Max's Faith & Fury [COMPLETE]

Chapter 13

Getting naked never felt so good. As soon as she was in the bedroom, Max ripped off the dirty, bloody oversized clothes. She didn't care what she exposed to the house assistant Efrooz when she instructed her to burn the horrid things. Bra and underwear included. She needed fresh everything to get herself away from the morning events.

The water was immensely cleansing, surrounding her like warm, peaceful rain. For the first time that day she felt like she could breathe. The humid mist cleared her sinuses and mind, and for a moment there was peace. Peace that was stolen away as a thought slithered into the forefront of her mind.

Asahel.

He was cleaning himself up too, at his house of course; wherever that was. He haunted her dreams so fiercely that in her waking moments, she didn't know what to think; of him or anything else for that matter. Especially after today.

She sighed in the hot water. Mia had some explaining to do because this was madness. She longed for some kind of normalcy, but what did that even look like? Her life had been turned upside down, but at least she still had a life. That was more than she could say for her father and Darla, whose joint funeral was the next day.

As much as Asahel made her feel safe, she really hoped he wouldn't be attending it with her. She needed some kind of space after today. Unfortunately, he would be the one taking her to Mia. She wouldn't drive if he asked her to. She needed a break from that too.

Max was more than pleased to find a clean set of clothes on the bed. Denim capris wasn't her usual look, but they were better than oversized slacks. The frilly black tank top was more girly than she was used to but was comfortable. The matching pink bra and underwear fit perfectly too, almost felt like nothing was hugging her skin. Now her hair. Taming the wild natural waves in all the wrong places was a task.

Twenty minutes into the blow drying, Efrooz informed her that Asahel had arrived. He could wait. Max went back to the round brush and drying, which took another thirty minutes with her thick, long white-blonde hair. With the purple shampoo she'd asked Efrooz to find the other day, her blonde hair appeared whiter than brassy. It helped with the natural tones that tried to darken to something a little more yellow every year. Luckily, her natural tones accepted the purple magic, and she was able to keep her hair its childhood color for longer.

Now that her hair was soft and straight, flowing long and passed her elbows, Max put everything away and left the bedroom. A new pair of clothes and a shower completely changed a person. Not just Max either.

Asahel was in a fresh white t-shirt that hugged every muscular curve. Blue jeans, a brown cloth belt and some nice brown shoes made him look stunningly casual. His black hair shined from the product holding it in place, except for the stray hairs that insisted on falling in front of those handsome brown eyes. He hadn't shaved, and Max found herself pleased with that.

She walked right up to him, expecting him to make some comment on how long she took. But he didn't. Instead, he pointed at her feet.

Ugh, crap. Her shoes were also in the burn pile, and now she didn't have any. "I guess I don't have shoes..." How pathetic. She couldn't even be like every other normal human being.

"I might."

"How?" She cringed.

"In the car. What size are you? Seven?" He turned and led her to the front door.

"Uh... um, six and a half or seven, depending on the brand." The evening air was nice and cooled her hot skin.

"You have big feet for being so short."

Her mouth dropped, "I, ugh! Depends on the brand! Some shoes I'm a six."

"Too late, you can't convince me otherwise." He smirked at her as he opened the trunk.