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“It’s ok. You’re ok.”
The relief of not having to feel the pain anymore is delightful. If it weren’t for the strange motions and jolts of being moved, I might have fallen asleep, my mind desperate for a refuge from the horrors of today. Instead, I indulge in the sweet scent of Celeste’s perfume that is seeping through the smell of my own blood and listen for the occasional calming words from her lips. There are other voices – Mel but also strangers – and in my slightly delusional state, fear flares in my chest every time I hear the deep, rough voice of a man, too similar to that of Alastor.
Eventually, the rich red and brown tones in my blurry field of vision tell me that I’m in Celeste’s home. Or at least, that’s where I hope I am. I’m laid down and arranged carefully but can’t see well enough to know where. Something liquid and prickling with magic works its way over my lips and – after sitting pooled in the back of my concaved throat for a while, down into my stomach. My throat opens agonizingly slowly.
Having been desperately waiting for this moment, my lungs expand, the deepest, most satisfying breath I have ever taken rushing through my healed windpipe. Almost immediately, I start to cough up blood.
Celeste’s gentle hands roll me onto my side, allowing me to cough until, finally, the gurgling blood in my airways is expelled.
“I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “That’s all the healing I can do for now. Your body will have to do the rest.”
Moments later, I can feel her skin against my lips and the steady rhythm of her pulse beneath it. Praying that her blood will help me heal quickly, I sink my teeth into her artery.
***
Recovering feels like a fever dream. Celeste stops the pain for hours at a time, giving me herbs and tinctures that help me drift into a light sleep. When she’s not there, though, I have to feel my bones shift and my muscles weave back together, just to later be torn apart again to make way for some misplaced tendon or other. To escape the suffering, I roll and roll in the bed with nowhere to go.
But even sleep doesn’t give me much respite. My dreams are bizarre and often terrifying – I might be chased and captured, pinned to the wall, helplessly trapped as some horrible creature comes for me, or on the floor of my apartment watching the blood pool around my face as I die. Alastor’s grinning face haunts me. Celeste often wakes me before the peak of the horror, holding me – or what is left of me – as I regain some of my sanity.
But as immortality would have it, my life goes on and I get better, or at least my body does. Soon enough, I’m well enough to walk around the house and sit in the sun, which makes me feel somewhat less terrified that Alastor is going to come and find me. Celeste floats in and out of her home at all hours, always stopping by my side to see how I’m doing.
One night, I startle awake to find her asleep on the chair beside my bed. I bite my lip and bury my face in the pillows so my crying won’t wake her. I feel incredibly stupid for being so shaken by what’s happened – I can’t die after all, so what’s there to be afraid of?
“Oh, kitten!” I can feel the covers being lifted and the comforting dip of the mattress under the weight of another body. She gathers me into her arms and kisses my sweaty forehead. By now, most of the swelling has gone down and returned my body to somewhat normal, if bruised, proportions.
Embarrassed, I hide my face in the crook of her neck and let her run her fingers through my hair.
“It’s ok. You’re safe here, I promise.”
I peel myself away from her, wiping away my tears. “Why? Why did he come after me?”
She sighs, long and full of exhaustion. “I didn’t think he’d have the audacity, I’m so sorry. They’ve never targeted anyone who works for me like this.” Her face is solemn, looking almost luminescent in the moonlight. She seems to hesitate. “I’m afraid I might have given someone the impression that… that I care about you. It seems this is all a lot more personal than I thought.”
I search her face for a long time, though I’m not sure what it is I’m looking for. “Don’t you care?”
“Of course I care.” She pulls me back into her arms. “And trust me, when I’m done with Alastor nobody is going to ever go near you again.”
She envelops me and I lean into the soothing softness of her body.
“Sleep now, kitten. I'm here.”
***
The next time I wake, Celeste is gone again. With a groan, I push myself out of the bed and take a few shaky steps across the floor. All my bones and tendons hold under the pressure, which is a relief. Desperate to clear my head and soothe my aching body, I make my way to the bathroom. It’s dark outside and the silence in the house tells me Celeste has gone out. Even though she’s assured me a hundred times that even if Charon’s Veil knew where she lives, they’d not be able to enter, her absence makes me queasy.
I shiver under the cool water of the shower, the temperature shocking myself into the present and away from the memories of Alastor. Drying myself off is a delicate and painful affair, my body still tender, but I manage. After, I grab my phone and tiptoe down into the kitchen. Celeste has prepared some kind of special loose-leaf tea for me, all I need is to add hot water.
While I wait for the kettle to boil, I check my phone. Nothing from Mav. I bite my lip. What’s going on with him?
“So, I’ve been keeping secrets,” I type. “If you already know, please don’t hate me or at least still let me know you’re ok.”
A sound over the boiling of the water catches my attention and I sit there frozen for a while, listening for signs of an invader. When the water in the kettle settles and I still hear nothing, I force myself to get up and stop freaking myself out. I pour the water into the teapot and load everything onto a tray to take upstairs when I remember something.
“You didn’t tell anyone at Charon’s Veil about my secret lover, did you?” I hover my thumb over the button for a few moments before sending it. I can’t think how else they would have known that there’s a little – super tiny – bit more than just a work relationship between me and Celeste.
A quiet buzz draws me from my thoughts. Before I can react with more panic, there’s the sound of a key being turned in the door. Despite the fact that Iknowit is Celeste – because she told me she’d be back from a coven meeting at exactly one in the morning – I still jump at the sound.
She smiles when she sees me. “You’re up.”
