Page 88 of Angel's Kiss
Erik gave a low bow. “You were always a better spy than you were a detective, I invite you to use either skill to discover what Christine is to me, and I to her. She knows everything,” he intoned as he rose and backed away. “Now go home to Darius before you catch a cold.”
“I’ll be watching you! And her!” Shaya yelled into the emptiness Erik left behind before he turned and rushed away. It would take him a long time to find the way to the daylight world without a light and without knowing the way, only his hate and rage to warm him.
Erik smiled to himself, amused by the idea that he was the one who had someone waiting for him in the dark. And indeed Christine rushed to him the moment he stepped inside, dragging him to the fire to inspect him.
“I told you I’d be fine,” Erik said, amazed by her concern.
“You’re soaked. These will need to be replaced,” Christine countered, fussing over his bandages.
“I barely need them now, we can—”
“What you need is a damn bath. You smell like a swamp,” Christine snapped and pulled him by his wrist to her room, much to Erik’s shock and confusion. Said confusion remained as she led him to the bath chamber and began to fill the copper tub.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m drawing us a bath.”
“Us?” It was remarkable how she could surprise him. He noted the way she avoided his eyes as she returned to strip off his soaked shirt, then the bandages that concealed the place where he had taken a knife for her without a second thought. Her fingers lingered over the wound.
“I was worried he would hurt you,” Christine whispered.
“Shaya’s not like that. He believes in justice and honor and other such dreams.” That earned him a glare and he could see the tears threatening in Christine’s eyes.
“What if it hadn’t been him?” she asked in a near whisper.
What if it had been that boy come to save her, was what she meant.What if it was your rival? Would you kill him?
“You need to stop worrying about every possible disaster. You’ll go mad that way,” Erik told her gently, pushing away a dark lock of hair from her face.
“Should I be like you and never think of the future then?” Christine asked back with a huff as she unbuttoned his trousers and let them and the blanket around her fall to the floor.
Erik followed without resistance as she led him to the water. It felt entirely natural to sink into the bath with her behind him, her legs wrapped around him, as warm and welcoming as the water. He let her guide him, let her wet his hair and touch the scars along his back, soft and gentle. Erik had been touched before Christine, but never cared for, not like this. She soaped his hair and skin and massaged his shoulders and arms when she was done. Soon he was as limp and relaxed as he ever had in his life. Utterly defenseless and at her mercy.
“How are you possible, Christine Daaé?” Erik sighed in contentment. He deserved none of this. He deserved to waste away in solitude, not have an angel wash away his sins.
“Sometimes I can’t believe that you’re real either, that the angel I was sent is...so many things I never could have expected,” Christine replied, pulling him back against her chest and wrapping her arms around him. “And sometimes it’s the world up there that doesn’t feel real. I guess that’s why you came here. Why you don’t think about the future. There’s no tomorrow, down here. And no yesterday. There is only the night that never ends.”
It made something ache in him, to hear the resigned sadness in her voice as she described the kingdom in which she now took refuge.
“Even down here you can’t hide forever,” Erik murmured, his head against her breast.
“But right now I can,” she whispered back.
The water around them was as smooth as glass as the silence stretched into the shadows.
––––––––
No cab would stop forShaya, so he was left with the indignity of sloshing down the streets of Paris in the snow, feeling his soaked clothes freezing against his skin. He had been mad to challenge Erik in his home. But what else was he to do?
“Allah be merciful,” Darius sighed when he saw his errant master shivering at the threshold. “What have you done now?”
“I went on the lake. I was shouting for him, but he didn’t hear. Then the boat went over,” Shaya replied as Darius helped him strip off his sodden jacket and vest and led him towards the fire.
“You smell like the sewer.”
“And I look like a fool,” Shaya grumbled as Darius wrapped him in a rough woolen blanket. “What else was I to do?”
“Perhapsnotgo face that creature alone?” Darius shot back.
