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* * *
Rei calmly slipped out of her favored place to hurry back to her small cottage. She had almost forgotten about the tide, so concentrated was she on a strange tickling at the back of her mind. Smiling faintly, she looked over her shoulder at the cave carved into the stony cliff. It reminded her of her home.
Mars. . .
Thinking of her home sent a pang of longing through her heart. She missed her parents despite the fact that she had been with them a month before she was taken away again. She had only been gone from civilization for fortnight at best. Still, not being able to see her mother or father, or even Ami and Makoto had her sniffing back tears.
She shook her head to rid herself of the unwanted thoughts and dashed up the shore to the edge of the forest where her home sat ensconced in the dense brush. She pushed open the door quickly to discover her friend perched gracefully in one of the simple wooden chairs by the fireplace. There was a fire blazing in the hearth, as there always was, and Rei was thankful that it hadn't died out before she got there. "Mina. . .what are you doing here?" she asked her friend as she made her way to the beating flames. She stuck out her hands to warm them as she regarded the lovely blonde. "Isn't it late?"
Minette smiled and brushed her hands of their dust on her plain wool gown. "It's not so late, Reina. Besides. . .I brought food with me!" she said happily, "and linens and another dress for you. Now you have a total of four. . .splendid, ne?"
Reina smiled faintly at her friend and folded her hands before her. "Where is Rohan then?" she asked brightly.
Minette shrugged and pointed toward the door. "He said that you were in need of water, so he went to the stream to fetch you some. He cannot spend the night, however, his wife is with child and he is anxious to be with her. . ." she said as she rose.
Reina raised an elegant eyebrow and brushed back the loose strand of blonde hair that had fallen from Mina's simple bun. "Are you lonely up there?" she asked her friend.
Mina frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "I am not lonely. . .only bored. . ." she said. "At least you have the ocean to keep you company. All I have is the birds and trees."
"It cannot be so bad on that cliff, Mina. . ." she said to her friend.
"It is, Rei. . .it is terribly boring up there. I can watch the ocean, certainly. I can watch the water as it strikes the rocks below, but I cannot walk along its shore and sink my feet into the sand. Oh, Rei. . .I really do wish I were back at home. Venus is so—"
"Hush, no more from you. . ." Rei said, clamping a hand over her mouth. "I'll visit you on the morrow, but I am overly tired now, Minette. . .and you must be careful how you use our past information. We have been lax in calling ourselves by our names. . .I am Jillian now, love. . .and you are-- "
Minette tore her mouth away and frowned. "I know who I am, Jillian. I am Kathryn. . ."
Rei smiled sadly at her friend and pat her on the shoulder. "Wait until Rohan comes back with the water, then you may leave."
It was then Minette looked at her friend. Her face was a tad paler than normal and her eyes wide. "What is it, Rei—Jillian? Are you feeling ill?" she asked her friend.
Reina shook her head and forced another smile, "I am well. . .just tired is all. . ."
She sat herself in one of the hard chairs and stared into the fire. She couldn't tell Minette about the strange niggling feeling she had. Something was going to happen tonight, but what, she did not know.
Rohan came through the door as her mind wandered. "Fresh water for ya, Miss Jillian. You didn't have any at first, and I gots a tad worried. You been spendin' too much time at that beach o' yours," he said with a smile. He tossed his wind-blown hair from his eyes and looked at her. She was a vision; he thought as he eyed her, so was the blonde. "I brought ya some wheat, dried meat, a few herbs from my wife's garden, a couple o' potatoes, some onions, carrots, a block o' cheese an' a bit o' yeast from our own stash. It isn't much, but it will last ya a few days. I also brought another gown that Martha sewed for ya, not tamention a few more linens an' a fresh bar o' soap. I'll come back wit more in a few days. . ." he said as he set his burden down near the hearth.
"Thank you, Rohan," she said pleasantly. "Would you mind walking Kathryn back up since it is on your way?"
"I can make it on my own," Minette said crossing her arms over her chest. Honestly, Reina was treating her as if she were younger than she was!
Reina chanced a glance out of the window of her small cottage and closed her eyes briefly. It was as she suspected; the clouds were overhead. "Kat. . .there will be rain. . ." she said softly.
Minette smiled softly at her friend and put a hand to her shoulder. "I shall be fine, Jillian. . .believe you me. . ."
Reina nodded slowly and turned to watch both Minette and Rohan depart. That faint niggling at the back of her mind would not quite. What was wrong with her? Would a storm make her this nervous? She shook her head quickly and rose.
She looked longingly out the window and mentally picked out the star in the darkening sky. "Home. . ." she whispered to herself. She wondered briefly what her mother and father were thinking at that very moment. Were they worried about her? Queen Serenity had promised her that she would tell her parents everything once she was securely settled. How had they taken the news about her assassin?"
Rei cringed slightly at the thought. I have an assassin, she thought. How could she have an assassin? It was all too confusing. Was she that loathed by people? She knew her grandfather had been notorious for his temper, a temper that her father was fast closing in on, but did she harbor the same? She did not bellow like her father, in fact, she considered herself very well mannered. Was it possible that that was the reason for the attempts on her life?
She closed her eyes to block out the unwanted thoughts and pulled on the rope above her head to lower the ladder to the attic. She and Rohan had transformed it into a bedchamber complete with a warming stone near the chimney so that the room would stay warm.
She made her way to the corner nearest the makeshift hearth and sat on the cot. She missed the luxurious bed she had on Mars and the Moon. She missed the hot baths of scented water that she could sit in and enjoy until she wished to get up. But to keep her safe, the Queen had set her here with strict instructions. "Do not use your powers for any reason. . ." she had told her. She and Mina had nodded vigorously and parted.
Rei looked out the window again. The hairs on the back of her neck pricked up. Something was amiss, but it couldn't be anything but the storm. She nodded to herself and stripped out of her heavy wool gown and slid into the bed. She would sleep away the troubled tick and wake up refreshed.
* * *
When she woke in the morning, the sun was out. "The storm is over..." she told herself stretching. "Two days of intense rain and wind and the storm is finally over. . ."
She smiled softly before getting out of her warm bed and dressing in the gray wool gown—the first she had received on in her stay. It was sturdy, made for working around outdoors and in. She smoothed the folds gently then washed her face in the basin of water she had left on one of the rickety wash stands.
She grabbed a thin swathe of damask and tied her hair at the base of her neck then went quickly down the ladder and into the main room of the cottage. She was excited that the sun had finally decided to show. It had been two long days indoors, sewing useless items or staring out at the rain, praying that Minette had summoned enough courage to brave the rain and come visit her. She was not so brave, the wind was icy, the rain worse.
Smiling at her thoughts, Reina grabbed a piece of the bread she had made the day before and sliced a piece of cheese. She ate the treat as she walked outside.
It was still chill; the winds still cold. She looked around her as she ate the bread and cheese. The birds were out and there were still droplets of rain falling from the trees. 'It is like a painting,' she thought to herself as she made her way to the beach.
The sand was wet and her feet sunk in as she made her way down the way to her special little cove. She ignored the moisture seeping into her shoes as she walked around several boulders, but cursed quite vividly when she tripped and fell on her knees.
"Damn!" she said lifting herself up and looking behind her. She stared at the offending piece of wood and frowned. Why were there strips of wood littering the beach? She looked around her and gasped. There was wood every where! Several pieces were very large; some were drifting in and out with the waves. There were fragments of sail draped over rocks and boulders. A trunk wedged between two boulders, dripping water.
