-Gaffriel 49

I smelled food, felt Niala over me. I had heard her talking for a while, but I just couldn’t make myself move or even try to understand. Everything hurt.

“Please be okay,” She whispered.

“I’m good,” I spoke back, cautious and tense Anil over my tongue.

“Your anil is a lot better,” Confused, her eyes searched my face.

“Nobody give chance to me. I try,” I spoke back, stumbling my words in a soft whisper. My jaw clicked every time I moved it, and lightning sharp bolts of pain shot through my eye socket.

I felt over my face and could feel the swelling. Darkness blanketed us with its calm. Things weren’t double, so there was that at least. I guessed I’d need a healer.

“Not doing a dead,” I told her.

She looked like she wanted to correct me for a moment, then stopped. Kiromir had always said to lead by example, not by correction.

“I know. Purchasing time,” Niala said. I muddled through the words with her. I needed practice, but it worked well enough. If anything, if we stayed quiet enough and used Anil, we might be able to escape.

“Poisoned?” I had asked her as I stared over the food. We had decent night vision, being creatures of light and fire but her tastebuds and nose had nothing on a Wildling’s. She was pure predator regarding that.

She shook her head and held out a plate of food. They gave us no cutlery; I couldn’t help but notice. Our fires made us far more dangerous than a damn fork. Would it have killed them?

Niala had her knife on her hip. It was surprising they let her have it. But, then again, they hadn’t searched or taken the opportunity to strip us when they threw us in, too scared of us.

“Tastes meh,” She commented through a mouth thick with food.

“So, you really do eat it raw?” My eyes widened a bit, and my eye twitched. She never ate in front of me and had said something about it before. She nodded, using her hands and teeth to tear at the skirt steak. She had the knife, but she tore at it, letting her sharp canines shred at the meat. I roved my tongue over my own canines as I thought about how it’d feel, and I remembered the noises she’d made earlier, the screaming. I shuddered.

“Use the knife,” I told her. She looked from the knife at her side to the food in her hands.

“You do know where that knife’s been?” She said it almost incredulously. After the gut my knife went through today, I… had to agree.

Every inch of her had blood on it, clothes splashed in it. The scent of human blood, rich and arterial, cloying, surrounded her. So too did her own, and some of mine. I smelled other Wildling blood on her.

“You did bit someone,” I said.

“I did.” She averted her eyes, not proud of herself.

We kept quiet as she tore another bite free. She seemed a little unnerved by it, and I had more questions about her food and why she did what she did.

“You are sad for it?” I asked. I loved how she didn’t nitpick my poor grammar.

“I really like raw and fresh, and it bothered me,” She said, answering a lot of my questions at once.

“I tasted my own kind.” She said with gravity, but she did not discontinue eating. Instead, she moved on to some of the vegetables.

Silence slipped in again. I didn’t want to tell Niala that it was alright. She’d never done anything like that before, never bitten or drawn blood on one of us like that. Sure, there she gave the odd broken nose or bone, loose tooth, but never had she sank her sharp teeth into someone’s flesh and ripped. I thought about her mouth, then, watching her lips move in the dim light. I thought about her teeth on me, and not in a rough way, but gentle nibbles. My cheeks grew flush. I wanted to kiss her.

Why now of all times? Bad dog.

“Will chasing fires help me heal?” I asked. Maybe it would take the edge off. I knew that after a battle, when the men came home, those that had bondmates went to chase fires and looked better for it in the morning. Niala swallowed, and she reached a hand out to me, her black flames tickling.

“Maybe? Bondmates swear by it.” She looked nervous, shy almost.

Sex had never been on my mind before, just an afterthought. We didn’t work that way, for the most part. But the thought came to my mind as I gave Niala my weak fires, and I felt the tingling swim through me. She closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation of my fire, a guilty pleasure as my weak form gathered her energy. If anything, it did wonders for my pain. It just seemed to be slipping away.

I couldn’t really keep myself awake; maybe things would be better after just a little nap.