The Taming

I'll Get Her Back

If she leaves, I'm going to find her and drag her back. He promised himself. Knowing it was very likely.

I'll get her back. His beasts urged to take over. To pursue her. Knowing it was their mate that fled the gates.

I'm too weak to stop her, just now. He forced himself to face that simple fact.

He truly could get killed trying to keep her this time.

I won't heal if she cuts me open.

But to his surprise, he heard the sound of her back hitting the wall just beyond his doorway as she collapsed against it.

"But it's kept me safe." She murmured.

Running forever. He instantly knew what she was responding to.

It was the last thing he'd said and she'd left the room.

He'd thought, to leave him forever.

"I know." He whispered back. "But it doesn't now. It just keeps you from seeing what there could be."

She jumped, astounded that he could still hear her. She peered around the wall back into the room.

Above him, his breath crystallized in floating puffs.

Elsabet reared back from the doorway and fled out into the bailey. Taking the stairs at a lunging pace.

Bast heard her at the stairs and knew the sound of the front door slamming open. He rose and jerkily stumbled to the window slit to look out over the bailey. Pain running through him and the objecting roar of his dragon already climbing up his throat.

She'd stopped at the closed drawbridge and stared up at it. She turned to the bridge tower. Jerking forward and then stopping. Fists white knuckled in her skirt.

Don't kill him.

"Dimitrius." He called down. "Let her out. I'll get her back."

The dark-haired elf stuck his head out and peered up at him. Joined by Elsabet's confused stare.

Bast nodded. "Let her go!" He rasped. Collapsing against the window slit. It took what energy he had left to fumble his way back to his bed. Dropping face down on it, and barely managing to slide under the coverlet. He shivered there, already fading back into much-needed sleep.

Somewhere deep in his subconscious he heard her re-entering the room. And wondered why she was still in WaterRose.

She walked to the foot of the huge wooden four post bed. Grasping the wooden footboard, she held tight until it turned orange. Heating under her touch. The glowing warmth traversing through the frame and into the rushes beneath him. Heating enough to feel like a warming block. Seeing his breathing ease and his shivering slow she turned from the room.

Unaware he caught the flash of her skirt as she rounded the corner. Moaning in relief he sunk further into the heated rushes.

Only after he'd fallen asleep did she creep back in to watch over him as he slept. Sitting on the floor next to his bed stand to keep a careful eye on him.

Though he was sweating as he fought a fever, he sensed her presence nearby. And a gentle hand on his arm to calm the nightmares, now and then.

***

By the next morning, Sebastian's fever had mostly broke, and his back was no longer stiff from the creatures rending apart his muscles to climb out of him. Scouting for Alazareth.

He could breathe more evenly and was famished.

"Elengard!" He called.

Making a pretty blonde fey materialize in his doorway.

"Food please." He gave her a hopeful look.

"What would you like?" She asked with a slight head tilt.

"Anything we have."

"Larders are near empty."

"I'll go hunting soon." He promised.

"Very good, My Lord."

He ate like he hadn't eaten in an eternity.

Looking up from the tray of food, he saw Elsabet in his doorway.

What are you up to, Little Harpie? He recognized the intensity on her face and quickly determined she was assessing his health.

She's going to leave. He resisted the urge to put the tether back on her but decided to wait it out and see what she did.

But it's written on her face. He sighed to himself as he walked from the door. Making his body tense.

Because he'd slept so many hours, he knew it'd be a long while before he was able to rest again. He spent most of the night adding logs to the fire in his chamber to ensure his fever didn't return as he dragged the wooden chair in his room next to the window slit to stand guard over the bailey.

It was the early hours of the morning when he saw her slim shadow creep from the kitchens and around the front of the bailey. Seeing a fitted purple cloak, he'd given her, his beliefs were confirmed. She carried another gown wrapped into a ball with other clothing peering from it.

She eased toward the tower and when she'd have reached the door, Bast's fist tightened.

Jerking her to a halt as the tether cinched. A hairsbreadth from her outstretched fingers being able to grasp the bridge crank.

She gasped in outrage. Lifting her arms to eye her midsection. Assuring no one held her, her eyes slowly travelled up to his window. She shook her head angrily and dropped to collect a rock. Hucking the first one she found up to his room with surprising accuracy.

He slid from its trajectory and peered back out. Meeting her gaze, he shook his head slowly.

"How dare you!" She cried. "I-I looked after you."

"Thank you." He called down to her.

Her head dropped as she looked for another rock. This one crashed into his room and smashed a jar on a corner table. Another one was quick to follow that. Forcing him to close the shutters and hook them.

Bast would suffer days of her refusing to interact with him at all. Choosing instead to pace her chamber. And often refusing the food he had sent up to her.

He constantly sought her out, but she repeatedly closed doors in his face and refused to acknowledge his presence.

Clearly a bit angry I'd not let her go, after she tended me.