Chapter 6

Bo

I dabbed at Lauren's forehead in the lower part of the Dal, the chains around her neck impossible to remove. Not that I'd been given permission to remove them anyway. Trick had said that it would be better to chain Lauren up given her loss of control in the warehouse. He told me that he had places to which he could secure Lauren in the den area of the Tavern. He said she'd be safe there.

But I knew better.

He was afraid of her. Of the thing that hid just under the surface of her skin. The monster we'd seen come to life not more than four hours ago. In a strange way, I understood what Lauren was now. I always felt like I was fighting this creature that wanted me to feed and wanted me to give into it and do what it wanted.

I'd been raised super religiously. I'd been taught that sex was evil, a thing that the devil taunted us and tempted us with but should only be done when one was married.

I didn't know what I was until puberty hit. I didn't know the monster I had living inside of me until then.

Like Lauren didn't know what beast hid beneath her skin until today.

In a weird way, I felt even closer to her than I had anyone else. It was like someone could know what it felt like to be me every day now. Like someone knew how it felt to second guess everything that you thought in fear that it might lead to something terrible. Something you didn't want to do. So, maybe, just maybe, I felt a little resentment towards the bar keep for treating Lauren the way the Ash had tried to. Like an animal who needed to be chained up.

So, there I sat on the floor of the Dol, Lauren's head resting on my inner thigh as I gently cleaned the dirt from her cheek and neck. Only when I moved to her hands to clean the mud from her finger nails did she wrap her digits around mine firmly, a low grunt coming from her as she opened her eyes slowly, brows furrowed as she looked around the room, obviously wondering where the hell she was.

"Hey." I said, catching her attention. She looked at me with the expression of someone who just woke up from a very long sleep. A very deep sleep. One of her hands pulled through her hair, scratching her head groggily. She winced, tucking her head into her chest. I put my hands on her shoulders to keep her from falling forwards as she covered her head. "Whoa, you okay?" She nodded briskly, eyes squeezed shut.

"Yeah. Yeah I'll be fine. I just need an Aspirin big enough for an elephant and I'll be swell. My head feels like someone's trying to punch a hole in it." I ran my finger across her cheek gently.

"You did hit the ground pretty hard after nearly tearing the Ash in half." She gave me a pained smile, telling me she felt it coming back to bite her in the ass as we spoke. "Do you remember much of it?" I asked, feeling embarrassed…or nervous. I couldn't be sure which exactly. "You seemed so…not you." She nodded slowly, allowing me to take her hand again and clean out the grit from under her nails. She was quiet for a while, silently thinking about any number of things.

It was only after I finished her first hand that she spoke again.

"Well, I remember Laughlin showing up at the warehouse, him slapping this collar on me," her hand tapping the heavy metal ring around her neck, I mentally winced. She'd already noticed she was chained to the wall. "That's when things start to get a little fuzzy…I remember him shooting Simba and after that…after that it was pretty much lights out until the warehouse floor came speeding my way." I let go of her hand once it'd been cleaned and rubbed my own hands on my jeans.

"I'm sorry about the collar." I said, looking at my fingers in my lap. "I didn't want to leave it on, but Trick insisted and I told him I didn't want you to feel like an animal, but he assured me—"

"Bo." Lauren said in a polite 'please shut up now' tone, placing her hand over mine and squeezing gently. "I understand." I nodded briskly "but Trick is right in this situation. After what I did in that warehouse, it is definitely safer for everyone if I'm restrained somewhere where I can't hurt anyone if I lose control again."

"I'm glad you see it my way." Both our heads snapped in the direction of the entrance to the Den, when the Ash stood, a slight scratch on his shoulders and hands from falling down. Lauren remained where she was, though her head was bowed. "I had no idea a run in with a Half could be so…educational."

"You want educational?" I asked, suddenly feeling defensive. "'Cause if you go after Lauren again on neutral grounds, I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget." The blonde's hand on my arm stopped me from getting up. I looked at her, but her eyes were locked on the Ash.

