34
1372 Words
Seraphina
It was still amazing how fast the wound on my neck had healed, leaving only two small faint marks that looked like permanent love bites. Maybe I was such a healthy young girl that healed fast. Or, whatever Azriel had in him that made him heal fast was no in me.
I brushed it off, not wanting to dwell in that insanity. I had already made up my mind to play along. Because even scientifically, it wasn't possible. If all he explained was done to any human including him, that person will die. Besides, werewolves don't exist. They were only fiction to spice up myths. So, if something never existed, where would their bloods and bodies be found to be experimented on? Talk more of a DNA mutilation.
This island must have started driving Azriel insane to think the impossible. My best guess would be that he got a little too happy during our s*x and gave me hickeys. Just that he went overboard with it which is fine.
I wasn't even ashamed of it. I found them cute. Although Azriel still hated looking at them. He looked at them with dread.
I didn't even need to wear a scarf, and I didn't want to wear one. Especially when the women teased me about the "hickey."
I wouldn't stop grinning. Azriel noticed too.
"You're glowing," he murmured against my temple that evening as we lay on the bed, his arm heavy and warm across my waist. He'd become almost unbearably tender since his confession—touching me constantly, as if he needed to remind himself I was still there. That I hadn't run away.
"I am not," I laughed, even though I knew I totally was. Why wouldn't I glow when I was so happy?
He rolled me beneath him, his shadow falling over me like a shelter. His thumb traced the fading bruise on my neck with that same guilt. "You should have ran when I told you to," he said. "And I should've restrained myself."
"Then who would keep your wolf in line?" I teased, threading my fingers through his hair. It had grown longer in our weeks here, falling across his forehead in dark waves that made him look younger.
He kissed me and I felt the vibration in his chest. That contented growl I was gradually getting used to. When we broke apart, his eyes were blown wide, the black swallowing the brown.
Even though I knew he was making what he told me up, one thing still left me curious. His eyes glowed that night. Glowed. As in bright golden.
Hmm.
It was definitely the moon reflecting directly off them that made that possible.
"Seraphina," he breathed, resting his forehead against mine.
That night, he mapped out every line of my body with his mouth, counted every freckle across my shoulder, and made my body sing just how I liked it.
But good things didn't last long. Reality could snap you out of paradise in a second. And for me, it came in the form of a fever.
I woke up the next day to sheets soaked through, my skin burning. It was the worst fever I'd ever experienced. I thought maybe all those weird things we'd eaten in the forest were finally reacting. Azriel wasn't in bed when I woke up, and I had to drag my weak body to Nia's room to ask for help.
But all the wipe-downs and medication weren't working. Nothing was working.
It only got worse, and by evening, I was snapping at anyone who dared speak too loudly or come too close. I reacted with sensitivity and violently to sound, smell, touch sight and taste. Even the tiniest almost impossible to see, hear or smell, I did.
It was like everything was suddenly too much. Every sound rang and echoed in my head, every smell felt like an attack on my nose.
When Azriel came back that evening, I was still lying in Nia's room. He quickly picked me up, muttering thanks to the women, but all I could feel was peace as I snuggled into him.
"Seraphina, you're burning up," Azriel said when we got to the room, pressing his palm to my forehead.
I leaned into the coolness, snuggling closer to him. "It's nothing. I think it's just a really bad fever. I'll sleep it off." I held onto him tightly. "Just stay close to me."
I didn't sleep. I thrashed in the sheets all night. The air suddenly felt too thick to breathe, my skin prickling as if I were lying on needles. I felt trapped in my own body, constantly scratching until it became raw and hurt.
I kept searching for Azriel through the night, his warmth the only comfort against the heat.
Azriel didn't sleep. He looked disturbed whenever I winced, avoiding eye contact. He kept touching the hickey with trembling hand.
After spending the whole night snuggling in his arms, I was a little better the next day, and I pushed him to leave and go about his activities.
He needed to map out our route if we were ever going to leave this place.
My heart still ached thinking about how we had to leave them, but it was better than letting those two hand us over as sacrifices to those animals for whatever reason the had.
Could it be they knew that Alistair was related to us? He was rich so kidnapping his two kids would fetch a great ransom.
Bingo! That was it. Why didn't I think this far? It was all about money.
Everyone fussed over me and wouldn't let me lift a finger. I tried to convince them that I was getting better and didn't need to be babied, but they would hear none of it.
The next three days were hell.
If it had been an ordinary fever, it would've gotten better by then. Instead, I started hearing a weird voice in my head. It was as if something or someone was trapped in my mind and was trying to break down the wall and jump out of my skin.
Azriel stuck to me like glue, unable to let me go, because the moment he did, I was thrashing and writhing in pain.
Then on the fifth day since the whole s**t started, he cradled me in his arms, tracing circles on my shoulders, and asked, "Seraphina, do you perhaps hear voices in your head?"
I looked up at him. "Why?"
"It's just..." he swallowed. "I'm curious. Your symptoms are very familiar to me." He tried to give me a tight smile. "I just wanted to be sure."
Not this again. But I had to be truthful because there was no point in lying.
I leaned back against him and nodded. "It's like there's a girl in my head screaming at me to let her out. I can't make out her voice though. It's hazy and very rough. Like she's in pain. She keeps banging in my head."
His hands stilled on my shoulders. The warmth disappeared from his touch. I looked up, and all the color had drained from his face.
"It's like..." I pressed my hands to my temples, trying to find the best words to describe it. "Like something's trying to claw its way out of me."
His hand fell away from me completely.
I opened my eyes to find him frozen above me, his face pale.
I immediately wrapped my arms around him. "I don't think it's a big deal," I tried convincing him and myself. "I'm probably just hallucinating from the fever."
Azriel didn't reply. Instead, he just looked at me, and the devastation in his eyes stopped my heart.
"I'm so sorry, Seraphina." His voice came out rough and broken. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." He buried his head in my hair. "I've ruined you the same way my dad ruined me."
I looked at him, confused. "What are you talking about?" I reached up to cup his face, but he flinched away.
"I'm so sorry, Seraphina." He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I think... I think we'll need to enter Millbrook no matter what it takes."
- Writer
