A Scale of Sapphire

Matt

If she wasn’t scorched and starving, I probably would’ve been dead five times over within the first few seconds. Of course, if she wasn’t scorched and starving, she wouldn’t have attacked me at all, but still. Evelyn came at me like a desperate animal, clawing and snapping and snarling away, far faster than a human could match, but a good deal slower than I knew she was capable of.

I was only barely able to get my sword up in time, and every impact of claw on steel sent painful vibrations running up my arms. With each wild flail, I was pushed further and further back, further away from the blood bags I so desperately needed to turn this situation around.

At the same time, Chelsea was busy with her own, slightly less desperate, struggle against the angel. With Evelyn keeping me occupied, Chel was facing it alone, and it seemed happy to keep things that way, rapidly blinking in and out of existence around her, and punctuating each clash of their blades with a disorienting flash of light.

I was at a loss. I was losing ground, bit by bit, and I couldn’t figure out how to turn this around. I couldn’t strike back, not while Evelyn was this hurt, I wouldn’t risk killing her, but I couldn’t just stay on the defensive either. Eventually, either I’d get too tired to keep going, or Evelyn would die, and neither of those were acceptable. I needed to get past her, I needed enough time to grab her blood bags, but I had no idea how to make that happen. Snapping me back out of my thoughts, Evelyn lashed out once more, a blur of claws and teeth that I barely kept at bay.

Oh wait.

I didn’t keep her at bay.

Not completely.

At some point she managed to rip open a gash in my arm, her claws glistened red. She raised her hands, ready to strike again, but paused when she noticed the blood on her fingers. She stood frozen for a moment, pupils dilating rapidly, before beginning to frantically lick her fingers.

Not one to miss an opportunity, I set off towards the pack at a sprint, praying that I’d make it before something else went wrong. Of course, my prayers didn’t mean shit. There was an angel right here, after all, and it was trying to kill my best friend. About halfway to the pack, I heard rapid footsteps behind me before sudden, searing pain erupted from my back.

I fell to the ground, Evelyn falling on top of me. I barely managed to twist and face her before slamming into the dirt. Survival instincts took over as I realized how close I was to death. My sword had fallen from my hands, so I punched and kicked and shoved with all my might, but it was pointless. I might as well have been punching a brick wall for all the good it did.

With snapping jaws growing ever closer to my throat, I realized I really only had one option. Before I had the chance to second guess myself, I shoved my forearm into her mouth. Blinding pain faded into numbness and tingles as Evelyn drank deep. I could feel my consciousness faltering. My many wounds compounding with this violent blood draw as the world began to slip away.

I had to trust her. She was stronger than this. She could be better. I knew she could.

ashlynflagg

Very short chapter this week. My recovery is going pretty well, but because of some complications that happened while I was still in the hospital, I've still got a lot of fatigue to deal with. I'm officially well enough to take care of myself, so I've moved back into my apartment, but that whole moving process has really tuckered me out. The creative juices just aren't really flowing right now.

Even still, I wanted to give y'all something, so here are the next 500 words. Hope you enjoyed.