Just the Five of Us

“So…one room?”

The lady at the reception frowned at us, her eyebrow in the air. It had a silver piercing in it that wobbled kinda weirdly when she moved her eyebrows around too much.

Riel nodded, a pleasant smile on his face.

“Okay,” the lady turned to the computer a strange expression on her face as she started jabbing at the key board.

Yeah, I was about to share a motel room with a guy I’ve only known for about two hours or so, but I don’t mind. Riel is genuinely nice, and I can’t expect for him to pay for separate rooms. It is kind enough that he’s already paying for one and dinner.

I can’t ask for more than that.

The lady handed us a room key attached to heavy plastic card and we started for our room. but just as I was flitting past, she caught my hand and pulled me down to her level.

“How old are you?” she asked carefully, like a suspicious parent might.

It really wasn’t any of her business and I was about to tell her so when Riel calmly intervened.

“She’s eighteen,” he said slowly and firmly, keeping his eyes locked with the desk lady’s,

“We are both eighteen.”

She nodded numbly and let go of my arm. I scampered to catch up with Riel who was rolling his eyes.

“They aren’t supposed to ask questions,” he muttered before sighing.

“Again, I’m sorry for…”

“Hey,” he shushed me with a smile, “I got it.”

I wondered what the heck he could be as we got to our motel room. I wasn’t an expert on species, so I went back to my reading to try and figure out what he was. None of my boys had mentioned anything about mind control, so he must be something different from them. I had read about a lot of different things, including witches, warlocks, dragons, vampires, demons, angels and monster squids.

But, none of them could do that whole control the mind thing.

Well, actually, that guy in Star Wars could. But I doubted Riel was a Jedi Knight or whatever it was those dudes called themselves.

“So,” Riel said after examining our simple, one bed room, “I’ll take the floor, but after some food. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”

I nodded, deciding that arguing about giving him the bed would get me nowhere. He was quite a gentleman; he wouldn’t let me take the floor.

I was sharing a room with a guy again.

But unlike my first night at camp, I wasn’t all squeamish about it. I didn’t mind anymore. So long as I knew nothing was going on, why should I care about what anybody else thought?

Wow, I never knew I was capable of thinking like that.

“There was a Taco Bell back there,” Riel dumped his backpack on the floor, “If you want, you can use the shower while I go grab some takeaways, what do you want?”

I had had a bad experience with a taco where I accidently swallowed an entire clump of the hard shell without chewing and it scrapped all the way down my throat. Drinking water didn’t help; trying to throw it up didn’t do anything either so I just had to lay in bed groaning until the wad finally got to my stomach. I haven’t touched a taco since and it was at least four years ago.

“A plain burrito,” I said shivering at the memory.

“With a coke?”

I nodded, perking up at the idea of a coke. I really liked coke. It was all fizzy and if it was really cold it sort of stung your mouth pleasantly as it went down.

“If you aren’t comfortable in that shirt,” Riel said just as he was leaving, “You can have one of mine, there in there,” he gestured to the backpack before disappearing out to go get dinner.

Have I mentioned that Riel is a real sweetheart?

The first thing I did was kick the heels off, sighing with satisfaction as my feet went back to their natural shape. I hurried into the shower to get rid of the layer of forest grime. I was still pretty clean from Damon’s scrub down; it was just a fine layer of dirt, smudged makeup, and leaves.

I showered quickly before drying myself off and shyly pulling a big black t-shirt from Riel’s backpack. My boobs had had enough airtime. I pulled it on over the red shorts Damon’s witches had put me in before I settled onto the bed and yawned.

Now for the immediate problem: my boys.

None of us said anything about cellphones or exchanged any numbers. How the hell was I supposed to find them again? I couldn’t sap off Riel for too long. He had places to go, without a doubt, that didn’t involve me. I couldn’t be using his money forever.

“Shean,” I whined out loud before sighing and burying my head into the pillow.

I lay there for another couple of minutes before a phone went off in Riel’s backpack.

I shot up going into panic mode as the phone buzzed loudly. Should I answer it? Or no? Would it be rude? But what I Riel got angry that I didn’t answer it? What if he rathered I didn’t? I couldn’t just leave it to ring!

After an internal debate I figured I would answer it then tell him someone had called and that I had answered it.

