;)

***

Thousands of thoughts swam chaotically throughout my mind as I fought to catch my breath.

            I pressed against the surface that I was laying on and felt my hand sink deep into a cloud-like mattress. The room was thick with the scent of Death's cologne. I knew he had been inside of it recently, perhaps watching me. Did he have something do with my dream?

             I lay in the center of a large, dark bed with a down comforter that was thick and soft, covering the span of a bed that was the length and width of two king beds combined. Cautiously eying the darkness around me, I made out the outline of an alien dresser and multiple doors. Two of which had a crack of light underneath them.

            Covering my eyes, I suddenly was overwhelmed by the image of Shabriri the accent demon's cheeks coloring and his hair darkening. My hand emitting a vivid blue light.

            Death.

            Death.

            Attempting to leap off the bed and explore the room, I awkwardly fell over and realized that something was tied to my ankles. Almost frantically, I lifted myself back onto the bed, tore the covers off of my feet completely, and felt the cool sensation of chains that connected to cotton cloth that wrapped firmly around my ankles.

            "What the hell," I muttered.

            "Don't try to get out of them or your wrists are next,"  a deep, monotone version of Death's voice spoke out from the dark, jerking me into complete awareness.

            I softly touched my chest and felt my heart beat pounding wildly. "You should really kick this habit of sneaking up on me if you honestly want my heart to stay healthy."

            " If I simply walked into a room I wouldn't be as mysterious," Death said, chuckling lowly. There was something off about him. Something I couldn't quite place. It was then I realized that Death had been closing his eyes, because a pair of large, snake-like, glowing blue eyes lit up the darkness like two brilliant beams.

            "You've fed," I whispered in conclusion, my mouth running dry.

            "No, I actually haven't," he said in a dull, emotionless way. "At least this version of myself hasn't, I can't speak for the other hundred roaming around  the earth collecting. But I feel like I have." After a moment of silence, he added, "Is that how you feel as well? Like you've fed?"

            "Yes," I replied softly.

            "My eyes have been blue for eight and a half hours. I've been...investigating the matter while you were sleeping," Death said, his eyes floating along the darkness. There was a snap at the chains at my feet and then I was able to move my legs again.

            "So you chained me to the bed and "explored" without my permission? Such  a gentleman."

            "I am a gentleman, just not usually to you. And you did sigh my name in your sleep when I started to touch you, by the way. It's not like you didn't enjoy it."

            "That's not permission to "investigate" what happened to me, Death. You could have waited until I woken up. That's probably why I had those strange dreams, because you were "touching" me while I was sleeping like the horny jerk you are."

            "Those weren't dreams." Death was quiet for the longest time as I let that sink in. "You are mine. I really don't need permission to do anything to you, Faith. And I didn't touch you inappropriately or anything, so you can relax. I'm sorry I'm so repulsive to you that I couldn't check for any wounds on you while you were asleep."

            "That's what you were doing?"

            "Yes."

            We stared at each other through the darkness. What did he expect me to do, thank him? Thanks for taking away my life, turning my into a reaper, and putting me into a life-threatening situation once again. That sounded about right.

             "Take a shower and then I want you to go back to bed," Death said, his voice colder than usual. Funny, how quickly a room can go from comfortable to frigid when Death was in it. "It's the door to your right. Keep the door open."

            "I'm not going to do anything stupid in the shower, if that's what you think."

            "I've taken your word for many things and you have failed me almost every time. If you lock the door you won't be taking a shower alone. Understand?"

            I nodded, knowing for a fact that Death could see me perfectly fine in the dark, whereas I could only see the outline of things. At least there were a few things that still. Death was used to being in the dark, and I wasn't going to keep arguing with him when he had chains on him. I flinched as Death slammed the door behind him as he left the door. Clearly he wanted me to know how frustrated he was. What the hell was wrong with him, anyways? I was the one that I had freaking turned a demon into a human.