"What happened?" Reina asked herself as she rounded a cluster of rocks. She covered her mouth when she lifted her gaze down the beach.
Bodies littered the sand. There were three near her and two further down. Were they all dead? She felt a pang of regret that all these men perished as they tried to make their way to safety. She wondered how many were still floating in the sea.
Carefully she knelt beside the man nearest her and put a shaking hand on his chest. There was no movement. She looked to his face and noted the gray pallor, then turned to the next. He was dead as well. She gave up hope. All these men were dead because of the storm. Was the wind so strong that it led the sailors into the jagged rocks below the cliff? She would have to drag the men into the frigid waters and give them the best burial she could manage.
Even as she thought of the cold water, she felt a shiver run down her spine. Was she that cold? She shrugged and gingerly made her way to the small cove hidden in the boulders. There she pulled out a blanket, that she normally kept tucked away on the highest point of the cave, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
It was then she heard the soft gasp.
She turned with a gasp on her own tongue, then realized that there was no one behind her. She backed cautiously into her cave and waited a moment for her senses to clear.
And she heard it again. Only this one was full of pain and frustration.
She came out of her hiding place slowly and looked to her left. She felt the alarm build anew when she saw that a man was lying at the base of a rock. Her heart went out to him immediately and she rushed to him before she could even think about her rash decision.
His eyes were closed and his body motionless. When she knelt beside him she was almost sure that he had died in the amount of time it had taken her to reach him. She put a hand to his brow and then his cheek. He was slightly warmer than the wind that whipped against her. She unwrapped the blanket from her shoulder and laid it over his chest.
"Sir?" she called softly.
He stirred slightly at her voice, his head falling to one side and his fingers twitching. "Sir?" she called more urgently. She saw that his eyes moved under his lids and she smiled briefly in relief. He was most definitely alive, but she wasn't sure how long he would live if she kept him in the cold, wet sand.
'Do not use your powers for any reason. . .' she heard the queen say. But this was an emergency. How could she let this man—who was obviously in much pain—die because she could not lift him to her cabin? It was ridiculous. She shook her head and looked at him again. He was sleeping peacefully, though Rei noticed that his brow was furrowed slightly. Was it from pain?
Rei closed her eyes for a moment in thought. "A small spell; so small that Mina won't be able to detect it. If I can get him warm, he will be well. . ." she told herself thoughtfully.
With the thought in mind she pushed back the quilt and waved a hand over his still body. He rose off the ground a mere six inches, but did not move. "Good enough. . ." she whispered to herself as she gripped his tunic and began to drag him effortlessly back up the beach and down the small trail that led to her cottage.
"I will make sure your friends are cared for, sir. . .I promise you," she said as she pushed open the door to her home. She pulled him in quickly and shut the door. "Up the ladder you go," she said quietly as she waved a hand over his chest again. He disappeared for an instant and Rei prayed to the Gods that that little bit of magic had gone undetected.
She climbed the ladder quickly and paused when she saw him lying on her bed. "This will not do. . ." she said as she walked closer. "You are soaked through, sir. . ."
Without a care, she unlaced his plain wool tunic and pushed it off his shoulders. She proceeded to do the same to his thin gossamer shirt underneath then wriggled and pulled until the wet clothing had come out from under his broad shoulders. She then went to his boots and quickly pulled them off his feet. She unlaced his breeches with swift movements then pulled them down his legs and off his body. His thick hose came off with a splash of water and his drawers as well.
When he was finally naked, she dared a glance. He was a finely built man; not that she had any experience in that area. But she had seen the statues on the Moon and he looked like any one of them. She noted that his chest was hairless and that his skin a golden hue. She looked away when her eyes made contact with the very male part of him and she had to shake herself to go to the other side of the room and retrieve a towel.
She proceeded to briskly dry him off, steering clear of his nether regions, and then ran her fingers through his damp hair. "I wonder where you are from, sir. . ." she whispered gently. She smoothed a loose curl from his brow and smiled down at him. "Shall we see what kind of injuries you've suffered?" she asked softly.
She took his silence as an answer and quickly folded a towel over his manly parts. Then she stretched a hand down his arm. There were bruises and scratches down both and following the lines of his shoulder. She noted the blood on the side of his head and gently touched a finger there to find a large lump. "You are lucky to be alive. . ." she said softly when she discovered the bloody gash on his thigh. There was a smaller laceration on his chest; the bleeding had stopped yet the cut was still open. "I don't know how much I can do for you, sir. . .I only have a little of my healing balm left. . ."
She shook her head slightly then climbed down the ladder and out the front door. She rounded the small cabin and filled a bucket full of the fresh rain water from the barrels lined against the back of the cabin. If she saved this man's life, what would he do? Who was he? Was he some sort of crazed sailor who would force her to bed with him then rob her blind? Rei shivered then shook her head. Her senses were telling her that this man needed help and that he would not harm her, not now nor when he healed. Her senses were never wrong.
With that thought in mind, she walked back into the little wooden cabin and back up the ladder, the bucket of water balanced precariously in her arms. When she saw him lying helplessly on her bed she knew that she had been destined to take him in her care.
She bathed his wounds the best she could, yet was unnerved by the fact that not one sound came from him save the whisper of something she was not certain she had heard correctly. She carefully stitched up the wound on his thigh, wincing herself every time she poked the needle into his flesh. She smoothed the healing balm over the worst of his wounds then stared down at him, flinching when she finally allowed herself to understand how painful it must have been to be sitting in the ocean water with open gashes. He had suffered too much. "I fear that this is all I can do for you. . ." she said softly.
She gazed at his golden locks, surprised how light they had become when he was finally dry. "You are handsome of face, I suppose," she said gently. "I do not yet know what you look like, what with the bruise on your cheek and your parched lips." She smiled pleasantly and pulled the sheet over his body then dragged a chair beside the bed. "I wonder where you are from, sir. You most certainly are young, of that I am certain and you do not have the look of Mars, not Jupiter or Mercury. More like the Moon or Venus. Many from Venus have blonde hair and blue eyes; perhaps you have blue eyes as well, sir?"
She shook her head at herself after a while. This man could not hear a word she said. "For now I will just have to accustom myself to sharing this small home with you. I'm not certain I know what to call you. I'm afraid that if I do name you, it will be terribly wrong and awkward. Still, I cannot continue to call you 'sir'."
She again shook her head and stood. "You are most likely thirsty," she said with a smile. She paused before she went down the ladder. He could not speak, could not move, nor wake. What made her think he could drink? She sighed harshly then sat herself back in the chair.
She looked at his restful face and frowned. Would he die, she wondered silently. He looked pale, almost gray, and he was cold to the touch. Yet when she placed her ear to his chest, she heard the distinct beating of his heart and her hopes rose. He would live, she told herself. He would not die on her for now that she had this man with her, she wished to know a little about him. "I shall pretend that you come from Venus and that you are the god of love. Perhaps your name is Lucien. . .no. . .I imagine it would be. . ." she trailed off when she heard a flutter of wings at the window.
A large hawk perched itself on the window ledge and stared at her with bright eyes. "Hello. . ." she said softly.
The hawk screeched softly then glided into the room. He landed gracefully on the bed and cocked his head at the injured man. He flapped his wings twice, as if to wake him, then turned to face Rei. She shrugged and looked at the man herself. "He will not wake. He has been in a terrible accident, I'm afraid."
