Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
Elijah
“ I hope you’re not too concerned with modesty and privacy, E,” Kainda said, a smirk pulling at her expressive mouth. She was always smiling, frowning, or pouting. Something always shaped her mouth, communicating her thoughts or feelings.
Looking around the room, even I picked up on the obviousness of what Kainda implied. Althea cleared her throat for me to move out of her way. She stepped into the room as soon as the space opened for her to do so.
“Everything in the room has been cleansed and blessed, so after your baths help yourselves to the towels and clothes on the shelves. You can place your clothes on the chairs near the tubs for later. Once you’re finished, the glamour will drop, and you’ll be able to proceed into the inner sanctuary. Reselda will see you then.”
Althea exited from the door we’d entered, shutting it behind her. Leaving, Kainda and I alone, not for the first time, but this time felt different. She skimmed her fingers over the water where steam rose from the surface. Looking back at me, she groaned before spinning her finger in the turn around motion.
“Don’t even think about trying to check me out. Ugh! I hate these ritual baths. They’re a little too close to voyeuristic for me.” The playful tone in her voice didn’t match the words coming from her. She attempted to flirt with me. The badass demon hunter flirting with the screwed up walking dead guy. It was comical, but not in the ha ha good laugh kind of way.
Pulling my shirt off to give myself something to do instead of thinking about Kainda getting naked behind me was difficult with my still bandaged hand. The cloudy water in the tub had the wounds burning at the sight. What was a little more pain after all I’d already endured. I’d just dropped my shirt on the chair when Kainda gasped.
When I turned I found her staring at me, eyes wide in shocked, horror staring at my scars. The look in her eyes diminished the wonderful surprise of seeing a half naked Kainda. Her skin tanned from all the time she must spend outside. She had her own share of scars, but nothing like mine. Her clothes had also hidden a large tattoo, just under her navel, it looked like a geometric pattern from this distance with its thin black lines. About the size of her fist, and the bottom edge touched the waistband of her panties that peeked over the top edge of her pants.
“Elijah, I didn’t realize the scarring was so extensive. I read your files from the hospitals and the police report, but none of them had photos. The police photos were in the evidence box, which I didn’t mess with.”
“You saw the attacks, did you honestly not think they would scar? Okay, you’ve seen them. Now, I’d appreciate it if you stopped looking at me like I make your skin crawl.”
I knew exactly how bad they looked, having seen them in the mirror on multiple occasions. No longer an angry red, most of them had faded to a pink, which only stood out because the unmarked parts were as pale as the grim reaper. The slashes where she’d ripped her fangs across my flesh almost looked like parallel incisions. Long, but fewer of them than the others. Rows of five jagged vertical lines marked me, randomly intersecting with other injuries. Bite mark scars that looked almost like human teeth except for the fangs, unnerving. The tally of those, significantly more of them than the other two. Uttu had bitten me repeatedly, and for no other reason than she seemed to enjoy it. Other injuries had also left little reminders in my flesh. She’d either drank the blood or torn out a chunk of flesh she’d then eaten. Those scars the hardest to look at. Most of those wounds had gotten infected and had required surgery to get them to close or to remove yet more dead tissue. At least after they’d moved me to the mental health hospital, I hadn’t had a mirror to see them with anymore. Some days I’d swear they still caused me pain, although not possible due to the nerve damage.
“E! Lady Gaia, that’s not what I was thinking! I knew you had scars and I saw the attack in my mind, but seeing the proof here in reality is so different. How you survived her is by the sheer will of some higher being. I’m sorry if the look on my face didn’t match what I was thinking.”
She’d crossed the room as she’d spoken and as she apologized she went to touch me. Stepping back, I grabbed her wrists, stopping her from making contact. Her touching me, bad idea. The look of disgust replaced by pity, not any better. Taking another step back, I dropped her hands. “Go take your bath. We’ll both keep our backs turned.”
She looked contrite but didn’t make another move toward me. With a sigh, she turned away, tossing a parting shot over her shoulder. “Too bad. I guess we’ll both miss out on a good show.”
I shed the rest of my clothes and climbed into the tub. Good show, my foot. Not a single inch of my skin didn’t sport a horrific scar. At one time I’d thought of myself as attractive, but that was before the attack. Now, attractive had no place in my vocabulary of self descriptors. The perfect temp of the water soothed my mind, even if I prefer showers to baths. Whatever they had put in the water burned the injury in my hand far worse than I predicted. It throbbed in time with my heart beat and made it hard to think of anything else.