A Warrior's Return (8 page)

“Don’t make me laugh.” I wheezed into his
shoulder.

“We need to get you out of here! Can you
stand?” I nodded, but it was him that lifted me up to my feet.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to
walk very far. He must’ve sensed that, because he lifted me up by
the back of my thighs, “Can you put your legs around me?”

I lifted them and crossed them behind his
back.

“I need my hands free, until we get away
from the house, can you hold on with your arms and legs?”

No I really couldn’t, but I was going to
anyway.

I nodded my head yes, as I gripped him with
one arm over one shoulder and the other wrapped around him under
his other arm. I tucked my head down against his chest.

As his hands left from supporting my bottom
and my weight sank onto my arms and legs my torso stretched out and
I bit into my lower lip, until I tasted blood. I couldn’t help that
my body was uncontrollably shaking or that I was whimpering from
the pain into his shoulder.

He started walking toward the study doors
pulling two pistols out of side holsters as he did so.

His voice sounding choked with emotion he
said, “I’m so sorry honey! I didn’t think they would connect you
with me!”

The thing I heard was the word ‘honey’. What
did he mean by saying such a familiar term?

I could only hope as to the depth of meaning
such a term could be referring to. He kicked the door open and then
there was no more room for thought. I watched Victor’s house of
glass shatter from my filtered view through my tangled hair. Gunmen
popped out of everywhere blasting away with automatic pistols and
rifles.

Clark just smoothly kept walking, always
moving, as he twisted and turned about in the rooms he made his way
through, as he headed for the door. The big pistols in his hands
bucked slowly and repeatedly. Every measured shot a kill shot.

I don’t know how we weren’t hit! Everything
around us was shattering and I could hear the whine of bullets that
came within inches of us. The walls of glass shattered and tinkled
to the floor in sparkling piles, as ceramic pots and vases exploded
all around us.

Finally the big hand guns fell silent, but
not because Clark was out of ammunition, but because there was no
one else left to kill. He kicked the front door open. Nothing
happened.

He holstered one gun and helped support me
with his free hand. We were suddenly outside in the tepid night
air. At some point I must’ve blacked out because the next thing I
knew was when I opened my eyes to see Raphael’s worried little face
in front of mine. I reached out and touched it loving the ability
to do that. I hadn’t thought I would see Raphael ever again. He
clutched my hand tightly with both of his and I squeezed back a
little.

My eyes drifted upward aided by a jolt of
pain. Clark sat astride me and he was pushing on my rib cage.
Something moved under his fingers and I screamed and clutched
Raphael’s little hand to tightly. I abruptly let go, but he
didn’t.

“That’s all Evangelina I promise!” Clark
said.

I looked up at him through pain slitted
eyes. Sweat was rolling off of Clark in streams of perspiration and
he was shaking. That last part, maybe that was me.

Yes, I was the one shaking and not him. Then
Clark did something almost unforgivable. He pulled me to an upright
sitting position on the bed. I wanted to scream, but I didn’t
fearing that would hurt me even worse. Then Clark was behind me
somehow and Rafael was standing on the bed between my legs trying
to hold up my arms.

Clark wrapped a folded up white sheet around
my torso, which is when I realized I was topless. Clark had to lift
my breasts slightly to get the sheet up as far as possible. I
flushed red with embarrassment that overrode the pain as Clark
wrapped me tightly over and over with the sheet. Why was I so
embarrassed?

I had been topless in front of clients
countless times and next to topless for years during performances,
why did this bother me so much?

The thought came softly to me that the
reason was because I was no longer a whore and my body was
privately mine again. Something I’d grown to treasure over the past
week. It wasn’t so bad being exposed to Clark, because of how I
felt about him.

I would have actually welcomed his touch. It
was Rafael standing directly in front of me that was unbearable. I
had always tried to shield him from what it was that I had done for
a living. I had tried to appear decent in his eyes at least. Being
exposed to him now was the height of embarrassment. I started to
move my arms off of where they rested on his little shoulders, but
his little hands wouldn’t let go of my wrists.

I looked up to ask him to let go, but I
stopped when I saw his little face. Big tears tracked down his face
repeatedly one after the other and when his watery eyes met mine I
heard him say, “Please! Let me help you mommy!”

Everything went still inside of me as I
heard him say what I had always yearned to hear the little boy say.
I choked down a sudden rise of emotion and nodded my head and left
my arms where they were. My fingers framed around his little head
tenderly.

“I love you mommy!” He repeated with
passion.

“I love you too Rafael!”

We stared at each other, as if seeing each
other for the first time, as Clark finished wrapping me up tightly.
The tight wrap was uncomfortable, but it took away a lot of the
pain.

Clark spoke softly from over my shoulder,
“Rafael could you get your mommy a drink of water please.”

Rafael nodded vigorously and I lifted my
arms away and he jumped off the bed running for the other room.
Clark held out the sleeves of a large flannel shirt that must’ve
been his for me to put my arms into, which I did. He started
buttoning up the front as I leaned back against him.

“He begged to help and I did need his help
so I let him. I hope you don’t mind.”

I raised my hands to clasp over his large
hands and laying my head back across his one shoulder I whispered,
as my eyes met his, “I don’t mind anything you do to me.”

He stared back at me and I watched the
pupils of his eyes dilate, as his head lowered toward me. His lips
gently kissed only the side of my lips that weren’t swollen from
where I’d bit them earlier.

I moved my head slightly to bring my lips
against his in full contact not caring if it was painful. It was
the sweetest kiss I’d ever had and the best one I’d ever had,
because it was with him.

He pulled back abruptly and I heard the
sound of running feet and I lifted my head off of his shoulder and
let him finish buttoning me up. Within moments Rafael was holding a
sloshing cup of water in front of my nose for which I thanked him
graciously for. I took the cup from him with a smile.

