Beauty in a Beast

Ch. 4 - And You Were There, and You, and You

It was the complete lack of sound that roused me. My parents were not screaming, the cars of the city were not honking, the TV in the next room was not blasting, and the wind was not whistling past my window. The quiet was disturbing, but my head hurt too much to investigate.

A soft voice, female, whispered, somewhere close by, "Jare, she is waking."

"Rachel?" A familiar voice this time.

A voice that should not be in my bedroom.

I cracked an eye open. Not my bedroom.

I jerked upright, the motion making the room spin. Four hands reached out to steady me.

"Where am I?" I demand weakly, squeezing my eyes shut again.

"You're in my room." Jeremy answers.

"How the hell did I get here?" I manage to pop one eye open, squinting.

Jeremy glanced over at the woman. I turned to look at her as well. She was absolutely stunning. Long dark hair fell in soft waves around her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were a silvery-blue-gray that were watching me intently. She was flawless.

"While I appreciate the compliment of your drool, I would like to inform you that I am already mated." Her voice was silk, soft and warm. "My name is Someve, and I am the one that carried you here."

"I am so confused," I murmured, my head throbbing again.

"What do you remember?" Jeremy asked quietly, half sitting beside me. Someve moved to stand just beyond his shoulder.

"I had a weird dream. I was in bed and then you came in through my window and pulled me out and we were falling and then we weren't falling and then we were on a dragon but I knew it was a dream and I wanted to wake up so I jumped because when you fall in dreams your body will jerk you awake just before impact, right?"

"You need to learn how to speak with punctuation," Someve practically growled, "I am almost out of breath from that."

"It wasn't a dream. Someve is the dragon that caught us. And she caught you after you jumped. Unfortunately, she was also trying to maneuver through the buildings and ... well, your head got a little banged around and you passed out. The doctor has already been by and checked you out, she said that you'll be fine and will need some pain medicine for your head."

I looked at the girl again.

"You aren't a dragon."

Her pale eyes widened in shock and she actually growled at me.

"Someve, we were told this would be difficult, please don't eat her," Jeremy faced the girl and spoke softly.

"I didn't expect her to be so dense and self-destructive," the girl answered back with a low, condescending voice.

"I will agree to the self-destructive, but I am not dense. I have seen pictures of dragons and you, honey, don't match."

"Rachel," Jeremy turned back to me, "take the medicine beside the bed and try to sleep some more. I will explain more about Someve later."

As I drifted off, I heard: "You need to get her mouth under control before she pisses off Starka or Lyka. You know they will swallow her whole and breathing, and won't face consequences for it."

Such pretty names, I thought to myself, letting the numbing darkness take over again.