AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ha to that. The man had a knife at my throat. I could feel the keen edge of it, just brushing the skin under my ear. Rogue put his cheek down next to mine on the side away from the knife. I didn’t want him smelling my disgusting hair and tried to move away, but he put his left hand on my other cheek and held me firm. He lightly rubbed the patterned side of his face against me. Velvet smooth.
The heat of him felt good. With his left hand Rogue stroked my cheekbone. My eyes drifted closed and the hysteria melted away. So tired. I floated.
“Good,” Healer murmured. “Now Darling will lie with you. He will only soothe you, just like your own Familiar. Feel that attachment to her and let him settle on you.”
The kitty stepped onto my belly, padding delicately up to sink down on my chest over my heart. His hind end draped over my stomach. His purr filled my blood and it felt just like Isabel had crept up to cuddle while I slept, a warm blanket draped over me.
“Cat’s purrs are wonderfully healing. That’s why they survive impact and injury so well. Darling will also remove your pain and put you to sleep. You’ll let him. Do you trust him? Tell us in your head how you feel.”
I trust the kitty. I was relieved to find it was true.
“She’s so loud.” Healer sounded annoyed.
“You have no idea,” Rogue said beside my ear. I tensed at the irony in his voice. “Shhhh,” he said. “Just relax, no worries.” Other words followed, sounds that had sense in themselves but connected in nonsense like a lullaby I’d known once but since forgotten. They lulled me. Darling purred, softly warm on my chest.
“Ladies,” said the healer, “insert your keys, but do not turn them yet.” Their cool hands clasped my wrists and ankles. Metal links softly chimed.
“Now,” Healer began. Paused. “Do we know her name?”
“Gwynn,” Rogue murmured beside my head. Something stirred in me to protest that wasn’t exactly right, but he crooned in my ear, “All is well, lovely Gwynn,” and I sank back down into my half-sleep, yielding to the exhaustion.
“Yes, so tired, time to sleep, Gwynn,” Healer crooned hypnotically. “Open your eyes, Gwynn, just enough to see Darling.” I struggled to raise my lids to find the cat had inched up enough that I could look into his eyes. They were the green of new leaves in spring.Don’t think.I tried to let the thoughts spin away.
“Look at Darling. Let him lead you into sleep. Be without thought. Forget we are here. Quietly and gently, ladies.”
The silver fell away and I felt a spark of panic. Rogue tensed, a quiver running through him. Their wariness and fear rose up around me. This had to be how the tiger in the zoo felt, being anesthetized for some surgery or tooth-cleaning. The knife bit into the flesh under my ear.
“Control!” Rogue hissed.
I pressed my cheek into his and dissolved the image of the tiger into tiny bits.
“Look at Darling!” Healer urged. “Follow Darling.”
I focused again on the cat’s eyes, let go of something tight in myself. I threw it into the green depths, slumberous, beckoning. I could do this little thing. I followed him down and away.
*
This time whenI woke, at least I knew where I was.
Not in the grander scheme of things, but at least the same stone ceiling greeted me. I appeared to be in the middle of the room still. Amazing what a relief it can be to have the worldnotchange while you’re unconscious. I stretched and a great rush of well-being filled me. A sense of joy, even. I probably deserved to be happy, since I was still alive and not bleeding out like a kosher lamb. But it was more than that—I felt better than I could ever remember feeling. I touched my throat. Smooth, intact—and encircled by a metal collar.
Nice.
Ready to try the sitting-up thing again, I raised myself on elbows, delighted that my head didn’t swim. One happy development—though I once again wore the silver cuffs on my ankles and wrists, they were no longer attached to chains. Unfortunately, however, my hair seemed to be still glued to the back of my head in a disgusting mass. You’d think they could have cleaned me up a little.
Spotting a mirror on the opposite wall, I hopped off the bed and padded barefoot over to it. The hand mirror lay on the wooden cabinet. No knife.
I looked like death warmed over.
Maybe death microwaved—because my eyes shone and my complexion looked fantastic. I could be almost pretty, if I weren’t such a freaking mess. The final tattered remnants of party makeup clung to the corners of my eyes and ran in smudged dribbles on my cheeks. The hair and dress were beyond belief. Kind of a Medusa does Ann Taylor look. Not good. The black of the dress did its best to absorb the bloodstains and various other fluids I didn’t want to contemplate, but it had been pushed to the limits of the fabric and now looked uncomfortably reminiscent of the battered exoskeleton of some unfortunate squashed beetle. I wet my fingers and wiped the cosmetic dregs off as best I could. I tried to finger-comb my hair, only to fail utterly. The stuff felt shellacked. How long had I been out?
The door opened and Healer walked in. After unlocking the door. I was unchained, but not free-range, apparently.
“You’ve been out for a full moonrise and moonset,” she said to me, which explained why the light seemed much the same. As soon as she left I would look out the window—said something about me, I guess, that I’d beelined for the mirror first. “And work on toning down that volume or Rogue will be in here shortly—he’s not very patient about that sort of thing.”
Nor was she, I recalled.You are without friends.
“Can you say something?”
