Taint (Formerly Claimed) Dark Midnight 1

Chapter 10

*These next three chapters aren't really new.  I just broke up some of the earlier ones, where I actually had several chapters combined into one, just to make it easier on myself as I edit.  Sorry for any confusion*

By the time Eliot finally made it to the hospital, a winter storm was in full swing.  Sheets of snow lashed at his windows as he steered his car along the deserted mountain road into the small parking garage that sheltered him from the waning daylight. 

            Even as he left his car for the icy chill of a newborn winter he could still smell the spicy scent of roses, as fresh as spring. 

            His entire car smelled like her. 

            The crisp scent haunted him all the way up to the twelfth floor.

When he entered Alazzdria’s room, he was surprised to find her out of bed, lounging on the window sill, staring wistfully out at the falling snow. 

            “I woke up today,” she announced on a dramatic sigh as the door shut behind him.  She shifted on the ledge so that she faced him, tucking her knees beneath her chin.  “Being comatose was so boring.”

            Eliot scoffed, moving across the room to take a seat in a chair that sat by the bed.

            “What did you expect?”

Alazzdria shrugged her slender shoulders.  “For everyone to coddle and take care of me, of course,” she sniffed.  “It almost reminded me of the old days…”

“When I used to be royalty,” she added, just in case he forgot.

As if he ever could.

“Those days have passed, Laz,” he said, gazing down at his hands.  They were clean and pale now, but he couldn’t help but be flashed back to a time when they had been constantly covered in the red of blood.  “We were both different back then.”

“Hmph.”  Alazzdria wrinkled her nose.  “It’s been a long time since you called me by that old nickname.”

She beamed and laced her pale hands together to gaze at him from over the tops of them.  Like a smug fat cat knowing it finally had a tricky mouse cornered, he couldn’t help thinking.

“Does this mean you’ve forgiven me, then?”

“Not on your life.”  He glared as he remembered one of the many reasons why he should have told her to go to hell instead of considered offering his help. 

They had known each other for years—decades—and she had done absolutely nothing to deserve his forgiveness or his help. 

Hell, he should have been one of the people out for her blood. 

But, he admitted, there was one thing holding him back from doing either.

“You said you’d make it worth my while if I helped you?”  He asked in a heavy voice.  A part of him felt as though he were making a deal with the devil.

Alazzdria’s reaction didn’t diminish that worry either.  She beamed, and leapt down from the sill to land on two pale feet. 

“Oh, Eliot darling,” she gushed.  “I knew you couldn’t stay angry with me for long!”

Happily, she clapped her pale hands together, like a spoiled child glad that she got her way.

Just like she knew she would.