69

Keilor sat in the chair next to his wife’s bed with his hands steepled against his chin, his eyes closed. They burned from staring at the slow rise and fall of Jasmine’s chest.

There wasn’t anything the Haunt medics could do. The symbiont flowed like water through the fingers and instruments that tried to remove it from Jasmine’s arms, and Jasmine thrashed in delirious panic whenever it had been attempted. Finally Keilor had ordered them to stop trying.

Rihlia was not much better. Although Jasmine had managed to save her baby, possibly at the risk of her own, she had been badly beaten, and even the natural resilience and speedy healing of her Haunt body could only do so much against loosened teeth, cracked bones and bleeding organs. Jayems stood grim vigil over her this night, no doubt wracked with guilt and self-loathing Keilor knew too well.