by Mary Martel
A bossy Julian worked just fine for me. He moved away, likely toward the bathroom, and took his bag with him.
Instantly, Damien filled the space Julian vacated. He placed the ornate, silver tray in his hands down on the nightstand beside my bed. He picked up a delicate blush colored teapot and tipped it above a matching teacup. Steaming water poured out and into the cup. I didn't give a crap what Jules had put inside to make the tea. If it would relax me enough to allow me to sleep, then I was all for it. I highly doubted I'd be able to close my eyes and fall asleep on my own. The things I knew I'd see if I closed my eyes now terrified me. No, I'd never be able to sleep on my own.
He sat the teapot down and picked up the dainty cup. I sat forward and moved out of Rain's hold. He let me go, but I could tell he didn't want to. I reached out with my hands and Damien placed the teacup in them. I lifted it to my mouth and blew on it before taking a sip. Thankfully this did not taste or smell like shit. It smelled like honey and mint. I could barely taste the sweetness of it over the burning of my tongue and throat. I blew into the cup and took another sip. The liquid hit my empty stomach and it awoke with an angry rumble.
"You get dressed, baby girl," Rain said as he stood up from the bed. "I'll get you something to eat."
I reached out and grabbed hold of the sleeve of Rain's shirt. He looked down at me in question. I couldn't hold his stare for long and dropped my eyes back to my tea. I dropped my hand from Rain's wrist, allowing it to fall down into my lap.
"If I eat right now, I'll puke for sure," I mumbled, and took another sip of my tea. "The tea will do for now. Please, Rain. I'll eat tomorrow."
Food was the least of my problems and I had a long list of current problems.
My suddenly heavy eyelids lowered and shut. I grunted as I struggled to open my eyes once more. My body felt too heavy to move even my eyelids.
The hand holding the dainty cup began to fall. I was going to spill burning hot liquid all over my lap. The cup was plucked out of my hand and taken away.
"So tired," I mumbled sleepily.
"Time for you to leave now, Rain," Julian announced. "You can come back and check on her tomorrow."
My body listed to the side. A hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me from toppling over.
"I'm not going anywhere," Rain growled and I sighed. I was tired and didn't want to fight anymore.
"For once in your life," Julian immediately shot back, "don't be an asshole."
I sighed again.
Those were fighting words. Julian was going to die.
The hand on my shoulder shifted, lowering. The pad of a thumb swiped across my collarbone and the raised scars there.
"You little prick," Rain snarled. "The only reason I'm not going to beat the ever lovin' piss out of you is because my girl doesn't need that kind of drama tonight, but don't you worry, our time will come."
"Looking forward to it, old man," Julian immediately replied snottily.
"Idiots," Damien grumbled under his breath. I made a noise of agreement in the back of my throat that came out sounding like a tiny grunt.
A rough hand brushed the wet hair back from my face. Lips pressed against my temple. "I'll be back in the morning to check on you, baby girl," Rain murmured quietly. "I'd take you with me and watch over you, but Tyson mentioned you should probably sleep under your catcher. And Isobel and Baxter are at the cabin, alone and unprotected. I need to get back to them and make sure they're safe. I tried to send Trenton and Simon so that I could stay here with you, but of course they refused to leave you for anything. Good boys, those two. I'm only leaving you because you're safe here. You gotta know, there's no way, no fuckin' way, I'd ever leave you otherwise."
God, Rain. He always hurt my heart. I felt a tear slip out and trail down my cheek.
I forced my eyes open and stared up at him. My eyes locked onto his, and this time I didn't flinch or try to look away.
"Love you, Dad," I slurred drunkenly. "Go home and keep the rest of our family safe." At least that was what I tried to say. Who the hell knew what actually came out.
I knew he got the first when his face softened and he ran the backs of his knuckles along my jaw.
"Love you too, baby. More than anything."
What he meant was more than Baxter and Isobel. I hated that he said it, but I liked it at the same time. Call me a bad person, I don't care. Rain put me first above all else, and I liked it because he was the only parent I knew to have ever done so. Did my real mother even count when I could not remember her? I thought not.
Didn't matter.
Rain put me first above all others, and it worked for us because I put all others above myself, which is why I actually wanted him to go home to look after Isobel and Baxter instead of staying here with me. I had plenty of good people looking out for me. All they had was Rain.
"Tomorrow," I mumbled, as I lost the fight and my eyes slammed closed once again.
"Yeah, baby, tomorrow."
His hand disappeared and I felt him move away from me. I heard his boots as he stomped across the floor toward the door. The door didn't slam shut behind him, instead it shut quietly with a soft click. If I hadn't been here and it had just been the boys, no doubt Rain would have slammed that door after he'd beaten them both into a bloody pulp, of course.
My lips tipped up slightly at the ends in amusement. Rain was really warming up to my boyfriends around here, that was for sure.
"Lift your arms for me, precious," Damien whispered.
I did as I was told and lifted my arms. Though it was a struggle at first to get them to move and I didn't actually get them that high, they certainly didn't rise above my head.
