Sucked In

by Charissa Dufour

Chapter Twenty-Six

  Sometime in the middle of my crying spree, I fell asleep. Thankfully, my head stayed above the water. Though it might not have really been a problem, as I was already dead. I woke to the sound of splashing. My eyes slowly opened to find a shirtless Nik leaning against the counter and cleaning his own blood off his now healthy chest. The once white hotel rag was a soft pink, despite his attempts at rinsing it out.

  “Your water's gone cold,” he said, his eyes flickering to my dark pink bath.

  “It was never warm.” My fingers weren't wrinkled, but they had been resting out of the water, so I couldn't tell how long I'd been asleep. Then again, Nik was completely healed so it must have been some hours.

  “Your leg hasn't healed,” he announced, reaching down into the murky water and lifting my left leg out. I had thought the pink color of the water came from his blood that had been transferred to my clothes. It never occurred to me that my leg was in need of treatment. Sure enough, the gash from a thrusting spike of ice was far from healed. It dripped pink water for a few seconds before the darker blood took over.

  “My back is probably worse,” I commented in an apathetic voice. Despite the sleep, I felt drained of all energy, almost as though I was drugged. My limbs felt disconnected as if Nik could detach them and fling them across the room without me noticing.

  “You should have drunk some blood.”

  “What… from that man you killed?” I scoffed. A small part of me hoped he would indicate that the man was not dead. Nik's silence told me just how ridiculous that hope was.

  “You need blood to heal quickly. It's a basic fact of your existence.”

  “Then I'll heal slowly,” I said in a firm voice. It would have been more impressive had I not shivered at that moment. “I've already killed enough people to last a few lifetimes.”

  Nik reached back into the water and pulled the plug as he took a seat on the edge of the tub. We sat in silence, except for the sound of the water gurgling down the pipes, while Nik tore away the leg of my ripped jeans. He removed my sodden shoes and tossed them into the sink. I suddenly realized I had no dry clothing to wear back to Olympia. This was going to be an uncomfortable drive.

  Before taking the strips of his shirt to the sink, Nik began refilling the tub with hot water. It felt good. It would have been better had I not been wearing clothing, but I wasn't about to disrobe in front of Nik if I could help it. He cleaned the strips of fabric and laid them over the counter to dry.

  “When you've warmed back up, I'll bandage the leg and check your back. We'll be able to leave in a few hours. Hopefully, by then, your wounds will be healed enough that you won't slow us down,” he added as he reached for the door.

  “Slow you down? Is that all you think about? Battle tactics?”

  “When I'm at war.”

  “War? We're not at war. That man died simply so you could be ready to fight a fae you pissed off. Had you just stood up to Emma and told her ‘no,’ that man might still be alive.”

  “That is not the way this world works. Unlike humans, we pride ourselves in honoring our promises.”

  “That doesn't change the fact that a man died so some prick of a princess could have a conversation starter!”

  “Wrong. That man died so that I could keep you safe,” he snapped, the door to the bathroom forgotten.

  “Oh… so this is my fault?”

  Nik sighed, rubbing his palm against his face. “No.” He paused for a long time. “Please don't assume I like killing. But I am able to make the hard choices. I chose to save you.”

  With this final statement, he left the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

  I jammed the water off, released the plug and stood up, a sudden deluge falling from my clothing. Once the dripping had slowed, I began taking my clothing off and hanging them from the shower curtain railing. Thankfully there was one of those tiny blow dryers attached the wall. After wringing out my undergarments, I used it to dry them. By this time, my clothing had completely stopped dripping. This didn't mean they were dry; not by a long shot. I spent the next hour blow drying my clothing to a point of clammy uncomfortableness. It was an awkward process, and I was glad no one could see me trying to stretch the cord to the bathtub, where I stood to keep blood from leaving a stain on the floor.

  Just as I was beginning to pull my jeans back on, one leg half missing, a soft knock resounded on the door. I called for Nik to enter, knowing it was him by the impatient sounds coming from the other room. I finished buttoning my jeans. My shirt was still off, but it would have to be for him to bandage the gash across my spine. Besides, my sports bra was pretty concealing. Nik entered and worked to keep a smirk off his face as he examined me still standing in the bathtub, blood oozing from my different wounds. The only one that had stopped thus far was the minor cut across my cheek.

  “Ready?” he asked in a frosty tone. I did my best to ignore him while turning around to show him my back. He moved quickly to keep the descending blood from reaching the waistline of my jeans, not that it mattered. These jeans were going into the garbage when we got home. He used a folded strip of cloth to form the thick part of the bandage and used another to tie it into place.

  Once finished, I stepped out of the tub. I tried not to wince as I hoisted myself onto the countertop, but I'm sure he noticed. Oh well. I'd heard his unconscious moaning after the icicles to the chest; what did I care if he knew my leg and back hurt? At least I could handle it myself instead of taking an innocent life to dull my pain.

  Nik used the remaining strips of the shirt and tied them tightly around the deep gash. I winced and tried to pull my leg free. He didn’t go out of the way to be gentle. When finished, he left without another word, clearly not over our last fight.

  When I limped back into the main room, Josh was already gone, presumably to deal with the body.

  “Ready to go?” Nik asked.

  I nodded.

  Nik led me back to the car where we met Josh. As we pulled out of the parking lot, I was surprised to see smoke billowing out of the room next to ours. I didn't ask. Naturally, they would want to hide the evidence, and what better disguise than a businessman smoking in bed.