Blood Rose (10 page)

Without my realizing anyone else had even seen the display, Damien came up behind me armed with some fresh white towels and helped me mop up the mess- in silence thankfully. Neesa hadn’t been the only person I had put off speaking to at work.

Damien and I had only spoken as trainee and trainer in the last several weeks and even that was fairly minimal considering he was too damned good at the job. Of course, every night we left work he would stand at his open passenger door waiting for me. Every night I walked past him in the back parking lot and down to the sidewalk without a word or glance in his direction. I knew he followed me home the night Carrie and I had gotten into it. I ignored him.

He seemed to excel more at this job than anyone else did, never making a single error on an order or dropping anything.  Yet he was faster than any of us.

In fact, last week Rachel had a tray filled with glasses, she tripped over the servers mat when the corner was flipped up. (She’s nearly as accident prone as I am) Damien caught her and the tray. Not a single thing fell.

When he wasn’t busy he was behind the bar boosting John’s tips to an ample sum. John didn’t even offer to split them as far as I knew.

Once the counter and floor were dried up, I reached for two glasses filling them with ice before I moved them to the soda fountain. Usually I could hold three glasses in the palm of my hand and fill each one with a different soda at once but as I attempted the task for just two glasses both of them fell, one hit the counter. The other bounced to the floor and shattered, sending sticky sweet soda, ice and glass everywhere. I nearly kicked the stainless steel. Hell, I nearly screamed.

With my hands still shaking, I braced myself against the sterling counter and clinched my eyes shut. Under my breath I cursed in every language I knew while biting hard enough onto my lip to break the healed split back open.

For the record, I speak French, Spanish, Russian and Italian. Every one of them was used now, especially the Russian. Thanks Babushka.

I was ready to scream and cry all at once. It had been so many years since I had last cried, I wasn’t about to start doing so here at work or in front of Damien no less. “Anna, it’s alright I got it. Go take a break.” Damien grunted with more than a little annoyance in his tone. It wasn’t surprising he found the double mess irritating but I couldn’t help it. What did it matter if he thought of me as an idiot now?

“Okay. Table five, section two. They’re for Rachel.” Yes, I should have thanked him at some point there but I didn’t. All I could do was walk out the back. My feet dragging me all the way. As I was passing the office, I saw Mike through the cracked door.

With just a brief hesitation, I turned to open the door and leaned on the frame. “Mike, we’re dead slow and I don’t have any tables. Do you mind if I head home? I have another headache.”

Mike glanced to the clock on his desk and then a reservation book to his left without once looking up to me thank goodness. I could feel my eyes getting puffy. In fact I was certain they were red rimmed already. “Yeah. That’s fine, Anna. Enjoy your weekend. Feel better.”

With a quiet sigh of relief and a silent prayer to no one in particular, I shut the office door softly and turned for the back door. A promising glowing exit sign glared above it as if lighting my way to freedom.

“Everything alright?” Damien spoke from behind me, leaning on a wall near the kitchen. I didn’t plan to answer him and I told myself in rapid unison to not look at him either.  Just give a nod and walkout before my hammering heart could stop me
.
Somehow, I knew that man had more than the capability of breaking my resolve. “She’s just worried, Anna... She doesn’t want to lose you.”

“All due respect, Damien, you’ve no idea what you’re talking about. So just stay out of my business.” The second my hand touched the back door to push it open Neesa burst into the room. Damien was wise enough not to say anything. But he didn’t leave either.

“Anna, don’t leave! Please just talk to me! Can I at least come over later?” she called after me while I walked outside leaving her yelling at a closed door.

Not two steps away from Riads, an explosive clack of thunder startled me enough to give a sharp gasp. Working to compose myself quickly, I paused, waiting to see the lightning follow. I counted to see how long till the rain came. But rather than seeing the lightning someone grabbed hold of my arm.

