Chapter Six
Cloak and Dagger
Dais walked through the long passage ways of the tunnels he called home. His cloak fell away from his chest, moving along in the breeze his movements stirred up. Bare chest rising and falling rapidly, he stopped and leaned against the cold cement of the tunnel.
Dear god, what have I done? He put one hand up to stop himself from hyperventilating. These days he seemed full of nothing but mistakes. Kidnapping that guy with the knife, then trading him his life for his girlfriends? What the hell had gotten into him? I thought..I thought he would just leave. I had no idea he would actually bring the girl to me! Two hands reached up to his head, and ripped the hood violently down, he needed to think desperately. She had gotten wounded because of him, and he had saved her life. They were even now right?
Breath still eluding him, he straightened himself up. He needed desperately to think. Nothing made sense. Dragging himself through the tunnels, Dais rounded a corner, reaching the large internal spillway of the sewer system. Fifty feet below his feet, thirty five thousand gallons of water a moment rushed. This was his quiet spot. When things got to noisy, from the sounds of the city above his head, or the noises inside his head, this place cleared them all away.
Staring below, red eyes half closed he wondered not for the first time why he had invited her to stay. It just did not seem to make sense. Another life form in his sanctuary? Atrocious!
"You owe her dammit man." he shouted to himself, it coming out as a soft roar. Back in the room with drapes, Briar looked around for the source of the odd noise. Figuring it to be a car above her head, she shrugged it off, and returned to her book.
At the edge of the spillway, Dais gripped the edge of the tunnel walls, his breath returning somewhat to normal. So many years, so many years he had been alone in his world. Now in only two days he had brought two strangers to his nest, and had invited one to stay. He was moving things too fast! For gods sake, he had removed her clothes, for medical purposes of course but it was still bizarre for him to have to do so! He had even slept beside her! After stitching up the wound, he had lain beside her for but a moment, then had awoken hours later, curled next to her moving form.
"I slept beside her." realization rang through his voice, widening his eyes. Dais had never slept beside someone in his entire life. A blush ran across his face. No one had ever gotten that close to him, and in such a vulnerable way. The mere thought made him dizzy, and he swooned forward. Hands whipping out to find the tunnels edges once again, he hung his head, trying to catch his thoughts as they spiraled about his head.
"I must never do that again. She will be disgusted with herself once she comes to her senses. Sleeping beside a monster, who ever heard of such a thing." he sighed. The darkness of the tunnel brought clarity to his mind as it always had before. Sharpening his mind to the razor it had been since birth. Below his feet, the swirling of the spillway was the only sound, soft as a distant storm.