Just The Beginning... (Solangelo)

Chapter 20

Nico’s POV (woop woop):

   I woke up feeling more comfortable and a lot more rested than I usually did. Most of the time, I woke up still feeling exhausted even though I’d slept for hours. I was reveling in the warmth, even considering going back to sleep, when I realized that the warmth was from someone else. I was not unfamiliar with this happening and bile rose to my throat as my mind ran through the implications and the horrible memories that came with it.

    I was broken out of my train of thought as the arms wrapped around me tightened. I was about to bolt, when everything that happened earlier suddenly came rushing back. I felt hot with embarrassment and tried my best to free myself from his vice-like hold without waking him up. The plan was to go curl up on his bed and rethink my life choices along with what I was going to say to him when he woke up.

“Where are you going?”

No, I did not squeak when I heard him, and if anyone says I did, they’re lying. I turned to face him sheepishly. He sat up in bed and attempted to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Did you need something?” He asked. His voice was still laced with sleep, and the whole thing combined with his messy bed head just made him look …

   I flushed at my wayward thoughts, then remembered he was still staring. I shook my head in answer to his question and pointed to the bathroom, then rushed off in that direction to back-up my lie.

    I closed the door behind me and slid to the floor. I’d been feeling like this since I woke up. They’d told me that I was asleep for a month. And I still didn’t know why they brought me here. They’d been taking such good care of me, and I was just waiting for the ball to drop. Nothing good ever happened to me, so I was sure this was the calm before some major shit storm. The last vampires that had taken me had brought me to the brink of death and back several times over, and I didn’t want to let myself believe that these ones were any different. Will had explained to me how the human-vampire dynamics worked here. I hadn’t been let out of the castle grounds yet, but from what I’d seen, Will wasn’t treating me the way a vampire would treat their slave.

    I always felt calm around him. Always felt safe, like I could trust him to protect me. It was a bit disconcerting because, I had been looking out for myself for five years. So having someone else worrying about me all the time was… well, different. Not bad, just different. And I wasn’t sure how to react to that. At every point, he’d randomly ask if I was okay, if I’d had anything to eat yet, if I needed anything. He was basically the biggest mama bear on the planet. And I didn’t understand why he even cared. I was a nobody. Useless. Practically livestock to them. Yet he treated me like I was the prince and not him. I was finding it so hard not to give in. Not to trust him or get attached, because at one point or the other, everyone left. And I didn’t want to go through that again. It hurt too much.

“Angel, are you alright? You’ve been in there a while.” I hadn’t even told him my name yet. The first time I’d said anything since I got here was just before we fell asleep. And I wasn’t sure why I did. I was still waiting for my punishment, because I was always punished when I spoke. He only punished me when I was bad. But I was always bad. That’s what Luke said. He said he’d fix me. That he’d make me perfect.

Being perfect hurt.

   The door suddenly opened, and I quickly moved out of the way before I fell over. Luke was coming to punish me. I didn’t want to be punished. I could feel my breathing accelerate, but it wasn’t getting to my lungs. Will knelt beside me, frantically apologizing but I could barely hear him. All I could hear was Luke telling me I’d been bad again. It felt like I was under water. Everything felt numb. I was going to be punished. That was all I could think about.