Chapter 16 – — On Corrupted Tissue, Restricted Archives #2
She stares at me for a long moment. I watch the walls she’s built waver slightly.
“Fine.” The corner of her mouth twitches. “But if you make the pity face, I’m biting you.”
“Fair enough.” I reach for the medical belt at my waist. “Let’s take a closer look at this wing.”
I unwrap the bandages carefully, taking my time.
The wound looks exactly as terrible up close as it did from across the room.
The black, rotted lines pulse faintly, like they have their own heartbeat.
I clean around the edges with the sanitizing liquid from my belt, trying not to notice how Nella flinches every time the cloth touches the raw parts.
“Sorry,” I murmur.
“It’s fine.” She grits her teeth. “I’m used to it.”
No fourteen-year-old should be used to this.
I rewrap the wound with fresh binding cloth from my supplies, making sure it’s snug but not too tight. When I’m done, I sit back and study her. She’s watching me with those sharp amber eyes, waiting for me to make the pity face or say something stupid about staying positive.
“Can I ask you something about being a vampire?”
She blinks, clearly not expecting that. “Uh. Sure.”
“The blood thing.” I feel stupid even asking, but I genuinely don’t know. “How does it work? Do you have to bite humans? Other bloodlines?”
Nella snorts. “Gods no. I mean, some vampires do. The old traditionalists in the shadowlands still hunt, but that’s considered barbaric by most standards now.
” She shifts against her pillows, settling in like she’s happy to talk about something other than her wing for once.
“Ashwell provides synthetic blood. It’s made in the labs here and tastes like watered-down garbage, but it keeps us alive.
Some vampires prefer animal blood if they can get it.
Tastes better than synthetic but not as good as the real thing. ”
“Have you ever...” I’m not sure how to phrase it.
“Bitten someone?” She raises an eyebrow.
“I’m fourteen. My parents would kill me.
But I’ve tasted real blood once. My brother let me try some of his when I was first turned, a few drops.
” She gets a faraway look. “It was like the difference between a candle and the sun. The synthetic stuff keeps you alive but doesn’t make you feel alive, if that makes sense. ”
I file that information away for later.
“What about the Shadowlands?” I lean back in my chair. “I’ve never been anywhere outside my village until I came here. What’s it like?”
Nella’s face lights up for the first time since I walked in.
“It’s beautiful. Dark, obviously, but not in a scary way.
The sun never fully rises there, so everything is lit by moonlight and lanterns and these glowing flowers that grow wild everywhere.
The cities are built into the mountains, all black stone and silver spires.
My family’s estate has a view of Obsidian Falls.
It’s this massive waterfall that looks like liquid night pouring off a cliff.
” She catches herself, the excitement fading.
“I haven’t been home in almost a year. First school, then this. ”
“You’ll get back there,” I say before I can stop myself. “When you’re healed, you’ll fly over those falls again.”
She looks at me like she wants to believe it but doesn’t dare.
“You don’t know that.”
“No,” I admit, “but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it happens.”
I think I finally put a crack in her armor, but before she can respond, I catch movement in my peripheral vision. The door’s open a crack, and someone is standing in the gap, watching us.
“Can I help you?” I call out.
The door swings open, and Draven steps through, his face arranged in that familiar mask of bored indifference.
“Malric sent me to check on the human.” His eyes look from me to Nella and back again. “Make sure you haven’t killed anyone yet.”
“As you can see, everyone’s still breathing.” I cross my arms. “You can report back to your master.”
His jaw tightens at that. “He’s not my master.”
“Could have fooled me.”
We stare at each other for a long moment. Finally he turns, glancing at Nella’s wing with an expression I can’t read.
“Fissure wound,” he says quietly.
“Riftling.” Nella’s voice is smaller now, the bravado fading in the presence of another vampire. An older, powerful one. “Three weeks ago.”
Draven nods once, and then he’s gone, the door clicking shut behind him.
Nella lets out a breath and turns to me with wide eyes.
“Oh. Now I understand why you’re asking so many questions about vampires.”
“What? No.” I shake my head quickly. “That’s not—”
“He’s gorgeous.” She’s grinning wolfishly. “Like, offensively gorgeous. Those eyes? That jaw? Gods. And the man bun.”
