Nusac

Chapter 11

Faiths POV

Wow do I feel refreshed this morning. The mind-blowing sex could have something to do with it. Yes Faith said mind-blowing sex. It is possible to satisfy a slayer you know. Plus I don’t think my legs will ever work the same again. I’m still stiff.

I stretch out my aching muscles on the bed and find the other half cold. Huh? I’m never left alone in bed. I kick people out and go to bed alone. There is a difference.

I crack an eye open just to have a look. Yep all alone in here. Well this sucks.

Time to get up. As soon as my feet touch the floor I have to say that was a bad idea. All I have to do is get my legs to work. I manage to get myself into a standing position and stretch out my back and leg muscles. That’s better. Now clothing would be nice. It’s not the warmest place in the world in here you know.

All my clothes from last night I find neatly piled at the foot of the bed. That’s odd. I could swear that I didn’t put them there. I did have other things on my mind. Oh well.

I walk out of the bedroom and immediately I’m hit with the warmth of the room. Namine stands at the stove stirring something in a big pot. More vegetable stuff I think, as I didn’t really bring anything back last night. I was going to before my slayer decided I needed something else.

It takes her a few minuets to notice me and by this point I’m leaning against the doorframe. “Hey. Hungry?”

I have to smile at this. “When am I not?”

She nods taking two bowls down and spooning the stew into them. She hands me one and takes a seat at the table. I take a seat opposite and begin to stir my breakfast around the bowl. Why am I not hungry? I keep looking up at my companion. Each time I do I get this really strange feeling in my chest. What the fuck is going on?

She looks up and catches me looking at her with a confused look on her face. “What’s wrong?”

I have absolutely no idea. Something changed. I don’t know if it’s in me or in the atmosphere, or even in her but something has differently changed. “Can we talk?” OK, where the fuck did that come from? I sound so small and weak which is in a lot of ways worse than what I just said.

“What about?” Her gaze returns back to the meal.

“Last night?” I know it should have been more of a statement than a question but even to my ears it doesn’t sound like a statement.

Her eyes flick up to mine for a split second. “What about last night?” There is defiantly a spark of something in her eyes but I don’t know what it is. It looks familiar but I can’t place it.

I look back down at my meal to avoid her eyes. I don’t know what I’m asking so how the fuck am I supposed to know how to ask it? I hear her sigh from the other side of the table and her spoon return to her bowl.

“It was just a release for you.” Her voice is strained and barely above a whisper but it makes my head snap up. She drags her eyes up to meet mine “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you come back from hunting demons. She ducks her head again. “And I’ve felt the way you feel. So that’s all it was.”

“How would you know how I feel?” I can’t keep the venom out of my voice. She’s not a slayer. She doesn’t know what it’s like to go out every night. Well day and think that you might not be coming back.

“I know more than you think I do.” She snaps back. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? There is a fire back in her eyes but it’s different.

“Nothing is ever that simple.” What the fuck am I doing? I’m ‘get some get gone’ girl and she’s giving me a get out of jail free card. So why am I throwing it back in her face and saying ‘I got some but suddenly the get gone part doesn’t sound so appealing.’ When did this happen? What the fuck is happening to me? I stand up and begin to leave, I need to get out of here. Right now. I pull the door so hard I’m really surprised that it managed to stand on its hinges.

What the fuck did that woman do to me? I’ve never had this problem before. It was always get in get some get out. Not now ohh no. Now I need more. Maybe it isn’t her. Maybe it’s this place. That might be what’s sending me out of whack.

Maybe I’m just latching to her because she was the first real link to this place. Or magic. It could be magic. She put a spell on me that’s what it is. No she wouldn’t do that. Would she?

It’s taken me this long to realise that I’m heading to the furnace. Nothing like smacking the hell out of a white-hot piece of metal to let out some frustration.

I push the almost finished blade into the hot coals at the base of the fire. I move the coals around with the blade and watch as the flames begin to lick up the back of the brick furnace as I feed the fire its much needed oxygen.

Would she do that? The magic thing, to make me feel these things. Don’t’ be stupid Faith. I’ve been here for 6 months and I would like to think that I had got to know her in that time.

So back to what the fuck is going on inside my head?

I pull the blade out which is now glowing bright red with the heat and place it across the avail and begin to smack it into place.

It could just be that I like her.

That thought makes me stop mid swing. You know it really could be. No don’t be stupid. I bring my swing down onto the blade and sparks fly from it. I mean she’s bossy she’s magical she’s a really quick study and quite big headed about it. She can get into these moods when you actually have to jump to the ground as she can make things fly without having to throw them. She’s the one person who has ever taken me in and helped me without asking for anything in return. The first person I think in my whole life who has actually kept me around just because she liked my company.

My hammer is resting on the blade as I pull myself from my thoughts. I push it aside throwing the blade back into the coals. Maybe I care because she does. Maybe that’s what this feeling is. I’ve never really had someone to really care about you know. Well maybe my watcher but she was only around for 2 months tops. She still needed something. I was a slayer she was a watcher that’s the deal.

Namine doesn’t need anything from me. Not even for me to go out and kill demons she can do that herself. She doesn’t need me here.

I really need to stop thinking like this. Stop rationalising everything. Need to get back to the mentality of ‘I like you I think you like me now can you do that thing with your tongue again?’

Almost strange how back on earth it was all ‘want, take, have,’ here I’m scared of my own feelings. And it took my slayer to push that out of me. My slayer knows me better than I do and it’s only been there for what two years?

Even as I come to this realisation those words ring in my head ‘it was just a release for you.’ I dig a hand into my hair curling it into a fist. “No it wasn’t,” I say to the empty room.

I pull the red-hot blade out of the furnace and drop it into a waiting bucket of water making it sizzle as the contrast of temperatures meet. I’m just not in the mood any more. All the adrenalin is gone and all that’s left behind is me, with these feelings that I don’t totally understand. Why can’t it just be as simple as it was a release?

I throw the heavy iron door closed on the furnace and check to make sure the hole under the fire is still clear. The hot coals never go out, not totally, do you have any idea how long it would take me to get them back up to temperature.

For the longest time my body has been nearly still, as my mind churns over this new information. So naturally something has to give. My temper to be precise, as my foot shoots out and connects with the anvil. “Ouch!” I bring my foot up into my hand trying to rub some of the pain out of it. Should have waited until I had something on my feet to do that.

I can’t stay here. I push open the door to the adjoining room where I store all of the readymade weapons. Pulling down a scabbard and filling it with a long sword and tying the buckle around my waist. I pull a spare pair of boots out from under a low shelf and slip them on quickly, filling the outer side of each boot with a sheathed knife, pulling the twine around my ankle and tying it tight so when I pull out the knife it doesn’t come out sheathed. That could be both dangerous and embarrassing.

I look down at the way I’m dressed. I still have the thick leather covering on my body from the night before. If someone sees me in these pants then I could be in a world of trouble. Biting on my tongue I decide I’m not going back to the house to change. People can just deal with it if anyone sees me. I pull down a bow and a full quiver from another shelf and put them both on my back held in place across my chest.

I grip onto the counter in front of me when I’m finished arming myself. My mind knows I should stay and face what ever is going on inside me. Get this out in the open and sorted. But my body needs to run. Every fibre of my being needing to leave this behind even if it’s just for the day.

I push open the outer door and step into the rising sunlight. I let myself glance at the house for just a moment my mind screaming at me to go back there. Just to see the damage I’ve caused.

My body confused and uncaring by my minds reaction, turns from the house heading in the opposite direction of the village and deep into the woods.