by Mary Martel
I dropped the sleeping bags on the floor just inside my bedroom. I hustled over to where my pretty wicker bench sat below the only window in my room and picked up the folded comforter that had come from Mr. Cole's house with me in the move here. I moved over to the other side of the bed and unfolded the blanket, I left it folded in half though. I laid the blanket down like that beside the wall, still folded in half. I agreed with Dash that the floor was unforgiving and way too hard to sleep on and I wished I had more blankets to put under the sleeping bag Rain would be sleeping in.
I grabbed the sleeping bags from where I'd dropped them beside the door and pulled the first one out of the thin bag it was housed in. I tossed both parts to the floor and picked up the other sleeping bag. I removed it from its thin outer bag and tossed the bag to the floor.
One bag was a bright orange color that was almost obnoxious, and I knew this bag was Dash's because he loved the color orange. The other one was a deep red and had flannel inside of it, I checked. The orange one was black inside. I placed the orange one on top of the blanket I had laid down on the floor because I felt the red one was less offensive to the eye. I put the red one on top of the orange one with the zipper aimed away from the wall. I grabbed some toss pillows off of the bench and piled them up at the head of the makeshift bed. As far as beds went, it wasn't a very good one. There wasn't enough cushion to it for my liking, but it was more than Rain had asked for. I would have to let this one go.
I nabbed my hair brush off of the dresser and a hair tie and moved towards my bed. I sat down at the foot of the bed and immediately started brushing out my hair.
I was stalling for time and I knew it.
I was at a loss for what to say to Rain, and felt like a fool for insisting on him staying here with me. Perhaps I should have given us both time to digest the situation, and then I could have-
There was a soft knock on the door. I hadn't even realized I shut it until that moment. I usually left it open, an invitation to any of the many people who might be here at any given time.
I cleared my throat and called out, "Come in," when what I really wanted to do was crawl under my bed and hide from my own stupid feelings.
The door opened, and Rain appeared with Quinton right behind him.
"What are you doing?" I asked while looking at Quinton, making it obvious I was speaking to him and not Rain.
The corner of Quinton's lip hitched up and the rest of his mouth twitched like he was fighting off a full-blown smile, maybe even a laugh.
"What's so funny?" I asked snottily. I did not like being laughed at.
Quinton crossed his arms over his chest as he shook his head and looked down at the floor, avoiding eye contact with me.
Oh boy.
This, whatever he was going to say, I just knew it was going to be good and not something I was going to enjoy.
"Quinton," I said in a quieter, more subdued voice. He was starting to make me nervous.
I looked to Rain and asked, "Do you know what this is about?"
He shook his head, too, but not like he didn't know, just that he wasn't going to answer me.
Great, just great.
"Quinton," this time I said his name as a demand.
He didn't make me wait long for an answer and I almost wished he had.
"I'm sleeping in here with you tonight," he told me while still looking at his feet and avoiding eye contact with me.
My eyebrows shot up at that. He couldn't be serious, could he?
"Excuse me?" I asked hotly. "You're joking, right?"
He shook his head again. "Nope," he muttered.
I placed my hands on my hips and wasted a glare on him that he missed because he was still staring down at his feet, and huffed out, "You are, you are definitely joking with me right now."
He looked up at that, and the smile was completely wiped off of his face, all traces of humor gone. He now looked angry and pissed off.
Oh, goody for me. This just kept getting better and better.
"Dash said something tried to get at you in your sleep," he growled at me and pointed a finger angrily in my direction when he got to the end of his sentence.
"With the Council this close to us we need to take every precaution we possibly can. I asked Rain downstairs, and he said it wasn't him trying to get to you in your dreams, and I believe him. That leaves any fucking thing as a possibility. I don't know about you, but I sure as fuck wouldn't want some unknown thing trying to invade my dreams. And it's got to be a big, badass unknown thing, because I know what all Ty put into that dreamcatcher. Nothing, not one fucking thing, should be able to get passed the magic woven into it. If that doesn't scare you, then you have lost your damn mind."
I snapped my mouth shut, swallowing down the argument I'd had at the ready on my tongue to fire back at him the moment he stopped speaking.
In all honesty, I had forgotten all about Dash's words about what I had been doing in my sleep. I had had more important things to occupy my mind with, and that had been lost to the back of it.
"I forgot," I mumbled ungraciously.
Quinton scoffed. "How in the hell do you forget something like that?"
It was a good question, but I didn't like his tone.
I gestured rudely at Rain with my hand and snapped, "Oh, geez, Uncle Quint, I don't know. Maybe having my long-lost father show up out of the blue did it. Or, maybe it was the cat disappearing. Or, even better, Tyson dragging me out of bed, literally." I threw my hands up in the air, dropped them to my sides quickly and leaned forward to hiss, "Why don't you take your pick."
"I don't think I like your attitude," he snapped back at me.
"Well...well..." I sputtered, searching for an appropriate response to that.
"Welllllll…." he mocked, drawing out the word and scrunching his face up into something ugly.
"Children," Rain said calmly. "Perhaps we should-"
"Well," I spat out at him. "Well, fuck you."
