The Gift She Gives

Author's Note: Dear readers! Thank you for your comments so far. As this is a story that I feel strongly needs to be written a certain way, some chapters are going to be much less sexual in nature and more character development. Don't let these chapters fool you, though...she is at a sex spa, after all.

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Chapter 5

When the sun finally peeked into the sky the next morning, Vesper heard movement in the bedroom and then a gasp as someone, a female, had seen the damage that she had caused a few hours before. She sighed and moved her head back to rest against the tall side of the tub. She'd left the bath over an hour ago, but had only gotten as far as the fluffy soft bathmat in front of it, her body wrapped in a soft, tan-colored towel. Her tired, violet eyes moved to the doorway when a short, red-haired woman appeared wearing the outfit of a maid. Of course he would have his servants dress in uniforms. Ostentatious, narcissistic, pompous, arrogant, pig-headed, sexy ass. Wait. Sexy? Ugh, that damn dream. He was not sexy, he was evil. Angel was also not an appropriate descriptor, Vesper thought as the woman looked down at her with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Ma chère, are you all right?" The woman's French accent made Vesper move her lips slightly up at each side and she nodded rather lazily.

"Oui, je prenais un bain." Vesper said as she tilted her head to the side to indicate the tub behind her.

"It looks like a beast ate your bedding, ma chère, I can get that fixed for you." The woman walked a little farther into the bathroom and frowned as she looked over at the broken jars on the floor.

"Don't bother. I'm liable to just do it again." Vesper muttered, frowning when the young pretty woman bent to pick up a particularly sharp piece of a jar.

"My name is Deandra. This is quite dangerous. Please be careful until I can get it picked up."

Vesper shook her head and sighed, leaning over to grab a shard of glass herself. "It's not dangerous, see."

She took the sharp glass and sliced it quickly across the back of her arm. Deandra screeched a little as she moved her empty hand to her mouth at seeing the strange looking girl cut herself, a red line showing quickly on her otherwise smooth skin. Backing up, the maid turned and ran from the room, and Vesper sighed and dropped the shard back into the pile with the rest. It had hurt, the cut she'd made, but it had gotten her alone again. It was completely healed before more than just a little line of blood had dripped from it.

A few moments later, she heard heavy footsteps approach the bathroom door and she looked up slowly to see that Mr. Hughes had been summoned, and he was staring down at her with his irritation filled eyes and a frown on his face.

"Henry Poole today, I see." She said, gazing up at his perfectly fitted suit.

"Why are you harassing my staff?" He sounded grumpy, and a little tired, good. She felt exhausted.

"I just want to be left alone." Vesper shrugged, she felt all out of sorts here.

"Deandra is very busy, she doesn't have the time to constantly fix your bed or the things that you decide to break. If you want to be left alone, just pick up the phone and dial 5 and you can let her know. There's no need for this." He waved his hand at her and the jars she'd shattered.

"You," She pointed at him, "Make me feel like someone I don't even know."

"How so?"

"I have always been very...timid. I don't like feeling angry like this, lost like this. I don't like feeling like I have to stick up for myself. I just, I just feel off." She shrugged and slowly stood up, keeping the towel wrapped tightly around her, he had gotten enough of a show last night.

"You don't normally have pillow fights with yourself in the middle of the night?" She was almost positive that the left side of his mouth tilted up just ever so slightly, but she was definitely sure of the slight sparkle that came to his eyes as he spoke.

"I've never had a pillow fight in my life." She shook her head.

"So I bring pillow fights out in you?" He took a step forward and she was instantly slapped with a sting that hit her body and whipped her backwards and she fell into the tub. She could feel the back of her head hit the side and as it healed, she was shouting at him not to touch her, dear God, just him being close was too much.

Mr. Hughes frowned as he waited impatiently for her to slowly get back to her feet, this time, she moved herself to sit on the edge of the tub.

"There is something so wrong with you." She muttered and felt him tense a little and take a slow step back.

"What are your intentions now, Vesper?" He asked, changing the subject the moment that she had moved it to him and the fact that she felt like she was getting hit by a dump truck every time he got close to her.

