Venom (Book I) ✓

Chapter Seventeen

As soon as she started away Ulric knew where Red was going. "Please." He groaned, starting after her. Before he had made it ten feet, though, a terrible shot of pain pounded against his chest. He cried out, only partially from the assault to his body.

"Ulric, she wants you to go see her." An airy voice whispered beside him.

He moaned and stumbled a few steps away from Lilly before dropping to his knees. His two misty companions drifted beside him, worried looks coloring both of their insubstantial faces. His body was pushing him down the same path Red had taken. This time, though, he knew that someone-or, more accurately something-was waiting for him at the end.

"If you're there you may be able to save her." Osman whispered, but Lilly shook her head forcefully.

"He needs to leave her. Run the other way." She urged, her eyes pleading.

Ulric growled low in his throat, "I can't avoid my master forever. Eventually she'll come to find me."

"So make her come." Lilly argued, unfazed.

"What about Ruby?" Osman asked gently, ignoring Lilly.

"Leave her! You've fulfilled your promised seven days. You have no debt to her."

"You and I both know that this is no longer about a deal or a promise." Osman retorted impatiently.

Ulric looked up at him, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"He can do better. She's ungrateful and dramatic." Lilly stated, flicking a hand dismissively.

"It's not a matter of whether or not he can do better. It's about him being in love with her."

"I'm not in love with anyone!" Ulric cried desperately, "I can't afford to be in love with her any more than she can afford for me to be."

Osman and Lilly both turned pitying gazes toward him.

"This has nothing to do with my supposed love for some immature, stupid girl anyway. It's about not murdering anyone else." Ulric snapped, hauling himself to his feet.

"So obviously you should run the other way." Lilly stated forcefully.

"And let your demon of a master torture and kill Ruby?" Osman asked, eyes wide in horror.

"Better than by his own hand."

"But he's learning to control himself. You saw it, you've seen it...twice now! He's had two opportunities to kill her and he's been able to walk away from it."

"Not without consequence." Lilly snapped and Ulric felt the chill of her hand brushing along the scars on his cheeks.

"Ulric, we can't make this decision for you." Osman said gently.

"I am getting good at controlling it...around Red at least." Ulric muttered, shuffling toward the path. Then, he lifted his hand to his cheek, feeling the ridges of his scars and stopped. "I...I can't avoid my master forever." He finally said softly and took off down the path at a sprint.

The forest shot past as he ran toward the place he knew he would find Red. Soon enough Red's crimson cloak materialized on the path before him and he slowed. He was preparing to call out to her when he heard her speaking.

"Appa wouldn't be proud." She muttered, her voice wavering. Whether the tremble was from tears or anger he couldn't tell from behind. "Appa would be furious." She added and she stopped dead in her tracks. "But he's a killer."

She seemed to be arguing with herself. Curious, he ducked off of the path and crept around her until he could see her face.

"Everybody makes mistakes." She was reasoning, twisting her hands together. "But that big of one?" She exploded, throwing her arms to the side. Then she recoiled and scowled. "For those he loved." She spat as if the words tasted bitter on her tongue. She sagged and sighed deeply, "What's wrong with me?" She muttered, covering her face with her hands.

Ulric watched in confusion as she sank to the ground. What he had been expecting he wasn't sure, but the devastated look on her face wasn't it. She wasn't supposed to look like that. She was normally so much more composed. But maybe composed wasn't the word...

He couldn't help smiling at the memory of her beaming smile when she'd bounded up to him to explain indoor plumbing to him and the way her eyes had almost seemed to glow as she glowered at him in frustration. Then he frowned, gazing between the trees at the dead look in her eyes. Had he done that? Was he really to blame for her dull gaze?

"What do I do?" She moaned, plucking at the grass of the path. "Where am I even going? He is the beast. He has the venom. I can just ask him for it." She laughed, the sound hollow and humorless. "As if he'd help me now. Look at the mess you've made of this! JUST LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE." She shouted, clutching at her head as if in pain. "What do I do now?" She gasped after a beat and he cringed.

He needed to do something. She was tearing herself apart. But what could he do? The venom she was hunting him for was only present when the beast took over. He couldn't give her the venom. He didn't have it, the beast did.

On the grassy trail Red was rocking back and forth and clutching at her temples. Her breaths were short and rasping and every once in a while she would gasp something that sounded vaguely like "Appa". He watched, helplessness choking him as she slowly lost her mind.

Finally, when the sun had begun to set she moved. She dropped her hands and turned her face upward, her cheeks streaked with tears and her eyes red with grief. "Please." She screamed toward the swaying treetops, her voice frantic, desperate. "Just let me die."

Ulric broke. He started out of the shadows, determined to make his presence known. Before she caught sight of him, however, she had curled onto the ground once more, drawing her hood over her face. By the time he had reached her her breathing was even and he knew that she had fallen asleep with wet cheeks.

Sighing, he bent and gathered her into his arms gently. Behind him, his two companions materialized and watched in silence as he started toward the only place in this part of the woods he knew they would be safe. Lilly scowled and Osman smiled as Ulric bravely carried Red toward his master's dwelling.