Cold All the Way Through, But Warming

Nis

He came straight at me.

I dropped the box, trying to run, but he grabbed my wrist, snarling something that I couldn't understand. He pulled, whirling me back towards him. I could see the confusion in his face as my hat came flying off my head, and then his eyes widened when he saw the hatpin in my hand. Pearl studded on one end, it was six inches of steel and sharp as a needle. I jabbed it towards his eyes, and he lurched backwards but didn't let go. I could barely hear anything over the man yelling as Rigel mauled him, but I could hear an engine rushing towards us and I saw his eyes turn towards it for a moment. It was all I needed to stab the pin into his arm.

"You bitch!" He yelled, his attention fully on me again. I didn't even have time to move as his hand whipped around, cracking me across the cheek. I fell, hard, to the pavement and my vision went black for a moment as my head smacked into the sidewalk. Things came back to me in bursts, the noises were suddenly too loud and my vision swam. I heard a yelp, and a shadowy form was standing over me and growling loudly at a figure that ignored him and began laying into another with his fists. Two more cloudy figures followed, and I felt my eyes begin to close.

"Anastasia, what happened?" A voice was suddenly close, fingers gently probing at my head. But it seemed as if my tongue would not work, and the figure turned away and began to speak quickly. It returned, and my vision cleared for a moment. Oscar knelt over me, Rigel watching like a concerned mother as he slipped his arms underneath me. "I need you to press your head to my shoulder, I don't have a stretcher so I'm going to have to lift you." I tried to do as he asked, but my head felt as if it weighed as much as Rigel. And then I was out of the cold, laid out on a leather bench in the back of a car. Oscar was still warm underneath me, his arms holding me as he called for Rigel to come in. I heard his claws click on the floor, and he whined as he laid down. I turned, looking out the windshield. My carriage started off, driven by someone else as my coachman was currently sitting next to the driver, the tailor's box clutched in his hands.

My tongue was thick, and I coughed before I could speak. "Oscar?"

"Yes, yes." He held me tighter to him, "You're safe now, I've got you. Nothing's going to happen. We're going to get you home, and get to the bottom of whatever the hell happened here. You're going to be fine." My head was still on his shoulder, and it was pounding as the car drove. Every bump made me groan, and Oscar shifted me a bit to try and relieve it. "I'm sorry, I would try and pull my jacket off for a pillow, but it's going to be hard enough getting you out of here." I closed my eyes, burrowing further against him. His arms were tight around me, "You need to stay awake, at least until we can get a doctor."

"Will, he hates when I have to see doctors." I mumbled, wincing as we went over another bump. The tires crunched against gravel, and I tried cracking an eye open. Everything was so bright though, and I squeezed them shut again. "Where are we?"

"We're at your house, I'm going to have to lift you again." Oscar wound up shifting me several times as he worked on getting me out of the car. He kept apologizing under his breath as he kept touching me, although I hardly cared. Everything was so bright, and Rigel was whining and as soon as Oscar carried me inside it seemed like I was surrounded by a never-ending parade of loud, concerned servants. Oscar started me up the stairs as he explained, his voice was the only one I could stomach listening to at the moment, he kept it low and spoke as much to me as to them. "I saw men trying to take her outside the tailor's, I had my driver pull over and rushed to help. Between myself, my driver and my valet we made short work of them. Her coachman was inside the carriage, bound and unconscious. My valet got him out and into our car, the three of us bound them up with the rope they no doubt had intended for her." I heard a door open, and the soft blues of my room seemed so bright they hurt as he continued. "They're in the coach, my chauffeur drove it back and my valet drove us here."