Light and Darkness Chapter 2
Early the next morning, Reva blinked at the pale pink sunlight that entered in the window over the bed. She looked around at the unfamiliar room, taking in the rough look of the unfinished walls and floor. She stretched and yawned, appreciating the soft silk sheets and the huge bed she had slept in the night before. Reva looked around for her cloths, sure that she had taken off her jeans and flannel shirt the night before. The cloths were missing however and in their place was a large Misfit's tee shirt and a pair of sweat pants that had made her feel like a little girl playing dress up in her father's cloths. She rolled up the sweat pants and tightened the drawstring so that they wouldn't slip down over her curvy hips, though if they did, the tee shirt that hung down to her knees would prevent any embarrassing show of her undergarments.
She looked up at a light knock at the bedroom door and called, "Come in, Max isn't it?" Reva stood up and looked up at Max, realizing just what a large man he truly was. Her heart beat a little faster as fear caused her to take a step back, toward the bed.
"I just wanted to let you know that I cooked breakfast. I can bring you some on a tray if you like or you can join me in the kitchen anytime you are ready. The bathroom is right through that door if you would like to shower and I have your clothes in the dryer right now. I noticed that your bag had gotten torn and the cloths inside were dirty as well as the ones you were wearing last night so I just washed them all." Max seemed nervous this morning, as if not used to dealing with guests or maybe it was just female guests, Reva thought watching him shift his weight back and forth between his feet. Max took several hurried steps backwards as Reva tested her theory and took a step toward the door. She smiled up at him, suddenly not afraid of the big man anymore.
"I'd like to eat with you, Max. I've spent to much time alone lately and the company would be nice. If you don't mind, maybe you could tell me how you knew where I was going to be and why Ash sent you to help me out. I know that with Mardi Gras coming up, as you said the Dark Hunter's are busy but I would figure that he could have sent one of them for me. I hope babysitting me isn't keeping you from doing anything important, is it? I'm finding myself really hungry, could you take me down to your kitchen? I'll clean up after breakfast, it's the least I could do." She stood very close to him now, smiling innocently up at him as she reached out and brushed a speck of glittering dust off of his shirtfront.
Max looked down at the young woman standing so close to him and he started to sweat. He just nodded down at her and quickly spun on his heel and almost ran away from Reverance. She smile after him, his actions confirming his shyness with women. Reva slowly followed him down the hallway, noticing the decor of the house that she hadn't paid any attention to last night, to tired to notice the century old woodwork and cypress flooring throughout the shotgun style house so popular in New Orleans. Paintings on the walls were of the bayou's and their haunting beauty made no less perfect by the fact that they had obviously been painted by his own hand. She sighed as she finely smelled the scent of eggs, sausage and bacon, her stomach growling to let her know just how long it had been since her last meal.
"Come on in and sit down, Reverance. I made a bit of everything because I didn't know what you would like for breakfast. Egg's, scrambled but if you like them another way I can cook them, bacon, sausage, cornbread, grits, and some pancakes. I also have ham and biscuits as well if you like them better..."He trailed off as he watched her sit down in is normal chair and just sniff the air. She smiled up at him and jestered for him to sit down next to her. Reva silently dished up some of the scrambled eggs, grits and cornbread onto her plate then she passed each dish to him so that he could add some to his own plate.
She took a bite of her eggs and grits, sighing in pleasure as she closed her eyes enjoying her meal. Max started to eat as well, glad that she had found his attempt at cooking passable. Reva kept an eye on Max as he ate a huge amount of the hot food. He has a sweet tooth she noticed as he put maple syrup on his cornbread and grits. Reva had never tried grits with maple syrup so she tried it herself and was amazed how the sweet, sticky syrup tasted as if it were real instead of store bought. "Max, where did you get this at, it's incredible?" She asked, reaching for more cornbread just to have a reason to eat more of the dark treat.
"Well, I have an arrangement with a little old lady that lives in Maine. She makes me as much syrup and maple sugar as I want and I... Well, I do some favors for her from time to time. Miss Martha's maple syrup is the best I have ever had and what little she want's me to do in exchange for it is worth it." he smile up at Reva as he told her of his weeks in Maine every spring fetching full buckets of maple sap for the nearly wheelchair ridden old woman. The way he described her, Reva could see the fiery elderly lady that had become like a grandmother to the big man in the years he had known her. He described Martha when he had first found her out in the cold as a small child when part of a maple tree had fallen on her, breaking her legs and robbing her of her sight. He chuckled as he described how she had gone on, blind and partially crippled to have six children and build a maple empire that had made her and her family rich. She had retired nearly twenty years before and went back to the small ten acres of maple trees that her parents had owned when she was the small child he remembered. She heard the sadness in his voice as he told Reva of his fear that Martha wouldn't live to see this springs harvest.
Reverance reached out and gently touched Max's arm, "It's the problem with Dark Hunter's and others who are immortal They loose those humans who get close to them, squires or just humans who touch their lives somehow. My father mourned my Mother after her death at twenty seven. He never got over loosing her, nor of loosing my brothers and older sister. Six of them, all dead at twenty seven even though we carry Arcadian blood as well as Appolite. Forgive me for making you think of your friend. I know that the pain is hard to bare, Max but if not for you saving her, she wouldn't have had a long life and a happy family. I think you are a good man, Max, kind and gentle. I have to say thank you for saving me last night as well. Giving me the chance to fight another day, as it were." She gently reached up and kissed him, a tiny touch of warm lips on his and he had to fight not to pull her into his arms and devour her lips. When she pulled back and looked into his eyes, she saw the glint of red in their green depths.
Max shook his head to clear the thoughts he had of just throwing her over his shoulder and dragging her to his bed. He stood up quickly, intending to start clearing the table to take his mind off of Reverance and she had scooted her chair back, sharp knife in her hand. He looked into her eyes and saw her fear of him. He sighed, sitting back down putting his head in his hands. "I'd never hurt you, Reverance. I know I'm a large man, but I've never harmed a female. I'll keep out of your way while you are here, Reva. I'm sure Ash will find a safe place for you soon and then you will never have to deal with me again, I promise you."
Reva looked at Max and then at the knife and then put it back down on the table, "It's not you, Max it's me. I've been running for so long that I can't relax and feel safe anywhere. My Arcadian cousins want to kill me because they saw me and my siblings as to weak to survive. Not being able to hold our wolf shape made even the human born Arcadian's think we needed to be put down before we passed our faulty genes on to the next generations. Katagaria wanted to kill us because we are Arcadian, not being able to shift just makes us easier to kill. Appolite's want us, not dead but to see if our genetics can pass on the ability to walk in the sun and not need to drink blood. I've had to protect myself since I was eight years old and my mother died. Your eye's just started glowing red and it freaked me out a little. I'll try to not react badly to things, but you have to give me some time to adjust to being around someone else, OK? Friends?" She held out her tiny hand and smiled at him.
Max took her hand in his huge one, noticing seven tiny pink tear drops in the shape of a pink flower. The tattoo on her palm was done in the Appolite way, a teardrop for each relative lost. He was gentle as he shook it and he even managed a smile for her. "Friends sounds good to me. It's been a long time since I had one myself, other than Martha so you might have to remind me how this is suppose to go." He let go of her hand and smiled at her again.