The Lycan King's Healer
The Lycan King’s Healer – Chapter 66

It was the body of a servant. The b***d was flowing from his mouth, permeating through the snow in ribbons. It reminded me of a lizard with its extended tongue. The b***d trail was very long, like it launched from his mouth in projectile form.

I had not felt the cold before, but now I felt it in my bones. Despite this, I hurried over to the body, kneeling over him to somehow replace a way to help or heal him. I didn’t know how I could even begin to replace out the origin of the issue, but I wasn’t going to let him die.

Aldrich grabbed my arm, steering me away from the body. “Cathy, get back inside. He’s already dead.”

I glared at him as I caught my balance. “You don’t know that!”

He sighed before grabbing the man’s arm, pressing his thumb over his wrist. My glare did not falter as I stared at him.

“I do know that,” he said coldly.

“You just had to investigate,” I snapped, eyes starting to brim over with hot tears. They felt burning in the cold.

He paused, wind starting to whip through his hair. “What are you talking about?”

“You had to ruin our night,” I acidicly countered. He looked at me like I had gone mad, and it suddenly felt like we were hundreds of yards away from each other.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he declared with exasperation. He was already treating me like a soldier, annoyed at me for not following his orders.

“Of course you don’t,” I snarled, turning to walk inside.

“Cathy,” he interrupted, “Did you think I did this?” He looked at me with outraged confusion.

“No,” I said firmly, “that’s not what I meant. Not everything is life and death, Aldrich. I can be upset about things other than death for once.”

“There is a dead body on our premises, and you want to pick a fight right now?”

“It would’ve been discovered in the morning. He’s dead now and would still be dead later. Our night could have continued.” Anger began to saturate my veins.

“Let’s get you inside,” he said, his voice becoming more soft, reverting to a form of speaking that implied I was very delicate.

“I’m sick of being plagued with death,” I demanded, and thrust my arm away when he reached to grab it. “I’m sick of good nights turning into macabre nightmares.”

“Cathy, honey–”

“No,” I yelled, my voice loud and edged with mad desperation. “I’m sick of it! I’d rather be dead than deal with all of this!”

He scooped me up and curled me into his chest like he was coddling a tantruming baby. I protested, turning over and over in his arms, trying to slip out of them.

“Get away from me!” I demanded.

Still pressed tightly against his chest, he brought me inside the estate. The guards at the front wore concerned expressions as they watched him transport me through the grand entrance.

“Everything alright, my Lord?”

“We discovered a body to the northwest of the building. I think she is in shock, so I’m bringing her upstairs. Go and I will meet you there momentarily,” he ordered them.

He lugged me up the stairs like cargo, and his grip was so strong, I could not even move my limbs when I tried. I wanted to tantrum, I wanted to throw my arms and legs around and kick him in the head with them, I wanted to scream until my throat was raw.

I was so utterly sick of it all; I couldn’t handle any more mysterious replaceings or bodies or things that implied a major threat to our lives. I couldn’t have this one night to myself. I couldn’t enjoy Theo accepting Aldrich as his father or the way the snow twinkled when the moonlight hit it or how flushed Aldrich’s cheeks were in the cold.

I couldn’t have any of it to myself.

He changed me out of my snow coated clothes and into my nightgown; I don’t know how he managed or if I gave him a hard time or not. Before I knew it, I was tucked into bed like a child.

I kept hearing myself ramble, things like get away from me and just go, and I said them so many times they began to lose their meaning.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on with you,” he said, sitting down on the end of the bed. I realized I was breathing heavily as I stared at him over my heaving chest.

“There’s nothing going on with me,” I coldly demanded, but I felt like I was in a dream. Everything felt light and unstable as if the bed was teetering beneath me. “This is your fault, not mine.”

“Cathy,” Aldrich said softly, resting his hand on my ankle. “You’ve hit your breaking point in all of this.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I mumbled through numb lips.

“I am sorry you have to go through all of this because of me,” he said, gazing at me with pity that disgusted me to my core. I glared at him in response.

“I have to investigate the body with my team, Cathy. Please tell me what is wrong.”

“You should’ve just listened to me for once in your life. You never listen to me.”

He paused at that, allowing for me to speak.

“If you listened to me, we would be in here drinking hot chocolate by the fire. We would have a romantic night together.”

“You would have worried yourself sick about what that footprint was, Cathy,” he urged. “Why can’t you ever tell me when something is going on?”

“Because you don’t listen.”

“Because you lie!” Aldrich exclaimed, then when he noticed his volume, he sighed. “I will stay with you the whole night. Screw the investigation for now, I’ll go in the morning.”

“No. I don’t want to even look at you,” I said, turning my face into the pillow while squeezing my eyes shut. I needed the world to stabilize for a moment.

“If that’s what you want,” he said, his eyes glistening with piteous solumness.

“It is,” was all I said, my voice muffled by the pillow.

And so he left. I went to sleep and drifted into a dreamless slumber, even my subconscious too angry and tired to muster up useless fantasies.

Theo must have snuck into my room in the middle of the night, because in the shallow throes of sleep, I felt him tucked under my arm. My only anchor in this raging sea.

***

More bodies were discovered. Each day, a servant was found in a different location, but positioned in the same way. Mangled, their limbs thrown astray, thick b***d running from their lips. I never noticed this in the dark that night, but apparently their skin was a pale hue of green as well.

After days and days of corpse discoveries, the servants informed us that the infirmary was calling us down to consult with the host and hostess. I never left my bed that week. I felt a tiredness in my bones as heavy as lead. Aldrich eventually came into my room, smelling like outside and chimney smoke. We hadn’t spoken since that night, but mainly because he was busy with the investigation. He woke me up and gently offered to let me stay in bed while he went to consult with the mortician, but I ignored him and slid out of bed. If my one perfect night had to be ruined, I wanted to know why it was.

I went downstairs and confronted the doctors, impatiently awaiting the answer.