Shielded

We just kept screwing up where Ray was concerned. I wasn’t entirely sure that her life was better with us in it and I felt guilty for outing her to the twins. We needed to do better. We needed to show her that Valkyrie stood for helping people and supporting our clans. That there was nothing better than when you were completely surrounded by other Valkyrie you knew would do anything to keep you happy and healthy. And I really needed to heal her. Letting her go to sleep in obvious pain made me nauseous and I stayed up all night thinking of ways of convincing her to let me help her. I was worried that if I asked her permission to heal her wounds that she would turn me down like she did yesterday and I didn’t know if I could be near her and not heal such serious injuries. But I also didn’t want to do something without her permission first. We all saw how badly that went yesterday.

--Max

I woke to a small hand pushing my hair from my face and I opened my eyes to find Maria squatting by my head. When she saw that I was awake she scrambled off the bed and ran to the door and tried to turn the locked knob. This little girl hadn’t spoken a single word to me, but she was excellent at communicating. I stiffly rolled out of bed and winced as the rows of stitches pulled when I stood up. Now that the pain meds had worn off I was realizing just how much these next two weeks were going to suck. My entire left side hurt and any time that I tried to twist I could feel the skin between my stitches pull apart. I was going to have to walk around like I had a permanent rod up my back to keep myself from ripping open the cuts on my side.

I made it to the door and let Maria out who took off down the unknown hallway. Uh-oh, I had no idea that kids were so slippery. I followed as quickly as I could and harshly whispered yelled for her to wait for me, but my little charge was on a mission and could care less what I wanted. She was running from door to door and pushing them open to look inside until she finally found what she was looking for and disappeared inside. I glanced into the now open doors as I rushed to catch Maria and saw two different offices, a room with a couch and a large TV, and another that looked like some kind of art studio. When I reached the door that Maria had picked I followed her in to find that it was a bathroom and Maria was trying to climb on the toilet. God, I was an awful person. I didn’t even think about what Maria might be needing right now.

I rushed to help her do her business and then gritted my teeth and ignored the pain as I lifted her up to help her wash her hands. I then set her on the counter and looked into her beautiful heart-shaped face and bright eyes. “Are you hungry?” I asked and she vigorously shook her head causing her curly hair to fly everywhere.

“Okay, let’s go find some food,” I said and lifted her down. I checked my watch and saw that it was four-thirty in the morning. I didn’t feel right invading the kitchen and taking food without permission, but I wasn’t going to deny Maria if she was hungry. I took her hand and together we walked at a slower pace down the plush carpeted hallway. We continued down the same way Maria had run off in because the spare bedroom was at the end of the hall and I hadn’t seen a kitchen. The hallway opened into a huge room with vaulted ceilings and large bay windows. It was hard to make out all the details in the dim light, but I could just make out a fireplace on the far wall and two couches facing each other in the middle of the room.

I paused to scan the space and saw a wide entranceway and what could only be a kitchen off to the left. When I felt hardwood under my feet instead of carpet I paused and ran my hand along the walls until I hit a light switch. An overhead light blinked on and we stood staring at one of the largest kitchens I had ever seen. The white and grey marbled counters made a large U shape with one side forming a breakfast bar. Huge stainless steel appliances were nestled into the counters making the kitchen look like something out of a professional cooking show or commercial kitchen.

I will admit I was more than a little intimidated as I slowly approached the four-door fridge and pulled on one of the handles. The fridge was packed wall to wall with food and I took a moment to fully digest the amount of food that was packed in here. There was no way that they could eat all of this before it went bad. Maria looked just as awed as I did and I guessed that food wasn’t something that came easily to her family either.

“Please help yourself to anything you want,” Max said from behind us and both of us jumped and spun around. I winced as pain radiated through my left side and braced myself on the fridge behind me.

“Jesus Max,” I cursed and tried to catch my breath. “Make some noise next time.”

