Prey

Chapter 72

Doe's POV:

The high I felt seeing her broken down into a scared little mess got overtaken quite quickly after she was gone from our view.

Especially after I turned to him after confirming for myself that she was no longer close.

I took a single step away from the wall and closer to the beast of a vampire he had become for me.

He too stared down the hallway, nose twitching as he triple checked with every ability that he had

The conclusion must have come to him because, after a few seconds, his rigid stance released little by little

The way he breathed was calmer but still wary nonetheless as he came down from the rage, that hint of anguish still showing in his cat-like eyes.

He still hadn't healed himself.

My heart pumped heavy in my ears, processing everything that I just witnessed and what his actions meant to me.

My mind was still too scrambled to even figure out where to start that I just moved instead.

We needed to get out of this hallway before anything else.

My feet worked without a second thought, breaking into the fastest speed-walk I could.

His eyes shifted the slightest bit as I did, grabbing his hand and nearly dragging him behind me.

I didn't stop until we were in our room, hearing him kick the door behind us before dragging him to the bed and making him sit on the edge of it.

He opened his mouth, stringing together a few broken sounds as the roundness finally returned to his pupils.

I don't think I could talk yet either.

It was so much and such a strange, raw combination now that what he had taken care of was her, that I didn't know how to process it all.

Getting rid of her with a threat that seemed extremely important to her and keeping me at the center of it, calling her out for everything she'd done to him.

Taking an undeniably fatal hit for me without a second thought.

All mixed with a new kind of worry for him, that feeling sinking deeper as I sat on my knees behind him, the wounds as prominent as ever.

The skin surrounding each one was red and angry, and the shirt slick with blood stuck to his entire back.

My hands shakily rose.

I didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to start.

I wanted to offer something, anything as some sort of recompense for what he had just done for me, but what do you do for a vampire with this level of a wound who wasn't healing?

His breath staggered as I placed my hands under the bottom cut, feeling the now cold blood against my skin.

I didn't know what I was trying to attempt, all I knew is that somehow my touch has succeeded in reigning back that vicious part of him before.

It was the only solution I could think of and even then I wasn't completely convinced that it was a good one.

I didn't know how to express all of this in a proper way, which made my classic default of angry annoyance fall through instead.

Not something I was proud of, but the relieved tears in my eyes had to have made up for something.

"Why aren't you healing?" The quiet, almost pleading words heald every emotion mentioned prior. A sniffle even managed to break through towards the end.