The hawk stared up at her as if she were crazy and then perched itself on the man's bound wrist. It screeched loudly several times before Rei had the courage to swat at it. "Quiet, you'll attract an entire regiment of soldiers with that screech!" she softly scolded.
It was then that the man beneath the bird began to stir. "Eos. . ." he moaned, "Stop. . .screeching. . ."
Rei was shocked into silence. Not two hours abed and the man was waking! "Sir!" she called frantically.
The blonde man turned his head on the pillow with a wince and opened his eyes—brilliant blue—to stare at her. "Who. . .who?" he asked softly.
Rei heard the dryness of his throat in his words and dipped a cup into the bucket of clear rainwater that she had gathered from outside. "I'm R—Jillian. . ." she managed with a smile.
He closed his eyes and sighed. "No. . ." he replied softly.
She gasped in shock. How did he know? "Who are you?" she asked in return.
The blue eyes opened again, this time glazed with pain. ". . .Jed. . ." he whispered and then was asleep.
It took her a moment for it to register that he was no longer awake and speaking. When it did finally reach her mind, she jumped up anxiously and let the cup of water in her hand topple to the floor. "Jed! Jed!" she cried frantically. She put shaking hands on his bare shoulders and shook him gently.
He opened his eyes again and stared at her as if she had no head on her shoulders. "What is wrong with you, woman?" he said harshly.
Rei smiled thankfully. He was alive and he would live! "Thank gods. . ." she sighed.
Jed turned his head to her and winced. ". . .something must have. . .fallen on my head. . ." he hissed.
Rei turned to look at him then and remembered that he was her patient and she was his doctor for the moment. "I am sorry, sir. . ." she said softly. "You were in a terrible accident."
Jed screwed up his features and raised the hand at his side, only to discover that it was the most difficult thing he had ever done. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he asked.
Rei looked toward him and noticed that he spoke in anger, yet there was fear in his eyes. "You were in a boating accident. Do you not remember?"
He turned his head on the pillow and stared up at her. "No. . .I. . .I don't. . ." he whispered. The scowl had disappeared from his brow to be replaced with genuine worry, fear, confusion, and frustration. "Boating incident you say?" he asked slowly as if he were just realizing his lips were parched and his throat dry.
Rei nodded and quickly made her way to the barrel of water before speaking again. She sat beside him slowly and sighed. "Do you not remember anything, sir?" she asked softly.
He closed his eyes and licked his dry lips. "No. . .only blackness. . ." he whispered.
Tilting her head to the side, Rei regarded him with sympathy. "There was a storm that started two nights ago and did not end until just today. I went out for a walk this morning and found splintered wood littering the beach. Then I found you."
"The ship was ruined?" he asked carefully.
Rei offered him the cup of water, but when he jerked his head away and stared at her intently, she pulled it back. "I'm assuming that the ship hit the jagged rocks at the base of the cliff then sank. What was left of it floated to shore; man and wood alike."
Jed closed his eyes briefly, trying to recall what the feelings would have been like, but nothing came to him. "How many bodies?" he asked.
Rei looked down into the water she held and nodded. "There were five. . .six at the most."
"The others must have drowned. . ." he said softly. He turned to look at her again and offered her the ghost of a smile. "I'll take that water now, if you don't mind, my lady."
Rei smiled sadly and helped him to drink the water. Did the crash cause him to loose his memory? It was entirely possible. She remembered hearing such tales on the moon. Their teachers had taught them all about the different accidents that could occur near the beach so that they would have no desire to go there, but they went as often as they could.
"You're name, lady. . ." he whispered into the cup.
She couldn't lie to him. . .for he knew too well she lied. "Rei. . ." she said softly staring at him.
When he had finished the cup of water, he lay back on the pillow and sighed. "I thank you, Lady Rei, for helping me."
"Oh. . .I'm glad you're alive," she said gently. But he didn't hear her; he was asleep again.
* * *
"What? Rei-chan, what is a man doing in your room?" Mina asked her friend the next day.
"Shh. . .Mina. . .he was injured. You saw the shipwreck from the cliff. When I went out in the morning, I found the beach littered with death and he was the only sign of life. But you must listen to me. . .there was a chest stuck between two rocks. I tried to pry it out this morning, but I couldn't. I think it may have something to do with Jed. If we could get it out and open it, we may learn something about him."
Mina stared at her friend with what could only be disbelief. "You're crazy! We can't do that Rei. . .you know that! We can't even host a man. . .let alone share our bed with one!"
"I'm letting him have the bed, Mina. I'm sleeping down here."
The blonde beauty looked at her friend hopelessly. "If the Queen finds out about this, we will surely never be able to go back home. She will have us banished here for good."
"Mina, you worry so! There is no need. The man is never awake. He is like a dead snake lying in that bed. His eyes are swollen; his arms in bandages. . .he can barely move, let alone stay awake long enough to have any concern about anything. Come, let us get the trunk and be done. It gets colder by the minute."
Mina shook her head and followed the raven-haired princess out the door. "If I get into any trouble, your neck is mine."
Rei laughed lightly and led the angered beauty down to the beach. "There," she said as she pointed to a large wooden chest wedged between two large boulders. The ocean waves lapped at its edge gently, as if trying to pull it out for them.
"If only Ami were here," Mina whispered, "She would be able to convince that water to lift the trunk from between the rocks and all we would need to do is push it to the cabin."
Rei raised a winged eyebrow and smiled. "I'm afraid it is just the two of us, my sweet," she said grabbing her friend's arm and pulling her toward the trunk.
Rei moved to one side and Mina to the other. "When I count to three, you pull and I'll push, is that clear?" Rei shouted over the roaring waves.
Mina nodded firmly and grabbed the handle of the trunk in anticipation. When Rei counted to three, she pulled with all her might, her arms straining with the pressure. Rei pushed against the large chest with her shoulder, her feet walking uselessly as she tried to gain leverage.
"This is no use!" Mina said as she fell onto her backside. "This trunk does not want to budge one inch. I believe that it was built into the rock, or these stupid rocks grew over the top of this thing."
Rei looked down at her friend and sighed. It was getting darker by the minute and still the trunk had not decided to move. "Perhaps you are right," Rei said with a frown. She so hated having to give up on anything.
Mina looked up at Rei and gave her a smile. "Don't look too depressed, Rei- chan. I'm sure that if we had more time, we would be able to move this thing without problems. As it is, we can hardly do much without. . .our. . .powers. . ." she whispered.
The two girls looked at one another for a long moment before shrugging their dainty shoulders and moving toward the forest. The chest was not so important that they needed to spend hours trying to loosen it.
"I must leave you here, Rei. . .Rohan said he would come and patch up my roof, so I must return before nightfall."
Rei nodded to her friend and made her way up to her cottage. She was anxious to see how the young man faired. She felt extremely sorry for him because his body and face was so badly bruised that it was hard to understand what he looked like. She smiled slightly. The poor man must be suffering so.
The smile disappeared on her face when she entered the small cottage. A loud crash echoed down the ladder. Rei didn't' think, only ran as fast as she could until she reached the upper room. She saw her patient flailing on the bed. The sheet had fallen to the floor as well as the pitcher she had placed on the bedside table that morning.
"Jed!" she yelled as she raced to him. "Jed! Please wake up!" she cried.
He opened his eyes quickly and scowled at her without really seeing her. "Bastard!" he yelled before his arm came crashing through the air. His fist hit the side of her face and she went stumbling backwards.
"Jed. . ." she whispered running back to his side. The pain in her cheek was unbearable. She wanted to lie down with a cool damp cloth and sleep, but she knew he needed her. "Jed, please wake!" she cried to the flailing man. She managed to make it to his side without getting hit again and gently placed her hand on his forehead.
