35. Farren
Farren
A bright beam of light settled over my eyes and forced me from my deep sleep as I tried to hide my face in the pillow. I moaned as the scent of campfire smoke filled my nose.
I really didn’t want to wake up. It had been far too long since I had the chance to sleep in a real bed, and the demon, Benny, wasn’t being deceitful when he said it was comfortable.
I had just closed my eyes to try to fall back asleep when I remembered the situation I left by the fire last night. Shooting up, I glanced out the window and saw it was already late morning.
Fear filled me as I could only imagine what Locke and Roan could have done to Benny by now when left to their own devices. I didn’t need to be a psychic to know that neither of my guys liked him.
I scrambled out of bed and fumbled around for my pants that I must have pulled off before I crawled between the sheets last night. I shot out the door, and in my haste, I didn’t see Locke sleeping right in front of the door in his bear form and went flying.
“Whoops! I told him it was a bad idea to sleep right there.” My flight was halted as I was caught in a warm embrace that smelled like the pillow I had just left.
I looked up and saw Benny was holding me, watching me carefully. When I struggled to my feet, he eased me down and took several steps away with his hands raised in the surrender position.
“What are you doing?” I cocked my head to the side as I watched him smile warmly back at me.
“Trying to prove to you and your guardians that though I may be a demon, I do have manners. Did you sleep well, my goddess?” The silk was back in his voice and I was lost in his eyes that shone like the lit end of a sparkler.
I swallowed hard and looked away as I nodded.
“Y-yeah. Thank you for letting me use your bed last night.”
“That’s good. Your bear was concerned I would do something, so he took it upon himself to act as a doorstop. Though, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to come flying out the door. Is anything wrong?”
I shook my head and felt my already flushed face darken.
“N-no. I was just worried about you after all the drama last night. Speaking of, where’s Roan?” I asked, trying to take the attention off me and my clumsiness.
“Is that the name of your spirit? Got it. He’s checking out a small pond I use as a source of fresh water. I thought you’d like us to boil you a bath.” His smile shifted slightly. I didn’t know if I would have noticed if I wasn’t watching him so closely, but he went from cocky to almost shy at the idea of drawing a bath.
“That’s not necessary, but thank you. I’ll live with just a bucket and soap.” An awkward silence formed between us as we seemed to run out of topics. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, but how did you get out of your binds? The guys seemed pretty determined to leave you tied up for as long as possible.”
“I’m guessing once you fell asleep, your spell ended and they re-tied me with rope. After that, it was easy to work my way free.” He stepped forward with a hand extended to me. “Here, let’s sit down.”
I let him guide me back to my rocking chair and watched as he fetched a stool of twisted nylon. Once he placed that beside me, we just sat there and talked about nothing in particular while we waited for my guys to be ready for our next steps.