CHAPTER 12
Bo
I snuggled my head against the soft pillow under my cheek, pulling the comforter further up around me. I felt surprisingly well rested, like I had been in the deepest sleep of my life. I inhaled deeply and stretched, wincing when my head gave an angry throb. I opened my eyes slowly, surprised to find myself in a log cabin bedroom. Not only in a log cabin…but naked.
Very, very naked.
I sat up; ignoring the punch in the brain my head gave me and covered up my torso with the white blanket. I looked around the room with squinting eyes as the bright light blinded me. What the hell happened? Did I actually die?
If this is heaven, it's a really messed up place.
I pushed myself up completely and looked around. The room was barren other than a chair in the corner and a wardrobe with a mirror on the other side of the room. I looked at my reflection, at the black mark on my forehead. I reached up slowly, touching the neat row of stitches on my forehead, pulling together the torn skin from hitting the rock. The area was still numb, so it couldn't've been long since it was fixed up.
I looked down at the edge of the bed, noticing a glimmer of black among the soft white. I reached towards it, plucking the large, dark feather from the bed spread. I looked at it for a second, remembering the raven winged angel that saved me from the wolves. There wasn't a lot to remember, everything was just a burry haze of nothingness really. I remember the wolves, I remembered Tanner poofing away, falling and hitting my head…not much after that.
I moved towards the edge of the bed and found some folded clothing waiting on the chair, some sweat pants and a tank top. I pulled them on awkwardly and made my way slowly out the door, careful not to fall over or stumble. My head was still swimming as I followed the trail of feathers down the hallway. I heard soft grunts echoing from the room at the furthest point away. Part of me was curious as to what I'd find, the other part of me was terrified.
What if that thing I'd thought was an angel, wasn't?
Did angels have black wings?
Could they have black wings?
I entered the room and froze, not believing what I saw. It was if the world stopped spinning for just one, perfect moment.
The figure was sitting on the ground, back facing me, beautiful blonde hair reaching her waist, her torso covered by an awkwardly cut shirt three sizes too big but made room for the giant black wings sprawled out around her, one tucked into her back, the other one laying awkwardly on the ground, her jean clad legs laid out on the side. She glanced over her shoulder at me and hurried to stand up, wincing when she jarred her limp wing, the one packed with bloodied gauze.
My saviour.
My angel.
My-
"Lauren…"
I covered my mouth as the tears welled in my eyes. She looked at me, a beautiful sadness in brilliant red eyes, fear in them as she watched my reaction.
I stared at her for a long time, at the radiance of her skin and the wings that fluttered nervously.
"Bo." She said softly, emotions choking her own voice, tears welling in her crimson eyes. My broken heart throbbed almost more painfully than my head. She was alive, she was here with me. I was staring her dead in the eyes, though those eyes weren't the usual ones. I just didn't care. I found her. I found the woman I loved after so long apart. After leaving everything I knew behind to track her down. I found Lauren.
I found Lauren.
I took a step forward and she held her hand out, warning me to stay back. It didn't register. I walked to her until I could touch her face, gently stroke the softness of her cheek and feel her lean into it. I threw my arms around her neck.
"Oh, Lauren." I sobbed as she hesitantly hugged me back. Her hands smoothed across my back and she inhaled deeply, pressing her lips against the side of my neck, peppering it with kisses. She gave in to my embrace, holding me up when my legs gave out. The tears rolled down my cheeks unrestrained. She rubbed my back gently, pulling me flush against her. "Oh my God, Lauren." I pulled back to look in her eyes, at the brilliant colour that remained there. "I thought I lost you forever…" I ran my thumb under her eye, wiping away the wetness there. She kissed my hand and held it to her face.
I punched her with a loose fist on the shoulder.
"Hey!"
"Don't you ever do something that stupid again!" I cried and she rubbed her arm, a regretful look on her face. Contradicting my last action, I pulled her towards me, crushing my lips to hers tightly, wrapping my arms back around her and holding her to me.
I couldn't describe the feeling that washed over me in that moment. It was like being held under water by someone and, just as you think that you'll drown, you reach the surface and can breathe again. Or being lost in the desert and thinking you'll never make it out alive, and then you find an oasis, water that saves your life.
"Bo." She said, putting her hands on my waist, pushing me away a little bit, bowing her head slightly.
