Page 71 of Venomous Lies
Powerful magick, foreign, alien—so unusual I’d never sensed anything like it before in my long life.
Underneath it all was anger, frustration, and annoyance, along with fear. The witch was still here beneath whatever was trying to consume her.
‘Hellsing?’
I paused, my head tilting at the sound of her voice. Telepathic conversations weren’t my favorite by any means. They brought back old memories, bittersweet ones, but I shoved them down to focus on the present.
‘Miss Hallowes, do you know what’s going on?’
Exhaustion, nightmares. No words, just impressions of answers.
‘I’m tired.’
‘I imagine so,’I replied, squeezing her wrists when she tried to keep scratching her face. Thankfully, it didn’t look like she had truly damaged her eyes, but it was hard to tell with all the blood covering her face.‘You need to wake up.’
‘I— I— I can’t see. It’s too dark.’
‘Can you follow my voice?’I asked even though maintaining this connection was the last thing I wanted to do.
‘Unlike vampires, I don’t have the best night vision… If this counts as night…’
‘Maybe save the philosophical question for another time, Miss Hallowes?’I proposed, a hint of a smile pulling at my lips despite myself.
Something familiar brushed along the edge of my senses, aching and painful, before it faded. A fleeting touch, a haunting memory.
I swallowed hard and stared down at the witch in front of me. Her face was covered in blood, poisonous blood at that. How the hell was I going to pull her out of this?
Pain, my go to, wouldn’t work at this moment.
‘Hellsing… please,’she begged, her raspy voice shaking. At the same time, she tugged hard enough, trying to get free, that I fell into her.
My lips brushed against her head, and the sting of her blood against my lips had me hissing.
‘What—?’
‘Miss Hallowes, shut up.’
Before I could think better of it, I brushed my lips against hers. A teasing, barely there touch similar to the first time I’d met her.
I could recall it crystal clear in my mind as if it had happened yesterday.
Bricriu had instantly homed in on her after speaking with me, and instead of leaving, she’d welcomed him. But that wasn’t what had really caught my attention.
No.
This witch had felt at ease in his presence, and Bricriu had felt the same.
That ease… a warmth that had been absent in my life for far too long.
Bricriu and I had an arrangement born out of necessity. Sure, it had grown into something more complicated, but despite the bone fae’s tendency to not give a fuck, he very much did. Not one part of him wanted to confront me about the change in our dynamics over the past year.
Naturally, it wouldn’t have helped. No, I would have told him it was just a progression of our agreement. Just physical needs being met between two adults.
Gods, I sounded like fucking Ambrose at this point.
‘I can hear you thinking, Hellsing,’Isla’s raspy voice echoed in my mind, and my racing thoughts scattered like leaves caught in the wind.‘You’re afraid.’
‘You don’t know anything, witch, and you sure as hell have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to me.’
