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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stephanie
Our entire party enteredthe cave, shattering the weird intimacy that had expanded between Gahn Errok and me.
“Oh! Fuck me, did you have to let him bleed all over our bed?” Fiona moaned when her eyes landed on Gahn Errok. I straightened in the water, looking over at the bed and seeing the scene through her eyes. In my hurry to clean myself up and let Errok get some rest over there, I hadn’t cleaned up anything else. Though he wasn’t actively bleeding now, his skin was coated with a dried grey mixture of his own blood and Vrika’s blood. Yet more blood darkened the hides on the bed beneath him and around him.
“At least he’s on my side of the bed,” I said, feeling oddly defensive of Gahn Errok in that moment. Yes, he’d kind of brought this injury on himself by challenging Gahn Thaleo to the taklok. But it was also because I’d distracted him in the heat of the moment that he’d been shot. And even though I’d literally told him something similar – I’d told him not to bleed all over the bed – I felt strangely protective of him when Fiona complained about it.
“It doesn’t even matter,” Valeria said. “Gahn Thaleo has offered us alternative arrangements for tonight so that Gahn Errok doesn’t need to be moved.”
“I am not used to being spoken of as if I am not here,” came a reprimanding growl from the bed.
Fiona, who was closest to the bed, nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound.
“Christ almighty! I thought you were asleep or something. How are you still conscious?!” she said, her eyes huge beneath the blunt edge of her bangs.
“Unwavering will,” he hissed.
“And Vrika’s blood,” I reminded him sardonically. I decided, however, not to remind him about the fact he very nearlydidlose consciousness. At least, not in front of the others. Apparently, my sudden, new protective urge also included not wanting to disparage him in front of my friends. His words from before came back to me so forcefully I practically heard them in the steamy air.Neither one of us wants to be weak in front of others. Maybe I wanted to protect that part of him because I understood it. Because, like he’d said, we were more alike than I’d realized.
Truly, I was glad he was still awake and that he hadn’t passed out. Now that the Vrika’s blood had gone to work inside him and he was lying down, he definitely seemed better than before, as evidenced by all the arguing. Undoubtedly, he’d still need recovery time, though.
“We brought some food and more Vrika’s blood for him... Foryou,” Tilly said, first to me then to Gahn Errok.
“Thanks,” I replied for the both of us, trying to cut Gahn Errok off before he said something typically ungrateful that offended everyone in the room.
I crouched back down in the water, dunking my face and head under the surface to fully rinse this night from my body. When I emerged again, I found Gahn Errok’s sight stars searching for me, his head straining off of the bed. As if my disappearing beneath the water even for a second had sent him into a panic.
“Grim is going to stay here tonight and the rest of us will be moving to another set of guest caves,” Valeria said. “Since Grim doesn’t sleep much, he’d be the best candidate besides Tok to keep an eye on you, Gahn Errok.”
“Oh,” I said, scraping soaking hair back from my face. For some reason, that bothered me.
Is it because I don’t want to burden anyone else with looking after Gahn Errok?
Or because I specifically want to do it myself?