            Death's shower was as confusing as I thought it would be, with numerous dials to change the pressure and temperate of the water, as well as stimulate a waterfall experience from above. A touch screen panel on one of the tiled walls asked me what kind of "shower experience" I wanted. I hesitantly chose "Stress Reliever." Behold, the best shower experience of my life, when jets of water shot out of a selection of eighteen shower heads along the tiled shower and massaged my shoulders and back, easing the tension in my muscles.  The glass door into the Portal, as I called Death's shower, slowly began to fog up until I couldn't see out. And honestly, I didn't even care. It wasn't as if Death hadn't seen me naked before. In fact, I was pretty sure he had seen me naked plenty of times. He just had this look sometimes,  and call me crazy --  it was a look that a guy got when he knew exactly what was underneath a woman's clothes. Oh well, it wasn't like I hadn't seen him naked before as well.

            Great, now I was imagining Death naked while I was naked in a shower.

            I turned the temperate of the shower down greatly, tilting up my head to the artificial waterfall above me and welcoming the cool water on my scolding hot face.

            Crap, I thought. I was getting way to comfortable with this man. And by way too comfortable, I mean that when Death had said he would have taken a shower with me if I didn't leave the bathroom door open, I literally didn't care. Maybe that was normal. Maybe...all friends felt like that?

            What was I thinking?! Death and I weren't friends.

            "Then what the hell are we," I muttered towards the shower drain, reaching for Death's shampoo. Death's shampoo. As if he had a brand of shampoo. If he did, it probably would burn through your scalp and rip out your soul from your brain or something.

            I poured some of the shampoo into my hand and smelled it. Ugh, that was exactly what his hair smelled like. Like... freaking magic. I had finally found the source to Death's indescribable scent. Masculine, freaking magic with a fresh, magically delicious aroma that smelled so wonderful I had to close my eyes and enjoy whatever concoction was in my hand. Yes, definitely magic. That was the way to describe what Death's hair smelled like, when I did get the smell it, that is. Which was approximately...never.

            I lathered the stupid stuff into my long hair. It was then that I brought my nails in front of me face.

            They were healed.

            Slowly, I brought my hands back up to my hair and continued to lather. I could perfectly visualize my claws ripping off in the gymnasium, the excruciating pain, the blood pouring down my forearm. I definitely had ripped my claws out by the root, and now they were perfectly fine. I was visualizing it all so clearly that for a moment, the water collecting at the bottom of the shower was the color of blood, until I snapped myself out of my wild thoughts and looked somewhere else in the shower. I had healed myself?

            After I rinsed my hair out of the shampoo I squirted a large amount of conditioner into my hand and ran it from the ends of my hair and up until my fingers weaved through practically wet silk. Without thinking twice, I had found Death's razor and started to shave my legs. All I was imagining now was him showering in the same place I was then stepping out with a towel hung low on his hips, applying some sort of silken shaving cream to his face, and then starting to shave the little scruffs of hair that ruined that sculpted, perfect shadow of dark stubble that he had along his jaw and upper lip.

            "I'm a damn mess," I whispered, turning the shower even colder and then running a hand down my smooth legs to feel for missed shaving spots. Sighing, I set the razor down and with just my luck, knocked down both the shampoo and conditioner. "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" Soon my feet were covered in the sudsy goodness of Death's shampoo. Even my hands were smothered in it so that I couldn't pick anything up without dropping it again. It was like a mini orchestra in the bathroom as I tried to recover the items.

            After the orchestra of my clumsiness ended, I realized I had been standing limp in the middle of the shower, thoroughly enjoying the miraculous experience of being inside such a luxurious showering device, when my sensitive ears picked up the scattering of objects, and I realized that things were being moved around on the bathroom sink. I felt that odd tingling sensation on my abdomen where my black, intricate marking curved around my belly button, that occurred when Death was near me, and almost leaped a thousand feet in the air when Death jerked open the shower door and shut off the water.

