Sweet Burden (23 page)

“I feel really tired,” she whispered. She felt so weak she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open.

“You used a great deal of energy. You need to lie down.” He picked her up off of Obi and then maneuvered her over him, laying her down on the other side of him.

“I’m okay,” she mumbled. “He needs to be able to rest.”

“He’ll recover faster the closer you are. And you need to recover your strength,” the boy replied. “Do you have any medical supplies?”

“Who or what are you?” Hitomi mumbled as she stared up at the grey-haired boy.

He gave her a wide grin. “Just get some rest. I’ll tell you what I can when you wake up. Now, where are those medical supplies?” he said in a soothing voice practically lulling her to sleep.

“Bathroom.” She rolled onto her side and glanced at Obi before her eyes shut. A shiver ripped through her body. Without even asking, the boy placed a blanket over top of her and she heard him leave the room. She listened to Obi still taking in staggered breaths, but at least he was not screaming or thrashing around. Hitomi let out a sigh and drifted off to sleep.

****

He could still smell Hitomi. He may have been dead, but somehow he had the memories of her. Obi couldn’t have asked for anything more in death. He thought of the first time he laid eyes on her, the way he filled with anticipation of seeing her when he sat on the bench, and the way that her smile made him want to smile.

But even with the thoughts of her flooding his mind, he thought of Domitori’s words. She would be unprotected. Had Domitori found her? Was he hurting her? Was she calling for him? He squeezed his eyes tightly and tensed his fists. He could feel the anger inside him. He could feel his hands.

Obi fluttered his eyes open and he glanced around the room. Was this his hell? Spending eternity in the only place he had felt happiness and knowing he would never feel it again. Domitori had pierced him with living blood. He had to be dead. Well, as dead as he was able to be. But everything felt real. The pillow under his head felt squishy and soft. He pulled the fabric of the sheet on top of him between his fingers. It felt the same as it had the previous day. And the scent of Hitomi was so strong. He could practically feel her next to him. He wanted to turn and look, but the fear of her not being there overwhelmed him. His body shivered. He had to see.

He turned his head to the side and she was there curled next to him. Obi’s jaw dropped and he couldn’t hold back a sharp intake of breath. She looked pale and he immediately frowned. He rolled over onto his side, his abdomen tearing in protest to the movements. But the pain was the least of his concern. He reached up and rested his hand against her cheek. Her skin felt frigid and the rosy color of her cheeks was gone. His body trembled as he feared the worst until she drew in a shallow breath.

Obi let out a staggered sigh and closed his eyes in relief.

“She used most of her energy,” a voice said. Obi tried to look up. “Don’t move around.” The voice moved closer. “She saved you. Hitomi saved your life,” Guri peered over him.

“Guri,” Obi said relieved. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see you.”

“You’ve definitely had better days, although not lately.”

“The plan didn’t work. I wasn’t able to defeat Domitori.”

“Yah, I know. You’re lucky I was there.”

“Is he dead?”

“No,” Guri shook his head. “Just immobilized for a little while. Which means as soon as you’re up to getting out of here, we need to go.”

“I’ll be ready in a little bit.” He turned his gaze back to Hitomi. “Is she going to be alright?” He ran his thumb along her chin.

“She’ll be fine. She just needs to recover her energy with some rest. She was quite determined to save you, once she realized she could.”

“Why?” Obi stared at her. “Why would she want to save me? I was sent here to kill her.”

“But you didn’t,” Guri shot back.

“But I could have.”

“No you couldn’t have. You protected her.”

“Guri, what is going on?” he turned back to him.

“I don’t know everything. But what I do know I will tell you once we get out of here. We need to hide because Domitori will eventually be searching for us.”

“And where are we going to go?” Obi shifted back to Hitomi.

“I got a motel room for a few nights. It’s not too far away. Domitori will be expecting us to be on the other side of the Earth. We’ll figure out something from there. You should be okay to move soon and I can take Hitomi.” Guri sighed.

“How did she do it?” Obi practically whispered as he scanned her face. “I should be dead.”

“I’m not sure. I’ll be back in a few minutes. You might want to start trying to get up. We really need to go.” He listened to Guri’s footsteps stop at the doorway. “Oh, and by the way, she’s going to have some questions. She saw my wings.”

“What?” Obi pulled his hand from her face and twisted, sitting up and glaring at him.

“It was unavoidable,” Guri shrugged and smiled, then shut the door.

Obi groaned and fell back onto the bed, immediately worried that he had disturbed Hitomi. He grimaced as he turned back to her. Her chest rose and fell very slowly. He moved some hair from his face and ran the back of his hand along her cheek. He continued along her jaw to her chin and brushed his fingertips the length of her mouth. He had been drawn to those lips. He wanted so badly to know how they felt and tasted.

