I moved to answer it, keeping an eye on May all the while. It was a good thing I did. I only made it a few steps before she tried to follow and stand on her feet. Her legs were already shaking while she was pushing herself up to stand, but once she was standing and straightened, she wavered. Raising a hand to her head, her legs collapsed under her weight.
I pulled some air to push against the bottoms of my feet and propel my steps forward. With the added speed, I was at her side, catching her under her arms, before the cold hard floor could welcome her painfully. As my phone stopped ringing in the background, the melodious tune was replaced by the sound of May's harsh breaths as I carefully lowered her back onto the sofa while ignoring the soft press of her curves. It was hard to do with how her body moved down mine and how my arm was banded around her just under her breasts. With how quick she was to pull away once she was settled, I had a feeling she noticed my appraisal that wasn't as subtle as I had been aiming.
I pulled away, feeling shamed by her reaction. With her no longer at risk of hurting herself, I turned away from her abruptly. I didn't care to find out how quickly the tent in my pants would wilt at the reaction she would give if she took notice of it. Would she blame it on the experience that my friend's past remark must have had her believing I lacked? Experience that he would never get to learn about.
"Don't move," I instructed her over my shoulder before turning my head forward again.
I cleared my throat, for some reason thinking that it would also somehow clear the heat I felt rising to my cheeks. It was strange how many old emotions this human could draw out of me, ones that I had already trained myself to keep locked away. But then again, it could be because she was the only other human I had ever met. She reminded me of my dearly missed friend.
Maybe she could become one too-
I abruptly cut the thought short as I reached my ringing phone. I didn't need to get close to another human, especially one whose fate was so unclear. I wasn't going to spend another decade mourning the death of another one.
I picked up the phone, turning it around to see who was calling me at such a late- or early depending on how you looked at it- time. The name of one of the soldiers temporarily placed under my charge glared back at me. A pang of grief pierced me through the chest at the realization that I would never again see Atwood or one of the other's names looking back at me from my screen.
My grip tightened on the phone until I felt it creak under my hold. I glanced another look back at May, finding her watching me curiously with her duvet pulled up to her chin to ward off the night's chill.
I wasn't going to add to the number of deaths I already had to mourn for the decade to come.
"Hello?" I answered the phone, my voice cracking through the silence of the night.
"C-Captain Fómhar?" The panic in Morel's voice instantly would have sent me on alert if the time already hadn't. "W-we seem to be having an issue."
"With what?" I barked out as impatience drained the last of the kindness that I had mustered for the sick human who seemed to have more in common with me than I had cared to know. But to what degree?
Hopefully, nowhere near as much as me.
"The prisoner. The one that was brought in with the human. He keeps demanding to see her."
My brows furrowed at this new development. "Why?" He had been managing just fine the last few days with no word on her. What changed?
With my phone clutched to my ear, I turned, catching May, who seemed to be listening intently, off guard. She jerked, ducking her head to hide her nose under the duvet. Her eyes remained outside, open and peering at me while her ears twitched to listen to more than just my end of the conversation that I was having. Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about her hearing too much. She wasn't an Autumn fae with blood strong enough to move sound through air, she was just a human.
