SWNOVELS Chapter 10
Not wanting to let go of Rain, I take her to bed with me, and the moment my head hits the pillow, I pass out.
My dreams are feverish in nature, full of strange beasts and haunting images that blend my life in New York with other realms, and monsters chasing me. When I wake, I am covered in a sheen of sweat that makes my sheets stick to me.
I'm groggy as I try to figure out what woke me, and realize my breasts are painfully swollen and leaking milk all over my bed. Rain still sleeps, and my bladder feels ready to burst. Oh the joys of motherhood.
As I sit up and prepare to secure Rain with pillows while I head to the bathroom, I gasp.
This is my room, but it isn't. The wallpaper has been replaced with a pale blue paint and elaborate moulding. My bed is no longer the ancient mattress with springs that poke and prod, but instead seems to be made of clouds with a new four-poster rosewood canopy draped with shimmering silver silk. My sheets are luxuriously soft and match the walls, with a thick velvet white comforter embroidered with small flowers. New art hangs on my walls, and new furniture has replaced what I once had.
My urgent need to pee propels me forward despite my confusion, and I find the bathroom has also been redone with scented hand-carved soaps, new paint and light fixtures, and a thick carpet. Even the sink, toilet and bathtub have been replaced. What the actual hell? Once I relieve myself, I head to the living room to find out what's going on. Am I hallucinating? Have I lost my damn mind?
Rune is in my kitchen plating food--a kitchen that now boasts new cabinets, new tile flooring, and state of the art appliances. Darius is sitting on an exquisite love seat, and Zev is stoking a fire in a fireplace I didn't have a few hours ago. My rickety upright out of tune piano has been replaced with a Steinway that easily cost $200,000. My fingers itch to play it, so much that my eyes burn with tears at the thought. It's been awhile since I've had one of those babies under my fingers.
"Could someone please explain to me how my entire apartment has changed while I slept?" I ask. "Wait, is this paranormal thing a bit, and you're actually part of an HGTV remodeling show?"
"H...G... what?" Leave it to Rune to be confused by everything and confirm that, no, I'm not on a reality show.
Darius looks up from a book he's reading. "The chosen one needed better accommodations," he says, simply, as if that explains everything.
Rune approaches with a plate--bone china, mind you--filled with chicken, a fresh salad and a side of grilled vegetables. "You must eat and replenish your strength."
"How'd you cook without power?" I ask, my stomach rumbling as I take a seat on the new couch and sigh at how comfortable it is.
"You now have a barbeque on your balcony," Rune says. "And you have a balcony."
I raise an eyebrow, and glance out the new door leading to said balcony. This isn't possible. "Where did all this stuff come from?" I ask, studying my surroundings. "It wasn't easy," Zev says, "but we're resourceful."
"How did I not hear this? How did you add a balcony and change wallpaper and redo my floors in just a few hours while my baby and I slept through it all?"
"We have our ways," Rune says. "Ways that would not be comprehensible to your kind."
I shake my head, entirely bemused and befuddled, but also slightly ravenous.
The food is delicious and I make quick work of it. Rune is on hand to take my plate back to my entirely renovated kitchen. The apartment is still small, but it no longer feels that way. Everything is high quality and top of the line. I feel... pampered. It's a strange sensation and I don't know how to respond.
"What happened to my personal stuff?" I ask, looking around, my eyes landing on my family portrait with relief. I walk over, still careful with my stiff and fragile body, and study the four of us. "This was the last picture taken of us before my mom died," I say to the room, not really caring who's listening. "The day we had it done she and I had gotten into a huge fight. I don't even remember what about, just that I was still in a pissy mood when the photographer showed up."
I study my young face, all tween angst and drama. But my mom, she's glancing down at me with such fierce love. Sometimes this image is the only one I can clearly remember of her, the way the right side of her lip curls higher than the left when she smiles, and the tiny scar on her forehead that had a different story to it every time I asked her how she got it. She and I share the same bright blue eyes and dark hair, the same pale complexion. We both take after my grandmother, who is clutching my grandfather's hand in the portrait. "My grandparents raised me after my mom died," I say. I'll need to visit my grandmother soon. Introduce her to Rain. She may not remember us, but I want her to know her great-granddaughter nonetheless.
"Anything personal was kept," Zev says. "The rest was tossed."
Right. I really hope these guys know how to tell the difference between what's personal and what's not.
Now that I've eaten my fill, I can no longer resist the temptation of that piano, regardless of how they acquired all this shit in a black out snow storm.
"You didn't rob anyone, did you?" I ask, suddenly worried as I make my way to the piano bench.
Darius chuckles. "No. We have no need for that. Everyone was well compensated."
"Much of this was accomplished by magic," Rune says with a shrug, as if that explains it all.
As long as they didn't steal it, I'm satisfied enough to enjoy it for now. I let my fingers run over the ivory keys, closing my eyes as my memories drift back to my time in New York, to the life that could have been... if I hadn't gotten pregnant. If my grandfather hadn't died. If...if...if.
Too many ifs. I shove them away and begin to play. I start with something easy to warm up. I haven't had much time for this since I've been back. But as muscle memory kicks in, I move to more complicated pieces, finally landing on Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, one of the hardest piano pieces ever written. Everything disappears and I lose myself in the complex notes, reveling in the way my body feels, the way the music fills the apartment, the way I connect to the instrument like I am one with it. When I finish, there is a profound silence in the room, and I turn to see all three guys staring at me in wonder.
Darius exhales a breath he seems to have been holding in. "I have never in my significantly long life heard anything so beautiful." His voice is soft, almost a breath against my mind, and his praise fills something in me that has been empty for far too long. I fall into the feeling, wishing I could have had the life that was once promised to me.
Before.
The mood is broken by the sound of someone knocking at the door.
Who's here now? I don't get this many visitors on a normal day, let alone in the middle of a freaking blizzard.
The guys exchange worried glances, and I sigh and go to answer.
My childhood bestie stands at the threshold, mascara running down her cheeks, long blond hair pulled into a messy bun, her clothing disheveled.
"AJ?" My gaze falls to the blood seeping through a bandage tied haphazardly around her arm. "What the hell?"
"Can I stay here for a few days?" she asks, sniffling. "John shot me."