Rain in the Meadow

Chapter Seventeen: Fuzzy Feelings

Chapter Seventeen: Fuzzy Feelings

I woke up with no idea where I was or what day it was. I shot into a sitting position, only to fling myself off the mattress when I found that I'd slept draped across Slade's naked body. I stared at him for a moment, trying to remember all that had happened last night. For some reason, I couldn't think anywhere past him saying, "Make it up to me, Rayne." Then I realized that this was a good thing. I didn't want to remember any further than that.

            Glancing at him again, I decided that he hadn't noticed my awakening. As quietly as I could, I grabbed my dress off the floor and then made my way up the stairs. It took everything I had not to race up them. I closed the hatch and then looked around for something to put over it. There was that dusty room next to the kitchen, with the dusty tattered couch that I'd waited for Sydney on.....I did a double-take back toward that stupid couch. I sighed, but gritted my teeth and tried to figure out how to move the couch soundlessly.

            I moved to the couch, dropping my dress on the floor and lifting one end of the couch, using my foot to get the dress under the legs of the couch. Moving to the other end of the couch, I picked it up and dragged it across the floor. I may have been an elf and thus, stronger than the average human, but by the time I had the couch over the hatch, there was a glaze of sweat across my forehead.

I pulled my dress out from under the couch, marveling at the lack of evidence it showed. You couldn't even tell I'd just used it to soundlessly carry a couch across a dusty floor. I shrugged and then pulled on the dress, simply because I felt dirty and I couldn't stand to be naked a moment longer. Dressed, I moved to the kitchen and rooted around in the few overhanging cupboards for something-anything-to eat. All I came up with was a single slice of moldy bread. I stared at it for a couple seconds before deciding I wasn't quite hungry enough to eat it. Even if the last thing I'd eaten was the garden salad I'd had when I'd gone out with Sydney. I didn't know how long ago that was, but I was amazed by how much had happened since then. Ever since our date, I had thought I was on top of the world, and then it had all come crumbling down.

I flopped onto the couch, ignoring the big cloud of dust and trying not to choke on it. Slade waking up was the very last thing I needed right then. Silent tears trekked down my cheek, ignoring my pledge to suppress them. Where were Meadow and Sydney? Both men had sworn that they loved me and that they would forever protect me, and yet...here I was, alone, with the same man who had raped and killed my mother, carved his name into my back, raped me, taken over everything I knew and loved, and then raped me again. Maybe they were trying to find me, trying to figure out a way to get to me. But why was it taking them so long? As my bodyguard, Meadow possessed the ability to find out where I was, and he was forever tied to my emotions. He should have known where I was and that I was in trouble. As an angel, Sydney could speak to God, couldn't he? Even if he was a fallen angel?

I gasped when a shadowy figure appeared right in front of me. I jumped up, not sure what to expect from this being. "Oh, Rayne." It said, and I was surprised to find that the voice was different than the one who had saved me earlier. It was a male's voice, but it wasn't one that I recognized. It wasn't one of the voices that I wanted, needed, to hear.

He stretched his arms out, as though inviting me into his embrace. I stared for several seconds before finding my voice. "Who are you?" I whispered, hoping he would get the hint.

He didn't lower his voice, but his voice was soft anyway, so maybe it wouldn't matter. He chuckled and then slowly lowered the hood of his cape. I took in his deathly pale and skin, the dark spiraling tattoos on his neck that seemed to rise from out of his cape, his inky black hair, and finally his silver eyes that seemed to hold too many secrets. He had piercings in his ears, in his eyebrow, and in his lower lip, and I had to shake away the sudden image of my fingers sliding across his lip rings. "You don't remember me?"