FICTION SERIES

#3 Blood of the Covenant — Chapter 2: Helpless Puppy

A paranormal fantasy

I awoke.

I registered the warm touch of his soft fingertips as he gently stroked my arm from shoulder to elbow; so slowly yet so, regretfully. I was more comfortable and content than I had been for as long as I could remember, though, at that moment, that was the only moment I could remember. The soft satin of a pillow cradled my head and the blanket draped over my body wrapped me in its warm embrace.

“Morning.” His voice was low, barely more than a whisper in my ear. I enjoyed his breath on my cheek.

As I opened my eyes, the sun stung as if I was looking directly into it with a high focus telescope; blinding pain. I reached out and cringed as best I could but my body did not seem to cooperate.

“Don’t open them yet,” he whispered in my ear and I obeyed without hesitation. He propped my listless body up against his. Something slipped along my temples and came to rest over my ears. I heard him say, “OK,” and assumed it was his reassurance to try again. I tentatively opened my eyes expecting the same harsh biting burn of the sun’s rays. The room was still bright though it seemed to have dulled. “Your eyes will adjust in time,” he assured me.

I grasped at the sunglasses; how silly, we are indoors! With my uncooperative hands, I hit myself in the temple, dislodging the glasses, and a flash of brilliant, stinging light stabbed at me with ferocious intensity. I tried to shield my face from the onslaught and only succeeded in again smacking myself in the forehead. So completely frustrating.

He straightened the glasses with one hand and caught my flailing fist with his other. “You need them, trust me,” he said. I did trust him. I do not know why, it is rather inexplicable, but I immediately trusted him.

A sudden reverberating pain shuddered through my face.

A loud snarl startled me; it was frighteningly close. Throaty, yet… young? Ominous and threatening while laughably cute. Like a puppy letting out its first growl. It was followed by a laugh — his laugh.

He leaned close to my ear, his cheek brushing mine. “It will get easier, I promise,” he soothed.

I felt like a rag-doll carelessly chucked on the bed. My left hand folded backward awkwardly at the wrist, punching into the soft bedding at my side while my right arm draped unflatteringly across my chest and over my left shoulder. I tried to sit up but my arms were paralyzed. But he was there to help me in an instant. As he moved me, my head lolled like a fresh corpse and my right hand kept carelessly smacking my face. It would have been comical had I not felt so damn stupid and useless.

With beautiful care and determined intent, he struggled to mold me into a less compromising position. My legs ungracefully twisted with the sheets. My neck felt strangely stiff yet, jelly soft. Frustrated and embarrassed, my cheeks blazed with heat.

Despite my inability to control my limbs, apparently, my facial expressions hid nothing. He laughed gently, apologized, and in one swift movement — too swift, too exact, not normal, I thought — released me from my tomb and set me on his lap at the edge of the bed. I felt like a child though my helpless embarrassment quickly dissolved into contentment.

He repositioned my head so that it rested on his shoulder. Perfect comfort achieved. I attempted to shift my weight slightly and as if knowing my intent, almost before I did, he shifted his own posture so that I remained safely nested in his embrace. He was holding me with such care that I felt an overwhelming sense of protection and safety.

I closed my eyes and let my mind drift again.

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Chapter 3: Confused Puppy

I pulled my hand away. My hand, not yours. Don’t touch.

“Please tell me,” he pleaded. Go away. You confuse me!

I used all my strength to fold my arms limply across my chest and he waited patiently. His face came down close to mine, too close, yet strangely not close enough.

Copyright © 2021 Kai Parker (adapted from Awakening by Porle Joen — also me, lol). 2021 queer reworking — LGBTQ2SAI+ Paranormal Fantasy.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.