The Vampire & Her Witch

”Ash, I need help!”

Ashlynn was across the boat before Jocelynn finished saying it, and Jocelynn felt her sister’s shadow fall over her, and then the whole boat shifted as Ashlynn came down onto one knee beside her.

Then she saw Ashlynn’s hand reach for the line.

”Don’t!” Jocelynn shouted, unintentionally yelling right into Ashlynn’s ear as her sister tried to help.

Ashlynn froze with her fingers a hand’s breadth from the cord.

”Don’t pull it,” Jocelynn gasped, hauling back with everything her protesting shoulders had. The line had wound around her right hand, and it was biting a hot line across her palm, but she didn’t dare let go long enough to fix it. ”Ash, you’ll snap it. You snapped yours, and it wasn’t even fighting you yet.”

For a single frozen moment, her sister didn’t say anything.

Jocelynn couldn’t spare a glance to see her face, but she heard her breathe out, slow and careful, and she didn’t need to look to know that her sister’s head had drooped along with that breath.

”You’re right, Jocey,” Ashlynn said. ”I’m sorry.”

”I know I’m right, that’s why... ah! Ash, it’s taking the line, it’s taking the...”

”Jocey. Listen to me,” Ashlynn said, her voice coming from right behind Jocelynn’s ear now, low and steady. ”I’m not going to pull on the line. I’m going to pull you. We’ll do it together,” she said.

And then Ashlynn’s hands came over hers.

Not onto the line. Over her own fingers, palm across knuckle, with her fingers wrapping gently around Jocelynn’s, so that the wet cord was still cutting into Jocelynn’s skin and not her sister’s at all.

Jocelynn had seen these hands snap a fishing line like a strand of hair. She had seen them batter Owain’s helm until his visor broke, and she’d watched those hands drive a sword through Owain’s skull.

Jocelynn knew full well how strong Ashlynn’s hands were, but when they pulled, it was barely more than her own pull, just enough to give her the little bit of edge she needed to make progress. Ashlynn wasn’t taking the work away from her. She was letting Jocelynn pull at her absolute limit and then adding just that little bit more that Jocelynn didn’t have.

Ash came to help, not to do it for her, and Jocelynn smiled as she basked in the warmth of her sister’s strong, reassuring support.

”Now,” Ashlynn said, before Jocelynn could sink so deeply into the comfort of the moment that she lost track of the fish. ”We’ll do it together. Hand over hand. You lead, and I’ll follow.”

”All right,” Jocelynn said with a sharp nod. ”Together.”

Jocelynn started slowly, pulling in a foot of line and wrapping it around the peg before pulling in another foot of line. It was steady for several cycles, and then they lost a foot when the fish turned and darted the other direction, pulling both of them forward with it.

Their boots braced against the ribs of the boat and Jocelynn’s breath came out in hard white bursts of mist drifting on the cold winter air. Her hair had come loose and was stuck to her wet face, but she barely noticed as she focused on exhausting the struggling fish and the feeling of Ashlynn’s strong, supportive arms wrapping around her.

”Hold,” Ashlynn said softly, her breath warm on Jocelynn’s cheek. ”Just hold for a moment. Now, again.”

”It’s not coming,” Jocelynn said as the line jerked back and forth frantically while she tried to pull it in. The fish was close now, and the surface of the water churned and splashed as the giant fish struggled, but it felt like it was impossible to pull it any further as the line threatened to pull out of her hands.

”It’s coming,” Ashlynn reassured her. ”Just a little bit more.”

”Ash, my hands,” Jocelynn protested. The cold made her fingers stiff, even with the warmth she felt from Ashlynn’s hands around hers, and the line bit deeply enough into her palm that she swore it would start to bleed any moment.

”I know,” Ashlynn said softly. ”You’re almost there; let me help a little more,” Ashlynn said as a faint green glow enveloped her hands as she whispered a soft invocation.

”With Willow’s soothing balm, and Oak’s rugged bark,

Wash pain away, let nothing leave a mark.”

The instant Ashlynn finished speaking, Jocelynn felt the pain in her hands receding, as if the river’s current had washed the ache away. The skin of her hands felt strange, like she was wearing leather work gloves, even though she wasn’t, but the line no longer cut into her palms or her fingers the way it had before.

”You have it now,” Ashlynn said softly. ”The rest is you, and I’m right here to help if you need me.”

”Mmm,” Jocelynn said, too focused on the fish and the strange feeling in her hands to say more than that as she pulled again, hauling in another foot of line and then two more. Without the line biting into her hands, she felt stronger, even though the muscles in her forearms and shoulders burned with the effort, and she barely needed Ashlynn’s help at all to pull the fish up out of the water.

-SPLASH!-

The fish came up over the rail and hit the floorboards between them, flopping frantically and rocking the whole coble from side to side.

It was enormous.

It was a long slab of muscle nearly as long as Jocelynn’s leg, dark-backed and silver-flanked with a wash of rose down the side and a jaw like a hook, and it lay there in the bottom of the boat gasping while the two of them stared at it.

Jocelynn sat down hard on the thwart with a heavy thump. She unwound the line from her hand, slowly, and looked at the smooth, unblemished skin of her palms that just moments ago had felt like they were about to bleed. But now, thanks to Ashlynn, her hands were clean...

Yet the instant she thought of what came next, of using a knife to dispatch the fish, she watched her fingers begin to shake. For a moment, she felt that warm, sticky sensation creeping from her fingertips to her palms, and her face went pale. The sound of the river rushing past grew louder and louder in her ears, and the edges of her vision grew darker.

”...cey, Jocey, are you all right?” Ashlynn asked, wrapping her arms around her sister and holding her close. ”You did it, Jocey,” Ashlynn said proudly, drawing Jocelynn’s attention back to the fish. ”Look at it. Father couldn’t have done any better if he tried, not on this river. Think how proud Mother will be when you tell her that you caught it for her,” Ashlynn said, giving Jocelynn a tight squeeze.

”You think so?” Jocelynn said as the darkness began to recede from the edges of her vision. ”You really think she’ll be proud of me?” Jocelynn asked as she turned in Ashlynn’s embrace to meet her sister’s emerald gaze.

”I know she will,” Ashlynn said, giving Jocelynn one last squeeze before she pulled back, stepping over the floorboards while drawing the curved knife from her waist.

Ashlynn struck with a speed that was too fast for Jocelynn’s eyes to follow, using the hilt of her knife to stun the fish, then moving quickly to cleanly dispatch it with her blade.

”This would feed six for a feast,” Ashlynn said as she worked, cutting the gills to bleed the fish. ”Can you get the basket in the water, Jocey?” Ashlynn asked, gesturing to a woven basket on the floorboards that was already tied to the boat, waiting to hold their catch while it bled out into the water.

”Oh, yes, I can do that,” Jocelynn said, grateful to have something to do that didn’t require her to handle the fish at the moment. She knew it was important to bleed it out soon for the best-tasting meat, but the idea of it, even though it was just a fish, was more than she was ready to handle.

Once the fish was back in the water with the basket floating alongside the coble, Ashlynn set her hand on Jocelynn’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

”You caught an impressive fish, Jocey,” Ashlynn said. ”So now you have to pick. What are we going to cook with it for Mother’s dinner tonight?”