Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter 5

When she awoke from her long night's rest,  Aske was staring down at her.  She furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you doing?"
  "Val told me to watch you as he went out in the woods to grab a few weapons from the shed."
  She sat up and rubbed her eyes sleepily.  "What did you mean last night?  You know, when you said you didn't want anyone killing me?  Why would anyone want to kill me?"
  "You really don't remember what your kind used to do, do you?"  She shook her head slowly.  "They killed people, Mystice.  Then, they would drink all the blood from them so they wouldn't stay in dragon form forever."
  Her eyes watered.  She couldn't-  wouldn't believe that her kind had been monsters.
  "How long has it been since you've had a taste of human blood?"
  She burst out into tears.  "I-I don't remember."
  He opened the drawer of the night stand, pulling out a small knife.  "What I'm about to do is going to save your life."  He cut a deep gash in his left arm, causing a river of blood to flow out.  "Now drink."
  "I-I can't!"
  "You,"  he whimpered in pain. "-have no choice.  Drink as much as you can."
  She leaned over, put her lips on his wound.  Her eyes met his.
  "It's okay.  I've dealt with,"  Another whimper escaped his mouth.  ",worse pain."
  She started sucking the blood out of the gash.  It tasted sweet yet sour all at once.  She wanted to stop immediately,  but once she got a taste,  she couldn't stop.  Aske moved a bit to lean against the wall.  It was extremely painful,  but he was going to do anything to save her.  Besides, they did ask him for help.
  "Mystice, stop!"  Val was standing in the doorway.  He ran over,  then pulled Mystice away.  "Was this 'just talking' too, Aske?"
  "No," He wrapped a bandage around his arm, tightened it to stop the bleeding.  "I was saving her life.  You can thank me later."
  "I don't think I will be 'thanking you later',"  Val growled.  "How was this going to save her?"
  "If she didn't drink blood soon,  then she would've turned into the monster everyone thinks dragons once were.  So, I basically saved your life too."
  Val stared down at her, pushing her hair out of her pale face.  Blood covered her mouth down to her chin.
  "I'm fine,"  She croaked as Val wiped off the blood.  "You should thank Aske; he's trustworthy and willing to do anything to save us."
  Val looked up at him.  "Thank you."  He helped Mystice off of the floor.  "I left the weapons on the kitchen table;  pick whichever weapon you want."
  Mystice smiled at Aske.  Even though she looked happy,  she was wondering if she would actually turn out to be the monster dragons used to be.