this abuse.” She stormed to her room, but she was trying not to smile at the same time. She hated to admit it, but she was secretly pleased having Christoph here.
Christoph smiled at Mouse, ignoring how much his head hurt. “If you ever get the chance to see Analie try to pull off anything involving agility, you’re in for some comedy.”
“Similar to that idiot, Freddy,” Ashi commented.
The light-hearted atmosphere was gone in half a second.
In the next half-second, the door to Analie’s bedroom was nearly blown off its hinges as she came barreling out.
And in the half-second after that, Ashi was off his feet and against the wall, held there by Analie. Granted, his feet were only a couple inches off the floor, but it was still impressive.
“Say one more word and I will kill you,” Analie snarled around growing fangs.
John, who’d been watching their exchanges with interest, disappeared like smoke on the wind when Analie came rushing out of her room. Mouse didn’t want a scene, and was frantically looking for the pad and pen she’d been using earlier.
As soon as she found it, she rapidly scrawled:
He’s human You’ll hurt him
She rushed over and thrust the pad at Analie.
Analie wanted to clench her hands into fists and tear a hole right through the center of Ashi’s throat. She snarled at Mouse when she approached, then noticed the frantic message on the notepad.
She didn’t care. She’d dealt with Ashi’s abuse long enough and she was sick of it. Then again, he was still a packmate and he hadn’t challenged her. She slowly loosened her grip until he dropped.
“I hope you get out of this alive,” Analie snarled at Ashi, her voice shaking. “Because when we get back, once we’re really members of Goliath again, I am going to challenge you, and I am going to kill you.”
She turned and ran back to her room, leaving Ashi to gasp like a landed fish in the corner.
Mouse watched her go, torn between wanting to follow and comfort her, and an overriding desire to protect the more helpless Ashi. Eventually, her neurotic need to shelter the less fortunate won out.
Though Ashi would probably prefer to chew his own arm off than have Mouse touch him, she gathered him in her arms as if he were a child. A very large, very unwieldy, and very unhappy child. She carried him to the couch and set him down on the opposite end from Christoph. With a hand on his shoulder to keep him from squirming too much or trying to run off, she knelt and took a look at his throat, examining the forming bruises and bite marks.
The bites wouldn’t get infected, thanks to the nature of vampire saliva and his own hardy nature, but there was still a bit of blood trickling from the tiny wounds. Rather than leave it be, she rose and went to the kitchen, digging around in a drawer for something. Soon enough, she was back, standing in front of Ashi offering a medicated pad with an apologetic look, as though sorry there wasn’t anything else she could give him.
Ashi was terrified, but he accepted the pad and pressed it to his throat. Half a second later he jerked it away, hissing in pain. Christoph might have laughed at him for his newfound low threshold for pain, but he was blissfully unconscious. Ashi gingerly swabbed his neck, wincing as he did so.
Being bitten had been the singularly most horrifying experience of his life. He had expected searing, agonizing pain. Something he could really complain about later and be lauded as a hero for enduring. Something to further secure his place on the pack totem pole.
Instead, it had been better than his last girlfriend.
He shuddered, looking at the red-speckled little pad. This was something he never wanted to talk about. If anyone in the pack ever asked, he’d say that nothing had happened.
Mouse was still looking at him with concern. He cleared his throat, sore from being grabbed way too many times this evening.
“Thank you. For the...” He held up the little pad.
At least this one didn’t seem interested in terrorizing him.
* * *
Analie heard her phone buzz and fished it out from under the mattress. Freddy had enthusiastically texted her.
U won’t believe it! Host family has Amberguard artifacts. Said OK 2 bring them ovr next time. Also, accidentally scared hikers while prowling. =^-^= Can u ask R or sum1 if W/Hats in Penn? Thx!