She didn’t take him to see Jacqueline like he’d expected. Marin took him home.
His wife lit the lamp near their bed and locked the door, turning toward him in the flickering of the kerosene lamp’s flame. “Take off your shirt,” she said quietly. “I want to see.”
Thom grimaced and sat down in a chair, not wanting to get their bed dirty with the grime of the road. “I need a bath,” he mumbled.
“That’ll come,” Marin said, leaning against the door. “Just take it off, Thom. I want to see.”
He stared at her in the dim, watching the play of light and shadow against her face. She was pale, perhaps more pale than she should have been, but he knew that she wouldn’t welcome any questions about her own state of health while she was worried about his.
Thom sighed and peeled out of his jacket, his sweater, and his shirt. Marin’s footsteps whispered on the floor as she came to him, her eyes on the bandages J.T. had wound around him.
“Claws,” Thom said before she could ask the question. “One of them raked me with its claws on the right side. It’s not showing any signs of festering or anything like the dirae’s would, though.”
Her fingers were cold against his skin as she started to unwind the bandages from around his body and he shivered at the chill, flesh puckering. Marin sighed softly, her lips brushing against the top of his ear. “Settle down,” she murmured. “I’m not angry.”
Some of the tension drained away. “Just worried?” he asked softly.
“Too worried,” she said, stepping back and moving the lamp closer so she could get a better look at the wounds on his back. “J.T. stitched them up already?”
“He had to. I was bleeding all over the place.” Thom let his head drop, chin resting against his breastbone. “Cameron’s worse off than I am.”
“Cam is Neve’s problem,” Marin whispered as her fingers brushed along the edges of his wounds. “They’re all red around the edges.”
“I’ll be okay,” Thom told her, reaching around gingerly to catch one of her hands in his. “Mar, I’m okay. I’m here.”
“I know,” she whispered in the moment before she kissed him within an inch of his life.
Get it while you can.
I really like how your characters act like real people, not just personality traits. I can imagine people I know acting just this way.