"Now now, Bo." Laughlin said, leaning against the brick archway. I can't express just how much I'd love to whack that cock smirk right off his lips. "I'm just retrieving a lost pet who ran away from home, something like a lost dog." This time I stood, not even Lauren could stop me. I felt my eyes glow that weird blue they did when I got angry enough, my fists clenched tightly by my side. How dare he say that about Lauren right in front of her!

"If you're planning on leaving this room alive, oh mighty Ass-Hat, You'd better start showing Lauren the respect she diserves."

"Or what? You'll drain my chi?"

"If she doesn't…" Amelia said, coming up behind him, a sarcastically happy smirk on her face "I'll snap your neck and leave you for the manticore to eat. If you'd like, that is." He turned to look back at her

"I'd suggest you watch that pretty mouth of yours, Shifter." The Ash said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You wouldn't want to start a war, would you?"

"Ash, please." Trick said, walking between the goddess-like woman and the Dickhead-like….No, just the dickhead. "This is neutral ground, I don't want anyone fighting here." He looked at Amelia pointedly. She stared back with an almost child-like defiance before she looked up at the ceiling and clapped her hands on her sides before turning on her heel and walking back into the main room, mumbling something about light fae morons as she went.

"I'll pay nice," The Ash said, looking over at Lauren and at the chains around her neck "but I do hope you understand I will be taking the human back to my compound tonight." Trick nodded briskly

"Of course."

"Um, excuse me!" I said, amazed at exactly how cold Trick was being. "But doesn't Lauren get a say in all this?"

"Unfortunately not." The Ash said, looking especially interested in my little outburst.

"Why not?"

"Because," Lauren said, still on her knees, looking at her hands "I gave up the right to make my own choices when I swore myself to the old Ash."

"Exactly." The Ash chirped in and I shot him a death glare. "Anyway, by nine o'clock I'll be back with a…new set of men to transport you out of here, dear doctor." He looked at me then back to Lauren "do try to behave yourself this time. I've only got so many disposable assets." He turned around and walked out.

I flopped down beside her again, sitting in silence for a good, long while. The Elephant in the room was getting kind of hard to ignore, especially after that last scene.

"So um…" I began, swallowing nervously "why, exactly did you swear yourself to the Ash in the first place?" She smiled weakly and looked at me, a sweet sadness in her eyes.

"It's a long story. One I promise I will tell you just as soon as I can." I nodded and didn't look at her. "Okay?" I nodded again, only turning to her when her fingers turned my chin gently so I was looking at her.

"Are you really going to go with Laughlin?" She smiled slightly again, eyes focused on my hair. She reached up and pulled out the bobby pin keeping my bangs where they were on the top of my head. Her fingers brushed the hair from my eyes gently.

"I like your hair down…" she mused, the backs of her fingers brushing against my cheek bone. I leaned into her touch. "You look so beautiful." We paused for a moment, caught in each other's eyes. I felt like I was behind held by her though the only place she touch me was my cheek. Like I belonged here, with her, facing one of the scariest things in the world for the both of us…

Maybe I wasn't talking only about the manticore situation…

We leaned in towards each other slowly, our anticipation rising quickly. I heard her breath the same way I was sure she could hear mine. Fast and short.

Maybe there was something more than what I'd originally thought….

As our lips were just centimetres apart, it hit me.

Maybe I—

"Ahem." Trick cleared his throat from where he stood in the doorway, "Sorry to interrupt," I shot him the dirtiest look I could. Why was it that whenever I was about to get something from someone, we were always interrupted? Hot 'n' bothered was not a good feeling for me. Especially when I was on the verge of an emotional break through.

Son of a bitch.

"but Bo, we need to see you up here." I rasped my fingers on the ground and Lauren, despite Trick's presence, pulled me towards her and laid her lips against mine for just a fleeting moment. But I still felt a spark when they touched so gently and so briefly.

"Go on." She said, motioning to Trick and his suddenly ridged stance. Jesus, someone was impatient today. " I just want you to know that I'm sorry." I blinked at her.

"Sorry for what?" She ran her fingers down my arm lightly.

"That it has to be this way." I cupped her face gently, feeling Trick's impatience growing by the second.

"The Ash won't hurt you, Lauren, I promise." A tiny twist of her lips appeared on her face, but didn't reach her eyes.

