Chapter 23
“Give me some of your blood?” I repeat his words.
He nods.
“Are we even the same blood type?” I ask.
He nods again.
“How do you know? Please respond with words.” I sigh.
He chuckles and pushes a piece of hair behind my ear. “My little impatient, Sweets,” he mumbles as he looks at me. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Tell me how you know and stop stalling.” I narrow my eyes on him.
He lifts his hands in the air. “Okay. I’ll tell you.”
We stare at each other and I patiently wait for him to start talking.
“Kieran,” I say, sighing. “Please just tell me before I pass out or need to go back home.”
“I know we are the same blood type because mates can do that with each other, especially if one of them is Fae. Our blood is different than yours. Allow me to give you some of my blood so you aren’t dizzy and extremely weak from the blood loss,” he says.
I open and close my mouth several times as I stare at him.
“We can do what?” I ask, cocking my head to the side.
“We can give each other blood. Though it will do nothing to me if you give me some of your blood, but if I were to give you some of mine, then it can help tremendously,” he explains.
“Will it have any other effects on me?” I ask.
Will I turn into a Fae slowly from this? Will I grow wings and have no idea until the curse is broken? Will I even be under the curse since I wouldn’t be a pure blood Fae.
“How do Fae react to half-blood Fae?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
Kieran blinks several times. “Wh-what?”
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Will me getting your blood have any other effects on me?”
“We are not done with this conversation.” His eyes narrow on me. “It is not going to turn you into a Fae if that is what you are wondering.”
“Then what will it do?” I ask, growing frustrated with him not answering my questions.
Is he purposefully doing this to me?
“The sooner you give me the answers in more detail, the sooner we may actually do this,” I say quietly and look away from him. “Or else I may leave before you can give me blood and I don’t know if I will have the strength to come back here for a while.”
I don’t like threatening him with that, but it’s also true. It took Henry and I forever to get to the forest with how weak and in pain I am.
“Before the curse it helped heighten people’s senses, and sometimes their healing was more enhanced.
But it varied on people and how high ranking the Fae was,” Kieran explains.
“But there weren’t many instances of it happening before the curse was placed since we had other ways of saving people, better ways.
But with the curse still here, we don’t know if you will have any side effects or not.
You may not feel anything at all, but it will help you with the blood loss that you have faced. ”
“But—”
“If you do have some of the enhanced hearing, vision, and other symptoms, it’s not going to last your whole life. It will wear off at some point when your own blood absorbs mine,” he explains. “And if you do, then you don’t tell anyone about it, so you don’t become a target again. Understand?”
I nod. “How is this going to work?”
“The doctor is on his way right now to make sure that it goes smoothly,” he replies.
“What if you give me too much blood and then you become weak?” I ask, looking up at him, worried.
Kieran chuckles. “That’s not going to happen to me. You would have to take a lot of my blood.”
“I’m here.” A different person walks into the clearing.
“It’s not Hayden?” I look over at Kieran.
“He couldn’t come this time. There is a woman who is expecting to give birth soon and that is what he specialized in before the curse was placed on us,” Kieran explains. “This is Alaric. He knows a lot about Fae blood and has worked with humans before.”
“Hello,” I say shyly.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Adeline.” Alaric bows before kneeling in front of us. “What happened to you? Are you sick? You are very pale.”
“Did you not tell him anything?” I ask Kieran.
“He failed to mention what was wrong with you, but mentioned to bring the blood transfusion gadget that I have,” Alaric replies.
“She has a cut on her thigh and she lost a lot of blood last night. I want to give her some of my blood so she can heal better,” Kieran replies for me.
The doctor looks at me and nods. “That makes sense. You are so pale and just look like you are in pain.”
“Thanks,” I mutter.
Kieran chuckles and holds his arm out. “I’m ready.”
“This will only take a couple of minutes,” Alaric says as he gets everything ready.
“Wouldn’t it take a lot longer?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Before the curse was placed, I developed this tube and device that makes it a lot faster so you don’t have to sit there forever. It also helps when there is an emergency and the person needs blood really fast.”
“You’ll have to stick me with a needle?” I ask hesitantly.
“Yes but just for a brief second and then it will be gone.” Alaric holds the needle in his hand and I flinch.
“Maybe I will be better off just going home right now. I don’t think I need this.” I push my back into Kieran’s chest.
The pain and sensation of Mother stitching up my thigh runs through my mind, replaying over and over.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I mumble as I turn my face away from Kieran.
“Shhh, you’re okay,” he whispers. “Everything is going to be okay. He is only going to poke you for a second and then all will be better.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think I can do it. It keeps replaying in my mind. I can feel the pain from it and I don’t want to experience it again. Please don’t make me go through it again.”
