CoH CoS (Chapter 7)

Damien lay half asleep, listening to the downpour outside. It had been a week since the first meeting about the coming of the Randon. Even he, with his vast stores of energy felt tired. Between classes, student government, training of his apprentices, and his own personal training, there was little time for anything else. But he had made it through the week, it was a Friday night and he looked forward to sleeping in. He started to drift off to sleep when there was a knock at his door. Damien was instantly awake, he knew it had to be serious if anyone was out in this downpour. He waved his hand and the lightswitch flicked on. He blinked rapidly as he got up adjusting his eyes to the light. He walked toward the door expecting to see anyone from one of his apprentices, Chip, Athena, or even one of the people from the student government. But when he opened the door, his eyes gazed into the eyes of the person he least expected to see.

“Honey?” he reverted back to her old nickname even though he had not seen, nor talked to her in three years.

“Hello Thomas, could I come in?” she stood there, soaked from head to toe, shivering.

“I’m sorry, of course.”

He stepped back and helped her in. She stood inside, shivering and dripping water on the floor. Her face was almost blue, her lips purple. Damien could hear her teeth chattering from where she was. He didn’t want to cast a warmth spell, he remembered that one of the main reasons that they had broke up was because she had become increasingly uneasy with his, then, developing powers. He knew that he couldn’t put her in a hot, or even warm shower because it might give her even more of a shock. She finally spoke, breaking him out of his musings.

“Thomas, I’m cold…”

“I know Honey, you’ve got hypothermia and I’m trying to think of a way to get your body back to normal temperature without putting you into shock. First I need to get you out of your clothes, they’re wet and only making your condition worse. But I need your permission to do so.

“Okay.”

Damien proceeded to remove her clothing as quickly as he could, placing them on a chair next to her and making a mental note to hang them up to dry. Damien remarked to himself that even though they had been intimate to a degree when they were together, he had never seen her completely nude. After removing her clothing, he dried her body off with a towel, then he gently picked her up and laid her on the bed, wrapping his thermal blankets around her as snuggly as he could. She closed her eyes and shifted slightly. After a couple of mintues she spoke again.

“Thomas, I don’t think this is working either.”

“Alright.”

Damien knew the only other thing was body heat, but he knew that he needed to get her permission for that as well.

“Honey, the only other thing to try is body heat, but I would need to remove my clothing as well, and I need your permission again, if you feel uncomfortable, just let me know and we can try something else.”

“Okay, try the body heat.”

Damien nodded and removed his clothing, then he slid under the blankets, gently lying on top of her. She clutched at him, trying to get warm. Damien cast a minor spell to increase his body temperature slightly. After a few minutes she began noticibly shivering less and awhile after that she stopped, finally she fell asleep. Damien waited until her body temperature returned to normal before gently sliding out of her arms. He tucked the blankets around her and slipped off the bed. He put his boxers and jeans back on, then picked her clothes up. He went to the bathroom and wrung them out in the shower before hanging them to dry. He went back to the room and sat on a chair facing the bed. He put his feet up on the edge of it. He sighed deeply as he watched her sleep. As he slipped into a light doze he hoped that he would get answers to why she was here in the morning.

Tenchi

“…the cultivation of the mind, the body, and the soul, and we must always cultivate the soul.”