Chapter 535: Night Watch
I decided, for once, to actually heed everyone’s advice, and spend the rest of the day recuperating in the warmth of my own bed.
Ash dutifully and gladly took care of my every need. My one-stop source for comfort, for companionship, bedridden here... if spiritually I was really that malnourished, then her smile, her voice, her mere presence alone was definitely chicken soup for the soul.
And boy, was she ever filling...
Me finally rousing back to the land of the living has definitely flipped a switch inside her because I’ve never known her this touchy-feely with her affections outside from the influence of an empty wine glass...
Seriously, she could almost rub my skin red raw from the number of times she’s run her hand on my cheek alone.
Then in sporadic bouts of interrupted tender moments, Sammy would barge into the room on seemingly intentional whims, wearing the excuse of nothing better to do like a badge on her chest while she lazed herself on the foot of the bed, kicking restless legs in the air while diddling around on her phone.
For some reason, Mom hasn’t popped her sly, foreboding little smile beneath my doorway... and neither has Dad. Their own son had just roused from a two-day coma and yet they’re nowhere to be seen at all.
.....
“Did they disown me while I was sleeping?”
“Doubt it,” Sammy said, unconcerned. “I told them you’re up... Mom smiled, Dad grunted. So you know they’re happy about it.”
“So then where are they?”
“I dunno,” She shrugged halfheartedly, thumbs speedily typing a message. “But you’re you, and they know you’re you... so maybe they figured that you’d come up to them one way or another eventually, badgering them with millions of questions... not wise of them to show their faces when you should be resting. So they’ll save their hugs and kisses for you later.”
That’s actually... pretty substantial reasoning, and I really hated how much that made sense to me instantly.
“Later, huh...” I blew a breath, seeing the bright afternoon shine scorching the walls of my bedroom. “And just when will that be?”
Again, Sammy just shrugged. “Later.”
Before I knew it, the rays of daylight were beginning to sink below the glass of the windowpane. Ash brought up dinner in another tray and despite now having the strength to steadily hold silverware, she insisted that I continue to be fed by her instead... wouldn’t want to risk staining the bed, after all... or so she claims anyway.
Then somewhere in the midst of things, I must have fallen back asleep... because when I next open my eyes, it took a couple of acclimatizing blinks before I realize the darkness I was seeing wasn’t the back of my eyelids.
Ash had fallen asleep too, taking a rather comfortable position on an old rocking chair... and frankly, though I left it unsaid out loud, she really did look as if she needed the rest. I haven’t much of a clue what she’s been up to the past two days – but it does definitely seem like this was the first good night’s sleep she has had since our night at the lake.
Not hard to imagine why...
I turned my head, shifting my body, but then as soon as I did, I saw something else weaving about in the darkness too – a shadow, an outline – edging, emerging, gradually closer into sight.
“Awake...” spoke a voice in a hushed, almost suppressed exhilaration. “You... are... awake...”
Night shift nurse Adalia, unbeknownst to me, had quietly crept herself to the side of my bed, so when I turned sideways in search of that voice, it took every fiber of my being to not immediately hit the roof upon seeing her grey, murky eyes hovering by only inches away from mine.
I paused for a moment, struggling to swallow my heavily beating heart back down my heart.
“Mmm, yeah, ” I slowly croaked out. “Definitely awake now,”
“Alive...” She muttered on, inching even closer. “You are... alive...”
Here’s the only other living soul that has directly witnessed my near-death attempt and out of everyone else’s reaction, hers has gotta be the most muted, the most indifferent, going by facial expressions alone.
But that wasn’t exactly a fair assessment.
She showed more, so much more... in my palm, the cold of her touch, the tip of her sharp claws resting on my healing, fading scars, so delicately, so carefully... gently... feeling her now, it really wasn’t a fair assessment at all.
“Last I remembered, you had your fangs sinking down into my neck again,” I whispered with a drowsy smirk. “Tell me, how have you been since then?”
I was really half-kidding asking her that, too half-asleep to realize that Adalia would take it serious.
“Sad...” She first said, before pausing, and suddenly swapping it out with another answer. “Happy...” but it was only with a third and final try before she locked in on her actual state of mind. “Angry...”
