17 Bullets: becoming the Werewolf Queen

Chapter 23: Roaches

34 BULLETS

Late into the night I woke up by the fire to see that Thann was sleeping close. A smile pierced my lips as I watched his sleeping form. He seemed so innocent. Like he was not the Dothraki dragon killer I first met him as. Now he was just a sweet sleeping boy, trying to stay warm next to the fire.

I stayed watching him a few moments and noticed his arm was reaching out toward me as he was using it for a pillow.

He had still been so standoffish about touching, even though he helped with the superb massage earlier. Anytime we were walking he would refuse my touch stating that Maza was Wokuduma's mate.

I think I was finally getting that Wokuduma was a pet name he'd given me. Much like I called him Dothraki.

I was very annoyed of Maza now.

But maybe in sleep Thann wouldn't refuse me.

I was on the fur blanket, so I scooted to my side and inched off of it, reaching for him. My fingers slid over his and gripped into his palm. Thann mumbled a content sigh in his sleep a moment before his fingers squeezed around mine.

A soft smile came to his face, extra handsome in the reflected glow of the fire.

If I didn't think he'd wake up, I'd scoot even closer and trace the shape of his face, but I figured I'd leave well enough alone.

I watched his soft face until my eyelids were hard to keep open and fell back asleep.

I did not get to sleep long.

Slight tickles ran across my face and arms and I flipped them away still half asleep.

The tickles continued.

"Stop it," I mumbled to my brother trying to play the shaving cream and feather prank.

"Hmm?" He said then yelled at me. "Ukufa kubhonga! Izimbungulu zokufa! EL!" Suddenly my face and arms were being swatted at.

"Stop it," I mumbled again and moved my arm to push him away.

It was not my brother's voice that chastised me. "EL! No sleep!"

He yanked me by my arm clear into the air and my eyes flew open.

Pain like someone scraping a scrub brush into my wounds dug deep into me. From my back, to my arms, to my cheeks, all were on fire.

I noticed Thann then, large hand, slapping off a full swipe of thick crusty roaches off my arm.

My top was covered in those same roaches that swelled around my roasted skunk.

I screamed.

The shriek rose clear to the mountain tops and I began slapping roaches away. "Thann!"

My feet were under me and Thann no longer had to hold me up, so in one of his flash movements he twisted around me and tore my shirt clear off, throwing the whole writhing mass to the last of the fire.

I was too busy hitting bugs off me to even care my shirt was gone, or the horrible high pitch sound of the roaches as they baked.

Thann raced around me picking off each insect and giving them a fiery grave until we both stood panting in the fire's glow.

I couldn't function.

What the eff was wrong with this world?

Gross!

My face buried in my hands to hide from everything, but the moment my cheeks touched skin I recoiled in pain. My fingers slipped over my cheeks and came away dotted with red. It was like a thousand papercuts had scratched into my flesh.