Chloe vaguely recalled rolling over to blow out the flickering candle with a quick puff of air, but after that, she'd given in to the tantalizing lure of sleep, thanks in no small part to the sated exhaustion that settled in her limbs and tugged at her eyelids. She slept a deep, dreamless sleep, perhaps due to the heightened sense of security that the mansion provided, as opposed to a campground in the forest. (She suspected being curled up next to Beca played a big part in it too.)
By the time she stirred, the sky outside of the window had begun to fade from inky blackness into the palette of blues that foretold the very early morning, dark like a bruise against the sky. Recollection returned to her in slow, hazy increments as she softly stirred into consciousness and tried to brush the cobwebs of sleep from her mind. A faint, bleary smile shadowed her features when she realized that Beca must have curled into her while they were asleep, because the other woman's back pressed snugly against her front and Chloe's arm was slung low across her waist. Beca was warm and sleep-heavy against her and her breathing was even and deep, so Chloe knew she hadn't begun to wake just yet.
Chloe couldn't remember the last time she'd woken up and felt so genuinely peaceful, like the feeling reached all the way down to the marrow of her bones and infused her entire body with loose relaxation. While it was beyond nice to sleep in a cozy bed in a more secure place, she knew the feeling really had everything to do with the woman in her arms and the night they'd shared together.
She figured she should sneak out and make it back to her own room before too long in case anyone came looking for either of them, but as she strained her ears, all seemed to be quiet and still throughout the house at this early hour. Maybe it wasn't the most prudent decision she'd ever made, but she gave herself some leeway in enjoying this soft, sleepy morning before she worried about sneaking out of Beca's room. Beca's hair was sleep-tousled and spread across the pillow between them, and when Chloe felt her chest warm with a burgeoning swell of affection, she leaned in to nuzzle her nose against the line of Beca's shoulder before brushing a kiss there.
The kiss landed near the tattoo that spanned across a good portion of Beca's shoulder, and Chloe blinked some of the sleepy haze from her eyes as she appreciated the ink that colored Beca's skin. Although she'd caught glimpses of Beca's various tattoos several times, this was the first time she'd really had a chance to study them up close with earnest interest.
Her eyes appreciatively traced along each line and swirl and flourish of the tattoo that decorated Beca's shoulder, but it wasn't long before curiosity and a genuine undercurrent of affection compelled her to more direct action. One hand slipped between them, fingertips dancing first across the faint ridges of each vertebrae along Beca's spine and tracing the sharp curve of her shoulder blade before finally reaching the colorful tattoo that occupied Beca's shoulder.
Her brow furrowed as her fingers mapped Beca's shoulder in the low, soft light of morning. She hadn't been expecting it, but rather than feeling smooth skin beneath her touch, she realized that the tattoo covered yet another scar on Beca's body. Between what she could see from the dim light that filtered into the room and what she could feel beneath her fingertips, she couldn't entirely discern what it was at first--thanks to her previous experience patching up people, she could tell that she wasn't tracing the contours of a knife or gunshot wound. It was with a swirling, sinking mixture of confusion and dread and disbelief that she realized they were the ridges of teeth. The wound had long since healed over, but it was still undeniable.
Beca had a bite mark.
Her fingers withdrew from the ink and scar tissue beneath her touch, curling against her palm in a loose fist. Confusion seized her muscles, and for a prolonged moment, she didn't have even the faintest idea of what to do. Did she wake Beca and question her about it? Did she try to slip away and mull over this new discovery before she broached the subject? That already seemed unlikely to work. Chloe had always had a pitiful poker face.
YOU ARE READING
In My Blood (Completed)
Fanfiction*ALL CREDIT BELONGS TO THIS AWESOME WRITER CARMA19* I read this story here in wattpad long ago and felt sad because the book was incomplete, until recently, I found this author carma19 at archiveofourown.org (AO3) who owned this book and I felt like...
