Teeth »ᴄɵᴍᴘᴌᴇтᴇ«

SEVEN

SEVEN

I woke in a different place to where I had fell asleep. This was my new home, Archie's and my bedroom. I remember that I had been persuaded by Archie – this time – to go to the medical centre. The last thing I remembered before sleep took over was seeing the doctor heading towards me.

As I went to sit up, hands gently pushed me back. "Go back to sleep, Val." Zane.

I blinked myself awake and saw Zane crouched by my bed with a soft expression on his face. Looking around the room showed that he was the only one here.

"The other's had class," he reassured me, after a moment he continued. "And thank you, Val."

I frowned at him, pushing his hands away when he reached to push me back down. "Shower."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Instead of pushing me down, he helped me sit. "Let me have a look at your wounds before you get in."

Not having a problem with that, I let him, aware of how everything seemed so intimate.

"You only have evidence of the fire attack," he told me, unbuttoning the large, loose shirt that wasn't mine at the top. His cat-blue eyes widened. "How fast do you heal?"

"My body has always healed fast."

He lifted the arm of the shirt up until it was on my shoulder. His finger went over the line that had healed, a pale pink line. "Jesus." Shaking his head, he stood. "Are you okay walking or do you want me to turn the water on?"

"Water. It's already set, so you don't have to change anything."

Nodding, he went to turn the water on.

No-one had ever done that for me. Well, Archie panicked and cared. But no-one had cared enough to actually help afterwards, I'd always done that myself. I felt something inside me leave, but it went to a better place, so I didn't mind.

Once I'd had a shower and gotten dressed, it was nearly lunch time. Having missed the lessons this morning, I ignored Zane and headed for my classroom. Zane told me on the way that the teachers would expect me to be sleeping, healing, not going around asking for school work.

I was leaning against the wall as students left. I recognised a few of the shields, saw their eyes widen at me standing there, then I watched as they nearly tripped over their feet to get away.

"Looks like they weren't ready for you to be walking so soon," Zane said, looking at the same girls.

When the class room had emptied, I entered. Mrs. Evanton was shorter than me by a couple of inches. Her hair a brown-blonde and her eyes were a dark blue. In all the time I'd sat in her class, I'd never seen a mark. A mark was proof that the blade was bonded to another. We shields already had our ears and tails – or wings – so we didn't have marks, no physical proof of belonging, so we leave it up to the blade's to protect us from those who wanted to steal us.

"Miss?" I asked, stopping a just inside the door, Zane waited outside.

I watched as she turned, as her eyes widened. "You should be in bed."

"I'm fine, miss. I came over to collect today's work."

"Work?" she asked. "Most students would lay in bed for as long as possible, yet you leave your bed to come and ask for work?" Her voice has gone extremely high pitched in her shock.

"I'm fine," I repeated.

She sighed, shaking her head, mumbling about, "what was the world coming too, if students were actually asking for the work". But did she start to move around, collecting pieces of paper. Once she had a pile, she went over everything and said that if I needed help, to come and find her, she wouldn't mind since I'd missed the lessons for a valid reason. She also told me not to push myself, to which I reassured her that I was fine. Again.