Tainted Fantasy

Chapter Thirteen: bruises and blood

By the time we got back to the house I was dry but shivering, even with Zero's warm body huddled against mine. We followed Damien back through the sliding door. I was just thinking how nice a hot shower was going to be when I saw who was standing in the kitchen. The thought slipped my mind.

“Vincent!” I ran over to him, throwing my arms around me. He had to catch me because I literally jumped into his arms. His arms squeezed me around the waist to keep me from dropping to the ground.

“Miss me much?” He laughed.

“You have no idea...” I muttered as he spun us around once and finally put me down. When I took a step back he was smiling, he knew exactly what I meant.

“Go upstairs before you ruin Sam's clean floors.” Damien ordered from behind me. I turned a dirty look on him.

“She's fine. It's just mud.” Samuel disregarded Damien's statement.

I looked down at his words and realized there was mud all over his floor. Then I glanced at Zero and Damien's feet.

“Besides, I'm not the only one dragging in mud.” I looked over at Damien.

“Good point.” Zero agreed, kicking off his shoes and disappeared into the living room.

“Sorry Sam, I'll clean it up.” I apologized.

He waved me off in a dismissive way.

“Just go shower, love. Damien will take care of it.” He winked at me then turned his attention towards Damien, who narrowed his eyes in return. Vincent nudged his head meaningfully towards the stairs when I glanced at him. I took that as my cue to escape.

I spent a good 45 minutes in the shower at least, occasionally eyeing each bruise I found on my body from all the self defense tonight. Some were big and just turning black and blue, like the one on my left side and the other on the back of my leg. There were smaller ones scattered across my body. I was going to have to wear long sleeve shirts and pants for awhile. I also took note that my hand needed another bandage. The cut was still pretty deep even though it stopped bleeding, but not deep enough for stitches luckily.

When I got out of the shower, wrapping a towel around me instantly, I realized someone had moved my duffel bag because it wasn't in the bathroom anymore. Why would they do that to me? Now I had to go searching for it in a towel, because I refused to put my mud-ridden clothes back on. I opened the bathroom door just a crack, peeking out and listening. I heard muffled chattering coming from downstairs. It sounded like all four of them were down there. Knowing this, I slipped out of the bathroom and began hunting down my duffel bag.

My first instinct was to try the room me and Damien had been in. I flipped on the light and began scavenging for it. Half-way through my search I heard a noise behind me. It was the door being closed. I turned around. Seeing that it was Damien, my heart began jumping around. As usual, it was trying to escape my body and run away. The fact that I was only in a towel made this a lot worse then usual.

“Looking for something?” He asked, his eyes scanned my body. A slow frown drew across his face. I ignored the look.

“Yes. I need my clothes.”

“It's under the bed.” His frown had deepened now.

“Why would you put it under there?” I turned around and got down at ground level to retrieve the bag.

“There was no room in the closet.” He told me, now sitting on the bed.

I looking up at him from where I was on the floor. His eyes were on the back of my leg. Now I realized what he had been doing just a minute ago and why he was frowning. I think he actually felt bad for the bruises. I almost had to shake my head at that thought. Yeah, right.