Rite of Submission - Rite 1

28: Lost

                There was a soft knock before the door opened, but I stayed curled up in the chair, not caring who was there or what they wanted. Sophie rushed across the room and threw her arms around me, "Oh, Lexi," she cooed, wrapping her arms tight around my shoulders. "Trevor is doing much better now and is he's going to be ok. Please don't fret."

I didn't have the energy to push her away or even tell her why I was really upset. I just sat there, numbly letting her hug me and pat my back as she tried to sound reassuring. "Let's get out of this stuffy little room," she stood back and smiled down at me, something in the depths of her icy blue eyes pulling me out of the dark hole I'd been hiding in. "Dimi had to head out to an allied pack up last minute, so you'll get to spend the next few days with me." She sounded excited about the news. I couldn't help but I wonder if this impromptu trip was his way of trying to keep his distance from me after what happened at the hospital. I didn't want to sour her mood, so I did my best to put on a small smile of my own as I followed her out of the room.

Halfway through the house I noticed that Blake was nowhere in sight, no one was. Looking around as we walked it was just her and I walking alone. "Where's Blake," I interrupted her chatter about how excited she was to have the whole house to ourselves for a few days.

"Hmm," she paused, "oh, he's with Dimi and the rest of them."

"So we have no escort?" I couldn't hide my disbelief.

"There's actually more sentries than normal posted around," she assured, "we're completely safe. Besides, you've seen how Dimi doesn't trust anyone to get too close to us." She winked at me and continued to spill all the details of her day. She burst into her suite with an extra flourish, "Ta-da!" she stood next to a small mountain of moving boxes grinning from ear to ear.

"What's all that?" worried I was about to be put to work stuffing invitations into envelopes or something worse.

"Well," she kicked off her shoes and grabbed a small box to drag over to the sofa, "we didn't know what you'd want to keep," she pulled the box open, "so Dimi had the boys pack up it all for you, and..." she pulled a credit card out of her pocket, "we get to do some shopping if there's anything else you'd like to get." Tucking the card away, she grabbed a box and lugged it over to the couch, "I can't wait to see what kind of stuff you like."

I looked into the box she'd grabbed and had to pick my jaw off the floor. It was filled with bubble wrapped knick-knacks from my bedroom at my parents' house. Looking back at the boxes I saw my name labeled on each of them with a note of the contents. There was even a box of stuff from my old bathroom. "When," I stammered, "how?"

She beamed happily, "I'm so happy that you're actually surprised!" She bounced on the couch and clapped happily. "Dimi is horrible at keeping secrets." I knew better. He was the master at keeping secrets, especially from her, but I wasn't going to be the one to tell her that, so I just smiled. "I guess the whole Trevor thing could have made it slip his mind," she frowned, but it passed quickly. "Oh!" she bounced happily again, "I heard you reprimanded Nate too, I'm just sorry I missed the look on his face."

I couldn't help but smile back at her, "I didn't really pay attention." I looked back at the stack of boxes. "So you guys just had my whole room packed up and brought here?"

She shrugged, "I think your furniture is being stored in one of the guest rooms around here too," she got more comfortable. "We can probably go find it tomorrow if you want."

Nodding I dropped the envelope I was still clutching into the open box and curled up on the couch. "Sounds like a plan," I sighed, "for now I just want to eat something, sleep and forget all my problems."