Quinton's eyes grew wide and his mouth flopped open in shock.
As for me? Well, I was in a bit of shock myself and imagined my eyes were as large in my face as Quinton's were.
I placed my hands over my burning cheeks as I stared into Quinton's too wide eyes. I could not believe I had just said that to him. How horrible.
"I'm sorry," I whispered in horror.
A quiet, rusty sound filled the room and my horror filled eyes moved to Rain. His head was thrown back, and his body shook with his laughter.
"Oh my god," I whispered. This just got worse and worse. "I'm so sorry." I wasn't sure who I was apologizing to this time, Quinton or Rain.
Rain stopped laughing but his body still shook with mirth. He grinned at me, and my breath caught in my throat at how carefree it made him look, how impossibly younger it made him look when he already looked too young to be my father.
"Don't apologize to me, Ariel," he told me. "I was waiting for you to slap him. If all you're going to do is tell him to fuck off, then more power to you."
"I-"
"Don't apologize to me either, baby." Quinton muttered. "I was an asshole and shouldn't have talked to you like that." His mouth cracked open wide and a huge yawn escaped his mouth. "I'm tired."
I believed him because suddenly he looked it.
"I, too, could use the shut eye," Rain put in.
He didn't look tired. He looked alert and ready to go at any given second.
"I haven't been sleeping good," Quinton told us.
Rain smirked at him. "If you would have left me the fuck alone at night, and slept like a normal person should instead of chasing ghosts, you might not be so tired right now."
“Yeah," Quinton shot back. "And you might not be standing there beside you daughter, either."
I flinched at his harsh choice of words.
"I was coming for her," Rain declared calmly. "Eventually. I just needed to sort a few things out first and figure out a way around the Council, and then I would have showed up here."
Quinton grumbled something under his breath I couldn't hear. Rain and I were probably both better off not knowing what he'd said, I knew I was.
"What's that?" Rain asked smugly.
Shit.
This was not going to end well at all.
"Where's your sleeping bag?" I asked Quinton before he could get nasty towards Rain. Rain didn't look like the type to take nastiness from others well. He looked like the type to just punch someone and ask for forgiveness after the fact. If he punched Quinton, Quinton would more than likely punch him back. Then, they'd probably destroy my bedroom, and I didn't want that.
Quinton glared at me. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Suddenly, I didn't feel so badly about swearing at him and telling him off. He deserved it because he swore at me, bossed me around, and told me off all the time. He had it coming.
"Well," I said cheerfully as I waved my hand down towards the floor where Rain's makeshift bed was. "Rain's got his sleeping bag and his spot to sleep all picked out for him and ready."
"Thank you for that, baby girl," Rain cut in, telling me sweetly. "It looks great."
It didn't look great, what it looked like was a place to sleep and, considering I'd slept in worse places, it didn't exactly look bad either.
I smiled sweetly at Rain before telling him, "You're welcome."
Then I turned back to Quinton and the smile slid right off of my face. "Well? Where's your sleeping bag?"
"I don't have one and you damn well know it," he ground out. "I'm sleeping in your bed with you."
I pursed my lips and nodded, not like I was happy. "I thought that's what you meant. It's not going to happen."
His eyebrows rose high on his forehead. "Oh? And why is that?"
"Because I said so."
Once the words were out of my mouth my face started to heat up again. It was lame, and I knew it. Lame, lame, lame. I could not believe I had nothing better, no better reason to tell him off with and shove in his face.
Then, it hit me like a strike of lightning. "Rain's here, and you staying in here, sleeping in the same bed with me, will probably be uncomfortable for him."
There. That sounded remarkably reasonable even to myself.
Ha. Argue with me on that one, bossy man!
"Actually," Rain said quietly, "I do not mind him being in here and sleeping in the bed with you so long as it keeps you safe from harm while you are sleeping. I'd do next to anything to keep you safe, and this seems like a small thing to ask of him, and I am more than okay with it."
Damn it. Foiled by my own flesh and blood.
I glared at them both.
"Fine," I snapped and stomped around the bed.
I wasn't really mad, and couldn't be, because the reasoning was sound and very sweet. I was being rude and horrible. When someone cared about you and shared it so openly, you needed to acknowledge it in some way, and I was doing the exact opposite of that.
"Do you need more pillows?" I asked Rain as I tossed the comforter aside. "Or, another blanket? I can go back downstairs and see if Dash has more blankets for you, I know they are around here somewhere I just don't know where exactly."
"I'm good, but thank you for asking. You are like your mother was, sweet but with a spirit filled with fire."
My heart skipped a beat as I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
Rain was breaking my heart, one word at a time.
I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up high, damn near to my chin. I settled in with my head back against the pillows as I clutched the blanket tightly to my neck. I needed to hold on to something to keep me grounded, and I needed something to hide behind in case this went badly.
"Will you tell me about her?" I whispered. "Will you tell me about my mother and my grandfather? I want to know about him, too."
Absolute silence filled the room and I began to shake. I should not have asked that of him. It was too soon, too fast.