            Death cleared his throat. "My eyes are normal now," he said rather awkwardly.

            I went to cover my nakedness and then stopped. He had already seen everything anyways. "Uh? I was kind of showering."

            "I heard a lot of banging in here. Wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything stupid." Death didn't smile, but his stupid beautiful green eyes sparkling like freaking emeralds. Hmph, funny how quick Death's mood changed when he saw me naked. "You know, I would love to take a shower at some point too, princess."

                        I frowned at that, refusing to cover any part of my body as he stood before me outside the shower. I thought back to my dream and watching my past self dress up like a princess in front of Death. Well, at least now I knew why he called me princess.

            "Don't think I didn't notice I was practically already clean when I took this shower," I said, narrowing my eyes.

            "Yes, well I knew my shower would help you relax so you can go back to sleep and be more rested once you wake up. You're welcome."

            I scoffed. As if he was being nice without expecting something in return. "And was it the first shower I've taken in there? Or was one of them when I was out cold?"

            "As I told you before, I didn't touch you inappropriately."

            When I shifted on my feet, Death made a face at me that revealed to me that there was only one thing on his mind at that moment. He was fighting not to lower his gaze. Maybe he was a gentleman after all.

            "You're still hogging the shower," he said impatiently, holding out the towel in his hand.

            Took him a while to give that to you.

            "You're in my way, that's why," I snapped, then surprised him by stepping forward and shoving him to the side. I leaned slightly forward and inhaled, noticing him straighten significantly as I came closer. "You smell pretty clean to me," I added.

             He finally let his gaze drop down to my nakedness as I passed by him, then turned his head shamefully to the side when I caught him, a boyish smile momentarily edging on his mouth.

            "I'm stressed out and the jets relax me," Death muttered in explanation, biting at the piercing on his lip.

            "Why are you stressed out?"

            His face morphed from calm to anger. "Why the fuck do you think I'm stressed out?" he growled loudly, making me shrink back a little. I got the image of him curled on the gymnasium floor, his father standing over him with that dreadful whip, and bit down on my lip from saying anything more. I'd be damned if he ever told me what Malphas had said to him to make him so...vulnerable.

            I found that Death was staring at himself in the mirror intently. "Aren't you going to leave?" he wondered.

            I felt the bathroom become significantly hotter and quickly grabbed the large black towel in his hand, wrapping myself tightly in it. I had meant to turn and leave at that point, when Death ripped his dark t-shirt off, his markings shockingly vivid against his tanned skin in the lighting.

            There wasn't a single wound on his body.

            "I did heal you," I whispered in awe.

            Death tossed his shirt to the side, his expression unreadable and his abdomen tightening under my stare. If I hadn't known any better, I'd say he still wasn't used to me looking at his markings. "From what I understand, we in fact healed each other."

            "And...?" I crossed my arms over my chest. "What else have you concluded? Why were your eyes blue? Where's Shabriri?"

            "What part of "I'm stressed out" do you not understand? Get out of the bathroom, it's my turn now." Death hooked his thumbs under the waistband of his sweatpants and paused, arching a dangerously dark eyebrow. "Staying for the peep show again?"

            "Is Shabriri a human now?"

            Death eyed me carefully. "Yes."

            "Ah." I rubbed at my arm, starting to feel the weight of my true power on my shoulders. Maybe I hadn't stayed in that massaging shower long enough after all. "Then I'm not leaving until you tell me where he is."

            "Can't."

            "Why? Afraid I'll go and see him for myself?"

            "That's exactly what I think. I also think you'll do something stupid. For example: free him. And that can't happen. He deserves to be caged for the rest of his damn life for what he did to Ace."

            "What?" I put a hand over my mouth. "Ace is blind because of Shabriri?"

            "Yes."

            "Does this have anything to do with him owing you?"

            "Yes."