Instantly jerking around ready to kick the hell out of someone, I froze seeing Damien. “What are you doing out here?” Even though I wanted to, I couldn’t pull away from him. His grip was gentle but sure, he wasn’t going to let me go.

“Walk with me.” He stared down at me with eyes that gave me more chills than a winter’s harsh breeze. I let the silence linger between us for what felt like decades.

“Please?” I don’t know if it was the understanding look in his eye or the touch from his cold hand that sent simultaneous chills while warming me from the inside out. Maybe the fact that for once he didn’t look at all amused but I couldn’t say no.

“It’s going to rain. You’ll get wet,” feebly I argued against him. As if my feet were filled with magnets, I unconsciously moved closer to him.

“So? You like it. Don’t you.” It wasn’t a question. So I didn’t answer him. If he really didn’t mind the rain then that was fine by me. With his hand still on my arm he tugged me another step closer. “Walk with me.”

With a nod of my consent, he turned me, keeping our pace slow and steady. His hand on my arm hesitated before sliding down to wrap around my hand snugly. His hands were cold but firm and strong. It felt intoxicatingly good. Like a cold fire had wrapped me up and would never let go. At least I wished it wouldn’t.

Just after eight at night, the sky was nearly black as we walked down the sidewalk together. My mind felt sluggish. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept more than two hours solid or even in a night. This was the first time I had been alone with Damien since a couple of weeks ago in the office.

“How did you leave work so quick?” I couldn’t help but ask seeing as he followed me out just seconds after I left.

“Same way you did. Actually I was clocked out before I found you in the server station.” He shrugged off the excuse.

He’d stayed to help me after it was time for him to leave. “I never said thank you and now I also owe you an apology it seems,” my voice was still horse from the knot in my throat I had earlier.

A sniggering snort rumbled from his lips. “Pfft. You owe me nothing,” he dismissed my comment easily.

My brows rose in question of the noise. “Did you just snort?” I looked up at him with merely a mock of my usual sarcasm.

“Maybe.” He stopped walking and leaned closer to my ear before making a true blue piggy snort sound against my neck. The sound combined with such a serious expression sent me straight into a burst of laughter. Albeit a little hysterical.

“Okay.” Clearing my throat to collect myself and stop the near frenzied laughter. “So why did you follow me out here? To ask me to go on a walk with you? In the rain no less?” As I spoke, mist seemed to swirl around us. Almost as if the weather had yet to decide on just what it felt like doing.

“Why not?” He took a step pulling me along with him to get me to start walking again.

“You’re unusual, Mr. D’Tera.” Speaking in a near mumble before sucking my bottom lip into my mouth to hide the smile trying to sneak up on my lips. His brow rose as he shot me a mock threatening look. “Mr. Damien, no middle initial listed on driver’s license D’Tera.” I grinned.

He chuckled. “So I’ve been told. Don’t worry. You’re not so normal yourself, Miss Lianna Loraine Von. Now quit biting that lip, it’s too pretty for you to chew it off,” he said it just to tell me he knew more about me than I had realized. Again, he left me wide eyed with surprise and wonder. Also, I quit chewing on my lip- for the time being anyways.

We were walking down the street to the pier when another clack of thunder bellowed through the sky making me jump again.

Damien chuckled slightly and pulled me closer. He let go of my hand only to wrap his long arm around my shoulders, keeping me held flush against him. “Funny, you don’t seem the type to be afraid of thunder.” Looking down to me, Damien’s grin spread mockingly as we walked.

“I’m not. Okay well I’m not usually. Just been a rough couple weeks. I guess I’m a little jumpy.” Looking up at him with the beginnings of a defensive scowl, the hard expression melted as he looked back in a way that stripped away all my defenses as easily as could be.

He sighed. “Tell me about it.” I shrugged, unwilling to give the story of my frightening tarot readings and even more horrifying dreams. He saw the flash in my eyes before I could look away. “You can you know. When you’re ready.” We walked on in silence for a little while longer.

