NATHAN CROSS STRIKE BACK..

Chapter 17

At that moment, Nathan paused for a few seconds, his hand still resting lightly on Vivienne's shoulder.

Then, slowly and deliberately, he placed his other hand on her forehead.

The moment his fingers made contact with her skin, everything became clear.

It was like a switch had been flipped in his mind.

Suddenly, he understood what she needed. He understood what was going on inside her body. He understood the nature of her condition with a clarity that should not have been possible for someone who had never seen this illness before, who had no medical records to reference, who had only just met this woman minutes ago.

Yes, he had been captivated by her beauty when he first saw her.

That was undeniable.

Even now, with her face pale and twisted with pain, with frost spreading across her skin in unnatural patterns, she was breathtaking in a way that made something in his chest tighten.

But that was not what he was focused on anymore.

Now, with his hand on her forehead, he could feel everything.

Her body was in excess cold.

Not the normal cold of winter or a fever or even hypothermia.

This was something else entirely.

It was as if her body was producing cold from the inside out, as if her very cells were freezing themselves in some kind of catastrophic internal malfunction. The temperature of her skin was far below what any human body should be able to sustain and still remain conscious.

And she was in excruciating pain.

He could feel that too — not physically, but through the connection his spiritual energy had made with hers. It was like his finger had become a scanner, reading the information encoded in her body's energy signature and translating it into something he could understand.

Her entire nervous system was screaming.

Every nerve ending felt like it was being stabbed with frozen needles.

Her organs were struggling to function under the extreme temperature drop.

Her heart was beating irregularly, struggling to pump blood that was becoming sluggish and thick from the cold.

She was maybe three minutes away from losing consciousness entirely.

Maybe five minutes away from organ failure.

Nathan understood all of this in the space of a single breath.

And he understood exactly what he needed to do.

Without hesitation, he began to infuse more of his spiritual energy into her body.

Not all at once — that would be too much, too fast, and could cause its own problems.

But in a steady, controlled stream, flowing from his hand on her forehead down through her body like warm water melting ice.

The effect was almost immediate.

Vivienne's body, which had been trembling violently just moments before, began to still slightly.

The coldness in her body — that terrible, unnatural cold that had been spreading like wildfire through her system began to recede.

Slowly, Gradually.

But unmistakably.

And the pain that had been tearing through her with every heartbeat began to lessen as well.

Not disappearing entirely it was too severe for that, and Nathan was being careful not to push too hard too fast.

But going down, Drastically.

From unbearable to merely excruciating.

From excruciating to severe, From severe to manageable.

Vivienne's breathing, which had been shallow and labored and desperate, began to deepen slightly. Her body began to relax fractionally against Nathan's leg. The frost on her skin those beautiful, terrible crystalline patterns — began to fade at the edges, melting away like morning dew under sunlight.

It was working, But Nathan knew this was not enough.

He could feel it through the connection his spiritual energy had made with hers.

What he was doing right now was stabilizing her. Pulling her back from the immediate brink of death. Giving her body a fighting chance.

But it was not a cure, It was a band-aid.

To actually cure her to address the root cause of whatever was causing her body to produce this catastrophic internal cold he needed to go deeper.

He needed to access the core of her spiritual energy directly.

And to do that, he needed to touch her chest.

Not through her clothes.

Not with fabric blocking the connection.

His palm needed to make direct contact with her skin, right over her heart, where her spiritual energy was concentrated most strongly.

Nathan hesitated for only a fraction of a second, he knew what this would look like.

He knew how it would be interpreted.

But he also knew that Vivienne was still dying, just more slowly now, and if he did not do this she would slip back into that frozen abyss within minutes.

He made his decision.

Slowly, carefully, Nathan reached for the top button of Vivienne's blouse.

He unbuttoned it, then he moved to the second button.

He unbuttoned that one too.

The moment the second button came undone, Claire's voice exploded across the space like a gunshot.

"What do you think you are doing?!"

Her jaw was so tight Nathan thought he could hear her teeth grinding together even from several paces away.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Claire's voice rose sharply, trembling with fury and disbelief. "How dare you unbutton her dress, you pervert!"

She took a step forward, her entire body radiating outrage.

"So this is what you wanted to accomplish?!" Claire continued, her words coming faster now, sharper, more accusatory. "So this is what you wanted to do?! You are unbuttoning her shirt?! What for?! What is the reason you would be unbuttoning her shirt?! You crazy?!"

She looked like she was about to signal the bodyguards to drag Nathan away by force.

But before she could say another word, Vivienne's voice cut through the air.

"Stop."

It was not loud.

Vivienne did not have the strength for loud.

But the word carried weight and authority that made Claire freeze mid-step.

"Stop insulting him," Vivienne continued, her voice still weak but steadier than it had been moments before. "Stop throwing tantrums at him."