“Sweets, look at me.”
“No.” I place my hand over my mouth as I gag.
Kieran cups my face and forces me to look at him. “You are going to be okay. You are going to look me in the eyes and only pay attention to me. It’s going to be over before you even know it happened.”
“Kieran,” I whisper.
“No. You are going to listen to me talk while Alaric does this. You need my blood so you can heal properly. This is not up for discussion,” he says sternly.
“Wait—”
Kieran runs his thumbs across my cheeks as he shakes his head. “Do you know what I want to do with you when the curse is broken and everything has calmed down?”
But he answers before I can even open my mouth.
“I want to walk down the street with you. I want to go buy the lemon candies that you have grown to love and may even get addicted to one day. I want to show you the halls in the palace where I grew up part of the time. I want to hold you. I want to get hugs from you whenever I want and not have to wait until you can sneak into the forest to come and see me,” he says.
“But you know what we are also going to continue to do?”
“No.”
“We are going to continue to go to the forest when we want to get away from everyone and everything going on in life. It’s going to be our little refuge when we need it,” Kieran says.
“We’ll sneak to the forest at different times just like we do now.
It’ll be our time to tell each other anything and just be together. ”
“Maybe we could build a little house out here that we can come to,” I whisper. “Maybe we can even bring our future children here as a little getaway.”
Kieran smiles. “I like the sound of that. Just a place for us to get away from all the noise and be together.”
I nod. It sounds like pure heaven right now and I would do anything to have it this instant.
“All done,” Alaric interrupts.
Turning my head, I look down at my arm and realize there is a little bandage on it, and the same on Kieran’s arm.
“Already?” I ask.
“Yes, you two were pretty focused on each other and you didn’t even flinch when the needle went in.
” Alaric chuckles. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone your plans on sneaking to the forest or building a little house back here.
Though, I don’t doubt people will find out rather quickly when the house is built and you two are nowhere to be found. ”
My cheeks flush and I look away from the healer.
“But it’s a good idea and everyone will respect your privacy when you come out here. It’s good for you two to have something like this,” Alaric says as he starts packing up his things. “Your father had something similar with your mother.”
“He did?” Kieran asks.
“Yes, he did. There was a hidden room in the palace that they would sneak off to. Only a couple of people knew where it actually was, but whenever no one could find them, they just assumed they were together there to get away from everything and be normal for a couple of minutes,” Alaric explains.
“They even brought you there when you were just a baby and needed some quiet with you. But it was their spot, and when you got older they didn’t take you there.
Probably in fear that you would hide in there for the rest of your life and never go out to meet the people. ”
“Were you that shy?” I ask, tilting my head to the side.
Kieran shakes his head. “I loved going out and being with the people. I remember some guards having to drag me back to the palace because I wouldn’t leave the town.”
“But he did love to hide away and make people worried. When he didn’t want to be social, it could last for days and people would always be looking for him. Or when he didn’t want to see someone he would hide.” Alaric shakes his head.
“You would hide when you didn’t want to see someone? I didn’t expect that,” I mumble.
Kieran huffs. “What three year old wouldn’t want to hide when they had to meet girls. I knew they weren’t my mate and I didn’t want to be around them. Most of them were older than me anyway, and I didn’t like when my cheeks got pinched and my hair ruffled.”
Giggling, I cover my mouth as I look at Kieran.
“Are you laughing at me?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I would never.”
His eyes narrow on me before he looks over to Alaric. “Don’t tell her any more stories or she’s going to be laughing at me all the time.”
“If you ever want to hear stories about Kieran, there are a lot of people who will sit down and tell you them,” Alaric says as he wiggles his eyebrows.
“You just need to let me know and I can introduce you to them. Or you could just walk and ask and anyone who knew Kieran when he was little or even now will tell you stories.”
My eyes light up. “I would love that.”
“Sweets, no,” Kieran pulls my face toward his. “You are not going to ask them to tell you stories. If you want to hear some then you can come to me and I will tell you some.”
“But if I ask you then you won’t tell me the embarrassing ones,” I point out.
“How do you know?” he asks.
“Because you don’t want me to ask our people to tell me stories. So there must be some stories that are pretty embarrassing if you don’t want me to hear about them which means you won’t tell me.”
Alaric chuckles. “She is smart.”
I smile widely at Alaric. “When the curse is broken you can introduce me to some of the people. I would love to meet them and hear stories.”
Kieran sighs and runs his hands over his face. “What am I going to do with you?”
I shrug. “Keep me. Love me. Allow me to hear the stories about you.”
Kieran kisses my forehead. “Like I would be able to stop you from hearing them.”