Adélia’s reading had been no better than the first. She used twice the cards and I think that had made it twice as bad. The disturbing part was every card Neesa had pulled so had Adélia.

Never would I forget the look on Neesa’s face, certain she was seeing her friends final days splayed out on the table. Adélia looked on at me with a question and fear in her eyes, which if spoken aloud would have no doubt brought the tears spilling from Neesa’s. Call me crazy. I think Adélia was afraid of me.

Suddenly, Damien left the sidewalk and street all together, pulling me with him all the way but exchanging his hold back to my hand. We walked on in silence. He pulled me under a big tree, its large branches hanging protectively over a small stone bench near the docks. His hand waived gallantly at the bench. He winked. Unable to help myself I laughed sitting across from him.

We sat there quietly. Maybe neither of us knew what to say or perhaps he was still waiting for an answer. My mouth opened to say something the very second I heard the rain attack the tree covering us.

In that second the humidity heightened the smells of the docks. The smell of fresh rainwater mixed with the smell of the ocean. Wet stone. The wet wooden planks of the docks. Even the scent of bark from the tree and its budding white flowers.

It wouldn’t take more than a second for the water to slip over the leaves and reach us. My chin lift and my eyes closed as I waited in anticipation. The first drops of rain were like warm bath water. I loved rain in Vermont. The first few moments were always the warmest.

Time nearly stopped. Neither of us moved. Water splashed on my forehead, my nose and hit my cheekbones before running to drip down my chin and stream down my neck. A drop of water hung on my lash as I opened my eyes. Damien was staring at me with an indescribable expression.

Slowly Damien wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer to him. My head lay against his chest. He lay his chin atop my head. His fingers trailed up to my chin, taking a lock of hair and pulling the strands from my cheek to tuck them behind my ear. A chill ran down my spine to feel his fingers linger on my neck, dragging back and forth over a small scar on my collarbone from a childhood accident.

Pulling back, I looked up to him. A million questions danced on the tip of my tongue. His eyes stopped me dead in my tracks. Wasn’t it always something with him?

I thought he was going to kiss me. Only half of me was sure I wanted him to. The other half was the skeptic. It kept saying that this couldn’t be happening. Not to me.

Or worse. Maybe this was some sort of sick joke. Then again, maybe I was the sick one. No one normal felt so compelled to someone else. Not like this. No one normal was anything like me. But he already mentioned that. So why was he here? Did we really know each other well enough for this? No. But it felt like we did. My mind flew through these thoughts in milliseconds.

While I was still contemplating my fate, if it was a demise or fairy tale his hand slid up from my neck to cup against my cheek. The rain still coming down heavily onto us both making streams of cool water run down Damien’s face and dripping off his eyelashes, splashing off his nose and beading on the small hairs of his thin beard.

Damien’s lips pressed firmly against my forehead for a long moment. As he pulled away just slightly I felt his nose brush mine as he leaned down, his forehead pressed to mine. “Is um- is this okay?” his voice shook with a nervous laugh.

“I dunno... You tell me.” He gave a halfhearted laugh at my mocking response from something he’d said to me once before. His nose trailed down mine then brushed my cheek until his lips hovered over mine. His hands slid around my waist and squeezed.

The skeptic went right out the window.

My body instantly responded as if a bolt of electricity had shot through me. In the next second, I was in his lap with my arms around his neck. Our lips crashed into each other’s so abruptly it felt sort of like bumping into a rock with my mouth. An amazing kissing rock though, nonetheless.

His body responded just the same as mine did but only after mine had. As his fingers slid slowly under my shirt and up my back hungrily while his mouth melted into mine.

This wasn’t my first kiss but it sort of felt like it was. It was nothing like kissing anyone else had ever been. This was explosive. Anything else in my history more or less would become comparative to kissing my brother. If after this I would be able to remember any other kiss. Doubt it.

Honestly, I have no idea how long it lasted. Could have been days but I don’t think either of us would have noticed. Eventually though it did end as all things in life tend to do.