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P ain clawed me back to consciousness. White-hot agony that felt like molten metal poured through my side. Every breath was like fire.

Then I heard her voice cutting through the haze, desperate and pleading.

"Alice?" The word scraped out of my throat like broken glass. My vision swam, as I tried to see her.

Shot. The memory hit me so hard that I flinched. The crack of the rifle, the burning pain, the sickening sensation of falling into nothingness. I should be dead.

But Alice was here. Alice had found me.

"You came back," I wheezed.

"I heard the gunshots," she said, sliding her arm under my shoulder. "I couldn't just leave you."

I tried to sit up and nearly blacked out as agony ripped through my side. Blood, warm and sticky, ran down my side. I could smell it. Metallic and sharp. It turned my stomach.

But Alice was warm against me, solid and real. Her slight frame felt more substantial than anything I had ever known.

"Can you walk?" she asked.

I managed a nod that sent the world spinning.

"Your cottage isn't far," she urged.

The journey out of the ravine was pure torment. Blood ran down my side in a steady stream, and I could feel myself getting weaker with every drop. My legs tried to give out several times, but Alice held me up through sheer force of will.

"Almost there," she kept saying, her voice tight with strain. "Just a little further."

By the time we reached my cottage, black spots danced at the edges of my vision. She somehow got me inside and onto my bed, where I collapsed.

"Let me see the wound," she said, reaching for my vest.

I caught her wrist, my grip clumsy and weak. "Alice, you shouldn't. This isn't proper."

Her eyes blazed with fierce determination. "You're bleeding to death. Let me help."

When she peeled away my vest, her sharp intake of breath told me everything I needed to know.

It was bad. But Alice did not flinch. I heard her rifling around the inside of my cottage for a moment before she was back at my side.

She cleaned the wound with steady hands while I gritted my teeth against the pain that threatened to drag me under.

Each touch of the cloth felt like being shot all over again.

"This will hurt," she warned before pressing down to stop the bleeding.

I bit down on a roar as white-hot pain exploded through my side. My vision grayed at the edges, and for a moment I thought I might pass out entirely. But Alice's voice anchored me and kept me conscious through the worst of it.

When she finally finished bandaging me, I was shaking violently.

"Alice," I managed through chattering teeth.

She looked up. "Yes?"

"Thank you." The words came out barely above a whisper. "For finding me. For this."

Something soft entered her expression. "You don't need to thank me."

This woman, this incredible, fearless woman, had risked everything to save a monster like me.

"Alice," I whispered, reaching up with a trembling hand to touch her cheek. "I..."

"Rest," she said gently. "You need to sleep. I'll stay and watch over you."

As consciousness slipped away, one thought burned through the haze of pain and blood loss: I loved her. Desperately, completely, hopelessly.