Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Good morning, Charlotte." He couldn't help but notice that while she appeared tired she was also glowing this morning and he knew that it was because she was now a married woman. As if on cue, Silas came into the kitchen with Grace held gently against his chest.

"How are you feeling this morning, Comanche?" Silas asked and Comanche sat down at the table, before ladling some soup into the bowl. The clock on the wall told him it was after eleven in the morning and he wondered what had made him sleep so late. He had always been the type to be up with the dawn.

"Strange." Comanche replied before taking a bit of that steaming stew into his mouth. At least the food was good at the end of the world.

"How is your shoulder?" Charlotte asked, amusement coloring her voice. Comanche rolled it painfully and frowned.

"It hurts." He admitted. "What happened last night?"

"You, Colt and Katherine decided to down two bottles of whiskey and wound up drunk. Katherine then proceeded to vomit all over everything, Colt laughed like a hyena all night and you were determined to show the wall that you could fight it." Silas informed him.

"I don't remember...." Comanche replied, his brow wrinkling as he fought hard to remember something from the night before... A flash of a giant standing at the door went through his mind and he shook his head.

"Where is everyone else?" he questioned.

"Ox is outside, Evangeline is still up in her room resting and neither Colt nor Katherine have woken up yet today."

"Ox and Evangeline?" Comanche asked. "Who are they?"

"You really don't remember anything about last night, do you?" Silas asked with what sounded like annoyance. Comanche shook his head.

"No, truly I don't."

"Comanche, you should probably get to the water closet and wash yourself off when you finish eating." Charlotte urged and Comanche glanced down at his chest which was covered in what appeared to be ash. Had he fallen in a fire? No, that couldn't be it because he had no burns. He ran a finger over his cheek and it came back black with soot as well.

Comanche gave another roll to his shoulder and vowed to never drink the paleface's firewater again. Clearly Colt had been mistaken and it was hell in a bottle instead of heaven.

***

Colt cursed the sun to hell as it shined on his face and hit his closed eyes, causing the pain in his head to intensify one hundred fold. There was a churning in his gut and a pounding in his skull which could only mean one thing...

He'd drunk a bit more of that whiskey last night than he had meant to. Memories came back to him. Comanche, all decked out in fireplace ash and chicken feathers, fighting with the wall. Katherine dancing and trying to hang off of him, at least up until she began to vomit all over the sitting room floor, and Colt.... Laughing and having fun. Forgetting for just a while.

He figured those few hours of peace were well worth the headache and nausea this morning.

Then a memory of a giant and a pretty woman came to him. He had caught the pretty woman when she had fallen... He remembered that much plain and clear.

Colt shook his head. Pretty woman? He wasn't interested in any woman. Last night had been fun but today it was back to reality. Back to the memory of his wife screaming for his help and him failing to get to her in time. The truth of his daughter turning in to one of those monsters right there in his arms and then him leaving her like that and running off scared, just like a damned coward.