Savor, a Paranormal Romace (Warm Delicacy Series, Book 1)

Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

I woke up with a start and felt disoriented by the light that was flowing through an open window.  Even though I was exceedingly tired, something seemed to draw my attention to the shaft of light that was seeping into the room.

            As I pulled apart the curtains, the brightness of the last days rays nearly blinded me.  It was sunset and the crimson skyline burned brightly on the horizon.  As my eyes adjusted, I realized that this would be the very last sunset I would ever see.  A small wave of sadness lingered in my heart over this small but significant loss.  I always thought that sunsets and sunrises were some of the most beautiful acts of nature and I would never see them again.

            I pulled off my socks and lifted myself up into the window as I hung my legs over the edge, savoring the last moments of the sun’s warmth.  My skin was soaking it up like a sponge and I sighed in pleasurable content as the sky darkened until something caught the corner of my eye.

            A large tree stood atop a small hillside not far from the palace and just under the tree I again saw the figure of the man I saw in the garden.  He was watching me.

            Normally the sight of a man spying on me would be terrifying and I would immediately retreat into my room, promptly after flipping him the bird, but there was something about this man’s presence that seemed to draw me to him.  I thought he might be charming me, trying to lure me to him but he was too far away for that to work.  There was some other type of connection, a deep pull in my heart that was unrecognizable.

            I watched him as he took confident steps toward the palace, yet still remaining far enough away that I couldn’t determine his features.  In that moment, I so badly wished I had the acute eye sight of a vampire, so I could see his face.  I studied what I could in hopes that I would see him again and recognize my silent and distance admirer.

            He stopped a couple hundred yards from the palace.  I could tell his skin was a perfect golden tan and his hair was cut short and light brown.  The longer we stared at each other the more I sensed that he had the same dominating presence of a vampire, but there he was, standing in the fading light of day.  The urge to call out to finally say something, he took off.  He wasn’t quite as fast as Robin or Dmitry but he was still faster than a human.  Who, and what, was he?

            I waited a short while longer to see if he would come back and when he didn’t I closed up the window securely and crawled back into bed with Louie.  When sleep refused to come I decided to start the night early and enjoy my last couple hours of privacy before my whole world was turned upside down.

            I had expected Robin would be the first to arrive to my room once the sun had finally set and the night grew darker, but she didn’t.  Instead three servants entered and began getting me prepared.  The transformation seemed to be more ceremonial than I had thought and I was required to clean thoroughly and be dressed in a specific garment for the occasion.

            They dressed me in a sheer white dress made of some sort of shimmering, mesh cloth.  It reminded me of the Grecian togas I had seen woman wearing in some of the tapestries throughout the palace.  One of the servants braided my hair and wove small white ribbons within the braids.  I watched them work in the mirror and I felt as if I was being dressed for some sort of wedding.  Imagining that I was a tortured Princess, being forced into an arranged marriage by my evil parents.  I giggled quietly to myself, which only seemed to annoy the servants.

            When I was nearly complete, all but one of the servants left my room and the last one dabbed drops of some sort of perfume on my body at various locations.  As she wiped it onto my neck and my wrists I could smell the delicate scent of eucalyptus drift throughout the room.