Bloodbath of the Fallen Crown

9

"I'll jump quickly into the shower," I told Nicolas.

He nodded, "I'll write to Gabriel. Be right back."

I waved and locked myself in the bathroom. I was covered in blood and smelled awful. Luckily we had a washing machine inside the room.

I undressed myself and put all the bloody clothes in a separate pile. I stepped to the mirror and inspected my face. My nose wasn't broken, thank god. I had a bruise forming in my right cheek and my eye was swollen. My eyebrow had a small cut. I'd have to deal with that.

After my shower. I stank.

I put the water as hot as I could handle and untied my hair. It was all matted with blood and possibly a piece of eye, not sure. We had to kill ourselves out of there the second the guards saw the owner fall four stories down.

Once my shower was over, I tried looking for cotton balls or alcohol but there were none in any cabinets.

I sighed and made my way out of the bathroom in my towel. I hadn't even taken clothes inside.

"Here." I nearly touched the roof from the jump. I turned quickly and gripped my towel before it slipped off completely.

"You scared me," I gasped. "I didn't think you'd be so fast."

He raised an eyebrow. "Fast? I was out nearly an hour and a half. I even stopped by the store next door to buy a first aid kit."

Huh. Guess I really needed that shower.

I took the kit and thanked him. He got up and went for the shower.

After getting dressed I sat by the mirror and opened the kit. I cleaned out my face and put some ice on my eye. My back still hurt from the way he slammed me into the brick wall, but it's nothing some sleep won't fix.

If I even get any sleep. Nicolas and I have to sit down to put together the information we found.

When he came out of the shower, I was lying in the bed with the ice on my eye.

"You okay?" He asked, sitting on his bed.

I nodded, lifting myself up and realizing he was shirtless.

Not that it bothered me. It was just... surprising. Hadn't seem him in a long time, much less shirtless. It's still very weird.

I came to my senses and put down the ice. "Yeah. I'm fine. Might have a concussion, not sure. And my nose is busted, but not broken so I'm good. We should see what's in those documents."

He looked at me for a moment. A sort of worried but trying not to show it look. Thankfully he didn't comment. "Yeah, I'll get my computer."

"You brought your computer?"

"Well, not mine mine. I bought one before leaving Sicily. For things like this."

"Ah," I put the ice back in my eye again. "What if it has a code? Like our system? They might use it to track us."

He shook his head. "It disengages all aspects of their system and keeps the information. I wouldn't risk it otherwise."

I threw the ice away. "Good thing you're smart enough for the both of us."

"And more composed."

I stopped in my tracks on my way to him. I didn't process the comment right away. At first I thought it was my concussion working. When I finally understood what he said, I decided to ignore it.

I doubt I even know my own name right now so I busied myself filling a glass of water and taking a pain killer. I sat on my bed afterwards.

I watched as he typed away and frowned occasionally. It wasn't until he grunted in frustration that I spoke up. "What's wrong?"