Chapter 587: Bath-Pooling
For some reason, Sera was standing outside on the porch, and yeah, anyone’s guess is as good as mine as to why.
I doubt she’s there to greet me home, she’s like the last person I expect to proclaim a ‘Welcome home, darling’, with a kiss and some dinner.
It’s like I got a scarecrow installed out onto the front lawn or something, not a very effective one though unless those crows have got some kinda strong aversion to the color purple. No, all it’s good for is making me question myself why, as I gradually pulled into the driveway, removing my helmet, and blinking blankly.
“Umm...” replaced my hello, walking up to her, almost squinting from the harsh glare of her golden stare. “Is this about the Christmas lights? If so, then no I didn’t get it yet. Tomorrow we could – ”
I was interrupted by a hard punch to the chest, all I saw was a quick dart and swipe of her cloak, and the next thing I knew my ribs were flaring up, hitting something hard, and her long loose sleeve was outstretched, hiding the fist that hit me.
Except not really. It wasn’t a fist.
It was a phone.
.....
I blinked, “The hell...”
Ash’s phone.
I let the phone fall into my hands as her arm drew back, its deep dark reflection mirroring back the total bemusement on my face.
“Why do you have this?” I asked her, completely forgetting a silent look would be my only answer back. “Tell me you didn’t break it, please,” and just as the words left my lips, I went frantically scouring around for even the tiniest hint of a crack – because my dumbass did not invest in a phone case.
Knew I should have listened to the damn salesperson.
Fortunately enough, my stiff, nearly numbed fingers didn’t feel any odd grooves as far as I can tell, so I did the next natural thing anyone would do, I turned on the power.
Bingo – it didn’t turn on.
“It’s dead,” I declared, staring back up at Sera whose gaze suddenly widened by two, the skin around her eyes and veil somehow growing even paler, and that’s when I finally understood the situation.
A peculiar someone’s hands were a little itchy, and their curiosity a little too damn strong for their own good, it seems. To be fair, a smartphone to her was probably the equivalent of magic to the average person, or if I wanna be mean, like a caveman discovering fire.
Question now was – how long was she fiddling with the fire for, before she burnt it out? And this particular model was known for its prolonged battery life too... must be having quite the fun time, she.
Now it’s my turn for a little bit of fun.
“See? It won’t turn on anymore,” I said, making a show out of futilely tapping the power button, sipping in a sharp breathy hiss. “Yep, you killed it.”
And right there, I think it was probably the first time I saw the feeling of panic glitter gold – as if I just affirmed all her worst fears in a single sentence.
There was this faint lingering sense of magic in the air, traces of it, like wisps of smoke, smelling a little foul, and all permeating from what laid beneath the darkness of her cloak.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and presume she actually just tried bringing the phone back to life before I got here. Genius move, really – frankly, quite the great utilization of her abilities.
If only it did actually work. I could save like twenty bucks yearly not having to buy new chargers. Alas, a technomancer this necromancer was not.
“Y’know, Ash was really fond of this phone, loved it to bits,” I muttered, contorting my lips to the biggest frown I could manage. “I can’t imagine how disappointed she’ll be waking up to, well... this.”
At that, Sera reached both her arms out this time, and beneath the seams of her cloak, I could her fingers pulling hard at my coat, making a quiet ascending noise that was somewhere between a moan and a warble, almost as if trying to serenade me into helping her out of this somehow – and it hurt my face so much trying not to betray my funeral-procession look.
I guess it’s time to teach this Arbiter of the Dead here how exactly we do things downtown.
Sera watched with literal bated breath as I began the sacred ritual of resurrection, plugging in the charger of aliveness into the living room outlet before channeling its living essence into the dead phone through a blessed spiritual link connecting to one’s soul.
It was a lot simpler for her to understand than just calling it a wire, trust me.
The very second there was rattling and buzzing, showing signs of life, Sera was all over the phone like a loved one beside a sickly patient’s bedside, though I doubt the hard coffee table made for some good resting.
Y’know, humanity used to be so scarce whenever I found myself thinking or seeing those distinct violet colors of hers. It used to always be cold shoulders and even colder stares interacting with her, it was to the point I thought there could be nothing else when it came to her.
