Dash Darhk - bonus scene from Slumber

Dash Darhk POV

She blinked, and my heart stopped.

Her eyes were like a rainbow, a striking array of violet, blue, green, and pink. They were encased with thick, dark lashes. Ethereal. Never had I seen such a blend of color in a pair of eyes. It was obvious she had been touched by the mist.

Holy crap. She was...she was beautiful.

And I knew beautiful. After living in a world where beauty was often deadly, I was weary of things of absolute perfection.

Soft curls of deep red fell over her shoulders, standing out against the grey room as her unusual eyes scanned my face. There were clusters of cute freckles covering over the bridge of her nose. She blinked several more times as if she was trying to clear the haze of the deep slumber from her eyes. I suspected the last lingering effects of the drugs were wearing off.

I found myself unable to stop staring, and might have like a gapping fool if the sound of keys jiggling in the distance hadn't rang through the holding house like a siren of my doom.

"Shit."

The Night's Guards.

I needed to get out of here. Panic stalled in my chest at the thought of being captured by Institute again. Never!

My gaze drifted over Sleeping Beauty. What was I going to do about her? I watched as a series of emotions tumbled over her face. The confusion had settled in, but I didn't have time to deal with her. Scowling, I glanced over my shoulder at the door as I weighed my options.

I don't know why, but I found I couldn't just run and leave her behind.

Why the hell not?

It wasn't like I hadn't done so before. This world was survival of the fittest. Only the strong thrived, and that meant thinking of me first.

As I was wrestling with myself, Freckles sat up and gasped. The color drained from her face. I was at her side, in case she decided to tumble over the side of the glass table. She leaned on me, and my entire body was taut with urgency.

"Can you walk?" I whispered, two seconds from sweeping her off the cold slab.

She nodded, swinging her feet over the side, a glint of stubbornness in her eyes.

The moment she touched the ground, I slipped an arm around her waist, taking most of her weight. It took time for the body to remember functions like walking after being asleep for over a hundred years. The nerves tingled, and the muscles could be like jelly. She was taking this whole thing in strive.

A series of questions tumbled from her lips, but I barely understood the words. I got caught up in the sound of her voice.

Shaking my head, I frowned. "I should have known your voice would be musically," I grumbled. She could have been plucked straight from the pages of a fairy tale.

Her chin tipped. "What does that matter?"

It didn't. What did matter was getting out of the holding house alive. Stop thinking about her and get moving.

I gave her the choice I'd never given another soul, to stay or come with me. I had no real good explanation for why I had this sudden urge to protect her, but I could see the fear and confusion in her eyes. She didn't know what to do or what was happening. Why should she trust a total stranger? She surprised us both.

Together we crept into the hall, our backs smashed to the wall. We came to the end of hall where the path forked in four different directions. I stopped, to peek around the corner. Two seconds later, I felt her soft body bump into mine. My gaze slid to hers.