Season's Change Winter's Plight Book 1

32 Sleep

A sharp pain pierced the veil of his slumber and stabbed him awake. Her movements were quiet and her touch light, but it still hurt like hell. On instinct, he hissed and tried to move away from the pain. She graciously let him but followed him as he retreated. She was in front of him tenderly touching his face and looking at the scratches on his chest. "Be still." She returned the cloth to the marks on his neck dabbing gently at the wounds to clean them. They weren't deep, but her fingernails had broken his skin and left slightly bloody angry red lines all over his chest and neck.

He captured her hand with his. "Katana?"

"Kotas?" The look in her eyes made him let go of her hands. "Lay back, Stupid Human." He did as she commanded him. He was at a loss as to what to do with his arms. She solved the dilemma for him once she finished with his neck and took his hand raising his arm. He had scratches and several bite marks along it. She had been fighting for her life, fighting him. He felt the tears of shame start to burn and turned his face away from her to hide them.

She finished cleaning the wounds on his arm. When she pulled the furs back so she could clean the ones on his chest, he didn't move. He had looked away from her when she lifted his arm and had not returned his eyes to her face. She was a little sad that he had not, but she felt something from him that she had not felt before. "Kotas?"

"Katana," he answered with his head still turned away from her. His voice sounded strange in her ears.

"Please. Do not be angry, Kotas."

"Don't be angry?" He turned bloodshot eyes back to her. "I can't believe what I did to you. I may as well have been him. Look what you did to me to try and get away from me. I hate myself for what I have done to you."

"No." Her next movements shocked the hell out of him and left him completely stunned. Careful not to touch his nose, she leaned over him and pressed her forehead gently to his. She put both her hands on the side of his face. "No Kotas. You are not a monster. You are not." She shifted down and laid her head on his chest. "You are not." She whispered as she lay still and relaxed into him. His arms closed around her seemingly delicate shoulders and relaxed there.

"I made you remember horrible things. Forced you to live it again. In your mind, I was that monster and you were being hurt all over again. I should have known better. Katana I--"

"Avriel. Please." She spoke strongly but didn't move she just lay there with her ear over his heart listening to it beat. "You let me out of my own cage. You set me free. Next time I will be prepared. I will fight."

"There will not a next time, Katana. It will never happen to you again. No one will ever take from you anything that you do not want to give."

"No, it will not." She closed her eyes and once more fell asleep.

For Avi, there was no point in fighting it, he was mentally exhausted. He closed his burning eyes, settled into his breath and went back to sleep with his best and only friend sleeping on his chest. He woke with a jerk which startled Katana right off him. What the hell were they doing? He sat up and looked at her. "Katana?" She had done it to him again while he was sleeping. Why? "Where are my clothes?" He demanded as calmly as he could even though absolute panic was raging in him. She just pointed to where they hung drying. When did she do that? Was he undressed when they fell asleep?

"What is wrong with you Kotas?" She scoffed at him with her eyes squinted and her nose scrunched with the exasperation she felt at his stupid question.

"You keep taking my clothes off."

"You bled on them." Her statement was simple and filled with innocence and fact.