by Dakota Lake
“Ruby what are you doing?” he asked as I pushed at his chest.
“I'm okay, you can let go of me now.”
“Okay! Y ou nearly drowned. You're lucky I found you.”
“Let go. I want to get out.” I said.
“I'm not letting go until we are out of the water.” he said putting my arm around his neck. He swam to the edge holding onto me. He put my hand on the side of the pool and pulled himself out and quickly pulled me out by my arm until I was sitting on the edge of the pool. I was surprised at how easily he lifted me out, as though I weighed nothing. Then he squatted down next to me. “Now you want to tell me what you were doing?”
“I had a few drinks I must have fallen asleep on the pool lounger.” I said coughing again. He put his hand on my arm but I quickly shrugged him off.
“Don't.” I said moving away and climbing to my feet. I took a step back feeling a bit wobbly but he quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.
“Ruby what's wrong? Have I done something wrong?”
“No you haven't done anything wrong.” I replied.
“Then why won't you look at me?”
“Where have you been?” I blurted out, silently scolding myself for saying it.
I pulled away and started walking towards the door.
Senka jumped in front of me. “You're upset because I went out?”
“No I don't care that you went out or who you were out with.”
I tried to get passed him, but he continued to block me.
“Ruby did someone say something to you?”
“It doesn't matter. Now will you please move so I can leave.”
“I'm not moving until you tell me what this is about?”
“Were there lots of pretty women wherever you were tonight?” Again I couldn't believe what I was saying. I sounded like a jealous teenager.
He laughed softly. “What?”
“Never mind.” I said pushing against him one final time trying to get him to move but he didn't budge.
“Hey, look at me.” His hands came up to my throat and he tilted my head back to look at him. “What are you talking?”
I looked at his face and felt like I wanted to cry.
“Alex said you might not come back tonight, he said you might get distracted by all the hot women especially the blondes.”
“Alex was trying to upset you and clearly it worked.” He let go and grabbed a towel from the table near us and wrapped it around me.
“There were probably three girls tops were I was tonight and I didn't speak to any of them and I never told Alex I like blondes. He's winding you up and when I next see him I will have words with him.”
I shook my head. I didn't want Alex and Senka to have a fall out over me. Alex already disliked my as it was.
“No Ruby, he shouldn't say stuff like that to you. And it clearly had the effect he wanted I mean what were you thinking? Drinking and swimming at the same time, on your own.” He shook his head annoyed and walked around to the other side of the pool to get his boots that he'd left on the floor. He pulled them on and picked up what looked like a cellphone off the floor. I walked over to the door.
“Where do you think you're going?” he called.
“Back to my room.”
“No, I'm not letting you out of my sight.” he said pushing strands of dripping hair off his forehead. He walked over to me and leaned down next to me, I wasn't sure what he was doing until he swept my legs off the ground and picked me up into his arms.
“Are you mad with me?” I asked quietly.
“No I'm mad with Alex.”
He carried me upstairs and I really hoped we didn't bump into Emmett. But the manor was quiet and the corridors were empty. I caught sight of one of the clocks 3.10am.
The third floor was quieter than usual. I only heard a couple of guys laughing and music playing softly in the games room. Senka reached his door and pulled out his key.
“You can put me down now.”
“Not until you're inside my room and the door is locked. Just encase you decide to run off and do something else crazy.”
He carried me in and kicked the door shut then he put me down and locked the door. He clearly wasn't joking. I held the towel tighter around myself. My legs had goosebumps running along them. “You're shivering.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're not fine.” he said walking me backwards to the bed. He sat me down and pulled his covers over wrapping them around me.
“I'm going to run you a bath.”
I shook my head. I didn't want him putting himself out anymore for me. I'd already made a big enough nuisance of myself tonight.
“A shower then,” I shook me head again, he rolled his eyes at me and smiled.
“Well I'm taking a shower and I'm going to run you a bath and you're going to get in it. Even if I have to undress you myself.” he said pulling his T-shirt over his head and hanging it over the back of the desk chair.
The thought of Senka undressing me sent heat to my cheeks in seconds.
He walked into the bathroom and I heard water running, he reappeared and sat on the end of the bed removing his boots and spent another minute trying to get his skinny black jeans off. He stood up in his underwear and I quickly looked at a random poster on the wall to distract myself. Just looking at Senka half naked was enough to make me feel like I was in the middle of a heatwave so much so that I no longer felt cold. He walked back into the bathroom but didn't bother closing the door. I had to look away again, I felt like I was about to melt. I stood up and went to the other side of the room and sat down at his desk, with the bathroom no longer in view. About five minutes passed and I heard the bath filling up and then shortly after Senka walked out wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.
“Get undressed.” he said opening his dresser drawer.
“What?” I replied a little shocked at his request.
“Your bath's ready.”
“Oh right the bath.” I said standing up.
“And I wasn't kidding.” he said looking at the bed sheet I had wrapped around myself. “I think I can manage.” I said chucking the sheets back on the bed.
