Page 48 of Crimson Promises
His hands skimmed down my arms and torso until both were gripping my waist. He lifted me as if I weighed nothing and planted me in front of the sink so I was facing him along with the rest of the kitchen. Carefully, he peeled back the towel. I jutted my hand towards the sink as he ran cool water down the cut.
“Thank you,” I said as I watched the red spiral around the drain.
“Anytime. I have experience assisting those more accident-prone than myself.” I felt his smile against my hair. “I think you’ll have to get some stitches.”
“Crap. Seriously?”
“Yeah, we should probably see if Darlene has something we can wrap this up in until we get to the emergency room.”
“She keeps all her first aid stuff in the cabinets above the refrigerator.”
“You really do know this place.”
“They have young grandkids. A first aid kit is necessary. The last time I was here, one scraped their knee, and the other hit their eyebrow on the corner of the coffee table.”
Ben turned away from me and headed towards the refrigerator. He didn’t need to roll onto his tip-toes to reach the cabinet.
I kept the cut wrapped tightly with the towel. Ben held up gauze tape. Victory.
Vic called out, “We’ll be on the back deck. Come join us with your wine when you’re done.”
Ben came up to the counter. His eyes were that green-black color again. Ben’s legs were tangled with mine like we fit together like some oddly shaped puzzle pieces. My chest heaved at his proximity. If I moved my knee up an inch, I could feel him there.
Ben unwrapped the cloth, now caked in my blood. My eyes widened at what was left of the cut. Previously, the cut had been an inch thick; now, it looked like it had shortened by at least a third. It resembled more of a scrape than a deep cut.
I gasped. It happened again with a witness.How am I supposed to explain this?I was equal parts scared and relieved.
I couldn’t see Ben’s face, but I waited for his reaction.
Slowly, Ben unwrapped his hands from mine and ran his hands through his hair. “The cut wasn’t like that when we first looked at it, was it?”
“No, I don’t think so,” I whispered.
“Has this happened before?” Ben has begun pacing the length of the kitchen with Darlene and Vic safely tucked outside.
“It has, but no one believed me when I tried to talk to anyone about this.”
“The accident?” He prompted.
“Yeah.”
“First thing first, we have to agree not to mention this to anyone else. Ever. Accusations like this the first time can be written off as an overactive imagination or confusion, but anything more than that can cause real problems for you, Aurora.”
He sounded just like Remy, lecturing me about what was happening tomy bodyand what I should and shouldn’t do about it.
“No kidding,” I respond drily. Did he not think I knew to keep this under wraps? I had seen enough X-Men movies to know that I was the mutant in this scenario; I had no desire to be experimented on.Thanks, but no thanks.
“Have you ever been able to heal anyone other than yourself?”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. Charles, my rabbit. It’d been the first time my magic—that is what I had called it to Remy—had flared to life.
“I’m going to take that as a yes. Do you have any idea how it works?”
I shook my head. “The only thing I know is that it usually happens when my emotions are everywhere. But, it’s never done anything bad, only helped myself or others.”
“The less you know about it, the better. Especially when you don’t know how to control it.”
Many years ago, I had the same iteration of this conversation in a forest. I got a chill from hearing those familiar words from a different source.Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to him. He’s protective of me, like Remy.
