied, as he shifted uneasily. “Wow, getting up will hurt, won’t it?”

The man chuckled. “Yes. I’m Rick, by the way. If you can get up and come over to the table, I can get you some food.”

Royal slowly stood and made his way to the bathroom first, where he dressed in the casual clothes someone had brought for him, then headed for the table and gingerly sat down. “I didn’t think I was that bad.”

“Adrenaline and panic keep us going for a long time, but, at some point in time, even that wears down,” Rick noted, his gaze focused on Royal. “We’ll hole up here for a couple days to see if we can get your strength up a little bit. We need you stronger before we move you two again.”

“Will a couple days even do it?” Royal asked, looking over at him. “I feel as if I’ll need a year.”

“You shouldn’t need that long in total, but you’ll definitely need a few months. Right now I need you strong enough that, if we must run again, you’re capable of keeping up.”

“Right. That is a whole different story.” His gaze shifted around the room and landed on Bruce. “How is he?” he asked, his voice almost at a whisper.

“He’s in worse shape than you, and that’s unfortunate because you’re not in very good shape at all.”

Royal turned to Rick. “I don’t feel too bad though.”

“Sure, because an awful lot of energy is flowing through your system as energy workers try to help you,” he explained. “If you were on your own, using your own energy reserves, you would be flat on your back and probably not capable of moving an inch. That’s the danger of giving you too much energy. It makes you cocky, thinking you’re okay when, in actual fact, you’re way worse off than you thought.”

“Okay, that’s good to know, and I can see how that would happen,” he noted in a calm tone. “Even now I’m ready to go back to bed, but you did mention food.”

At that reminder, he was presented with some slabs of bread, plus bottled water.

“Oh my, real food.” He noted the meat and cheese, but it was out of his reach.

“Now be careful though,” Rick warned him. “You eat too much, too fast, and that could kill you too.”

“Right, that’s what ended up happening in the Second World War, didn’t it? The rescuers were desperate to help people and didn’t want to deny them food, but the onslaught of food killed far too many of them.”

“Exactly,” Rick agreed. “Just like too much water can be bad, like too little water, we have also learned since then that sometimes the kindest thing is to be cruel for a little while.”

“You tell me how much to eat then. Otherwise I’ll eat everything on this table and probably the table too.”

“Yeah, well, you won’t get that choice.” Royal was given two good slabs of bread, and Rick said, “See how much of this you can get down.” When the bread was gone, he was given a bottle of water. “That should be it for now. I suggest you get some more sleep, if you can, and hopefully the next few days will just be a cycle of waking up, eating, then getting more sleep.”

“I’m good with that,” Royal agreed, as he stared over at the bed. “She really brought you guys to save us, huh ?”

“She did. She was adamant that she had to be with us. She’s the one who came to Terk, even though apparently she’s quite the recluse.”

“She is, because of her face,” Royal noted. “It never mattered to me, but she didn’t believe me. I don’t think she even had the ability to really believe it could be true. At least not then, but I’m hopeful she’s better with it now.”

“Honestly, she hasn’t mentioned it or dealt with it very much lately. I’m sure other people may notice, but I don’t find it all that bad.”

“Exactly. I told her that back then, but she was… I think still so hung up on her appearance and thinking that it was way worse. Yet she seems different now.”

“She’s also been to hell and back, and I know you don’t know all the details yet,” Rick shared, “and it’s not for me to tell you. Just know that she’s not the same person, and that’s not a good thing either.”

“Hell, she’s already been to hell and back so many times,” Royal said. “The shit she went through over that acid attack and all the surgeries, I can’t imagine anything worse.”

“Whatever happened to whoever did it, the fan or whatever?”

“Committed suicide not long afterward. I think he was planning on taking her with him, but she escaped to survive, and the mentally disturbed fan went on to take his own life.”

“That’s an easier ending than it could have been,” Rick replied, then waited in silence for him to finish his water.

Royal drank the bulk of the water and then stumbled his way back to bed. As he sat down, he asked, “Should we wake up Bruce?”

“No, we’ll let him sleep right now. I’m monitoring his energy to ensure he’s not slipping into unconsciousness, but, come morning, we’ll wake him up and get him some food and deal with him then.”

“Sounds good.” Royal was exhausted from everything that had happened and was way beyond anything he could deal with at present. Yet he felt terrible that he wasn’t capable of doing what he needed to do for himself, much less Bruce. Yet here Royal was, willing to crash, because this was his opportunity, until they could get out of here. He closed his eyes and fell into an instant deep sleep.