Whatever I managed to pull off worked for Damien. My towel was untucked from above my breasts and pulled away. Any other time and I would have been embarrassed about my naked breasts being exposed. At the moment, I was too exhausted to care. Damien had seen tits before, even mine if I remembered correctly. Always due to unfortunate circumstances.
Something was pulled over my head and my arms were shifted this way and that. Soft fabric slid down my body, covering my breasts and stomach, stopping just above my naked hips. A tank top, I could tell.
The towel was yanked away and I heard it land on the floor several feet away. My feet were lifted one by one, and I felt fabric being slid up my legs, stopping at my thighs. Panties. More fabric followed behind it. Sleep shorts, I suspected. A strong arm wrapped around my middle and I was lifted off the mattress. The panties and the shorts were slid up. They covered my ass and were straightened out. The arm around my middle lowered me back to the bed.
"Do you need me to do anything with your hair?" Damien asked sweetly.
Lord, I didn't not want to play doll for Damien right now.
I shook my head jerkily and he gave me a squeeze before letting me go.
"All ready for bed," Damien called out. I knew he wasn’t talking to me, because I could tell his voice was aimed behind him, and slightly muffled.
"Right," Julian muttered. "Let's get her tucked in. She's almost out, I can tell."
Arms wrapped around me and I was lifted clean off the bed. My legs hung limply and uselessly beneath me as I was pulled up tight into a hard chest.
"Shh," Damien whispered in my ear. "I've got you, go to sleep."
I tried but failed to respond. That tea was some potent shit. I couldn't move or speak at all.
Damien laid me back down onto the bed. I felt soft, smooth sheets against my skin. My head rested comfortably on one of my many pillows. The covers were dragged over me and pulled up to my chin.
Sleep threatened to take me under. I fought it. I didn't know why, but I fought against it.
The sound of clothing rustling alerted me to the fact they were both undressing. This did not alarm me, I'd slept between the both of them before. I welcomed their comfort and their heat. Without it, I feared I might wake up screaming and all alone.
I felt the comforter shift on either side of
me and then the bed dipped on each side. I felt them slide in closer and then I felt their heat.
One arm wrapped around me just below my breasts as a body pressed up tight to my side. From the other side of my body, an arm wrapped around me low, resting across both of my hips. This hand didn't land on me, but instead kept going and rested just above Julian's hip.
I would have snuggled into one or both of them if my body was able to move. Since it wasn't and things were getting groggier by the second, I relaxed into the bed and prayed for sleep to overtake me soon.
My jumbled and slow mind registered their conversation after it had started, and I had no idea how much of it I had missed.
"... brought Romero back."
"Yeah. That's why she left us in the first place, she went after him."
"But how did she know he was there? And don't bullshit and lie to me. I know you were in on it. You've been on edge and waiting for something. You were waiting for Ariel and Romero. That's why you didn't act surprised when Quinton left with the others. You knew what he was going to do. You knew and you kept it from me."
"I did what I had to for our girl. And I did what I had to for our family. I don't regret it, Damien. I trusted Quinton and I trusted Ariel. Now you've got to trust in me."
"How can I trust you when you kept things from me?"
"I'm sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear?"
"It's a start."
The silence lasted so long I almost drifted off to sleep.
"What do you think happened to her while she was gone? She's different. There's something... broken inside her. Like how she was when she first came to us, but only worse."
"I don't know, Dame. But whatever it was, it was bad. Now we just need to figure out how to fix it."
"I think that's what Quinton is for. If anyone can get it out of her and help her, it'll be Quinton. They're two halves of a whole, those two. If anyone can fix her, it'll be him."
The last thought I had as I drifted off to sleep was that there were some things that not even the crazy, panty stealing Uncle Quinton could fix.
Chapter Twenty-One
I Wanted Fast And Hard
I felt them all come in throughout the night to check on me. They never got too close to the bed where I lay sleeping, and they didn't stay long at all. The only presence I didn't feel was Dash. I wasn't surprised but it definitely didn't feel good.
Tyson stayed the longest, and he only left when Damien woke up and very rudely told him to get the hell out of my bedroom before his creepy stalkerish ways woke me up. They argued for a while, but eventually Tyson left after threatening Damien. Damien didn't seem to give a crap and immediately fell back asleep after Tyson shut the door quietly behind him.
His regret and despair lingered behind him long after he'd gone. He'd said very cruel things to me, and now that he'd been filled in on what had really been going down, I imagined he felt a whole lot of things that did not feel good due to the things he'd said to me.
As much as I wanted to get up and chase after him to make things right, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I drifted back to sleep, safely ensconced between Damien’s and Julian's heat. They didn't leave me the entire night.
After Tyson left, I didn't wake up again and slept for two days straight. Both my body and my mind had needed to rest in order to recover.
I woke up groggy and with a body that didn't want to quite work right. I struggled to sit up in bed as I blinked, looking around my bedroom with narrowed eyes. The sun shone brightly through the open curtains at the windows, and I lifted a hand up in front of my face to block out the light. It felt like forever and a day had gone by since I'd seen the sunshine. It immediately made me feel better, like the dark stain on my soul could somehow now be washed away if I spent enough time in the sunlight. Impossible, I know, but still, a girl could hope and dream.