"My intentions? I-I don't know. You were supposed to be able to tell me who I was, what I was. I was supposed to come here and find out why I'm like I am. You've answered some questions, but I don't feel like I've gotten a single answer that's actually helpful. And I don't think I'm going to get one from you, am I?" She looked at him, hating the fact that her lower lip trembled as he frowned down at her, a deep steady breath making his chest rise and fall as he thought on his response.

"So you're leaving?" He hadn't even tried to hide the sound of his approval of her departure.

Vesper shrugged, "I think so."

"Where will you go?"

"Zheng, the dragon, he said that he would help me get settled somewhere. I have a way to contact him." She nodded to herself, that's what she would do.

"I will have my plane at your disposal today, just dial for Deandra when you are ready to leave." He spoke in a voice that held little to no emotion this time, and Vesper widened her eyes as he turned and left the room without another word. Gosh, how contrary could one person get?

"Wow." She muttered as she stood up and left the bathroom. She would get dressed and then make her call. She knew that while Zheng was leaving Anya's home today, he had said that he wasn't leaving the area just yet and would make himself available to her if she should need him.

An hour later, with a little bit of breakfast in her stomach that had been delivered on a tray by a non-amused looking Deandra, who had scoffed at her pathetic attempt at an apology, Vesper was downstairs, walking about ten feet behind Mr. Hughes as he led the way towards the airstrip where he had a plane waiting to take her to Illinois. Zheng was in Chicago, and he had requested that she meet him there.

"Wait." Vesper said in a weird groan. He was quite a distance from her now and she shouldn't be able to feel anything, but she did, a weird fuzzy burn had started to crawl up her skin from her feet upwards. Each step forward was making it worse, so she stopped where she was.

"What?" He stopped walking and turned around to face her.

"Can you, can you turn and walk towards your left, over by that bush? I'm feeling pain, and I think it's coming from you." She explained, pointing in the direction she wanted him to go.

"I'm a pretty good distance from you already, I shouldn't be affecting you." Mr. Hughes frowned, his brows furrowed as he looked at her.

"Well, I'm not imagining it." She hissed, thankful that he finally did as she asked and moved well out of her way.

Vesper took a steadying breath, and hiking her backpack a little further upper shoulder, over the sweater that hid her bound wings, she moved her feet forward again. The sizzling crack going through her body caused her to cry out and she stopped walking. What was happening? The angel was too far away from her to be what was causing the sensations in her body, why was she feeling pain? Tears in her eyes, she looked over at the angel where he stood watching her with confusion in his eyes. Shaking her head, she stayed right where she was, too afraid to take one more step forward.

"It can't possibly be me that is causing you pain. You truly have never felt like this before meeting a nonhuman?" Mr. Hughes took a few step towards her but still stayed a safe distance away.

Vesper shook her head furiously, "I have never felt like this before, no. This hurts more than when I touched Shu, and when you get close to me the pain starts in my torso. Every time I step forward, I feel like my feet and my legs are on fire and the sensation just keeps getting higher every time I move. I don't understand."

She knew she was crying, But there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to leave here, she wanted to leave him. But how could she do that when every step she took away from the spa caused her body to react with severe pain? Vesper let the backpack slide off her shoulder as she looked at Mr. Hughes with wide eyes filled with her grief.

"Let's go back to the patio and I'll wait there while you try again." Mr. Hughes suggested, and he slowly began to make his way back towards the mansion.

Vesper shrugged, and left her backpack where it was as she turned around and walked back towards the mansion. She knew that Mr. Hughes was trying to make sure to leave a good distance between the two of them, and she was thankful for that. He stood near the doorway to the dining room as she stepped up onto the concrete tiles of the patio, her eyes on him the whole time.

"Are you still feeling pain?" Mr. Hughes asked as he put his hands behind his back.

Vesper shook her head, though she desperately wanted it not to be true, she was terrified that for some reason she wasn't going to be able to leave the spa. "I'm not in any pain right now. The burning stopped when I started walking back this way."

"Well, try again. Go ahead and walk towards the plane and I will stay here." Mr. Hughes nodded at her, encouraging her to take a few steps back towards the airstrip.