He pulled his hand away from her. He knew he was being foolish. There was no way she would want anything to do with him once he revealed what he was or the terrible things he had done. Placing his hand over the bandages on his abdomen, he rolled away from her.

He let out a groan as he forced himself to sit back up. He swung his legs over the side of the bed letting his feet hit the floor as he withheld another grunt. He gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up from the bed.

“Obi…” Hitomi mumbled and he turned back around to her. She flopped her arm over to where he had been laying. He reached down to take a hold of her hand, but stopped himself. He squeezed his hand into a fist and turned away.

He was going to have to tell her what he was. He couldn’t keep it from her any longer. His face went through the emotions of anger, frustration, hurt and fear. She was going to hate him.

He shook his head and noticed his bag lying on the floor by the closet. He went over and dug out a change of clothes. Slipping into his jeans and then grabbing a t-shirt, he pulled it on. He moved over to the desk chair and laced up his boots. He tried to keep his eyes on the floor, but they eventually drifted up to Hitomi and wondered how she had the power to save him. He had never heard of a human with healing powers. Even if she wanted nothing to do with him, he knew he still needed to protect her.

“Obi?” Hitomi mumbled again, but this time her eyes opened. Her gaze settled on him sitting across from her and he looked away from her.

“We need to leave soon,” Obi stated as he got up and went over to the window. He peeled the curtain back somewhat and peered out.

“You’re okay,” she sighed.

Obi let out a faint hum of acknowledgement and closed the curtain.

“I couldn’t let you die because…” her voice trailed off. Obi glanced over at her wanting her to finish her sentence. Her eyes were closed again.

“Because, why?” he whispered.

There was a light knock on the door and Guri appeared in the doorway as Obi looked over.

“Everything okay?” Guri asked.

“Yes. We should go.”

Guri entered the room. “Good. We’re running out of time. Are you sure everything is alright? I can sense frustration in you.”

“Everything is fine. Can you pack some things for her?” Obi walked over and moved past him towards the doorway.

“Don’t you want to stay with her?”

“No.”

“What is your problem?” Guri grabbed his arm. “That girl just saved you. Do you think she’d do that if she didn’t care about you?”

“She’ll never care about me once she finds out the truth,” Obi growled and pulled his arm away and pushed Guri back.

“How do you know?” Guri called after him as he walked down the stairs and into the dark living room. He rubbed his face and sat down on the couch.

Within a few minutes, Guri came down the steps. “Are you alright to fly?”

“I’ll make it,” Obi replied and stood back up. He looked at Guri, who had Obi’s bag and a bag for Hitomi secured across his body. Wrapped in a blanket, he had Hitomi tucked in his arms.

“Well, I hope I erased all traces of us being here,” Guri commented. “Ready to go?”

Obi gave a nod and they cautiously walked outside. They both scanned the sky and then Obi pressed his hand to his throbbing stomach. He tried to ignore it as he spread his wings and followed Guri up into the sky.

He still felt weak and his senses were dulled, but he kept up with Guri constantly searching the night sky. He periodically snuck peeks at Hitomi bundled next to Guri. It wasn’t long before Guri motioned down and Obi trailed after him as the ground became closer. They touched down each with a thud in the motel parking lot. Obi turned and followed behind Guri to a ground level room. They stood outside the door.

“What are we waiting for?” Obi asked.

“Well, you can either take Hitomi or you can dig in my pocket and get the key,” Guri raised an eyebrow. Obi huffed and reached into Guri’s back pocket pulling out the key. They went into the room and Guri tucked Hitomi into the bed.

“One bed?”

“Hey, I was only able to get a bit of human money. I’m not a millionaire like Rediisu,” Guri replied. “If you have a problem with one bed, go get your own room.”

Obi moved over and sat down in one of the chairs, resting his hand over the bandages under his shirt.

“You should lie down.”

“I’ll lay down when you’re done telling me just what exactly you know,” Obi sighed and glanced over at Hitomi snuggled in the bed. Part of him could wait for any information if it meant he could be next to her, but he needed to know what situation he had become tangled in.

“She’s not going to hate you. She’ll understand,” Guri commented. “But you need to make her understand.”

“Guri, stay out of it. Just tell me what you know.”

Guri shrugged and sat down on the floor leaning against the foot of the bed. “It’s not much. I’m just the errand boy, so to speak. But what I do know is that everything has happened for a reason. Hitomi ended up on your list for a reason.”