Edward let out his snarling growl, making the decision for the others. He licked my face and then led the others out to the battlefield, forked tails swishing as they went out like the precious menaces they were.
31
Just the Way You Are
Von and I moved back behind the propped-up mattress, sitting on the floor in the corner of the hut. I was tucked in his embrace with my head leaning on his shoulder. I knew he was pulling stress from me, but for a second I let myself pretend it was romantic. Though I knew he was a guy it wasn’t a good idea to get attached to, I let myself depend on him to hold me together while the war continued outside. “Promise me you’ll hold Katrina like this through a movie someday. This whole raging battle thing? Not as nice as a romantic comedy. She’ll love it.”
Von scoffed. “I would never hold Katrina like this. Too intimate.”
I expected him to pull away from me when it dawned on him that we were being intimate, perhaps too much so, but he only held me tighter. “You’re a good friend, Von.”
“I’ll hold you exactly like this through our Brady Bunch marathon when we get home.”
I managed a small smile into his shirt. “Stop saying sexy things to me.”
He chuckled at my mild flirt. “It’s a date.” Von held me when we heard Marcia howl in pain. “Easy, darling,” he whispered.
Von kept me in place through Mason’s cry of agony when I fought to go to help our Viking on the battlefield. His comfort was gentle, clashing with the war outside. “He’ll be alright, love.”
Von let go of me only when the door banged open to reveal a large soldier in the king’s leather. He looked just as surprised to see us as we were to see him when he tore the mattress away. He called over his injured shoulder, “I found her!”
Von shoved me behind him and rushed the man, ignoring the blade in the soldier’s hand. Von was unarmed, but that didn’t seem to bother him one bit. Danny had warned me about Von’s vicious streak. I’m pretty sure I’d laughed it off at the time. But I saw it in that moment – the calculating glint in his eye, the muscles poised for action, the cool, relaxed shoulders that clashed with the look that had no fear, only sudden conquest. I hadn’t understood Danny’s wariness of Von’s temper, but I began to see traces of the threat. He had fire in his mismatched eyes. He had a lithe, toned body.
He had fangs.
Von was on the man in a hot second, his teeth bared and plunging into the neck of the soldier so quickly, the man scarcely had the wherewithal to fight back. The soldier cried out in pain and what sounded a little like strangled pleasure. He deflated to the ground while Von went to town on his meal. He drained the soldier in three minutes flat, rearing his head back when he finished to let out a contented moan at the feeling of finally being full of the stuff he always craved.
When two more soldiers came to the door in various shades of battle-torn, Von was ready. He pounced and bit so quickly, I barely saw it all happen. The gooey red blood of Terraway coated his face and hands, dripping down his green shirt and pooling on the floor below. He slurped and glutted himself until the intruders were beyond survival. Von was pure animal, making sexual groans, his buttocks clenching as he drank, holding the men beneath him like they were damsels who swooned only for him.
It wasn’t until all three grown men were drained in the doorway of the hut that Von slowed. He was on all fours, panting like he’d just run a marathon. He paused only to lick the neck wounds a few more times to catch the last drops. He growled, slapping the floor in frustration. I couldn’t tell if he was mad because he’d just killed three men, or if it was because there were only three at his disposal, and he wanted more. He swore loudly before he righted himself. Von stood to drag the bodies from the entryway, trembling as he went. I moved to help him, but he kept his red-stained face bent away from me in shame. “Von? You alright? Like, you’re full, right? I don’t need to make myself scarce?”
“I won’t attack you. I’ll get more than enough on the battlefield when it’s all over.”
We dragged the bodies the rest of the way inside and shut the door, and then I waved him toward me. “Come here.”
“No. I can’t believe you’d want to be near me after seeing all that. It’s not me. I’m not that person. Or rather, I am a person, not the monster you just saw.”
Using a sword, I cut off the front of one of the dead men’s shirts, trying to keep my cool. “Come here, Mr. Brady. You’ve got something on your face.”