Since then, however, I’ve been seeing so many different sides to her, and recently, I’ve been receiving so many other different kinds of looks other than glares and glowers.
We weren’t yet to the point where I’d consider her someone I can trust wholeheartedly.
But someday, maybe one day, I’d like it to be.
For now though...
“When you see that number go up to a hundred, means it’s alive and kicking again,” I said, rising up to my feet, dusting off my ol’ ceremonial hands. “You can give it back to Ash after. I’m gonna go take a shower.”
Then there it was again, a sigh losing tension as she stared at me go, another one of her recent new expressions – gratitude, a thank-you... at least until she eventually finds out that I’ve been playing her for a fool the entire time, and by then, I’m sure I’ll be getting another brand new stare from her too for that.
Once upstairs, there in the middle of the hall, I was already feeling the pressing urge compelling me, pulling me, trying to steer me into the other direction, another room.
Her room.
Honestly, I’m sure if I asked her about her past directly, Ash would readily comply with the request. She wasn’t the type to hide anything, with her, there were no secrets, she’ll give me the answer.
The only thing stopping was that wonder, that question – would I like hearing that answer?
Knowing the her before any of this, before she was Ash, before I became her Master... when she was still known as Eshwlyn the Elf-Knight.
Amanda’s story did not paint a pretty tale. That much bloodshed, depravity, surrounding that old title of hers. I mean, how do you even begin asking about something like that?
At any rate, I’ll just figure it out sometime later. Hopefully anyway. For now, I really needed that shower.
A quick forward shuffle later, and my bedroom door stood firmly shut before me – usually nothing worth noting. I always close my door before leaving. It’s how it was closed that was bothering me.
With sharp narrow indents etched faintly onto the metal handle. Yeah, that wasn’t there when I left this morning.
I swung open the door, already bracing to face the culprit literally behind the whole thing. It was like the story of goldilocks, y’know? Only rather than finding some bratty self-entitled little girl sleeping on my bed, I got an unwitting vampire that should really come with a safety warning instead.
Adalia sprang upwards at the exact moment I walked through the door, sitting upright in the middle of slightly crumpled, slightly tattered sheets, still clinging onto the same pillow she took this morning like some kinda lovestruck Mrs. Tepes whose century-long slumber I’ve just inadvertently disturbed.
Should really start investing in some claw-proof fabric or I’m gonna end up sleeping on a bunch of loose string sooner or later.
I got ready with a greeting smile, striding deeper in, and promptly began our usual unusual routine.
“I’m going to go take a bath now, leave for a while, or rest downstairs,” I said, for the second time just today. “Unless you’d rather see me naked, of course.”
Then I got busy unbuttoning buttons, uncloaking cloaks, and ungloving gloves. I made it all the way to my chest stripped bare before I realized I hadn’t yet heard the slam-shut of the bedroom door.
I slowly turned around again, my pants only held up by a fingers’ pinch, finding still a huddled, dopey figure unmoving from where I found her, quietly batting bleary, barely focused eyes at me.
“That was just a joke, y’know...” I muttered, flicking quick darts to the open doorway thinking she’d get the message. “That’s not actually a green light for you to stay for a free exhibition show.”
After that, Adalia did stir to life, if only just barely... drifting her misty, dreamy gaze to the gleaming, shimmering white porcelain tiles peeking back at her beyond the narrow gap of the opened bathroom door.
I knew that look anywhere... I’ve seen it almost every day now... and it was always followed by a question in wonder, and this time, it was no exception either.
“Is... taking baths... fun...?” She asked me, pale lips barely letting it slip the stiff quiet of her voice.
Before I used to get baffled by out-of-the-blue inquiries like these, but now I’ve just grown so accustomed to it... perhaps a little too accustomed even.
“It’s hygienic,” I answered, throwing my coat over an empty swivel chair. “And I like being hygienic.”
Adalia gave her usual blank stare to my response, shuffling quietly closer, hanging her slender, white legs over the bed. “Is it fun... being hygienic...?”
“Not so much as it is... I guess... mandatory?” I said, shrugging. “It’s not really pleasant smelling like sweat and dirt all day.”
Her vacant expression made a faint pondering noise, looking back over towards the bathroom. “I’ve never been... hygienic... before...”
