Blood trickled down his cheek from a small cut on his brow, but otherwise he seemed completely unharmed. She raised her hand to wipe the blood from his face, but he shrugged her off and guided her back to the fire, sitting her in its warmth.
He left to fill a bowl with water but returned quickly, sitting beside her. Taking off his ruined shirt, he ripped strips from the cleaner fabric and soaked them in the bowl. She glanced at his chest, averting her eyes automatically before realising what she had seen. Gasping, she couldn’t help but look back at him.
Her eyes widened as they ran over the multitude of scars that covered almost every inch of him. A few fresh cuts oozed blood, but they were nothing compared to the long, jagged scars that stretched across his body.
The deformed skin shone silver in the firelight. Adrenaline numbed her inhibitions, and she leant forward to trace her finger along a particularly nasty one, feeling the smooth, raised skin. They varied in both size and age, some faint and almost invisible, whilst others would never be so indiscernible, no matter how much time passed. They covered his arms and shoulders, winding their way down his abdomen to his back. He sat still while she examined him, watching her face intently.
"Come," he said finally, and she sat up, looking into his eyes. Her mind was flooded with questions, all pushing to the front, desperate to be asked, but she bit her tongue. Now was not the time.
The cloth was cool as he carefully washed dirt from the cuts on her face. It stung but she refused to let him see any sign that it hurt. After seeing what pain he had endured, her own seemed comparatively pitiful.
"l saw him knee you, let me see that too."
Lifting her shirt over her back, she showed him. He cursed under his breath. She turned, seeing his dark eyes burning as he glared at her side, and she stretched her neck to try and see for herself. Already the skin was turning a fresh shade of purple.
"Is it that bad?" It didn't feel bad, but shock still numbed the pain. He ran his fingers over her, tickling the sensitive skin. He gently prodded around her ribs, and she grimaced.
"It will bruise badly, but the cuts won't scar if you use the poultice I gave you. He could have broken your ribs, but I don't think he did. You were lucky." He rose to his feet to retrieve the poultice. Aelia couldn’t be sure, but his hand seemed to tremble as he gave it to her. “You stay here, I’ll dispose of the bodies.”
He didn’t pause, leaving her kneeling in the dirt as he dragged off the first of the attackers into the night without so much as a glance her way.
Aelia gritted her teeth against the wave of disquiet he left in his absence, fighting to control the rising sense of unease that was constricting her chest.
What the hell had just happened?
The poultice sat forgotten in her lap as she looked back at the camp beneath the willow tree, where he’d kissed her. If you could even call it that. Never before had she experienced anything like it; he’d kissed her like he owned her, dominating her in a way that had her soul screaming for more, winding her need higher and higher until she’d have given him anything. With barely more than a kiss.
Aelia let out a shuddering breath.
Sure, she’d had her fair share of fun in Callodosis when the opportunity arose, but what Keeran had done to her went way beyond fun. She fought the urge to touch her jaw, the memory of his hand fixing her in place whilst he desecrated her chest withhis mouth, turning pain to pleasure in a way that was positively unholy.
Right up until he’d stopped.
The unease she felt at the way he’d left was magnified as she remembered him pulling away, looking at her with pure, unadulterated horror.
Shame trickled in, cold and familiar. He’d pulled away, in a moment like that. Why? It couldn’t just be because she couldn’t Shift… could it?
Because the hypocrisy of rejecting her for being different was just too much for her to accept quietly, not after she’d seen him take out six armed artemians in a matter of minutes. She looked at the bodies spread out amongst the long grass, the memory of him killing them one by one burned into her retinas.
He was fast, unnaturally fast, and she’d never seen anyone with enough strength to snap someone’s neck with a single blow. Fear scuttled through her as she remembered the raging evil in his unnaturally black eyes, something utterly monstrous seething in them.
Twisting her neck in the direction he’d disappeared in, Aelia wondered what kind of evil she was dealing with, and what on earth it wanted with her. Frowning, she realised there was a part of her that was eager to find out.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Keeran dragged the abhorrent lump of meat that had dared to hurt Aelia away from the camp, without even glancing her way. Like a fucking coward.
It was all he could do to keep moving, the panic roaring through him violent enough to make him tremble, his legs unstable beneath him as he desperately tried to get out of her line of sight. It had taken every ounce of willpower to get away without letting her see how fucking close he was to losing it.
Once he was a safe distance from the camp, he let the corpse thud to the ground. He managed only a few steps before his legs gave way, dropping him into a crouch amongst the long blades of grass. His whole body shook as he tried to breathe away the adrenaline and fear, the creature staying mercifully silent in his mind. Keeran was pretty sure he’d vomit if it so much as purred at him. He raked his fingers through his hair, clutching at it like a madman, staring at the ground as if answers might appear there.
Never, ever, had he lost himself like that. Not as a child, not in the war, not during any other sexual experience he’d had. Not even close.
It was his deepest, bone-scraping fear. He’d seen firsthand the devastation one of his kind could wreak if they lost themselves to their other side, and the memory still haunted him. Losing control to that side of him could not be allowed. It was evil; vicious, depraved, bloodthirsty, and remorseless.
And he’d just let it loose on Aelia.
The things he’d wanted to do to her, thatithad wanted to do to her… he placed a hand on the floor to steady himself as his stomach roiled. He was suddenly overwhelmingly grateful he hadn’t finished his dinner.
