Editing Bleeding Out (Warhammer High) (section)

===Healing a Wound===

Roberta sat with her arms crossed over her knees, staring out over the neatly-trimmed square of grass in front of her father’s mansion.  Her vox dangled from her hands, inert.  The morning sun was blocked out by the mass of the house, rising behind her.  In the dim light, she could just make out the animal lying down in the grass beneath the trees by the road.  The little creature had been lying there, without moving much, for an hour.  It was alive, clearly.  It had been staring at her for a few minutes, then lost interest.

It was small.  Maybe the size of a small dog, with mottled brown and white fur, and long, spindly legs.  It was lying in the shade of a tree, as if waiting for something.  Roberta racked her brain, trying to remember what they were called, but the name eluded her.  The little animal was blinking feebly in the dim light, looking around as if waiting for something.  Roberta flipped her vox into the air and caught it, and the critter jerked its head over to stare at it, blinking with its blank brown eyes.  The bespectacled girl smiled at that.  “Didn’t like that?  Sorry.”

A faint thumping noise behind her drew her attention.  Roberta glanced over her shoulder to see a much larger animal – the mother, maybe – walking across the grass, and stood up, backing out of its way.  The larger animal stared at her for a moment, before walking quickly to the infant and nuzzling it.  The smaller animal stared at the larger, before wobbling to its legs and meekly following the larger one into the woods.

She watched the animals disappearing into the forest around her house, inexplicably happy.  After they faded from view, she flipped her vox open and speed-dialed Six.  On the last ring before it kicked over to voicemail, someone picked up.  “Hey, Freya,” Roberta said in greeting.

“…ngh,” someone on the other end mumbled.

“Did I catch you at a bad time, or are you always this dead at 0600?”

“Whozzat?” the redhead asked, fighting back a burning headache.  Alex stirred in his sleep, but didn’t wake.

“It’s Roberta.  How hung-over are you?” Roberta giggled.

“I’m not drunk,” Freya groused.  She slid out of bed, wiping cobwebs of sleep from her eyes, trying not to wake her boyfriend up.  “What do you want?”

“Get over here.  I have something to show you.”

“At six in the morning?”  Freya growled, irritation cutting through her sleep fog.  “What is it?”

“But, see, if I told you, you wouldn’t have anything to be mad over when you get here,” Roberta said cheerfully.

“…Fine.  Fuck.”  Freya said, hanging up.  She dropped the phone on her bed and pulled some clothes on, glancing at herself in the mirror to make sure she was presentable.  Deciding that she was, she walked back to the bed, leaning over her boyfriend.  “Hey, sleepyhead.  Be back later, OK?” she whispered, nipping his ear with her fang.

“Mmm,” he said faintly, not waking up.  Freya silently grabbed the cup full of ash and put it in the sink of her bathroom, running it under the water until the cup was clear.  Satisfied that it was clean, she tiptoed out the door, heading for her own car.

Roberta leaned against the façade of her father’s garage, waiting as Freya’s car pulled through the Treasury line.  As soon as she clambered out, she stomped on over to her cousin, anger written all over her face.  “What?” she demanded as soon as she was in earshot.

“You’re so lucky that the paparazzi are afraid to come here right now,” Roberta said, holding in a laugh with some effort.

Freya snarled under her breath, baring one canine.  “What?!”

“Did Alex wear a button-down shirt last night?” Roberta said, struggling through a smirk.

Freya started, and slowly glanced down her front.  She was wearing her boyfriends’ shirt.

With a muffled “eep!” of modesty, she grabbed the collar and hem, pulling them shut, but Roberta was already laughing.  “It’s OK, it’s OK, you got…a few buttons,” she managed, trying to keep her face straight.

“Fucking…boyshirts…” Freya mumbled, buttoning the few stray buttons shut.  “Fine, I’m here, I’m embarrassed.  Now what?”

“Come with me,” Roberta instructed, all business now.  She turned and walked away, heading alongside the house.  Freya stomped after her, silently daring one of the Treasury agents or Ultramarine Auxilia to stare at her too long.  It was only when they were nearly all the way to the small, wooded area behind the house that Freya noticed that they weren’t going in.

“You wanted to show me something out here?” she asked snippily.

“Fear not,” Roberta said, pausing when they reached the edge of the woods.  The line between the carefully-groomed grass and the bare dirt beneath the trees was so fine it could have been cut with a razor.

“Okay.  Now we need to be quiet,” Roberta said, holding a finger to her lips.  She kicked off her sandals, walking barefoot into the woods.  Freya stared.

“What?”

“Shh!”  Roberta exclaimed, glaring back over her shoulder.  Freya blinked, but kept her lips sealed, curiosity overcoming resentment.

She slid her own flip-flops off, padding silently into the woods after her cousin.  “I found them this morning,” Roberta whispered, so faint it wasn’t even audible, had normal humans been listening.  Freya, of course, could hear perfectly.  “It’s just one and the mother.”  She slowed until she was barely moving, walking on the edges of her feet, so the shifting of her weight wouldn’t give her away.  She stopped completely at the edge of a small clearing in the wooded area, pointing in silence.

Freya moved up behind her, peering over her shoulder.  The baby animal from before was wobbling back and forth in the clearing, getting a feel for its legs.  The mother was lying down on her stomach, legs tucked away underneath her body, watching her offspring carefully.

Roberta allowed herself a few seconds to watch, before turning to Freya with a smug grin.  Her Space Wolf cousin was entranced.  Freya took a few silent steps forward, her eyes locked on the display.  She cast her eyes over the scene, taking in every detail, watching as the little animal learned how to use its legs.