He immediately stilled.
"Jed. . ." she cooed to him as she ran her hand down his cheek. It was what she had feared. He was burning up with a fever. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself. She had never felt this helpless before. "If only Ami were here. . ." she said softly.
Rei put her hand on Jed's shoulder in an attempt to keep him calm and slowly reached for the blanket that had fallen to the floor. She covered him with it as gently as she could and made sure that her hand never left his shoulder. She feared that he might begin flailing about again if she did.
Instead of flailing about in a crazed, fevered state again, he began to shiver uncontrollably. "No, not this. . ." Rei whispered as she watched him try to turn onto his side.
"Cold. . .so cold. . ." he moaned softly.
She ran to the bottom of the ladder where she knew a pile of blankets sat under the small bench against a wall. She grabbed all of them and ran back up the ladder. Jed was lying on his side, shivering uncontrollably underneath the thin blanket. Rei bit her lip in fear that he would pull his cuts open again if he continued to lie on his side, so she rushed forward and pulled him gently onto his back. He protested the whole way and moaned his disagreement, but she won in the end.
"You cannot lie on your side, Jed," she whispered as she draped blankets over him.
After she had gotten the blankets tucked securely around him, she chanced a look at his battered face and as she started at him, his eyes opened. She hadn't paid much attention to those eyes the day before as she was bathing him and trying to speak with him. She had noticed that they were a very nice blue, but this? At the moment they were burning with fever, but the blue was so intense she could feel the fire in her own body freeze. His eyes were possibly bluer than the ocean that she spent so much time watching.
"Leave me. . ." he croaked out. His intense stare never left her as he made his comment.
"No," Rei replied after a short pause. Had the gods really made eyes that shade of blue? It was impossible to make that color, even if one blended all the colors in the universe. "I will not leave you alone. You are burning with fever, sir, and you are a danger to yourself at this moment." She wasn't exactly sure where this bout of anger came from, but all of a sudden she was shaking with it.
Jed frowned at her and then grimaced at the pain it caused in his face. What the hell was wrong with him? "I said leave me alone, wench!" he said as he tried to raise a hand and push her away.
Rei took a breath and then rose up over him. "If you want to die alone, then I shall let you, but as of this moment you can barely lift your finger."
"I would like to die in peace," he said softly.
Rei let out a frustrated sigh and moved to the corner of the room where a chair sat against the wall. She dragged it to the side of the bed and plopped herself down into it and stared out the window.
Jed smiled inwardly and finally closed his eyes. This woman was going to be the end of him.
"You are stubborn," he said and even those words hurt to speak. His throat was dry and his chapped lips made the words that much harder to get out.
Rei just sat still, her mouth set in a grim line, and stared out the window.
Jed turned his head toward her and cracked open a swollen eyelid. She was a sight to behold, he'd give her that. She had the most beautiful raven colored hair he had ever seen. It glimmered and shined and moved around her head so gracefully that he was reminded of silky wisps of smoke as they rose from the head of an incense stick. Her eyes were an appealing shade of violet with the loveliest twinkling of black and above those dark orbs, her eyebrows made very attractive arches. She had a very adorable nose, straight and small and so perfect it made him wonder at how that could be a possibility. Her neck was long, her arms slender, her hands graceful even as they clenched across her breasts. Her breasts were full and round and lovely from what he could see with the gray gown covering them and the sight of long legs being sculpted by the wool was something to make him stir beneath the covers. But alas, nothing moved nor did anything beat with lust. He was too cold, too tired and in too much pain to appreciate her beauty.
Instead of pursuing the thought of pulling her against him and parting her legs with his knees, he turned his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. Perhaps if he just thought of the blankets warming him, then he would be consumed by heat.
Rei looked at the stubborn man with a heavy heart. He was suffering and she did nothing but give him grief. "Are you well, Jed?" she questioned softly.
The angel was speaking to him, he knew that for a fact, but he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth. His throat was coated with sand and his tongue felt heavy and swollen. "Cold. . ." was the only word he could manage and even that sounded like a muffled groan.
Rei rose from her chair slowly and moved to the side of the bed. She rested her palm against his cheek then his brow and cringed. He was as hot as fire and she knew too well what that heat meant. She watched helplessly as he shivered uncontrollably beneath the sheets, his body convulsing and wracking with cold. "The blankets are not enough. . ." she whispered to herself.
Suddenly an idea weaved itself into her head and she ran down the ladder to find the stack of bricks that still stood against the wall beside the small hearth. Her maid had always warmed smooth river rocks and wrapped them in blankets to place under her coverlet when she was younger. "The sheets are hard to warm this time of year, miss," she would say when the snow began to fall on the moon. "The only way to warm a bed decently is to put river rocks into the fire and place them at the food of the mattress."
Rei remembered the small lesson as clearly as she knew her name and shoved a brick into the fire. "It's no river rock, but at least it's hearty and will retain heat. . ." she said as she watched the flames lick at the gray stone. She waited until she knew it would scorch any man's hand with its heat then reached a hand into the fire. The flames caressed and smoothed about her skin as though greeting a long lost friend. Her skin warmed and heated, but burn it did not for her power with the fire was great.
She smiled softly and carried the hot stone up the ladder and into the small bed chamber. She wrapped it tightly in a small cloth and tucked it securely at the bottom of the bed. "Jed. . .you'll be warm. . ." she said gently, stroking the blonde hair from his brow.
But still he shivered, even when she pulled back the covers and placed her hands on the heated mattress he shivered; hard wracking shivers that made his teeth chatter and his skin blue. What else was she to do?
Biting her lip and looking down at the bruised and broken man in her bed, she suddenly knew. Without a second thought, she stripped her gown from her body and tossed it onto the chair. Her shift came off next and her boots and under garments. When she was finally naked she turned to look out the window and up at the cliff where she knew Mina worked and worried over her desire to go home. She would not rethink her plan for she did not want this man to die. Not before she found out who he was.
With sure movements she pulled back the covers and slipped into bed beside the cold body. The bed was warm, the hot brick heating the mattress through and through. She didn't think twice about her actions, simply wanted to heal the sick fevered soul and wrapped her arms around his back. "Please. . ." she whispered over and over, "take my warmth. . .be well. . ."
Jed merely felt smooth hot skin against his and tried frantically to get closer to it. He wanted to burrow into her heat, wrap himself in her silken hair and die a peaceful death. With all the pain and the shivers, he didn't want to live. There was no need to continue if he was going to die from this wretched fever as it was.
Slowly he began to ease and Rei sighed with relief against his chest. Her patient would be well. She slowly moved a leg between his thighs and blinked in surprise when she felt that very male part of him press limply against her thigh. His body was so much different than hers. She finally took time to notice that his chest was broad and hard and smooth. He was golden, his skin taut over strong muscles and his legs were liberally covered with hairs that tickled her own. She breathed deeply of him and was delighted by the earthy and spicy masculine scent he had. She pressed her cheek against his chest and again sighed deeply when she felt him move closer to her.
His thigh pressed hard against her and she felt a strange warmth trickle down her limbs, but ignored it as the heat from the brick began to lull her to sleep. She had never been this close to a man before, never touched one as intimately as she did this one. It was a strange and new experience for her, like a forbidden fruit one could not get enough of. She closed her eyes as sleep claimed her, thinking to herself, "He's reached out to me. . .and this is only the beginning. . ."
