The Blood Order

XXV

He stares us down giving me a moment to process before pulling me close to him. The small zips of energy crackle over my skin, I try to pull myself from him but he holds tight.

We start walking through the cold my feet swaying with the light wind that moved through. Vale hisses at the cold, her adrenaline leaving her system to feel everything that we hadn't before. She doesn't bother to comment, keeping her head down as she walks with us. Raphael doesn't seemed bothered as he carry's me, and within a littler over ten minutes we are back to my home, the notice dangling from the door that holds ajar.

"Do you have anything you wish to bring?" He mumbles down to me letting Vale run in to grab shoes. He drops me at the door way looking around the space. I see him mouth turn down into a frown, obvious dislike for my space.

I stare at the bipolar stove, then to the cheap rocking chair, and finally catch a glimpse of my bedroom. The horrid mattress is still uncovered from when we ran, Vale's towel strung across the floor. Anyone who would have seen this place... well I don't know if they would have known to look for life.

"Firefly?"

He wraps a hand over my shoulder catching my attention. I turn to him with a grimace, my eyes wet once again. Fucking be stronger.

But that is something my mind won't allow. I can't contain the sadness that breaks through me snapping against my bones to shake me to a kneel. I let the torment rack through my body, every part of me sinking into the truth that surrounds me. I am just a captor to the king.

Vale kneels to me, her hand outstretched with shoes in hand. She also lets a small jacket I had tucked away for special occasions hang from her fingertips, "Come on, we don't have much of a choice. Might as well wear shoes to walk towards hell."

Her small smile encourages me to pull myself together, standing with her to put my shoes on. I feel him lay his hand on my lower back to keep steady, "Ready?"

Vale nods towards him crossing her arms. I sigh looking back outside. The snow has finally stopped. Raphael tangles his hand through mine pulling me into the snow with him. Vale stays close behind keeping a handful of my shirt.

He leads us deep into the woods behind the house the trees become thicker as we move through the shrubbery. I expected the cloak to get caught, but it moves like water through the thorns not hindering him in the slightest.

I step over a branch cracking another one. He lifts a branch for me letting me step under it before dropping it back. Vale cussed when a branch smacks her, but I hope they don't correlate.

"Just over this hill."

We step through the tree-line, a field coming into view. The field seems empty, only a small water-well in the center. It seems old and moss covered, green tendrils coming up from the earth to cover it, "We are here."

"Here?" Vale looks around trying to figure out what he's talking about, I do the same.

"This well is the transport back to our home world. It is disguised to look a certain way that no one of this parallel would be able to identify it."

Raphael continues to explain and keep his voice calm. I can tell he is not trying to overload with information, but he still attempts to give us the big picture. While all this seems nice, gentle even, the visual of him snapping Jamal's neck keeps me from thinking anything good. He could kill me from across the room if I don't listen. Would there be scars if he decided to hurt me? Would he punish me like all the men in my life if I don't follow his every word.

I pull my hand up to my arm covering a deep purple bruise. The air around me starts to suffocate my lungs, breathing becoming impossible. Panic attack.

The cloaked King walks over to me hands outstretched to hold them on my side. He looks over me, then turns back to Vale keeping his hands on my waist, "What is happening? Why is her heart rate up."

Black spots speckle over my vision. Having him so close sends me into over drive, I can't handle another man near me, and Vale walks over her soft frown present, "This is her having a panic attack, you need to back away so she can get some air."

I barely see her grab at my shoulder, to which the King uses his black tendrils to slap her hand away. Oh no we've pissed him off.

"She should trust me to protect her. I should calm her when I am near." He grumbles, Vale rubs her hand. She didn't scream or yell, but I can tell it wasn't a comfortable experience.

"You know nothing about her. If you took two seconds to get to know her, really see what litters her body you would step the fuck back. She is going to pass out!"

I feel his hands leave my waist, projecting his anger towards Vale. Her small yelp is heard when he wraps the black around her hips lifting her into the air. Through the specks I see the red electricity zipping into her, screams moving through the field, "Watch how you speak to me. I am a very, very easy man to piss off when it comes to Sultana."

My body can't take the surroundings anymore, I reach out to Vale, my other hand wrapping around my throat to fight for air. However it's too late, my body falling forward into the snow. I feel his gentle touch pull me up while the darkness takes its last hit at me.

My thoughts freeze, body shutting down, as the feeling of free fall covers my skin. This is it.