Page 52 of Painless
“Who the fuck are you?” I growled through gritted teeth.
You know who I am. I’m Horus.
The tether of sleep snapped and I jolted upright, wide awake. My room was empty. Somehow I knew it would be. He never spoke to me when I was fully lucid. And he had never explicitly told me his name before.
Horus, like Gunner’s falcon. Was that why his bird came so close to me that time on the roof? I couldn’t understand it, so I didn’t bother to try.
Pushing the sheet back, I got out of bed and crossed the room to my window in two long strides. I snapped open the blackout curtains, the sunlight flooding my room making me squint a little.
The sun was already high and people were going about their days. Since taking the sleep medication, I’d been sleeping in later and later. I never knew that sleep could feel good. I’d begun to crave it after a long day, instead of drinking myself into a stupor to avoid it.
I showered and dressed quickly, hoping Jandro left coffee in the kitchen. He was always an early riser, and was likely at the shop already.
“Meow!”
I paused in drying my hair with a towel, cocking my head. Either that was something in the house squeaking or—
“Meow!” This time the sound was followed by scratching at my bedroom door.
It only took me cracking my door open for Freyja to squeeze through the gap and begin climbing up my pant leg.
“Good morning, funny kitten.”
To my surprise, the greeting tumbled out of me without me having to think about it. With no other people around, I didn’t have to worry about being socially inept.
I plucked the cat off of my jeans when she reached my thigh, carefully dislodging her tiny, needle-like claws. “Your human must be near,” I added, more to myself than the animal.
Carrying the kitten in my palm, I left my room and started toward the stairs. Mariposa was already halfway up and shot me an apologetic look.
“Damn it! I’m sorry, Shadow. I’m going to have to put a harness on her or something.”
“It’s all right.” I met her on the stairs and held the kitten out to her.
“She’s really taken a liking to you.” Mariposa picked up the cat with both hands, her thumbs sweeping over my palm. “The moment I walked in, she zoomed right up to your room.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. Freyja’s green eyes were glued to me, even as Mariposa scratched her head.
“She’s a funny little animal. I really don’t mind,” was all I could think to say.
Mariposa smiled at me, turned to walk back down the stairs, and paused. “So how are you this morning?”
I realized she wanted to walk down alongside me, so I sucked in a breath and followed her steps. “Uh, I’m good. Quite good. And you?”
“Same. You’re still sleeping well?”
“Yes, thank you.” I debated telling her about the lucid dream right before waking up, but decided against it. I knew it wasn’t from the sleep medication, but wasn’t sure how else to explain it. “Are you looking for Jandro?” Something squeezed inside my chest as I asked, like I was secretly hoping for a certain answer.
“No, I know he’s at the shop.” She turned to me, setting Freyja on the floor when we reached the bottom of the stairs. “Today’s my second tattoo session, right?”
“Oh! Right, yes.” I hadn’t forgotten, not at all. In fact, I’d been counting down the days until it was time to tattoo her again. I just never expected her to be the one to bring it up. I figured her men would have to cajole her into sitting down with me to finish it. But here she was, first thing in the morning, looking bright-eyed and excited.
And pretty. So fucking pretty.
“If you’re busy today, I can come back later.”
"No, no. Today is fine,” I assured her. “I'll just get some coffee, clean and set up, then we can get started."
"Want me to clean while you start the coffee? Jandro took the whole pot."
