Soulbound

11. Ashe

I did not plan on staying last night, but my options were limited and I was injured. And, if I was being honest, a hot shower and a few hours of sleep had sounded much more inticing than the thought of trekking all over the city streets looking for a way back to Goss Hollow Park. My body was in no condition for such a journey, no matter how fast I could run.

With a heavy sigh I open my eyes and replay the events that had unfolded last night.

Dani had been nice enough to let me sleep in her bed. Even after everything I said to her. Even after I adamantly refused. She had insisted, and then she spent the remaining hours before dawn on the couch in the other room.

We did not talk much after my shower. She had given me an oversized T-shirt that she had apparently won from a raffle at the local university and a pair of loose-fitting basketball shorts to sleep in—one size bigger than what fit her slimmer frame, I noticed—and had offered to launder my clothes.

Instead I had recommended that she burn them. It was what I would have done, anyway, with them being covered in blood and dirt and all. I could not risk having that kind of evidence laying at the bottom of a trash can somewhere where anyone could get their hands on it. Saving them was just not worth the effort it would take to thoroughly clean them.

After she hastily checked on my wounds one last time, Dani had grabbed a blanket from her closet and left the room with a mumbled, 'Goodnight'. She made it a point to avoid eye contact during our brief exchange, which was more than fine with me. The buzz from the alcohol was wearing off by that time and my body was still in the throes of healing. If I was not able to numb the pain with booze then I'd at least try to ignore it with sleep.

That was easier said than done, though, and as my ribs repaired themselves in the night and my skin tingled with new growth, sleep was nearly impossible.

Daylight was beginning to trickle in through the bedroom blinds by the time I finally started drifting off when the sound of a toe jamming into the wall woke me up, followed quickly by a string of hushed curses.

I grunt and sit up. There was no point in trying to sleep now. “You're up early.”

“Y-yeah,” Dani mutters as she goes back to rummaging through her closet. “Didn't mean to wake you. Sorry.”

“You didn't.”

“How'd you sleep?”

Christ, is she trying to make small talk?

I reply with another grunt, hoping she would take the hint. Dani was nice, but that did not mean she was off the hook. She still had my ring. I was still bound to her, and she did not have the slightest idea of what that fucking meant!

My blood spikes and I suck in a breath. Setting her sheets on fire would hardly be a good way to start the day.

I rein in my anger, dismissing all thoughts from my mind as I wind the loose threads back into a tight ball and lock it within my chest. One deep breath in through the nose, hold it in and count to ten, then slowly exhale. Let the ball sink down as the breath escapes through the lips.

Stay in control.

Once I feel the heat dissipate, I focus my attention back on the human whose world I just flipped upside down.

Her back was turned to me, caramel hair cascading over her shoulders as she picked out her outfit for the day. A flicker of light twinkles from a hole behind a row of clothes, collateral damage from my outburst last night, and a small pang of guilt thumps in my chest. I may have overreacted a little to her putting on my ring, but this whole situation was one giant mess and I needed to direct my anger somewhere.