The bath was full and bubbly and there were fresh towels at the side for me.
“You sure you don't need any help?” he said appearing in the doorway only this time the towel had been replaced with underwear.
I lightly pushed him away from the door frame so I could close the door. His bathroom consisted of all white tiles with a grey floor, a bath and a separate shower unit at the end, a wash basin and toilet. There was a small shelf on the wall full of deodorants and hair styling products.
I slipped out of my damp nightdress and underwear and dropped them in a pile on the bath mat and slid into the bath. I laid in the hot water covered by bubbles resting my head on the back of the tub. After a few minutes there was a knock on the door.
“Ruby, can I come in for a minute?” Senka asked.
“Um yeah sure.” I replied quickly, before I had time to change my mind.
I stayed under the bubbles covering the front of myself with my arm not that he would be able to see much through all the bubbles anyway.
He walked in and closed the door and sat down next to the bath, resting his arm along the edge. The back of his hand lightly brushed the side of my arm to get my attention. I turned my head to look at him, I couldn't believe how strange this day was turning out to be. Just this morning Senka had told me he was crazy about me and now I was naked in his bath tub and he was looking back at me biting on his lip ring. Which was doing all sorts of crazy things to me. He was quiet for several minutes before he spoke.
“You scared me earlier.”
“Sorry.”
“Don't do it again.” he said trailing his fingers along my shoulder.
I nodded picking up some bubbles and blowing them at him. He smiled and stood up. “Don't be too long or I'll have to come back and check on you.” he said leaning over p
layfully splashing me with the water.
“Oh can I borrow some clothes. Mine are a bit wet.” I said looking at the floor where my wet nightdress was. He leant over and picked up my nightdress then he picked up my underwear and held them on the end of his finger.
“I'll hang these up, shouldn't take too long to dry there's not much to them.” he said spinning my lace panties around his finger, with a playful smile on his face.
He closed the bathroom door and I quickly freshened myself up with some of Senka's yummy coconut shower gel. I was quite sure shower gel wasn't meant to smell this good it was almost edible. I pulled the plug out and wrapped myself in a towel and towel dried my hair the best I could. Then I opened the door slightly.
“Senka, did you find me some clothes?”
He sat on his bed still shirtless with black lounge pants on looking at his cell. He hopped up and picked up some folded clothes and bought them over to me.
“There you go. Can't wait to see what you look like in those.”
“Terrible probably.” I said taking them from him.
“Debatable.” he smirked as I closed the door.
I pulled on Senka's T-shirt that had a picture of a zombie with its arms out walking across the front. Then I pulled on his underwear, small black boxer briefs which felt extremely comfortable. I stepped out the bathroom tugging the T-shirt down at the bottom. Senka was on his bed leaning back against the headboard. His eyes glanced over in my direction then quickly back to his cell. I walked over to the edge of the bed and laid down next to him. He moved down the bed and flipped over onto his stomach leaning on his elbows. He reached over me and put his cell on the nightstand, then slowly moved back searching my face. He turned onto his side and trailed his fingers along the side of my arm and down to my hand. I bit down on my lip, a habit that I found I was doing more and more around Senka. He smiled looking at my lips and bought his hand up and rubbed his thumb across my bottom lip. I looked into his eyes wishing my ability worked on him even it was only for a few minutes, I'd love to know what he was thinking. Especially when he looked at me the way he was looking at me right now. He moved closer still looking at me, I didn't take my eyes away from his they were so perfectly blue. His leg playfully touched mine and he was biting down on his own lip looking at mine. I wanted him to kiss me so much and I think that was all he wanted to do. I gently grabbed his arm and pulled myself closer to him and he finally closed the distance between us and pressed his lips against mine and I closed my eyes.
I opened my eyes to find Senka was gone. I was walking along the gravelled driveway and it was suddenly day time. I tried to stop walking but it was as though my feet wouldn't do as I was telling them. I carried on walking and my hand came up to my face and I took a drag on a cigarette. It was at that moment I knew this wasn't my body I was inside someone else's body. I watched as the person flicked the cigarette into a nearby bush, I recognised his tattooed arm immediately. I was inside Senka.
It was a weird sensation being trapped inside his body watching everything through his eyes like one of those hand held camera documentaries. He walked inside the manor and started walking up the first set of stairs where there was someone already on their way down.
It was me dressed in a white nightdress. Senka stepped to the side but I stepped to the same side as he did. He laughed softly and moved to the railing holding out his arm inviting me to go passed first. I watched as I hopped down the stairs, Senka didn't take his eyes off of me. I spun around a few steps down and looked back at Senka who was still watching me.
“Hey, do you know where I can find the kitchen?”
“Yeah follow the corridor all the way until you see some archways on the right and the kitchens are through there.”
“Thanks.” I said smiling, I could tell I was blushing.
