Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 55: Body Heat

Chapter Fifty-Five: Body Heat

Xaphile didn't have the luxury of staying unconscious, unfortunately, since he came back around to the feeling of his leg burning and the muted sound of Amelia freaking out

When his eyes slid open, Ella was still where she'd been, screaming something in a voice that sounded as if she were coming from a million miles away. Muffled, distorted, he could barely hear past the ringing in his ears, but her expression was equal parts rage and anxiety.

"Why isn't there anything you can do?! Why aren't you healing him?!"

"Because I just can't!" Amelia shrieked back, shaking her head as she continued pulling out the spines in his leg. "I can't use my magic, so I can't heal the wound, and there are no medicinal herbs in this area! Worse, his body temperature is dropping, rapidly!"

"Fine. Back away from him," Ella spat eyes burning bright blue. "All of you."

"Now is not the time!" Vrael retortedwith horrified eyes. "He needs help!"

Ella slowly turned, body being suffused with an ethereal blue haze, and Xaphile felt Amelia's hands jerk; he glanced up to see the countess glaring like a woman about to commit murder and the very sight of that enraged expression made his heart turn to ice.

"Back," Ella bellowed, "AWAY!"

Vrael's let go of his wrists and with a wheezing rasp, he yanked his legs away from Amelia. 

Free of their grip, he rolled onto his side and huddled into himself, tail thrashing around violently as he lay there shuddering, curled up into a little ball. He didn't hear the others leaving, muted as his ears were right then, but he did feel a warm hand catch his shoulder.

He flinched when someone shoved him onto his back again.

Though he had no idea why and lacked the presence of mind to even wonder, he saw that Ella had stripped down to to her underpants and a thin, camisole-like undershirt that hung to her knees. Eyes glowing like a demon's, she stood in the gloom, pale skin whiter than snow.

Holding a blanket, she covered him with it before slipping into the makeshift bed. Her skin burned into his painfully since her body was unbearably hot, and he shuddered when her skinny arms went tight around him, the flesh of her legs making the pain in his ankle flee.

Xaphile's eyes closed when she pressed the two of them together, her chest flattening tight up against his own as she crushed him into her body. 

His arms wrapped around her in response, seeking heat in an attempt to save himself, and when she pressed her face into his neck, he curled up around her. Her hands roved over his back, chafing and pulling at his skin to get blood flowing, and each pinch was the purest pain, the kind of pain that made him wince.

Instinct made him cling to her like a drowning person would cling to a raft, but he fainted again soon after, her breathing slow and soft in his ears.

The next time he came to, he couldn't even open his eyes, but his foot was being clutched in someone's fingers, just above the ankle.

"Stay on your back," Ella commanded. "Don't move."

The words made his eyes finally pull open, but he was blinded by the light coming from the sky and threw his arm over his face to block it out. He tried to speak, to ask her how long he'd been unconscious, but all that came out was a croak.

"Don't try to talk," she growled. "Just lie still."

Her fingers felt hot on his leg's chilled skin, stroking it in small circles. It took most of his strength to raise his head, but when he did he saw Ella kneeling at the edge of the pallet he was lying on, and to his confusion and alarm, she was holding one of her daggers.