            I shook my head. "Wow, thanks for elaborating so much. I'll get this answer out of you at some point."

            Death rolled his eyes, another smile playing on his lips that never actually formed. "In about five seconds, I'm going to be completely naked. Fair warning."

            "Wait. Wait," I said, pushing a wet strand of hair to the side. "If...if Shabriri is a human now, wouldn't you have been effected by me as well? Maybe...maybe it effected you somehow. This could be some sort of breakthrough, Death. Maybe..."

            "I believe we both know by not that it would take a lot more than that for me to become a human, Faith." Death then completely pulling off his sweatpants, flashing me his goods, before closing the shower door behind him. "I left you some clothes in the bedroom."

            "Right," I said, still trying to shake the image of Death naked from my mind. It was really, really hard to do that a second time, let me tell you.  Or was it the third time? What was my name again?

            I shut the bathroom door behind me and searched for a light switch in the room. Once I found a dimmer light switch, my eyes widened in awe as the dark room before me unraveled from the darkness, and a spacious, beautiful room with an overpowering theme of luxurious, masculine black furniture and wooden floors was revealed. A beautiful mirror sat in front of his bed that was bordered with gold and black swirls, reminding me of his markings. My eyes landed on the massive bed that I had once lain on and I wanted to run at it right then and there and let it cradle me till the end of the world.

            I came to the bed and smiled. Lain across it was Death's Chicago Bears jersey that I had worn at his office before. The one that was huge on me. I lifted it up and put it up to my nose, inhaling his scent.

            A low hum started to fill my ears. I felt my vision trembling and put the Chicago Bears jersey back down on the bed.

            "Faith."

            I whirled around, locking eyes with my reflection in the mirror, when I noticed something that didn't belong. Someone, actually. My eyes slid down to the bed behind me, where nobody sat, then back in the mirror, where a woman with beautiful golden hair and stark green eyes stared back at me on the bed.

            "You're supposed to be dead," I said, taking in the image of Death's mother. My heart started to pound in my ears. "I watched you die..."

            "You must let me help you. Something awful is happening to my son. I've watched him change. Your power has poisoned him." She slowly stood up from the bed in the mirror and started to raise her hand until it was outstretched towards me. "You have poisoned him. Your power is a drug to evil. He will kill you. You have to come with me. You must let me help you--"

            "I'm sorry, I can't. I'm done with all of this Unknown stuff." I shook my head, turning away from the mirror and closing my eyes. "You're not real. You're trying to lure me into the Unknown. Death told me this would happen, I didn't the Unknown would be cruel enough to use you as bait. I won't go back again. I can't."

            "I am trapped in the Unknown in spirit. I am the one that possessed Ace. His capability to reach the future and past made him vulnerable to me. I tried to reach out to you before it was too late. Before you saw in person what I've witnessed through Ace. Death is changing, Faith. The power you emitted against him has changed him already. He will want more."

            And right on cue, Death came out of the bathroom with a towel low around his waist, brushing back his thick black hair back with a purple brush. He walked over to the mirror without looking into it, set the brush down on his dresser, and messed with his hair, then dried it with a small towel in his other hand.

            His mother was no longer in the mirror, but that wasn't what I had been staring at now.

            "What?" Death said, when he caught me looking at him in the mirror. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

             "Your hair," I said, slumping back onto the bed and bringing my hand to my mouth. "I can't believe it."

            "It is pretty wonderful, isn't it?"

            "No."

            Death frowned. "No? Wow, thanks for the boost of self-esteem."

            "No, no. The back of your head," I said, my heart fluttering wildly in my chest as Death reached behind his head and felt around. "There's a patch of hair on the back of your head that's blond, Death."

 I never knew how wide a persons eyes could get until I saw Death's practically fall out in shock. Even his towel was shocked because it fell straight from his hips right to the ground. 

"That's impossible," Death said.

*************************************************************

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