Chapter 9

    Rayne stood there, his chest heaving and his shirt stuck to his chest with sweat. More explosions pounded from above. I stood up, getting closer to Christian.

   “What’s going on?” Christian demanded.

   Rayne looked straight at me as he spoke. “The humans are attacking again. Christian I need you to guard the queen.”

   “What? Me? Rayne you know she requested you!”

   He glanced at Christian. “Actually, she requests you at the moment. I need to take Constance to a safer place.”

   I furrowed my eyebrows. What was safer than underground? He extended his hand.

   “Come on we have to hurry. Christian go now!”

   Without another thought Christian bolted off down the hallway. I put my hand in Rayne’s and he pulled me down the hallway, towards up. My breathing grew harder the faster he made me run. I needed to stop, I needed to breathe. But he made me keep running until I could barely feel my own legs move anymore. And suddenly we broke out into a marvelous room. The walls were expanded, painted a cherry red. The floor was almost translucent, a pattern of color. Up above the ceiling reflected our bodies sprinting. I didn’t have much time to admire the beauty in the room, but I did imagine it was in some part of the castle.

   Another boom echoed inside the walls, a vibration rumbling under my feet. More screams could be heard, closer now. I stumbled and fell into him, but he didn’t seem to notice. Then he pulled me around the corner and I saw the horror.

   Bodies were everywhere, human and demon. It was hard to tell the difference with them lying far away but I knew that at least some had fallen. Further away near the horizon was a giant mirrored bubble. There were tanks halfway through it, as if coming from another world. Coming from my old world. They were firing, people were firing guns, but instead of regular bullets, something else came out. I was too far away to tell, and the things were being fired out too quickly. Rayne stood in front of me.

   “We need to keep moving.”

   I felt my tears brim. I didn’t know who I was crying for. He pulled me down another hallway, one with many people in it. I recognized them as people that would be from the town. They stared at me curiously with all the same dark eyes as Rayne pulled me further down.

   “How is this safer?” I yelled over the noise.

  “Underground the ceiling could collapse on you,” he shouted back. “Here.” He stopped at the end of the hall and opened a metal door. He shoved me inside, pausing in the doorway. The room looked similar to the last room I had been in, though it was bigger and everything seemed roomier. He looked me over.

   “If you stay in here you’ll be okay.”

   I nodded. He was out of breath, as was I. He took a deep breath, stared at me for a moment, nodded back, and then shut the door. I stared at the door, slightly amazed at his courtesy. I looked around me. The room was dark, so I groped around for a light. I found the lamp by the door and switched it on, the room becoming slightly illuminated. I sighed and sat down on the bed. I was back where I had started. I felt a soft burning sensation in my right hand, the hand that Rayne had been holding. I shifted on the bed until I was on my back. More booms and explosions burst occasionally, mostly just gunfire. Blood curdling screams were the most frequent and I found myself sobbing into my pillow.

   It had been hours maybe until I heard a banging on my door. Most of the sound had died down.

   “Get them out!” I heard Rayne’s voice yell down the hall. Then there was a pattering of footsteps.

   “Who’s in there?”

   I tensed as I recognized the queen’s voice.

   “Excuse me?” He replied.

   “Who is in that room Rayne? And where have you been? I told you specifically to guard me. Why did you send Christian?”

   I sat up on the bed, wiping away the stray tears. He wasn’t supposed to have moved me?

   “No one is in this room,” Rayne answered. I could hear the strain in his words. “And I was busy with other things. But as you can see, there was no problem in my leaving. You’re still standing alive.”

   Something smashed against the door, and there was something like raspy breathing.

  “Don’t you talk like that to me,” the queen hissed. “You are far out of order. Just because you are my most precious guard does not give you the right to speak out.”

   Another slam. I winced and headed towards the door.

   “I can do whatever the hell I want to you. I’m the queen.”

   I pulled open the door and Rayne fell onto the floor, gasping for oxygen. The queen stood in front of the door, her hand retreating back to her side.

   “Rayne?” I gasped.

   He pulled himself up just in time to get slapped across the face.

   “You brought her up here?” She screamed.

   “She would have died underground,” he said softly, ignoring his reddening cheek.

   “I don’t care. Does it look like I give a crap about this girl at all?”

