Arthur
“No,” I growled, pacing in front of Reshina’s door.
“But, Master!” Piff cried, lifting the plate of beef liver covered in some sort of onion and mushroom gravy. “She requested I wake her! And she needs food to replenish the blood you—the Beast—took from her!”
“I gave my order. You’re not waking her.”
His face crumpled into the fiercest frown I’d ever seen. He set the tray on the ground, stomping his foot. “At least let me check her wound. You owe her that.”
“No,” I said simply, continuing to wear out the stone in front of her door. “I won’t risk you waking her. She’s healed fine before.”
Piff twisted his lips to the side. “This wound was…different.”
I raised a brow.
“It’s…not…healing from my magic.”
“WHAT!” I roared, slamming the door open, breaking its hinges.
“Master!” he squealed, following at my heels. “You’ll frighten her awake!”
Knowing he was correct, I gritted my teeth instead of demanding she wake and show me the bite.
It took just a few steps to get to her side, but I knew something was off from the moment I saw her.
Her body tossed in the sheets of deep green, sweat beading across her forehead, plastering her long dark hair to her face.
The moment I got to her side, she groaned, her chest heaving. I gently touched her forehead. “She’s burning up,” I said softly as Piff climbed up next to her other side, peeling back the bandage over her wound.
The puncture was a bright crimson, the skin around the holes swollen far more than they had been when I’d left her at her door.
“Piff,” I muttered, and he changed immediately into a golden jar of salve in my hand. I used two fingers to scoop the paste, gently spreading a thin layer over the marks. She groaned again, tossing her head about.
“Fetch a cool cloth,” I ordered next and Piff popped back into a man, scurrying to the washing room. I pressed the cloth across her forehead, already feeling the heat rise through it.
“What is this?” I asked the Beast, waking him from his slumber deep within me.
MINE.
I growled in frustration. “What is this wound you’ve given her? It’s infected. What have you done?”
brINGER HEAL. FROM YOU.
“How?” I gritted, holding onto what little patience I had left.
I BITE. YOU SOOTHE.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Piff, this is worse than I thought.”
He was back on the bed, changing out the cloth across her forehead. “What did the Beast say?”
“He said I need to soothe the bite.”
“But how, Master?”
I gave him a wry look, his frown following before he slapped his hands across his lips. “You don’t mean…” he started.
I nodded, peeling the sweat soaked hair from her face. Her beauty could not be denied, even as she fought a fever delivered by the monster inside me.
What could kill a Goddess?
A bite from the Beast she’d brought beyond the Veil?
I couldn't imagine so, but I’d been through stranger things in my life than what I needed to do.
I wanted to touch her. That truth was clear and had been the moment I’d confirmed it was she who fell into my realm.
But more than touch, I wanted my mouth on her skin, breathing into her and taking a moment, no matter how small, to possess her.
I bent lower, salivating just looking at her wound. I chose to write that off as a remnant of the Beast’s desire for blood more than my own.
When my lips pressed over the bite mark, she stirred, but in a different way.
As my tongue traced over her, gentle, like a lover, she gasped, moaning and lifting her torso in the sheets.
My body reacted with nothing short of lust, shaming me as she lay battered and bruised.
She sighed as I sucked and licked, her heavy breathing soothing into something languid.
Her heart slowed and her head stilled as she slipped into a deep slumber.
It was difficult to pull away—I wouldn’t deny it—and as I replaced the bandage, I savored the taste of her skin on my tongue.
“Master,” Piffle whispered, and I jumped, startled to remember he was there. “She is calm and sleeping. I will stay with her—”
“No,” I growled, clearing my throat and pulling a chair to her bedside. “I will stay. The Beast rests—she is in no danger. I will call for you if I’m in need of your assistance.”
He slid off the bed. “I will check back in an hour.”
I nodded silently, watching the soft rise and fall of her chest as the Changlingfae left Reshina to sleep and me to my thoughts, dark as ever in the crackling firelight.