Page 40

CHAPTER 40

Carolina

Carolina scrambled off him. His face had slowly started to mend, but she hadn’t had the time to check on anything else. Slowly, she peeled back the layers of cloth still wrapped around his neck. She gasped. Boiling blisters oozed and stretched over the raw skin.

“How are you even functioning?” she managed.

Lalo groaned something unintelligible.

“You aren’t healing fast enough.”

It dawned on her; he was probably half starved. He had only had a few sips of boar’s blood before they left.

She cursed.

The satchel with all of Lalo’s sustenance was gone with the horses. As were the bandages she’d packed for herself in case of injury.

She needed to get something to Lalo and fast. He looked dire and, besides that, they really should keep moving. This was the deepest she’d ever been within the forest. There might be more monsters creeping about. And if Maricela or Vidal found them now, they would have no chance to fight back.

He shifted and moaned. He truly was in the very worst way.

She chewed on her lip. Mulling over the thoughts running through her mind. There was only one option. She’d have to offer herself to him. Just a bit. Just enough to see him through. But that would mean some of the years of her life would be forfeit. She eyed Lalo, still sizzling in the grass. A few years of her own existence were a small sacrifice when she thought of everything Lalo had endured. Besides, there was no guarantee she was making it off Devil’s Spine anyway.

Gently, she eased Lalo up. Ignoring the exclamations of pain, she brought him to a seated position against the trunk of a wide pine tree, making sure to keep his skin from scraping against the bark. She pulled one of the lover’s daggers from its sheath, rested it upon the soft flesh just between her pointer finger and thumb.

“What are you doing?” Lalo’s voice came out in a rasp.

“You aren’t healing. I must get you back on your feet.”

A single eye popped open, bloodshot and glossy. “You don’t look so good yourself,” he said.

She grinned. “Since when did you become such a jester?”

“Oh, I’ve always been funny.” He winced as he shifted. “I’ve just kept that fact a secret.”

She chuckled and scooted closer to him, and he shook his head. “No. I can’t. I won’t.”

“You can and you will. ”

“Drinking from your essence will shorten your life span.”

“If we stay here, I will be dead anyway, so drink, dammit.”

“Always a tyrant.” He chuckled and hissed with pain.

Carolina sliced through her skin again, giving him a fresh trail of blood. The wound stung but felt like little more than a paper cut, especially when she examined Lalo’s wounds.

“Here.” She offered her hand to him, the blood already dripping down her palm.

He turned his head away. “It might only be days or weeks taken from you, but I won’t do it.”

“Careful, Lalo. Keep acting as if you care, and I might start thinking that kiss wasn’t a mistake.”

He gulped.

She moved nearer, feeling as drawn to him as ever. “Take it. If we don’t start moving, we will both be dead.”

Lalo’s honey-colored eyes met hers. There was hunger there. Yet he made no move.

“Do not make me force you,” she said.

He licked his cracked lips. “What if I lose control?”

“I can handle myself.”

They held each other’s stares as she brought her palm toward his mouth. His incisors grew. He sighed as if holding his fangs back had been a discomfort.

“What’s it like?” she asked. “What do you feel?”

“Disgust. I am a creature who drains a person’s soul for nourishment.”

She opened and shut her palm, soaking her fingers in her own blood. What would he see within the fabric of her essence? What memories might he find within? Surprisingly, Carolina wasn’t worried. Lalo might scoff at her or tease her, but he wouldn’t judge her mistakes. She pressed her finger to his lips, watched as his saliva and her life force intertwined. “But what does it really feel like?”

Lalo’s lashes fluttered. “Like the heavens have exploded and the stars are raining down upon me.”

She snorted. “A poet even in agony.”

Shakily, he took hold of her wrist. “Are you sure?”

Carolina nodded. There were still hours in the day, but the night would come soon enough. They had to get to Vidal before anything else got to them.

“Do it.”

Lalo didn’t hesitate this time. He brought his mouth down upon her flesh. His tongue swept over her cut, and the stinging sensation dissolved away. His other hand clenched into a fist on his lap. Her eyes widened as the blisters on his skin began to shrink away almost instantaneously.

“It’s working,” she said.

A groan of pleasure purred from Lalo’s throat. The sound made her own body thrum. She wanted to hear that sound come from him again. And again. And again.