Vesper took a deep breath and looked towards the eastern side of the property where she could see the white plane waiting to take her away from here. She desperately wanted to get on board, she didn't feel like herself here, she felt frustrated and angry and she spoke to people and did things that she never would have done before. Shuffling her feet into movement, Vesper slowly began to make her way east again and at first, like before, there was no pain. However, when she was about 5 feet from where she'd left her backpack, she started to feel that uncomfortable sizzle in her toes and feet. By the time she reached her backpack, the pain had intensified to a point where she could walk no further. Picking up the bag, She held it at her side, turned around, and walked back to where Mr. Hughes had waited on the back patio.

"I'm going to walk out the front door, and maybe if I go that way, whatever is blocking me will disappear." She told him and walked past him into the dining room, knowing he followed her as she made her way towards the front.

Vesper ignored several guests wearing nothing but white robes as she walked through the foyer and then placed her hand on the knob to the front door, pulling it open quickly. She turned her head and bit her lip as she looked back at Mr. Hughes who was looking at her with curiosity in his gray eyes. Shaking her head ever so slightly, she stepped out onto the front walkway and walked down the stairs onto the curved driveway that circled the front of the building. Vesper was pleased that she was able to turn left and walk quite a distance along the drive. But when she reached the edge of the spa and began to take the well manicured walkway that would lead her to the airstrip, she felt that familiar burning sensation on her feet. Groaning she turned around and looked at where Mr. Hughes had been walking slowly a good distance behind her. Her tears fell unencumbered down her cheeks and she shook her head at him desperately.

"Why can't I leave? I don't want to be here, you don't want me here. Why can't I leave?" Vesper's voice broke as she spoke to the man who was frowning at her.

"Wait here a moment, Vesper." Mr. Hughes said before turning around and walking back into the mansion.

She walked back towards the spa, at least enough to get the burning sensation to disappear. Mr. Hughes didn't come back immediately, so she sat down on one of the decorative boulders that ran along the front of the mansion. Whatever this burning sensation was, whatever was causing it, it wasn't just being close to Mr. Hughes anymore. There had to be something about this place that was causing her pain, but she couldn't understand what. She'd never even been here before. And a place shouldn't affect her like this.

When the front door opened and Mr. Hughes walked outside with a tall black haired woman dressed in a long brown skirt and a flowing pink shirt over her gently rounded abdomen, Vesper stood back up. She watched as they walked towards her, and noticed that shortly after, a taller and slightly thinner man wearing a light gray robe appeared from the front door and also walked towards her. Vesper could tell immediately that he was nonhuman, because his eyes were overly large and his ears were pointed a lot like hers.

"Vesper, this is Shi, she is one of my employees, and this is her husband, Faeron, I have asked them to drive you to Toronto. I do not know what is causing you to not be able to go to my plane, but maybe if we try something else..." Mr. Hughes had stopped walking about eight or so feet from Vesper, but the woman had walked a little closer.

"It's nice to meet you, Vesper. I'm sorry that your visit here hasn't been very pleasant. Hopefully we can get you on your way soon." Shi smiled pleasantly of Vesper, and they both turned to watch as a sedan pulled to the front of the house and a man with a polo shirt that had the spa's emblem on it got out from behind the wheel and handed the keys to Shi.

"Faeron doesn't like to drive. You may sit in the passenger side seat if you'd like." Shi walked over to the driver's door and watched as Vesper bit her lip, looking at the vehicle with a little bit of concern and her eyes.

"We will drive very slowly, and if you should feel anything, anything at all, we will stop the car quickly." Faeron had moved close to Vesper's side and she was happy that she didn't feel any fuzzy sensations towards him. She didn't think she could take any more right now. Her emotions were wreaking havoc inside of her.

"I'll sit in the back if that is okay with you." Vesper moved towards the door and nodded her thanks when the tall man opened it for her.

