Faithless

33 - You're Welcome

Megan

     "So you didn't see who was in the room talking to Nate?" Ian asked me after I told him about the conversation I'd overheard back at the hotel, hoping he could help me make sense of it.

     "No, but it was a man." I told him, leaning against the bathroom wall while I watched him clean the many cuts all over his arms. "And he seemed to be in charge, he basically ordered Nate around. And he seems to want me awake now, at least that's a plus."

     "He wanted you to stay in the hotel, which you're not anymore." Ian glanced sideways at me, grabbing a towel to clean the rest of the blood off. "It was probably an archangel, but I don't understand why he wasn't around to guard the room... it's obvious Nate wasn't going to handle us by himself."

     "Well, from what you told me you weren't supposed to reach into my mind using that connection thing, right? They definitely weren't expecting it." I crossed my arms over my chest, keeping my eyes on him.

     "You have a point, I'm just not used to being one step ahead of the angels." He smiled, then reached for the hem of his thorn t-shirt so he could take it off.

     I remembered the unfamiliar pain I'd felt when Ian got into my head to find my location, but it was worth it because I was back here and there was no way I was going to jeopardize it again. I learned my lesson in the worst way possible, but it was my own fault.

     Time was a funny thing, it truly seemed like I'd been stuck in that hotel room for months and desperation almost got the best of me. I was so damn relieved to be back, I actually missed being around them and I wondered if that was a bad thing.

     I wasn't at the apartment though, Ian brought me to Callum's mansion and he was downstairs with Zoey. They were making sure Nate wasn't going to escape and Callum probably took him to the creepy basement I'd heard so much about.

     Zoey was nice enough to bring me some clothes so I could take a decent shower and get dressed, and Ian had knocked on the bedroom door right after I was done to check how I was doing... or to check if I hadn't disappeared again.

     He looked like he'd been in some deadly accident, with numerous cuts all over his arms and a deep one across his chest. Now that he'd taken his shirt off, I could see just how painful and raw it looked, almost as if someone had used a burning hot blade to inflict the wound.

     I remembered what Zoey told me about angel wings but actually witnessing the damage it could make was scary, even though Ian wasn't complaining or seeming to mind. He had to be feeling at least some level of discomfort, especially since it wasn't healing as quickly as usual.

     It was so weird to see him like this, I was used to all the blood but I'd never seen him actually hurt. And I was just standing there while he casually cleaned himself up, seeing his old scars and wondering about these new ones he'd have.

     I was glad I was having this moment with him though, it was refreshing that he was really here and not contacting me through dreams. I really thought I would never see him or anyone else ever again, and loneliness was starting to become my greatest fear.

     And I felt oddly safe now when he was around, probably because this was the second time he got me away from the angels and he did keep his promise.

    Don't get used to it.

    Ian's words from earlier echoed in my head and it was inevitable to think about what Nate'd said about him too. However, Nate's opinions had to stop mattering as much as I was letting them.