“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep and come down for some tea. Here let me help you. What would you like to eat?” Max asked as he pulled a stainless steel kettle with a black handle off the stove and filled it with water from the tap. I looked down at Maria to see if she had any suggestions but she just tucked herself behind my legs and turned her face away from Max.

“What do you have that a three-year-old will eat?” I asked and cupped the back of Maria’s head with my uninjured palm.

Max smiled down at Maria’s hidden form and said, “I know just the thing. Why don’t you have a seat? Are you hungry too?” I took stock of my body as I stiffly walked over to the breakfast bar and pulled out a seat for Maria. I winced as I lifted her onto the tall stool, but she seemed excited to be sitting in such a tall chair. I decided that sitting might be more painful than standing and reached out to run my hand down Maria’s back. When I looked up Max was frowning as he pulled some pieces of white bread free of its bag.

“I could eat,” I said nonchalantly. In fact, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since those awful fish sticks for lunch and using my Gifts always made me hungry. God yesterday was a dreadfully long day. I allowed my mind to filter through all the many things that had occurred in the last twenty-four hours as I watched Max work. He pulled a jar of raspberry jelly out of the fridge and spread a heavy dose on a piece of bread. I figured he was going for the PB and J classic but peanut butter never factored into his creation. Instead, he closed the sandwich with only the jelly inside and then started rummaging through a bottom drawer. After a moment he stood back up with a small heart-shaped cookie cutter in his hand. Max used the cookie cutter to cut heart-shaped pieces of sandwich and placed them on a plate for Maria.

Maria forgot her shy persona and beamed as she picked one of the hearts up and took a small bite. She clearly loved the snack because that was the last small bit that she took. “How did you know to make that?” I questioned.

Max was filling two mugs with hot water and brought one over to me before replying, “I volunteer at the pediatric ward in the hospital during the summers. We don’t know if she is allergic to anything but I figured we would be safe with this.” Huh, I hadn’t even considered that. I was so out of my depth with Maria.

“Do you want to work with kids once you are a doctor?” Max was now pulling packages of cold cuts and cheeses out of the fridge. I guess I was getting the adult version of the sandwich.

“I don’t know. The head of pediatrics is a Valkyrie and he got me the volunteer position. All I really know right now is that I want to do something in the medical field. I can’t always use my Gift to heal humans because they don’t know about our world, but I still want to help. I don’t have Weapons and I’m not a great warrior like the twins or Derik, so I think becoming a doctor will be the best way to contribute.” It totally sucked that Max didn’t have more confidence in his Gift. Being able to heal was a lot more useful than being able to materialize a knife. You could buy a knife. You could buy what Max could do.

Max walked all the way around the breakfast bar and placed the turkey sandwich in front of me before gently grasping my injured hand in his. “Can I look at your stitches?” he asked and I nodded my head, just now realizing that he didn’t have his color contacts in. His eyes were a slightly darker shade of green than mine with spikes of brown radiating out from the center. They were breathtaking.

Max carefully unwound the gauze that the doctor had wrapped my hand in until it resembled an oven mitt and dropped the used bandages on the floor. He took a moment to inspect the inflamed skin tied together with thin black stitches. Max then looked up into my eyes and said, “I can stop at any time. Just say the word.”

I had no idea what he was talking about at first but then my palm started itching so bad that it almost hurt. I dropped my eyes to my hand and watched in surprised awe as the edges of my wound started to knit together and the skin began to smooth. When I didn’t object to what he was doing, Max reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny set of scissors and a pair of tweezers. He quickly and painlessly cut the knots of the stitches and pulled the nylon material out of my skin. Then I felt the light wave of power and the pink ugly scar faded to a thin barely noticeable white line. I traced the line with my other hand and struggled to believe that this was real.

“Wow,” I breathed out. “That is the most impressive thing I have ever seen.” I glanced up to see that Max’s neck was starting to turn red. There was the Max that I knew.

