Chapter 18
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C yan woke up with a massive headache. It boomed across the side of her head and slid down her neck in a stabbing motion.
Every movement she made was agonizing. She rolled over, gasping as the pain kicked higher.
Hearing Steele’s voice, she tried shaking off the stabbing torture, but it was too intense.
“Easy, take it easy. Everything’s fine, except that you’ve taken a hit, and now you’re in the recovery process.”
She opened her eyes and stared at him. “This is a habit we do not get to repeat,” she muttered.
He nodded, giving her a gentle smile.
“Did you hear from Terk?”
He hesitated, then nodded again.
“Don’t tell me that it’s bad news.”
“No, it’s not bad news at all. He knows that we’re here and that we ran into trouble. Not the details but he knows something is going on with the Beacon. He’s not sure what, but he is aware.”
“That’s a good thing, I guess,” she muttered, staring at him.
“It is a good thing.… He wants to talk to us about it. Oh, and your cousin called.”
Her eyes opened wide, and she glanced at her phone. “Oh, crap, yeah, she would have called.” Cyan sent off a quick text.
Steele noted, “She was pretty upset over something.”
“Yeah, she lives to be upset. Doesn’t seem to matter a whole lot what it is, but I’ll call her in a bit when I’m a little more aware.” Her stomach growled just then.
He laughed and told her, “I have food.”
She opened her eyes and sighed. “Food would be good. Yeah, food would be very good.”
“But I need you a little bit more awake before you eat something. And the pain needs to recede too. Otherwise the food will come straight back up.”
She nodded. “I’m getting there. Honestly, I am getting there.”
“Good,” he said, adding, “a shower will help. I did bring up your bag. It’s in the bathroom.”
She managed to sit up, then using the night table to get fully upright, and using the walls as she walked, she made her way to the bathroom.
Seeing her reflection in the mirror, how disheveled and tired she looked, she realized a shower was next in order.
By the time she shampooed her hair and scrubbed down, she felt better but also more than ready for food.
She took her time but finally dressed in some clean clothes and walked out into the main room, where he was already sitting at the small table by the window.
She joined him. Then, in a contemplative tone, she murmured, “We have a very strange relationship.”
“We do,” he confirmed. They ate in silence for a while, then he asked, “Are you close with your cousin?”
She shook her head, took a moment, then began, “When I was a young teen, I found out that my aunt and uncle gave somebody up for adoption because she was a little too out of control and wild.… They figured she had some issues ,” she noted, with air quotes.
“And does she?” Steele asked.
“She works energy, but, yeah, she’s a little bit on the wild side, as in she’s crazy strong, opinionated, and assertive.
So, from my aunt and uncle’s perspective, yeah, she had a lot of problems. From anybody else’s perspective, no, I don’t think so,” she shared.
“She definitely got a bum rap over the whole thing, and she really doesn’t have cozy feelings about family. ”
“Of course not,” he agreed, “but then neither do you.”
She nodded. “No, I certainly don’t, and my childhood was not easy, but it was nothing like hers.
” She winced and then added, “A lot of other people have it way worse too. My other cousin, who works energy but not in any way I like, also had a crappy childhood. So no one in my family is very warm and fuzzy.”
He didn’t say anything, not that she expected him to.
Her energy-working relatives were not a full-on exposure of who they were yet, but, with her cousin having called, it certainly opened the possibility of their being a little bit more open than she would have necessarily chosen.
Particularly as Vivian didn’t understand energy and emotions.
These thoughts flew through her brain now that her headache was abating somewhat.
It seemed to be more from the mess of what was going on in her head and body than from a burnout.
Steele studied her for a long moment.
She felt the waves of worry coming off him, sliding right through her as if no walls could hold them all back.
Such a weird intermingling of feelings—his and hers—and she was definitely not comfortable with this.
She sighed and added, “I’m fine. I need food, and, as much as I would love to go back to bed for a bit, I want to talk to Terk instead. ”
“He’s waiting for us,” Steele told her, “and we check out at eleven.”
She glanced down at her phone and noted, “Good thing I woke up then, isn’t it?”
“I would have woken you up in time,” he replied, then shrugged. “Or I may have just paid for another night.”
She nodded, then unable to help herself, she tried to put a bit of distance between them, adding in a formal tone, “Thank you for looking after me.”
He nodded and replied, “Thank you for looking after me, twice.”
As he’d responded in kind, she knew she had to open up slightly to lower the barrier she’d set for herself. Otherwise this would go from bad to worse and would only aggravate the energy surging between the two of them, just draining them both. “Will we always be this private and formal?”
“No,” he declared, “but we have exposed each other to a lot of our private information, and we need to come to terms with that. That is bound to be awkward, at least for a time.” And, with that, he got up and walked to the bathroom, effectively ending the conversation.