Starkissed

Chapter Twenty

Taturn laughed quietly to himself as he shook his head slightly. "I'm sure that Ama would find it very amusing that the future Queen of Nauria believes that she is indebted to her for merely doing her job. I assure you, she was happy to help. I think she quite likes you."

I could feel the blush covering my face as I laughed awkwardly to myself. "Well, she's pretty great herself."

Taturn gave me another kind smile as he turned towards Jade. "Well, I assume you've come to get a report on our friend Jade here. I'm afraid that things aren't looking good. Since she arrived several days ago, she has already declined further. Nothing we have done seems to be working, which is strange considering our medical advancements."

I could feel the disappointment on my face as I looked down at the peaceful, yet utterly pale girl on the bed. "I know you've been doing everything you can." It was then that an idea began to unfurl in my mind, as I remembered the weird sensation that had gone through me when I had somehow healed my painful gunshot wound in the bathroom.

"What about a blood transfusion? From me to Jade?" I pondered aloud, wondering if my blood had something to do with what had happened to heal me earlier.

Taturn was silent for a moment as he considered my idea. "I suppose... it could be worth a try. At this point, we have exhausted all other options. And since we have yet to figure out how you healed yourself, perhaps it may do more than we are expecting."

I nodded, hoping that I could do something to help Jade. Kade stepped closer to me. "Absolutely not." He all but growled, coming to stand between me and the doctors. His eyes were hard as he glared down at me.

I frowned up at him. "And what's your problem?" My voice was flat as I leveled my gaze at him. He was as prickly as a cactus sometimes.

Kade's breath was tickling my neck as he came closer. "You just nearly died. I don't think you should be giving away any of your blood right now, Emily." He grit out in annoyance.

My lips twitched in amusement. "It's sweet you're concerned about me, but... I used to donate blood all the time." Back when my family was still alive. The thought struck me like a thousand bricks to my chest, causing a painful heaviness to overtake my body. I loosed a breath, trying my best to not allow my mind to stray from the task ahead of us.

Kade stared at me with a blank expression for a long minute. "Humans." He growled out finally, shaking his head in exasperation. He pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at me as though he would never in a million years understand me.

I grinned at him, before wrinkling my nose at his confusion. "How else would we help those that need blood?"

The aliens in the room looked at me with amusement. I rolled my eyes. Clearly, they had also somehow magically found a way around donating blood with their technologies. I hoped that they would share a couple of their medical advancements with the human race, at least.  I supposed they had also solved world hunger on their planet. I blew a piece of hair out of my face as I pondered the thoughts piling in my mind. When no one seemed to move, I stepped around Kade's large muscled body and grinned.

"Alright, so let's do this bloody thing." I said, laughing to myself. When they didn't follow suit, I narrowed my eyes at them. "Really? That was a great pun."

Several of the Naurian nurses and doctors side-eyed me like I was an unpredictable freak that would at any moment jump on their operating table and start doing the Macarena.

I sent a pained grin their way and made a note to lay off the sarcasm and bad dad jokes. Clearly, they all weren't quite as understanding of my humour as Kade was.