Consume (The Devoured Series) (16 page)

"I’m a big girl, Eli. If I wanted to eat, I would have said something."

"But you didn't say anything because of the smoke. You didn't care about anything last night, you even let that Witch cut a skin sacrifice off of you!" he said vehemently and then closed his eyes as he inhaled a large breath. "I'm sorry. It was my job to take care of you, watch out for you, and so far I'm failing miserably."

I saw his point of view, but I didn't want him to feel bad. I was responsible for myself. "Get me out of here?"

He nodded without hesitation and helped me sit up. I took the glass of ice water on the bedside table and gulped it down. Oh, boy, I was thirsty. I asked him to pour another glass and drank that down, too.

"Slowly," he coaxed. His eyes squinted as he looked away guiltily.

I stood, but swayed a little. His arms snapped out to grip me. "I'm ok," I told him.

"No. You're not," he said sullenly.

He grabbed a hospital bag from under the bed and tossed it on the mattress. Then he put an arm around my waist and the other undid the ties of my hideous hospital gown. He took my sweater and put it gently over my head and shoulders. Then he pulled my gown down and finished the sweater by putting my arms inside.

I felt ok, mostly, just tired and dizzy, but Eli apparently needed to do this for me. To feel like he was taking care of me, so I let him. And I managed not to blush at what he did next, but the doctor walked in just as Eli was letting me step into my skirt. Eli pulled it up and pretended he hadn't seen the doctor, who gawked and started to stutter about me being out of bed.

"I think we're going to go," Eli said looked at him over his shoulder. "And you think it's a good idea, don't you?"

"Um…"

"Yes, it's a good idea," I said and stared at the doctor. He blinked and then nodded slightly as he turned to go.

Eli gazed at me with equal parts wonder and horror. I did that; I made the guy leave with…persuasion. I looked down at my feet. I had hospital slippers on. He lifted my face with his fingers delicately on my neck and jaw. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. Then he picked me up in his arms under my knees and behind my back.

I didn't have any shoes.

He carried me that way all the way out of the hospital to our hotel room. It was only about five blocks. The sun beat down on us, but it felt heavenly to my tired body. Another headache had begun behind my eyes so I kept my face pressed into his neck until we arrived.

Enoch and Finn were there, and Enoch was pacing. He stopped and stared when Eli entered, but Eli took me straight to the bathroom and closed the door. He turned on the bath water, the steam rising up quickly, and dumped the bottle of hand soap from the sink into it.

When the bubbles started he came to me, all gentle touches and reassuring looks. He rubbed a thumb over my eyebrows and looked at my eyes. My mismatched eyes.

"I won't look," he promised softly and without giving me time to over think, he pulled my shirt over my head. I looked down when he knelt at my feet to remove my hospital slippers. His eyes were closed as he finished undressing me and stood. He held my arm as I lowered myself into the bubbles. I sighed out loud and he took that as his cue to open his eyes.

"Better?"

I nodded. "Much. Thank you."

"We need to get going as soon as you're done," he explained. "We have to take a boat the rest of the way. Are you going to be ok with that?"

The thought of rocking on a boat for hours with this headache made me nauseas, but I nodded my head anyway. He spent the next thirty minutes kneeling on the floor beside the tub watching me. He leaned his head on his arm and took my soapy hand in his, lacing our fingers and massaging my skin.

Eventually he had me lean forward and he washed my hair for me. I told him I was fine to get myself out. He smirked in tolerance and stood, closing his eyes as he held the towel out. When he wrapped it around me, he pulled me to him and hugged me. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure. If I can."

"Can you sit here while I take a shower?" He set me on the toilet lid. "I don't want you out there with them alone and I
really
need to shower."

"Ok," I answered and turned my back to the tub. I picked up my hairbrush and tried to get all the tangles out as he started the water again. Within three minutes, he was done and standing behind me in his clean clothes.

He went and got me some clothes out of my bag, but I assured him I was ok to dress myself. He sighed, but let me have it. I dressed quickly and threw my hair into a ponytail. I didn't put on any make-up or earrings. The mirror was not my friend today. She was telling me I had huge bags under my eyes and bruises on my arms from the IVs, and a large bandage - that the hospital must have replaced - covering my skin sacrifice. And the durable band-aid had survived the bath.

I licked my dry lips, so confused as to why I was dying of thirst again. I opened the door and, surprisingly, Enoch was first to jump up and make his way to me. He stopped, his eyes wide and angry.

"Now what?" he roared and looked at Eli accusingly. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Eli said in defeat.

Enoch looked back to me. "Do you feel different?"

"Yes," I answered truthfully. "I feel like…" I thought about how to word it and the description that came was too eerie and appropriate. "Like I'm being ripped in two different directions."

"That's because you are," Eli said and came to me. "The Devourer and human blood are fighting for dominancy."

Finn was on the far corner of the bed, watching us. Enoch looked at me with displeasure, probably because he'd been worried about me through the bond and he hated to feel anything for me. And Eli was focused on nothing but me. "I'm ready to go when you are," I told him.

"I'll never be ready for this," he said quietly. He pulled out his phone and mumbled about it being dead, then picked up the hotel phone. "Yeah, I need a cab, please."

