Chapter 22

The first cut on her shoulder tingled a lot. She jolted, throwing her hand up over her mouth to cover her surprise. It was like a shock.

Jed didn’t respond, pressing forward to get the second cut opposite her spine. She whimpered around her hand, trembling.

“Are you sure this doesn’t hurt?” He breathed near her ear which sent even more prickles up her already raw spine.

She shook her head spasmodically. “No, it’s fine.”

Honestly, she wasn’t even sure she was feeling any pain anymore. The still open wounds on her chest and legs were beginning to feel very distant.

His cool hand shook slightly when he pressed it to her healed shoulder. Her spine was next.

She felt him hesitating. His breathing spiked a little, then he pushed her forward so he could move his mouth from the bottom of her spine, moving up.

Mila arched, a sharp moan escaping her. He was quick about it. She could feel the skin knit back together cleanly and without trouble, but it felt different from her other wounds.

She sighed and wondered if this was what morphine might feel like to a human. All of the pain subsided at once. Her own breath felt a little chilly on her lips, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant.

Jed cupped her neck, helping her to lie back now that she wouldn’t be dripping blood on the cot. She felt a little hazy. She could still hear the wolves outside, howling away. She could still see the cracks in the ceiling. But rather than feel like she was on the cot, she felt like she was floating above it in the air.

The cuts on her legs weren’t deep. If they had been, it would have impeded her dancing. She registered mild embarrassment on Jed’s face. He kept closing his eyes for what felt longer than necessary as though he was trying to pull himself together.

She could see his lips move, but he didn’t seem to be speaking. At least, not to her. His cool hands bent her leg at the knee while his lips moved up along the mottled thigh.

A great majority of the blood on her was coming from her stomach which had been the first of the deeper cuts. The waistband of the sarong kept most of the blood from going elsewhere, but it stuck to her like soiled gauze.

Still, it didn’t hurt at all. Her hands twitched at her sides when his tongue traced over the cut, healing it at once and sending little zings throughout her lower body.

She wasn’t sure what it was she wanted. She clutched at the sides of the cot, just to have something to hang on to. It felt like the room was becoming hotter, the sounds of the wolves growing louder. Jed’s breathing seemed to be getting more erratic.

He paused at her chest, looking at the place she had cut deep enough to reveal her real skin. He was gazing down at her scales, his blond hair falling forward around his face.

“Does this need to be treated?” He asked, his fingertips hovering just over the scales.

Of course, that wound was already cauterized. The golden ichor had hardened over the wound like liquid skin. The shiny gold was darkening to a bloody red.

“I don’t think it would help.” She smiled a little weakly.

His fingers just barely brushed the scales and she gasped. Her back arched again, spreading the incision. He watched the motion with interest, not seeming disgusted by her real skin.

How long had it been since someone had last touched her real body? She could feel everything that touched the outer, human flesh, but there was something different about having her true form exposed. It had been so long since she’d been without the human shell at all. Longer since she’d felt anything other than her own hands brush the true skin underneath.

Jed dipped his head over her chest. She shuddered harder when she felt his breath hit her scales. His tongue moved over the hard-candy coating of the ichor and she was certain she felt a sting of his fangs.

She didn’t do it consciously, but her arms shot out, wrapping around his neck. She held him against her. His cool breath blew across her scales, sending ripples through her every muscle. The human skin tingled all over and felt almost suffocatingly warm. He had to press a firm hand to her waist, holding her steadily back so he could close up the wound.

The cot wasn’t really big enough for two people, but Jed was an expert at keeping himself balanced. She pulled her body up against his, one of her legs curling around his slim waist. She moaned loudly, arching onto his lap when the cut healed under his tongue.

He didn’t pull his mouth away for the last one. His tongue trailed over the perfectly untouched skin up to the thin pictograms that said ‘Abzu’.

She straddled him, holding on tightly while tremors went through her. Jed had never put a shirt back on from his own dance and now her bare, unblemished skin was pressed against his.

Her head dipped onto his shoulder. Her breathing heavy as she took in the sensations. Her skin felt so hot, his own temperature was very pleasing. His cool breath moved against her ear, sharp with excitement.

What had him so excited? Had the blood from so many wounds not been enough to sate his thirst? Did he still want more?

Even with her wounds healed, she was still covered in it. He could continue to clean her.

She trembled a little harder. She could feel something hard pressed between her legs where she sat on his lap. Maybe it wasn’t just blood he craved.

She wasn’t exactly a stranger to sexuality. When you got something new, you tended to try it out to see how it worked. Upon getting the new human skin, Mila had tested it a little.

Humans were almost obsessed with sexuality. Music, books, plays, films, every form of media humans had come up with always found a way to detail sexual exploits.

Admittedly, it felt good. Stimulating the nerves was pleasant, but she wasn’t human. She didn’t produce the hormones that made the experience something to crave. None of her species did so her experiments lacked a certain push to action.

But that wasn’t a problem with Jed. Jed still had the remnants of his humanity coursing through him. He could feel desires to do more with his body and then there were the wolves, so excited and active, their pheromones permeating even within this small cabin.

It was secondhand, really, but Mila could feel stirrings within her. Her nerves were singing, begging to be touched. She pressed herself onto that hard thing between her legs experimentally, feeling that it would do to quench the new fire roiling around inside her.

“Jed,” she breathed his name softly against his shoulder. “Hold me, please?”