   “Personally my queen,” Rayne sneered, “it doesn’t seem like you care about anyone anymore.”

   Another slap. His jaw locked.

   “Don’t abuse your power,” she growled.

   “As you shouldn’t abuse yours.” He turned to look at her, his eyes stern. “If it’ll make you happy, I’ll take her back down to the underground room.”

  The queen turned her steely eyes on me, then back to Rayne. “Fine.” Then she turned on her heels and stalked out of the room.

  Rayne let out a deep breath, his hand skimming across his injured cheek. Then he turned to look at me. I wasn’t prepared for the look he gave me.                    

  “Do you ever think about what you do before you do it?"

   I raised my eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

   “Opening the door. Now she’s not going to be able to trust me anymore. That takes away everything I’ve lived for, being a guard.”

   “Maybe you shouldn’t have lied in the first place! Then there wouldn’t be an issue. Besides she was choking you. I thought I could have at least helped you since you’ve been helping me so much.”

   He raised an eyebrow at me. “Helping you? No, no.” He made his way to the door, and I began to follow. “What are you doing?”

   “Following you. Aren’t you supposed to take me back down?”

   He laughed. “Just stay here Constance.”

   “Are you going to just keep locking me up? Am I ever going to get out or something?”

   He wet his lips. “I don’t know yet.” He made his way out the door. “I’ll be back.” He shut the door behind him as he left.

   I crossed my arms over my chest. He was so stubborn! He never gave me straight answers. I sat back down on the bed. I was going to be here forever, I just had a feeling. I stood back up and began to pace the room. I could escape the next time there was an attack. The humans might not believe the fact that I was still technically “human” but I could at least try and break to the bubble and run through.

   The door reopened and Rayne stepped in. He shut the door and sat down on the floor, leaning back against the wall.

   “I’m surprised you didn’t send Christian,” I sneered.

   He smirked. “Couldn’t. Christian is guarding the queen until I clean up my act.”

   I grunted and sat down on the bed again. “So you’re going to be guarding me now?”

   He shrugged. “Anything wrong with that?”

   “No, there’s just that small little fact that you’re incredibly pissed over everything and the queen doesn’t approve of me staying here when you were supposed to have taken me back down. What if she comes in to find me still here? What will she do to me?” What will she do to you?

   He exhaled slowly. “First of all, I am not pissed over everything.”

   “You are now. You’re pissed that I mentioned you were pissed about everything.”

   “No I’m not,” he said forcefully.

   “I can hear it in your voice Rayne, you’re pissed off right now. Besides you were before because I saved your a*s.”

   “Constance shut up!” He shouted.

   I raised an eyebrow and he exhaled roughly.

   “I don’t know what she will do to you,” he said changing the subject. “Most likely not as bad as what she will do to me.”

   “Then why are you doing this? Why are you helping me when you know it’ll get you on the queen’s bad side and get you hurt?”

   He wet his lips. “I guess I’m just trying to prove to myself that I’m not a monster. After listening to what you had to say before I realized that my whole entire life was based on training to kill people, to guard the queen. And by guarding the queen, I have to do whatever she says and I have to kill people. Constance I even have to kill my own kind. By helping you and protecting you I feel like I’m actually a better person, that I’m doing one good thing in my life.”

   “Rayne you aren’t bad. You aren’t a monster. I overreacted. Christian told me everything about how the earlier war got started.” I sighed. “I’m sorry.”

   He looked up at me. “Thank you.”

   I smiled and he smiled back. “I have something to ask you,” I said.

   “Ask away.”

   “Your drawing book? The last picture, the one that’s not finished. Who is that a drawing of?”

   His cheeks turned red again, just like they had before when I had told him that I had looked through the whole notebook.

   “It’s nobody. I was just free drawing a face.”

   I raised an eyebrow but didn’t push. I knew it was of somebody, but I guess he didn’t have to tell me.

   “Oh I forgot. The room next to you is a bathroom. You can go clean up in there and I can get you some new clothes.”

   I had almost forgotten it had been a while since I had taken a shower. I probably looked like a train wreck.

   “Thanks,” I said as I hurried past him, out the door and into the bathroom.

Reviews

[r]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AWESOME!!!!!

Wow, this is AMAZING!! You could have explained Rayne leading her away, better, though. I LOVE IT just like i've loved every other chapter!!!