"What?" I asked, trying to get a look at her face, my hands grasped at her shoulders gently, my hunger suddenly deciding to make an appearance with a libido as big as the CN tower. Luck me. "What Lauren?"
"I…" She looked at me again, touching my face gently. "I don't want to hurt you." I smiled, remembering when I said the same thing to her. I pushed the hair from her face, suddenly growing to love the ruby orbs looking back at me.
"Would it be total déjà vu for me to say that I trust you?" She smiled at me and I leaned my forehead to hers.
"You need to feed." She stated and I nodded "how long?"
"Since you left."
"Bo, you can't just stop taking care of yourself every time you get upset or every time something happens." I rolled my eyes, feeling the surprising amount of extremely toned muscles rippling under her skin as she moved.
"Wow…" I breathed, running my hands over her biceps and she laughed a low, sexy chuckle. Mind you, just about everything sounded sexy to me in that moment.
"Yeah, another perk of being a crossbreed."
"And your wings?" She looked over at them and sighed
"An unfortunate consequence." I looked at the limp one, and she cleared her throat nervously. "The um…the wolf took a nasty chunk out of it."
"I thought you would've stitched it up."
"I can't. Turns out, anything manmade, such as a suture needle, can't pierce the skin on these things…I'm not entirely sure why." I looked at the dark wings and slapped my hand against my mouth.
"Oh shit! Tanner!" I pulled away and began pacing like a maniac. "How could I be so stupid! I brought Tanner along with me to find you and when the wolves attacked…I lost him! I lost your brother! Oh hell, Lauren! Don't worry! I'll go find him I mean he can't be too far right? Wait, how long have I been out of it? Oh my god! What if he's dead! What if he's—" Lauren grabbed my shoulders in her hands, stopping me.
"Bo." I nodded "Tanner is sleeping in the other room. I found him after the wolves left." I nodded and she shook her head, brows furrowing as she slumped forwards into me.
"Whoa," I breathed, catching her. "You okay?" She nodded, smiling unconvincingly.
"Yeah, yeah, of course. I just haven't slept much…or eaten much lately…I couldn't exactly go into town and buy groceries with these massive things on my back. What food I had I packed for Tanner to take with him." I slowly lowered us to the ground, letting her lay her torso in my lap, her head snuggled against my stomach, fingers clenching my pants. "Maybe…maybe I could just shut my eyes…just for a little while…" Her breathing slowly deepened as she fell asleep, my fingers pulling through her hair slowly, relishing every second of this moment.
I leaned down and planted a small kiss on her cheek bone, making her smile in her sleep. I couldn't express the kind of happiness that pulsed through me in that moment, having the woman I loved in my arms after thinking I'd lost her forever. She was so beautiful, so breathtakingly gorgeous that my heart felt like it would explode.
"Lauren?" Tanner asked and Lauren jerked back to being awake, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She held her arms out to the boy as he rocketed forwards into her, arms flying around her neck. She hugged him back and smiled, kissing his cheek. "I missed you lots!"
"I missed you too, Tanner." He pulled back and cocked his head when he saw her eyes. With his tiny fingers, he pushed her eyes open wider so he could get a better look.
"Why are your eyes all red and stuff? Did you drink a lot?" Her wing shifted uneasily. He apparently didn't understand that your got blood shot eyes, your irises didn't turn red. He looked at the wings and his jaw dropped open. Lauren froze, looking at her brother's face, at the undecipherable expression that was almost comedic.
That situation could've gone only two ways. The first, the better one, Tanner was a little unnerved by his sister's sudden wing growth and red eyes, but wasn't too shaken. Or secondly, the worse, he rejected her completely and ran screaming for the hills. Either would completely destroy Lauren, her only remaining family member alive, but terrified of her. I put my hand on Tanner's shoulder.
"Tanner—"
"THIS IS SO AWESOME!" He said, stumbling as he hurried around Lauren to stand in front of the massive limb. I watched him as he carefully pushed down on the top joint, slowly forcing the wing to extend to its full seven-foot span. He ran his fingers over the smooth feathers, squealing like a fan girl when Lauren fanned it slightly. "YOU'RE LIKE HAWKGIRL!" He howled with excitement "A SUPER HERO!" Lauren shook her head, the biggest smile on her face. He ran around to the other side of her and stopped, looking at the gauze. "What happened to this one?" he asked, struggling to lift it up off the ground.
