Dragon Knight-Commander (A Cullen Rutherford Shapeshifter Romance)

Chapter 6

Cullen staggered backwards clutching his ribs. The tail of an arrow-like, demonic weapon protruded from his chest. I reached him as he knelt in the mud. Pain caused his eyes to glaze over. Blood trickled through his gold armour. I looked for help. Maxwell was closing the rift. Varric and Cassandra were knee-deep in darkspawn. I was the only healer.

I told him to take my hands and nearly collapsed from his weight as he used my strength to stand up. I made him lean on me as I led him towards an outcrop of large rocks to shelter behind. I lowered him onto the grass and searched for the buckles that held his armour on.

'Right Hand, leave me, get back out there,' he shouted.

'No.'

'That's an order.'

'I'm not a soldier.'

'I'm still your Commander.' His hand clamped around my wrist and held it still. 'Leave me. They need you.'

'They're nearly finished.'

'Leave me, or you leave the Inquisition,' he roared. His eyes were squeezed shut with the acute pain. Blood was pooling at his side - the red gushed out through the metal. 

'If I leave you, you will die. I know I'm not great at this but I'm going to just patch you up until we find a decent healer.'

He knew they could win this fight without me. It was virtually over. We'd vanquished most of the darkspawn. Cullen had just taken an unlucky hit from a genlock which Cassandra had then beheaded. I thought Cullen must be hallucinating from the pain as he continued to fight me.

I kneeled on one arm and held the other away. It slowed him down but didn't stop him from gripping my wrist. I unbuckled the straps with my free hand.

'Cat, please,' he said.

I carried on.

His fingers curled around my hand. His eyes darted around the field then returned to my face. 'Can I trust you?' he whispered.

'I'll try my best. Lie still.'

'No, Cat. Can I trust you?' he repeated, slower this time. 'What you are about to see, goes no further. You do not speak of it to anyone. Ever. Can I trust you?'

'With your life.'

He released my wrist and I got to work on the catch. I pulled off his golden armour. The arrow's body had snapped off. The end stuck through his shirt, lodged in his rib cage. I unlaced the front of his shirt and was about to pull it apart when he grabbed my arm again and looked deep into my eyes with his. I thought he was nervous about my ability to heal until I opened his shirt and saw what he was actually talking about.

Cullen's naked torso was as magnificent as I'd always dreamed it would be. Broad, lean, muscular, perfect six-pack, defined, tanned...when was he ever out of his armour to get a tan? But above his ribs was a circle of golden scales. A ring of shiny, smooth, golden scales that were part of his body. The skin seamlessly turned into scales and back again into skin inside a circle the size of a fist. It sat on his chest like a superhero's badge and caught the sun every time he moved.

I swallowed. Perhaps Cullen's extensive knowledge of dragons was first-hand. I felt his eyes on me, and conscious of my promise to not breathe a word to anyone, I included him in this and focused on the ugly wound surrounding the tip of the broken arrow in his ribs.

He reached for it and pulled it out without flinching. I covered the sudden gush of blood with my hands and prayed. My hands warmed up and the blue light formed at the tip of my fingers. The power came in waves through my body.

Cullen's face was contorted with pain. I felt the waves slow and pulled my hands away. The skin at his ribs was smooth again. There was not even a bruise on the surface.

I smiled and nudged him to open his eyes. 'It worked.'

'The dragon is still in pain,' he said.

'I take it that's not a metaphor,' I said, still avoiding looking at his chest, focusing on his face.

'What?'

'Shall I try again?'

'I will need to wait a few days then you can try again, but -' He cupped my face. 'You can tell no one about this. Nobody knows.'

His hand fell in my lap and I placed it between both of mine, revelling in the contact. He'd been so cold towards me since our night under the stars. I'd endured a week of his avoidance tactics and stuttered excuses not to stay and talk. He wasn't as bad as old Cullen. New Cullen was more polite and sometimes smiled at me. He just dodged me where possible outside of the War Room meetings. We were all surprised when he said he wanted to come on this mission to close the Hinterland rift. I secretly hoped it was an excuse to talk to me but he'd ignored me and bantered with Varric all the way to camp.

I pulled his shirt back together. 'You might want to get a decent healer to have a go. We can cover the, erm, part you want to cover and they can -'

'No one else is to know,' he growled.

'OK, easy tiger.'

'Tiger?'

I tied his shirt strings and stood up. 'Never mind.'