“Yes, that’s because you don’t smell – period,” I said. “It’s just getting wet, getting clean... like swimming in the lake, remember?”
The murky gray in her eyes began to almost glow at the mention of that, “I liked... swimming...”
An almost foreboding glow at that.
“I’d like... to try... being hygienic...” She mused, vaguely enthused. “It sounds... fun...”
Y’know what, I take that back about being accustomed just now. Clearly, I was just talking out of my rear back there.
“You being serious right now?” I asked, letting out a snort out of sheer bewilderment. “Been here how long, and it’s only just struck you that you want to take a bath?”
“You... take baths...”
“Yes,” I said, nodding at her always astute observational skills. “That, indeed I do.”
“So I want... to take baths... too...”
Couldn’t help but let out another baffled snort. “C’mon – do you seriously just want to do everything that I do, is that it?”
“I do,” She said, her vacantness suddenly so deafeningly genuine. “I want to like... everything... that you do...”
It was with sentences like those that I’m halfway convinced that Adalia had to be half-siren too. I mean, it was the only way to explain why I felt so compelled to comply with her whims... because there was no way in hell it was solely due to her cute factor alone.
“Alright, fine,” I said, walking over beneath the bathroom doorway. “You really wanna be hygienic that bad?”
And I think she was aware of the effect she had on poor, defenseless men like me, because she just cranked the intensity of it all the way up nodding at me with that hopeful, eager expression.
“Wait, your turn, then,” I told her. “I’ll go in first, when I’m done, I’ll draw a bath for you, and then you can go – ”
“To...gether...”
“Yes, indeed, together,” I said, then immediately I sputtered, I spazzed, wondering how the hell those words ended up in my mouth, staring wide owl-eyes at her somber gaze. “Say what, that again, sorry, yes?”
“To...gether...” Adalia repeated, rising slowly from the foot of the bed, hands already pulling the strings of her many frills and laces loose. “I want to be... hygienic... together...”
.....
Once again, please go on ahead and expunge my words from this chapter as soon as you can so I don’t look like an idiot. ‘I’ve grown accustomed to it’, yeah, of course, you did, buddy – that’s why you’re standing here right now with your mouth wide open like a dead fish. Typical composed reaction, yes.
“I... I’m not saying no... not yet anyway...” I said, recovering. “First I’d like to ask why, if that’s okay.”
“I want to do... everything... that you do... together with you...” She murmured, her dress gradually slipping, revealing the pale smooth gray of her shoulders. “And... I don’t know how... to take a bath...”
I think that more than anything was the most absurd thing I heard so far.
“It’s just getting wet!” I exclaimed, exasperated.
“I don’t know how... to get wet...” She continued to say, just purposefully playing dense now. “Teach me... how...”
Has she always been this assertive? insistent? stubborn?
“Be honest with me...” I said, shaking my head. “You’ve been up in my room for like three days in a row, I think. The fact is, you just really want to see me naked, don’t you?”
Adalia froze quiet in place, saying nothing, admitting nothing, a total blank slate... if not for the little flicker in her stare, a shiver in her lips ultimately betraying her pure innocent intentions.
“Yeah,” I stared her down, red-handed and with nowhere to hide. “That’s what I thought.”
“Do not... be shy...” She tried to assure me, continuing to walk, continuing to unravel, every single step revealing just a little more. “I will be... naked with you... together... too... remember...?”
This freaking girl... and here I thought vampires can only be so desperately thirsty for blood. Never have I been more wrong in my life.
“But it’s okay... if you don’t want to...” Adalia whispered, her advance losing slight momentum. “You don’t... have to...”
I raised a suspicious brow at her. “I don’t?”
“I can go... alone...” She said, slowly nodding once. “I won’t do... what you don’t want... to...”
Oh, there’s that look again, that voice again... so dangerous... so deadly... making my heart quiver so happily.
And like I mentioned before, I knew that look anywhere... every day now... more and more showing itself by the hour, and following it, there’s always a question, always a desire...
Always a want.
And sometimes, I will have no idea whose...
“So...” Adalia cocked her a little left, her silver-gray dress falling a little more, and asked, “Do you... want... to...?”
The most uptodate nove𝙡s are published on fr(e)𝒆webnov(e)l.com