He turned to me, looking so lost, my heart sank at the sight of something so beautiful and carefree being weighted by war. I took him by the hand and led him behind the mattress we propped up in the corner, ducking down with him like we were kids in a fort. I slid the sword to the side in case we needed it and reached out to him with the shirt in my hand, dabbing at the shame on his handsome face. He was coated in crimson that stuck to the fabric while I wiped his face clean. “Why are you being nice to me?”
“You saved my life, Von. Making you a napkin is the least I can do. Thank you.”
“You’re not scared of me?”
“Only if you start singing Phil Collins. He scares me even if I’m totally zen. Something about a man saying ‘Sussudio’ over and over hits me the wrong way. I don’t really understand what that song’s about. I think it might be voodoo or something.”
Von let out a perfunctory laugh at my conversational diversion. He pulled his ruined shirt over his head and threw it out of our fort. Then he wrapped me in a warm hug that heated my body when he kissed my cheek. I probably wasn’t supposed to love the feel of a half-naked Von, but there we were. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Mrs. Brady.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Nah. They didn’t get in a single hit on me. That’s the beauty of not realizing you’re fighting a vampire. We’re pretty lethal when we’re hungry.” At the admission of his weakness, he shook his head, disgusted with himself. “This wasn’t my plan. I wasn’t supposed to get bitten. I was going to graduate from the Academy. I was supposed to get a regular job and complain about taxes and Monday mornings.” He clutched me through his admission of pain. “I was the one my brothers came to, and now they look at me like I can’t even tie my own shoes. I was supposed to live a long life, and now I’m temporary!”
“Honey,” I cooed, my hand trailing down his spine to soothe him.
“I spent most of my life before this being responsible because I thought once my brothers were grown, there would be time for me to muck about and enjoy life a little. When do I get to be young?” He gripped my body, and I held him together as he fell apart. “Half-vamps usually only make it a few weeks before they transition, if that. Then they get swept up in Terraway by some cruel owner. The second I transition, they’ll put me to use as an attack dog.” He squeezed me and shouted into my hair, “I’m no one’s dog!”
I held Von through his long-overdue breakdown. I took my time stroking his hair, my fear of germs parting from me in the wake of his utter devastation. If I was honest with myself, Von hadn’t had germs in weeks, so permanent was his place in my heart. I gave Von time, not willing to insult his pain by trying to cheer him up. When finally I whispered, “I’m here,” he slumped in the comfort of my arms. “You’re not a dog. And you’ve made it far more than a few weeks as a half-vamp. I daresay you might just be the exception to the rule – too stubborn to transition.” I kissed an errant tear on his cheek, accepting him no matter what state he came to me in. “You’ve got me now. I’ll make sure you don’t turn.”
“But I’m temporary now. No one can stop the inevitable.”
“Then you don’t know how stubborn I am. Let me help you. When you’re thirsty, tell me; don’t hide it. I’ll make myself scarce so you’re not so miserable. And you don’t have to go sneaking off to another room to drink those blood pouches. You can be who you are, and I won’t look at you like you’re anyone less than the hero who saved my life.” I met his eyes and held his face so he could see that
I wasn’t afraid of him. “We can do this.”
He closed his eyes, leaning his forehead to mine as we knelt on the floor of the hut, hidden behind the mattress. When he pecked my lips, my heart did a miniature flutter, spreading a blush onto my cheeks. “Tell me we can complain about the length of the lawn someday. Tell me we can get all fired up about how much junk mail we get, and how no one handwrites letters anymore.”
“Maybe in the next life, you’ll do exactly that. We’ll have to work out a signal so I can recognize you in whatever flabby body you get next time around.”
“Flabby?” Von straightened as he pulled out of our hug, sucking in his toned stomach indignantly.
I motioned to his perfect form. “Well, yeah. The universe has to compensate somehow. You’re too perfect looking in this life. Prepare yourself for the crushing blow of a beer gut, my friend. See? You peaked too soon. It’s all downhill from the top.”
