Clarity

Chapter Ten

It felt as if the world had frozen over when I woke up. One look around told me that I wasn’t too far off from my original theory of an ice ball.

 Snow had blown in from an open window and coated not only Valin and I but also the blankets and the floor. I opened my mouth to say something, until I saw Valin’s sleeping face.

His skin didn’t look as frostbitten—if frostbitten at all—and his hair was tossed everywhere along the make-shift pillows. Snow clung to his hair, adorning him and the way his eyes were closed, he reminded me of a beautiful snow princess.

 Valin’s eyes opened suddenly and I jumped back, startled.

 “Is something wrong,” he asked, his arms tightening around my waist. “Did you have a nightmare?”

 “No, I—” I paused. “I woke up and you were here. How did you get in? And why are you in my bed?!”

 I tried as best as I could to sound shocked and fearful as I scrambled from the bed, prying myself from his tight hold. The hurt look he gave me was absolutely heartbreaking and I immediately wanted to hold him close and wipe the expression away.

 It was beginning to be my own personal Hell, having a heart who loved two different men. I mostly wished it would hurry up and realize that I had to hurt one to be with the other—being with them both wasn’t and option.

 And I didn’t really want to be with either of them!

 Valin brushed his hair back and I did my best to smooth out the leather I wore. I was mostly sure that, after such a cold temperature, the articles were a lost cause.

 “Do you have anything I can wear?” I asked quietly, chiding myself that I should have brought my Spiriten dress. “Because my clothes are frozen solid.”

 Valin let out a little laugh that made my heart skip a beat and I immediately wanted to put a stake through it. But I wasn’t a vampire and something told me a stake to the heart wouldn’t kill me.

 I crossed my arms, blushing slightly as he stood, rummaging through the closet before her revealed a tiny scrap of clothing that I knew could not be clothes.

 “Please tell me you’re joking,” I said, frowning.

 “You haven’t changed,” he replied with a smile. “She didn’t like how revealing this was at all and she refused to wear it.”

 “So that means if I refuse, then you won’t be mad?”

 He shrugged and then gave a pointed look to my clothes and I grimaced. He didn’t need to tell me that they were turning brittle and it would just be the perfect timing for them to shatter all over the place when I was in public.

 “Fine,” I hissed taking the dress. “But get out so I can change!”

 Valin shifted his weight from one foot to the other briefly, almost questioning whether I would be angry if he stayed and I glared at him. He immediately made up his mind and fled the room. I had to say that, for a man, he knew when to leave a woman alone.

 The “dress” was literally only a few scraps of white-tinted-blue clothing and several pieces that were meant to go over the arms.

 I pulled the gown on and shifted a bit at how tight it was. It fit no worse than some of my pleather tube dresses but I hadn’t worn something so flashy for years and I doubted I would be able to walk in it without showing something.

 The dress fell past my hips at maybe four inches. It was enough that it just covered my bottom and sex but lacking enough that if I bent over or lifted my leg the wrong way, you would see everything. It fit mostly like a tube top in tightness and had no sleeves. Instead, it had two large V-cuts that ran down to my lower back and to my navel while managing to show more than a little breast. Deep blue sapphire gems decorated the material randomly with the biggest settled right above my breasts and held in place by several thick threads.