Very slowly, she turned to face her cousin, who nodded once, a knowing grin on her face.  “They’re adorable!” Freya whispered, glee raising the pitch of her voice.  Roberta beamed.

“Enjoy,” she mouthed, leaning back against the tree next to her, settling in for a wait.

Freya rolled her sleeves up to her elbows and melted into the shadows of the wooded stretch.  Lord Guilliman had only insisted that it be there because he knew it would be a rarity on the urban world of Terra, and scarcity creates value.  Roberta watched her cousin silently move around the clearing, until she actually lost sight of her.  How her red-headed cousin could vanish in non-camouflage clothing was beyond her, but she did, leaning low to the ground and disappearing into the shadows.  Roberta cleaned her glasses with the hem of her shirt and stared, but no – she was gone.

Roberta’s eyes drifted back to the animals in the clearing – deer, that’s what they’re called, she suddenly remembered – and stared.  Neither the mother nor the baby had noticed them, somehow.  The mother was clearly just resting, and watching the infant patiently, and the baby was just figuring out what knees were for.  She watched them both, unmoving, wondering how long it would take Freya to…

There.  A tiny shift of a branch, to the side of the clearing.  Both deer turned to look at it, staring with bovine eyes.  The branch wasn’t moving with the wind at all.  Roberta strained her eyes, trying to spot Freya in the brush.  She leaned forward a hair, squinting through the morning glare.  Was that her behind the branch itself?

Nope.  With a suddenness all the more abrupt for its total silence, Freya slunk out from the completely opposite side of the clearing, and dropped onto her haunches, staring at the infant deer from less than five feet away.  Roberta shook her head.  How the FUCK does she do that? she wondered in silence.

Freya stood still, leaning back on her bare ankles, staring at the deer with a feral intensity that belied her usual, goofy demeanor.  The baby deer turned back to its wobblings, but froze when its saw the girl, its little black nose twitching.  The mother turned back and rose to its feet in an instant, staring at Freya, clearly wondering what to do.  Freya kept still, her eyes locked on the scene, as the baby took a wobbling step towards her, sniffing the air.  The mother walked over, tilting its head down behind the infant’s head, stopping it short.  Both deer froze, watching Freya sit there, unmoving.  Finally, the mother herded the baby to the edge of the clearing, nudging it into the woods, to find some other place to practice.

Freya gave them a ten-count before standing with a *pop* from her knees and brushing the leaves off her hands.  Roberta straightened up and walked over to her, listening to the deer move through the underbrush.  Freya turned to her with a radiant grin, her fangs glinting in the sun.  “That…was awesome.  Thanks, Roberta, I really needed that.”

Roberta nodded sagely.  “I bet.  Now, go return Alex’s shirt.”

“Oh my god, I hate you,” Freya giggled, tugging the sleeves back down.  Both girls trudged back to the edge of the woods, pausing to pick up their shoes.  “But really, call me again if they come back, I could use some exercise.”

“Or a snack,” Roberta quipped.

“I’m not Dad,” Freya said primly.  She slid her sandals back on and dug her keys out, walking back to her car.  “Hey, though, if you want to come over later, we should make sort of thing to send to the hospital.”

“Oh, yeah, good call,” Roberta said.  “Uh, I’ll see who’s available and we can congregate somewhere.  Where do you want to do it?”

“Uh, Farah’s if we can,” Freya said, pausing in the door of her car.  “If not, I can host.”

“Sure.  I’ll call you,” Roberta said, waving goodbye and stepping back to let the air car lift off.  Freya peeled off, flying under the Treasury line, heading for her own house.  Only a few minutes passed before the mansion’s fence resolved in the distance, and Freya soared over it, her car’s IFF passing the Treasury sensors automatically.  She pulled up in the garage annexed onto the house, blowing past the pair of Space Wolves serfs at the door into the house with a cursory wave.  Her father wasn’t present, it seemed; the house was empty.  She marched straight up the stairs and back into her room, stopping at the bedside to stare down at Alex’s still-sleeping form under the covers.  With a huff of impatience, she closed and locked the door, and hastily pulled her sandals and pants back off, leaving her borrowed shirt unbuttoned.  Finally, Alex stirred in his sleep, screwing his eyes shut against the light.

“Mph.  ‘Morning,” he mumbled, shielding his eyes.

“Wakey wakey,” Freya said, her voice low and intense.  Perhaps sensing danger, Alex’s eyes flew open, catching an eyeful of Freya, now naked save for his own shirt, leaning over him.

“Uh, hi.  Where did you go this morning?” he asked.

“Roberta wanted to show me something.  Good thing she did, too,” she said, her eyes traveling up and down Alex’s silhouette under the covers.

“Really?  Why’s that?” Alex asked with distinct nervousness, propping himself up on one elbow.

Freya swept his arm out from under him and half-rolled onto the bed on top of him, vigorously pulling the covers out of the way.  “Well,” she said thickly, emotion and hunger pushing through her voice, “it left me feeling a little primal.”  She grabbed his wrist and held it over his head, pulling him into a vigorous kiss, sinking the fingers on her free hand into the flesh of his shoulder.  He instinctively pulled back before he realized what was happening through his sleep-induced fuzziness, sliding his own free hand down her back to her waist and pulling her in.  “Good idea,” she whispered roughly, wrapping both legs around his.  “Now, let’s see you follow through…”