Her first answer was slightly concerning, the second one was very endearing, and the third was... understandable.
“Y’know, you are allowed to feel all those things at once, right? It’s not as if you’re locked to feeling one specific emotion at a time.”
Adalia gave a single blink, before adding to her rapidly expanding list of emotions, “Hungry...”
Hungry...
“You haven’t fed yet?” Shifting, I hastily sat myself upright. “For these past two days, you mean?”
The darkness was, well – dark. And so as much as I tried, I couldn’t quite see as clear past the dim grey glow of her unblinking stare... nodding at me once in response.
I sighed. “Too weak to risk feeding on me, I’m guessing? But if so, I’m pretty sure my mother would be the next best thing, right? Why not take from her instead?”
“I don’t want... Terestra’s...” She softly muttered. “Only yours...” Her fangs slightly showing. “Only... you...”
“You’ll risk a frenzy than feast on someone else?”
“I don’t want... someone else...” She insisted.
“Picky eater,” Another sigh, except this time with a smile, as I carefully pulled my hand away from her grip and raised it up before her. “We’re gonna have to start putting my blood in vial soon as a emergency. I mean, what happens if I didn’t wake up in time, huh?”
“I’ll... wait...”
“And what if you can’t?”
“Then... keep your... promises... next time...”
Oof.
“You told me... you would rest... you promised...” Adalia said, the tip of her fangs grazing against the surface of my skin. “Liar...”
“Yeah, I did,” I shrugged. “Guess we both have our vices.”
With a fleeting pricking sensation, she began to feed on me. A mostly silent process aside from the faint noises she’d make – like a diver taking in air after being submerged for so long, and if she really has been holding out for this long... then that’s a long time to be under.
When she was done, she slowly raised herself to her feet, and in the darkness, almost gliding, she began hovering nearby and quietly stood in place over me.
“Is that what you do the whole time I’m out? Lurk?” I asked, already knowing the answer was a loud resounding ‘yes’.
She spoke, her voice a little stronger after having her feast. “Until... you wake... up...”
“Well, I’m awake now,” I nudged at her. “What do you do now?”
To that, she was stumped for an answer. Apparently, her entire nightly schedule revolved around my unconsciousness, any further than that was pretty much up in the air.
“Thought as much.”
Luckily, I was here to resolve that large gap in her timetable.
“Well, care to do something different?”
Adalia cocked her head, blinking. “Different...?”
I shifted myself around some more, scoured briefly for any vigilant little sisters in sight, before moving my body more than I ever had the whole day.
“Don’t worry, we had some practice with this before,” I said to Adalia, as I let the cold of the night envelop my bare feet, pressing firmly against the floorboard. “Help me walk out of her.”
The moment I raised my gaze back towards her, I could immediately sense a heavy wave of reluctance permeating the short distance between us.
“No...” She said faintly yet firmly. “Rest...”
“I did rest,” I interjected. “Look, see?” I began to flap my arms up and down, doing my best to hide the strain it took to do so. “Fit as a fiddle, it’ll only take a moment.”
But she kept her reserves. “What will...?”
Slowly, I lowered my arms back down at my sides. “Harry... he’s asleep right now, right? He’s gotta be.” I gave her a look. “I want to go and see him.”
“See him...?” Her distant eyes stared keenly. “Not... talk to... him...?”
“I, uh...” I veered away from her gaze. “Yeah...”
“Why...?”
“Because...” I started, then stopped, then started again. “Because...”
There wasn’t the right words to express what I wanted to express, not words that make sense anyway. I just wanted to see him, look at him, know that he’s alive and breathing with my own eyes. Talking would just complicate that, because he’ll be grateful, he’ll sing my praises, my virtues, he’ll thank me with all his heart....
I don’t want him to thank me.
How do I explain that? How do I make sense of that? You don’t. Even I myself can’t make much sense of it as well.
But Adalia could. Apparently, she could. Those blank eyes sharper than most, and yet unless she’s secretly a telepath, she couldn’t have known what I was thinking at all. Still, silently, she drifted closer again, and I felt her, her hands once more resting atop of my own, taking hold, pulling me gently...
Maybe she just thought that this was something I had to go through on my own.
“He... sleeps... on the... couch downstairs...” She said. “Let’s... go...”
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l