A Shade Darker ✔️

{Chapter Seventeen}

Nightmares

June 11th, 2017

Mike

Sleep a lot of the time for me was hard to come by. Unless of course I was under one of my sister's spells. Thoughts kept me awake, the urge to keep my wife safe kept my eyes wide open. Thoughts about her occupied my brain, thoughts about how to keep her safe were always in the back of my mind.

I sat on the bed, my back against the gigantic headboard and my hands folded in my lap as Ashley slept next to me.

The moonlight shining through the window lit up her hair, made me think of horses ready for a show. The way their hide gleamed and shined after being taken care of so well. This is what her hair made me think of. It also made me think about how soft it would feel running through my fingers.

Lips slightly parted, she sleeps soundly for now with the blankets pulled up to her chin.

Last night I had left her to her own bed, to sleep and not feel overwhelmed with me being so close. But after her horrific screams woke me, I could no longer keep her away by herself.

I had run into her room and wiped her tears away from her face, the gesture that woke her while sobbing.

"Come with me. I'll keep you safe" I had promised.

With shaking hands and a trembling body she had followed me to my sleeping quarters and I had pulled back the quilts of my own bed to let her slide in.

I blink out of my memories from hours ago and watch her still lay there, seemingly unbothered.

I let my eyes close for only a moment it seemed, until her mumbled words and stirring began to wake me.

"No...please..." She softly cries, twisting and turning next to me.

I slowly place a hand on her shoulder and whisper her name.

"It's just a bad dream, Ashley. You're okay"

"No!" She cries louder, a heartbreaking scream following and making my ears ring.

I was surprised that Lucile had not come running again. Maybe she trusted me to be alone with my wife, to be able to soothe her back to slumber.

I do the only thing I know how and I grab her. I grab my wife so close to me and I hug her tightly to my chest and close my eyes. The next thing I do is pray.

Ashley

"No!" I cry, trying to back away from the red eyes and fangs that haunted my dream.

I run, my feet are moving, but I'm going nowhere. He is walking slowly, licking his lip, a tongue like a snake hissing at me.

Tears stream down my cheeks, so hot they burn my skin. Billie pushes me against a stone wall, one that seemed to just appear out of nowhere.

I scream for him to let me go, plead with him my life. But his ears won't listen. He grasps me, pushes me hard against this stone wall and the wind blows my hair to the side with a gust.

I see his fangs, so long, stained, and sharp. They lay against my neck and push. They puncture.

I gasp for air and my eyes open. Sweat is lining my hairline and tears stream down my cheeks.

I find myself against the stone wall again, being crushed and not able to escape, but I soon find that it is only the strong protecting arms of Mike.

It was just another bad dream, just another nightmare.

Slowly pulling back and breathing heavily, he notices now that I have awoken. Slowly, his arms release me enough to pull back.

His electric blue eyes shine through the dark like candles. Like a flashlight.

He's frowning, a sorry look covers his whole face. He hugs me tightly again to his chest as if he was the one who needed this hug.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there to stop him, Ashley. I wish..." He sighs and his hot breath and whispers are pressing against my hair. "I wish I could have these nightmares for you, so you wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night screaming because of me" It hurt me how he took responsibility for all of this.

But it wasn't just that.

I knew it wasn't. It was the way he kept coming back to me, kept comforting me after I would push him away.

He pulls away from me, releases me in his arms and slowly reaches toward my neck where the bandage had laid.

He looks at my eyes and when not seeing a protest, he grasps the bandage and slowly pulls it away.

He frowns at the sight of the puncture wounds from Billie's fangs. He lightly touches them, his finger cold and making me wince.

He pulls away sharply and apologizes.

"I could never hurt you like this, my Queen. I fear that...that I could never hurt you. Ever. Even when I am supposed to punish you, I can't find a way to make your back resemble mine" That's the second time he's mentioned his back and my toes begin to tingle, my mind growing curious.

"Will you show me?" Surprise fills his eyes. I watch the muscles in his throat as he swallows and stiffened.

"Very well" He stands from the bed and I watch as he begins to unbutton the many buttons of his shirt.

The air between us seems to grow tight, almost hard to breathe. He feels it too, the way he struggles to get a clean breath.

The shirt parts as he finishes with the last button, and keeping eye contact, let's it fall from his shoulders.

His chest is strong, as well as the rest of his toned torso. Hard, but soft and comforting. I stand and slowly he turns around, showing his back that made me gasp.

My own pain now seemed hard to compare when I thought what he must've felt. The long, deep scars on his back show where the whip was slashed. The scars run all the way from his shoulder blades to the dimples at the base of his spine. Some grow thin and disappear under his pants.

I reach out, my hand shaking as I lightly touched the textured scars that looked like a whole other night all together.

"Why did they do this to you?" I ask softly, still feeling the scars and wondering how long they took to heal. How painful they must've been.

"Fighting amongst males in the colony is not permitted. I got into brawls to save my sister from males all the time. But if you are caught putting up a fight with another male then your back is lashed with twenty flogging in the courtyard while the whole colony watches" Flogged? Just for a fist fight?

I shudder, my arms rising with goosebumps.

"You fought your brother to save me...you could have been flogged then" Slowly, he turns around, looking down at me.

My hands fall to my sides.

"I would fight my brother and choose to be flogged a hundred more times if it ensured your safety. You are my wife, I must protect you with my life. And I would. I took a vow to you, to keep you safe. I have already broken that vow" He looks at my neck again and reaches his hand out to touch it.

His hand is so large that it nearly covers my whole neck and with his touch, bolts of electricity run through my veins and remind me of his eyes.

Electric.