Still no footsteps thundered down the road, no mortals came to investigate the last weak cry of the man in her arms. It almost felt too easy, to simple. A reward that Galina had never thought would finally come. She should have known then, should have realized it was a reward to easily won. But her thoughts were jaded. Full of well cherished remembrances from her past. She had lived through her crucible and now had come out stronger for it. A crucible of madness, destruction, heartbreak, sorrow. This was a gift from a fickle God. One delivered much too late into her waiting arms.

Soon, my love, soon. Galina crooned in her mind, gently caressing him with her thoughts. He would not feel them, not physically, but she could only hope some level of comfort might come to him from them. From the gentle wishes she held so tenderly for them. They would not be joined in death as the steel blade of his knife had hinted, already she could feel the slight sliver of a wound healing from the very life blood she took from him. No, they would be joined as something knew, something stronger, something unholy. He would understand then. She would make him understand. She’d nurse him into this new life, new world, she’d exposed him to. Teach him what he needed to know to survive. Even Mari would come to understand the new addition to their family.

Against her, Galina could almost feel the imperceptible relaxation of his body as each mouthful of blood swept from his veins onto her tongue. His warmth growing gentler, softer, against him. It would not be long now before she would return his life force with something stronger, more substantial than mortal blood. A cursed blood, some might say, but how could it be cursed with her scholar by her side. How could anything that returned what had been lost from them be cursed? It was a blessing, the blessing of strength, of love, of family, that she would return to him. The blessing of promises broken by a God that did not care. That had turned his back on them. Who had allowed all of this to unfold before him. No, she would give him a blessing, one that would rejoin them in a way they had never thought possible before.

She could feel his throat working beside her, humming as it attempted to push words from those gentle lips of his. Slowly, so slowly, the first of these words struggled to the surface. Why? Galina wished she could give him a response, to comfort him, to make him see reason. She wished that she might stop and explain her actions. But he had always trusted her judgement. Worried over her, but allowed her to make her own choices. It was how the love he had planted for her had grown and blossomed into what it had become, twining the two of them together irrevocably. Instead Galina’s tongue caressed the wounds in his neck. Her swallows and pulls against the skin grew gentler, sweeter, a lover’s kiss instead of the frenzied force of the demon she had become.

With one last gentle caress of her tongue over the wounds in his neck, Galina withdrew her face from the crook of his neck. He twisted in her arms, a shadow of the strong man she had once known, clinging to her, his eyes looking past the hood of her cloak, searching for her face. A face covered in shadows. But surely he knew who she was, could feel it in his very being the same way she could feel him thumping through her body, pulling her ever closer to him. The blood sang to her, pulling her closer to him, reminding her of this new bond they now shared. Certainly he could feel it too. Could feel it calling into the past looking for their severed bonds and uniting them in a new light, a new life. His body sank to the ground in acceptance a gentle smile looking upon her.

Overcome with the strength of her emotions, so long forgotten, she ran a gentle hand through his hair, down his face, caressing him as gently as any lover’s embrace. “To save you.” Galina finally answered, gently, the words a caress of their own. To save him from a web such as he had once saved her. It seemed so simple an utterance for such an immense concept, one that had lingered with her in her very being since he had uttered his plan to her in a rush of hot whispered words.

”We’ll run away, Galina. Once this is all over. We’ll return to the land of my father. Free.” He paused, his intense eyes looking into her own, imploring her of the reason for this. “Free from the shackles that bind us, the webs that tangle us. We shall be welcomed with the warmest reception, able to live life as we want.” His long fingers brushed against the curve of her face, earnestness evident in every feature.”Let me keep you safe, shelter you, love you, save you.” His impassioned words entreated her.

At long last she could fulfill their promises, too hastily severed by the frailty of human life. Abandoned by her own body’s betrayal and left to be forgotten, lost to the annals of time. “To save you.” She repeated gently, a soft echo of the unspoken words in her memories. She bite into her own wrist, blood - his own, mixed with those who had given her life - trickled down, a stream of deepest garnet against the porcelain of her own wrist. Galina wrapped her arm under his neck, pulling him into the crook of her arms, offering her opened wrist as she might food to a babe. A babe she’d never have. “Drink.” Came her gentle command.

Word Count: 1000