* * *
Rei calmly slipped out of her favored place to hurry back to her small cottage. She had almost forgotten about the tide, so concentrated was she on a strange tickling at the back of her mind. Smiling faintly, she looked over her shoulder at the cave carved into the stony cliff. It reminded her of her home.
Mars. . .
Thinking of her home sent a pang of longing through her heart. She missed her parents despite the fact that she had been with them a month before she was taken away again. She had only been gone from civilization for fortnight at best. Still, not being able to see her mother or father, or even Ami and Makoto had her sniffing back tears.
She shook her head to rid herself of the unwanted thoughts and dashed up the shore to the edge of the forest where her home sat ensconced in the dense brush. She pushed open the door quickly to discover her friend perched gracefully in one of the simple wooden chairs by the fireplace. There was a fire blazing in the hearth, as there always was, and Rei was thankful that it hadn't died out before she got there. "Mina. . .what are you doing here?" she asked her friend as she made her way to the beating flames. She stuck out her hands to warm them as she regarded the lovely blonde. "Isn't it late?"
Minette smiled and brushed her hands of their dust on her plain wool gown. "It's not so late, Reina. Besides. . .I brought food with me!" she said happily, "and linens and another dress for you. Now you have a total of four. . .splendid, ne?"
Reina smiled faintly at her friend and folded her hands before her. "Where is Rohan then?" she asked brightly.
Minette shrugged and pointed toward the door. "He said that you were in need of water, so he went to the stream to fetch you some. He cannot spend the night, however, his wife is with child and he is anxious to be with her. . ." she said as she rose.
Reina raised an elegant eyebrow and brushed back the loose strand of blonde hair that had fallen from Mina's simple bun. "Are you lonely up there?" she asked her friend.
Mina frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "I am not lonely. . .only bored. . ." she said. "At least you have the ocean to keep you company. All I have is the birds and trees."
"It cannot be so bad on that cliff, Mina. . ." she said to her friend.
"It is, Rei. . .it is terribly boring up there. I can watch the ocean, certainly. I can watch the water as it strikes the rocks below, but I cannot walk along its shore and sink my feet into the sand. Oh, Rei. . .I really do wish I were back at home. Venus is so—"
"Hush, no more from you. . ." Rei said, clamping a hand over her mouth. "I'll visit you on the morrow, but I am overly tired now, Minette. . .and you must be careful how you use our past information. We have been lax in calling ourselves by our names. . .I am Jillian now, love. . .and you are-- "
Minette tore her mouth away and frowned. "I know who I am, Jillian. I am Kathryn. . ."
Rei smiled sadly at her friend and pat her on the shoulder. "Wait until Rohan comes back with the water, then you may leave."
It was then Minette looked at her friend. Her face was a tad paler than normal and her eyes wide. "What is it, Rei—Jillian? Are you feeling ill?" she asked her friend.
Reina shook her head and forced another smile, "I am well. . .just tired is all. . ."
She sat herself in one of the hard chairs and stared into the fire. She couldn't tell Minette about the strange niggling feeling she had. Something was going to happen tonight, but what, she did not know.
Rohan came through the door as her mind wandered. "Fresh water for ya, Miss Jillian. You didn't have any at first, and I gots a tad worried. You been spendin' too much time at that beach o' yours," he said with a smile. He tossed his wind-blown hair from his eyes and looked at her. She was a vision; he thought as he eyed her, so was the blonde. "I brought ya some wheat, dried meat, a few herbs from my wife's garden, a couple o' potatoes, some onions, carrots, a block o' cheese an' a bit o' yeast from our own stash. It isn't much, but it will last ya a few days. I also brought another gown that Martha sewed for ya, not tamention a few more linens an' a fresh bar o' soap. I'll come back wit more in a few days. . ." he said as he set his burden down near the hearth.
"Thank you, Rohan," she said pleasantly. "Would you mind walking Kathryn back up since it is on your way?"
"I can make it on my own," Minette said crossing her arms over her chest. Honestly, Reina was treating her as if she were younger than she was!
Reina chanced a glance out of the window of her small cottage and closed her eyes briefly. It was as she suspected; the clouds were overhead. "Kat. . .there will be rain. . ." she said softly.
Minette smiled softly at her friend and put a hand to her shoulder. "I shall be fine, Jillian. . .believe you me. . ."
Reina nodded slowly and turned to watch both Minette and Rohan depart. That faint niggling at the back of her mind would not quite. What was wrong with her? Would a storm make her this nervous? She shook her head quickly and rose.
She looked longingly out the window and mentally picked out the star in the darkening sky. "Home. . ." she whispered to herself. She wondered briefly what her mother and father were thinking at that very moment. Were they worried about her? Queen Serenity had promised her that she would tell her parents everything once she was securely settled. How had they taken the news about her assassin?"
Rei cringed slightly at the thought. I have an assassin, she thought. How could she have an assassin? It was all too confusing. Was she that loathed by people? She knew her grandfather had been notorious for his temper, a temper that her father was fast closing in on, but did she harbor the same? She did not bellow like her father, in fact, she considered herself very well mannered. Was it possible that that was the reason for the attempts on her life?
She closed her eyes to block out the unwanted thoughts and pulled on the rope above her head to lower the ladder to the attic. She and Rohan had transformed it into a bedchamber complete with a warming stone near the chimney so that the room would stay warm.
She made her way to the corner nearest the makeshift hearth and sat on the cot. She missed the luxurious bed she had on Mars and the Moon. She missed the hot baths of scented water that she could sit in and enjoy until she wished to get up. But to keep her safe, the Queen had set her here with strict instructions. "Do not use your powers for any reason. . ." she had told her. She and Mina had nodded vigorously and parted.
Rei looked out the window again. The hairs on the back of her neck pricked up. Something was amiss, but it couldn't be anything but the storm. She nodded to herself and stripped out of her heavy wool gown and slid into the bed. She would sleep away the troubled tick and wake up refreshed.
* * *
When she woke in the morning, the sun was out. "The storm is over..." she told herself stretching. "Two days of intense rain and wind and the storm is finally over. . ."
She smiled softly before getting out of her warm bed and dressing in the gray wool gown—the first she had received on in her stay. It was sturdy, made for working around outdoors and in. She smoothed the folds gently then washed her face in the basin of water she had left on one of the rickety wash stands.
She grabbed a thin swathe of damask and tied her hair at the base of her neck then went quickly down the ladder and into the main room of the cottage. She was excited that the sun had finally decided to show. It had been two long days indoors, sewing useless items or staring out at the rain, praying that Minette had summoned enough courage to brave the rain and come visit her. She was not so brave, the wind was icy, the rain worse.
Smiling at her thoughts, Reina grabbed a piece of the bread she had made the day before and sliced a piece of cheese. She ate the treat as she walked outside.
It was still chill; the winds still cold. She looked around her as she ate the bread and cheese. The birds were out and there were still droplets of rain falling from the trees. 'It is like a painting,' she thought to herself as she made her way to the beach.
The sand was wet and her feet sunk in as she made her way down the way to her special little cove. She ignored the moisture seeping into her shoes as she walked around several boulders, but cursed quite vividly when she tripped and fell on her knees.
"Damn!" she said lifting herself up and looking behind her. She stared at the offending piece of wood and frowned. Why were there strips of wood littering the beach? She looked around her and gasped. There was wood every where! Several pieces were very large; some were drifting in and out with the waves. There were fragments of sail draped over rocks and boulders. A trunk wedged between two boulders, dripping water.
