Page 10 of Buried Souls
The fire in the hearth grows higher, its light pulsing like a heartbeat.
An elongated plush sofa with enormous pillows covering it appears in my periphery, and in a matter of seconds I find myself standing before it, not even remembering when or how Igot there. The garments fall from my arms as all strength leaves me, and I throw myself onto the cushions. In no time at all, my fingers are pulling a down filled duvet over my trembling body.
“I’ll just rest for a bit, no one will ever know...”
I trail off, eyes glazing over as I descend into sweet oblivion, only my dreams and the paprika scented air keeping me company.
CHAPTER 5
“Four’s a Crowd”
A loud crash jolts me from sleep.
I spring upright, all sense of fatigue forgotten. My feet land on the ground, prepared to make a run for it when the sound of a gruff voice halts me in place.
“Who ate my food?”
Another, smoother one, answers back, “My chair is fucking broken.”
“You can fix it, who’s going to make me a new bowl of stew?”
My surroundings come into focus, and when a gust of chilly air brushes against me, I realize that I’m still on the sofa where I fell asleep. In my underwear.
Oh, no. How could I be so careless?
Panic seizes my chest as I become aware of the very ungrateful position that I put myself in.
My fingers latch onto the duvet cover, pulling it over my almost bare body, ears straining to hear the commotion not twenty feet away from where I’m sitting shrouded in shadows. Thankfully, no one’s noticed me yet, giving me time to decide on a plan of action.
“We better clean this up,” Smooth begins, “before brother gets back. You know he gets really angry when things are a mess.”
“Shit,” Gruff replies, his voice strained. “Here he comes.”
The door bangs open, the walls shuddering from the raw force of the impact. I shrink back, lifting the cover over myself until only my eyes remain visible. Stillness falls around me, the two men that have been bickering mere moments ago now silent as the grave.
An enormous shadow passes over the wall, its sheer size blocking my lungs from working. I hold my breath, utterly paralyzed from the fear that has my muscles locked in position.
“What is this?” The deep, raspy voice echoes all around, engulfing me, until it swallows me up entirely. Its powerful vibrations attack me with full force. My skin tingles while I sit onthe plush sofa, hidden away from direct view. Every single pore in my body soaks in the intoxicatingly alluring sound.
“Before you get mad,” Gruff says, “we didn’t do anything. We found it like this when Hunter and I came in.” Silence ensues, as if the room itself is holding its breath.
“We’ll clean it up.” Hunter, I assume, pauses. “Right Rein?”
“Uh, yeah, let me just grab—”
My gaze collides with the man I believe to be Rein as he comes into view, stopping his words mid sentence. We stare at each other from across the room: me bundled up, only my eyes visible; him standing frozen, as if he’s seen a ghost.
I observe him, needing only a second to do so before he’s moving again.
He’s tall, most likely taller than me by a head, with broad shoulders that taper down to narrow hips. A five o’clock shadow covers the bottom half of his face. Short, matching curly hair rests on top of his well defined features, which are drawn in something that could only be described as shocked confusion as he gapes at me through a pair of elegant, silver rimmed reading glasses.
“What are you staring at—” the other one, Hunter, a younger version of the stranger still gawking at me, joins him, spinning on the spot when he finally notices me. “Fuck,” he spits, his expression worried. “Not good.”
“What is it?” Rein asks, eyes still glued to me.
Hunter glances at Rein, lifting an arched brow, a deep frown etched into his pleasant face. “Are you stupid? What, in the actual fuck, does it look like to you?”
Rein smacks him across the head, scowling in clear disapproval. “Watch your mouth, little brother. Wouldn’t want the past repeating itself, now would we?”