"I know." She turned away, breaking our connection and I stood up. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tossed it to her.

"Here, I think Kenzi added some more games on it." She gave me an amused glance and turned to the phone.

I stood still a moment longer before following the bar keeper up the steps. Dyson was sitting at the table with Amelia, looking down at the drawing scribbled in front of her. They seemed completely perplexed by the scribbled scene in front of them. It looked like a bunch of people fighting, some black silhouettes, others just white outlines of bodies. I narrowed my eyes at it.

"What the hell is that?"

"Amelia, though being a shifter," Dyson said, turning the picture so he could look at it. "She's also a Seer."

"A Seer?"

"She can see into the future, some fae call it a disease, its uncontrollable, a condition that effects the mind and the soul and places them in a different time, different place…"

"So what's with the scribbles?"

"Seers have a tendency to sketch what they're seeing as they see it because their bodies are trying to keep in touch with their soul."

"And Amelia just sucks at drawing." Dyson added, only to grunt in pain as the blonde kicked him under the table.

"then what does this mean?" I asked, and Amelia sighed.

"it means the shit is about to hit the fan." Her blue eyes turned on me and she shook her head. "A war between the light fae and the dark fae is well on its way." I narrowed my eyes in thought.

"What could bring about another war?" I asked and Amelia pushed that picture out of the way, pulling out a picture below it and handing it over to me. It was a black silhouettes that took up nearly half the page, below it was the white space in the shape of an angel, wings extending past the page borders and finished on the wooden surface of the table. "An angel?" Everyone looked at each other, uncertainty obvious on their faces. "You're telling me an angel and a black blob is going to bring about another war?"

"We can't be sure what that is." Dyson said, tapping his finger on the paper.

"Maybe this" I pointed to the angel picture "Has absolutely nothing to do with this one." I moved back to the war picture.

"Once again we can't be sure." I rolled my eyes with exasperation. Sometimes it was like I was the only one not paranoid over things that didn't make sense. I shook my head and sighed.

This was just great. Like I didn't have enough on my plate already?

I had to lift Lauren off the floor after she'd been tranqed and carry her through the snow drift after a traumatized Ash-hole and load her into the back of my car. The entire time I'd been carrying her, she kept making these small whimpering noises, like she was hurt or afraid.

It broke my heart to see her so vulnerable. So incapable of even forming words. Especially when you took into consideration just how unstoppable Lauren had been a few minutes prior.

Now I had to worry about her being chained up and imprisoned for the rest of her life under the thumb of the Ash who'd love to have her in his own personal zoo forever. I shuddered.

Oh, really God? You've got yet another mountain of shit to throw at me? No, really I can take it. Really, don't worry about my sanity, just keep piling on the crap.

I hate life.

Like, a lot.

"I don't think it's what we need to worry about right this second." I said, turning back towards the den "if you don't mind, I'd like to spend what little time I have left with Lauren, with Lauren." There was no objections so I kept going, taking the stairs down one at a time. "Hey" I called out "beat any high…" I was met by an empty room "scores?"

A small curse slipped through my lips when I saw the collar on the floor of the den, my bobby pin laying next to it. "Trick!" I yelled, panic seeping into my voice. Three sets of footsteps hammered down the stairs as I picked up my phone from the coffee table and turned back to them

"Bo, what is it?"

"It's Lauren." I said, looking at the screen of my phone, realising that there had been a message left for everyone on it. "She says 'I'm sorry it had to be like this. You're all so incredibly kind for trying to help me, but I couldn't put you in danger any longer. It's clear that I've begun to lose control over myself, and, that being said, I've left, not just for the safety of all of you but for my own. The Ash would do things to me that I can't even fathom, nor would I want to. It's better this way, believe me. I hope you all know that I care for you a great deal. Lauren.'" I looked up at the group of people, all of them with an equally sombre look on their faces. We all knew that if we went after her, however she'd managed to get out of this place without anyone noticing, we could catch her.

I just don't think anyone wanted to.

She was right, it was safer for her this way.

But it didn't make it any easier.

I sat in the chair nearest to me and put my head in my hands, wishing I could've caught her as she was making her escape.

Wishing I could've asked to go with her.

Reviews are happy happy fun times.