Binx jumped up on the end of the bed, coming from nowhere and making me jerk in surprise at his sudden appearance. I still didn't know how to act around the little guy now that I knew where he'd come from and his purpose in Dash's life. What would happen to him now that Romero was back? And was there some way to give him his magic back without hurting the cat?
Eh, fuck it.
As strange as it was going to sound, the cat had somehow become my friend and I needed him right now. I needed to be around someone who wouldn't judge me or ask about what had happened. I didn't want to talk about it and I didn't even want to have to think about it anymore. Though, I knew it would never be far from my mind again.
"Here kitty, kitty." I made kissy noises at Binx and he blinked his eyes lazily at me. Slowly, like he had all the time in the world, he strutted across the comforter and plopped down in my lap. I stroked his fur and scratched under his chin. Immediately, he began to purr and he curled up in my lap.
"That cat is in love with you," Quinton spoke from the doorway, and my head jerked up. I found him watching me with his arms crossed over his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles with his shoulder against the doorframe. "The little fucker hates practically everyone else besides you and Dash. Occasionally, he will allow a different human to pet him, but he could turn on them at any second. But never you and never Dash. Now that we know why he's really here, I think it's because he knows how much Dash loves you and he feels the same."
I continued to pet Binx as I thought about what Quinton had said. Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't. We'd never know, though, because obviously the cat wasn't going to tell us. But that hadn't really been the point behind Quinton bringing up Dash loving me, now had it? I think whether Binx had been in here or not, Quinton would have found a way to weave Dash into the conversation.
Our family was at odds, and Quinton was here to set things to rights again.
He could be so annoying without even trying.
"How long have I been asleep for?" I demanded.
"About two days. Your body needed the rest. I imagine your mind did as well. The twins wanted to wake you up yesterday, but I wouldn't let them. I had to ban them from your room altogether until you woke up. You know how impatient they can be, and it's gotten worse since you left for the motel. They both just want to be around you to make sure you're really here. This is going to fuck with their heads for a while, and they'll probably stick to you like glue, but I'm sure you can handle it. They aren't mad at you though, so don't even think that."
I had expected this and he was right, I could definitely handle them needing to be close to me. I wanted to be close to them too.
But they weren't the person I really wanted to know about and we both knew it. Why did he bring him up just to talk about someone else immediately? Whatever game Quinton was playing was already starting to piss me off.
I sank back into the bed and curled up on my side. The move had Binx falling off my lap, and he let out an angry little mewl before prancing down to the foot of the bed and gracefully hopping off. He strutted toward the door, and Quinton quickly stepped inside the room and moved out of the cat's path. Binx paused mid-step right before the door and turned his fluffy little head to the side so he could stare down Quinton.
"Don't even think about it, you little prick. I'll toss your ass outside so fast no one will ever know where you went, because something bigger than you will come out the woods to eat you. Try me."
I glared at Quinton as Binx arched his back and hissed angrily at the man, like he understood every word spoken and didn't like the threat one little bit. Couldn't say I blamed him, because I was right there with him.
"How dare you," I muttered angrily, as Binx hissed one more time before strutting lazily out of the bedroom.
"Forget about the cat," Quinton said. He reached over and gripped the edge of the door with his fingers. He swung the door closed and wasted no time prowling toward me. He looked determined, angry, and compassionate all at the same time.
He must have decided the time for talking was now, and I wasn't going to get a say in the matter.
&nbs
p; Oh hell to the no.
"I need to take a shower and eat something," I blurted. "And pee. I need to pee."
Shit.
My face heated instantly as a blush stole across my cheeks. Had I really just told Quinton I needed to pee? He didn't need to know about that kind of business.
Quinton's face softened and little crinkles appeared around his eyes as he smiled sweetly at me. He knew what I was trying to do, but probably wouldn't let me get away with it.
"Baby," he said in a voice I'd never heard from him before. A voice filled with so much sadness and love I felt like my ears were going to start bleeding with each word out of his mouth. "You know he loves you, right? That'll never change. I know he's sorry for what he said to you, and you need to give him the time to tell you just how much. You also need to give him and Romero some of your time with just the three of you. Romero has been asking about you nonstop since you brought him home, and the more time he goes without actually seeing you, the more agitated he gets. The more agitated he gets, the more upset Dash gets. This situation is fucked up and we knew it would be difficult, but I swear it's only going to get worse unless you go to them. And soon. They need to see that you're okay. Romero has formed some kind of attachment to you, and Dash is pissed because he treated you like shit and it's eating him up from the inside. They need you, Ariel, and I need you to be brave for me and give them what they need."
Fuck. Him.
Hadn't I been brave enough already?
Quinton crawled onto the bed and came right at me. He cupped my cheek and his burning brown eyes stared right into my dull green ones. The fight had gone out of me, there wasn't anything left.