Sunlight came through the window and hit me in the face. Disappointment hit me like a wave when I realized that I was alone in bed. I reluctantly opened my eyes. It was only around seven but I was running late if I wanted to eat breakfast. I took a quick shower, washing last night's dream off of me, and brushed my teeth.
I put on clothes that weren't my own. The Resistance stole a lot of clothes from nearby malls so everyone here would stay clean. The Tweedle Twins said that everyone feels a little more human when they're clean.
I put the room key in my pocket and left the room. Walking through the hall, I passed many of the soldiers. We nodded at each other when we passed. These people are the reason that there are only a few street gangs left in San Francisco.
When I got to the eating area of the hotel everyone turned to look at me. I hated all of the attention I got but I ignored them and walked straight to the kitchen. The twins were sitting on bar stools in front of the counter eating cereal. I grabbed some bread and put it in the toaster and sat across from them.
"It looks like Penryn is getting a little naughty." Dee said and glanced at Dum who smiled at me.
"Ah, yes. If she doesn't stop soon, her innocence will be gone forever." Dum said to Dee, looking like a heartbroken mother.
"What are you guys talking about?" I asked, feeling awkward as they looked at me.
"Your neck." Dee said as he pointed at the mirror that was behind me. Sure enough, I had a hickey between my neck and collarbone. Heat rose to my cheeks as I pulled my jacket over it. I guess I was in too much of a rush to notice it.
"But seriously, what was all of your screaming about last night?" Dum asked.
"You heard that?" I said feeling embarrassed again.
"Everyone did." Dee answered.
I shrugged, "Just night terrors. Saving the world from the apocalypse at the tender age of seventeen takes a toll on you." I said dramatically. They both rolled their eyes.
The toaster went off, making me jump.
"The savior of our world, everyone." Dum said holding his hand out as if announcing me. I glared at him but got my toast, smearing peanut butter on it.
"So. Where to today?" I asked taking a bite of my toast. We still had to clear out the gangs. I wanted to get San Francisco done so we could move on to other towns, other areas, like Silicon Valley. I just wanted my family home again.
"Financial District." They said together. I sighed. After the aerie had been destroyed, there had been a power struggle between the gangs that moved in there. We would probably have to use force to coax them out of there, which was my least favorite thing to do.
I ate the rest of my breakfast in silence and listened to Dee and Dum gossip. When we were done, we walked back down the hall I came from.
"Who's on our team today?" I asked, already getting in my leadership mode again.
"Alpha, Frank, Grey, Boden." Dee reported back to me.
My chest constricted at the thought of being in a closed car with Boden. I knew the other names, and we had worked together before without any problems, but Boden. I realized I had stopped walking down the hall.
"Penryn. After the beating you gave him, I'm sure Boden will listen to you now." Dum said giving me a pat on the back and we continued walking.
I knew that he wouldn't listen to me and this wasn't going to be a good day.
We were on our way back to the hotel. The sun was just starting to set. I chewed on my lip as I sat between Dee and Dum in the middle row of the SUV. Alpha was driving and Frank, a quiet man in his thirties, was in the passenger seat. I tried not to think about how Boden was sitting directly behind me.
Nothing productive came out of today. All we did was waste precious ammo.
I was so close to getting the gangs to move out of the area. They were so close to coming back to a civilized life.
And then Boden had to get trigger-happy and start shooting people.
I don't think anyone died, but plenty of people were injured. I bit my lip a little harder when I thought about it.
I caught a glimpse of Raffe and his Watchers flying above the buildings. They were flying in a V formation with Raffe in the front. I relaxed at the thought of spending the rest of the night with Raffe.
Alpha turned his head to the rest of us and said, "So are we just going to lay low for a couple days and come back to try again?"
"We wouldn't need to if someone wouldn't have ruined everything." I muttered under my breath, even though I didn't care who heard it.
"At least I'm not the camp whore." Boden said behind me. Dee and Dum both glanced at me, reading my reaction. I reached down to Pooky Bear and stroked the soft fur, looking for some comfort.
"It's better to be a whore than a good-for-nothing bastard." I said after taking a breath. We were only a couple of blocks from the hotel. Dee gestured to Alpha to drive faster.
"You better watch what you say, Boden. Remember that she has about twenty-six bad-ass angel warriors that would come and pummel you to a pulp if she wanted them to." Dum said.
"Not that she couldn't do it herself. Of course." Dee said as he lightly elbowed me.