“Can I please heal your other wounds,” Max whispered in an intense voice. I looked up into his incredible green eyes seeing a depth of emotion that shook me. This really mattered to him. Max needed to heal me. I may want this because it would ease my pain, but Max’s need to heal me was bone-deep. He was clearly holding himself back from doing so without my permission.

“Yes,” I breathed out and after another moment of looking into my eyes, Max stepped away from me.

“I am going to need you to take off your shirt so that I can remove the stitches. If they weren’t there I could heal the wounds without seeing them, but I don’t want the skin to fully heal around the stitches. The nylon would start to fester and it might cause an infection, not to mention that it would be uncomfortable to pull out and cause you pain if they remained in.” Max was rambling and now his entire face was red. It was hard to believe that the boy in front of me had been serial dating since the seventh grade if he got this flustered from just asking me to take my shirt off.

However, the EMTs had cut my bra off and I hadn’t been provided with a new one when they gave me the scrubs. The scrub shirt was so big and I had been so tired that I hadn’t really thought much about the fact that I had been hugging the Three Musketeers without wearing a bra, but taking my shirt off without one was not the same. I didn’t want to make this more awkward on Max by saying something, so I turned my back to him and stiffly pulled the back of the shirt over my head while keeping my arms in the sleeves. I used my forearm to pin the shirt over my chest then turned back to Max.

I was relieved to see his eyes glued to my face and not checking out my body. We stared at each other for a moment and I felt more connected to Max at that moment than I had to anyone else in my past. Not even Jack had seen me this vulnerable. Eventually, he clenched his jaw and dropped his gaze to my bandaged side. He unwrapped the layer of thin gauze that had been wrapped around my abdomen to keep the bandages in place. Every time his fingers grazed my skin I felt the touch of warmth that I now knew was the clan bond.

Max then pulled the thick layer of bandages from my side and let out a gasp as my ruined side became visible. I had rolled through a pile of broken glasses, plates, and discarded knives. There were thirteen gashes and cuts that started at my hip and ran up to my armpit. The doctor had told me that he had placed at least sixty-five stitches. “Oh my God Ray. Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad? I would have helped you sooner,” Max demanded in a harsh tone and my entire side suddenly felt like it was on fire.

I grunted in pain and Max immediately pulled back. “Sorry, sorry. Let’s take this slow,” Max said. He stepped closer to me, cupped my jaw, and gently ran his thumb across my cheek. “This is going to be uncomfortable, but I promise you it is better than waiting for it to heal on its own.” He looked into my eyes and I saw that he hated that his healing caused pain. I took a deep breath, bit the inside of my cheek, and nodded to let him know I was ready. I was a badass Valkyrie. I could take the pain.

After what felt like an hour of intense itching slash stinging I almost wished he would hit me with the full force of his power and get it over with. This drawn-out routine was straining my ability to keep a straight face and pretend that I wasn’t seconds away from crying like a baby. I was breathing as I had just sprinted a mile and sweat was starting to run between my shoulder blades. Max didn’t stop healing as he pulled out the stitches this time. Instead, he would heal one to the point where the stitches were ready to come out and move on to healing the next one while pulling the stitches out of the first. If I wasn’t in so much pain I would appreciate just how seamlessly he was multitasking.

I was concentrating so hard on anything other than the burn that I didn’t immediately notice when he finished. When I did finally tune back into the here-and-now, Max was lightly running his fingers over my scars. However, he wasn’t focused on the newly formed barely visible white lines left behind after his healing. No, he was focused on the older and much more visible scars that decorated my body.

When I realized what he was doing, I jerked away from his touch and quickly pulled the scrub shirt back over my head. I found that I couldn’t turn back and look at him. What he must think of me. A Valkyrie that can’t even protect herself.

“Ray, how did you get those?” Max asked in a kind, understanding voice. I had been expecting anger like Derik had given me after Stella had slapped me. But his kindness was almost worse. I was a murderer. I didn’t deserve his kindness. But after everything he had just done for me, Max deserved the truth from me.

