They still weren't home. By the time I woke, the sun was high and no one was pounding down my door. I was so thankful to have more rest, I didn't question it. The majority of the daylight passed us without notice. I woke once sometime after noon only to hide my face in Rose's cloud of hair. It was a warm and comfortable in this alternate universe.

      Rosaria cooked us dinner once again, heart, smashed peas, and barley. We rested at the kitchen table once we finished. I ate blackberries and she watched me, gaze transfixed on my stained lips. My heart quickened when she ran a distracted finger across her own plump lower lip. She licked a trickle of spit from the corner of her mouth and heaved a sigh. I tilted my head in a question, mouth filled with dark juice.

      "I can't stand to see you this way," Rose said this with another deep sigh.

      I swallowed the berry pulp and showed her stained teeth. "I'll heal," I assured her, "that's if you plan on sticking around." Her words last night popped into my head as I spoke 'Run away with me.'

      Rose leaned down to plant chaste peck on my lips before turning away. I cricked my neck to watch her as she found a knife and returned. "Do you trust me?" I didn't expect those to be the words to come out of her mouth and laughed with discomfort.

      "I don't know, what's with the knife?"

      Rose placed a hand, palm up, in front of me. "Watch."

      I did and she slashed the knife across her skin and through the muscle. For a terrifying second, I could see the white of some interior structure before her skin uncannily knitted itself together. As I watched, her palm completely healed. I grabbed her hand and turned it over and over to find it flawless. I didn't know how she would fake it and I was starting to think that she didn't have to.

      "I can do that for you too," she said and I looked up, "but you have to trust me."

      "You're going to use a knife?" I said, hoping that's not what she intended and knowing it was.

      "Give me your arm, I'll show you," Rose requested, "promise, it will only hurt for a moment."

      The promise to magically rid me of my current pain convinced me to give her a shot. I held out my arm, fist clenched to stay myself. Rosaria held the knife against the underside of my forearm, not pressing yet. She bit hard into her free hand and spat into the blood that pooled there. Without warning, she slashed a line the whole length of my forearm. I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming at her, giving her a second to prove my fears wrong. The pain of the cut broke through for a moment before she smeared her mixed spit and blood over the fresh cut. She pushed my arm back and I looked at the injury she'd surely left me with. It was fine. She offered me a rag as if reading my mind and I wiped away blood to reveal perfectly intact flesh. My brain was having difficulty processing any of this as real.

      "Do you want me to fix your nose?"

      Blinking out of my own self doubt, I looked up at my lover's face. "Yes please," I whispered, conscious of the muffled quality of my voice.

      "Chin up," Rose instructed me.

      Drawing from whatever grit I held deep down, I kept my composure as she pressed the tip of the blade into a nostril. The smell of blood came immediately as the sharpened steel met thin membranes. But she was only holding it there for now. The chair beneath me endured my anxiety as I squeezed the wood hard enough make dents with my nails. There was a pause as Rose combined fresh fluids in her palm. She then slid the knife forward with surgical precision, getting deep but not deep enough to split my face in half. A second passed where I could feel the structural fragility of my nose before my head was being tilted back and I was told to breath.

      When I sucked in hard through my destroyed nose, sensation skipped right past pain to blood, taste and smell. Rose flowed easily from my nose into the back of my throat where I had no choice but to swallow. I felt queasy. She told me she had to do the other side and I told her to be quick. I could feel it working but I didn't know how much longer my nerve would hold. The same steps repeated on the other nostril and this time when Rose forced herself into my belly, the urge to vomit was strong. I held it in. Even if my nose was healing, my ribs were still sore and that much strain would cripple me. The final step was a series of cuts across the tip of my nose and up the bridge. Compared to the first two cuts, the final ones were unremarkable. I wiped my face clean and gingerly felt the result. She had set my nose well yesterday so it almost felt normal. There was only the inevitable bump of healed bone.

      Nose back to normal, my ribs could start their solo career. Holding my hand to my belly, I concentrated on taking a few deep breaths. My lungs insisted their expansion would end in puncture and no matter how many times I proved them wrong, they continued to panic.

      "What would it take to heal my ribs?" I asked.

      Rose flipped the knife in her hand as she thought. "I can't heal them all they, but I can help." She tucked the knife into her waistband then held out a hand. "Let's go upstairs."

      Sequestered in my room, we both stripped and Rose laid me on the mattress. With a protective sheet beneath us, she straddled me and dragged the knife over and over across my ribs. I was getting used to the shallow cuts, almost enjoyed it because I knew the relief would come soon. In the area the bruising was the worst, Rose ventured a couple punctures. I watched without panic as the blade entered my body a few inches and then retreated.

      Finished, I ran my hands over my ribs. Touch was okay but breath still came with a twinge of pain. "You really can't heal me more?" I complained.

      Rose gave me a stern look and I had the decency to blush. She had made a sacrifice of her own body for mine and I didn't appropriately appreciate that. She let me up I rolled onto my back to carefully pull myself to sitting. My entire side was sticky with blood and the room was pungent. I found myself breathing the smell in deep through my nose. Rose stepped back to me, arms red to the elbows and thighs crusted with blood where she'd been pressed against me.

      I I tilted my head back for her, lips parted. She put her hands on my cheeks to control my head and I could feel her fingers sticking to my skin. Her eyes look tired.

      "You smell so good," I told her, "I know it's blood, but..." I turned my head and her thumb slipped into my mouth.

      "It's a side effect," Rose said and ran her tongue across her lips, "it'll wear off in a few days."

      Finger held firm between my lips as I tasted our combined blood, I stood to turn her around. Licked clean, I pulled her hand to guide her to sit on the mattress. "Let me take care of you," I insisted, kneeling to straddle her hips. It didn't take any more convincing for Rose to lay back, sighing with relief. I dropped a leg and lifted her ass to rotate her to lay flat. She looked up at me with heavy lids, smiling vaguely.

      There was a specific glazed look in Rose's eyes that told me she had checked out. I felt strangely energized, a gift from my love I was sure. I positioned a purposeful thigh between her legs and let our hips meet. Her lips were hot and tender as we kissed deep and lazy. She was hot all over. Before when we'd touched, I'd always found cold spots but not tonight. She felt like she had a low level fever and it made me sweat. My mouth moved to Rose's ear and she moaned so softly.

      "I want you," I breathed into her ear.

      "Please," Rose barely whispered, it made me pause.

      "Are you sure?" I looked up to her closed lids. "I can let you sleep."

      Rose shook her head, turning once to the left and once to the right. "Please," she repeated, "I don't care if I pass out, do what you want with me." She pushed weakly against the top of my head to make a point. I let her shove me down without question but stopped with my mouth against her stomach, soaking the soft hairs there with my tongue.

      "Ask me again," I cooed.

      The tiniest moan escaped Rose's lips. "Please Ivy," her voice was barely audible, "please."

      Later, I was shaking, tears staining my cheeks, as my body slowly wound down, tremors getting less and less the longer I waited. Exhausted, I lay back, untucking my legs to be comfortable. Catching my breath, I listened to Rose. Her breath was already slowing and deepening, genuine sleep claiming her. Once my own vitals were returning to normal, I sat, wanting to curl up proper on the mattress. Sticky, I slipped myself around Rose. The smell in the room was thick so I drifted off replaying our evening.