“Thank you for taking such good care of my best friend,” I dryly tell him. We stare each other down until some people pass us and I remember Thallon. “Where is Thallon?”
“In the dungeons with the teachers,” he tells me, and this he does look guilty about. I can hardly look at him as we stare at each other. “I don’t like the fucker, but I am sorry he is down there.”
“Let’s just go,” I sigh.
“Wait,” Henry touches my arm again, and I gulp. Contact between us is not making it easier to stay mad at him. “Where did you go when you ran away? Why do you smell like a dog, and why are you really back?”
“I smell like a dog?” I question with a furrowed brow. “Real smooth compliment there, Henry.”
He sheepishly grins, and I almost laugh until someone cries out in pain nearby, reminding me of, well, everything. Any humour between us drifts away as reality waits for us, and it’s not pretty. “Take me to Thallon, Henry.”
The dungeons are just what I expected them to be like. Dark, doomy, and they smell like damp things gone wrong. After walking down endless flights of stairs, we come to a large room with two gated sides. In the one prison are some of my old teachers, and I pause as they turn to look at me. They all look in rough shape, some of them are missing their wings, and all that is left is feathers on the ground. No one speaks, and the horror of the room makes me freeze, feeling so lost I don’t know how to react.
“Kaitlyn?” Thallon’s deep voice grumbles, and I turn towards his voice, seeing him alone in the other cell on the dirt. My heart beats like a drum as I rush to the bars, and he slowly stands up by holding the bars, wobbling as he does. Thallon does not look good—in worn clothes, covered in dirt and looking thinner than he was the last time I saw him. And oh my gosh, the smell in here is terrible. But gods, Thallon makes my heart pound all the same. Dirt and misery can’t hide who he is to me.
I don’t give a monkey’s ass what he looks like…he is my Thallon.
“Let him the hell out. Now, Henry!” I all but scream as Thallon just about holds himself up on the bars, and I look down to see his leg is bleeding through his trousers. Henry grabs the keys and unlocks the door, and Thallon instantly falls onto me, and I nearly drop him, but Henry helps.
At least he is finally helping. Gods, I’m so mad at him, but I will deal with Henry later.
“I missed you,” Thallon mutters in my ear, and I reach my hand up, resting it on his forehead.
“He is burning up and bleeding. We need a healer, Henry,” I demand. Henry grunts and lifts Thallon over his shoulder before straightening up.
“Agreed. Fly up with me,” he says before stretching his wings out and flying up the staircase. Well, if he can do it. I take a deep breath, stretching my wings out. I can totally do this.
“Save us, Kaitlyn. The light above says you will,” Professor Nina groggily says, and I turn to see her near the edge of the cell, holding the bars. She is pale, her once shiny and long hair is a mess and cut in all lengths, though hope still shines in her eyes as she looks at me, like an eighteen-year-old is going to save her from this somehow. I want to tell her I can hardly save myself, but the broken look in her eyes makes me stay silent. I do feel sorry for her, even when my mind flickers with images of killing students and how cruel she was. Seems like in this war, there isn’t a good or a bad person. Without replying to her, I put my wings away and run up the staircase, pushing all thoughts other than getting Thallon better to the back of my mind. Flying can wait. The teachers can wait.
Henry waits for me at the top, his eyes full of questions of where I was, but he doesn’t bring them up as he turns and walks through the greenhouse to the rooms. Dozens of vampires stop to stare, but no one stands in Henry’s way, and I trail behind him, my eyes focused on Thallon, who isn’t awake yet. I follow him up another set of staircases until we get to a row of rooms. There are four all together, all dark wooden doors, and Henry opens the one in the middle, taking Thallon inside. I follow him in and close the door behind me, pausing as I realise this is the same room I ran away from not that long ago. The bedding has been changed to light purple sheets, and the wardrobe door is open with all my clothes hanging up, my shoes resting next to it. My suitcase is on the other side of the room, and a dresser is next to a bathroom door with a sign that clearly marks it as the bathroom. On the dresser is a gift box, but I ignore it for now as Henry lays Thallon on the bed.
“Get some towels, warm water and a first aid kit. There should be one under the sink; they usually put one in all the rooms,” Henry commands as he pulls up Thallon’s jeans, and I flinch at the huge cut going from his ankle to his knee. Who the hell did that?
“Wait, we need a healer,” I nervously say, and Henry sighs, looking at me.
“They are all dead, and the best healer here is the students. Aka, me or a vamp. Your choice, darlin’,” he firmly tells me. I grit my teeth and nod before going to the bathroom and rushing to the many cupboards under the sink. I quickly find a first aid box, a bowl for the water and some fresh towels. After running the first aid kit and towels to Henry, I get the water and come back. I climb onto the bed on the other side of Thallon and watch as Henry cleans the wound and gets a needle out.
“Hold him down if he wakes up. He might be out of it though,” Henry warns as he gets everything ready, and he looks like he knows what he is doing.
“What can we do about the fever?” I ask.
Henry leans down near Thallon’s leg, and I have to look away as he starts to stitch. “Thallon isn’t human or angel, therefore he can’t have either of the medicines used to treat them. I’m going to make a concoction I was given as a child, which should heal him.”
He works in silence, cleaning Thallon’s leg, and I stay quiet, only tucking a pillow under his head. Meeting Henry’s eyes for a second, I know I have to say something. “Thank you, Henry.”
“Does this make us even now I’ve saved your lover boy?” he asks me, and I nervously chuckle a little as I stroke Thallon’s head. I don’t want to get into this conversation with Henry right now.
“No, but I will hear you out,” I tell him. “I’m still mad.”
“Got ya. Let’s talk after I sort him out,” Henry says and gets back to work as I pray to all the gods I know that Thallon makes it through this.
Chapter 35
After a quick shower, I change into my skinny jeans and a light green T-shirt that has “Everything else is on the Floordrobe” written on it. I French plait the front of my hair and clip it back before staring at the present box I brought into the bathroom with me to open. I damn well know who it’s from, and I should burn it, but curiosity killed the cat and all that. I rip the paper over the box open and push the bow aside before opening the lid. A purple letter rests on top of the biggest stash of Parma Violet sweets I’ve ever seen. I open the letter, wishing it wasn’t from him, but of course it is.
“A tweety bird told me you love these sweet treats.
Please do not throw them away.
We must talk soon.
Your vampire ghost always,