“In fights. My father was a betting man and he used to make me fight against other supernatural kids and adolescents in an underground fighting ring. I was nothing more than a trained dog that was good at killing things for him,” I said in a flat voice, still unable to meet his eyes. Max didn’t say anything right away and the moment stretched out until the only thing I wanted was for the floor to swallow me up the whole.

My eyes bounced around the room, looking at everything around me but not really seeing anything until I saw that Maria had laid her head down on the counter and was fast asleep in the chair. That couldn’t be safe. I walked over to her and carefully picked her up, trying not to wake her. At least I didn’t feel even the slightest twinge in my side. Max really was gifted. Still studiously avoiding Max’s gaze I carried my little charge out of the kitchen and was in the middle of the living room before I finally heard Max talk.

“Ray, wait,” he said in a pained voice and I turned to see his face contorted in pity. God I hate pity. “I-, I don’t -”

My past was so screwed up that Max didn’t even have the words to give voice to what he was feeling. It was okay. I didn’t have the words either. “I know Max,” I whispered and dropped my eyes to the carpeted floor before walking to the guest bedroom and shutting the door. In a move that almost mirrored what I did last night, I laid Maria out on the bed and then crawled into position behind her. However, this time it wasn’t as easy for me to turn off my brain and fall asleep.

I woke gradually this time and it took me a full minute to remember where I was and what had happened. Sun was shining through the windows and for the first time, I really looked at the room where I had slept. The walls were powder blue with white trim. There was an old oak armoire with intricate carvings sitting diagonally in the corner and a matching oval full-length mirror sitting a couple of feet to the left. The far wall held a three-pane bay window with a cute bench seat built into the wall that held several white throw pillows. Beside the bed was a nightstand that matched the armoire and I saw that the headboard of the bed did as well.

What I didn’t see within the room was a little curly-haired, brown-eyed girl. When that fact seeped into my drowsy mind I shot out of bed and ran through the door, down the hall, and burst into the living room like a crazy person. There I saw that Maria was sitting on the ground in between Blake’s legs and both of them had bowls of cereal in their hands. Maria was focused on the T.V. that was playing some type of cartoon, but Blake had witnessed my entrance and was now smirking at me.

Now that I knew where Maria was, I scanned the rest of the open space and noticed that Connor and Max were sitting at the large dining room table while Elijah was in the kitchen. Every person except for Maria was looking at me and suddenly I felt like an idiot. Why couldn’t I just act normal around these guys? It seemed every time I turned around I was freaking out or involved in some major crisis. If I kept it up, none of them would ever want to deal with me again.

“Coffee?” Elijah said and broke the staring spell. Thank God I thought and then quickly cloaked my mind so that Elijah couldn’t read my thoughts. I would need to start practicing again so that it was just something I did now that I was interacting with other Valkyrie. I really didn’t want other people to know my private thoughts.

“Yes, please. With cream and sugar,” I told Elijah and walked over to the breakfast bar and took a seat. He was fully dressed in khaki pants and a maroon button-down collared shirt that was tucked into his pants. His shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

“How’d you sleep?” Elijah asked as he poured me a mug from a large stainless steel pot.

“Pretty good,” I murmured and looked down at my watch. It was nine-thirty. Oh no. I jumped out of the stool and almost fell on my face. “It’s nine thirty! I’m late and I don’t have any clothes. And what about Maria. What do I do with Maria when I am at school? I need to go.” I said all of this in a frantic voice while walking over to Blake and holding my arms out for my little charge. Blake just wrapped his massive arms around Maria and leaned away from me. I really am taking this crazy person thing to a whole new level.

“Whoa calm down there, killer,” Connor said and my eyes snapped to Max. Had he really told Connor that I had killed in the ring? That wasn’t something I wanted him just telling people. Max furrowed his brows at me and slightly shook his head. He hadn’t told Connor anything. It was just a nickname. One that I was going to make sure he never used again. “We are playing hooky today.”

