I'm back. I know you thought I was done, but another year of med school is behind me and I finally have time to come back to this story. I'm still excited about where it's going and I hope those of you who are still with me will enjoy it also. This installment is a bit longer since I wanted to bring Shane and Cole back together after so long apart. I hope it doesn't feel rushed. I had intended to keep them apart a bit longer but sometimes your story surprises even you with where it's going.
To everyone who sent emails the last few years: thank you. I appreciated each and every one of them. A big part of why I came back to this was the motivation I got from your encouragement.
As always, please do tell me what you think of how I did. I haven't sat on this segment for as long as the others so I hope there aren't too many mistakes. Particularly I'm interested if I kept the continuity of the action scenes working even with the discontinuous timeline.
Thanks!
Eliya
******
She felt his fingertips on her calf, pulling the sheet away from her half-sleeping form. She shifted her body, trying to feel his against hers. His lips found the outside of her thigh and pressed feather light kisses up towards her waist. She willed her eyes to open so she could see him but they stayed closed. She felt his hand smooth across her stomach, inching maddeningly towards her breasts. His mouth continued up her body, kissing up her side. She wanted to move against him, feel his body against hers. She wanted him inside her again.
Shane rolled over in the empty bed. She reached out her hand, hoping to catch the last bits of the dream as she came back to full consciousness.
"Shit," she muttered to herself. It had been three days since he left and each day the dreams got more intense. Every moment, just before she woke up she could swear Cole was in the room with her. Shane lay in the tangled sheets a moment more. She was going to lose it down here.
She got up and paced the room, again. She itched to go outside. It was too much. She had tried to do as he said, stay below. She'd hate to admit to him later how she crept out at night, running along the abandoned warehouses, climbing gutters and swinging off of fire escapes. He'd understand, she thought, he must. She was back to strength. She needed room to run, a challenge or two. She winced a little, her fingers going to her side where the remnants of a bruise still lingered. Maybe she was taking too many challenges on. But she had felt so sure of herself. She had never jumped that far before but she saw the other rooftop like a beckoning challenge. She could make it, couldn't she? Shane winced again. She had repaired more than a few broken bones in the last day.
And yet...with all that energy expended she still felt restless. Even exhausting herself in every possible way wasn't enough to keep the dreams from coming, to keep her sleeping through the day. Summer was the worst. The sun never set. Her father had always been so content to close the doors and stay inside. She couldn't. Not now, not now that she felt free for the first time, even with all the cravings. She shook her head as that nagging thought, the one that said she'd feel better if she could have just a taste again, just another drop of Cole's blood. She looked down at her hands and sighed into a chair.
He told her the initial withdrawal would be bad but he'd forgotten that an addiction is more than just the physical need. She was edgy. She knew she didn't want it...she did.
She put her face in her hands. She wanted him back here so badly she could feel the frustration in the back of her throat and deep in her gut with a kind of physical discomfort that was unyielding. She told herself for the thousandth time that it was fine and he would be back. She reminded herself again that he had started it; he had kissed her, which must mean something. She knew, she told herself, that he cared for her and wanted to be with her too. He had only left because he had to. She knew that. She got up again. The swell of uncertainty built in her chest. She couldn't beat it down again. That voice inside her told her she was a fool to expect anything different from anyone. But he had left; he had left her here, just like so many others had. He promised, but others had made promises. She wished he hadn't left so soon. She wanted him back, next to her, above her, inside her. She blushed at the thought. She was pacing again without even realizing she had gotten up. She needed to get outside.
She grabbed the clothing Cole had brought while she was in withdrawal, shoving her bare feet into the canvas sneaker while she pulled a white t-shirt over her plain sports bra. She ran her hands over the jeans he bought for her and smiled. He seemed to have guess anything she wore would need to have a lot of stretch to keep up with her.
Shane reached up with her mind to the outdoors. The sun wasn't up yet. She could still get an hour's worth of time before it got too bright and forced her underground. It was now or never. She didn't even need to think about it. The restlessness of her body pushed her from the room.
Cole's workout room on the second floor had seen a little too much attention she decided immediately upon arriving in the large room. The punching bag was nice but she didn't feel like running drills right now. She told herself she'd just go out for an hour, just a quick run around, back before the sky got light. When the sun came up she would come back inside, she thought, eyeing the walls skeptically.
Moments later the wind was flying around her too fast for her to care. The world was open in front of her. She charged down another alley between warehouses, leapt up against the wall, using the force of her body to propel her onto the lid of a dumpster. With a dizzying move she pushed off, up the wall once more, grabbing the security bars that sloped out from a window on the second story. She swung her feet over her head in a wide arc before releasing, sailing through the air and hitting the ground as lightly as she could manage. She sprung from her spot again, throwing an uncaring laugh at the brightening sky. When she ran she was free of that horrible sensation, that feeling of anxious anticipation and overthinking herself sick.
She continued her flight, up and down, in and out of warehouses, up walls and over obstacles. She paused once or twice, hearing the rumble of cars on the highway across the water begin to pick up as the sky turned ever brighter. People would begin to appear in the stockyard for work. As it was she had to avoid the active night ports. She kept pushing it, a little further in towards the city, a little further towards the sounds of others. She sprang up to the windowsill, perching on the ledge and looking along the length of the building inside. Endless crates stretched out along the length of the building. Above, fixed to the ceiling, was a complicated crisscross of pulleys and cranes that would carry these huge containers to and fro. She gauged the jump and flung herself at a low-lying hook hanging from the rafters from 4 iron cables. Her left hand closed around the metal. She smiled and began making her way up the wavering cables into the rafters of the huge room. Some balancing practice, that's what she needed.
She was just about to make the final few feet of narrow metal beams towards the great doors at the far side of the warehouse when, with a huge groan of metal, the doors began to slide open. Shane cursed and crouched down on that rafter. Panic welled up inside her. What an idiot! The whole stockyard was at work. What time was it? She felt around outside. The sun was up, not too far but there were precious few minutes of shade left and she'd have to go over ground—which was now a huge problem because there were at least 25 people right outside. What had she been thinking? Couldn't she hear them? Wasn't she supposed to be paying attention?
So much for heightened senses if you aren't paying attention to them
. She stayed low, cursing herself in her head. The men were talking beneath her; machinery was rolling into the warehouse. Their day was beginning.
Shit, shit, shit, shit. Where to go? Can't stay here. Can't go back. They are outside on the left with a truck and arriving from the west corner. Up. Up is the only way. Maybe there is a roof close by, some way to make it over to an empty building.