He smiled, but the levity was short-lived as he hung his head. “You shouldn’t be nice to me. I almost bit you in the trunk of your car.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I didn’t used to be like this.”
“Oh, honey. I like you just the way you are.” I’d been held quite a bit since Von came into my life. He was free with the hugging and the kissing. The sweet pecks he blessed me with forced the rigidity out of me one degree at a time. I knew he needed me to be there for him, so I gave a shot at speaking his language – the language of touch. I pulled him forward as I rocked back to sit on my butt, taking his top half with me. I laid his head down on my lap and ran my fingers through his hair, ignoring the sweat and flecks of mud that made the messy mass slick and greasy. I knew he was also pulling stress from me, which made my OCD bearable. “Take a few minutes and calm down. You saved the day. No one’s thinking anything but that.” I stroked the side of his face, smiling maternally when he leaned into my touch. “You saved us, Von.”
“Look at you, being all nice to me. You’re not so uptight anymore.”
“Man, you suck at compliments,” I laughed. “I guess you and Mason are good for me.”
Von frowned. “Can we talk about that? He’s clearly using you. I mean, to each her own, but you’ve got to know you don’t have to put up with that.”
I shrugged off the sting. “He was only the best kiss of my life. I’m getting something out of it, too.”
Von’s nose crinkled in distaste. “I’m not one to invest in kissing. Ask Katrina. Didn’t kiss her once. She kept going in for my lips, so I finally had to lay down the law. Too intimate.”
“Hello, you had sex with Katrina. That’s intimate.”
“Not really. Not if you don’t want it to be. Kissing is face to face. I don’t like leaving myself that vulnerable. You should take a page from my book, Peach.”
“But you kiss my face when you’re happy or flirty just fine.” I winced, wishing I could suck those words back into my mouth. I liked when he did those things, and didn’t want him to stop if he assumed I was making too much of it.
“It’s different. We’re different. You’re turning into my best girlfriend or something. A guy friend, but with a great rack.” It was his turn to wince and suck on his poorly chosen words. He cleared his throat. “We sort of have to be intimate on occasion. Nature of the job.”
“Just say it,” I teased, combing through his hair again. “You’re in love with me. You want me for my hot body. You want to buy me presents, take me dancing and wear a tie.”
Von chuckled. “Wear a tie. You’re funny. Let’s put that on the list for our next life. I’ll have a beer gut, and you’ll be the sexy librarian who helps me find books about weight loss. Our fingers will brush as you’re handing me a book, and it’ll be kismet. I’ll wear a tie for our first date.” He tangled his fingers through mine, staring curiously at our entwined hands.
“Promise?”
“On my honor. I’ll even let you pick it out.” He kissed my knuckles one at a time, running his nose over my scabbed cuts. “Thanks for this. You’re like my Puller now.”
“I told you, I’m here. We’re in this together.” I stroked the side of his face until he felt centered enough to sit up. He looped his arm around my shoulders and pressed the outside of his knee to mine.
We sat in our fort, content to cuddle while the world fell to pieces outside our doorstep. Maybe that’s a terrible thing, but in that moment, I felt protected. In that protection, I felt something I hadn’t experienced a whole lot of in my life.
Von held me, and I felt truly loved.
32
Battlefield Nurse Gracie
Mason stalked into the hut on unsteady feet that were clad in boots he’d clearly stolen off a soldier. He had blood oozing from a gash on his arm that Von eyed greedily. In the name of preserving our threesome, he didn’t lick Mason’s cut before he exited the hut, but went out to get his fill of the soldiers. Their bodies lay scattered on the open space between the mountains in the distance and the cluster of huts.
“Here, lay down a minute. Catch your breath.” I pulled down the mattress and lowered Mason onto it so I could get a better look at his two-inch cut. “This is it? This is all you got? Am I missing something?”
Mason sat instead of laying, and leaned forward, resting his forehead in his hands to close his eyes for a moment. “We won, but only just. There were too many casualties to call this a victory. I’m fine. It’s the others you should worry about.” He jerked his arm from me when my fingers ran over a sore spot. “I said I’m alright.”
