The Consort (MalexMale) 《COMPLETE》

Chapter 37 - Final Chapter

Chapter 37

In the early hours of the morning, Bogdan's soft touch shakes me awake. I yawn and squint up at him. The sun has barely stirred, its first rays of light barely reaching the tips of the blinds. Bogdan mouths for me to get dressed and meet him at the front door. He leaves a moment later, his decadent scent trailing behind him. I groan internally with want.

The immortal man has no idea how sexy he is.

With drooping eyes, I slide out of bed. My hands fumble over the small area of space beside the bed in search of a clean pair of jeans and hoodie. I tug them on as I make my way to the bathroom to relieve my bladder. The bathroom floorboards creak beneath my weight. I zip my jeans when I'm finished and flip on the water to wash my hands, staring at my reflection through the dim light of the morning.

I'm even scrawnier than I remember being. And paler. It's not the attractive, light type of pale that Bogdan fashions, either. It's a sickly pale, the type that shows I'm under too much stress on a constant basis. Bags of fatigue sit heavily beneath my eyes, their dark color reminiscent of light bruises.

I run a hand through my disheveled hair. Without a hair cut in months, it's starting to become unruly. Before the war, whenever my hair got too long, Fiona would offer to cut it. She'd get so excited and start slipping her slender fingers through my air, voicing all her ideas of the different ways she could style it. All the while Kelly would smirk from across the room, knowing her myriad of skills didn't branch out into the art of hair cutting.

I let out a disgruntled sigh at the memory and pull up my hood. My footsteps shuffle across the floorboards, quiet enough not to make a sound. When I slip through my door, the temperature seems to drop twenty degrees. I hug my arms to my chest and skip down the stairs.

As promised, Bogdan waits for me at the front door. He glances down my body before holding out a thermos of some hot liquid and a wrapped sandwich. I bite back a smile and take both with a nod of appreciation. The heat from the thermos spreads through my fingers, and I shiver at the contrast with the rest of my frigid limbs.

Bogdan opens the door for us, and the slight wind slaps against my cheeks I step through the threshold. The sting from the night air burns my skin as we walk down the gravel walkway. It's only when we get a half mile away that he finally breaks the silence to tell us where we're going.

"We need to leave town today," he informs me quietly.

I glance up at him. Morning light spills across the horizon, its light color illuminating the dew on the dead grass with an effortless glow. We walk until we reach the weeping willow. Bogdan ducks beneath its still branches, and the two of us once again take respite beneath its gentle shade.

"Why?" I whisper.

My breath comes out in a puff of mist. I shudder and lean against the trunk of the tree, spinning off the top of the thermal and breathing in the heat of the tea waiting for my lips.

"More Vultures arrived during the night," he answers. "I'm not sure whether they're a part of the group who attacked you yesterday or if they're a new group entirely. Either way, there are too many of them now."

I nod in understanding. "Where will we go?"

Bogdan glances at the house. Understanding blooms across my features as I realize why he asked us to leave the house before speaking. He wanted to make sure we were far enough away that Kelly couldn't hear us.

"The plan was to travel east while keeping as close to the northern border as possible," he answers simply. "Until we found another place to stay."