Des was used to seeing bodies unclothed, though male guards had separate showers from females. Sometimes they changed in front of each other if they were in a hurry, and some people were comfortable enough to walk around naked even if the situation didn’t warrant it. But the bodies Des had grown up around were scarred and battle-worn, hardened from training and lean from a controlled diet. He was used to skin tanned from the sun, calloused and blistered from wielding weapons.
Aurelie’s body was nothing like that. This was skin that had never seen sunlight, flesh that was soft and unblemished. Even the severe lines of her school dresses couldn’t hide the delicate curves beneath. Des swallowed. If Daisy were here, she’d know what to do. But she wasn’t, and Des couldn’t leave Aurelie bleeding out on her velvet sofa.
He took a washcloth and touched it as gently as he could to the wound, though a part of him felt that she didn’t deserve his care.Aurelie sucked in a breath, catching her lip with her teeth, and Des froze, dragging his gaze up to hers. Her wide green eyes were staring into his, so close he could see the threads of gold in them, the individual droplets of tears on her lashes.
“Is this okay?” he asked, feeling foolish and embarrassed but also as though every part of his body were on fire. Damn her and her ability to disarm him.
She nodded, her lower lip still bearing the dents from where her teeth had dug into it, and Des forced himself to look back at the wound, which he cleaned as best he could, knowing how closely she watched him, how she held her breath against the pain.
When he finished, he helped her sit up. “We should bandage this,” he said, unable to explain that she’d need to remove her clothing. When had he become such a damn fool? “I don’t think it will need stitches, but we should get you to a doctor anyway.”
She shook her head. “No doctors. I have antiseptic. Just give me a moment.”
He nodded and she moved past him to her wardrobe, removing a clean shift and another simple dress before disappearing behind a wooden screen. He turned to face away, his hands twisted around the bloodied cloth. “I need to get back out there,” he said. “The demon could be anywhere on campus by now.”
Aurelie emerged a minute later. She held her unfastened bodice to her chest, her arms only partly in her sleeves. “I can’t wrap it myself,” she explained, her gaze fixed on the floor. Her cheeks were flushed scarlet against the pallor of shock. “I’m sorry.”
He found himself murmuring some sort of acceptance, whichwas not what he’d meant to do. He should be berating her for her reckless behavior, should be making it abundantly clear that this time, shehadkilled a man.
Instead, Des took a deep, steadying breath, and approached the chair she was sitting in, as she drew her braid over one slender shoulder and did her best to raise her arm so he could wrap the bandage beneath. He told himself it was like caring for any other wounded guard member, even as the scent of her soap hit him. Orange blossom, he realized, though he had no idea where the knowledge came from.
As he worked, winding the bandage under her arm and across her chest, his knuckles grazed skin he was sure had never been touched by another human before. Not judging by the way Aurelie shuddered, her eyes fluttering closed, though she didn’t pull away. It was the most intimate thing Des had ever done, and he wasn’t a virgin.
When she turned to look up at him, her face framed by tendrils of dark hair, her eyes still glittering with tears, Des had to stop for a moment to recover himself. Why did he feel so protective of this girl, when she was the one endangering everyone around her?
“What?” he growled, more disgusted with himself than with her.
“How did you get on campus?” she asked.
He’d thought she might properly apologize, or at the very least thank him. But instead, she was asking about logistics. Lucky for her he had been nearby, had been carrying Daisy’s stolen key around his neck. Lucky for her he didn’t just leave her to bleed out on her own. The audacity she had, to question his actions when he’d saved her life. Twice.
He pulled the bandage tight to stanch the bleeding. Aurelie gave a small whimper that he felt in his soul. He cleared his throat. “Finish getting dressed. Then you can tell me everything that happened while we are on our way back to the fort.”
Aurelie rose, fumbling for her bodice as it began to fall. “Our?”
Des turned around again, but not before catching a glimpse of even more of her. Far more than any man should see. It crossed his mind that one day, a man would get to see all of her, and he hated this imaginary man almost as much he hated Aurelie.
“Yes,our. I’m going to get backup to kill this demon. And you’re going to turn yourself in.”
Chapter 25
Aurelie
Despite the furious tone in Des’s voice, he had the decency to shield Aurelie’s view of Willoughby’s body as he escorted her down the steps of Easton Hall. Even still, he couldn’t shield her from the stench of his innards, or the sight of blood in the snow. She had worn a scarf around her neck to cover her wound, and she ducked her face into it now, obscuring what she could, though she knew she’d never recover from the guilt of what she’d done.
Des had his sword in one hand, the other slung around Aurelie’s waist as he hurried her toward the gate. The demon was still on campus, but she wasn’t afraid of it attacking her. Not when it had the opportunity before and went after Willoughby.
When she’d opened the door to her lab with an iron doorstop in one hand and a bag of salt in the other, she’d screamed at the sight. Not only of the demon itself, which was a squat, hunched horror that reminded her of the gargoyles on the clock tower, but also of the absolute destruction it had wrought. There was broken glass everywhere. Books and papers were scattered across the floor, and trampled herbs and flowers littered it like faded confetti. The demon was on her desk, rummaging around as though searching for something, and its red eyes had fixed on her the moment she entered.
But rather than come for her, it had turned its head at some sound Aurelie couldn’t hear, its focus on something outside thelittle window. Her stomach dropped when she heard Willoughby’s familiar whistle.
She flew at the demon the same moment it leapt for her window. She managed to grab one of its muscular legs, but it kicked out at her as it punched through the glass, catching her in the chest with its talons. She reeled back at the force of the kick, not realizing at first that it had torn through her dress before it disappeared through the window into the snow. By the time she scrambled onto her desk, one hand pressed to her wound, Willoughby was already screaming.
She’d never erase that sound from her head, she thought as fresh tears stung her eyes. They’d reached the gates, and Des ushered her through with the key she realized now was the one she’d lost the night of thenatiaattack. All this time, he’d kept it, and for what? Why had he come here tonight? Was it mere coincidence that a demon attack occurred when he was close by, or was it as she’d thought before, thathispresence was also part of the equation? If she could have taken the time to think, she knew she could make sense of all this chaos. But Des was pressing her forward, it was snowing again, and Aurelie could feel the wound in her chest seeping through the bandage.
“Stop,” she said finally, when she felt she might faint. “I need to rest.”
“There’s no time to rest. Not while a demon is loose on the campus.”