“Yeah, I don’t really feel the need to listen when you lie. Your pulse is crazy and your eyes are dilated. You only breathe heavy like this when you’re super worked up.”
Mason softened, shooting me an apologetic look at his short tone. “So many died. I’m Matruculan, so I’m far stronger and my bones don’t break near as easy. I wish that were true for some of the civilians out there.” He shook his head in admiration. “The women. So brave.”
“They were amazing. I don’t really know how to help them without first aid stuff, though. I mean, I’m in my pajamas still without the basics.” I turned when the owner of the hut came inside, her face dotted with blood. Tears ran down her face at the loss of her sister. “Oh! Sweetie, lie down. Do you have anything I can use to help you? Needle and thread? Antiseptic?”
Mason shook his head as Higanti went to get her sewing kit from the box where they stored all their worldly possessions. “They don’t have antiseptic, and don’t need it like humans do. Needle and thread. That’s a good place to start. Don’t worry about disinfecting. Once you toss a bit of the sagrado in the well, they can wash their wounds in it, and it’ll disinfect perfectly. Trick is to get to the well before any infection starts to set in on the wounded.”
“Wow. Seriously? That’s pretty awesome.”
Higanti handed me her sewing kit, so I set to work on fixing her up first. To her credit, she didn’t flinch when the needle tugged at her cheekbone. It was hard to get a good grasp on the wound, what with her blood staining everything and sticking to my fingers. The panic welled up in me at the number of infections I might get from touching bodily fluids without my gloves on, but I choked down my anxiety as best I could. So many had given their lives so I wouldn’t be abducted and handed over to Sama. With all the pulling Von had done to steady me, I muscled through my mania for the good of the cause.
When I finished with Higanti, she kissed both my cheeks and sent me on my way. I walked out onto the battlefield with Mason, but he stopped me a few feet from the carnage. “You wait here. Von and I can bring the wounded ones to you. There’s nails and bits of steel everywhere out here from the homemade bombs the ladies had.” He shook his head. “I still can’t believe they did that.”
“I about lost my shiz when I thought they were throwing real babies at people.”
“They had that plan already in motion after King Geon poisoned them and killed their babies. Just needed a catalyst, which I guess we we
re. You stay here, though. I mean it. One cut, and Von might lose himself. It won’t do for you to survive the battle only to die over a stubbed toe.”
“Alright. Send them on over.”
I patched up men and women with bruised brown skin, oozing wounds and too many tears to count while Mason, Von and a few of the able-bodied men started digging a mass grave. By the end of their efforts, there were two graves – one for the civilians and one for the soldiers. I tore my eyes from the teen I was treating to look at the rituals Mason was performing in the dark of night that was lit only by torches. The teen boy’s arm was cut so deeply, I had to wait for the blood to clot before sewing.
Mason, Von and the men were lifting (not dragging) the bodies of the civilians and laying them face-down in the mass grave after one of the women made an account of who each person was on a piece of paper. I sucked in my breath when Mason took two of the torches and threw one into each of the two graves. The fire went out without catching on more than a few articles of clothing, but whatever purpose the fire served, Mason seemed satisfied.
I tried not to comment on the oddity as I moved on to stitching up a guy’s leg who couldn’t have been that much older than I was. Many of the people gathered around the grave of their fellow man, holding hands and singing a song with words I didn’t understand. It tugged at my heart as I tugged at the man’s skin to suture it properly in the flickering torchlight. There was so much weeping, so many bodies.
The two moons’ lights weren’t giving me much help, and the torches flickered often, leaving much of the wounded area in shadow. It made the last few stitches on the guy’s thigh difficult to finish off. I motioned him closer, draping his knee over my outstretched thigh so I could raise and lower his leg as needed. My nose was almost touching his skin as I tried to get the stitching tight enough. There were a few torches, but they weren’t near enough to do much good.
Tremble (Terraway Book 2) Page 19