Page 11 of Forsaken Dream
Chapter Five
Echo
Ears straining in fear that whoever did this to the barely breathing man on my sofa might come crashing through the doors, I gingerly dabbed at the blood with the wet cloth. There was so much of it covering him that I wasn’t sure how he was even alive. Eyes locked on the fluttering vein on his neck, I kept washing the cloth in the bowl, barely managing to stop it from flipping and spilling all over the floor from the shaking of my hands.
“Who did this to you?” Unable to stop myself, I muttered under my breath.
It was as if my voice slapped him awake.
An embarrassing squeal ripped from my chest when his hand snatched my wrist and tugged me closer so he could snarl in my face. An electric shock zapped through me where our skin touched, shooting from my toes to the crown of my head. His eyes were so blue they stood stark on his blood-covered face, seeming to glow when he glared at me. But his pupils were blown wide, so I knew he couldn’t see me.
He looked feral.
A wounded beast ready to take whoever was near him in his weakened state along for a ride across the veil. A cold chill washed over me, freezing the breath in my lungs as all my muscles locked in fear.This is how you die Echo … you stupid, stupid, female, a voice screamed in my head while I stared at him wide-eyed. I wanted to placate him, tell him I was trying to help, that it wasn’t me who hurt him, but my lips were glued together and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth.
A growl so deep there was no doubt in my mind it wasn’t human vibrated his chest, and that was the only a warning before those blue orbs rolled to the back of his head and he slumped on the sofa. The hand wrapped around my wrist that had been grinding my bones slackened and dropped across my lap where I was still kneeling next to him. Grateful I didn’t pee my pants—although it was a close call—I stood unmoving in case he decided to jump up again, but this time to rip my throat to shred. The male was out cold again, the barely visible throb on his neck the only indication he was still alive. A splat made me jerk away when the wet cloth slipped from my cramped fingers, and I plopped on my ass nearly tipping the bowl of water again.
Heart punching against my ribs like the hooves of a racing horse, I struggled to even my breathing, battling the dark spots dancing at the corners of my eyes. Aware that I was having a panic attack and thankful the male was unconscious again, I lifted my knees and shoved my head between them.Just breathe,I kept repeating.Slow, deep breaths, Echo, you can do it.
It took a long time to gather myself and continue the ministrations, but I was proud of myself after most of the blood was cleared. If I had been smart, I would’ve dragged his ass outside and left him to live or die as the fates had written, but I didn’t have it in me. Dangerous or not, he needed help, and I couldn’t turn a blind eye regardless of the consequences to my own wellbeing. If Pam turned her back when I had needed help, I might’ve ended up dead in some ditch when I came to this realm. Determined to escape my father and the life he’d wanted for me, I never thought things through, never even considered how I would survive in the human realm. I was who and what I was thanks to the kind heart of a stranger. The least I could do was pay it forward, or so I kept telling myself as the bloody mess in front of me turned into a mouthwatering golden God from times past.
With the blood cleared from his body and face, the male transformed into a wet dream. His hair was still plastered around his head in bloody clumps, a few golden strands sticking out here and there, but the rest of him? My fingers reached to graze the line of his face, trailing over his square jawline. Thick long lashes were casting shadows over his high cheekbones, the pale skin stretching over them as smooth as velvet under my fingertips. An aquiline nose and full lips—the lower fuller than the upper—looked carved on the perfection of his face. A strong neck and wide shoulders taking all the space on the sofa joined the sculped chest covered in open wounds from a dagger or a sword. The dips from his chiseled abs led to a narrow waist and powerful thighs. This was the body of a warrior, not like those humans that spent too long at the gym lifting weights and puffing up until they were out of proportion and their heads looked too small for their bodies.
Blood still oozed from all the carving he received, but the wounds were mending as I watched. Skin knitted together, leaving pale pink lines marking his torso. The shirt was in tatters around him, but I couldn’t remove it without jostling him around. So I sat there on my haunches like some voyeur, my mouth gaping as I ogled him. Even his ears were pretty. Who the hell had pretty ears?A non-human, that’s who Echo. You idiot.My snarky subconscious snapped me out of the drooling. Assured that he wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, I pushed off the floor, taking the bowl of red water with me. Everything in me was rebuking, screaming that I should stay close to him and protect him until he could do so himself, but that was the dumbest feeling I’d ever had. Why should I care what happened to him? I helped as much as I could. The moment he woke up, I was kicking his ass out of here.