“Nella—”
“And the way he was looking at you?” She fans herself dramatically. “You’re so lucky. I would kill to look like you. All that red hair and those curves. Guys like that probably fall all over themselves trying to get your attention.”
My face is burning. “Stop. You’re beautiful, and you’re going to be out of here in no time. I’m going to make sure of it. I’m sure there are plenty of gorgeous vampires in the Shadowlands waiting for you.”
She waves dismissively. “Please, I’m fourteen and stuck in a hospital bed with my wings pinned open like a science experiment. My dating prospects are not exactly thriving.” She tilts her head, studying me. “But you’ve got that brooding vampire eating out of your hand and don’t even see it.”
“I’m not… We’re not…” I take a breath. “I actually despise him, and he hates me. Trust me.”
Nella raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t look like hate to me.”
“Well, it is. We can barely be in the same room without wanting to kill each other.”
“Mhm.” She doesn’t look convinced. “So you’re single then?”
“No, actually.” I lean back in my chair. “I’m kind of dating an angel. I mean nothing has been defined officially…His name is Jace. We grew up together.”
Nella makes a face, scrunching up her nose. “An angel. Huh.”
“What’s that face for?”
“Nothing.” She picks at the stuffed fox’s ear. “Angels are intense. They feel things differently than the rest of us, if they feel things at all. It’s a lot to deal with.”
“Jace isn’t like that. He’s sweet.”
“They’re all sweet at first.” She shrugs. “My mom always says to never trust something that pretty. Too good to be true.”
I think about Jace. His soft smiles. The way he holds me like I might break. The way he looks at me sometimes like I’m the only thing in the world that matters.
“He’s not too good to be true,” I say quietly. “He’s...good.”
Nella studies me for a moment, then nods slowly. “Okay. I believe you.” She pauses. “But that vampire is definitely into you. Just saying.”
I roll my eyes and stand up, gathering my supplies. “I have to go check on my other patient, but if you need anything, press the panel. The bracelet will let me know.”
I hold up my wrist, showing her the metal plate with her name on it.
“I’ll come back before my shift ends. I promise.”
She looks at the bracelet then at me.
“Most people don’t come back,” she says quietly. “They say they will, but they don’t.”
“I’m not most people.”
The corner of her mouth twitches. “No, I’m starting to figure that out.”
I head for the door, pausing with my hand on the handle.
“Nella?”
“Yeah?”
“For the record, you’re going to fly again. I don’t care what the healers say or what the corruption does. We’re going to figure this out.”
She doesn’t say anything. But when I glance back, her eyes are shining.
I slip out into the corridor and close the door behind me. Time to head up to level seven.
The current lift is already waiting when I reach it, doors open. I step inside and reach for the panel then freeze.
Jace is leaning against the back wall, arms crossed, a disarming smile spreading across his face.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
“What are you doing on five?” I step closer, letting the doors slide shut behind me.
“Senna sent me to grab supplies from the surgical stock. Apparently floor eight is running low on sutures.” He pushes off the wall, moving toward me. “But I’ve got a few minutes.”
“A few minutes for what?”
He answers by backing me against the lift wall as the door slides shut, one hand bracing beside my head, the other sliding around my waist.
“I’ve been thinking about you all morning. It’s very distracting.”
“We’re at work,” I whisper, but my hands are already grabbing his shirt.
“So we’ll be quick.”
His mouth finds mine, and I stop thinking about patients and fissure wounds and grumpy vampires. I stop thinking about anything except the heat of him, his taste, the way his wings rustle and press against the lift walls like they’re trying to wrap around us both.
The lift lurches into motion, and I gasp against his lips.
“What floor?” he murmurs.
“Seven.”
“That gives us about thirty seconds.”
“Then stop talking.”
He grins against my mouth and kisses me harder.
When the lift doors open on level seven, I’m flushed and breathless, and my hair is messier than it was before. Jace looks annoyingly composed and perfect.
“Good luck with your patient.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’ll see you later.”
He steps back into the lift, that satisfied smile on his lips. The doors start to close between us.
Someone shouts, “It’s 709! Someone get to 709!”
I spin around. Two menders sprint past me, faces tight with panic.
My blood turns to ice.
709. Cael Brannock.
That’s my patient.