“Hello?” I asked after fumbling with it for a few moments.

“Riel?” a strange voice came from the other end. It sounded male, but was soft and had a slight almost hiss in it.

“Ah, no, this is Kristin, Riel’s buying dinner,” I explained, “Can I take a message?”

There was silence from the other side for a long moment before the man spoke again, “Where did you say he was?”

“Uh, buying dinner,” I repeated.

“And who did you say you were?” he asked slowly.

“Um…Kristin?”

There was a moment of silence from the other end before the voice came again, it was more hushed and thoughtful than before.

“You know Riel?”

“Yeah, sorta,” I said quickly, “He picked me up after…” shit! What was I supposed to say?
After a rapist vampire prince kidnapped me?

“He picked me up.” I said firmly.

There was another pause, then when he answered it was clipped, short and full of badly hidden anger.

“I see.”

The line cut off and I was left sitting there feeling slightly confused. Had I said something? I shrugged it off and focused on the positives: I had answered the call without tripping over my own tongue.

See Kristin? That wasn’t so difficult now was it?

I berated myself for being such a chicken before I put the phone back. When Riel got back, I’d tell him someone called and that would be it. No harm done…hopefully.

Riel showed up just three minutes later with burritos and coke.

“Comfy?” he asked with a teasing smile as he handed over my food, “It looks good on you.”

He gestured to the shirt.

I smiled and went slightly pink at the compliment. I told him someone had called, and he checked his phone before smiling softly and putting it away.

“He worries too much,” he sighed as he settled down with his coke.

“He?” I glanced up from my burrito, trying not to look to curious. I may not have the best gay
radar, but I sniffed out any trail I found.

“Yeah, Dejair, he was the one who found me after Damon threw me out,” he explained as he munched on his burrito, “He’s a little over protective.”

I felt my heart warm at the fact he wasn’t alone after what Damon put him through. At least he had someone to help him pick up his life. I had Shean and the others. Shean my reaper, Ray my dark angel, Darren my neko, and Adrian my vampire. Is it just me or am I one lucky bitch?

I was massively crushing on my reaper, but hey, it was all cool. Assuming I haven’t permanently lost them. That thought had my chest tightening so I turned to Riel to get my mind off it.

“What are you?” I asked as I took a swig of coke, “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“I’m complicated,” he said after a long moment of silence.

I took that as a sign that he didn’t want to talk about it so I let it go and finished my dinner.
I curled into bed as Riel took a shower.

I thought about my boys, wondering where they were and what they were doing. Hopefully, they were okay and weren’t freaking out too much. Maybe there was some sort of magic that they could use to help them find me. Maybe they could sniff me out.

What could I do? Put an ad in the newspaper or announce myself on the radio? Maybe I could check a phone book!

As if…

I had no idea how to contact them at all. I sighed and closed my eyes, hoping for some sort for miracle. If we were separated, it would be easier for Damon to find me, and I didn’t want Riel getting pulled back into any messes involving Damon. Riel was safe, he had been kicked out. He didn’t need to see Damon again, that would probably be painful.

Without even meaning to, I fell asleep.

… … …♣… … …

I frowned.

There was something extremely wrong here. I could see, but it was all black around me. I wasn’t blind. It was like I was looking into nothing, and seeing nothing, but somehow still seeing. Trying to figure it out was making my head hurt.

I stood there, frowning into nothing but blackness.

“Kristin?”

I whipped around, trying to locate the source of the voice, trying to see even though there was nothing.

“Kristin…”

I felt my heartbeat pick up as I recognized the faint, faraway voice. I cupped my mouth, shouting as loud as I could in response:

“Shean!”

My voice echoed through the nothingness, even though I didn’t know what the sound waves
could be bouncing off of.

I felt something brush my shoulder. I turned again, and then felt happiness burst into me. A grin started stretching across my face.

Shean stood before me, in all his glory. His hair was even more perfect and his eyes seemed more alive than I had ever seen them. His skin glowed in the blackness surrounding us, looking soft and touchable.

I didn’t think. I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and giving him the tightest hug I had in me. I felt his arms curl around my waist, pressing me into him. I couldn’t help but shiver when he pressed his face into the crook of my neck.

