8. Selis #2
The creature jerks. Convulses. Its limbs spasm once, twice.
Then stillness.
Steam rises off its body. A faint, rotting hiss escapes between its shattered teeth.
I exhale—sharp, ragged—my breath fogging the night air. I yank the blade free, its edge coated in blood that smells like copper and fungus and death. I spit into the dirt beside it.
Then I turn.
And Naera is still standing.
Barely.
She’s braced against a tree, eyes wide, mouth parted like she forgot how to breathe. Her cuffs flash silver in the dark, the chain hanging limp. She looks at me like I’m something torn from a different world—half nightmare, half salvation .
I snort, rolling my shoulder against the fresh sting of the wound.
“See?” I rasp, stalking toward her through the frost-slicked leaves. “Told you I didn’t need your help.”
Her eyes stay locked on me, too wide, too full of something that makes my chest tight. Fear, maybe. Or wonder.
“I—” she starts, but her voice snags on the edge of her breath.
I grab the chain and yank her forward—not hard. Just enough to close the space between us. To ground myself.
“You good?” I ask, voice low, grating, too harsh even to my own ears.
She blinks like she’s just now returning to her body. “You’re bleeding.”
I glance down.
Blood’s slick down my side, warm and slow. It sticks to my ribs, dark against the leather.
“Yeah. Well. So’s the thing that tried to eat you. It’s dead. I’m not.” I grit my teeth. “Don’t get the two confused.”
I glance back at the carcass. Then down at my blood-slicked hands. The wounds are worse than I thought, but I don’t let her see that. Not yet.
Not when she’s still shaking like a leaf in a storm.
“You’re welcome, by the way,” I mutter, sheathing my blade and nudging her forward with the edge of my boot. “Come on. Trees are thicker this way.”
“Let me help,” she says quickly—too quickly. Her voice scrapes, still catching on the fear she hasn’t shaken.
I cock an eyebrow at her, pain singing up my side. Still, I grin. “What, gonna lick it clean? Save that for someone who’ll buy you dinner first.”
She scowls and steps closer. Brave little fool .
“You’re bleeding. A lot,” she says.
“And you’re glowing. A lot. Doesn’t mean I need your help.”
The words come easy—sharp and cruel, the way they always do when I’m trying to keep distance. But she doesn’t flinch. Not this time. She looks like she wants to argue, like she’s balancing on the edge of saying something that’ll sting, but she swallows it down.
She just steps closer instead.
Gentle.
Steady.
Like I’m some wounded beast she’s not sure won’t bite.
“You’re not doing this on your own,” she says quietly. “Let me help you.”
I stare at her, breath hissing between my teeth. My ribs scream every time I shift, and she’s close enough now that I can smell her—moonlight and sweat and something faintly sweet, like dried herbs tucked inside a prayer cloth.
“Why?” I ask, voice low. “Why bother? I’d leave you to rot if the roles were reversed.”
She meets my eyes with something calm and sharp. “Because I’m not a monster.”
I almost laugh.
Almost.
Because the worst part is—she says it like she believes it.
I should say no. I should threaten her, keep her in line, remind myself that even cuffed, she’s still dangerous. She’s a vampire. She’s starving. I’m bleeding. This is a bad idea.
But fuck, it hurts. The ache in my ribs flares again—sharp, hot, and pulsing with something that feels too close to weakness.
I grimace. “Dammit. ”
With a hiss of breath, I stumble back and half-collapse against the nearest fallen log. The bark digs into my spine. I let it. Pain keeps me grounded.
I gesture vaguely with one blood-slick hand. “Fine. But if you bite me, I swear on every bone in your goddess’s altar, I’ll open your throat so fast you’ll die thirsty.”
Her mouth twitches like she wants to smile.
But she doesn’t.
She kneels beside me anyway, quiet as breath, and when I drag the iron key from my pocket, she offers her wrists. But before I can uncuff her, the ground… shifts. Subtle at first. A tremor more felt than heard. But it’s enough.
Naera straightens instantly, going rigid before me. Her head snaps toward the trees, toward something I don’t see—yet.
She whispers, “Selis.”
Just my name. Nothing else. But it’s the way she says it—like a warning shaped from bone and breath…
The tremor comes again. Heavier this time. Deeper. Like something massive is moving through the forest, dragging the earth with it.
I rise with a hiss of pain, blade half-drawn. “How many you reckon?”
She doesn’t answer right away. Her eyes are wide, too wide, reflecting the low flicker of moonlight between the trees. Her glow pulses faintly, almost in time with the tremors.
“More than one,” she breathes. “More than before.”
My jaw tightens.
“Unchain me,” she says.
I snort. “So you can run off the second I’m bleeding again? Cute. No. ”
She whirls on me, hair wild, voice sharper than I’ve ever heard it. “Your foolishness is going to get us both killed.”
I flash my teeth. “I’ve fought worse.”
The forest groans.
Somewhere beyond the trees, something cracks. Bark. Bone. Earth.
Then I hear it. The wet drag of something massive moving over frost. And more of them—guttural noises like nothing natural. Deep. The forest-born.
“Selis,” Naera says again, urgent now. “ Please .”
I meet her eyes. Terror sits just beneath the fury.
And something else.
Resolve .
Fuck me.
I shove the key into the cuffs and twist. The lock clicks open. The chain slithers from her wrists like a snake shedding its skin. She flexes her hands once—just once—and rises beside me.
No thanks.
No promises.
But she stays close. And I keep my blade high.
They’re coming.
And this time, I might need her alive.