"But imagine Boden as a pulp, dude." Dum said to Dee who answered enthusiastically. I was glad they were stalling for me, but we were now in the parking lot of the hotel. Everyone got out of the SUV and everything was okay as we walked back to the hotel. Until it wasn't.
We walked by a car with a cracked windshield that was barely still in its frame. I'm pretty sure the Watchers did that a week ago when they were wrestling.
I don't know who pushed me, but I have a pretty good guess. All I know is that one-minute we were walking in silence, and the next I'm being pushed face first into the car's windshield. I heard the glass shatter before I felt the shards of glass pierce my skin or the bruising impact on my ribs.
Hands were pulling me up by my elbows and I was immediately on my feet again. When I saw Boden, I took a swing at him. It was a clumsy hit, fueled by my confusion and anger. It barely hit him in the chest and I instantly regretted wasting a punch. I regretted it even more when Boden punched me in the mouth; I immediately tasted blood in my mouth. He body-slammed me onto the pavement, straddling my body so that I wouldn't get away while he punched me.
It's weird how Raffe and I had been in this position last night, for very different reasons.
I looked around to see if anyone was going to help me. Everyone was watching as if they were in shock, even Dee and Dum. Okay, so I couldn't rely on anyone else.
Not wasting anymore time, I pushed my hips up with as much force as I could gather and pushed Boden off of me and reciprocated our position. Boden looked just as surprised as I felt. I slapped him across the face before doing anything else. I grabbed his wrists.
"How does it feel being bested by a girl, again?" I asked him. I let go of his wrists long enough to punch him in the nose. Blood trickled from it and ran down his face. "Now I want you to leave this hotel and never come back. Gangs might be welcome with the Resistance, but you're not welcome anymore. If you're such a tough guy, you can find your own food and shelter. I want you gone by morning."
I got up and turned to the others who were just now starting to move again. Dee and Dum rushed toward me.
"Man, I can't believe nobody else got to see that." Dee said as he patted my arm, which made me wince.
"Oh, yeah, you look kind of rough with all of that glass…" Dum gestured to my entire body, "…everywhere."
They were right. It hurt like hell. I pulled the big chunks out on our way inside but there were still hundreds all over me. My clothes were ripped and my lip wouldn't stop bleeding.
I went through the back entrance, hoping not to pass anyone. There was a mirror hanging on the hallway wall and I stole a look at myself. My bottom lip was only slightly swollen but it was bleeding pretty noticeably. Fortunately, there weren't as many cuts on my face as there were on my body but I was bleeding above my eyebrow and along my jawline. I sighed and went to my room.
Right away, I heard the Watchers laughing and having a good time. They all started to greet me when I walked in but stopped once they saw me.
"You look terrible." Howler said as he pushed me through a mass of feathers and muscles toward Raffe.
"Did you at least do them as much damage as they did to you?" Thermo asked.
"Yeah, that car didn't stand a chance." I said, my voice thick with sarcasm. But that was unfair. They didn't know what happened.
Raffe masked his worry well when he saw me. He gave me a questioning look and addressed his Watchers again.
"You're all dismissed. We'll see you at dinner, I guess." He said and waved his men away. They all gave him knowing looks and a few of them gave him pats on the back.
I watched as Raffe dipped a washcloth under the faucet and squeezed the water from it over my arm, getting some of the shards of glass out. I tried to tell him I could do it myself but he wouldn't budge on the argument.
I sat on the edge of the bathroom counter in a tank top while Raffe was acting nurse. I had just finished telling him what happened and he was thinking it over. We had also just finished cleaning my left arm.
I held a rag to my lip trying to stop the bleeding. It wasn't bleeding a lot, but it was bleeding enough for me to be concerned. Judging by how Raffe kept checking on it, he was too.
"This could have been done faster if you would have just threw me in the shower like a scalded cat." I said referring to how he was basically pouring water over me. The rag at my lip made my words slurred. Raffe looked over at me and laughed a little.
"You sound ridiculous right now." He said through his laughter. It was nice to see him laugh but he was laughing at me. Suddenly serious, he reached over and looked at it again.
"I think I bit myself when he hit me." I said. It was only bleeding on the inside. I twisted around to face the mirror to make sure that my lip wasn't swollen.
"Yeah, no kidding." Raffe said as he moved my hand to put pressure on my lip again. He pulled my tank top up to expose my belly but left my breasts covered. My torso took most of the impact so this was the worst of it. I closed my eyes as Raffe's hands worked to gently get glass out of me.