I held my breath and waited for someone to say something, anything, and put me out of my misery.
***
Quinton Alexander
Jesus, fuck, but she didn't even try to hide how badly she wanted Rain to give her anything, no matter how small the scrape, she wanted it, desperately so, and I fucking hated this for her.
My heart squeezed painfully inside my chest as I blew out a deep breath and looked away from her. I avoided eye contact with Rain as well as I made my way around the foot of the bed.
Rain had the potential to crush Ariel's heart and soul here if he wasn't too careful. And then we'd have a serious problem, because it wouldn't just be me who would want to destroy the man if he destroyed Ariel. It would be all of them.
I sat down heavily on the foot of the bed facing the wicker chair and the window, on the side Rain wasn't. I needed the bed and the rest of the space between us because if he said something unfortunate to Ariel there was a good chance things were going to get violent, and I needed space to breathe, so I could avoid that.
I bent forward at the waist as I lifted my left foot. I gripped the black cowboy boot I wore and pulled it off. I did the same for the other boot. I sat them neatly side by side on the floor at the foot of Ariel's bed. I stood up, unbuckled my belt and pulled it free of the loops on my jeans. I sat down, rolled up the belt and stuffed it down into one of the boots.
I heard Rain moving around but didn't look to see what he was doing, though, I imagined him doing much the same as I was, preparing for bed. The lack of a conversation was stifling, and I knew if I felt it, Ariel must be feeling it too. And probably on an entirely different level than I was, because this meant a great deal to her.
Why wasn't he fucking saying anything? Why didn't he answer her fucking question, even to tell her no, he wasn't going to tell her about her mother and grandfather? The fucking silence was enough to drive anyone mad, and I couldn't imagine being in Ariel's position at the moment. I would have lost my shit already and demanded he tell me what I wanted to know, and if that didn't work, I would have gotten physical with him until I forced him to tell me. Force, I was sure, wouldn't work for this situation.
I stood up again, grabbed my t-shirt by the hem and pulled it up and over my head. I folded it neatly and laid it on top of my boots. I would be uncomfortable sleeping in my jeans, but knew if I took them off Ariel would be offended on Rain's behalf, and this shit was weird enough without her getting all high and mighty on me for sleeping beside her without my fucking pants on.
I stood and moved to the head of the bed. The blanket was pulled up high, to Ariel's chin, and her eyes were closed. I knew she wasn't sleeping because her eyes were scrunched up tight and her face held a look of pain. I pulled back the covers and, before climbing into bed beside her, looked across the room for Rain.
He'd removed the trench coat and it lay at the foot of his sleeping bag, folded nicely beside a pair of black sturdy boots.
He stood beside the door, ready to flick down the light switch. His eyes caught mine and he nodded briefly before shutting off the lights, casting the room into darkness. Not complete darkness, because the curtain on the window hadn't been pulled shut. Ariel liked to sleep with it open. Rain's shadow moved towards the sleeping bag as I rolled onto my back and drew the blanket over me.
Under the covers, I reached over and took hold of Ariel's hand, prying it away from the death grip she had on the blanket. I dragged it over to my side and pressed her palm to my chest. I covered her hand with mine and held it tightly to me, over my heart.
Her breath left her in a rush and I felt her relax.
I tensed when Rain's deep voice whispered through the room.
"You don't look a thing like her," Rain whispered, and Ariel immediately stiffened beside me. I didn't think this was a good way to start out, but then it wasn't my story, so I'd wait, and if he somehow fucked this up I would smother him to death while he slept with one of those pillows Ariel had given him to make him more comfortable.
"She had brown hai
r," Rain whispered into the dark room. "And these big, soft brown eyes. She had the kindest, sweetest eyes I'd ever seen. But, piss her off, and boy would those eyes change in heartbeat."
Snap
Snap
Snap
Rain snapped his fingers and I felt Ariel's body start at the noise that seemed to echo around the otherwise quiet room.
"Just like that, they'd change, and she'd go from sweet to heated. I liked her most when she was sweet, but damned if she wasn't incredibly magnificent when she was pissed off and angry."
It was quiet, but I heard Ariel's breath hitch on an almost silent sob. She didn't want either of us to know she was crying, but I was betting especially not Rain.
I let go of her hand, rolled over to my side, facing her and grabbed her around the waist. I pulled her body close to mine and buried my face in her neck. I wanted to slide my arm under her neck and roll her over to her side and pull her entire body close to mine. Out of respect for Rain, not that he'd done anything to deserve it, I didn’t, and instead forced myself to be satisfied with being as near her as I could be without making anyone uncomfortable.
"She was like me, and I grew up around her and her family."
"Like you?" Ariel asked.
"Yeah," Rain said. "Like me, like our family of old. Our family used to be rogue witch hunters until the Council decided they didn't want to share the seat of power with anyone else."
"There were rogue witches?"
"There still are, baby girl," Rain informed her, and this time it was my body that tensed. This had thrown me the first time I'd heard him mention it. I wasn't so sure he should have been telling Ariel about it like it was nothing, like it wasn't something he should be keeping secret, and therefore to himself.