Rapture

Bath

I go around the side he's at, lift my leg and step in the wooden tub. The hot water stings the cut skin of my feet in cleansing.

I lower myself slowly - very aware of the open wounds I got from the werewolf's claws across my back. The cuts are already burning with pain. The thought of having these water pouring in them makes my body harden.

I snap my gaze aside to him. Is seeing me squirm the whole point?

Muscle and bones are pronounced on his naked body with imposing sharpness. The scars along his wide chest and deadly arms are almost as many as those across his back. But these seem strewn at random, crisscrossing with one another. All of them dark with burns.

His golden eyes catch mines, and he steps in the tub behind me.

I shove myself to the other end of the tub, turning quickly to him. Water splash out, and I yelp in pain as they get in my back.

"You're hurting yourself."

He leans back against the tub, spreading his arms along its rims.

"I'll hurt myself as much as I need to. I am no one's slave."

I answer, the strength of my voice surprising me. An eyebrow of silver hairs arches at me, then he laughs.

"If I wanted a slave, you were a slave already."

I shudder even as the back of my neck sweats from the warmth of the tub.

"What do you want from me?"

"Turn around, you have an open wound."

"Are you a vampire?" I ask. The gold of his eyes fumes, and the water steams. The sudden heat spreading from him making the water scalding against my skin.

"You dare compare me to bloodleeching pests?" His voice echoes in the room like a thunder. I shrivel back against the end of the wooden tub, whimpering in pain when I get the now hotter water in the cuts again.

"What do you want with my wound then?"

He breathes in deep, and lets out a long sigh.

"To close it."