“And yet, here you are. My sisters would be so jealous,” she sighed.
She wasn't joking, Lephas realised with a start. The girl's high cheekbones were flushed. She genuinely liked what she was seeing. His gut tightened with desire. Before that moment, he had never given much thought to his physique past the practical uses for being as strong and as fit as possible in combat.
The demon took the hem of his shirt from Lori’s grasp and pulled it off over his head decisively. His rib protested with a sharp stab but he ignored it.
There was a long, heated silence whilst the faerie appraised him. Lephas stood still, determined to not shy away from her as he desperately wanted to. He held the bandage out to her and she took it but didn’t take her eyes off him.
“Hold it here,” he instructed, swallowing thickly and gesturing to the middle of his chest.
Lori eagerly complied and pressed one end of the bandage against him. “Now hold on to it. I need to pull against you to make sure it's wrapped tight enough.”
Lephas turned his attention to the long, trailing end of the material. He pulled hard against it... The bandage flew from the faerie’s grip, jerking him backwards slightly with the recoil.
“Hold on to it, I said.” He winced as he jostled his ribs.
“Sorry, sorry – I was distracted!” Lori smirked. She held the end of the bandage in place once more.
“Got it this time?”
“Yes.” She frowned determinedly.
Lephas stretched the bandage and wrapped it around his chest, taking care not to knock his injury too much. He pulled the material back around to his front and overlapped the piece Lori was still holding.
“Okay, now, let go of that bit. Just hold it in place for me, in case it slips.”
Lori nodded simply and pulled her hands free from the material. Once the first loop was done, Lephas made quick work of tightly strapping the rest. He had just enough bandage to make three loops of his chest before tucking the loose end back under to secure it. His bruised ribs protested underneath the tight constraint but it already felt more secure.
Lephas crouched to grab his shirt, put his arms in and quickly tugged it over his head before Lori had the chance to make any further comments about his physique.
“You could have left it off for just a little bit longer,” she huffed.
“It's bloody freezing out here!” Lephas protested, hurriedly gathering his armour and shrugging it back on.
“Hm, fair point.” Lori conceded with a heavy sigh and turned to walk back to the log.
“We should eat. What have we got left?” Lephas swiftly changed the subject. He gained confidence with every buckle he re-fastened.
“Not a lot.” Lori dug through the bag and pulled out a rather meagre-looking linen food parcel.
Lephas strode over to join her and took the parcel from her hands. Inside were two blood berries, a biscuit and half a strip of jerky. Slim pickings indeed.
“Alright, here...” He picked out the jerky and handed the parcel back to the faerie. “You eat what's left in there. That'll keep us going for now.”
He took a bite of the jerky and glanced around the forest. “Maybe I'll be able to find us something else a bit later.”
“I'll be glad if I never see another one of these ever again.” Lori picked up a blood berry and eyed it with suspicion.
“I'll cut it up for you this time.” Lephas grinned and fished a small, foldable knife from a pouch on his belt.
“Please, if you would. I think I've had enoughactualblood on my face in the past few days, without adding more.” Her tone grew solemn suddenly and Lephas looked up from the berry he was peeling. The faerie sat back down onto the stump. She pulled one knee up, tucking it to her chest and turned to stare off into the woods.
“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked gently.
“Like I've been turned inside out. He sent them after me, to kill me, didn’t he?”
“It appears that way, but you can't be absolutely sure of that. It could have been a splinter group who had rebelled and were acting on their own.”
Lori shook her head. “No. The one that grabbed me, who nearly…I recognised him from Awrelwood. He's one of my father's most trusted commanders. He sent him, I know it.”
