Page 99 of Caelum

“So?” I huffed impatiently.

When I was on the receiving end of two sheepish smiles, I gave up. With another huff, I started toward the gate without them. They both grabbed each of my hands and tugged me to a halt.

“Where are you going?”

“The sickbay, Eren.” I wasn’t about to leave Nestor alone for anything.

“They’ll be working on him for a while,” Stef warned.

“Again, I ask, so?” I tugged at their hands. “Come on.”

I wouldn’t feel better until Nestor was directly in my line of sight, and even then, I had a feeling that still wouldn’t settle my nerves.

TWENTY-NINE

NESTOR

The slide of someone’s palm into mine stirred me from sleep, but the second I was awake, I felt the immediate discomfort in my body.

Well, I said body and meant the ‘head region.’

Sweet fuck, the pain was something that I’d never anticipated. Whoever it was that had bitten me had obviously had a Vampire’s fangs because she hadn’t just gnawed on me but had torn out the flesh. I knew because the agony was there, a throbbing presence in my body.

“You said he was going to be okay.”

Eve.

Her voice was loaded with urgency and fear. I hadn’t imagined she’d be able to feel either for me, yet here she was, worrying about my condition.

She didn’t know it because she had no clue about her connection with Stefan, but she was Pack. Even though she disliked Dre as much as he seemed to hate her, if he’d been here in the sickbay, she’d have been just as upset to see him.

That was Pack.

It was how it worked.

Even when you had no idea what a Pack was outside of a nature documentary, and I’d made sure that she and David Attenborough were good friends.

Unlike my Pack brothers, there was only so much gore I could watch. From Dre’s horror movies, Stefan’s love of action, and Eren’s new fascinationwithSpartacusreruns, the only relief Eve and I had was in the documentaries I was intent on getting her hooked on.

“How did he survive?” she whispered, her hand red-hot on my arm where she’d laid her fingers the second she’d taken a seat.

“Frazer saw him. Gave him blood.” I heard the grim reluctance in Stefan’s voice as he made the admission.

She released a shocked gasp. “Frazer? I thought you guys didn’t get along.”

“We don’t,” Eren replied shortly. “But the Ghouls are our race’s enemy. That takes precedence over squabbles.”

“That was so kind of him. I must thank him. In fact, we all should.” Her fingers stroked my hand. “H-He looks so weak, guys. Are you sure he’s going to be okay?”

Because her concern touched me, I made a concerted effort to rasp, “I’ll be fine in a few days.”

She gasped. “You’re awake. Thank God.” Her hand grabbed mine tighter, and it was a testament to how shitty I was feeling that even that slight squeeze hurt.

“I’m on the mend,” was all I could say before the pain washed over me with the ceaselessness of the tide hitting the shoreline.

“He isn’t lying,” Eren told her, his tone gentle. “It will take a little while for him to be back to normal, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“Of course it wasn’t,” she snapped. “Rome took centuries to form.”

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