Sanctity

Chapter 27

I lay completely still when I woke though I wasn't sure I could have moved even if I had wanted to. Michael was sound asleep and wrapped around me. We were a tangle of arms and legs pretzeled together in the darkness. I smiled thinking that this was the first time I had seen Michael rest. His face was always the last thing I saw before I fell asleep and the first thing I saw when I woke.

He looked impossibly beautiful as I studied his features one by one.

"I'm not asleep," he nibbled my ear teasingly, startling me out of my reverie.

"Do you ever sleep?"

"Sometimes, not like you, though. You look carved from stone when you rest; you look...eternal."

I tried to sit up, "Where's Margaret? Can I see her?"

"Whoa," Michael said and tugged me back down. "Yes, we can go visit her but not right now. She's home and quite alright I assure you."

"I need to see for myself," I tried to escape again.

"Elayna, you can't. Not yet anyway. The police think you are out of town. I told them you were visiting family up North and that I haven't been able to reach you just yet. I had to have them believe that you weren't aware of anything that happened; that you weren't involved in any way. It has to be this way. Charlie was arrested; you know what that means don't you? He may have to have a trial and you...you can't testify during the day."

I buried my face in my hands, "Oh, this is awful. Michael, you have to tell me everything that happened."

"There's not much to tell, Elayna. The police came and took Charlie away. Margaret went to the hospital she was treated and released. We gave our statements and that was the end of it. I brought Margaret home and came straight here. This is magnificent, by the way," he ran his fingers over the leaden drapes, "Victor..."

"You're keeping something from me."

Michael sighed, "Elayna," he shook his head. There was a long drawn out pause, "It was for the best."

"What Michael?!" I demanded.

He closed his eyes, "I...I didn't make him forget. I didn't even try."

"You what?"

"He knows...he knows everything."

"Oh, no!! Has he said anything? What will people do when they find out about us?"

"No one is going to find out. Charlie is...Charlie is...he's not together."

"He's crazy?!"

Michael was shaking his head, "It was for the best, Elayna. Everything that happened last night, it was for the best."

My eyes went wide with understanding, "It was planned! You planned it! You knew everything that would happen and you let it?! Good God, Michael, how could you do that? You let Charlie shoot Margaret and... oh, oh, if you hadn't stopped me I would have killed Charlie for hurting her."

"No, I didn't plan anything, Elayna, how could I? I suspected the way things would turn out, yes and given the choices between killing Charlie, putting him in jail for a few years so he could do this all over again and putting him somewhere safe for the rest of his life; I think I made the right choice! Victor tried to make him forget and we all know how that turned out. What if I couldn't do it or it wore off?"