Tarot: the Fool- Paranormal M/M Romance

Chapter Four

Zin

I woke a few times on the way to wherever David was taking me, but whatever the nurses gave me was strong and I was so out of it I kept drifting in and out of consciousness. I think I was mumbling incoherently too, but I couldn't stop myself. I didn't want to. I felt so good, like I was floating and warm and safe.

I couldn't remember the last time I felt safe, but that's how I felt as I was carried up the same flight of stairs I had been dragged up what I thought must have been only a few hours before. I knew it was David who held me, hot and comfortable against his chest, his hard muscles dancing and swaying as he carefully made his way back to his bed that I had run from earlier that night. When he laid me down, I flinched at the pull of the bandages around my chest and abdomen, which then made me groan as my movement shifted the bandages the doctor had put over my nose.

They had drugged me pretty heavily, mostly because once I woke in the hospital, all of my adrenaline and fear had cascaded to the forefront of my mind and I hadn't been able to stop fighting the poor nurse who tried to hold me down until a needle pricked my thigh and I didn't remember much after that. Just a general warmth, the movements of the nurses and doctors, and then finally David.

I knew it was him even though I hadn't really been able to get a good look at him yet. I knew because I could feel him, his soul reaching out to mine.

And because I knew even as I made my way down his fire escape that I would see him again. He was going to be important to me, even, but I tried to fight that thought. Weakness only ever got me hurt, and I knew like I knew most other things, that he would be my weakness for the rest of my life.

And that terrified me, even as it calmed me.

I stayed awake long enough to stare up at David, his body outlined by the light from the living room behind him, and smile what I knew must have been a stupid-looking, dopey smile.

"You're gonna be important," I mumbled, even as my brain screamed at me to shut up. But the drugs were ripping through my mind, and my euphoric emotions were screaming for me to make him understand. "Like, the most important."

"C'mon, kid," he grumbled as he pulled my shoes off and tried to push me under the blankets. "You need to rest. We can talk later."

"Not a kid," I said, rubbing at my eyes and frowning when I realized my left hand was bandaged. Had Lyle left any piece of skin on my body unbroken? "My name's Zin... uh." I paused for a moment, shocked I couldn't even finish my own name. "Zin... delo. My name's Zindelo. Zin."

David finished wrapping the blankets up around my neck, then simply stood and stared at me for a moment. He brushed a strand of hair back from my face with big, soft fingers, and the tender motion, along with the look in his eyes, made my entire body fall limp against the soft mattress beneath me.

"Rest, Zin. You're safe," he whispered in his grumbly, husky voice that made me want to crawl under the blankets and purr, and that was the last I remembered before I woke in the bed again.

The pounding in my head was only rivaled by the sharp ache in my ribs. I sat up gingerly, groaning as I grabbed my face with both hands and fought the bile that rose up in my throat. I wouldn't vomit on the blankets after everything David had done for me. I refused.

Once my head had stopped spinning and the aches had calmed to an acceptable throb, I looked around, assessing my surroundings. The sun shone in through the few windows around the flat, and a large swathe of sunlight lit the rugs on the hardwood floor leading from the glass patio doors. I guessed it was probably noon or a bit earlier from the direction of the sun, and because David was going to come up at noon to try to wake me to eat.