Aurelia awoke in a warm room. She opened her eyes groggily and felt the dull ache of her limbs and the sharpness of the scratches to her back.
When her eyes adjusted, she saw a huge fireplace to her left. It was hand carved mahogany, a thing of pure beauty and perfect craftmanship. The fire was the only source of light in the room.
She looked around to find herself in a four poster bed of similar work. Intricate vines carved into the wood cascading up to the cannopy of lace. The bed isteal was like floating on air. Aurelia was unsure if it was due to her exhaustion or if this bed was made by the gods.
With sudden realisation, Aurelia started to panic.
'Where am I?? How did I get here?!'
She began to push herself up off the bed, sitting up to be met with glowing golden eyes in the right hand corner of the room. Arelia flinched from them.
"Please, where am I?", she begged to know.
"Safe. I killed the savages who tried to defile you and brought you here. Nobody will harm you, I promise you Aurelia", a voice so smooth, soft and delicate was unlike anything Aurelia had ever heard before.
"You...", Aurelia remembered the four men who attacked her in the alley and groped at her body. Her hand instantly went to her neck where the greasy man licked her. She shuddered in disgust.
"Wait...", the sudden realisation that this man before her called her by her name.
"How do you know my name? Who are you?", her eyes struggled to adjust to see his face but was only met by the golden eyes.
Suddenly, he stood and walked over to her bedside. He was tall, possibly taller than Ola, with white blonde hair the was just above his shoulders. His face was almost as white as his hair, the darkness around his eyes only made them shine brighter in the fire light. His huge figure was intimidating but Aurelia was not afraid. She had no reason to be, if he intended to hurt her he would have done it by now surely.
"I know everything about you Aurelia." He said simply as he sat in the chair to the right of her bedside. With his being so close, Arelia could see that his eyes were not the same colour. It was only slight, but in his left eye was a scar. Faint and subtle, a white line through his iris and a hint of a scar underneath and above his eye.
"I have had a bath drawn for you to help with your wounds and your clothing is laid out on the trunk at the foot of your bed."
He motioned to a door behind him.
His face held no expression. He waited for Aurelia to say something but she was so taken aback by his utter beauty.
She stared at him with her mouth slightly agape and he stole a glance at her perfect rose lips.
He quickly averted his gaze and stood up to leave theoguh the door past the fireplace.
"Who are you?", Aurelia finally mustered some words from her awestruck face.
"All in due time, love", he said, not even turning to face her as he left, shutting the door silently behind him.
Aurelia waited a moment to make sure the beautiful man did not return. When satisfied, she hoisted herself off the bed onto her still sore feet. She crept towards the door the man motioned to and opened to then be englufed in steam.
A wooden tub in the centre of the room and a giant wirror wall to her left. This room also had no windows, the walls were lined with candelabras dripling with wax, hoisting huge candles. There were towels folded to the side of the tub. Aurelia could smell a wonderful concotion of herbs in the steam, it cleared her sinuses and drew her in.
Aurelia began to undress and caught sight of herself in the mirror. Bruises littered her petite little body. Bruises in the shape of the ghastly hands that tried to take her. She could feel the grip of them all again and began to silently sob to herself.
She turned her shoulder to get a good view of her back to find 4 large slashes from Ola, and a cloak of dried blood.
Aurelia couldn't take it anymore, she let out a cry and hugged herself. She couldn't look anymore. She walked toward the bath and lowered herself in to the hot waters.
Within seconds, Aurelia could feel the water warm her to her bones. She had not realised how cold she felt as the water burned her toes and fingertips. After soaking her whole body, Aurelia rested her arms on the sides of the bath and laid back, dipping her hair into the waters.
She glanced at her arms and breathed a sigh of relief. The burising had gone.
She looked down at her breast, remembering how they had gripped her so hard and her skin had turned back to milky white intead of the ugly purple tainted marks that she witnessed in the mirror.
Aurelia had dried herself, not glancing at the mirror again and went back to the room she woke in.
True to the beautiful mans words, he clothes were laid out on the box at the foot of the bed.