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When Grian wakes up, there is a deep hunger in his belly so powerful that he immediately curls onto his side and whimpers in pain.
“Here,” a voice, distantly familiar, says from his bedside. Something is pressed up against his lips. “Bite. Drink.”
Blind with starvation, Grian unthinkingly obeys. His teeth cut into flesh, and the rusty tang of blood floods his mouth, and swallowing it down is such an instant, stark relief that Grian feels he might sob with it.
All too soon, however, the wrist he’s been drinking from is pulled away. He groans in protest and reaches out to try and grab for it, but is easily batted away.
“Don’t go taking too much,” the voice says, and now that he’s not delirious with hunger, Grian recognizes it as Cub. “It’s just to tide you over until you get some real food, anyway.”
Strangely, the realization of his circumstances doesn’t send Grian’s world crashing down around him the way he thought it might. It fades in slowly, the knowledge seeping into his bones, cold and harsh, but somehow painless. It feels…numb. Maybe he’s just going into shock, Grian thinks. If that was still a thing his body could physically do.
“I thought Scar was still too new to turn people,” he says, sounding far away to his own ears.
Cub’s expression is unreadable. “Scar didn’t turn you,” he says. “That was all me.”
Grian just nods. It only makes sense. The knowledge doesn’t stir loose any of the emotions he might expect. There’s really only one question that matters right now.
“Is he okay?”
“He’s fine,” Cub answers, the barest edge of caution in his tone. “He just wasn’t sure you’d want to see him, all things considered.”
“Of course I want to see him,” Grian says. In this moment, it’s the only clear want he has. “If I’m…this now—” He gestures at himself vaguely. “Then the very least I can do is use that to get him out of there.”
Something in Cub’s shoulders loosens. “That’s good,” he says. “That’s good.”
Unexpectedly, Cub places a hand on Grian’s shoulder. Unexpectedly still, the touch feels comforting.
“We’ll get the bastard,” Cub insists. “All of ‘em, if we need to. For now, we’ll figure it out as we go.” He nods meaningfully at the door across the room. “All of us.”
And, well. Grian is sure he’ll have a nice long breakdown about this whole thing later. But in the meantime, he lets himself lean in closer to Cub and take his word for it.