It was like heaven. Blinding light as far as the eye could see. Until my senses returned and I could feel again. The agony. . . The utter agony. And I was crying. And screaming. And begging again. All over again. Again and again, never ending.
Until I awoke in a sweat as if from a nightmare. I could still feel the pain in my abdomen and I was crying, but this time I was more aware of my surroundings. I realized that it wasn't a nightmare, I had only been in and out of consciousness. I was whimpering. Vulnerable and afraid. Startling me, there was a figure next to me swiftly. I could hear a velvety voice fading in, slowly making more and more sense.
"Bella?" It was saying. No, he. A man. I couldn't tell who it was. He seemed familiar but I couldn't place it.
"Who are you?" I managed to ask, tears in my eyes and head too heavy to hold up. He only sighed and sat back down next to me. He looked tired. And I laughed a little, delirious. He looked up, confused.
"Are you... my husband or something? You should be." I said before passing out again.
The next time I came to consciousness, I was much more aware. I could remember now who I was, but not who the man next to me was. Or where I was at. Or why. The pain was more bearable and I wondered how long I had been out. His head was in his hands and he looked utterly exhausted. I realized the hood of his robe was down and I could see his long, black hair. His sharp jawline, gorgeously sculpted hands. I couldn't remember why this was important or any different, seeing as I couldn't remember who the man was or when I'd ever met him.
"Hello," I said with a wry grin. He looked up at me suddenly, I could see his eyes had bags under them. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes." I managed to turn over a little. He didn't seem to know what to make of the situation. "Are you single?" I pressed on. I felt some sort of cogs in my mind turning, I could almost smell the steam and shouts for workers wanting overtime pay. "You're-" I paused, narrowing my eyes at him. It was on the tip of my tongue. And like that, the effects of memory loss from the poison wore off and I wanted to kill myself by my own hands for hitting on my Speaker.
"Oh my gods..." I put a hand over my mouth. He simply gave a tired smile.
"Welcome back, Slayer. You've been gone for two days. From the poison, that is. Sufferthorn was indeed a nasty blade." He settled back into his chair, looking more tired than I'd ever seen him. "We put it in a safer place, one where vampires can't get it again."
"How did you know-" I started freaking out, feeling for fangs. But he laughed a little.
"Relax, Slayer. You weren't bit, but they sure made your armor look delicious." Him mentioning the armor had me look down and I realized with absolute horror that I was wearing different clothes. I looked around, not having a single clue where I was. Some sort of dingy fort, one that looked familiar. I swore I'd been there before.
"Fort Farragut?" I furrowed my eyebrows, realizing I'd been in through the secret entrance years ago. He made a face of approval.
"Yes, my new hideout for now. You're the only one from Cheydinhall Sanctuary to have the privilege of knowing of it, except Vicente now. Of course, you're now sworn to secrecy." I get unsteadily out of bed and find that without the poison, the wound is just like any other. And the pain it holds now will never be as bad as it was. Nothing could ever hurt like that. Except maybe another stab from Sufferthorn.
"Why was I brought here?" I asked, entirely confused.
"We had nowhere else to take you. Guards heard you screaming from inside the Sanctuary, something we thought impossible. Even though the doors had been left open, it should have been sound proof. But they heard and the guards couldn't ignore it. You woke nearly the whole county up. The Sanctuary was... temporarily compromised. But with our ties to the Count, it was forgotten again with the promise to take further measures in soundproofing. He made up a half-lie about some experiment gone wrong. You uncovered a flaw in the Sanctuary. That was one of many impressive things you did."
He began explaining what I could tell he had been waiting days to say. "You finished your contract perfectly, and even after being lost in the sewers for three days, you managed to get out in one piece. Sithis only knows on how much sleep. No food, no water down there. Rats and vampires could not kill you. Even a lengthy stab from one of the most deadly blades to pass through Cheydinhall, one that's got enough poison in one prick to kill a child, could not kill my Slayer. And here you are. Like nothing happened. The Black Hand has already heard of your survival, but they will be overjoyed to hear you're fully conscious now." He was incredulous. I didn't know what to make of it.
"I'm sorry, Lachance-"
"Lucien." He propped his head on one hand, rather relaxed in the chair. He didn't have any readable emotion on his face other than interest for me to go on.
"Lucien... I'm sorry." I hardly knew where to begin. "I wasn't exactly the most respectful to you when we met. I was overly cautious and because of my not being cautious enough, I became your problem. And you look... exhausted. And I feel bad. I'm just sorry." I sat back down on the edge of the bed. I thought then that maybe it was his bed. Two days that he had been watching me, I wanted to ask. He looked at me, like he could tell I had more to say. "What. . . happened?" I finally asked. He rubbed his eyes and then sighed.
"Well, I'm sure you remember being stabbed, correct?" I nodded. "You came tumbling into the Sanctuary covered in blood and a knife stuck down to the hilt in your abdomen. Your brothers and sisters were... for lack of better terms... flipping their shit. You were speaking, but it hardly made sense. What was really off-putting was how the only thing that did make sense was you continuously begging for us to kill you. Vicente instructed me to remove the blade, seeing as the poison would only continue entering your system. That was when you started screaming and gasping and..." he took pause for a moment. It was almost as if he seemed genuinely disturbed. "We had to move you at that point, I was applying pressure until I had to carry you off. And the moment I did pick you up, you passed out. I thought for sure you were gone." He cleared his throat, glancing away then making eye contact to continue his story. He crossed his legs over each other, seeming to be trying to get more comfortable. "Once you were here, it was only Vicente and I. I left the others in charge to take care of the guards. We couldn't tell whose blood was whose, if you were bit. We had to remove your armor, which wasn't hard, considering there wasn't a whole lot left of it. You weren't bit, thankfully, and most of the blood probably belonged to the vampires. After we had cleaned you off, I continued applying pressure and Vicente managed to find the recipe for an antidote. In all of my years as a killer, Bella, I have never seen something so disturbing only for that person to live to tell the tale."
"So the antidote saved me?" I asked, trying to take in everything he'd just dumped on me. He laughed a little.
"No. Hell, Vicente is probably still down in Cheydinhall making it as we speak." I really took in those last words.
"So I just... survived?" I asked. He nodded. "And you both saw me..." he nodded again.
"Naked, yes." He said it so casually.
"And in my stupor, you had to deal with me hitting on you?" I felt really bad.
"For two days, in between screaming and passing out, yes." He never broke eye contact.
"You should rest, Lucien. I've never seen anyone look so tired." I said truthfully. He stood up, trying to act tough and I followed suit.
"No, I should tell them you're awake." He said stubbornly.
"I'm not letting you go anywhere like this, Lucien." I said softly, putting my hands on his arms. He looked down at me, and for once I wasn't afraid of him. I wasn't angry with him. Not agitated for seemingly no reason. I was only worried.
"Fine," he said after a half minute of considering. I pushed him gently to the bed, sitting in the chair where he was. And I waited until his breathing evened out before I let myself rest a little longer.