Senka watched the back of me as I carried on down the stairs. I turned back to look at Senka one last time when I reached the bottom step but quickly looked away again and scurried off down the corridor. Senka walked to the top of the stairs and along the corridor passed unknown doors, I wasn't sure what was behind all of them as they were so close to Cam's den and bedroom which I usually stayed away from. Senka stopped at Cam's den and knocked on the door. He nodded his head at the servant next to the door who returned the gesture.
“Yes, come in.” Cam called from the other side.
The servant opened the door for Senka and he walked in.
Cam was sat at the end of the table resting his boots up on it. He had a cellphone in his hand. It was the first time I'd seen him with a cellphone. I was starting to think they'd all been hiding them from me.
“So I was told you wanted to see me.” Senka said.
“Yes I did. Could you sit down for a minute.” Cam said looking at one of the chairs. Senka pulled out the chair and a girls laugh came from behind the bookcase. One by one Roman, Shasta and Kenzie walked around the bookcase. Kenzie was grinning looking at something on a tablet.
“Could you guys give us a minute please.” Cam said looking over at them.
They quietly left the room and Cam dropped his boots to the floor and turned towards Senka. Senka leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table.
“So what is it you want to tell me?” Senka asked.
“So I'm guessing by now you've probably met or seen Ruby around the manor.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “She's pretty.” he added.
Cam nodded in agreement. “Do you know why I've asked you to come see me today?” “I think I have an idea.”
“Senka I need you to take her memories of her past. Permanently. I don't want her to remember anything from before she came here.”
“Why? She already can't remember anything, since the accident.”
“No but she's a determined little thing and when she figures it out she's going to do everything she can to get away from here. I don't want that to happen I want her to think this is her home. If she gets her memory back she will be a total nightmare to contain.”
“Typical teenager.” Senka joked.
“Senka I need those memories gone.”
“What if you fading with her has permanently messed up her memory already?” “It hasn't she's already started asking for things such as chocolate and soda. She remembers and it's only a short while before the rest of her memory returns.”
“A few questions first,” Senka said.
Cam sat back in his chair and nodded.
“What is she to you? You've been very vague about the whole thing. We were all told that this girl, once she woke up would be living with us from now on. The servants were told not to talk to her if possible and we were told to keep cellphones, electrical items and shop bought items away from her. Why?”
“It could trigger her memories anything from a cellphone to a soda can, things that she's used to could trigger her memory.”
“Okay so you still haven't answered the question. What is she to you?”
Cam exhaled loudly, stood up and went over to the liquor bar.
“My father doesn't want to be bothered with all this,” Cam said waving his glass in the air. “He wants to leave me in charge permanently, so he can stay where he is. I don't know for some reason he actually likes it down there.” Cam said looking at the floor and tapping his boot on it. “But he has been on my back for years, decades, centuries even about finding an heir for after I'm gone. My father thinks me being here is temporary and I will get bored and want to leave.” “And do you, want to leave this place?”
“No. I have no intention of leaving or going anywhere but my father wont hand leadership over until I find someone to marry that would be a suitable heir.”
“You're talking about Ruby?”
“Yes.”
“What if she doesn't want to marry you? You can't force her to love you, it's why your mother left.” “I am well aware of why my mother left. I am nothing like my father and I don't intend on forcing Ruby to do anything but if she agrees to marr
y me it would get my father off my back. If Ruby and I were to get married I'd still let her do whatever she wants and love whoever she wants.” “Except leave.”
“No that's the only thing she can't do. That's why I need those memories to disappear for good.” “So why her? Why not someone else or why not even Shasta?”
“Shasta isn't suitable.”
“Why not? If it's just for a piece of paper saying you're both married then why does it matter who it is?”
“Because Ruby is different. She's special to me and she's incredibly gifted. And to be honest I'm selfish, I can't let her go. I've thought about it everyday for the past nineteen years and it has to be her.”
“She's Nephilim there are a few more of them up there. Why her?”
“Ruby's father used to work for my father on and off. He wanted away from this life but he still owed my father money and many favours. He was a gambler and a cheat and my father was pleased to see the back of him. At the time Ruby's father was in trouble again and at the same time my father was driving me crazy about finding a girl to marry and I wouldn't make a decision. Ruby's father offered my father his second unborn child as debt repayment. The woman that had fallen pregnant with his child was the same woman he'd already had another child with. She didn't live in Heaven's Point he must have met her on his travels and for some reason he always went back to her. So he offered my father this child and my father agreed. Ruby belongs to Under her father signed a contract handing her over.”
Cam walked across the room and sat on the edge of the table.
“My father gave me another twenty years to make a decision about getting married and said I could have Ruby. And you know as well as I do Nephilim girls are rare and Ruby has inherited some rather unique gifts from her father which makes her extra special.”
“Kael is due back soon he's been gone nearly what is it now....”
“Nineteen years, he left just before Ruby was born. He will be back soon and he'll expect me to be married or he will take things into his own hands and marry her himself. He's adamant about having another heir. And you know my father he always gets what he wants.”
