Love is Cold

Prisoners

I woke up with a start in a deep cavern. Somehow, I was wrapped up in my sleeping bag on top of my matress. I was cold and incapacitated. My mind was swimming. How did I get here? There was no one else in the cave, that I could see, and the storm didn't appear to have settled. That's when I saw a lump on the ceiling.

It was small, black, and furry. There where small traces of an injury on its foreleg. The creature was breathing heavily and spastically as it slept as if it were having nightmares of it's own. It woke up with a sharp screech and it's eyes opened wide and full of fright. I smiled comfortingly at it as it flew down and perched on my shoulder.

"It's ok, Leo," I said sweetly as he sat there. His hand had healed quite considerably in just two nights. He had changed back into the boy I had taken care of.

Since vampires don't get as cold, he was only in a heavy sweatshirt and jeans. I envied him, because I was freezing. He leaned on the cave wall next to his guitar.

          "So," I inquired, "where'd you put Jax?" Leo paused, making a twang echo from his guiar. He didn't look at me.

          "I had to fight like hell, just to get you here. Jax did, too. He got the cart to the base of the mountain. I brought it from there." I looked down the cave and saw my cart still heavily stocked. But, no Jax.

          "He kept you out of the snow and made his final sacrifice for you. Good horse. At least, now, we will have something more to eat." I nodded. Good horse.

* * *

We stayed in the cave and Leo told me what happened after I left. Darby had reluctantly sent him to find me. When he found me in the snow, he carried me to this cave. Then, put me in my sleeping bag to warm me up and cure the frostbite that had come to my nose. He had watched me sleep that night and part of the morning.

That was all he told me. I had the feeling that he was withholding some crucial detail, but I didn't ask him about it. He looked like it would be embarrassing for both of us. But something was haunting about it and I wanted to know.

* * *

Later that night, the two of us made a campfire to cook a little bit of food I had brought with me. Leo just sat on the floor and nonchalantly sucked the blood out of a dead hare. I kept having thoughts of what Leo was hiding. What was so shameful that he wouldn't tell me. Finally I broke down.

"So what else happened?" I asked. "What's going on? I know you want to tell. I want to listen." I felt like I was interrogating a prisoner. Maybe we were both prisoners, but why did I feel caged with him? Sitting down, he let out a small laugh that was almost inaudible and then he replied.

"I won't lie, but promise to try and believe that what I say is real." Leo paused. " You had stared to shiver, so I sat close to you on the cave floor. In your sleep, you freed my arm and rolled on your side to place one of your litle, gloved hands on mine, with a smile." He laughed and smiled at me. "For being a... well, you, you can be such a girl."

"You're avoiding the subject. And I suggest you never say that again." I remained stoic and decided to spare his life for that final comment. He did save my life.

"You aren't going to like what you hear, ya know." He became very serious. I knew that he only did this in times of anger and when he was being sincere.

"You said one word in you sleep. One name. You sounded in pain when you said it and I thought you were awake. Only a nightmare though."

"Who's name?" I inquired as I sat down next to him.

"The one that saves you," Leo whispered in my ear. I was confued about what he was talking about. I was going to ask him about it, but he transformed to bat form and hung upon the ceiling once more.

Author's note: Sorry if it sounds like the Hunger Games. I wasn't planning on it.