Behind These Refuge Walls

"Again!"

A long string of Russian.

"Net, Ivan! It happened again! I told her! I warned her! It is the second time I have to see her like this!"

Again?

The voice boomed, bringing down walls and silence with it. It stripped me of my unconsciousness and I slowly woke up. Adrenaline faded away and pain took in. Awareness of my own wounds struck. I had an aching back and my eyes stung. From behind my eyelids, I felt cold tears.

It boomed again. And this time I knew it.

"I told her not to go--"

"Uspokoitʹsya, Cain!"

Something crashed. My eyes shot open; tears jumped as I tried to understand my surroundings. I was lying on a hospital bed, in a small room that felt too crowded. Beside me stood a tall man, his broad back turned to me. His dark hair was in a short cut and revealed a small tattoo on the back of his neck. A little black flame seemed to embrace the upper end of his spine. He moved his strong arms back and forward, his voice the one booming through the small room.

In front of me, facing me, was Ivan, and if I had had any doubts regarding the man's identity up until then, I now knew for a certain who he was. The back of my neck began itching.

"She went to that boy's party again! Do you know what they did to her last time, Ivan? Now they beat her?! A--"

Ivan was the first one to notice my wide eyes.

"Charlotte, кукла."

"What do you mean again?"

The man whose back was to me turned around in a blink of an eye, a move so fast and fierce that I immediately sat up. Ivan reacted instantly and broke into a long string of Russian, English and - was it Latin?

"Charlotte, your head, you shouldn't..."

Stone had taken a quick three steps back. He stood tense and watched me with alert eyes and curled fists by his side.

Ivan touched my arm lightly. "Charlotte? What happened, кукла? You called Cain, remember..."

Of all people...

Of all people, I called him.

How could I have done that?

I didn't look at my phone; I'd just dialed.

He must have written it down when he had my phone.

Why would he give me his number?

Then the panic suddenly kicked in.

"Nathan! Nate, I..."

"Janice is there with him," Stone explained, "waiting for you to get back from baby sitting."

I stared at him. Words were escaping me. There was a heavy silence that hung between the three of us. My back ached, like I had slept for nights in a row on a bed of rocks. I felt stiff.

"What did you mean?" I pushed Stone, my voice surprisingly hoarse. He didn't move.

Ivan was oddly silent beside me and he gave Stone a look that said a lot. He stood up beside me, still looking slightly worried.

"She need explanation. I will go bring water, Charlotte."

I wanted to scream a dramatic, high-pitched "No!", but something inside me held me from doing that. There was a tension in Stone's posture that had me staring widely at him, waiting for an answer to my question.

As Ivan left the room, all easiness was sucked out of the room. The air in the room thickened and I lost the buffer that Ivan was between Stone and I. But in the short period of a night, I had developed a determination that I had not known was possible.

I was dumbfounded.

"You were there. When I first went to Ryan's party."

He didn't say or do anything and for a while, I thought I had pushed the wrong button and he was just going to ignore me until Ivan returned, but then he took the most abrupt breath of air and tried to look away. I stared, fascinated by the unexpected emotion.

"You went again," he stated lowly.

"What were you doing there?"

"What happened that night--"

"What were you doing there?!"

Out of the two of us, he seemed the one most surprised by my outburst. His arms had lost the tension and he now paid me attention. Perhaps he was annoyed, too, because in his eyes all I could see was irritation at my audacity.

"I thought you would have forgotten..."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten, but I still don't remember anything from the night."

His eyes never left mine as he took a step forward. Something in his expression changed.

"You don't remember..."

"Anything." It was his turn to look at me strangely. "Why were you there?"

He finally burst and filled the gap between us, now dangerously close to breaking my bubble. "I was looking for someone!"

"What happened?"

Stone paused. His dark eyes swirled with his mood and brought up bits of grey. He looked, and looked, until his face turned to his usual mask of anger and distaste.

"I was looking for someone. You were there with your...friends." He spit out the last word and his opinion on the matter was clear. "They were pushing glasses to you. You...you were lost from the first drinks and then he took you to dance...I took you."

"I woke up home," I breathed stupefied. He only nodded. "You knew where I lived...?" Clearly. Otherwise, how could he have taken me there?

The air around us switched as he pushed himself a few steps back. In a lower, detached tone he continued, "You went with them again."

It sounded as an accusation and although I knew there was a possibility he might react like this, I didn't expect such a treatment from him.

"I didn't."

He crossed his arms on his chest. "What did you do?"

I inhaled, exhaled, then sighed angrily as I rubbed the burning back of my neck. "I went home. I didn't...I didn't see him coming. Cobra, he was just there, out of the blue." Stone's features suddenly hardened; his whole body turned into business-mode, whereas the air around us was jumping with strength and anger.

"I didn't even have time to react," I went on. "He's not human. There's...something, there's something off with him. He had eyes like a snake's. And he just lifted me in the air with one hand. I flew...I..."

"Charlotte." His voice brought me out of a frightening rant. "What did he want?"

"He said they know that I'm helping you. And that I should back off."

He had a distant look on his face. Staring at the floor, I couldn't see his eyes, but he seemed to be processing something and the intimidation I felt around him made me stop from asking questions.

"I called you," I tried to say. Stone suddenly looked up at me and nodded slowly. "I...I didn't have your number."

"You do now," he answered simply. "You were unconscious on the street, but you will be fine. Sylvia has fixed everything."

"Thank you." It was the weakest of whispers, but he caught it. He didn't say anything, but he looked at me and somehow, I understood something in him. "For...both times."

The feeling was gone. Stone nodded sharply and turned to the door in swift moves. But just as he opened it, I jumped from the bed.

"Stone!"

He turned around sharply and I couldn't breathe. It was like a mass of air struck my chest and left me breathless. His eyes shot to my face with something close to confusion. I felt nervous around him again. His body stood tall and broad before me and I had just said his name. It felt...too much.

"I...I need your help. With training."

Another polite nod. He grabbed the door handle and opened it.

And left me staring behind him.

As the air cleared, I closed my eyes and focused on the numbness of my back. It was Ivan who drove me home with a smug Russian face.

"кукла, кукла, what a wonder you are."

"I have no idea what you just called me," I retorted with an attitude.

He laughed at my antics - a hearty laugh of an older man who knew so much more than I did, but didn't explain what he had said.

"You upset Cain tonight."

My head shot in his direction. "What?"

He only smiled knowingly. "You played him."

"No, I didn't." I paused. "So what's the best way to end a fight with him?"

"Hit and run."

A pause followed as music came drifting from his truck's radio. The silence was long enough to regain my seriousness.

"I need to take on Cobra."

He sobered up and glanced at me. "It would be best, yes, but we do not want our fighter to get hurt." A smirk bloomed.

"No, Ivan," I insisted. "I mean, this needs to be dealt with. I've stayed on the sidelines enough."

He nodded with a distant look on his face. I stared out the window at the passing buildings and at the busy streets, bustling with nightlife.

"It would be best for your brother to know all of us now," he advised as we got in front of my apartment building. "We must not scare Nathaniel, but have him trust us."

Politely, I invited him in, but we both knew that he only accepted just to make sure that I wouldn't faint in the comfort of my apartment.

I pretended that everything was fine in front of Janice and Nate, and that the parents had only been late a bit. The biggest relief of the day was, however, when they finally left, Nathan went to bed, and I was finally alone in my room, staring at the ceiling.

In that heart wrenching silence, I remembered Vallin's book and seeing as sleep would not come to me, I pulled it out from underneath the bed and opened it. Beside, I grabbed a few pieces of paper and a pen.