King of Beasts

Chapter 15

While Gabe slept in the chair beside her, Charlotte inspected the bite on his wrist.  Only being conscious enough to incoherently beg for Gabe to stay by her side—a fact she was much embarrassed of now that she was lucid—she didn’t have much to remember other than the ache and fire coursing through her veins.

Now it was all very much real, and very much vivid.  The wolves, the way they seemed to come from nowhere.  How Charlotte was so certain of her death it had been terrifying, until Gabe showed up, and then the wolves attacking him too.  The thought of him dying had seemed so much more absurd, more horrific, than her own death.

Teeth clamping down on her shoulder, Gabe hollering at her, instinct forcing her teeth into his wrist.  Even now, her soul was turning and twisting, bending with the new power he had given her.  Being so in tune with energy, Charlotte was nearly overwhelmed with the shift within her.  Charlotte had been privy to only certain runes because of the state of her soul, but none of those runes ever effected her the way Gabe was now.  She’d never felt so . . . connected.

With the pads of her finger, she traced the pale marks her teeth had left in his skin.  She should feel sick about it, shouldn’t’ she?  She’d bitten Gabe, scarred him for crying out loud, yet she couldn’t’ feel guilty.  It seemed very fitting to have him walking around, sporting that sort of mark on his skin.  Like he was telling everyone he was taken, and Charlotte liked that idea.

“You should be sleeping.” A deep voice mumbled, thick with sleep.  Charlotte’s eyes flickered up to piercing blue ones, and she bushed furiously and pulled her hand back from his before sitting more upright in bed.

“I’ve been sleeping for an entire day.” Charlotte countered.  “And besides, I feel fine.”

Waking more now, Gabe shifted in his seat, trying to regain feeling in his long legs.  Just the beginnings of the morning’s rays were shining through the clouds in the sky, casting orange hues through the healers bedroom.  “Fine?” he questioned.

Swallowing thickly, Charlotte nodded, feeling an ache in her neck as she did so.  “Great, actually.” Blushing more, she couldn’t help but let her eyes wander to the mark on his wrist. “I—well, thank you.”

Gabe grabbed onto her hands and pulled her close so her legs swung off the edge of the bed and their knees were touching.  His face was close to hers when her eyes flickered up to his, and her breath caught in her throat.  She could feel him, everything about him, coursing through her body.  Looking into his eyes now meant looking into his very being.  Every hidden message Charlotte had never been able to decipher was explicitly written there, and it stole her breath.

“I would have given my own life first before I saw yours get taken.” He solemnly swore.  A free hand came up, brushed over her cheek and elicited a tremor through her body.  His eyes, that saw everything, didn’t miss it and a small grin tugged at the corner of his lips.  “Are you not going to bombard me with questions?”

Was she?  She supposed she should.  She should ask why biting him had given her this power, why those wolves were there in the first place, why she almost died and if she would be attacked again anytime soon. 

For once, though, her questions seemed unimportant.  Well, besides one.

“My cast?” she asked, motioning to her pale, bare arm.  “And my brace?”

Gabe grinned, splitting his face into a thing of beauty.  “Perfectly healed.”

Charlotte grinned back, knowing it had been through him she now felt this invigorated.  Stealing herself quickly, and doing it before she could thin better of it, she leaned forward and caught his lips with her own.  There was something about him now, something undeniable, something she couldn’t ignore.  He called to her.  His soul was in hers now, melding with her own and it seemed wrong not to connect with him.