“What?” I asked because my mind was still on the possibility that Max would tell everyone what I had done and they would, at the very least, kick me out of their very nice house. And at the very worse, lock me up for murdering another supernatural. Or did they kill people for that?

“After everything that happened last night, we figured it would be best for you to sleep as long as possible. Plus, we have found a next of kin for Maria and I was sure that you would want to meet her. Valentina Garcia is Maria’s aunt and she is coming down to the station around noon after she deals with some things with Celina’s body.”

“Celina? Is that Maria’s mother? The shooter?” I asked and once again settled at the breakfast bar and took a large gulp of coffee. Maybe the caffeine would jumpstart my brain.

“Yes, the whole thing is an awful story,” Elijah explained with a sorrowful voice. “Four years ago Valentina and Celina Desoto paid a coyote to smuggle them into the United States. The journey was not pleasant and the men that were transporting the people took liberties with the vulnerable women, with Celina. She got pregnant and was never the same. Celina would go from completely despondent to manic rages. For the majority of the last three years, Valentina has taken care of Maria because of how out of control Celina was.” I looked over at Maria who was now leaning back so she was practically laying on Blake’s chest. How could someone so beautiful and innocent come from such a violent event?

“Celina had been seeing a doctor and taking medication. They thought Celina was doing better and she took Maria for a walk down by the beach. Celina must have recognized the man from Polly’s as her rapist because Valentiana told the officers the entire story once she saw a photo of the guy. Seeing the man that hurt her must have made Celina snap and she thought the only answer was to kill him and Maria.”

What did one say after a story like that? I was sorry that happened to Celina, and I could understand why she shot the guy. But Maria couldn’t help who her biological father was and killing an innocent child was inexcusable. I was lost in thought and didn’t notice that Elijah had walked to stand on the other side of the breakfast bar to me. So when he reached out and touched my hand I jumped a little.

“Thank God you were there. You saved her life,” Elijah said as the tingles of warmth started to radiate from my hand and up my arm. The rest of the guys I was starting to get comfortable with to some degree. I even appreciated Derik’s no-bullshit attitude and liked that he didn’t treat me with kid gloves. But I still was unsure of the mind-reading clan leader. Why was he being so nice to me, and what did he really want from me?

“Saving her was easy. Making sure she stays safe is going to be the hard part,” I murmured while giving Elijah a challenging look. If this man thought he could stop me from keeping my promise to keep that child safe, he had another thing coming to him.

“You don’t have to do it alone. She is your protected. We will spread the word and every Valkyrie in the Bay area will make sure to keep an eye out for Maria.”

“Just like that? It’s that easy?” I questioned skeptically.

“Ray, Valkyrie like to protect people. We feel the same urge to do it as you do. I know that your view of our kind has been tarnished because of the actions of your father, but he was the exception and not the rule. Every single Valkyrie I know, would do anything to protect a child, so asking them to be extra vigilant around Maria is not a big ask,” Elijah explained in a patient voice and the timer on the stove beeped in the background. He walked away from me and pulled out a large casserole dish of something covered in cheese. It smelled divine and my stomach gave an audible growl of appreciation. I had been too upset to eat that sandwich last night.

Thankfully, no one said anything about my bodily noises and when Elijah placed a huge helping of quiche down on the breakfast bar in front of me I practically inhaled it. I knew that I wasn’t helping my image any by acting like a starved wild animal without table manners, but right now the only thing that mattered was getting calories into my body. I barely even tasted the burning hot meal. When I had consumed enough to calm down my survival instinct about the food I glanced up to see that Elijah had joined the boys at the table where they were eating like normal civilized people.

God, what they must think of me. I needed to start making more of an effort to fit in with these people. They were the only ones of my kind that I knew, and I still wanted to learn more before they kicked me to the curb.