Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Fifty Four

You stopped when you noticed me standing there. You dropped the knife and looked at me with your irregular new haircut and wide, tearful eyes, and you apologized. " Azabela chuckled. "Of all the things you might've said, I remember that 'I'm sorry' was the last phrase I expected to hear. Your voice was so small as you said it, and I was never really sure what you really meant by it. It might've been that you were sorry for the mess, you were sorry for waking me up, or perhaps you were sorry for just breaking. You didn't explain yourself. And I didn't have the heart then to ask."

Azabela stood. "Out of shock, I asked you what you'd gone and done to yourself. You looked at me and whispered. 'I'm not afraid to be ugly. I'm afraid to be beautiful.' You said then 'I am so sick of being beautiful'." The huntress grinned. "I knew you meant it, so I told you that I was sick of you being beautiful too, and I cut your hair as you knelt to the ground."

Azabela tilted Hench's chin up during the story, and made it a point to stare right into her eyes. "I suppose the joke was on me. Because no matter what I could've ever done to you, you were beautiful. You were the most beautiful. " The huntress shook her head and dropped Rhalla's chin. "It always radiated from within."

Azabela began pacing. "After that haircut, you were looking at me like you loved yourself for once in your life. And for some reason, that was so much more profound and gratifying than any loving stare you'd ever given me." Those words made Rhalla beam. Seeing that, Azabela stopped walking and smiled back. "And then, an hour after you'd gone back to bed, you got up, came to my room, and woke me up.

You stood knocking at the door until I was up and facing you. You looked at me and said that you loved me. You had a look about you that told me that something was wrong. I asked if everything was alright, and you told me you were afraid."

Hench picked up the story for a few moments. "I did do that," she chuckled. "And you told me that that was alright, because people only got scared right before they did something truly brave. At that moment, you sounded like a gods damned poet. But hell, I loved you."

Azabela laughed. "And I was right," she whispered. "You walked over and asked me what I wanted of you. I said 'everything you can bear to give'. I remember with great clarity you shut your eyes very tightly and told me to close mine too. I did. And when you told me to open them again, you were sitting on the other side of my bed with your back to me. Your robe was rumpled at your hips, and the moonlight hit the soft skin of your back --the edges of your first-forming muscles and the curvature of your shoulder-blades."

Azabela's hand found Hench's back through her guardian robes, adding effect to her story. "I was so stunned at first to see it. You sat completely still and completely quiet until I ran my hand up your spine. Despite how gentle I tried to be, your hands were trembling at your sides. You were terrified. I pulled away and told you I couldn't ask this of you. You looked over your shoulder and told me to do it again. I could tell you were skittish by the shakiness of your voice, but I obliged.

I asked 'why?' That was all I said: why. Somehow, you knew what that meant. And you said 'I trust you'. You told me that you wanted to know what it meant to be so vulnerable with someone who would be kind --someone who you believed could overwrite some of the bad memories. You told me you should try to be alive at least once before you died. And then, you stood, and you turned to me. Something about the moment you stood completely naked while you stared me in the eyes was so moving, beyond even the obvious reasons. There you were... that day, rewriting your past. Despite all that happened, you found the strength to start living.

Oh, and I'll never forget the exact way you looked. I remember the curve of your hips, your musculature... The divine softness of your mouth and then you... well, you have fantastic breasts. And your eyes found a way to look timid and passionate at the same time, and suddenly I realized that I stood before a goddess." Azabela's mouth tilted into a sincere smile. "I remember the brilliant way it sounded when my name was a shallow breath on your lips. I can still taste the sweetness on my tongue. No, I will never forget that night."