The Wicked Born

Chapter 16

Tabitha broke away from the warm invitation of Dacre's arms as she heard Ellias and Laurel making their way back to the site. She had no doubt that Ellias had listened to the words she and the human had exchanged in their absence, but she was finding it harder to care after all that he'd pulled while Dacre was unconscious. The witch sent the warlock a scathing look once he made himself visible to her again and the healing bites on her forearm throbbed in response. Ellias returned her gleeful expression with a sneer of his own.

"What's that about?" Dacre whispered as he leaned over to Tabitha's height, his warm breath fanning her neck and hair. Tabitha fought the shiver that threatened to wrack her body in response, keeping her cautious gaze on the warlock. 

"Don't worry about it," she responded to Dacre without facing him. "I've got it handled." She knew that telling him what all went down while he was unconscious would only cause more strife between the two, so she decided to keep it between her and Ellias. Laurel was too busy aimlessly sobbing to figure out what was going on during the five days that Dacre was out. Besides, she knew that Ellias wasn't actually dumb enough to try any attempts against Dacre's life if he valued his own.

"I have one more question to ask you," Dacre mumbled as if in afterthought. His deep, worried voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she turned toward him and searched his face as he contemplated his next words.

"You and Ellias... you didn't, uh..." he stumbled through his words as his face grew a deep red from being chagrined at his question. Tabitha furrowed her brows in response. She knew that Dacre was aware of the brief fling between her and the warlock years before, so she wondered whether it was about that. "You didn't make him, did you?"

She snorted a humorless laugh and heard Ellias let out a small hiss on the other side. No doubt he'd heard what Dacre had said. "Gods, no." She assured Dacre. Something that looked like relief flashed through his green irises, the brown flecks littered throughout shone even brighter at her assurance. "I would rather die than immortalize such a conceited, annoying twit of a man. Don't even get me started on having to be linked to him, either." She sent Ellias a challenging look, daring him to reply with a snarky comment. The warlock simply pursed his lips and set his dark, narrowed gaze on the task of packing up his things. Now that Dacre was alive and well, they had to head out as soon as possible. The delay they'd taken while waiting for him to fully heal was a hit that they'd barely be able to recover from, now including their extra pit stop that they're forced to take in the town that Tabitha was raised in. Goosebumps raised her skin at the thought as the bite in her flesh gave another dull, aching throb.

"Ouch," Dacre muttered beside her, a frown pulling down on his face as he examined the unmarked skin of his own forearm. Ice-cold horror flooded Tabitha as she took in what exactly was going on.

"You felt that?" She whispered with barely-contained panic. Dacre gave her a confused glance before absentmindedly rubbing his arm. The portion of his arm where her exact wounds were.

He nodded. "I felt it a few minutes before, too."

Tabitha seized his arm and examined it herself. The fear in her chest didn't abate when she didn't see anything marring the skin besides a few older scars that littered his flesh. In fact, that fear welled itself up into an overwhelming terror. Tabitha yanked her dagger out of its sheath with her left hand as she steadily grasped his right arm in her own. He attempted to yank his arm from her grip, but she held tighter. She slowly dipped the tip of the dagger into the pad of his forefinger, drawing a single drop of blood from the tissue.

Tabitha froze in place when the pad of her own forefinger experienced a sharp phantom pain in tandem with his own.

"What the hell, Tabitha?" He hissed, effectively yanking his arm from hers when her grip loosened. She stood there completely frozen, her mind drawing a complete blank on what to say to him. If he wasn't mad about their link yet, he sure would be now.