It was only half a day later that I had awoken, my whole body sore. Kate had told me about Pilu’s visit and his request to come see him. Apparently, he also made it once again clear that we were expected to work on the field during the coming days. I didn’t mind, that gave me something to do, something to focus on that wasn’t Kate’s lips on my wrist or the feeling of her smile against my lips. My heart thundered in my chest, and once again, I redirected my attention at Pilu’s visit and our upcoming days in this strange city.
Kate’s thumb massaged the place on my wrist - something she had been doing ever since I woke up - where two puncture wounds should’ve been. There was nothing there now, only the lasting feeling of her lips against my skin and a distant chill that went down my spine. I watched the absent movements of her fingers.
“I’m sorry,” she said for the umpteenth time.
I groaned and pulled my wrist back. The blanket fell off my barely covered body. A shiver made me pull it back up. And perhaps a bit of self-respect. My shirt was thrown to the side, ready to get my blood rinsed from it. My stomach turned at the sight, and I had to look away, back at Kate, who was nervously tinkering with a loose thread of the gray shirt Kalatum had given her.
"Don't go out there today. You should recover. I can still use the excuse. It is perfectly believable to have a heat stroke after our walk yesterday. No one would question it."
She had been protesting this for the past hour, and it still annoyed me just as much. I understood why, of course. My body was still weak and tired, Kate might not have killed me, but she had still taken a lot of my blood volume. It was just, what was I going to do here by myself? This town gave me the creeps, and Kate felt a lot safer to be around.
"Kate, shut up!"
"Let me just -"
"No!" I ordered with a volume louder than before. "Stop treating me like some fragile damsel in distress."
She tensed, even backed away a little bit.
"That's not-", she shook her head. "I just … I want to make up for what I did. You almost died." Her voice shook, and fear and regret were shining in her eyes.
"And I said that I am fine. You are who you are."
The truth of my words was like a slap to the vampire's face. She physically withdrew, pushed herself up, and a tense frown appeared.
"Right, vicious vampire. Got it."
Then she left. Her feet were just as quietly as always. The only difference was the missing hop in between her steps.
Shit. I could only cringe at my own stupidity. Wrong words, Sky. Wrong words!
"That's not what I meant," I breathed out, but Kate was already gone, and I didn't have the energy to go after her, which only proved her point.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! With a thud, I fell backward onto the bed with a groan. A quake of dizziness crashed over me, making me shut my eyes and hold on to whatever was nearest. With a shaky breath, I exhaled until my world stopped spinning. Perhaps I should take Kate's advice and stay in today. I hated that she was right. Right about this and right about how I wasn't going to be able to push her off me once her teeth pierced my skin. If my survival had depended on me pushing her off me, I would've been dead ten times over - and probably asked for it every single time.
I was to blame for Kate almost killing me. Not her. At least not entirely. I shouldn't have lost myself to all those sensations. Actually, I shouldn’t have proposed the stupid idea in the first place. Mixed feelings crashed into me and made everything spiral once more. The weirdest thing was that I didn’t dislike it, and I had trouble keeping the sensation of her lips on mine out of my head.
YOU ARE READING
Cursed
Vampire"You were born a Vampire Hunter. You were trained one and above all, you got some freaky spell on you that binds you to the Vampire princess. And still you think it's not right to kill them all because they might be innocent." When greed and fear g...
