Page 28 of Kryxis

It set the medikit next to her. “Serifna mish xe ra vish.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she answered.

It tugged at her sleeve and she yanked her arm back. She hugged her arm, glaring at the demon. “I know I’m hurt.”

“Xa,” it clipped out. It opened the medikit with its blue hand and had it face her. She tensed as it knelt before her, another hand gripping the table leg.

She locked eyes with it for several seconds and realized it was waiting for her to fix her arm. But why the hell would it want that?

Maybe it was playing with her again. Screaming at it probably wouldn’t make it go away.

Swallowing, she released her arm. Feeling out of breath, she slipped off her helmet and inhaled deeply, grateful the air was stable here too. Setting it aside, she tried to roll up her sleeve, but the pain was too much, and her fingers couldn’t get a good grip with all the blood. Cursing, she took a pair of scissors in the medikit and started to slowly cut up the sleeve at the point of the tear, gritting her teeth.

The demon mumbled something, and she paused.

“What? This isn’t fast enough for you?” she snapped. “Sorry to disappoint, but you’ll have to wait a while before you get to eat me.”

It tilted its head at her and she halted to study it. The more she got a better look at it, the more she saw the vrisha that she had seen from pictures. Her memory was still fuzzy about them, but she remembered learning they were much like otherkin. They were said to be more intelligent. So, seeing it now as justa creature was wrong, especially when it could clearly talk and made human gestures like pointing.

It wore pants—or at least the rags of what once had been dark, somewhat baggy fabric, now mostly burnt—to cover itself, but nothing else. Judging by its build, it looked very male, but that could be wrong.

She returned to cutting her sleeve. Didn’t matter. They could be toying with her still. She had no choice but to be wary of them.

When she was finally able to cut the sleeve around her arm, she let the bloody mess drop and examined the cut. It looked deep, going up her arm, curving at her elbow and around the back of her bicep. She needed to clean it first then she would—

The demon took hold of her wrist and licked up the side of the cut, black tongues lapping up her blood.

A shriek tore up her throat. Out of instinct, she yanked back her hand while pushing its face away.

The demon bared its teeth at her. “Lillak, isha reese nifa meshana martiss,” they hissed. They grabbed her arm again and cleaned the blood, their slick tongues trailing across her skin, giving her goosebumps. Her face heated and she made a sound of disgust, trying to pull her hand away.

“What are you, a damn vampire? Stop! You’ll infect it!”

They clicked their tongues. “Vish.”

“I don’t understand. I need to clean. Understand? Clean!” She shook her arm.

They pointed their talon at the cut. “Clean!”

A chill ran down her spine. “Don’t…don’t do that, it’s creepy.” They sounded like her again. How they could mimic her so well was way too freaky.

They seemed to be thinking. Then they repeated themselves. “Clean!”

The voice was lower this time. Sounding a lot like Garret. It still unnerved her.

She studied them. “Are you trying to say you’re cleaning it? Because I don’t believe you.”

They huffed. “Clean.” They tapped on the medikit, gesturing to the things inside. “Villari.”

She glanced at the kit then back at them. “Heal.”

“Xa, heal,” they said. They grazed their taloned thumb across her arm, making her shiver. “Heeeaalll,” they purred and stuck their tongues out, lapping up the fresh blood.

She tugged her hand away, pulse fluttering, her face warming again. “I got it. But I think I’ll do it my way, thank you very much.”

They exposed their fangs, creating a strange grin. “Ista rish xir leeshna.”

“Great.” Still, no idea what they said but she assumed they understood, no more licking. She took an antiseptic rag from the medikit and wiped the rest of the blood from her arm. Then she found a meldpen and, pressing it firmly to her, slowly glued the skin back together. After, she wrapped the arm in gauze.

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