"What happened?" Reina asked herself as she rounded a cluster of rocks. She covered her mouth when she lifted her gaze down the beach.
Bodies littered the sand. There were three near her and two further down. Were they all dead? She felt a pang of regret that all these men perished as they tried to make their way to safety. She wondered how many were still floating in the sea.
Carefully she knelt beside the man nearest her and put a shaking hand on his chest. There was no movement. She looked to his face and noted the gray pallor, then turned to the next. He was dead as well. She gave up hope. All these men were dead because of the storm. Was the wind so strong that it led the sailors into the jagged rocks below the cliff? She would have to drag the men into the frigid waters and give them the best burial she could manage.
Even as she thought of the cold water, she felt a shiver run down her spine. Was she that cold? She shrugged and gingerly made her way to the small cove hidden in the boulders. There she pulled out a blanket, that she normally kept tucked away on the highest point of the cave, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
It was then she heard the soft gasp.
She turned with a gasp on her own tongue, then realized that there was no one behind her. She backed cautiously into her cave and waited a moment for her senses to clear.
And she heard it again. Only this one was full of pain and frustration.
She came out of her hiding place slowly and looked to her left. She felt the alarm build anew when she saw that a man was lying at the base of a rock. Her heart went out to him immediately and she rushed to him before she could even think about her rash decision.
His eyes were closed and his body motionless. When she knelt beside him she was almost sure that he had died in the amount of time it had taken her to reach him. She put a hand to his brow and then his cheek. He was slightly warmer than the wind that whipped against her. She unwrapped the blanket from her shoulder and laid it over his chest.
"Sir?" she called softly.
He stirred slightly at her voice, his head falling to one side and his fingers twitching. "Sir?" she called more urgently. She saw that his eyes moved under his lids and she smiled briefly in relief. He was most definitely alive, but she wasn't sure how long he would live if she kept him in the cold, wet sand.
'Do not use your powers for any reason. . .' she heard the queen say. But this was an emergency. How could she let this man—who was obviously in much pain—die because she could not lift him to her cabin? It was ridiculous. She shook her head and looked at him again. He was sleeping peacefully, though Rei noticed that his brow was furrowed slightly. Was it from pain?
Rei closed her eyes for a moment in thought. "A small spell; so small that Mina won't be able to detect it. If I can get him warm, he will be well. . ." she told herself thoughtfully.
With the thought in mind she pushed back the quilt and waved a hand over his still body. He rose off the ground a mere six inches, but did not move. "Good enough. . ." she whispered to herself as she gripped his tunic and began to drag him effortlessly back up the beach and down the small trail that led to her cottage.
"I will make sure your friends are cared for, sir. . .I promise you," she said as she pushed open the door to her home. She pulled him in quickly and shut the door. "Up the ladder you go," she said quietly as she waved a hand over his chest again. He disappeared for an instant and Rei prayed to the Gods that that little bit of magic had gone undetected.
She climbed the ladder quickly and paused when she saw him lying on her bed. "This will not do. . ." she said as she walked closer. "You are soaked through, sir. . ."
Without a care, she unlaced his plain wool tunic and pushed it off his shoulders. She proceeded to do the same to his thin gossamer shirt underneath then wriggled and pulled until the wet clothing had come out from under his broad shoulders. She then went to his boots and quickly pulled them off his feet. She unlaced his breeches with swift movements then pulled them down his legs and off his body. His thick hose came off with a splash of water and his drawers as well.
When he was finally naked, she dared a glance. He was a finely built man; not that she had any experience in that area. But she had seen the statues on the Moon and he looked like any one of them. She noted that his chest was hairless and that his skin a golden hue. She looked away when her eyes made contact with the very male part of him and she had to shake herself to go to the other side of the room and retrieve a towel.
She proceeded to briskly dry him off, steering clear of his nether regions, and then ran her fingers through his damp hair. "I wonder where you are from, sir. . ." she whispered gently. She smoothed a loose curl from his brow and smiled down at him. "Shall we see what kind of injuries you've suffered?" she asked softly.
She took his silence as an answer and quickly folded a towel over his manly parts. Then she stretched a hand down his arm. There were bruises and scratches down both and following the lines of his shoulder. She noted the blood on the side of his head and gently touched a finger there to find a large lump. "You are lucky to be alive. . ." she said softly when she discovered the bloody gash on his thigh. There was a smaller laceration on his chest; the bleeding had stopped yet the cut was still open. "I don't know how much I can do for you, sir. . .I only have a little of my healing balm left. . ."
She shook her head slightly then climbed down the ladder and out the front door. She rounded the small cabin and filled a bucket full of the fresh rain water from the barrels lined against the back of the cabin. If she saved this man's life, what would he do? Who was he? Was he some sort of crazed sailor who would force her to bed with him then rob her blind? Rei shivered then shook her head. Her senses were telling her that this man needed help and that he would not harm her, not now nor when he healed. Her senses were never wrong.
With that thought in mind, she walked back into the little wooden cabin and back up the ladder, the bucket of water balanced precariously in her arms. When she saw him lying helplessly on her bed she knew that she had been destined to take him in her care.
She bathed his wounds the best she could, yet was unnerved by the fact that not one sound came from him save the whisper of something she was not certain she had heard correctly. She carefully stitched up the wound on his thigh, wincing herself every time she poked the needle into his flesh. She smoothed the healing balm over the worst of his wounds then stared down at him, flinching when she finally allowed herself to understand how painful it must have been to be sitting in the ocean water with open gashes. He had suffered too much. "I fear that this is all I can do for you. . ." she said softly.
She gazed at his golden locks, surprised how light they had become when he was finally dry. "You are handsome of face, I suppose," she said gently. "I do not yet know what you look like, what with the bruise on your cheek and your parched lips." She smiled pleasantly and pulled the sheet over his body then dragged a chair beside the bed. "I wonder where you are from, sir. You most certainly are young, of that I am certain and you do not have the look of Mars, not Jupiter or Mercury. More like the Moon or Venus. Many from Venus have blonde hair and blue eyes; perhaps you have blue eyes as well, sir?"
She shook her head at herself after a while. This man could not hear a word she said. "For now I will just have to accustom myself to sharing this small home with you. I'm not certain I know what to call you. I'm afraid that if I do name you, it will be terribly wrong and awkward. Still, I cannot continue to call you 'sir'."
She again shook her head and stood. "You are most likely thirsty," she said with a smile. She paused before she went down the ladder. He could not speak, could not move, nor wake. What made her think he could drink? She sighed harshly then sat herself back in the chair.
She looked at his restful face and frowned. Would he die, she wondered silently. He looked pale, almost gray, and he was cold to the touch. Yet when she placed her ear to his chest, she heard the distinct beating of his heart and her hopes rose. He would live, she told herself. He would not die on her for now that she had this man with her, she wished to know a little about him. "I shall pretend that you come from Venus and that you are the god of love. Perhaps your name is Lucien. . .no. . .I imagine it would be. . ." she trailed off when she heard a flutter of wings at the window.
A large hawk perched itself on the window ledge and stared at her with bright eyes. "Hello. . ." she said softly.
The hawk screeched softly then glided into the room. He landed gracefully on the bed and cocked his head at the injured man. He flapped his wings twice, as if to wake him, then turned to face Rei. She shrugged and looked at the man herself. "He will not wake. He has been in a terrible accident, I'm afraid."
