Chapter Nine: Morning Confessions

the first part of the original chapter nine i seperated

            The first thing Torin noticed when she woke up was how unusually warm and comfortable she felt. The second thing she noticed was that she wasn’t in her own room, and was instead in Kye’s, with his arms wrapped loosely around her. He was snoring lightly, and stray strands of dark hair covered his still closed eyes. Not being able to resist, she reached up to brush it out of his face.

            He made a small noise in the back of his throat and pulled her closer to his body, beginning to wake up. His eyes opened slowly, and he blinked in the sudden light of the room. Feeling an odd pressure, he looked down and saw his arms wrapped around Torin, who looked up at him, blushing furiously.

            He released his hold on her, though neither of them moved. He was blushing now as well, as both of them tried to recall the events of the night before.

            “Are you alright?” he finally asked, remembering how she had hardly been able to say a word without breaking down.

            She shrugged, though it wasn’t really noticeable in her position. “I don’t know. I’m still worried that something bad could happen.”

            “Nothing’s going to happen,” he soothed, tightening his grip on her comfortingly.

            “They need to be stopped,” she said after a pause, worries flooding her thoughts.

            “They who?” Kye asked, wishing desperately that he could just make her happy again.

            “The men that took all those innocent people last night. Something like that can’t happen again. What if I’m next? Or you? I don’t think I could live with myself knowing I could have done something but didn’t,” she explained, looking up into his emerald eyes.

            “Stop worrying so much,” he replied. It’s going to be fine.”

            She remained silent, resting her head on the pillow. “I’m sorry, by the way,” she said quietly.

            “What are you apologizing for?” he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

            “For waking you up and falling asleep in your bed.”

            He chuckled, smiling at her, his small fangs glinting in the early morning sunlight. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind.”

            She looked up at him, the two of them still embraced under the light that poured out from the window. Torin’s face went pink and she began to relax a little until a crash sounded from the kitchen, followed by Kyrill swearing angrily.

            Kye sighed. The moment was lost. “Maybe Rill knows what to do about the whole thing. He seems to know a lot about everything. You want to check?” he asked Torin, whom he could feel had tensed up against him the moment the crash broke the silence.

            Torin nodded and sat up and looked down at herself, realizing that she was still in her clothes from the night before. “I look terrible,” she said, pulling at the hem of her oversized shirt.

            “You look fine,” he assured, standing up from the bed. He wasn’t going to tell her, but he thought she looked pretty adorable with her hair messed up like that. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll go out like this,” he offered, gesturing to his tank top and shorts.

            Torin smiled. “Alright.” She got up and followed him out of the room and into the kitchen, where a frustrated Kyrill crouched over the broken boards of the wood floor, cleaning up something with a small towel.

            “What happened?” Torin asked, looking down on him, surrounded by what appeared to be orange juice and shattered glass.

            “What do you think happened?” he mumbled, standing up and throwing the soaked towel into the sink.

            Torin rolled her eyes and bent down to pick up the glass. “Can I ask you something?”

            “Sure,” he grunted, turning to get a fresh glass out of one of the cabinets.

            “What should we do about what happened last night?”

            “About you two falling asleep together? Not we can do about it now,” he smirked. Torin rolled her eyes and Kye stood behind her, blushing.

            “I meant the attack.”

            “What about it?” he asked, watching her pile tiny broken fragments of glass into her palm.

            “We can’t just sit here and do nothing,” she explained, cursing under her breath as she accidently sliced her finger on a shard of glass.

            “What do you expect me to do?” he asked, not meaning to sound as offensive as he did.

            “How about we invite Nia and Cori over?” Kye suggested from where he stood, leaning on the counter. “They might be able to help.”

            Kyrill said nothing, only nodded in response. Torin placed the broken glass in the trashcan, brushing Kye’s shoulder in the process.

            “I’ll get Cori,” she said over her shoulder, heading towards the door.

            “Wait,” Kye said, grabbing her arm lightly and pulling her back. “You’re bleeding.”

            Torin looked down at where she cut her finger. “It isn’t bad.”

            “I don’t care,” he replied, leaning over to the nearest cabinet and pulling out a small box.

            “Kye, I don’t need…”

            “Don’t argue with me,” he responded, taking out a bandage and wrapping it around the cut. “Now you can go,” he said, flashing her another pointy-toothed smile.

            Torin rolled her eyes, though smiled back. “Thanks,” she said quietly, before heading out the door and into the cool warmth of the summer morning.

 

            Upon arrival at Cori’s little house by the stables, Torin was forced to bathe and change clothes. In her opinion it was a complete waste of time, but Cori had insisted that she needed to.

            “You look like you slept in the bushes last night,” she commented, tossing Torin a small comb for her still wet hair.

            “Actually, there was a fight back at the ball after everyone had left,” she explained, tugging at a knot.

            “What?” she asked, her brown eyes growing wide.

            Torin sighed, not really wanting to explain the events of last night, but knowing she wouldn’t get to leave the house until she did. Unfortunately, no matter how much she pressed the issue that she almost became one of the taken herself, the only thing Cori got out of it was that she had fallen asleep next to Kye.

            “You and him are getting pretty close,” she commented as they walked out of the house, raising one eyebrow.

            “He’s one of my best friends,” Torin replied simply, letting the warm breeze wash over her.

            Cori rolled her eyes. “He’s in love with you.”

            “He is not!” Torin argued, looking away from her.

            “Tor. Everybody seems to think so except for you.”

            “Whatever,” she replied shortly, trying not to blush. “What about you?” she asked after a long pause. “Have your sights set on anybody?” she asked, raising one eyebrow in question.

            “Oh, look. We’re here!” Cori said suddenly, the house old coming into view. Torin knew she was purposely evading the question, but decided not to say anything.

            By the time they had reached the house and gone in, Nia was already in the kitchen, talking to Kyrill over the counter. Cori rolled her eyes at the pair and leaned over to Torin as if to say something. She never got the chance however, as Kye chose that precise moment to walk into the room.

            He too had changed clothes, and ran a hand through his thick hair nervously. “Cori? What did you do to Torin?” he asked.

            “You don’t like it?” she mocked, knowing that he liked it very much just by the way he was acting.

            “Of course I do!” he answered quickly, turning a dark shade of red. “It’s just that she looked good before.” Realizing what he had just said, he muttered something under his breath and headed into the living room.

            “I told you,” Cori whispered to Torin before following him with a grin.

            “Is everybody here?” Kyrill asked from behind the counter.

            “Present!” Cori shouted from across the living room, taking a seat in one of the old armchairs.

            “Good; now we can start,” he said as everybody who wasn’t already there went into the living room and took a seat.

            Cori snorted. “Serious, aren’t you?”

            He turned to glare at her. “You should be too. They’re back.”