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“My bad.” He closes his eyes, and I see the way his fingers dig into the stone.

He’s lived this long, hasn’t he? Would he really have lived through all of this only to die from it now?

Slowly dragging myself up into a sitting position, I look down at my stomach and see that it’s mostly closed.

Still fucking hurts, though, which tells me that I really do need more blood.

Crawling over to Ender, I manage to reach him, which makes him jerk awake.

“Your dick is uncomfortably close to my face.”

“Says the man who stripped me. Didn’t even leave me a sock to cover myself with.”

“It was bloody. Everything was bloody. You want some of my clothes? They’re wet and cold.”

“Not until they’re dry,” I say as I give him a push and pull his shirt down until I can see his shoulder.

The location of the bullet hole hasn’t fully healed.

The blood that’s seeping from it is black, and when I swipe it with my finger it smells strange.

I rinse my finger off in the water before turning back to his wound.

“You have a knife?”

“Just a sword. You planning on stabbing me to get back at me?”

“Sure am,” I say as I put a knee on his arm to hold it down.

“I’d like to look at what you’re doing, but every time I do, I just see your dick.”

“It’s a good distraction, eh? Talk about some high-class entertainment. Maybe more people would go to the doctor if this was how their doctor dressed.”

“Absolutely no one would go to the doctor then.”

“Just me?” I tease as I awkwardly maneuver the sword to cut open the bullet hole.

“Fucking hell. You really fucking stabbed me!”

“I told you I was going to!”

“I didn’t think you were being serious. What are you doing? The bullet is out. You could have asked.”

“I know it’s out but I’m curious…”

“You’re cutting me open because you’re curious ?”

“How do you think the first doctors learned about the layout of a human’s internal organs? They just cut people open to find out.”

“Dead people!”

“I forgot that first part,” I say as he tries to struggle beneath me, so I put a knee against his throat as well. His look of disbelief seems to calm down his struggling, though.

Trying my best to cup water with my wrists bound, I pour it over the wound to flush away the black blood so I can get a look at what’s happening inside.

I’d never been permitted to examine any of the dead vampires who’d been killed by the ammunition and since there weren’t any vampires who lived through it—besides possibly true vampires who I doubt would allow me to dice into them—I’m thrilled to have my very own test subject.

Ender stares right at me, so he’s evidently going to survive looking my way with my dick out.

“A part of my delirious brain was like ‘Hey, maybe he really can help,’ but your maniacal grin as you dig your fucking fingers… fuck… into my flesh makes me question if you’re just torturing me as payback. ”

“If I were torturing you as payback, you’d know it.”

“How would it be any different?” he asks.

“Because I’d go, ‘Hey, I’m torturing you as payback.’ But I’m not. I’m torturing you for your own good. Honestly, out of the goodness of my heart, really.”

“I smell bullshit,” he grumbles. “Your maniacal smile reeks of bullshit.”

“Shhh. You’re in good hands. Honestly, it can’t get better than these hands. And I’m not smiling. This is my look of concentration.” I see something glistening and dig my fingers into it. It makes Ender glower at me, but when I pull it out and examine the small shard, I realize what I’m seeing.

“They’ve modified them. The ammunition must leave behind small pellets or shards.”

“But I pulled a bullet out. It wasn’t a shotgun shell that hit me.”

“I don’t know, I don’t make ammunition,” I say, realizing that just touching it is making my fingers burn.

I flush the wound again and find three more small pellets that I pull out and toss into the water.

“I’m not sure if that’s all, but let’s see if you begin healing before I start dicing some more. ”

“You act like you weren’t loving every minute of it. You looked like Rylee when she was opening her birthday presents.”

I stop pinning him down to wash my hands off. “That was just because I was thrilled to be saving your life.”

“You were fascinated by whatever the fuck you were doing,” he says.

“Out of the kindness of my heart filled with love, I was saving your life. If I got some minor enjoyment out of checking out what was going on, you can’t blame me. Now in exchange, you will cuddle me and give me warmth.”

“I can go get that dead deer you can cover yourself with.”

I grimace, positive that I’ll just pretend he didn’t mention any of that before slowly sinking down into his arms. I do this by pinning his weakened arms with my body and curling up against him.

“Why are you touching me?”

“You nearly murdered me. The least you can do is offer me a cuddle.”

Ender tries to push me off, but in his weakened state, he can’t fight me too hard.

“I should have left your ass behind.”

“Instead, you nakafied it. Did you like what you saw when I was dangling there with my ass crack out? Wanted to see more?”

“Your dick is smashed against my thigh. I can feel it.”

“Shhhh, just go to sleep and try not to dream about me,” I say, thrilled to have some warmth. We’re both wet, half dead, and exhausted, but where my body is pressed against his, I can feel the slightest hint of warmth.

“I don’t like the touch of others,” Ender grumbles.

I hesitate because I didn’t actually plan on torturing him psychologically.

I really just assumed he was being fussy and stubborn.

“I see,” I say and push back. “I apologize. I’ll take the first watch, so get some sleep.

I’m feeling significantly better after that deer.

Thank you for getting me this far. I really appreciate it and am aware I wouldn’t have gotten away without you. ”

He watches me scoot back to give him space as the cold eats into me. As a vampire, it wouldn’t bother me if I was up to my normal strength, but like this, it’s quite bitter.

Ender slips off to sleep quite quickly, and I leave him alone as I listen to the forest around me. There are animals moving about in the night and the sound of the waterfall crashing beside us. I’m trying to stay awake, but my body is still struggling.

I sit up so I can be less comfortable to help keep myself from accidentally falling asleep.

Then I tuck my legs against me as I listen to the world around me.

At one point, I hear multiple vampires and listen carefully, anxious that they’ll find where we’re hiding.

It really is a good spot to hide and any little noise we might make will instantly be drowned by the crashing waterfall.

The only problem is it does make it harder to hear them until they’re quite close.

“I think we lost them a mile or so back,” a woman says.

“Abel won’t be pleased until we bring at least one of them back. He acts like he needs the British one, but his fixation is clearly on Ender.”

“He talks about making him, but he’s made many of us. He’s my maker as well, so what’s so special about him? Ender obviously wants to kill Abel, so why would he even waste time with him unless it’s to kill him?”

“Did you see the way he killed those two and ate them… I think Abel needs to kill him, not capture him.”

They wander far enough out that I can’t hear them. I’d wondered if that man was Ender’s maker… but what kind of genetic makeup does he have that allows him to feast on vampires the way he does? I’d begun to question if he was some type of true vampire… but instead…

I stare at him as my thoughts run wild.

He still doesn’t look well, and if anything, I feel like he looks worse.

He likely needs more blood to replenish the poisoned blood, but unless I haul a person to him, I don’t think it’s going to work.

And in my condition, the possibility of me successfully getting a live vampire back to him seems quite slim.

I poke him to see if he’ll wake enough to let me know if an animal will suffice—but if it would, wouldn’t he have had his fill along the way?