Page 43 of Blood on the Tide

Another time, I might be delighted by the fact that she’s actually emoting. Right now, I can’t quite bring myself to enjoy it. “Lizzie.” My voice is too faint. Distantly, I’m aware that Lizzie might have cause for panic. I heal faster than a human, but only marginally. I can absolutely succumb to blood loss. And she wasn’t careful this time. She was too busy coming on my fingers.

“Under no circumstances are you to go to sleep. Do you understand me?”

I study her beautiful face, taking in the tense line of her mouth and the tightness around her eyes. “Are you worried about me?”

She snaps her teeth, which draws my attention to the fact that there’s still blood dried on the edge of her mouth. My blood. A tremor works through me, and I couldn’t begin to say if it’s the echoes of pleasure or concern. The concern isn’t for me. I feel too good to worry about the consequences of our actions. No, it’s all for Lizzie, who’s unraveling before my eyes.

I knew better than to escalate things when she was feeling so off-center. She needed comfort, not a distraction. Her control never would’ve wavered otherwise. And yet... there’s a small, secret part of me that delights in the fact that I caused her to lose control. Me. Maeve.

Not anyone else. Sure as fuck not Evelyn.

“This ship has to have a fucking medic. Don’t you dare go to sleep. Keep your eyes open. I will be right back.”

“Lizzie.” I brush her arm with a listless hand. “You’re naked.”

She snarls at me, the sound more animalistic than anything I can make, even in my seal form. And then she’s gone, only the banging of the door against the wall an indication of her passage. I hear her yelling on deck for a medic. I don’t know how to tell her that I don’t think this ship has one. Or if they do, it’s unlikely the person will be anywhere as skilled in healing as what we’d find on a Cwn Annwn ship.

I’ll be fine. Probably. I’ve never felt this woozy from blood loss, but I’ve never lost this much blood before. I tend to keep it inside my body. Bodies are good for that.

My thoughts’ strange spiral should worry me, but it feels like too much effort to dredge up any amount of concern.

Sometime later, whether seconds or minutes or even an hour, Lizzie returns, dragging Rin behind her. Ze looks terrified; zir skin is a mottled yellow that edges onto white. The color gets even paler when ze looks at me. “I told you. We don’t have a medic. We just do the best we can in between ports.”

Lizzie flings zir at me. “I don’t give a fuck. Fix her.”

“You’re the vampire. Dealing with blood loss is something that you’ve experienced more than I have,” Rin snaps. “If she hasn’t died already, she probably just needs rest and fluids. Which you can give her. You don’t need me for it.”

I open my mouth to tell Lizzie to dial back her rage. She’s terrifying the poor person, and ze hasn’t done anything wrong. But the room is swirling strangely in my vision. “I think I’m going to pass out now.”

The last thing I see before darkness takes me are Lizzie’s and Rin’s panicked expressions as they both rush to the bed. Lizzie is, in fact, still naked.

•••

I don’t know how long I sleep. But when I wake, my mouth feels like it’s grown fuzz and my head pounds as if someone’s taken a knife and pried my skull open. I try to shift, but my body chooses that moment to scream in protest. I try to speak, but all I’m capable of is a faint groan.

Gentle hands catch me behind the head and lift me just enough as they press a cup to my lips. “Drink.” Lizzie sounds as exhausted as I feel. That’s not a good sign.

But the water is cool and perfect on my tongue, and so I sip it eagerly. Far too soon, she takes it away. When I make a sound of protest, she says, “Go slow.”

I finally manage to peel my lids open and immediately wish I hadn’t. The low light of the cabin pierces my eyes. “I feel like death.”

“Death didn’t take you this time.”

I manage to twist my head enough to see Lizzie hunched over on a stool next to the bed. She looks like shit. Her hair hangs in tangles, obviously never combed after our bath, and her skin has gone waxy in a way that suggests it’s been some time since she ate. Which means it’s been some time since I was awake. “How long?”

“Two. Days.” She lifts the cup to my lips again, and I carefully sip a little bit more water. “We are never doing that again.”

It says something about my state of mind that I immediately want to argue with her. Yes, things got out of control, but that doesn’t mean that they will every time. We spent an entire day and night together the first time we had sex, and I only woke with a faint headache in the morning. That little pain was far outweighed by the heavy memory of pleasure that still throbbed through my body.

Without thinking, I grab her wrist, panic bleating at the back of my throat. “What do you mean we’re never doing that again?”

“You saved my life, comforted me when I was falling apart, and the only thanks I gave you was almost killing you.”

I drag in a breath to argue, but force myself to slow down and study her. This woman looks nothing like the Lizzie I’ve come to know in our short time together. There’s no hint of her icy exterior, no suggestion of her perfect poise. She looks almost fragile. Brittle. As if one strong word might shatter her.

It scares the shit out of me. “Lizzie, I’m okay.”

Her mouth curves, but not like anything is funny. “It’s so purely you that you would try to comfort me when you just woke up from a coma. I have been dribbling water and broth down your throat for two days, Maeve. You don’t get to tell me that you’re okay. We make port in Drash in a few days. The first thing we’re doing when we reach the island is take you to a proper medic. A healer.”

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