“I made dinner…”he’d announced the night before, his presence scattering my hunger rather than igniting it. No, I was lying to myself. He did make me hungry…hungrier than I’d ever been. Which was why I had to keep my wits about it.
It looked nice though, I would not deny that, and it was a nice gesture to cook for me, after being an absolute dick. Maybe cooking for someone was some sort of faerie apology.
I ended up eating last night’s dinner wrapped in a blanket and cosied up in bed with the tablet after deciding that Gale wouldn’t return until nightfall or maybe the following day.
The instruction popped into mind a few times, stirring worry in my gut and making me wonder what the new task consisted of. Because I had a full day to keep Gale in good health, but I had no Gale.
Either the tablet was blocked from specific searches or there was nothing on the news or the internet to help me understand my situation better or get more info on PDD. I came to the conclusion that it must have been some sort of shortened identification, but no matter how much I tried to piece it together, sorting puzzles and anagrams had never been my forte. Which was annoying as hell, seeing how I worked in intelligence and all…
I was sound asleep when the entrance door swung open to release a thud, before the sound of compressing into blackness told me they had already shut it. I hurried to the kitchen, blinking my sleep away.
To find a pool of blood and Gale’s body twisted on the floor, his limbs shaking with pain. The fae’s throat released a dry groan, escaping his bloodied mouth with regularity.
“Oh, my gods,” my knees weakened at the sight of the gore, forcing me to fall closer to him. “What…what happened?” I instantly moved towards him, tugging him closer and turning him to the side, afraid that he might choke on the blood seeping through his lips.
Gale tilted his face to me, those wondrous eyes twinkling in agony. Once his hands lifted, his fingers trembled in their struggle to make a fist and display his anger.
Ignoring his possible hatred towards me, towards my race and everything we stood for, I wrapped my hands around his neck, placing him back to the side to let the blood seep out of his mouth and onto the floor while my fingers instinctively moved towards his once adamant locks, now turned crimson and started caressing down his scalp in what I hoped, was a soothing motion.
He jolted a couple of times when the pads of my fingers found something rough and I immediately pulled away, realising I must have touched a head injury and caused more pain rather than calm.
The fae male did not move from my embrace, choosing to lean on the side and continue trembling in pain next to me. I didn’t know if what I was doing helped or if he simply didn’t have the strength to stand and send me on my merry way. Either way, I had to be there, for both our sakes, the instruction suddenly clear.
“Keep Gale in good health…” Bastards, were they planning to keep me here as a nurse while they tortured and beat the hell out of this man?
Rage boiled in my veins. At the sight of him. Of me.
Of us.
He deserved more than this.Ideserved more than this.
Another groan from Gale’s throat dissipated all my other thoughts. The priority, keep him safe and alive.
“Can you walk?”
His neck barely moved, tilting his face just enough to shake it once in negation.
“Okay…” I nodded, “Okay…hold on.”
With the utmost care, I softly released his head, placing it back onto the wooden floor and stepped away. The pool of blood around him turned my stomach, clenching panic into my entrails. He was losing so much blood.
Okay, okay Ellyana, think logically, you were trained for this, I tried to settle myself, forcing my analytical brain to take over emotions.
First things first, he had to drink, so I knew his throat worked alright. He’d lost so much blood; he wouldn’t be able to heal on his own so one of my priorities was to get him some more Cloutie tea. Fortunately, I still had a couple more roots in the sachet I received after his arrival.
Then, I had to clean his wounds to prevent infection. I needed gauze, clean towels and surgical spirit. I knew there was some in the kitchen cupboard and hurried to my feet to grab all the necessary elements that would help me keep the fae alive.
And in good health, I reminded myself.
Freaking bastards, how could they beat him within an inch of his life and then have the nerve to dump him on me in such a state. For a people that prided themselves for their honourable qualities, us humans truly were savages.
“I need to remove your shirt to clean the wounds. You need to help me here, Gale, you’re too heavy for me to lift you by myself,” I begged the fae after several attempts that made me drop his body to the floor and forced him to groan in agony.
The Cloutie tea started boiling and I had to leave Gale on his own for a few seconds and remove it from the burning surface so I wouldn't overheat it and ruin its regenerative properties. Once I poured it in a mug, ready to be drunk, I turned back to the bleeding fae.
Instead of doing his best to help me, he remained content with bleeding on the floor, his mouth shaping words that seemed more important to him.
“Not…Gale…” he barely mumbled.