The hawk stared up at her as if she were crazy and then perched itself on the man's bound wrist. It screeched loudly several times before Rei had the courage to swat at it. "Quiet, you'll attract an entire regiment of soldiers with that screech!" she softly scolded.
It was then that the man beneath the bird began to stir. "Eos. . ." he moaned, "Stop. . .screeching. . ."
Rei was shocked into silence. Not two hours abed and the man was waking! "Sir!" she called frantically.
The blonde man turned his head on the pillow with a wince and opened his eyes—brilliant blue—to stare at her. "Who. . .who?" he asked softly.
Rei heard the dryness of his throat in his words and dipped a cup into the bucket of clear rainwater that she had gathered from outside. "I'm R—Jillian. . ." she managed with a smile.
He closed his eyes and sighed. "No. . ." he replied softly.
She gasped in shock. How did he know? "Who are you?" she asked in return.
The blue eyes opened again, this time glazed with pain. ". . .Jed. . ." he whispered and then was asleep.
It took her a moment for it to register that he was no longer awake and speaking. When it did finally reach her mind, she jumped up anxiously and let the cup of water in her hand topple to the floor. "Jed! Jed!" she cried frantically. She put shaking hands on his bare shoulders and shook him gently.
He opened his eyes again and stared at her as if she had no head on her shoulders. "What is wrong with you, woman?" he said harshly.
Rei smiled thankfully. He was alive and he would live! "Thank gods. . ." she sighed.
Jed turned his head to her and winced. ". . .something must have. . .fallen on my head. . ." he hissed.
Rei turned to look at him then and remembered that he was her patient and she was his doctor for the moment. "I am sorry, sir. . ." she said softly. "You were in a terrible accident."
Jed screwed up his features and raised the hand at his side, only to discover that it was the most difficult thing he had ever done. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he asked.
Rei looked toward him and noticed that he spoke in anger, yet there was fear in his eyes. "You were in a boating accident. Do you not remember?"
He turned his head on the pillow and stared up at her. "No. . .I. . .I don't. . ." he whispered. The scowl had disappeared from his brow to be replaced with genuine worry, fear, confusion, and frustration. "Boating incident you say?" he asked slowly as if he were just realizing his lips were parched and his throat dry.
Rei nodded and quickly made her way to the barrel of water before speaking again. She sat beside him slowly and sighed. "Do you not remember anything, sir?" she asked softly.
He closed his eyes and licked his dry lips. "No. . .only blackness. . ." he whispered.
Tilting her head to the side, Rei regarded him with sympathy. "There was a storm that started two nights ago and did not end until just today. I went out for a walk this morning and found splintered wood littering the beach. Then I found you."
"The ship was ruined?" he asked carefully.
Rei offered him the cup of water, but when he jerked his head away and stared at her intently, she pulled it back. "I'm assuming that the ship hit the jagged rocks at the base of the cliff then sank. What was left of it floated to shore; man and wood alike."
Jed closed his eyes briefly, trying to recall what the feelings would have been like, but nothing came to him. "How many bodies?" he asked.
Rei looked down into the water she held and nodded. "There were five. . .six at the most."
"The others must have drowned. . ." he said softly. He turned to look at her again and offered her the ghost of a smile. "I'll take that water now, if you don't mind, my lady."
Rei smiled sadly and helped him to drink the water. Did the crash cause him to loose his memory? It was entirely possible. She remembered hearing such tales on the moon. Their teachers had taught them all about the different accidents that could occur near the beach so that they would have no desire to go there, but they went as often as they could.
"You're name, lady. . ." he whispered into the cup.
She couldn't lie to him. . .for he knew too well she lied. "Rei. . ." she said softly staring at him.
When he had finished the cup of water, he lay back on the pillow and sighed. "I thank you, Lady Rei, for helping me."
"Oh. . .I'm glad you're alive," she said gently. But he didn't hear her; he was asleep again.
* * *
"What? Rei-chan, what is a man doing in your room?" Mina asked her friend the next day.
"Shh. . .Mina. . .he was injured. You saw the shipwreck from the cliff. When I went out in the morning, I found the beach littered with death and he was the only sign of life. But you must listen to me. . .there was a chest stuck between two rocks. I tried to pry it out this morning, but I couldn't. I think it may have something to do with Jed. If we could get it out and open it, we may learn something about him."
Mina stared at her friend with what could only be disbelief. "You're crazy! We can't do that Rei. . .you know that! We can't even host a man. . .let alone share our bed with one!"
"I'm letting him have the bed, Mina. I'm sleeping down here."
The blonde beauty looked at her friend hopelessly. "If the Queen finds out about this, we will surely never be able to go back home. She will have us banished here for good."
"Mina, you worry so! There is no need. The man is never awake. He is like a dead snake lying in that bed. His eyes are swollen; his arms in bandages. . .he can barely move, let alone stay awake long enough to have any concern about anything. Come, let us get the trunk and be done. It gets colder by the minute."
Mina shook her head and followed the raven-haired princess out the door. "If I get into any trouble, your neck is mine."
Rei laughed lightly and led the angered beauty down to the beach. "There," she said as she pointed to a large wooden chest wedged between two large boulders. The ocean waves lapped at its edge gently, as if trying to pull it out for them.
"If only Ami were here," Mina whispered, "She would be able to convince that water to lift the trunk from between the rocks and all we would need to do is push it to the cabin."
Rei raised a winged eyebrow and smiled. "I'm afraid it is just the two of us, my sweet," she said grabbing her friend's arm and pulling her toward the trunk.
Rei moved to one side and Mina to the other. "When I count to three, you pull and I'll push, is that clear?" Rei shouted over the roaring waves.
Mina nodded firmly and grabbed the handle of the trunk in anticipation. When Rei counted to three, she pulled with all her might, her arms straining with the pressure. Rei pushed against the large chest with her shoulder, her feet walking uselessly as she tried to gain leverage.
"This is no use!" Mina said as she fell onto her backside. "This trunk does not want to budge one inch. I believe that it was built into the rock, or these stupid rocks grew over the top of this thing."
Rei looked down at her friend and sighed. It was getting darker by the minute and still the trunk had not decided to move. "Perhaps you are right," Rei said with a frown. She so hated having to give up on anything.
Mina looked up at Rei and gave her a smile. "Don't look too depressed, Rei- chan. I'm sure that if we had more time, we would be able to move this thing without problems. As it is, we can hardly do much without. . .our. . .powers. . ." she whispered.
The two girls looked at one another for a long moment before shrugging their dainty shoulders and moving toward the forest. The chest was not so important that they needed to spend hours trying to loosen it.
"I must leave you here, Rei. . .Rohan said he would come and patch up my roof, so I must return before nightfall."
Rei nodded to her friend and made her way up to her cottage. She was anxious to see how the young man faired. She felt extremely sorry for him because his body and face was so badly bruised that it was hard to understand what he looked like. She smiled slightly. The poor man must be suffering so.
The smile disappeared on her face when she entered the small cottage. A loud crash echoed down the ladder. Rei didn't' think, only ran as fast as she could until she reached the upper room. She saw her patient flailing on the bed. The sheet had fallen to the floor as well as the pitcher she had placed on the bedside table that morning.
"Jed!" she yelled as she raced to him. "Jed! Please wake up!" she cried.
He opened his eyes quickly and scowled at her without really seeing her. "Bastard!" he yelled before his arm came crashing through the air. His fist hit the side of her face and she went stumbling backwards.
"Jed. . ." she whispered running back to his side. The pain in her cheek was unbearable. She wanted to lie down with a cool damp cloth and sleep, but she knew he needed her. "Jed, please wake!" she cried to the flailing man. She managed to make it to his side without getting hit again and gently placed her hand on his forehead.
