Loathe and Lust

Chapter 6

Anya woke up some time later to Ryder's strangled scream that tore right through her soul.

She woke with a start to find Him on the other side of the bed. From the dim light of the moon, Anya could see his tormented face. He was sleeping but he was having a nightmare.

"No!" He groaned. "No, do not take her away from me!"

From these words Anya leapt into motion and with all the strength she could muster, she took him into her lap and soothed his hair off his face.

"Ryder! Wake up! It's just a dream! My love, please wake up!" She shook him.

He woke with a start and began fighting off her but she held him so tightly, leaning down to the level of his ear.

"Shhh. It was just a dream." She spoke softly and soothingly unto his ear.

"Anya?" His voice was hoarse, as if choked off from emotion.

"I am here, darling, I am here." She rocked him to and fro, murmuring reassuring words unto his ear until his state of mind was wiped off any nightmarish thoughts.

He closed his eyes, gripping tightly unto her hands, as if fighting off the last of his demons until finally he relaxed.

"Oh, Anya, I thought they took you away from me?" His voice was still hoarse.

"They?" She asked.

Suddenly he began to weep. Anya was so shocked that he would cry, she stayed still for a moment, his tears ripping right through her.

"They were here. The King and your father's men. They were taking you away from me!" His voice shook with violent sobs.

Anya felt his anguish lacing through her own pain receptor and she could not hold the tears as she shed for his agony.

"No one shall take me away from you. Absolutely no one." She reassured him, wiping the last of his tears from his face as well as her own.

For a splitting moment she wanted to tell him about the plans those men had made about raiding his house. But she held her tongue realising it will only set his fears again.

People said Ryder was cold blooded and that he did not have a heart.

Oh how so wrong they were.

He was warm and full of heart just like them, maybe even more than they did.

They did not see him the way she did, they only saw an assassin, but there was more to him than that. He was tormented by guilt and demonic thoughts of being unwanted.

He needed someone to love him. He needed reassurance that being this cold-blooded killer was not all that was of him.

She realised it then that his dream was sort of the opposite. Those men were not coming to take her away. No, they were planning to take him away from her.

Oh. An ache seared through her heart, this pain so much greater than the agony of watching her parents die. No this anguish was so real and so alive within her, it set her fears free.

It was this realisation that she might lose him that freed these fears.

She hugged him so tightly, trying to repress the tears that were brimming within her eyes. Her face was pressed on his neck and she kissed the skin there as if reassuring herself that he was still here alive.

Suddenly, he shifted the position they were in and brought her close into his arms. His chin and nose were pressed on top of her head and he took an intake of breath from her hair.