Chapter 21 - Calm before the storm

MAXINE

The house is still empty by the time we're back from the lake. The distant voices indicate that the feast is a success.

The guards that were outside the main entrance of the house are nowhere to be seen. Probably they joined the rest.

Rey carries me into his thick muscular arms like I weigh nothing. He pushes open the door and heads for the stairs.

Throughout the way back, I couldn't dare to look at him. I could already feel his eyes branding my skin, never leaving me from sight. This is too much to handle right now.

I can't figure him out. He could have let me down as soon as the path became even, or at least when we entered the house. Instead, his hands are holding me tight, like something dear he's afraid to lose.

The more I stay so close to him like this, the more I feel something weird going on deep in the pit of my stomach. A weird flying effect.

I should visit Lila, maybe I caught a cold.

We enter my room and I'm expecting him to let me down now, but the doesn't. He walks to the bed and gently puts me on it. I turn to meet his eyes and for a second, they seem familiar, like I saw them before I found myself here.

His musky forest scent hits me once more and makes that flying thing inside my stomach, ignite.

As soon as he puts me down, he walks to the nightstand where Lila had left a box with bandages and a bottle of iodine in case, I need to change the bandage around my feet.

He returns to the bed and kneels in front of me. I hold my breath as his calloused hands wrap around my ankles dragging me closer to him. My skin tickles where his hands touched me.

"What are you doing?" I protest. "It's ok, I can do that."

"I must." His reply is sharp, stern and leaves no room for discussion.

I stay silent as he starts unwrapping the bandage from my feet with careful moves and cleaning the wounds. The shirt is clinging to his wet broad frame, making the deep lines of his muscles visible above it.

I feel my face flushing red again. My pulse hammers in my ears, my heart beating so fast it'll make a hole in my ribcage.

For a second, I think I saw a flash of tenderness crossing his blue eyes as he wraps again my feet with new pieces of bandage.

"Thanks," I say almost in a whisper when he finishes. He lifts and stares at me for a moment more than what's comfortable. He then nods.

"Why are you nice to me?" I ask as he turns to leave the room. All his attitude tonight made me wonder. All these weeks he was looking at me like I'm his worst enemy and then within two days his behaviour has turned one hundred and eighty degrees. "Why do you help me?"

He stands still a few steps before the door. "When I met you, I was behaving like a total asshole to you." He turns to look at me over his shoulder. "This is my way of making things up. I apologize."

His eyes bore into mine; crystal orbs of shining blue consume me. The fire in the pit of my stomach escalates, burning more intense. My body starts to shiver slightly, I cannot hold his gaze for long. The way he's looking at me, pierces through my soul, making me feel completely exposed in front of him.

"It's alright." I say nearly audible to myself but from the faint smile that lingers on his lips I know, he heard me.

Suddenly we both snap our heads towards the window. Outside the voices are louder now but there's something different about them. They are not noises of joy. They sound like there's a commotion.

My breath quickens as something happened. We turn to face each other, his face full of concern.

"Lock the door." He states before opening it and vanishes into the darkness.

I hurry and lock the door as he instructed. The voices become louder. The air fills with bone-cracking sounds and battle cries.

I'm overwhelmed by panic and the air doesn't feel enough in my lungs. My legs feel like jelly, and I can't hold my ground.

Instantly my thoughts run to Rey. Is he going to be alright? When I saw the nasty cuts on his torso that night at Lila's office, I felt my heart turning into a knot.

Worry battles with fear and panic inside me upon the possibility of seeing him again injured.

The sound of something breaking from the floor below makes me jump to my feet. Someone's in. Is it one of the wolves or someone else?

The stairs creak. Someone's coming.

I look around in the hope to find something to defend myself. If the wolves have difficulty handling the situation, imagine how difficult it would be for me.

The steps stop outside my door, and I place a hand over my mouth, trying to be dead silent. They're no more sounds from outside, but I know whatever is on the other side of that door has not left yet.

"Hello, Maxine. We meet again." A strange whisper echoes from the other side, making the blood in my veins freeze.

Who is it and why does he know me?

A loud growl breaks the tension and I feel slightly relieved when I hear it. The wolves are here. The ground floor fills with sounds of hissing and growling and cutting flesh.

I feel numb. My heart gallops in my chest, my pulse rings in my ears and my senses are in delirium. I don't know how this idea strike me when I open the door and find myself above a battlefield.

There're some men and women with pale skin and sharp nails that fight against the wolves. I can't figure out who they might be, until one charge at a wolf and opens his mouth to reveal a set of sharp long fangs.

Vampires.

I try to take a few steps back and hide inside my room, but some heads are already turned toward me. It's too late to back down.

I hurriedly go down the stairs and make my way to the kitchen. There I'll find something I can use as a weapon, although I'm not aware of how vampires could be killed.

The coppery smell of blood engulfs me as I reach the bottom step. Everyone looks busy already found their match for the fight, so I try to be as invisible as possible.

I step above dismembered corpses on my way to the kitchen. When I enter, it seems like they weren't on this part of the house yet. I search the drawers for something I can use as a defence. I find a kitchen knife and bring my finger close to it. The moment the skin touches the blade, a red spot is created on my hand. Good, the sharper the better.