Tamsin sat alone at the bar of the Dal cradling a tumbler of vodka and ice. It was rare to see anyone else in here at noon and this suited her fine. She liked to spend her lunch breaks alone, preferably with alcohol.

A racket broke the silence as the door was thrust open with a clattering noise. Tamsin looked to the doorway irritated and offended by whoever would ruin her lunch. This was until she took in the sight of Bo covered in blood, desperately clinging to the door for support.

"Trick! We have a problem!" The blonde called out, her eyes still fixed on Bo.

Bo attempted to stagger forward, collapsing into the Valkyries arms as Tamsin rushed forward to catch her.

"What the hell happened to you?"

The only time she ever saw people this butchered was on the battlefield and then she was usually on route to take them to Valhalla. Bo's skin was patterned with rows of incisions and puncture wounds, Tamsin knew only one Fae whose work looked like this. An underfae species called the Razorfen that kills its victims by trapping them in an enclosed space before releasing hundreds of surgically sharp spines to slice the flesh of their victims. They kill by repeating this process until the target bleeds to death which, for a lot of more resilient Fae, can be a long and torturous demise.

Trick rushed in to be met with the sight of his granddaughter spluttering blood out onto the floor.

"Bo what happened?" the older man rushed forward reaching out.

"Don't touch her!" Tamsin snapped. Tamsin was growing rapidly protective of the brunette.

"Take her downstairs. I'll call Dyson, she needs to heal quickly or she's going to bleed out." Trick murmured concerned by the Valkyries tone.

"No it can't be him. Someone else. It has to be someone else" Bo pleaded in a raspy voice, the first sounds she had made since entering the bar.

"I'll take care of it" tamsin interjected, her face steeled.
"You really think you can overcome your instincts and save her?" Trick was obviously concerned leaving his only blood relative with a Valkyrie, especially with such grave injuries.

"I'm not going to kill her Trick!" Tamsin was audibly offended by the implication; she carefully pulled the succubus' body closer to hers.

"You're a Valkyrie; it's in your nature." It was true; it is the duty of a Valkyrie to take dying heroes from the battlefield to Valhalla but Tamsin had no desire to lose being able to see Bo every day.

"I trust her trick." Bo said flatly, she didn't have any energy to argue with her Grandfather.

Bo's ability to stand was failing so Tamsin scooped her up in to her deceptively strong arms and carried her downstairs. She knew she could let Bo feed without losing control. She could never hurt the succubus, not anymore.

She placed her gently on a makeshift hospital bed. She could feel the shadows creeping into her face at the sight before her. The blood seeped and congealed. It was starting to dry and flake in some places. Bo's eyes lolled back in her sunken eye sockets.

"Please don't give up on me here hot pants." This time with a much gentler tone than the blonde usually used.

Tamsin pressed her mouth desperately to the succubus' hoping that she would start to feel that familiar draining sensation clawing at her very core.

Still she waited until she felt a bloodied hand snake up into her hair. Usually she'd be mighty pissed at anyone who dared get blood all over her, especially in her hair, but this time it came as a relief as the cool feeling spread throughout her body. She opened her eyes briefly to see the spectral blue orbs piercing back at her.

As Bo's wounds began to close the succubus pulled her closer leaning up into the kiss, her hands wandering down Tamsin's back pulling their bodies flush together. The blood that coated Bo's skin was smearing over the Valkyrie; her skin covered in gory handprints. Tamsin felt as though she was swimming in the blue energy, floating around and drifting out to sea.

"Wow. That was. Wow." Bo spoke smiling into the kiss.

As the kiss broke Tamsin's grip on the hospital bed loosened as she slipped to the floor unconscious.

"Tamsin? Tamsin? Can you hear me? Fuck, why did she let me take so much!" She quickly crouched down next to the sprawled body in front of her.

"Trick! Help she's not waking up!"

Trick rushed downstairs, surprised that it was Bo's voice crying for help and not the Blonde's.

Bo lent in to try to give her back some chi.
"Bo don't, Valkyrie are one of a few species that can only feed when someone is close to death in battle. It won't work." Bo sat back frustrated and guilty.

"You need to protect her while she is in this state. If any other nearby Valkyries sense that she is close to death they will come to try to take her to Valhalla. Even if she could recover, they rarely risk losing their own kind." Trick had his concerned voice that Bo never liked to hear.

"What's so bad about that? Can't Valkyries pass freely between this world and Valhalla?" Bo didn't understand the technicalities but she knew she couldn't lose the girl who was making risking her life for her a habit.

"A Valkyrie taken to Valhalla at the brink of death is punished for their failure. The cost of immortality is that they must give up all their memories and emotions of the people in their life." Trick continued in his lecturing tone. "Stay with her, I will try and find something to ward off any other Valkyrie." Trick left, scurrying up the rickety staircase.

Bo sat on the cold hard floor cradling the blonde's head in her lap. The ghostly face of death still warped the cheeky grin Bo was used to seeing. She gently stroked her fingers across her face, tracing every outline. She lent down to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Why would you do something so stupid?" As she pulled back, she noticed some of the colour had returned to her face replacing the deathly image.

"Tamsin? Please wake up? I need you to wake up. I don't want to fight this war without you by my side. You've been the only one whose believed in me fully recently."

Many hours passed, Bo finally drifted to sleep still cradling the girl she felt so attached to.

Tamsin finally spoke with a cough and a groan, "Ugh my head. What happened. Bo?"

"Oh thank god you're alive" The brunette beamed with relief.

"No thanks to you. Couldn't even move me onto the comfy bed? My back is killing me" Tamsin spoke wincing as she sat up.

"I'm so sorry I didn't realise how much I was taking" The guilt was overwhelming for Bo, to think she almost killed someone so important to her.

"Really it's fine. I can handle a mid-day nap if it means I still get to see your face." Tamsin smirked, sitting up.

"Thank you." Bo smiled sincerely.

"Anytime." Tamsin said with a wink. Standing and brushing some dried blood and dust from her clothes, inspecting the ruined garments, "Am I going to have to start carrying around a change of clothes when I'm with you?"

The pair exchanged a genuine smile. Bo wasn't sure what their relationship could be but she knew that there was so chance she was letting this girl out her life without a fight.