Page 13 of Bloody Bargain
I looked at the clean scrapes on my knuckles, flexing one shaking fist. The bad knick I’d gotten from the anchor had scabbed over while the others were faint and too thin to bleed again. I picked at it with short, dirt-encrusted nails, kneeling next to D’abel’s shoulder.
“Here,” I said, massaging the wound until little beads of red swelled through the cold skin. “It’s not a lot.”
His side pupil dilated, catching the sight before his head turned to look at my hand with hunger. The streak of my dried blood on his face stood out in bright relief against his pale skin. He’d licked it away as high up his cheekbone as he could. When had he done that? While I was washing up?
D’abel’s lips parted, and I lifted the back of my hand to his mouth. His split tongue glistened as he pressed it to either side of my wound, and his eyes rolled closed. He sucked my knuckle into his mouth and massaged it like a baby on a nipple. I pressed my legs together as my heart raced, mesmerized by the bobbing of his throat, the way his curved fangs rested against my skin like upholstery sewing needles rather than sharp points.
Disturbed, I pulled back and stood up, flexing my hand. He’d left a red imprint of his mouth, a hickey that tingled in the chilly air.
“Find me if you live,” I breathed, unable to shake his glassy gaze.
“Yes.”
I turned on wooden legs and marched away. While D’abel lay in agony at the edge of the sagging earth, I packed everything I could carry. All the tea. All the processed foods. All the clean towels and extra clothes. Two candles. The half-empty propane tank.
Then I waded back out into the grass with my knife in my hand. I wasn’t going to sheath it until D’abel found me.
They will come.
05
The Oath of Frijaz
Strike mine chains, beloved, and liberate my soul
Return mine teeth, I will maim for you
Kiss mine claws, I will tear for you
Stroke mine scales, I will sigh for you
Free me
Free me, beloved, and I will be your weapon
Trust in me, I will carry you
Feed me, I will bleed for you
Love me
Please
All I am is yours
As long as we live, beloved
Longer
Forever
06
THREE YEARS AGO.
The sound of my alarm, peppy and fast-paced, pulled me out of the sludge of sleep. I groaned, face buried firmly in my pillow. As I breathed in through my squashed nose, my short, matted hair tickled my nostrils. I sneezed, my head forced off the pillow in a spray of spit that wouldn’t let me lay it back down again without sacrificing some serious self-hygiene rules.
Ugh, figures.