“Where are you?” his voice came out choked and worried.

“Where am I?” I echoed, confused.

He pulled away, pressing his forehead against mine. His eyes bore into me, full of everything. I could see fear, worry, sadness, excitement, happiness, uncertainty…I could only imagine who all of those emotions were for, and how he could manage to fit them all inside himself.

Shean wasn’t someone I associated with fear. Fear and Shean didn’t even belong in the same sentence. But there it was in his glowing eyes, staring back at me with such intensity I felt the urge to destroy whoever had put it there.

“In the real world,” he whispered hoarsely, one of his arms moved from my waist and traveled up my side to pull my arm away from his neck. He curled his fingers through mine, brushing that back of my hand with his thumb.

I frowned, trying to understand what he was saying. In the real world…Oh. This was just a dream wasn’t it? Well, that explained the unreasonable blackness and the fact that Shean was actually touching me. He wouldn’t do that in real life. But it didn’t explain why he looked so real.

“Oh,” I raked my brain, trying to remember the name of the motel I was sleeping it.

“I’m in a motel,” I focused, trying to bring the name to my head; but one doesn’t really remember very much while in a dream, “It’s…I don’t know…”

“C’mon,” he whispered, “I don’t have very much time, think harder.”

“I think,” I tried to remember the name of the person with me, then rewind back to a car ride, then press play, watch the car drive into a parking lot… “Lotus, I think.”

“Lotus,” he echoed, “Lotus in which state?”

I shook my head, feeling tears blur my vision, “Damon didn’t let me see the road when we left the mall.”

Oh, that I could remember but none of the important stuff. Nice going brain.

“Shean I’m sorry I didn’t—”

He shook his head before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. There was a single crease in his young forehead and anger in the set of his jaw.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t do anything wrong.” His voice was hard as steel.

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to calm down. I was alright, he was alright, we’d be together soon enough. He’d find me, I knew he would.

“I’m okay,” I told him, forcing a smile, “I’m okay.”

A smile flickered at the corners of his mouth. He opened his eyes and seemed to gaze down at me for a long moment.

“You’re strong,” he breathed, “The strongest human I’ve ever met.”

I opened my mouth to tell him that I was honestly okay, but he didn’t let me say anything else.

He kissed me.

Even if it was just a dream—one of the weirdest dreams ever, but still a dream—Shean was kissing me. Dreaming feels more real than just imagining, this felt so real that I almost melted into a puddle of blissful-Kristin goo.

He pulled away after a long moment, and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“I’m coming,” he breathed.

I woke up around midnight with the ghost of Shean’s touch still lingering under my skin.

… … …♣… … …

I was awakened by the sounds of commotion. For a second, I contemplated getting up, and
then I let it go. It was probably nothing, sleep was more important anyway.

I rolled over in onto my stomach, and grabbed a pillow to cover my head. I think I started groaning softly at nothing. Actually, I was groaning at the sun. It should really go away. Oh! Maybe, if I thought hard enough and focused my mental beams at the sun, it’d go down again for another hour or two so I could keep sleeping…

“Hey Kristin?”

“I don’t wanna… school’s boring…” I mumbled.

I settled back into the blankets feeling a happy sigh come along as warmth encased me. Damn, I could lie here forever…

Cold hands suddenly shoved up against my sides. One moment I was happy and content, the next I was air born. I hung suspended in space for a full moment, my heart stopped in my chest and my eyes wide like saucers. And then, I went crashing down, tangling with sheets as I went, my head hit the floor and the rest of me soon followed.

I lay on the ground in a confused haze. My mind dipped and spun lightly, trying to remember who I was, where I was and what the hell had just happened.

“Well, that was graceful.”

Irritated sarcasm met my ears.

It was a familiar voice. One that I knew from several encounters, I couldn’t remember for the life of me if they were good or bad encounters, though I was getting strong vibes of the latter.

My mind began to pick up on the events and I slowly sat up, trying to blink everything into focus. I have never, ever been a morning person. It’s like mornings and I are allergic to each other or something…

“Oh, wow,” a dark blurry figure said from above me, “You’re still asleep?”

Aha! That voice! I knew it!

Recognition turned to horror. With the horror, sleep suddenly vaporized and I was very, very awake.