Beyond The Fangs

Chapter 27

IZEL

I knew I wouldn't be able to hold onto him, so I released my grip on his shirt.

But before he plunged into the water, I threw my tied-up hands over his head, fitting him through the gap so he was enclosed within my arms. I clasped my hands behind his back and wrapped my legs around him.

I took a deep breath of air just as the water threw us down the waterfall. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs and everything after that was a dark blur.

But then I woke up

With a gasp

On the bank of the river.

I was alive.

I coughed out the water that had entered my system before dropping against the muddy ground again. Jaeger was somehow still between my arms, unconscious. Our upper bodies were out of the water, but our lower bodies weren't and with the water threatening to pull us in again I decided it would be wiser to move.

The only light came from the full moon. I raised my still tied-up hands over his head and slowly stood up but when I lost contact with his body I realised just how cold it was. And it was really cold.

I grabbed his shirt to pull him away from the water but groaned and dropped to the ground as soon as I put pressure on my ankle. Great, I must have twisted it. I got to my feet again, careful not to put any weight on my injured ankle as I pulled Jaeger away from the water. When we were a safe distance away, I located a sharp rock and used that to cut off the ropes—seeing as Jaeger had no weapons on him— and then sat beside his body.

"Jaeger," I found myself weakly saying, shaking him. "Wake up so I can kill you."

I shook him harder when he didn't wake up, but that didn't work either and I didn't have enough energy to shake him any harder. I placed my hands against his chest and pushed against it, up and down. Again and again and again, but he still wasn't responding.

"Jaeger!" I called louder, "Wake up." My voice was still weak and on the verge of breaking. I didn't know why my voice was starting to shatter. Did I want to kill him myself that badly, or was I getting emotional for some whole other reason?

A stray tear fell down my cheek as I looked at his unresponsive, limp body. I quickly wiped the tear away, not sure why it had fallen in the first place and not wanting to figure it out.

"Wake up," I was pleading at this point. "You're a vampire, you can't die from this, so wake up." My body began trembling, and I didn't know whether it was from the cold or whether I was genuinely afraid he might be dead. 

I clenched my jaw, knowing exactly what I had. "I'll have to give you mouth to mouth if you don't," I said, voicing my thoughts.

He still didn't move and a lump formed in my throat. I was afraid that he was dead, but I didn't know why. He had just come from trying to kill me, so why did I care whether he was dead or not?

I took a deep breath before closing the space between us and opening his mouth, my lips inches away from his. I paused for a second, hesitated, but finally put my lips over his, blowing my air into his lungs and ignoring the heat engulfing my body as I repeated the process. His lips were so soft and, even though I knew this wasn't a kiss, my heart didn't seem to.

Finally, he showed signs of life.

He coughed, expelling the water from his system, but after that, he went still. Sleep, I thought, he was probably just asleep.

I was shaking vigorously at this point, as was Jaeger. The water may not have killed us, but the cold was about to.

I needed warmth, we needed warmth, so I did the only thing I could think of. No matter how much I detested the idea, I knew I had to do it.

I took a deep breath before I began stripping Jaeger.

"Now, Jaeger," I started, my voice still weak, "I'm only doing this because I don't want to die. I don't care if you do, but I don't want to. Everyone knows that no clothes are better than wet clothes." I removed his top and then moved to his bottoms. "I have no choice here, it's either this or I die, though I'm quite tempted to choose death over this right now."

I got rid of his bottoms but left his boxers alone, then did the same for me, stripping myself but leaving my bra and pants. I bent down to tie my shirt around his wounded palm from when he stopped the dagger from reaching me, but remembered that he was a vampire so the wound would heal soon.

"So don't kill me," I continued. "You've already failed and you'll fail again if you try. I'll make sure of it." Before getting ready to close the gap between our bare bodies, I mumbled, "I'll wake up before you and then kill you for trying to kill me and getting us into this situation."

Outstretching one of his hands across the muddied ground, I laid down and rested my head on his forearm, facing him. I pushed my hands past him and shifted closer to him until our bodies touched. My breath caught and I took a quick breather before clasping my arms around him, making sure there were no gaps between our bodies.

"First mouth-to-mouth, and now this?" I mumbled to myself. "Wow Izel, you really are something."

I could feel how hard and well-defined he was against me. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. I could feel the curves of his muscles against me. I could feel every breath he took. I could feel the warmth of his bare skin. I could feel the fast beating of his heart. I could feel him.

My body warmed up faster than I thought it would and I also felt myself relaxing the longer I remained with my arms around him. The tenseness I felt at first was beginning to fade away.

I still couldn't understand why I had been so worried when he wasn't waking up. Why did I even care?

I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind and closed my eyes, wanting sleep to claim me, but just before it did, I felt Jaeger's arms wrap around me, pulling me closer and holding me against him. 

My breath lodged in my throat and tingles shot through my being. I myself to shut my eyes and exhale the breath that had caught in my throat. If I wanted to survive the night, then I had to do this. It was the only way to survive, I wasn't going to risk dying from the cold.

I shimmied closer to him still, resting my head in the crook of his neck and allowing his body to shelter me from the cold.

I felt comfortable.

I felt safe.

I felt warm before finally falling asleep.

But those tingles soon spread to places I had never felt tingly before.