Page 34 of Knave

Two days? “I can’t stand yet,” Mouse started. “Something in my back is broken, and I think I cracked my skull which may have been why I was passed out for so long. I need blood and we don’t have our damn bags.” Their backpacks with their blood provisions were still in the library… Her stomach let out a small growl, realizing the same thing.

“It’s okay. Save your strength. I’m going to get you out today.”

Mouse tried to stand again and a gasp escaped her mouth as agony shot through her spine. Rav’s song from her dream played inside her mind and she couldn’t get it to stop. The walls seemed to close in on her, the smell of Rav’s room coming back to her, so she softly hummed a different song as she’d started to do in her prison cell. It was the only way to stop her from hearing the bastard’s awful melodies, to push away the memories of what he’d done to her.

Hours passed and Mouse stopped humming. The only other noises that had accompanied her was Ferris grunting, cursing, and hitting things. She didn’t think he’d slept at all.

Mouse’s spine still wasn’t fused. It was healing slower than it should’ve since she’d been without blood. Her stomach ached,needingto feed, but she thought of anything else to push the hunger aside. Maddie. Ever. Des. Home.Ferris…

As if hearing her thoughts, a loud clang reverberated from the other side of the boulders. “Ferris?” she said.

“I’m here,” he answered in a gruff voice. “How are you doing, luv?”

As long as she continued to talk to him, not focusing on the fact that she was trapped or ravenous, she would tell herself she was fine. “I’m alive.”

“Always a good sign.” He chuckled.

Mouse closed her eyes, pretending she wasn’t in the small space as she spoke to him. “I think you need to leave, save yourself. You don’t know if or when the Jabberwocky is coming back.”

“Do you really think I’m going to fucking leave you here? I left you behind once at the Ruby Heart Palace upon your request. I’m not doing it again,” he said, finality in his voice.

“But if you’re dead, I’ll still be trapped anyway.”

“Don’t care. I’m not leaving.”

“Stubborn male.” She sighed, but her chest warmed at his words. “At least rest a bit. You’re wasting strength.”

“Not doing that either, luv.” He slammed his weight against the boulders and dust rained down from the ceiling.

Bollocks. If her spine would hurry and heal, she could help instead of feeling like a useless slug on the ground, covered in dust and debris. “So,” she said. “Once we get this tedious step out of the way, what will we do next?”

“Well, we won’t be able to climb out, I’ll tell you that,” he grumbled.

Mouse couldn’t see the opening now, but she thought about the fall, how far down they’d gone, the smoothness of the walls. She would need a miracle to scale walls like that.

An ache thrummed in her stomach, clenching, her throat parched. She craved a drink, desperate for the taste of blood,anyblood. Most vampires could go for much longer, but not her, not anymore. She remembered the donor building, the victims she’d slaughtered, how good they’d tasted, their warm blood sliding across her tongue. That was what she needed now—throats ripped apart so she could consume the liquid faster.

Stop! Mouse bit the inside of her cheek until it bled, just so she could taste her own blood. She needed a distraction—she needed to be able towalk.

Mouse thought about her and Ferris’s time together earlier, his length in her mouth, his lips and tongue on her breast. Their fangs inside one another’s flesh. This was what she needed, him with her. “Perhaps,” she said slowly, “when we do find a way out and are safe, then we can finish where we left off?”

“Please don’t make me fucking hard right now,” Ferris growled, his voice deep, seductive.

She laughed softly. “I suppose we can do something different, then?”

“Oh, we will certainly be fucking,” he drawled. “We deserve it after this shit, but we need to feed first.”

“Feed first,” Mouse agreed, her smile widening across her cheeks. But as she peered up at the ceiling, images of the Ruby Heart Palace came back in a rush and she closed her eyes, pretending she was out in the open, not trapped.

And then she hummed once more.

Mouse had fallen asleep at some point, and as she cracked open her eyes, she went to sit up, her spine not hurting any longer. She’d never healed this slow, not even when she was in the Ruby Heart Palace. But her spine had never been broken before. She’d had her neck snapped plenty of times, but even then, she’d healed in less than a day. Yet she’d never fallen this far before either.

As Mouse pushed up from the ground, hunger gnawed at her insides, coursing through her.

“Are you awake?” Ferris asked.

“Yes, and I can finally stand,” Mouse whispered.

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