3 Dual

This angry wounded man, has found a way to make my mouth dry with his heated gaze. I've never seen someone look as dangerously predatory as this. He obviously needs to be healed and can't do it on his own, so I shake myself out of my stupor and walk towards him.

This earns me another angry hiss of disapproval, accompanied with a frosty chill emanating from his body. Shocked to my core I stumble backwards and away, panicked by the temperature being thrown off by this man. My own body heats violently in reaction and I give him a violent hiss of my own. "Stop it!", I yell at him in anger.

We stare at each other, both not trusting the other. He watches my adverse reaction to his power, the shaking and the sweats. It takes him a while to notice my intense heat. When he does his brows furrow slightly, the only indication that he even has feelings.

I take a deep breath and regain control over my body and my power. I know I am not in danger, there is no way he could do anything to me. He's weak enough that my heat could melt his very bones, even if he put up his best fight. But deep down I know, if he were at full strength he'd give me a run for my money.

Locking down my emotions as best as I can I eye this man cooly. "You obviously need my help. Do you want it or not?", I ask mildly.

It seems like an eternity before he answers. "They're still here, leave," he calmly replies. Throughout this entire encounter he has not blinked. The predatory gaze along with the raw power in his voice makes me so very curious about how old he is and where he's been. Then I finally notice his words.

"Leave?", I ask. I don't look around, I don't check for anyone. If he says they're still here they very well may be. "I will not be leaving anytime soon if you don't get your sorry ass up and get a move on." I tell him. From his attitude he wouldn't take kindly to me trying to help him off the ground and I wouldn't take kindly to him trying to freeze me so I stubbornly stay where I am.

I can see how hard he's clenching his jaw from here and the anger in his eyes spike to an all time high. "Are you trying to get killed out here", he hisses in anger. He does a lot of hissing, I think offhandedly. Maybe his spirit animal is some kind of big cat.

"If I die you're responsible", I reply nonchalantly. "You don't want to be responsible for an innocent woman's death do you?" I ask, trying my best to seem unaware of his obvious protective nature.

His eyes narrow to such small slits that I honestly thought he couldn't see, so I smirk. But he caught that and looked surprised for a brief moment. "You are no innocent young lady", he remarks. "You are a sly one", he finishes, trying to stand on his own.

As he stands I have to look up at him, as he is about a foot taller than me. I pout, feeling so much smaller in comparison to him. As he looks down at me he gives me a once over. He has the aura of a warrior, and I assume he is checking me over for weapons.

"If you betray me, I'll use whatever energy I have left to kill you," he warns.

I wave his threat away and make a tsking sound. "You think I'd stick around this long and waste my time healing you just to betray you along the way?" I ask jokingly.

"You'd be surprised at the things some people would do, just to give one hope and rip it all away", he replies.

The small smile on my lips die and I stop walking and turn back to him. "No. I would not be surprised. I would be more surprised if you trusted me blindly," I answer before walking away.

"Well are you gonna follow me or have whoever did that to you come back and try to finish the job?" I ask as he stands there staring at me, calculating as he's done since we've seen each other.

Silently he follows, holding his gut. I pretend I don't notice when he stumbles, I feel as though it's a matter of pride for him. As we keep walking however, I notice how much he's sweating. As more time passes he gets more pale, he appears cold although it's a very nice day out today.

We're about 3 minutes away from my house when he falls to the ground, right on his ass. I look him over and tell him seriously, "You need to let me help you."

He just looks up at me with those vibrant eyes that are slowly starting to fade and become dull. Just then, there is the sound of a twig snapping and his eyes become more focused. He spins around, still on the ground, looking towards the noise with a low growl. I just watch him, worried that he's so far gone that he couldn't smell the deer near by.

"Hey," I call out to him.

He shows no reaction that he heard me. I walk towards him and lay my hand on his shoulder. He spins around and tries to grab at me, growling low in his throat. I slap him hard enough to knock him back to the ground. When he falls he doesn't get up, and I lift him up by his shoulders to drag him the rest of the way home.

***

Once I get him to my home, I'm a little lost on what to do. I become nervous, I've never been alone or in close quarters with a man before. " Oh what are you thinking, he's half dead and obviously already hates your guts, get the man undressed and heal him", I chide myself.

Picking the room right across from mine I finish dragging him in and and throw his upper body on the bed. Next comes his lower body, and I just pick his legs up and throw them on the bed. I laugh as I watch his legs flop on the bed, "Stop treating this man like a rag doll", I tell myself.

I remove his clothing with a thought, with my gaze averted. 'He will NOT call me a pervert', I think to myself. Grabbing a sheet from a drawer under the bed I throw it over his hips and take my first real look at him. I quickly stop myself from ogling his body and take a close look at his wounds.

He has many deep slashes, still seeping blood, and some smaller ones that tried to close but didn't quite finish. The deepest gash he has almost disemboweled him, and looks like someone tried to cut him in two.

'How could someone be this cruel?' I think, gasping at his wounds. I have a lot of work to do.