"So this marching band you were in?" Raffe asked after a while. "I didn't see you as the artsy type, creative but not artsy." I opened my eyes to answer the question.
"Well, you saw wrong. I can play the piano, and I like to write." I shrugged. "But marching band. It taught me a lot about leadership and teamwork. I wasn't section leader, but the person who was, was a crappy one." I said. "And the schedule always worked out with Paige's, so."
"What did you play?" Raffe said as he brushed some splinters off of my belly.
"Percussion." I sighed at the memory. "Freshman year I played crash cymbals, hence the scars on my stomach. And then I moved to the pit. I've played the vibes and the marimba." Raffe looked at me slightly confused. "It's keyboard percussion." Raffe still didn't know what I was talking about. "You've been on Earth for centuries, you've lived through the Renaissance, how do you not know anything about human art?"
"It's kind of hard to enjoy art when you're hiding and fighting hellions." He gently ran his finger over my stomach and stretched his wings slightly, causing the air to move.
I shivered as the air touched my wet skin. If Raffe was trying not to make a mess, he was failing. Most of the water didn't go back in the sink; instead, it ended up in a small pool that was gathering around my legs and butt, soaking my jeans. They were ripped and cover in dirt and blood anyway.
Raffe ran his finger over my already bruising rib cage causing me to wince in pain. He moved his finger to a different spot on my ribs and prodded me again.
"Does that hurt?" He asked. I shook my head. We continued this process until he found a spot that did hurt. And until he found a spot where it didn't.
"I'm pretty sure I would be in a lot more pain if I was broken." I said sounding like an impatient child. Raffe poked me a couple of more times before looking back at me.
"Then it's a good thing you're not broken." He pushed my hair out of my face. "How's your lip?"
"I think it stopped bleeding." I said and finally put the rag down. "Are we done?" I crossed my arms as I shivered again.
Raffe laid the washcloth down on the counter and wrapped a towel around my shoulders. He grabbed my hips and lifted me down onto the floor again. He kissed my forehead and enfolded me in his arms; his wings circled us in a semi-circle.
I buried my face in his chest, breathing in the smell of his skin. He still smelled like the fresh air he had been flying in today.
I looked up at him and wrapped my arms loosely around his neck, tilting his head down at me. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his lips. He returned the kiss eagerly. Raffe pulled my tank top back down and chuckled.
"What?" I asked as I pulled away from him. His arm around my waist stopped me from moving very far.
"Nothing. It just feels weird to take care of someone besides myself." Raffe said before kissing me again. I smiled against his lips.
"It feels weird to be taken care of." I murmured and rested my head against his chest. This felt nice; he felt so solid, so like an anchor that was keeping me from falling apart.
He brushed a kiss into my hair and shifted his wings again, causing another breeze. I shivered against him, seeking his warmth. His hands brushed against my jeans, and as if just realizing how wet my clothes were, pushed me away gently.
"You should change. You're soaked." Raffe said. I raised my eyebrow at him.
"I wonder whose fault that would be." I said.
"At least I know how to stay out of trouble." He said as he brushed a strand of hair out of my face.
"Please. If you're not in trouble it's because you are the trouble." I said pushing his chest playfully. I spun on my heel to leave but he grabbed my wrist. I turned and stared back into the blue eyes that were piercing through me.
Raffe let his fingers trail from my wrist to my hand. He tugged my arm in his direction until our bodies converged again. He let go of my hand as he wrapped an arm around my waist. I sighed as he leaned down and kissed the skin beneath my jawline.
"I mean it." He murmured near my ear. "I hate seeing my Daughter of Man get hurt." He backed away and looked at me, his eyes were searching as he caressed my cheek, as if he was memorizing every detail of my face. I felt awkward under his gaze, but his words were sweet. I leaned forward and kissed him, not expecting the reaction I got.
He response wasn't hungry or lustful, but slow and deep. He pressed my body closer to his as we kissed. Our breathing was ragged when he finally pulled away. He looked at me and smiled.
He brushed his lips against mine one more time before letting me return to the warmth of dry clothes.
A/N: I really hope no one finds it OOC that I imagine Penryn being in marching band. I like to believe that it could be why she was such a good leader. I really enjoyed writing about Raffe taking care of Penryn. I also enjoy reading reviews so please don't be a ghost reader! Until the next chapter :)