Callie Here: Oh I feel so stupid, I thought I posted this a month ago, and since no one reviewed I just was like oh well and stopped writing. I feel so stupid. Well here it is, the chapter that wasn't posted.

Darkness faded away, like twilight in dawn's spiraling path, and voices echoed filling the ominous void that was a mind. Thought was drifting, reality was elusive, and time was illegitimate in the darkness, but as light came to greet Zalean the indiscernible veil was lifted. With the lifting of the veil came the image of a fox. Motherly worry etched itself deep into the fox's face; it took her hand in its paw, and licked her brow with a warm, wet tongue.

"Wynona?"

The fox's fickle face became a human's, the paw a hand, and the tongue a damp cloth, as Zalean concluded the immeasurable.

"Oh, so the vixen has a name?" Zalean looked beyond Wynona's shoulder to where Jolouque sat, smoking a pipe of all things. He nodded in her direction and winked, "It's been a while; we all missed you."

Wynona squealed in delight and clapped her hands to an unusual beat, "That's not the least of it, in your absence we've become nostalgic. We're so glad you're back with us."

Zalean smiled weakly, as every muscle in her face strained her mind strained with memories; memories that arose in a tidal wave of hell. Her eyes closed as silent sobs rocked her, unobserved by Jolouque and Wynona, a pain seemed to ripple through her leaving its imprint on her soul. "Well I'm glad to be back." The whisper rose from clenched teeth, washing the sorrows beneath a false façade.

"Well, I'll go tell the Priestess that you're awake." Wynona made to rise, but changing her mind she swiftly embraced Zalean in arms of warmth. "I'm so glad you're back." With that she left, a wave of jubilance exuding in her wake.

It was only when Wynona's footsteps faded away did Zalean glance hesitantly at Jolouque. "How long was I out?"

"Not too long, three days no more, but it certainly worried me." He emptied his pipe before climbing from his chair and heading to her side. "So how are you?"

It was a simple question but it made her tense up nonetheless. His close proximity frightened her; making her feel insecure and making the memories rear their ugly head. "I'm fine."

She found herself lapsing into silence, staring up into his eyes that were wide with intensity. She feared these eyes, and she feared him. On a sudden impulse, Jolouque reached out to stroke her check with a hand, which seemed so foreign as it pulsated with strength and hidden rage. Flinching away, Zalean cowered from the touch, which was threatening and docile all at once. Jolouque appeared hurt by her terror, dropping his hand defeated he resumed his innocent questions. "You haven't eaten are you hungry?"

Solemnly she shook her head, her thoughts had never once lingered on food since she awakened so why start now. She trained her eyes on the ground below her; afraid to look at him, afraid to see the hurt in his eyes and the slight frown that creased his face when his glance strayed to her bruised body. Anger suddenly rose in her, smoldering like a burning bush. She remembered how he tried to touch her, just how Afred had touched her, a warm gentle brush of her cheek that would be replaced by hurt.

For a moment her vision crossed and she saw Afred sitting there, a malicious grin on his face and lust in his eyes. "You can have me." She found herself whispering, hissing like a snake.

A stunned expression lit Jolouque's features, and his eyes wavered momentarily casting down at his folded hands then back up at her. At a loss for words he could only stare at her, hoping that his sorrow bleed from his eyes and marred her soul.

Zalean looked away from him, confused and ashamed for what she had said. She hadn't meant it like that, hadn't meant to hurt him; or had she.

"All you men ever seem to want is pleasure, you seem to drown yourself in it and come back feeling renewed. It was easy for me to lay there, a rag doll used for play." Her voice was harsh and spiteful coated in hate. Jolouque closed his eyes he didn't want to hear this; not this revelation of pain, not from her. "I kept thinking to myself, why? Why doesn't he just kill me? He had the power, in his little finger, to end me right there, but no he wanted me to suffer, because he found pleasure in my pain. He used me for what I am, a whore, and he ended up taking everything from me in those minutes of pain. And he thrived from it, just like all the others whose appetites I have quenched."

A maniacal laughter broke from her, spilling over like a goblet of madness. Carefully, testing her strength, she crawled toward Jolouque, inching forward till she straddled him and in turn wrapped him up with the warmth of her body. He gazed at her with astonishment. "You want me, you can have me." She kissed him fiercely, rocking him with her intensity as she searched every crevice of his mouth with her tongue, desperately, for answers to her unspoken questions. Breaking away she spat angrily in her ear, intent on showing her discontent. "It's easy just to lay there staring up through lifeless eyes."

Jolouque found himself pushing her off him, so she tumbled dangerously to the sanctuary floor. She was mad with laughter despite the thud that had resounded as her head hit the ground; she laughed so hard that tears spilled freely down her cheeks. Then she was no longer laughing only bawling her eyes out as each sob wretched her, a crumpled figure lost in a maze of cruelty. Jolouque got down beside her on his hands and knees, numbly placing himself on top of her as if he could shield her from the demon's reign.

"Zalean!" His voice was drowned by her sorrows. "Zalean look at me!" Grabbing her face, like a mother would an unruly child, he held her so she had no choice but to comply. "I will not let them hurt you anymore."

The once strong voice that he had held with a manly confidence, went brittle and failed when he counted on it the most. Yet she waited, tear streaked and sobbing, pleading with her eyes for him to tell her what she needed to hear.

"I won't let them hurt you. Anymore." He whispered the promise through clenched teeth. "I'd rather die then let them touch you. They won't bother you anymore, you left that all behind because I'm here."

He repeated the words he had said before, dumbly. Her sobs slowly echoed and faded, reduced to sniffles, but she still lay frozen; paralyzed by fear. Jolouque caught his breath, words rocking through his brain, which he was afraid to say but he knew she had to hear. Had to hear them now when she was so impervious, when she could either accept or deny him with clarity.

He brushed a loose strand of hair from her face, and kissed her tentatively, "I love you."

With those simple words the darkness seemed to shift, and fade.