I drank all of it, even though I didn’t want
to, but I did it to let him know I was okay.

“All right Rafael off to bed with you; your
mother needs her rest.

Rafael leaned forward and kissed my hand as
a gentlemen would, “Goodnight mother.”

He ran off with a smile.

“When did all this happen?” I asked staring
wonderingly at my hand.

“About time it happened.” Came the deep
reply from behind me.

I turned my head to look at Clark a sudden
thought occurring to me, “You talked to him didn’t you?”

His face was hard to read as he said, “I had
a little conversation with him before I left several days ago. I
told him about his mother dying, but I also told him that while he
may have lost one mother that he also still had one. I explained to
him that a mother isn’t just someone that gives birth to you, but
also someone who does the natural kindnesses and provisions that a
mother would do for her young. I swear I didn’t put him up to
saying anything that he just did though! He came to all those
conclusions entirely on his own.”

I let my head fall back against Clark again,
as I felt him unwittingly unlock another corner of my heart. Clark
was also the reason for the chivalrous kiss to my hand that Rafael
had given me. Rafael had to have been emulating what he thought
Clark would do. It was amazing what kind of a positive impact one
good man could make on a young person.

I felt Clark start to gently slide out from
behind me and I quickly asked, “Clark would you mind staying with
me a little while longer?”

“No I don’t mind.”

His tone sounded almost grateful and I
smiled to myself.

“I thought you’d be more comfortable laying
flat than up against me though.”

“No this is good.”

I felt him pull some pillows out from behind
us and we reclined back a little further, which did feel better. He
reached up and turned the light switch off plunging the room into
darkness. My hands found his and my fingers entwined with his
softly.

Neither of us said anything for a while. I
was still in a lot of pain, but being surrounded by him had a
better effect on me than any painkiller ever could have had.

“Thank you!” I said softly turning and
pressing my face to the base of his neck.

“For what?” He asked, as softly as I
had.

“Everything!” I replied.

I was drifting off to sleep when I heard him
say, “I have a confession to make.”

Sleepily smiling, as I detected no threat of
impending disaster in his tone I asked, “Oh what?”

“My name isn’t Clark.”

I smiled. I had known that wasn’t his
name.

“What is it?” I asked curiously.

“Talaric.”

I repeated the name aloud liking it
instantly.

“I like it. It suits you better.”

After a momentary pause he asked, “How does
it suit me?”

Almost asleep I slurred out, “It sounds
strong and yet it’s noble just like you.”

Talaric listened to her sleep grateful
beyond words that she didn’t seem to have any serious internal
injuries other than several cracked ribs and one broken one.

She thought he was strong, even noble. He
could see why she could think that. He had been like that at times
in his life, but he could also think of times when he hadn't been.
One thing was clear to him. He intended to always be strong and
noble in her eyes.

He played with a ringlet of black curly hair
and thought back to his previous thought. He would do his best not
only because he didn’t want to ever disappoint her, but also
because he had realized that he very much wanted a future with her
to.

It was surely the wrong time to be falling
in love with someone, especially with everything he had set before
him to accomplish, but that was life for you. It rarely waited for
you to be ready to handle what it threw at you next.

What was important to remember was that the
Creator still ruled supreme over all facets of life. If the Creator
wanted the enemy stopped before they could reach his homeworld than
they would be. If the Creator was the one who had selected
Evangelina out for him than that would also come to fruition and
she would be his.

Talaric did what he saw as his part of
faith, he asked for victory in battle and that the woman sleeping
peacefully in his arms wouldn’t ever be taken from him again. Now
he could only wait and hope the Creator’s will ruled in his favor.
It was hard to just let it at that.

Perhaps he lacked faith, but he wanted the
assurance that beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything was
going to work out just fine. Talaric sighed; he was just going to
have to trust God. Why was that so hard for him anyway?

The Creator had done so much for him, why
did he still stumble with trusting Him with things and people that
meant the most to him?

He hoped that area of his faith would get
stronger, as well as his overall relationship with God, which it
would if he trusted Him. It was that simple and yet it was also so
seemingly hard at the same time.

I woke up and groaned. I hurt!

Everything was sore even my head was
throbbing. Maybe laying flat would’ve been a better idea. I didn’t
want to wake Clark up though. Clark…. my memory came back to me;
Talaric was snoring softly behind me.

It was still dark outside so it had to be
early yet. I longed to see the sun rising in order to get this
night and all of its emotions and pain over with. I thought back
over everything that had happened. Being captured, waking up in
Victor’s study and the ensuing fight. I shook my head slightly in
self-denial. Had that really been me kicking and bashing away at
Victor’s bodyguards?

Then came the realization suddenly that I
had killed a man. Perhaps more than one. My stomach roiled at the
notion that I had.

I had taken a human life, even if it had
been deserved. Was I a killer? Obviously I now must be. I had never
thought of myself as being one of those kinds of people.

The thought of my new condition left a
queasy feeling in my stomach, which compounded by the throbbing in
my head and my general all-around pain soon escalated into
something worse. I shook Talaric’s hand hard and he came awake with
a start.

“What is it?”

“I’m going to be sick!” I managed to croak
out.

The light switch was flipped on and several
seconds later I found myself with my head over the edge of the bed
overtop the basin that Talaric had used to wash away dried blood
earlier.

My stomach heaved and in a mixture of
retching combined with screams from the pain of my torso convulsing
I spewed into the basin over and over it seemed. If I had hurt
before, now it was replaced with an unbearable agony.

I was at the end of my endurance. It had
been a terrible day, but a good one in other ways. I was all mixed
up inside, physically and emotionally. It was the middle of the
night and all I wanted to do was sleep and be free of pain.