Chapter 4
2199 Words
4
Sarah stood at the mouth of the alley and looked up and down the street. The familiar headlights of Jenny’s ancient sedan soon rounded a corner. The car crept down the street with the windows open and Jenny looking left and right.
Sarah stepped onto the sidewalk and waved her hand. Jenny steered the off-white junker to the crumbling curb and leapt out. She ran around the car and her short brown hair bobbed around her round face as she engulfed Sarah in a tight hug.
“Air,” Sarah gasped.
Jenny pulled them apart to arm’s length and looked her friend over. “Did you lose the drug traffickers? Did they try to make you their s*x slave?”
Sarah pursed her lips. “If only it was that simple.”
Jenny blinked at her. “Seriously?”
Sarah grabbed her friend’s hand and lead her into the alley. She stopped them in front of the unconscious man and gestured to him. “Seriously.”
Her friend leaned forward and squinted at the man. “Who’s he?”
“A guy that just saved me from a dragon attack.”
Jenny whipped her head up to look at her friend. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. Look at his wound.”
Jenny knelt down and tilted her head left and right to study what she could with his hand over the hole. She poked at the wound.
“Jenny!” Sarah scolded her.
The man grimaced, but didn’t awaken. Jenny looked over her shoulder at Sarah. “This man doesn’t need a doctor, he needs the morgue.”
Sarah pursed her lips as her gaze fell on the stranger. “That’s what I thought until I realized he carried me five miles in two minutes.”
Jenny stood and whistled. “Seriously?”
Sarah glared at her friend. “If you say that one more time I’m going to kill you.”
“Point taken. So what do we do with him? Take him to a hospital or get him outfitted for a coffin?”
“Neither. We’re taking him home.”
Jenny started back. “Serio-” Sarah glared at her. “Really? Why not a nice hospital bed?”
Sarah strode past her friend and knelt beside the man. She studied his strained features and pursed her lips. “Because he asked me not to.”
“I’d hate to be the voice of reason, but you’re just going to go with that?” Jenny asked her. She gestured at him. “I mean, the guy’s covered in blood, he carried you faster than ten Olympic long-distance runners, and-”
“He saved me,” Sarah finished. She brushed a loose strand of his short black hair out of his face. “The least I can do is take him somewhere safe, at least for a little while.” She looked over her shoulder at her friend. “But I need your help to do it.”
Jenny studied Sarah’s face for a moment before she sighed. “All right, but let me throw down a blanket first. That back seat’s already got enough stains to be considered Modern Art.”
Together the pair of them carried the man to the car and hefted him into the back seat head-first. Sarah went around the rear driver-side door and helped pull him onto the blanket.
“Your. . .boyfriend’s really. . .heavy,” Jenny grunted as they slid him inside.
Sarah glared at her friend across the length of the car. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Jenny grinned as she grabbed a hold of the car door. “I saw the way you were looking at him.”
“He’s not-” Jenny slammed the car door.
“I can’t hear you,” Jenny called over the roof of the car. “You’ll have to speak your denials louder.”
Sarah joined her friend on the sidewalk and shook her head. “I’m not saying anything because you’ll just twist my words.”
Jenny smiled and nodded. “Like a pretzel, now let’s get going. The trash around here is starting to look at us funny.”
On the way to their apartment Sarah told her harrowing tale of adventure. She had just concluded when they parked in front of their apartment building.
Jenny pulled the key from the ignition and looked over at her friend with a shake of her head. “I’ve told some tall tales in my life, but that beats mine by a skyscraper.”
“That’s the way it happened,” Sarah insisted as she glanced over her shoulder. The stranger lay very still on the blanket-covered back seat. She nodded at him. “He’s living proof.”
“Not for long if he keeps bleeding,” Jenny pointed out.
Sarah glared at her. “Just help me get inside without anybody seeing him.”
Her friend snorted and opened her door. “Yeah. I’d hate to have a replay of Weekend At Bernie’s.”
The pair got out and pulled the stranger from the rear seat. Both of them looped their arms under one of his and together they pulled him up the broken stoop and to the old double doors. Jenny unlocked the door while Sarah held the stranger in her arms.
She looked down into his scrunched up face. His breathing was harsh and his body stiff.
“How’s sleeping beauty doing?” Jenny asked as she swung open the door and returned to her place at the man’s side.
Sarah pursed her lips and shook her head. “I don’t know. Let’s get him upstairs.”
They hefted him through the doors and into the simple lobby. The old building was without an elevator, so they dragged his feet up the steps to their second-floor apartment. The pair turned right at the landing and pulled him down the hall carpeted hall to their room that lay second from the last.
A door on their left opened and an elderly woman in a floral nightgown stuck her head out. She was bespectacled, but the eyes that lay behind the glasses were still sharp as they observed the pair. “What are you two doing making all that racket?”
The women froze and glanced at each other. Jenny slapped a smile on her face and whipped her head back to the elderly woman. “We’re just taking Sarah’s boyfriend to our apartment, Mrs. Ardelio.”
The old woman’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with him? Looks like blood on his shirt.”
“He had a lot of wine and it kind of spilled everywhere,” Jenny explained.
Ardelio turned her pointed nose up at them and their load. “When I was your age-”
“We’d love to hear about your days in the Roman army, but we really have to get Sarah’s boyfriend sobered up for his tap-dancing lesson tomorrow,” Jenny insisted as she dragged the man and Sarah down the hall.
Sarah glared across the man at her friend. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Jenny grinned. “You’re starting to sound like your students. Want me to get his phone number for you when he wakes up?”