Forcing my stupid feet to move, I disposed of the bloody water by rinsing it in the sink, fighting with everything in me not to run back to his side. Earlier there were crackles of wood and shuffling sounds coming from the porch, but the male freaked me out enough that the sounds slipped my mind. At the moment, though, while I searched for anything to keep me away from the God stretched out on my sofa, they sent tendrils of apprehension through me. Maybe whoever had hurt him was lurking around my home. The wards would protect me from anyone coming from my own realm, but would they keep me safe from other supernaturals? I’d never given it much thought because I’d never met or heard about any others being here. Stupid, I knew, but I was too busy forging my own path and creating a life away from the Seelie court while making sure my father will never find me. I had a feeling my ignorance was about to bite me in the ass.
Leaving the bowl on the draining rack, I twisted the kitchen towel in my hands, strangling it as I silently moved to the windows. The kitchen windows, to be precise, because I didn’t trust myself to go back to the living room yet. One might think I was a deprived woman the way I’d been acting today, first shamelessly checking out the male at the market, now ogling a wounded male in my house. My libido had been nonexistent all this time I’d lived among the humans. They had no appeal to me in that way, much to Pam’s delight. She’d always warned me that men were trouble. Judging by today’s events, I’d never agreed with her more.
“Trouble indeed.” Mumbling under my nose, I peeked out the window.
My gaze locked on yellow eyes. I screamed, jumping back and slamming my tailbone into the kitchen island behind me. Pain rippled up my back and around my hips, forcing me to stumble to the side. I would’ve toppled over if my hand didn’t shoot out and grab the counter for dear life. With my heartbeat in my throat, my head whipped around wildly in search of something to use as a weapon. The swaying iron skillets that Pam loved so much got my attention, and I snatched the largest one jerking it in front of me like a sword. My magic burst from the center of my chest prickling my skin.
“This is what happens to dumb females. They get killed in their own house because they stuck their nose where it didn’t belong.” Talking to myself helped me shake off the crippling fear, the fact that my voice was breaking, and my breathing was coming out in short puffs notwithstanding.
Inching toward the window, I wielded the skillet like a pro-baseball player, waving it in front of me like an idiot. Happy no one would witness this humiliation, I took one deep breath before glancing out the now-fogged glass with one fast poke of my head. Why was the window fogged? Was I breathing so much that condensation was forming over it? It was then I noticed the temperature in the house had dropped by several degrees. Ignoring that until I could go check the thermostat of the climate control, I took a deep breath and steeled my spine. Then I angled my head to the side and scanned the land outside.
Nothing.
No yellow eyes, and no one was creeping up to the house or lurking around the window. The knots in my shoulders relaxed, and I straightened, stepping out fully in front of the glass to see better. The night was as quiet as a grave, apart from the shivering of the treetops in the breeze that usually danced around them overnight. It could’ve been a stray cat or even Josh the jerk if he saw the male stumbling to my door. The light in the kitchen reflecting in his eyes could explain the yellow, right? The pep talk helped, and I lowered the skillet I had been hugging to my chest like a lover.
“Why is there a male in your living room?”
With a shriek, I spun around swinging the skillet as soon as the drawl reached my ears. A loud crack sounded in the otherwise silent house when my weapon of choice connected to the one who had spoken, and a blurry form flew to the side, crashing against the pantry door. A screech bounced off the walls, and it was followed by a thump. I froze, horrified of what I’d done regardless of how jumpy I was at the moment.
“Proto?” Skillet still sticking to the side, my tentative call for my familiar was left unanswered. “Oh dear fates, I killed him.”
Iron banged over the wooden floor when I dropped the damn thing and rushed to check on the creature. My chest contracted so much I couldn’t take a full breath when I found him sprawled on the ground, his short, stubby legs pointing in four directions and his barbed tail limp. Without a second thought, I held my hands above his prone body and closed my eyes. He was connected to me for better or worse, so I could share my energy with him to heal him, as long as he was alive. That was how I found myself on my back with a hissing nightmarish creature snapping its razor-sharp teeth in my face.
“You can’t get rid of me that easy,” Proto snarled, dark green blood trickling on the side of his face and matting his fur.
“You are okay!” Relief washed over me, and I hugged him so tight his claws ended up raking my sides.
I didn’t care.
“Thank the fates I didn’t hurt you.” Arms tightening around him, hysterical laughter bubbled out of my chest. “You are okay.”
“Let me go you stupid female.” Voice muffled from my tank top where I was mushing his face, he kept just used raking. his claws over my skin until I dropped him with a hiss. “You didn’t hurt me?” If a creature like him could look incredulous, the expression on his face would’ve been it, the way he glared at me now. “You drew first blood, girly. You owe me a blood debt.”
