RockScars

Twyla, just out of her bath and wearing a white terrycloth robe, sat on her window bench brushing her wet hair. With her ipod in her ears, she sang along softly to the music never hearing the door to her bedroom open. Shadows walked in and closed the door behind him. She sensed him and smiled as she removed her ear buds. He walked over and gently took the brush from her hand and ran it through her hair.

“I’ve wondered where you were tonight.”

“Taking care of things for Vengeance. Lark is home so I spent part of the evening with her as well.”

“Everything ok now?”

Shadows sighed and sat behind her resting his chin on her shoulder. “She doesn’t understand. She thinks because she saw us kissing that I won’t love her anymore.”

“I take it you convinced her otherwise?”

“I hope I did,” he shrugged and after setting the brush down, put his arms around her waist letting her lean back against him.

“Stay with me? I like having your arms around me while I sleep.”

Shadows kissed the side of her neck lightly. “I wish I could, Kitten, but I have work I have to do.”

Twyla sighed and turned sideways leaning against him. “Why do you call me that?”

“Kitten?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“Because it’s what you are. On the outside you come off as a daring wild cat, but on the inside you’re just a cute, cuddly, little kitten that just wants to be held.” She laughed and he kissed the top of her head. “I have to go soon.”

“It’s not fair,” she frowned.

“What isn’t?”

She sighed again and nuzzled his neck. “It just feels like now after all this time, I’m finally getting to know you and maybe it’s selfish of me to say this, but I want more. I couldn’t wait to get rid of you and now I’m sad when you leave.”

Shadows smiled and tipped her chin up so he could kiss her again. “It’s not selfish at all and it makes me happy to hear you say you want to spend time with me. I promise, it will happen. I just have some really important stuff that I need to do. Not that you aren’t important, because you are, but things are a little complicated for me right now.”

“Can I at least have a kiss before you go?”

He smiled. “Kitten, I assure you, your lips will be thoroughly kissed when I leave.”

Twyla’s cheeks flushed hot with color earning a light chuckle from Shadows just before he brought his lips softly over hers. Fifteen minutes later, he left her and as promised, her lips had been thoroughly kissed.

Twyla got into her bed just as the automatic shutters closed throughout the house. While she fell off to sleep, Shadows headed off to follow up on his mission. He climbed the stairs to Lark’s room up in the attic. She was sound asleep in her princess bed holding her baby doll close to her body.

He walked over to the bed and bent down to softly kiss her forehead before gently getting into the bed beside her. It didn’t take very long for him to find her inside her dream.

Together they walked down the stairs towards the voices coming from the room on the other side of the basement. Opening the door, they stood there unseen as if they were ghosts.

There on the cold metal table, she lay screaming while the person whom Lark once referred to as “the bad man,” was sticking needles in her arms that were attached to long tubes, while a female restrained her.

“They’re draining her blood.”

“Why, Daddy?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can’t you help her?”

Shadows shook his head. “I can’t help her until you tell me where we are. Where are we? How did you find this house?”

“Don’t you remember, Daddy?” She looked up at him with a questioning gaze. “When it was my birthday last time and we went to the carnival after it was closed and we had my party there?”

He knelt down in front of her. “Yeah, I remember.”

“The ugly house, Daddy. This is the ugly house outside the carnival. The one with the broken windows that nobody lives in.”

He put his hands on both her shoulders. “Are you sure?”

Lark nodded. “I’m sure.”

The screams from the table interrupted their conversation and both looked over to see “the bad man” sticking more needles in her arms.

“Please, Daddy, help her.”

Shadows walked over to the table as fast as he could and tried grabbing the man’s hand, but it was useless, his own hand went transparent as soon as he touched the man. There was nothing he could do.

“Daddy, she’s dying!” Lark yelled and Shadows looked down at the girl who had gone limp on the table. The man pulled the last needle out of her arm and walked over to another table to set down the tubes of blood next to the others while the female pulled a white sheet over the girl’s head.

“DADDY!” Lark screamed at the top of her lungs.

She cried for hours and hours and Shadows was beside himself. What Lark was given was supposed to be a gift, but lately it appeared to be more like a curse. He whispered soft words to try and soothe her crying and even after she did calm down, she still wouldn’t go back to sleep. He stayed awake with her until she had exhausted herself to the point where she could no longer keep her eyes open. As Lark finally slept, he got up off her bed and went down to check on Twyla.

He entered her room to find her lying peacefully asleep in her bed. As he stood at the foot of Twyla’s bed, he marveled at how soft she looked while she was sleeping. There was no stress on her face, no tension in her body and no fear holding her down. She lay there with her hair splayed over the pillow with her face turned to the side giving him full view of her exposed neck.

Shadows could feel his fangs tingle at the thoughts that were running through his head. Since the first time he kissed her, he had managed to control himself, but his need for her was growing stronger by the day. Kissing was nice, but it wasn’t going to be enough much longer. He wanted more, he needed more.

Twyla turned her head to the other side and Shadows walked over to the side of the bed and moved a strand of hair off her face. “You’re here,” she whispered. He smiled and sat down on the bed.

“Go back to sleep, I only came to check on you.”

She nodded half asleep and he kissed her cheek as softly as he could. Knowing that she was fine, he got up off her bed and left her bedroom. There were a few more hours left before the sun would go down so he wouldn’t be able to go over to the manor to tell Vengeance of the dreams that Lark had.

After taking his cell phone out of his pocket, Shadows sat down on the couch and dialed Vengeance’s number, but the call went straight to voice mail. The same thing happened when he tried calling Gates. He felt like a caged animal having to wait for the sun to take its leave before he could go tell the guys his news. It was never a good thing when Shadows felt caged. Once that feeling got to be too strong, there was only one thing that could tame his inner animal.

Sex.

Good luck with that, Twyla.