Sarah was glad when they slipped into their small two-bedroom apartment. To their left was the combo kitchen-dining room, and straight ahead lay the living room. On the left and at the back of the living room near the exterior wall was a narrow hall that led to the bathroom and bedrooms.
Jenny nodded at a couple of potted plants that sat opposite them against a large window that served as access to the fire escape. “So do we put him on the couch or make room in the dirt?”
“He can stay in my room.”
A sly smile slid onto Jenny’s lips as they hefted him toward the hall. “Do mine ears deceive me or are you finally going to get a guy in your room?”
“You haven’t.”
“Touche.”
They dragged him through the right-hand door in the hall that led into Sarah’s bedroom. It was a spartan space with a bed, nightstand, and a long, built-in closet to their right. A blanket was lain on the bed and then the man on his back.
Jenny stumbled back and wiped her sweaty brow. “He’s heavier than he looks, isn’t he?”
Sarah sat down beside the stranger and slipped one of her pillows beneath his head. He winced and clutched his stomach. His eyes fluttered open and fell on Sarah. A small, shaky smile slipped onto his lips. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she replied.
He looked around at the room. “This has got to be the nicest alley I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s my bedroom,” Sarah explained.
Jenny grasped Sarah’s shoulders and leaned over her toward the man. “And I’m Sarah’s apartment buddy! Adopt me as your friend and collect the whole would-be-rescuers set!”
Sarah shoved her friend’s face back. “How about you go get some bandages and gauze?”
“But we don’t have any of that stuff here.”
“Exactly.”
Jenny’s eyes widened. “Ooh.” She gave a wink. “I get it, but don’t be too rough on him. He’s had a near-death experience and-”
“Just get it,” Sarah commanded her.
Jenny stood erect and saluted her friend. “Yes, ma’am. Right away, ma’am! Be back in a few minutes, ma’am!” She flew from the room and shut the door behind herself.
Sarah returned her attention to the injured man. The blood on his chest had dried to a dark red color. She pursed her lips and looked into his face. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. Just give me a shower and some new clothes, and I’ll be fine in a day or two.”
She looked him up and down and noted his shaking hand and limp legs. “You’re going to have to wait on that shower. I don’t think you can get into ours by yourself.”
“That’s why you’re going to help me.”
Her eyes widened. “Say what?”
“You can help me wash this mess off.”
She held up her hands in front of her and shook her head. “I-I couldn’t.”
He grinned. “Why not? You swing that way, don’t you?”
A heavy blush accented her cheeks as she sputtered her words. “Y-yes, but that’s-well, that’s not what I meant!”
He chuckled. “It’s because you don’t know my name, right? It’s Adam.”
She balled her hands into fists at her sides and glared at him. “That doesn’t help what you’re asking me to do!”
Jenny peeked her head in the doorway. Draped over one arm was her purse. “Are you two having a lover’s quarrel already?”
Sarah whipped her head around and shot her look of fury at her friend. “Out! Now!”
Jenny waved. “Bye!” She ducked out of the room and shut the door behind her. Sarah was relieved when she heard the front door open and close.
She returned her attention to the man. His unblinking gaze lay on her neck. She looked down at herself, but other than the blood splatters she saw nothing the matter. “What? What is it?”
The man shut his eyes and turned his face away from her. He grit his teeth as his hands clenched the bed covers. When he spoke his voice was thick and husky. “Get out.”
She frowned at him. “Get out? This is my bedroom and you’re in no condition-”
“Just get out!” he snapped.
She reached out to grab his shoulder. “Listen, whatever’s wrong I’m not-”
His movements were too fast for her to follow. One moment she was seated beside his prone body, the next she herself lay on her back on the bed. The man’s hands were on either side of her head and the rest of him hovered over her. His teeth were clenched together, and she could see his canines were far longer than was normal. His chest heaved up and down as he took deep, gasping breaths. His blood-red eyes stared hard and unblinking at her throat.
Her pulse quickened. “What are you-ah!” He leaned down and pressed his warm lips to her throat.
A thrill of hot pleasure ran down her body. She gasped as one of his hands slid down her body and stopped at her breast. His fingers teased the cloth that lay over her feminine mound, toying with her rising lust. He pushed his leg between hers and parted them so his knee pressed against her inner thighs. She was wet already, and the ache inside her made her squirm beneath him.
He slid his rough tongue across her smooth neck. She grasped the ruins of his shirt and closed her eyes. His hot breath tingled her throat as his deep voice, drenched in carnal desire, spoke into her ear. “So sweet.” He buried his face into a thick batch of her hair and deeply inhaled. “So deliciously sweet.”
The heat inside her was like a flame that penetrated her body and soul. She couldn’t get enough of it. Enough of him. She leaned her head to one side so he could deepen his kisses. His teeth nibbled at the smooth flesh of her throat. Their sharp points nearly broke the skin. She shivered and her hands trembled as they gripped his shirt. She rubbed her hot core against his leg and gasped as a thrill of pleasure ran up her body.
“Adam,” she groaned.
He froze. She opened her eyes and looked up into his face him. His eyes were squeezed shut and his teeth were clenched so hard his gums were white. He wrenched himself from her grasp and moved over to sit at the far side of the bed.
His back was to her and he clutched his head in his hands. His voice was soft as a spring breeze, but cold like winter. “Go.”
She sat up and frowned. Her clothes were disheveled and her cheeks were a bright red from her unsatiated desire. “But-”
“Just go.”
Sarah pursed her lips, but slid off the bed and over to the door. She opened it, but paused and looked back. He sat as still as a statue. Her shoulders slumped, and she turned away and shut the door behind herself.
- Writer
