Reality's Blade

Chapter 33: Explanations

Winner.

I didn't notice the words as they flashed before me, too horrified by what I had done. All was silent as I took in the wreckage from my attack, Hikage had been blasted against a tree, slamming hard into it's thick trunk. The tree itself had near split in two, blood was grotesquely splattered up it's length from it's source, where Hikage was collapsed on the ground, his shoulder deeply wounded. Just as I started to wonder with a numb mind whether I had accidentally killed him, he began screaming. The sound tore through the air, his desperate cries of pain echoing through me and far across the deserted landscape, winding through the black trees and over the still lake.

I didn't know what to do. I could only stand like a spectator to my own body watching the scene unfold. I dropped to my knees, wanting to cover my ears and close my eyes to block it out.

Hikage.

It was Hikage that was hurting the most. What was I doing sat around at a time like this? I was pathetic. I needed to help him. I scrambled to my unfeeling feet, my legs unsteady beneath me I went to his side as fast as I possibly could. My stomach turned as I got closer, the sight too gruesome no matter how much I steeled myself, he was bleeding profusely from the gaping wound. I had done this to him, I couldn't avert my eyes and pretend I hadn't. It was my fault.

"Kaishin..." He managed through whimpers.

"It's okay. It's okay." I mumbled, trying to quell my own rising panic as much as his, struggling to hold back the hysteria.

Hikage's skin was already going a deathly shade of grey, a sheen of sweat coated him, his eyes were squeezed shut, not daring to look at the carnage.

"Bite me." He pleaded, the action breaking his iron will not to scream anymore, letting the tormented sounds escape again.

Bite him? The hell? This wasn't a time for sassy remarks! Was he delirious?

"Your venom..." He spluttered through gritted teeth, the rest of his sentence lost to sobs of agony. "Just bite me!" He begged.

A cascade of memories unlocked and flooded through my brain like a film on fast forward. Ah. I remembered now. I was a vampire. Was he asking me to end him to make the pain go away? Wait, I could heal! But I was running on empty, I needed to somehow fill my gage back up before I could do any healing and I could only think of one way to do it.

I pulled the remains of Hikage's tattered clothes from his top half, I couldn't bring myself to bite near his wound.

"Sssh." I soothed as I tilted Hikage's head away so I could get to his neck.

I fleetingly noticed a scar already on his neck in the shape of a bite, but forced it from my mind, I could worry about it later. Without thinking I licked the skin, mildly repulsed by the taste of salt I wondered why I had done it. I realised it was the same thing I had done before, last time I had done it because I knew it would numb the skin a bit. My venom! That was what Hikage had been talking about, he must have been trying to tell me about the effects of my venom.

Hang in there just a little longer.

Without further delay I sank my teeth into his cool skin, sweet nectar promptly filled my mouth. The sounds of Hikage's whimpers worked to focus my mind, I wasn't biting him to draw blood, I was biting him to inject venom. I tried to imagine the venom working it's way into his bloodstream and flowing through him, while I couldn't actually tell if I was injecting anything I had the feeling that I was, I could somewhat sense it.

Hikage's ragged breaths become slower and less laboured, the tension in his body had drained away, it was working. I felt like I had done enough to ease his pain, ever so slowly I started to suck his blood, the urge to gulp it down lingering ever present in my mind taunting me, trying to make me lose my self-control.