But her head was the worst. It hurt like blazes where she’d been struck on the temple. Twice.
It felt like someone had impaled her through the skull with a spear, and it was still hanging out in there while her brains slowly leaked out her ears. It felt like she had a second heart, just pounding out a furious beat inside her skull.
A gentle hissing had her turning that throbbing head to the side, and she found that now-familiar creature of nightmares peering at her from beneath his hood, head cocked slightly.
At the first sight of him, her heart skipped a beat in fear. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her now, but she’d have to be dead not to be afraid of that mouth.So. Many. Teeth.
“Hi,” she whispered.
Scary or not, he’d fought against centuries of conditioning to save her, and she was starting to associate things about him with the Meph she knew. It was no longer such a big stretch of the imagination to believe they were one and the same.
He wasn’t pretty to look at in this form, but she was glad to have this freaky monster watching her back. Raum had told her that even the most powerful demons weren’t immune to his fear-feeding ability.
“You’re pretty badass, you know,” she told him.
His head tilted the other way.
Damn, she was so weak. She needed to go to a hospital. Her head was pounding, and there was a certain panicky feeling in her chest telling her something might be seriously wrong.
And she was so, so thirsty. She was pretty sure the concussion was making her extra dehydrated. She didn’t know anything about first aid, but everyone knew fluids were always near the top of the list of essentials to healing.
But how to explain all that to Meph? She wasn’t sure he understood a word she said, and he certainly wasn’t very good at communicating back.
Did Hell even have drinkable water? Demons didn’t need sustenance to survive and only chose to eat or drink for the fun of indulgence. The only human residents were souls, and souls didn’t need it either. It wasn’t like they were out wandering the plains, anyway. From what she understood, they were mostly contained within the Nine Rings.
Mortals in physical form were not supposed to come to the underworld, and so of course there wouldn’t be amenities for them. And, judging by the gnawing ache in her stomach and the sandpaper feel of her tongue, her needs as a living human didn’t go away while she was a visitor here either.
“I need water,” she told Meph, her voice hoarse.
His head cocked back the other way, and he reached out and picked up a lock of her hair, leaning in to examine it.
“Yeah, it’s blue,” she said with a smile, but her heart sank.
She’d been sure he understood her before and had been trying to say her name, but maybe he’d just been picking up on her emotions. Maybe he’d just sensed their connection without understanding what it meant. And maybe he was just hissing because that was the only sound he could make.
“Can you understand me?”
He continued to study her hair like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Then how did you know to say my name?”
It was starting to take a lot of concentration to stay awake. Her heart was still throbbing, and she really wanted to go back to sleep for a while.
Meph didn’t respond, and her eyes drifted shut. She felt his claws scrape over her hair some more as he collected more strands to inspect, and she smiled faintly.
“Guess there’s no chance of convincing you to take me back to Earth, huh? Or bring me some water?”
Nothing. Just more claws against her scalp.
It felt good, the sharp pricks of those deadly weapons like one of those awesome head massagers. Little tingles raced down her spine, and her muscles relaxed gradually.
“Thanks for saving me,” she mumbled, surrendering to the sensation. She felt safe here with him. She wanted him to understand and tried to force her brain to make words. But she was feeling so groggy, so tired, and so damn thirsty.
“If I’m gonna be stuck in Hell... glad it’s with you.” The claws sifted through her hair. Something cold and sharp scraped down her cheek, and she sighed softly. His touch was... nice. Maybe she wouldn’t have thought that if her eyes were open, but right now, it felt good.
“You’re not so bad,” she mumbled. “A little freaky looking, sure, but I don’t know what all the fuss is about, honestly. So you look like the Grim Reaper. Whatever. I think it’s kinda cute, honestly. You’d be a hit at one of Suyin’s Halloween parties, lemme tell ya. The goth kids would go nuts for you.”
The claws continued to pet her cheek, and her awareness continued to slip away.
