Sleep with the Lights On ✔️

5. The Search Begins

Cassie turned the page to the next chapter, she hadn't stopped reading except for a few times when she heard noises. In those brief moments of fear she would smell Peros' sweatshirt and draw out the warmth that she had when Peros held her. There was a banging on the door and Cassie froze, she knew she wasn't imagining it this time.

"I lost my key" A voice groaned. Cassie tiptoed to the door. The voice sounded very much like Peros' but she didn't want to open the door to find a nymph faking Peros' voice. The voice groaned. "It's me Cassie, Its Peros!" He whispered through the mail slot. Cassie checked the peep hole when she heard the voice step back from the door. It was Peros, she sighed and nearly smiled. He was back earlier than she had expected. He held his neck and his face was twisted into a grimace.

Cassie opened the door and pulled Peros in. "What happened?" She asked as Peros locked the door from the inside. "Are you all right?" She stood on her tip toes trying to see past his fingers at what happened to his neck. She could see in between his fingers were dark, she gasped and pushed him to the couch and sat him down.

"Essylt attacked me." Peros mumbled. His hand clamped harder on his neck when he saw Cassie trying to take a look. "We have to move, So Essylt can't find us or anyone else for that matter."

"But your house...?" Cassie asked. Her fingers now inches from his. She wanted to look at the wound, she wanted to help.

"I've been thinking about moving for a long time now." Peros said. He swatted at Cassie's fingers. "Go get me a washcloth from the bathroom."

Cassie scampered to the bathroom and slid back with a brown washcloth in her hands. The sweatshirts arms were too long for her petite body and she felt increasingly childlike and silly. She pulled off the sweatshirt and hat offering it to Peros. He ignored the offered clothes and  struggled to fold the washcloth with one hand against his jeans.

"Just let me do it." Cassie said she pulled the washcloth from his hand and ran to the washroom where she ran warm water over the washcloth and then wrung it out. She hurried to Peros' side and folded the washcloth. "Just move your hand" she said impatiently.

Peros' groaned and removed one finger at a time from his neck. His hands were covered in dark sticky liquid. The cuts were oozing blood slowly. Peros stared blankly at his hand. Cassie dabbed at his neck with the cloth. She managed to clean around the bite and found it to be a small oval of teeth marks, perfectly defined and fairly deep. She dabbed at an actual cut and Peros jumped away from her, he must have zoned out. His wide eyes stared at Cassie.

"Just sit still, I'm just going to clean it off and then..." She lifted the cloth to dab at the wound and found that the brown washcloth had spots of violet. "What?" She breathed.

"Pure underworlders have ... blue blood." Peros explained slowly. Cassie shook her head free of thoughts and inched closer to Peros. She wiped away the blood rougher than she had intended so his pale skin was clean but the cuts still oozed dark violet blood.

"Could I use magic?" She asked. Peros frowned He shook his head.

"There is a first aid kit in the bathroom." He instructed. Cassie wrinkled her nose but still wanted to help. She found the first aid kit and brought it to Peros. She fixed Peros a bandage of gauze and tape and fixed it to his neck. "Thank you, Cassie." He said with a small smile.

"So Essylt attacked you?" Cassie asked as she packed up the first aid kit.

"I'm pretty exhausted. I'm going to sleep." Peros said. He still held his neck as he stood up. Cassie watched him from the couch, but she wasn't tired enough. She hadn't woken up long before Peros had left and unlike him she hadn't had an adventure and come back injured.