Betrayed

Chapter Seven Second Part

After everything that's happened to Aubrey, Razan must now take care of her. He admits that he'll never allow her to leave. Razan, though, must leave for a couple of days and Gardash watches her for him, but Gardash has changed his opinion of her.

Razan carried me into the kitchen where he removed the chains and cuffs from my wrists and ankles and then carried me upstairs to my bed. He put my nightclothes on me and chained my ankle. I drifted off to sleep, but he shook me awake.

"Take the pills the doctor gave you and go back to sleep." He put the pills in my mouth and held the water bottle for me to drink. He pushed a couple spoonfuls of fruit down my throat, and then he left my room and shut my doors.

I let in a nice deep breath and exhaled slowly. I was home and it felt right. I would deal with any discipline from Razan as long as I could stay with him. My eyes slowly closed and I slept soundly until later that night when I heard a loud boom and I screamed.

Razan was standing over me, applying cream to my hives. "Are you hungry? Do you want your mush? What is this anyway?" he asked impatiently.

"I crumbled crackers in water." I held my hand out and he gave me the bottle and I took a few sips. "No food. Hurts."

"Did Fryebye shoot you or give you a shot?"

"Give."

His moustache twitched again. "The things you do and say. Go back to sleep. We're entering the rainy season. You're hearing low thunder."

His fingers lightly touched the taser wounds on my chest and I yelped in pain. His hand moved up to the bruise on my neck. I knew my eyes betrayed my feelings for him and I turned away. He became enraged over the taser wounds and my bruises, and I thought he was going to hurt me, but instead he grabbed me into a hug and sobbed. I never even knew Yardanians cried.

"S'alright." I patted his back. "You can sell me if I upset you."

"I'll never sell you. I'll never allow you to leave. And that's the problem, isn't it?"

Throughout the night I woke at the sound of the thunder and the flashes of lightening. In the morning, the rain began. Razan woke me to give me my pills. He left me a new bottle of mush, an open can of fruit, and a bottle of clear water. When he checked on me in the afternoon, I hadn't eaten. I was sleepy from the medicines and exhausted, and I was aching all over. He made me take my pills and I winced from my sore jaw and swollen throat. He had me drink some mush and insisted on two more sporks of fruit, but that's all I could stand. My entire swollen face and head throbbed. Any movement of my body caused sharp pains. When he left, I fell back to sleep.

"You haven't eaten yet." Razan was standing over me. "It's dinnertime. Do I have to take care of you again?" He sat on the bed and held the Spork next to my mouth. "Open."

I shook my head no. "It hurts," I uttered.

"No talking. No disobedience. I won't tell you again. Open."

I opened my mouth as wide as I could, which wasn't wide at all. He shoved berries in and I slurped them down. His finger wiped away the blood where my dry lip had cracked open. He fed me a few more Sporks before I turned my face away.

"Fine. Take your pills." He shoved the pills in my mouth and made me drink a few gulps of water. "You're beginning to smell, but Fryebye said you shouldn't sit in the tub for at least another day. He doesn't want your wounds to get infected, but I'm to keep them clean." He sighed.

Dipping a cloth in a bucket of water by my bed, he dabbed tenderly away at my cuts, my hair, my face, then removed my clothes and continued along my body, arms, and legs. I jerked at each touch no matter how gentle he tried to be. He poured the liquid to kill bugs over my hair and worked it through. He applied the paste on the bites and stings and gently massaged my shoulders. Finally, he dressed me in clean night clothes. "You're all knotted. Turn over."