Roses for Rachel

Chapter 35.

When I opened my eyes I was alone in my bed, but when I looked around, I realized it wasn't my bed at all, it was Calvin's mother's. I pulled back the blankets, confused and walked towards the door, but I stopped when I saw King Gordo come in. "Hello, beautiful." He said happily, looking at me. "How did you sleep?" He asked. I stared at him, even more confused, and then a woman's voice came out of me that wasn't my own. "I slept well, thank you." She said and Gordo smiled, coming to hold me in his arms. I tried to pull away, but my body wasn't responding. It was like I was just trapped inside of this body. "I am such a lucky man." Gordo said, tightening his grip. "Meet me in the dining hall in an hour?" He asked, and my head nodded. "Of course, my darling." The woman's voice replied, and Gordo left the room. My body ran to the dresser on the other side of the room and pulled out a piece of paper, a pen, and a small dagger. With the pen I wrote three rushed words, 'I'm sorry, Calvin,' then I grabbed the dagger and ran out of the room, the wooden door slamming behind me. Suddenly my mind was filled with a memory, one that looked familiar even to me. There was a young, beautiful girl, with long dark curls and a single dimple in her left cheek that looked like the woman I'd danced with in the garden in my vampire blood induced dreams. It was Calvin's mother, and she was sitting in a window, but not just any window. A window from the eldest girl's bedroom at Drighten. She stared out over the hills, a sad feeling overcoming me. My vision flashed back to the present, still running down a hallway until suddenly there was a man in the corridor in front of me. "Miss, what are you doing?" He asked with wide eyes as my body raised the dagger. "No!" He screamed as the knife was plunged into the side of my neck, and my body fell to the floor. I was finally free of the body and I seemed to float above, looking down on Calvin's mother's body in the corridor as the man stood with his black eyes over her body for merely a second before biting into her neck, and draining her of her blood. Suddenly, I was back in my room with Fern. She smiled at me, "His mother was a florist before she came here to be with the king." She told me, then she was gone and I was in Calvin's bedroom, him standing in front of me, a frustrated look on his face. "She came from a feeder school. Just like you." He'd said. Then everything went black. "Whispers....whispers...lies..." Fern's eerie voice echoed through the darkness.

I shot up in bed, grabbing my chest trying to slow the beating of my erratic heart. My whole body was shaking and I jumped again when the bedroom door opened, the lights coming on. "Are you okay?" Pedro asked, looking at me like I was insane. "I can hear your heart beating out here." He said as he closed the door behind him and came to sit on the edge of the bed.

I took a few deep breaths. "I'm ok." I said, a little uncertain of how true that was. "I had a nightmare." I explained breathlessly.

"About what?" Pedro asked gently.

I studied his handsome face, his soft eyes looking worried about me. "Nothing." I whispered, shaking my head. "It was just a stupid dream."

"Alright." He said, standing. "If you're sure you're ok, I've got some things to tend to." He told me. I've noticed lately that Pedro has been avoiding me. I thought it was because he thought I would keep asking him for information, but now I wasn't sure.

"Pedro!" I called before he got to the door. "Do you think that my dreams with Fern and the whispers could have been about something else?" I asked him, gaging his reaction carefully.

His eyes widened slightly, and it looked like he had stopped breathing for a moment. "Um, I don't think so." He said, lingering at the door. "You were right about the rebel uprising, so I feel pretty certain that's what it pertained to." He added. "Why do you ask?" He said nonchalantly, raising his brows slightly.

I tried to keep my expression light, even though on the inside I was feeling a little pissed. I felt like it was pretty obvious that he was hiding something, or at least knew something more than he was willing to say. "No reason." I smiled, then changed the subject, watching his face carefully again. "I was going to ask you," I said. "I want to get some more paintings in here from Calvin's mother's room." I explained. "She has such beautiful pictures of flowers and gardens, you know?" I asked, fishing for a certain response.

"I'll get someone to do that for you." He said unaffected.

I chewed my lip. I need to give a little more of a push. "She must have really loved flowers to have so many paintings of them, they are literally everywhere in there." I smiled, stretching my arms over my head and pretending to yawn.

"Yes, I've been in there before." He told me. "She, uh, used to be florist, so she really did enjoy working with flowers and such." He said quickly, then turned. "Anyway, I will talk to you later." He added as he reached for the door, but it swung open and Calvin walked in.

"Oh, good, you're up." He smiled at me. "I just went to get you something to eat." He told me, motioning his head to the tray in his hands. He looked over at Pedro and they exchanged a strange glance before Pedro ducked out of the room.

"Yum." I said sniffing the air and pushing my blankets away to follow Calvin to the table. "I'm starving."

"Aren't you always?" He chuckled, and despite everything, I was happy to see him smiling again. He sat down in the chair and grabbed my wrist, lifting my hand to his mouth as he planted a soft kiss on it, then he pulled me to sit in his lap at the table.

"You seem to be in a better mood today." I commented and he leaned into my neck, kissing me again, while I ate some of my toast.

"I want to be." He said against my skin. "I promised to try to get things back to normal, and I meant it." He told me as he pulled my hair all to one side and trailed more kisses down my neck and across the top of my shoulder.

I giggled when his slightly scruffy chin tickled my skin and he pulled me tighter to him. "How am I supposed to eat with you doing that?" I asked him.

He chuckled lightly again, and my heart sang at the sound of it. "I'll behave." He said seriously. "Eat your food, you'll need your energy for what I have planned."

I turned quickly to look at him. "What plans?"

He winked and pointed back at my food. "Eat." He prompted and I turned to scoop up a forkful of eggs. "I know things have been off, and I know I have apologized already, but I still feel like I owe you the romantic reunion we didn't have." His eyes started to look just a little troubled. "So much happened out there, and it really...it messed with me, Rachel." He said softly. "You were what got me through it, knowing I needed to come home to you." He smiled again, looking more like himself than I'd seen him in a long time. "You deserve more than a muddy romp in the garden." He laughed and I joined in at the memory. "I love you, and I am starting today to just box the past away, and move forward with my beautiful bride at my side."

"I'm excited." I told him honestly. "Although, I don't know how you can top that 'muddy romp', as you put it." I giggled. "Because that was pretty amazing."

I jumped and squealed as his fingers dug into my sides, tickling me. "Ah, yes, it was." He smiled and I jumped out of the chair to catch my breath and he stood too. "I can do better, though." He promised. "Finish eating, then Maria will come get you ready." He told me. "I've got to go make an appearance and a statement, so I'll see you in about an hour."

I grabbed his hand to stop him from walking away. "Shouldn't I be there if you're going to be addressing the people about everything?" I asked.

He lifted a hand to my face. "You're so sweet to want to be there, but it will really just be a very minimal thing. Besides," He smiled again. "You've done enough of my work for me while I was gone, now it's time for you to relax."

I knew arguing it any further wouldn't work, so I dropped his hand and he kissed me quickly before leaving. I turned around, looking up at his mother's painting again, an uneasy feeling sinking into the bottom of my gut. I knew in my heart something wasn't right, but at the same time, having Calvin back and seeing that he really is trying to fix things, makes me almost not even want to know what it is. Ignorance is bliss, right? I asked myself, but I also knew I wasn't the type of person to just let it go.

I will find out what the new whispers are.