Days turned into weeks, and while the open stares of those tasked with tending her in Draikis’s absence grew fewer, she was still acutely aware of her status as a novelty of sorts within these walls. She put them on edge. Out of sorts. A woman living within their cloister, though temporarily and not of her own choice. It seemed to drive a few to distraction. Others had more aggressive reactions.
Priests and their vows,she mused.And me stuck right in the middle of them.
It was enough to draw a slight chuckle from her when she thought about it, and to her great delight, the moment of mirth no longer sent jolts of agony through her mending ribs. In fact, outright laughter was only mildly uncomfortable these days.
Draikis had commented on the miraculous speed of her recovery. He had also been the cause of her amusement on more than one occasion. Most of them, in fact.
Not only gorgeous, but clever and damn funny? Just my luck he’s one of them.
It was that knowledge that he was off-limits that made him both an item of mysterious interest as well as a safe target for herchaotic emotions as she processed and healed. She’d endured a physical ordeal, no doubt. But the psychological trauma had been just as rough, if not more, and Draikis spent many long hours deep into the night at her side talking it through. Speaking and advising when appropriate, but mostly just sitting quietly and supporting her as she got what she needed to off her chest.
Saying it out loud helped. Saying it to a person even more so. She didn’t know if it was because of his vows or just how he was as a man, but Draikis was a marvelous listener, seeming to intuit when an interjection would be welcomed and when silence was the appropriate action. Some things might have an easy fix, but that didn’t always mean a woman wanted to hear it. And, incredibly, a bazillion miles from home, Ella finally found a man who got it.
The depth of their conversations increased with time, and Ella found herself opening up to him in ways she’d barely touched upon with her therapist back home. And he, likewise, shared with her. An equal exchange of thoughts, hopes, and dreams. That and a good deal of laughter.
The man had quite the wit, and not just for a priest. He was smart, she knew, but the more they spoke, the more she realized how well-rounded a person he was.
“Of course, after that area of study, I felt the desire to travel,” he told her one evening. “There was so much to experience. To learn.”
“You mastered spaceship mechanics, astral navigation, and interstellar physics, and somehow you thought that wasn’t enough?”
A beautiful smile spread across his full lips, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “There is always more, Ella. This universe is such a marvelous, vast place. I could study until my dying day, and I’d still not even scratch the surface of all there is to know.”
“I suppose I can’t argue that. I mean, here I am, after all.”
“Yes, an unusual specimen from a distant world. Quite novel.”
“Did you just call me a specimen?”
He chuckled. “Shut up. It’s not like that, and you know it.”
“Ass,” she cracked back.
“Such language from a lady. I amshocked, I tell you.”
“Uh-huh. I’ve heard you say worse.”
“Well fuck you, then,” he quipped with a grin, quickly glancing around to ensure no one might be present to overhear him. “You’ll just have to start feeding yourself then, I suppose.”
Ella felt a warm flutter in her chest. This easy, snarky banter was something they’d settled into almost as soon as she’d regained her senses. A casual familiarity that just felt right somehow. And unlike some of the stuffier priests, Draikis seemed to have retained some of his bad boy traits from before he joined the order and took his vows. He hadn’t always been a goody-two-shoes priest. He’dlived, and from the stories he told, he’d done quite a bit of it at that.
“Iamfeeding myself, thank you very much,” she shot back, reaching out with a newly mended arm to pluck a berry from the dish next to her bed and pop it in her mouth.
“Veryimpressive. Maybe you’ll work your way up to a piece of bread one day.”
“Oh, screw you.”
“You know that’s not happening,” he countered with an amused grin. “I do have to admit, your appetite is encouraging our healers, and pretty much all of them are shocked at the rate of your recovery.”
“Gee, I feel special.”
“You should. Most would be barely able to move at this stage of the healing process, let alone reach the table beside your bed.But you? You are moving well, your bones have mended, and your skin is healed to a remarkable degree.”
“It still itches.”
“As it would. You were burned over most of your body. And yet, somehow, your skin has managed to absorb the healing compounds far more than our own kind. Truly, your race is remarkable in how it reacts to our medicines and treatments.”
“You’ve said.”
