Kissing Danger ✔️

ELEVEN

Word Count: 1695

Eryk rests his bow against the trunk of a nearby tree.

"Are you hurt?" he breathes, kneeling down in front of me, looking at a spot on my forehead. Reaching up to touch it, I wince, pulling back to see my fingertips covered in my blood. At this point, I can't tell if it's my blood or the girls.

Looking over at the body, I see the arrow coming out of her dead body, and suddenly the world is spinning, the reality that I just watched someone die hitting me square in the stomach.

Rolling over, I throw up into the bushes, my entire body shaking uncontrollably.

Eryk mercifully doesn't approach until I'm finished, wiping my mouth shamefully after. Once I'm done, he grabs my arm, the warmth of his touch making me realise how cold I am, the raining still beating down upon me. Eryk himself is drenched, hair plastered against his forehead, water trailing down the contours of his face.

"Let me check for wounds..." he insists, trying to pull my jacket back, but I flinch away from him, terrified about what I just witnessed, that he just killed someone in front of me. I mean, how could he possibly be here right now?

"Don't touch me," I hiss defensively, struggling to get to my feet, my body weak after just throwing everything in my stomach up. "What are you doing here?"

Eryk shakes his head, advancing on me again.

"That doesn't matter right now. You've been cut," he comments sharply, still focusing on what must be a wound on my forehead. It would have happened during my tussle with that strange woman, and I was just too jumped up on adrenaline to notice.

"We need to help Lei. She was hit worse than me," I protest, grabbing his wrist to stop him from continuing to examine me like I'm some kind of wounded animal.

"You're more important," he says steadily.

I pull away from his grasp again. There are endless questions streaming through my mind right now about why Eryk is here, and a slight amount of pride for being right about Eryk trying to protect me. But most of all, I'm terrified of him.

"No, I'm not. Lei could be dead," I tell him, gritting my teeth.

He closes his eyes, knowing I'm not going to comply with him until my friend is seen to. "Fine. Take me to the car."

Nodding, I allow him to follow me out of the woods, not taking another glance back at the body now lying amongst the undergrowth. As I walk, I can feel Eryk's eyes on me, his itching desire to give me first-aid for the cut on my forehead. I still can't feel the wound, even as I step back into the heavy onslaught of rain, shielding myself from it.

The car has slid more into the ditch with the rain, the cars passing it by paying it no mind. Running to the drivers side, I throw the door open, wincing at the sight of Lei unconscious against he wheel, red blood from her nose trailing down the steering wheel.

Eryk pulls her head back, examining her face with a grim expression.

"She's breathing. She will be okay," Eryk assures me, to which I feel every ounce of tension ebb from my body. I don't care about me, or Eryk's intentions for me any more than I care about Lei's wellbeing.

"Someone is going to see me bleeding," I note absently, looking past at the cars that roar past, kicking water up in their wake. One glance our way and someone would see the purple blood still leaking from the wound on my forehead and realise I'm not normal.

Eryk turns his attention back to me. "Let me heal you."

"Heal me?" I question, knowing he isn't carrying anything on his person capable of healing me.