Shifters

Chapter 36

The ride in the back of the semi was rough and dark, but at least, for the time being, Kayla and Damian felt safe. Their eyes adjusted to the darkness after a few minutes, soon it was like they wore night vision goggles.

"You're bleeding!" Kayla gasped when she looked at Damian's arm. He glanced at it, suddenly becoming aware of the spiking pain he felt on his shoulder, where a silver bullet had grazed him, ripping and burning flesh as it had torn by.

He shuddered and his eyes watered slightly with the pain. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was starting to feel everything like a punch. He knew he should lick the wound, so his saliva could begin to combat the poisonous silver particles boiling his blood, but it was in an awkward spot that he couldn't reach very well.

"Don't move." Said Kayla as she took off the cardigan she wore and shredded it with her claws. She gently grabbed his arm and brought it closer to her, two strips of the cardigan tight in her hands. However, she knew that she couldn't bandage him up, not yet.

She paused, suddenly feeling her heart throb in her ears. She couldn't tell if it was a headache from when Kevin had handled her, or if it was from something else. She licked her lips.

Damian fidgeted. "You don't have to." He tried to pull away.

She didn't let him. "You and I both know that I do."

He sighed, and without another moment wasted she leaned in on his arm, running a soft tongue across the deep wound. His blood was thick and metallic, the silver particles poisoning him were sour and bitter. A Pelisian cleaning the wound of a Serian was unheard of, and the first of it's kind. Normally wounds were licked by family or close friends, mates for those who had them, never by rivals. It was a highly intimate act that made Damian's heart race, and his cheeks heat up.

Kayla knew the silver was all cleaned out when his blood no longer tasted acidic, but rather, somewhat sweet. She backed away, tying the bandages tightly so it would begin to clot. Her own chest felt strangely fluttery. She took a deep breath and nodded, satisfied that the silver would not stay in his system and poison him. It's a deadly mineral to her kind. It burned their skin to the touch, and if left long enough it would eventually burn all the way through to the bone in an agonizingly slow way. But that wasn't the main worry, the biggest worry was if a silver knife, bullet, or any other sort of weapon actually broke through the skin, drawing blood. Because once skin was broken and blood was drawn, then poison was in, and would move through the bloodstream, poisoning the organs and sickening it's host over just two nights. After a week, if left untreated, the Lobain would die of silver poisoning. It only took a few particles from one silver slice to do the trick. He would be okay now that she'd rid him of the toxin. 

"Thank you." Damian said rolling his shoulder out. It was beginning to feel better already.

"I guess I kind of owed you, after all the ways you've helped me." She gave him a small smile.

They gazed at each other, glowing green eyes and sparkling amber seeming to float like ghostly orbs in the darkness. Damian searched the rest of her face, he smirked when his eyes landed on her lips. They were stained with his blood. Without thinking, he reached forward and wiped it away with a gentle thumb. She didn't move, but her heart seemed to jump and kick violently.

The softness of her lips made the tip of his thumb warm and numb. His action didn't even register to him. He felt as if he was looking in on himself. When it finally did hit him, the tenderness at which he had touched her, the way he hadn't wanted to stop, he couldn't justify it in any way, and he didn't care. He didn't want to ruin the warmth he felt for her at that moment. She was magnetic, and he didn't want to fight the way she pulled him in.