Page 37 of Bite of Passage
He caught her arm.“Ye’ve done all ye can.”
“Don’t die on me.Not yet.”She knelt next to him and kissed him.It was brief, and not at all adequate to express all the wildness whipping through her.“Do you want me to do anything with your wounds?I can bandage them.”
“Sleep will heal.”
The whites of his eyes reddened as he stared at her neck.“Get as far away as you can.I’m going to wake up hungry.Might bite.I could kill you.”
ChapterSixteen
The doorway togo home had poofed out of existence.She was stuck until she could find a mirror or something similar.The doorway’s absence suggested someone controlled it, and they might be manipulating her.She wanted out of this war-ridden fantasy world where humans were lowest on the food chain.
It was cold as bitter Antarctica in the rain that poured from the sky.
Boom…rumble.
And there was lightning.
“This place is miserable,” Gemma muttered.She huddled under a tree a few hundred yards away from where Skarde slept.It wouldn’t be safe if he woke up a hunger-obsessed fiend, but she didn’t want VanFliet or one of his goons to prey on him while he was passed out.Wait, they were vampires too.That meant they’d be hiding by now to avoid the sun as well.But what if the half-turned had some level of sun tolerance?She had no clue what she could do to protect Skarde if one of them came for him.Pepper spray might agitate them for a moment, but she doubted it’d stop a half-turned vampire.
Still, here she sat, pepper spray in one hand, shivering.And exhausted.
It was daylight.No vampires should be out.
Small comfort.
Her only link in this crazy world was Skarde, who might attack to drink her blood.Even if he didn’t, he’d be cranky when he woke up.
Streak of light.
One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi.Boom.Boom!
Three miles, assuming the rules for lightning were the same here.
Gripping tightly to her umbrella to fight a gust of wind, she shivered as the wind blasted through her clothes.Her umbrella flipped backward.In the time it took to right the umbrella she went from damp to sloshy.Immobility from cold seeped in.She could pull out the hand warmers she’d purchased for a Giants game last year, which were in the side pocket of the backpack.Even though her mind argued she might need them later, dying of hypothermia now, before there could be a later, would defeat the purpose of having dragged the backpack here.
In the process of shaking the second hand warmer to activate it, she cursed when a gust of wind blew the umbrella backward again.Water inactivated the warmers.
A shiver traveled across her shoulders as if someone watched her.
No one was obviously nearby.On her second scan of the area, however, she found him.
Across what might be an animal trail, given its thin width of wear, a small man squatted beneath a large, leafed tree.His height was perhaps two-and-a-half feet tall, pushing three.No way to tell while he was sitting.His face, although bearded, was well manicured and he wore several beaded strings woven into his long brown hair.Perhaps a dwarf?
He didn’t look wet.At all.How was that possible?
Jealous of his dryness she almost laughed out loud, but she held it in, determined not to come off half crazy to the little guy.
They’d never shown a dwarf on the show, but many spoke of them in hushed tones like they were dangerous.She’d expected them to be small and squat with overlarge facial features—Tolkeinesque, to be exact.This guy was almost pixie-like in his features, and somewhat pretty.
He cradled one hand against his body.Her gut instinct said it was injured.
She lost all fear of the danger he might pose.Something about people in distress, no matter their walk of life or disposition, made her focus on alleviating their pain.
She waved at him to come her way and righted the umbrella again.“You’re hurt.I might be able to help you.I’ve got some medicine in my bag, and you can sit under my umbrella which is more than large enough for me and you.”
He cocked his head and gazed at her, but didn’t reply.Maybe he didn’t speak English.
She searched through her bag until she found the medical kit.She took out a large square bandage, pointed to the stranger, and pretended to wrap her hand with it.Then waved for him to come her way again.
