Page 21 of Raw

“How’s Mama been?”

“Fine, really. She had a few fun outings with her friends while I stayed home and studied for the stupid finals. I barely made it, you know?”

I shrugged. “At least you made it. And I’m proud of you. I know how much you struggled with school in general, not just with all those bullies around us.”

“Around me,” she muttered.

I sighed. “They have nothing better to do. They’re insecure about themselves, and pick on the ones who seem weak. You’re not weak, Ves. In fact, the way you handled them on a daily basis was impressive.”

A small smile appeared on her lips, and with a shrug, this conversation was over quickly.

“Let’s fish,” she said, stepping closer to the other side of the river to attach the net with a tent herring.

Fish were already getting caught in it, and thanks to the current and small pool that had naturally formed in this particular part of the river, our catch couldn’t get away as easily as they swam into our trap.

The worms weren’t needed either.

“Remember the different kinds of fish? What kind has already swum into our net?” I asked, wanting to test her knowledge and make her think about other things than her past.

“I can see a sheefish, but it’s young,” she pointed out.

“It is, but we won’t catch any full-grown ones in the river. We’d have to go to the nearest lake for that, but that’s miles away,” I explained.

She nodded, and as she tried to climb up to the small rock to sit on it and wait until our net filled up with fish, she slipped and muttered as she looked down at her hand.

“Did you hurt yourself?” I asked, watching her closely as she tried to hide the pain on her face.

There it was again.

My need to hold her because she was hurting.

“It’s nothing,” she said.

“Let me see,” I told her, making sure the net on my side was secure before stepping closer to her in the water.

I reached for her hand and pulled it to me, brushing along the palm of it with my thumb and then lifting it up to inspect the small droplets of blood on her ripped skin.

It wasn’t a big deal, but I was sure it burned.

“I’ll make it better, sweet girl. I promise.”

Pulling her hand closer to my mouth, I wrapped my lips around her wound and licked my tongue over the blood to clean it up.

This was something I’d done before.

When we had no other way of making sure the blood wouldn’t end up on our clothes, we cleaned it up with our own mouths.

Vespyr’s eyes were on me the whole time, and I continued to gently suck on her skin until I couldn’t feel any more blood come out.

This was a good way of cleaning wounds, as the water could infect them.

We were all healthy, so there was no danger in me doing this.

“Thank you. I think it’s better now,” she whispered, keeping her hand in mine as I moved back to look at it.

“It’s just a small abrasion,” I assured with a smile, and she nodded with her lips pressed into a tight line.

I wasn’t sure what she was thinking in that very moment, although I never had any issues finding out what was going on in that head of hers.

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