"Why?" Enoch asked while Eli talked to the cab company. "Why do you have Devourer blood? The bond shouldn't have anything to do with that."

"I…" I didn't really want to tell him that I'd licked Eli's blood before. "I put Eli's blood in me." His eyes widened. "It was an accident."

"So…you're turning into a Devourer?" He grinned. "You're not going to be a filthy feeler anymore?"

"Thanks, Enoch," I said dryly and went to go sit on the bed. He grabbed my arm to help me. I looked at him curiously. "Why are you helping me?"

"Don't read too much into it," he replied and smirked. "But I have no problems being family if you're a Devourer. So as soon as all that feeler blood is out of your system, you and I will be all good."

"It's killing her!" Eli boomed and threw the hotel phone across the room. It smashed into the wall, but he didn't care as he glared at Enoch. "Don't make this a joke! It's not. It's killing her, not changing her."

"How do you know that?" Enoch scoffed.

"Because you can't be made into a Devourer. You're born one or you're not."

"Whatever. I think that Finn's right. If she's unbound, then you won't care so much anymore-"

Eli went to him, nose to nose. "Don't." He took a deep breath. "You two stay here. We'll go."

"Not a chance," Enoch refuted. "I'm not leaving her side until she's either a Devourer or unbound or…" he narrowed his eyes, "not breathing. I can't live with the nagging bond always calling me to her."

"Then you keep your lovely comments to yourself," Eli growled.

"Comments to yourself!" Cavuto squawked. "Raaayk!"

"The last thing she needs is to worry about you two," Eli continued.

He pushed passed him and grabbed my bag off the bed. My flip-flops were on top and he laid them at my feet. I slipped them on and didn’t say anything to anyone as he grabbed the bird's cage with my bag over his shoulder. He gripped my hand and walked with me out the door, not even looking back to see if they were coming.

Fourteen

The boat they chartered was small. I gulped as we stepped on board and Eli situated me on a leather bench. He paid the man and Finn just couldn't resist, thin ice be darned.

"Why pay him at all?" he sneered and plopped on the bench across from us. "Just persuade him to take us!"

"I don't do that anymore. I have the money."

"So do I, but that doesn’t mean that you can't get a free ride once in a while. Two thousand bucks is a hefty price for a joyride across the water."

Eli looked at me. "I'm not that man anymore."

Finn shook his head and closed his eyes as he sang, "Kumbaya, my Lord! Kumbaya!" Enoch burst out laughing. Finn opened his eyes to see us glaring at him. "What? I thought we were having an open heart moment."

"Bite me, Finn," Eli said and I caught his small smile he tried to hide.

In reality, from a girl's point of view, yes, Finn was a douche bag. But from the guy's point of view - the best friend's point of view - he was trying to help him I guessed. If I was truly was bonded and committed to him, then I shouldn't have really been affected by Finn. I got it. I didn't like him, but I got it.

"What now?" I asked Eli and put my aching head on his shoulder.

"Straight to The Wall," he explained. "I'm not wasting a minute."

Finn rolled his eyes, and then my phone rang. I jolted and grabbed it from my bag. We'd be out to sea soon and it wouldn't work anymore. I saw I had a couple of texts from Ariel and Mrs. Ruth was calling.

"Hi," I said and tried to sound chipper.

"Clara, hi, honey. How's everything going?"

"Good. What's up?"

"Well…" she stalled. "I just…I know we let you go, and in my mind it seems like a good idea, but I honestly have no idea why. I have no idea why we would think it was a good idea for you to go off somewhere with your boyfriend. It has me worried. Not about you," she said hurriedly, "just worried...in general."

"Well, we needed to do some things, Mrs. Ruth," I said and watched Eli as I spoke. His interest was piqued. He looked confused. "I'll be back soon, and I'm glad you trust me enough to go."

"That's the thing, Clara. I don't." I sat, stunned. "It's not that I don’t trust you, or Eli, I just don't trust you alone together. You're very different with him than you were with Tate. More…serious. You love him, I can see it. That's why I'm so confused as to why I'm all right with you being gone with him."

What could I say to that? "I'm sorry. I'll be home soon, ok? How is everyone?"

"Oh, we're fine," she said happily, almost as if the rest was forgotten. "The kids are all taking naps at the same time now, thank the Lord. Pastor's been worried about you, though. He was a little upset that I let you leave, but I assured him you'd be back soon and that it was ok."

"Thank you, Mrs. Ruth." I sighed. "I miss you."

"It's only been a day, Clara."

I nodded, though she couldn't see me. "Yeah, but it feels like an eternity."

"You'll be home tomorrow, right?"

"I'll try."

"Ok, well if you get a chance, call Pastor tonight. He'd love to hear it for himself."

"Ok," I said, but knew I wasn't going to do that. "I love you, Mrs. Ruth."

I realized that I'd never said that to her before. I heard her soft gasp before she said, "I love you, too, honey. You're sure you're all right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Ok," she said reluctantly. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Bye," I said and let the phone drop from my fingers into the pocket on my bag.

"I guess my persuasion wasn't up to par, huh?" Eli said dryly. "Sorry."