"I had a bit of an accident. It's nothing serious though." I moved towards where Tanner held it and looked at the taped on gauze pack. I looked down at Tanner.
"You ready to play doctor?"
+/+\+
"ow!" Lauren whined as I pulled the pieces of stuck gauze from the gash. It wasn't terrible looking, but the deep puncture wounds from the wolf's teeth were extended to the outer edge of the wing, the skin was obviously enflamed and angry looking. Tanner was boiling up some camomile tea to help with the swelling. Lauren had tried to bandage it herself, but the awkward angle made it hard for her to clean it properly.
Luckily for her, she had a succubus and a kid brother there to help.
"Might I just say," I started, placing the final piece of gauze in the bowl next to me as she laid face down on the kitchen table. Turns out, that this was her family's summer cabin from when she was a kid. Her parents left it to her in their will and she didn't have the heart to sell it. "Back in the forest, you were amazing. I actually thought you were an angel for a second."
"Yeah, I heard you praying." She said, her wing clamping up when it plucked a stray strand from the wound. I pulled the feathered limb out again and she grumbled something under her breath, turning her face away from me.
"Might point is, thank you for saving my life." Her fingers splayed out on the table, sliding over my own.
"You don't have to thank me for that." She murmured, squeezing my hand gently. I kissed her cheek.
"Bo!" Tanner called out, "Its finished!"
"Good, let it cool down a little bit and go see if you can find a movie to watch tonight."
"The movies are in the back room," Lauren said and the boy was already off to the races "Just watch the—" a loud crash followed by an 'oops!' echoed down the hall. Lauren sighed "lamp." She lifted herself up so she could turn over onto her back, looking up at the ceiling. I chuckled and walked over to where her legs dangled off the edge of the table, crossing my arms over my chest to keep myself from doing anything bad. She looked up at me, pausing before sitting up completely, concern written all over her face. "You need to feed…" she stated, examining my pupils.
"Yeah…"
All those weeks of refusing to feed were coming back to bite me in the ass now, making it almost impossible for me to be in the same room with her and not think about it.
God I was turning into a total horn dog.
"When Tanner falls asleep, we can see if we can find someone to—"
"no!" I said, too quickly. "I mean, if you don't mind…I want it to be you…"
"Me?" She asked surprised, which wasn't completely unexpected. I'd made a point of not feeding from her when we were between the sheets, worried I'd get too excited and take too much from her. "But I thought…"
"I know, but I just…I don't want it to be anyone else."
"I've noticed." She said, a small smile playing at the edge of her lips "every time my skin touches yours, your eyes light up like Christmas trees. Literally." I smiled with embarrassment and looked down, backing away from her touch so I could regain some composure.
"Well, I mean, are you okay with that? If I fed from you? 'Cause if not I'm totally fine with—"
"Bo," I looked up at her, the content smile on her lips made my heart flutter. "Since day one of you being here, even after you succubus mind controlled me, I've been wondering what it was like to be fed from by you. And, now that I'm strong enough to handle it, I think it's time to find out." She stood up, taking my hands in hers and kissing it gently. I smiled at her, feeling like something great was about to start for the both of us.
Kenzi
"Kenz" a deep voice murmured, shaking my shoulder.
"Wha?" I rolled over, looking up at Dyson groggily. "Oh, hello." He smiled amusedly.
"Come on, we found Bo." That caught my attention.
"Wait, what? Where! How?"
"A buddy of mine works in a small village up North, Raven's Creek, he said he saw her walking off into the woods with the boy."
"She took the Shadow Fae-by?" I asked, sitting up.
"We don't know. But we're gonna go find out." A thought echoed in my head as I pulled my knees to my chest.
"You know Bo will kill you if you hurt Lauren, right? And I don't mean metaphorically either. She'll literally kill you if you do anything." He paused as he walked away, looking back over at me, a determined look in his eyes.
"Unfortunately, Kenz, this whole situation is bigger than everyone now." With that, he disappeared out the door, leaving me with my thoughts.
And my worries.
Anyway, just thought I'd make happy happy fun times between Bo and Lauren again…because, although Nadia is a very pretty previously-comatose lady, it still broke a little bit of my Doccubus heart seeing Bo's face when they kissed.
But, then again, if you remember 'I'll be here', it's always calm before the storm.
Reviews are like band-aids which tape together my broken heart…and I need lots and lots of them.