Shifting her body inside, Vesper put her backpack at her side and then pulled on her seatbelt as the couple climbed into the front. She waited quietly as Shi shifted the car into drive and ever so slowly, the woman began to pull the car around the circle drive. Vesper was hopeful, But she knew all the muscles in her body were tensed, waiting to see if she would once again feel the burning sensations from before. The car had shifted to the left and the mansion was to their backs and Vesper had just taken a shaky breath of air when she felt the first bits of fire in the tips of her toes.

"Stop, stop. Don't go any farther. It's starting to burn." Vesper whimpered and put a hand on the seat in front of her.

Shi immediately stopped the car and put it in reverse and moved them several feet back the way they came. Her husband looked out the window and around them and then back towards the left of the property somewhere. Shaking his head he turned to look at Vesper.

"It looks like you're only able to go about 20 feet from the property before you start to experience pain. This has never happened to you before?" The man asked.

Vesper shook her head, "No, before a few days ago I didn't even know non-humans existed. Now I can't seem to get away from them."

Her frustration was making her testy, and and Vesper knew that she was being a little short with people who were only trying to help her. It made her lower lip tremble and she felt fresh tears fill her eyes as she looked at the two in front of her in the car. She wasn't being fair to them, And it was mostly because of the way Mr. Hughes had made her feel since she came here. She had to stop letting him affect her like this. It wasn't his fault that she was who she was, he certainly hadn't expected her to exist, he'd told her that enough times. And as irritated as he seemed to be with her, Vesper had no reason to continue to be upset with him. When she had said that she wanted to leave the spa, he had immediately done everything in his power to make that happen. It wasn't his fault that every step she took away from it caused her such immense pain.

"I don't think that you'll be able to leave, Vesper. Unless you think that you can handle the pain of doing so." Faeron frowned as he looked from his wife to the woman in the back of the car.

Vesper sniffed, wanting to sob but knowing this wasn't the place for it, "No, I don't suppose I can. It only gets worse the farther away I am."

"I'm sorry, Vesper. Until we can figure this out, I want you to know that those of us that live here will be more than happy to give you the help you need to be comfortable." Shi spoke gently, knowing the girl in the back was close to crying.

Vesper nodded, and then opened the door and got out of the car. She walked back towards the mansion, her backpack swinging lazily from her hand as she slowly approached where Mr. Hughes was standing near the front door. He shifted back a few feet as she approached, and furrowed a brow as she gave him a miserable look.

"I can't leave. I'd like to go back to my room now." She muttered, hoping that the misery that she felt inside was not totally apparent on her face.

Thankfully, Mr. Hughes didn't seem to have anything more to say and he simply nodded at her and waved a hand towards the open doorway. Vesper walked through it and immediately went to the staircase, walking up several flights before she was in front of the double doors that would lead to the room where she had stayed the previous night. When she was back in her room, she let the backpack fall to the floor as she walked over to the bed that had been made after she'd left the room. Climbing on top of the soft mattress, Vesper laid down on her stomach on top of the bed spread and let her face fall forward onto the pillow near the headboard. She didn't stop the tears that fell, nor did she try to quell the sobs the tore from her throat. This was not what she had been expecting. Her mother had died, and while she had spent her entire life knowing that she was different from other people, the knowledge of just how very different she was had overwhelmed her. She'd come here for answers, and now just had more questions. She knew that Mr. Hughes did not want her here, though it was obvious now that he couldn't make her leave, even though they both wanted her gone.

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That first day, Vesper spent most of her time in her bedroom, undisturbed by the other residents of the mansion. Eventually, she started to feel a little suffocated and began to walk around the third floor of the mansion, slowly making her way towards a staircase that led up to the rooftop that had been finished off for use by the visitors of the spa. There were wide open spaces with benches and chairs placed along the sides so that whoever wanted to could sit and look out at the beautiful landscape surrounding the spa. Near the center, in an area that would be above the front door of the mansion, there was a large stone canopied area that had what looked like a massive mattress resting in the center of it.

She found herself sitting on one of the benches, finally finding a little peace as she looked out over the tree line along the back of the property. Beyond that, she could see the beginnings of a somewhat mountainous area to the north. As she sat on the bench, she tried not to think about what the mattress was used for. This was a sex spa, and she figured every bed in this place had probably been used at one time or another for that purpose.