He immediately stilled.
"Jed. . ." she cooed to him as she ran her hand down his cheek. It was what she had feared. He was burning up with a fever. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself. She had never felt this helpless before. "If only Ami were here. . ." she said softly.
Rei put her hand on Jed's shoulder in an attempt to keep him calm and slowly reached for the blanket that had fallen to the floor. She covered him with it as gently as she could and made sure that her hand never left his shoulder. She feared that he might begin flailing about again if she did.
Instead of flailing about in a crazed, fevered state again, he began to shiver uncontrollably. "No, not this. . ." Rei whispered as she watched him try to turn onto his side.
"Cold. . .so cold. . ." he moaned softly.
She ran to the bottom of the ladder where she knew a pile of blankets sat under the small bench against a wall. She grabbed all of them and ran back up the ladder. Jed was lying on his side, shivering uncontrollably underneath the thin blanket. Rei bit her lip in fear that he would pull his cuts open again if he continued to lie on his side, so she rushed forward and pulled him gently onto his back. He protested the whole way and moaned his disagreement, but she won in the end.
"You cannot lie on your side, Jed," she whispered as she draped blankets over him.
After she had gotten the blankets tucked securely around him, she chanced a look at his battered face and as she started at him, his eyes opened. She hadn't paid much attention to those eyes the day before as she was bathing him and trying to speak with him. She had noticed that they were a very nice blue, but this? At the moment they were burning with fever, but the blue was so intense she could feel the fire in her own body freeze. His eyes were possibly bluer than the ocean that she spent so much time watching.
"Leave me. . ." he croaked out. His intense stare never left her as he made his comment.
"No," Rei replied after a short pause. Had the gods really made eyes that shade of blue? It was impossible to make that color, even if one blended all the colors in the universe. "I will not leave you alone. You are burning with fever, sir, and you are a danger to yourself at this moment." She wasn't exactly sure where this bout of anger came from, but all of a sudden she was shaking with it.
Jed frowned at her and then grimaced at the pain it caused in his face. What the hell was wrong with him? "I said leave me alone, wench!" he said as he tried to raise a hand and push her away.
Rei took a breath and then rose up over him. "If you want to die alone, then I shall let you, but as of this moment you can barely lift your finger."
"I would like to die in peace," he said softly.
Rei let out a frustrated sigh and moved to the corner of the room where a chair sat against the wall. She dragged it to the side of the bed and plopped herself down into it and stared out the window.
Jed smiled inwardly and finally closed his eyes. This woman was going to be the end of him.
"You are stubborn," he said and even those words hurt to speak. His throat was dry and his chapped lips made the words that much harder to get out.
Rei just sat still, her mouth set in a grim line, and stared out the window.
Jed turned his head toward her and cracked open a swollen eyelid. She was a sight to behold, he'd give her that. She had the most beautiful raven colored hair he had ever seen. It glimmered and shined and moved around her head so gracefully that he was reminded of silky wisps of smoke as they rose from the head of an incense stick. Her eyes were an appealing shade of violet with the loveliest twinkling of black and above those dark orbs, her eyebrows made very attractive arches. She had a very adorable nose, straight and small and so perfect it made him wonder at how that could be a possibility. Her neck was long, her arms slender, her hands graceful even as they clenched across her breasts. Her breasts were full and round and lovely from what he could see with the gray gown covering them and the sight of long legs being sculpted by the wool was something to make him stir beneath the covers. But alas, nothing moved nor did anything beat with lust. He was too cold, too tired and in too much pain to appreciate her beauty.
Instead of pursuing the thought of pulling her against him and parting her legs with his knees, he turned his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. Perhaps if he just thought of the blankets warming him, then he would be consumed by heat.
Rei looked at the stubborn man with a heavy heart. He was suffering and she did nothing but give him grief. "Are you well, Jed?" she questioned softly.
The angel was speaking to him, he knew that for a fact, but he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth. His throat was coated with sand and his tongue felt heavy and swollen. "Cold. . ." was the only word he could manage and even that sounded like a muffled groan.
Rei rose from her chair slowly and moved to the side of the bed. She rested her palm against his cheek then his brow and cringed. He was as hot as fire and she knew too well what that heat meant. She watched helplessly as he shivered uncontrollably beneath the sheets, his body convulsing and wracking with cold. "The blankets are not enough. . ." she whispered to herself.
Suddenly an idea weaved itself into her head and she ran down the ladder to find the stack of bricks that still stood against the wall beside the small hearth. Her maid had always warmed smooth river rocks and wrapped them in blankets to place under her coverlet when she was younger. "The sheets are hard to warm this time of year, miss," she would say when the snow began to fall on the moon. "The only way to warm a bed decently is to put river rocks into the fire and place them at the food of the mattress."
Rei remembered the small lesson as clearly as she knew her name and shoved a brick into the fire. "It's no river rock, but at least it's hearty and will retain heat. . ." she said as she watched the flames lick at the gray stone. She waited until she knew it would scorch any man's hand with its heat then reached a hand into the fire. The flames caressed and smoothed about her skin as though greeting a long lost friend. Her skin warmed and heated, but burn it did not for her power with the fire was great.
She smiled softly and carried the hot stone up the ladder and into the small bed chamber. She wrapped it tightly in a small cloth and tucked it securely at the bottom of the bed. "Jed. . .you'll be warm. . ." she said gently, stroking the blonde hair from his brow.
But still he shivered, even when she pulled back the covers and placed her hands on the heated mattress he shivered; hard wracking shivers that made his teeth chatter and his skin blue. What else was she to do?
Biting her lip and looking down at the bruised and broken man in her bed, she suddenly knew. Without a second thought, she stripped her gown from her body and tossed it onto the chair. Her shift came off next and her boots and under garments. When she was finally naked she turned to look out the window and up at the cliff where she knew Mina worked and worried over her desire to go home. She would not rethink her plan for she did not want this man to die. Not before she found out who he was.
With sure movements she pulled back the covers and slipped into bed beside the cold body. The bed was warm, the hot brick heating the mattress through and through. She didn't think twice about her actions, simply wanted to heal the sick fevered soul and wrapped her arms around his back. "Please. . ." she whispered over and over, "take my warmth. . .be well. . ."
Jed merely felt smooth hot skin against his and tried frantically to get closer to it. He wanted to burrow into her heat, wrap himself in her silken hair and die a peaceful death. With all the pain and the shivers, he didn't want to live. There was no need to continue if he was going to die from this wretched fever as it was.
Slowly he began to ease and Rei sighed with relief against his chest. Her patient would be well. She slowly moved a leg between his thighs and blinked in surprise when she felt that very male part of him press limply against her thigh. His body was so much different than hers. She finally took time to notice that his chest was broad and hard and smooth. He was golden, his skin taut over strong muscles and his legs were liberally covered with hairs that tickled her own. She breathed deeply of him and was delighted by the earthy and spicy masculine scent he had. She pressed her cheek against his chest and again sighed deeply when she felt him move closer to her.
His thigh pressed hard against her and she felt a strange warmth trickle down her limbs, but ignored it as the heat from the brick began to lull her to sleep. She had never been this close to a man before, never touched one as intimately as she did this one. It was a strange and new experience for her, like a forbidden fruit one could not get enough of. She closed her eyes as sleep claimed her, thinking to herself, "He's reached out to me. . .and this is only the beginning. . ."