Blood Bound (Permanently ON-HOLD)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE; The First of the Hayes Clann was Toxic.

We need to get over how we are to each other.

I voice my thoughts and Heath is silent for a moment.

He nods his agreement, and for some reason I smile. Maybe it's because we're agreeing on something, or maybe it's because he's smiling too, but I smile nonetheless.

"How long have we been here?" He croaks out after a while, and I shrug, ridiculously thankful that the movement causes me less pain than it used to. The roar of pain that drowned me before is now just a small ripple in the water. Crippling – meaning I can't move, that we're still stuck down here – but bearable. Survivable.

"Can't be more than three days."

"Let's hope so." He licks his dry lips, and they need moisture so bad that underneath every flake of dry skin is black blood. "I've never felt like this before. I thought I knew what it was like to be hungry or tired or thirsty before, but this..."

We share a look. We both know, no need to voice the pain we feel.

"Can you walk?" I clear my throat a few times before and after the sentence, phlegm clinging to the roof of my mouth. He shakes his head and, strangely, a tiny part of me is relieved. I don't want him to know that I can't move either, I don't want to be dead-weight for him.

I don't want my body and soul to depend on him anymore than they already do.

"But I can breathe now," He punctuates this with a large inhale, his chest expanding by my ear and I can't help but snuggle into the warmth of his body. He grins at his triumphant breath, my dry blood on his face crackling and crinkling in the lines created by his smile.

"Where are you from, Heath?" And I say his name aloud. I test it on my tongue as something that isn't a curse or a cry for help, just something normal. Something I need to get used to. Something I could get used to.

He frowns. It's cute. "California, duh."

I roll my eyes. "No, originally. Where are the Hayes' from? Your skin is so..." I look at his arm, I look behind the flaked pieces of dry skin and my blood to the skin beneath it.

"Dark?" He bares his teeth in a smile and they are blindingly white and the bottom are crooked. "Yeah," He uses the hand he was stroking my head with to scrub away the dirt from his hands. "My ancestors were darker. Even though we try our best, our blood is diluting. With every generation the skin tone is just a little bit lighter. Their nature is just a little less evil and a little more not."

I snort. "If the bad in the Hayes' is getting weaker and weaker with every generation, than the First Hayes must've been toxic."

Heath smiles in a proud sort of way, while the cogs behind his eyes work furiously as he thinks. "Oh, he was. I would love to meet him."

I don't question it because, if given the chance, I would do anything to meet the first of my blood line.

"But, back to your question," Heath shrugs and pulls a funny face, chin dimple appearing. "I have no idea where we come from. My grandpa used to say Bulgaria, but I'm not so sure. When I was a kid this douche in my class used to call me an Indian – Native American - but I'm not sure about that either. Our features are just so... Mixed."

I nod. I understand.

For some reason, a sliver of me is thankful that my soul mate is a Clann boy. What a headache it would be to explain it all. How confusing would it be?

"You?" Heath asks, and I realise he pulls this same face when he asks questions. His big brows pull down over his eyes and his chin juts out just a little. It's cute, if not a little intimidating.