A headache

  Ziri squeezed her eyes shut and cried in a pained voice, shedding more tears. She opened her eyes suddenly when she felt him push her away from him. She looked up at him with her teary eyes, and saw the puzzled look on his face.

  He raised his fingers up to his face and touched the wetness in his chin and found out that it was blood dripping out of his...mouth! He checked his mouth for any injury but found nothing.

  He looked at Ziri who was in front of him. He saw how she was all tears, how she looked at him. There was pain, sadness, and fear in her eyes. Then his eyes drifted lower to check her body, and that is when he saw it. What he did to her. To the woman he loves. To his half, his soulmate.

  He opened his mouth several times, but couldn't utter a sound. She stepped forward, making him flinch and shake his head fervently. "Don't! Please...please...don_" "I need to...finish what I've started....or all of this...will go in vain." She cut him off and said between sobs.

She placed her hands on his injury again, and in minutes a bubble of white aura containing a silver liquid popped out of the wound, leaving it to coalesce on its own thanks to the healing speed all the wolverines share.

   Jillas, with the voices in his head finally quietening, passed out. He was about to fall on the hard ground when Ziri barely managed to grab his heavy body with both her arms and laid him as gently as she could on the ground. Although he is a werewolf, and immune against the freezing weather of the south, she still covered his naked body with her cloak to protect him from the night's frost and put his head on her lap.

 Heaving a long sigh, she then started to treat her own wounds.

                                                                                   ****

 It was six in the evening, only two hours left before the masquerade ball starts. Elisabeth was in her room preparing herself for the event, when a maid came in announcing the arrival of a guest: the duke of Krams.

   Elisabeth was surprised by that, but she has somehow predicted it to happen. She thought that the duke must be here to apologize about the incident in the celebration party, and so she went down to the receiving room to meet him. She climbed down the stairs then walked through the long corridor where the receiving room was situated in the far end of it. She arrived at the door and was about to open it when she felt a sharp pain creep up her head but she ignored it and entered the room.

   Hearing heels footsteps, David snapped his head towards the door. He stood up upon seeing her walking frame and he gulped lightly. He was in an indescribable state of emotions: happiness, fear, anxiousness. He interlaced his fingers together in an attempt to calm himself down, but to no avail. He has never been this nervous before.

  "Good evening, princess. I apologize for the sudden visi_" Before David finished his greetings, Elisabeth fell on the ground on her knees, grabbing her head with both hands, squeezing her eyes shut and crying in pain.

    "Your highness!" the maids cried out.

"Elise! Are you alright?!" said David, already on his knees beside her.

"It hurts! Aaah! My head!" she said in between cries. Confused on what they should do, one of the maids went to call a physician, while some others brought water and some towels, the rest just stood with pale faces, still shocked of the hysterical way the princess was behaving.

   David, though worry was evident on his face, still managed to keep his calm. It wasn't his first time anyway. It had happened a few times in the past before, and he knows how to deal with it, but he has first to make sure it is what he thinks it is.  So he asked her: "Can you describe what kind of pain it is? How it feels?"

Not receiving any response from her, he added in a gentler but convincing voice: "I know it hurts, but please, just try to describe that feeling with words. Please."

 Clutching her hands into fists, she managed to stutter some words:"M My head...i is ... going to...e ex plode". Hearing the words, David narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth.

  "Get out! All of you!" he said to the maids in an authoritative voice. The servants, not quite understanding what he meant, exchanged looks only to hear him add "NOW!"

   After the last maid left the receiving room, David held Elisabeth's face with both his hands and said in a commanding voice: "open your eyes. Open your eyes and look at me, Elisabeth!"

   She gulped and fluttered her eyes open with much difficulty and saw nothing but red. She gasped at the sight. She blinked her eyes several times hoping she will see things normally again, but all she could see was blood, lots of blood.

   "N No! No!" she cried out. Her once beautiful light grey eyes are now scarlet red, bloody, and wide opened in fear. She was about to shut them close when she heard him telling her not to. His voice seems calm and it looks like he knows what he was doing, so she decided to trust him. It's not like she had another choice anyway, and so she did as he said. She was scared but it was better to do something than nothing.

   "Good girl. Now look at that blood and focus on it until it becomes pitch black." He instructed, and she did as told.

   She kept focusing on the only thing she could see, blood, until it became black. She told him it was black now but he said to wait and stay focusing. And he was right; the black sight became darker and darker with every second. She would have never known that black can be even blacker than it already is. Before she had the chance to tell him, she heard him instruct her.

  "Now, imagine the headache to be a cloud of white mist." And she nodded. "Now look for the source of it. Where does it come from?"

  When she was putting all her efforts in searching, a maid opened the door, and in came the physician with his apprentice holding a case of tools. Seeing this, David felt a nerve popping out of his temple. He clearly told them to go out!

  'Brainless, stupid creatures.' He thought.

  What he and Elise are about to perform is something that has not to be seen by anyone else. He thought of asking them out again but then it will only disturb Elise, so he put his palm on the marble floor, and almost instantly an opaque bubble made of ice surrounded them. And that's when he heard her. It was just low mumbling but he heard it clearly thanks to his sharp ears.

  "It's a...hole. In my...heart" she struggled to say the words with all the pain she was in. And David wasted no time as he explained their next step.

  "Good. Now I want you to keep focusing on that hole. You will feel a cut in your left palm but don't let it disturb you and keep concentrating." she nodded.

  He put her left hand in his so that her palm was facing him. He lifts his other hand and in two seconds his thumb's nail starts to grow longer and sharper than it normally is. He swiftly cuts her palm with it, and she winced. Blood dripped out of it, and instantly, David put her left hand down on the floor then said. "Keep looking at the hole while repeating after me."

  When she nodded, he started to say indecipherable words. And although she didn't understand its meaning, it wasn't hard to chant them. The blood from the cut moved with every word she said and formed some kind of symbol.

 Right after saying the last word, the headache started to fade away along with the symbol on the floor and her sight came back to normal. The last thing she saw was the blond man in front of her with glowing ice blue eyes, before she fell unconscious.

  David put her body on his lap, rested her head on his chest, then brought her injured palm up to his mouth. He licked the cut with his tongue until there was no cut like it never existed. He then broke the ice bubble and carried her in his arms.

"Who is the lady's maid in waiting?" he asked coldly.

"It's me, your grace. Anna." One of the maids said bowing her head.

  "Lead the way to her bedroom, please."

   "Yes, your grace. This way please."

Anna led them up to the second floor where the princess's bedroom was situated and opened the door with a bowed head. David strode to the bed and laid her carefully on it. He covered her with the blanket.

 "Change her into a comfortable set of clothes. She needs some rest and calm so keep quiet. She likes fish so prepare fish soup for dinner. Ask the physician for some calming herbs, no need for him to check on her." He ordered, his eyes didn't leave the sleeping woman for a second. He caressed her cheek with his thumb. Anna gasped when she saw him bend down and leave a chaste kiss on her mistress's lips.

Hesitantly, David parted his lips away from hers and stood straight, looking at her with a warm smile, then walked away and to the door.

"Anna, be a good maid a keep this a secret between us, will you." He said smiling. A smile that sent chills to the poor maid