Kapitel 9: Salve

Gabriel carried Megan up the stairs and down the hall. She lay quietly in his arms. He breathed carefully, determined to not let the claim flair up too aggressively, especially right now when she was injured and requiring looking after. As soon as they stepped through the bedroom door, he saw the medical supplies along with water and clean cloths sitting on the floor near the bench at the end of the bed.

Megan tried to not think past one breath at a time trying to desperately hang on to her sense of calm. She knew that as soon as she lost her grasp on it, she would start shaking like a leaf. She didn't understand what was happening but knew that this situation wasn't normal. Gabriel wasn't normal and nothing that looked so terrifying could be good.

Gabriel set her down on the bench at the end of the bed and then knelt on the floor at her feet. She was confused about what he was doing but then he lifted her foot and began washing the blood and dirt off with warm water. Megan watched him cautiously. Why was he helping her? It didn't make sense, but she didn't fight him since she needed to save her energy for when he attacked her. Megan didn't really think she had much chance against Gabriel, but she needed to be able to at least try.

Gabriel had washed and dried the first foot. Most of the bleeding had stopped. He opened a jar of some type of salve that smelled funny and caused her nose to tingle. He rubbed it along the cuts on the first foot. She made a face as he worked.

"I know, it smells kind of off but it's really effective." Gabriel told Megan looking up at her. His eyes were that pale ice blue again. How could his eyes keep changing color like that?

Megan didn't answer but continued to watch him as he opened a gauze roll and wrapped her foot securely.

Gabriel rose with the bowl of dirty water. "I'll be right back. Please don't run." He waited for a response from her, but she had nothing to give and finally he sighed walking into bathroom.

Gabriel walked back into the room with a fresh bowl of water. He sat back down in front of Megan noticing the small puddle of blood on the floor by the foot he hadn't cleaned yet. He went to work getting the grime off finding a deeper cut that he held a cloth to so he could slow the bleeding. He put the salve on the smaller cuts and a larger amount on the deeper one. The bleeding stopped quickly after that.

Megan watched as Gabriel wrapped the second foot before rising and cleaning up the pieces of garbage and dirty clothes one of which he had used to wipe the blood off the floor. He dumped the water out of the bowl in the sink and set it on the first aid kit.

Gabriel picked Megan up, alarming her for an instant. "Easy, I am just moving you, so you don't open your cuts back up. Don't worry, you'll be healed by the morning."

"It will be days before I can walk normally. If I have that long." Megan muttered. She had enough scuffles with her siblings to know how long injuries took to heal.

"That salve is magical stuff; you will be fine in the morning. Let's get you to bed. I'm sure you could use the rest." Gabriel told her quietly.

Megan felt the mattress underneath her a moment later as she was sat on the bed. Gabriel walked around the other side of the bed, kicked his house shoes off and lay down. After a moment, Megan lay down feeling stiff. Gabriel switched the light off before turning toward her. She felt him moving closer slowly and tried to determine what to do.

"Are you comfortable the way you are laying Megan?" Gabriel asked.

"What?" Megan glanced toward him but couldn't see him clearly.

"You look uncomfortable. You won't be able to sleep like that." Gabriel added his voice deep and even.

Megan sighed, turning to her side away from him and attempting to get more comfortable. It wasn't easy knowing what she had seen and that he was behind her.

Gabriel moved again and she started. "Easy." Gabriel placed a hand on her waist but didn't move any closer. "Why did you run?"

Megan scoffed, "I saw your eyes and your..." She shuddered.

"It's been a taxing day for you. I'm sure that things are jumbled up in your head. Get some sleep. You are safe here." Gabriel all but whispered trying to soothe her fear.

Megan wasn't jumbled, she knew what she had seen. Didn't she? Why would a monster take such care of her injuries though? Everything about this place and this man was dark and uncomfortable like she was looking at it through stained glass. One minute Megan felt intense terror and the next she forgot why she was afraid in the first place.

Megan had never felt so off balance in her life. What was Gabriel hiding? Was he a monster or a man? Megan's thoughts churned along this line with answers becoming less clear with each circuit. Finally, after a long time she fell asleep. She didn't know it but as soon as she did, Gabriel slid close to her wrapping his arm around her before sleeping as well.

The next morning Megan woke up alone in bed. She looked around seeing the bright light filtering in from the glass doors of the balcony. She sat up looking more closely at the bright room, it was quite cheerful in the light of day. Megan noticed a small note on the bedside table. It told her that all the woman's clothes in the closet were hers and asked her to get dressed and join Gabriel in the room at the end of the corridor for breakfast.

Megan looked down at her feet thinking that they gave her a perfect excuse to ignore the note. Then she noticed they didn't hurt at all. Uncovering her feet Megan noticed that the wrappings had been removed and that her feet were completely healed. That was impossible, there was no way she had healed already and her feet were completely free of any sign of injury. Megan just stared at her feet in shock. How was this possible?

Megan climbed slowly out of bed testing her feet. It was like it had never happened. Feeling disoriented Megan went into the walk-in closet that turned out to be huge and picked some simple casual clothes which was jeans, a soft sweater, and a pair of sneakers. She went into the bathroom and got ready for the day.