Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Consequences

Anaya’s P.O.V:

I woke up to the sound of a cell phone ringing from a distance.

The sound cut off a few seconds later, but I had already woken up. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and stretched my arms on either side of me. That was when my hand connected with something warm right next to me and I opened my eyes with a start.

“Lance?” I sat up in bed, leaning against the headboard and found him sitting next to me, dressed in a sweatshirt and loose sweatpants, sitting on top of the covers with his laptop placed on his lap.

“What time is it?” I asked yawning as I looked outside at the darkened sky.

“Nine.” He said without looking up from his laptop.

“In the morning?” I frowned. Is it supposed to rain?

“At night.” Lance corrected, finally closing his laptop and placing it on his bedside table.

“WHAT?” My jaw hit the ground. “How…what…why…?” I was at a loss for words. How on Earth did I sleep the entire day? I’m always the early riser and I can work on less than four hours sleep without faltering!

“We had sex twice, in the span of less than twelve hours.” He said, making me blush bright red. “Your body needs time to make up for the lost energy.”

“And how come I’m dressed?” I had finally realized that I wasn’t naked anymore but had on an oversized T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

“I changed you.” Lance said with a smile as he reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. “It was too distracting to have you naked next to me while I was working.”

“Okay…” I guess it was alright, since we did make love twice, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed at the thought of Lancelot changing me while I slept. “I’ll go take a shower.” I told him as I took off the covers and slipped out of bed.

“I’ve ordered room service.” Lance told me as I was opening the door to his room.

“Okay. I’ll be done in ten minutes.” I informed him before slipping out of his room and into mine.

However, it took me a lot more than ten minutes to shower because the next thing I know, I’m being woken up by a knock on the bathroom door and the bath water had gone completely cold.

“Anna, I’m coming in.” Was the only warning I got as Lance burst through the doors and headed straight towards the tub. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling dizzy? And you move?”

“Lance, I’m fine!” I had to raise my voice above his panicked rumblings. “I think…I-I fell asleep again.” I lowered my head in embarrassment.

But Lance seemed to visibly sag in relief as he knelt on the floor next to the tub, as he rubbed his face with his hands. He took a few deep breaths before he brought his head up to look me directly in the eyes, and at that instant, I knew that we’d never again be together; never share the connection we had last night.

“Careful!” Lance placed one arm around my waist as my heels accidentally struck the corner of a sofa causing me to wobble slightly.

“I’m fine, Lance. I just tripped on something.” I reassured him. In fact, I’ve been feeling a lot better since this morning…err…noon, since I woke up at eleven.

Lance had taken me out dress shopping for the opening event, even though I insisted I already had a dress. In fact, ever since I fell asleep in the bathtub last night, Lance hasn’t stopped babying me. He even went as far as to feed me lunch, which I had accepted graciously last night since I felt too tired to move, and breakfast this morning, at which point I’d decided I needed to draw a line. So I’d politely told him I had my own hands, but when he’d completely ignored my wishes and kept on feeding me fruits with a fork, I’d taken my breakfast with me to my room and slammed the door in his face.

I’d emerged an hour later, well fed, showered and dressed and with the day’s schedule written down, only to find Lance lounging on the sofa in a dark blue suit and white shirt, waiting for me to come out so we could come shopping.

“This way ma’am,” a blonde haired woman in a body-hugging black dress pointed me towards a rack of shimmering dresses at the back of the store. We’d come all the way back to New York to pay a visit to Chloe and I was too scared to look at the price tags as I skimmed my hands through the most beautiful collection I’ve ever seen in my life.

“Do all of your…err…donors…come here to shop?” I asked Lance in a sub-vocal whisper.

“No,” Lance’s voice was just as low but his smirk was wide. “They prefer Alexander McQueen or Oscar de la Renta.”

I turned around to shift through the clothes at hand. Obviously, Chloe was a lot cheaper that those places, although it was one of the twenty-five best designer shops in New York, so ‘cheap’ wouldn’t exactly cut it.

I found myself lingering next to a gold, knee length dress that had red roses embroidered into it, but as soon as I placed my hand on the price tag, Lance covered it with his.

“There is no need to look at tags here.” He told me. “This is my gift to you.”

I frown. “For what? Feeding you?”

Lance’s face darkens. “I clearly remember telling you that if we did this, then it’d never be because I needed to feed.”

I lower my head, remembering what he’d said that night.

Then if we do this, it won’t be because you want to feed me. This had to mean something for you.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “It meant more than you can imagine.”

“Good.” Lance sighed in relief. “Now go-“

“Ah-hem!”

We both turned to look behind us at a middle-aged woman in a white dress who was also looking at the dresses in this section of the shop.

“Sorry,” Lance smiled politely at her, took the gold dress off the hanger, and urged me into the trial room to try it on. I took the dress from his hands and made my way to the trials, but when I looked back at the woman, she seemed to be staring wide-eyed at Lance, obviously enchanted by his looks.

So I entered the trial room and started taking my clothes off so I could put on the dress.

Lancelot’s P.O.V:

I watched Anna close the door to the trial room and turned back to the dress rack so I could skim through it for a black dress I’d spotted a few seconds ago. I knew Anna’s size perfectly well; it’s hard to forget those soft curves, her endless slender legs, the delicate curve of her neck…and the way she had all but melted in my arms.

“Excuse me…”

I was snapped out of my trance by a light tap on my back and when I turned around, it was to find the same middle-aged woman in the white dress and deep burgundy hair with a few strands of white. “Yes?” I asked.

“I’m sorry for interrupting you, but…you seem kind of familiar…like I’ve known you from a long time ago,” she hesitated.

I frowned, taking her in carefully. It might be a co-incidence but it might very well be possible that she’d been one of my feeders. But if she was, then how can she still remember me? I never forget to wipe their memories.

“I think you’re mistaken ma’am,” I told her politely. “I don’t recall knowing you. Where do you think you know me from?”

“Oh…that…I don’t remember well…” she looked at the ground, embarrassed to have asked.

But something about her behavior rubbed me the wrong way. “Ma’am, are you lying to me?” I asked, my tone harsher than I’d intended to use.

“I…umm…”

But before she could finish that sentence, a scream rang out from the trial room and I instantly ran towards it.

“Anaya!”

Anaya’s P.O.V:

I changed back to my own clothing, folding the gold dress neatly so it would be ready for packing. The dress fit perfectly and it brought out my skin tone, making my skin look like it was glowing. To be honest, I was completely in love with the dress.

I turned the knob on the door of the trial room, only to find I couldn’t open it. I tried again but to no avail. The knob just kept turning but the door didn’t open.

A little panicked, I opened my mouth to call for help when a voice sounded from behind me that had me frozen in place.

“Anna,” the voice was low, almost inaudible, but there was no mistaking who it was from.

I turned around slowly, my heart beating so fast I was afraid it would burst out of my chest. But as soon as I faced the person standing behind me, I was frozen in shock.

He looked older, his hair having more grey than brown, but there was no mistaking that face, those green eyes, that jawline. It was like staring at an older male version of me. And then he was lifting his hand, bring it towards me, and somehow, I unfroze from my spot, enough to let out a loud scream as I closed my eyes, not able to take anymore.

“Anaya!”

An instant later, the door to the trial room burst open and Lance wrapped his arms around me tightly, enveloping me in his warmth as a whimper left my lips. I wrapped my arms around him, clutching his jacket in my fists as Lance helped me get out of the stall.

“What’s wrong? Who locked the door?” The last bit was growled out to the staff who had gathered around the door to find out what was amiss.

“We have no clue. No one entered the trial room after she did,” said the same woman who had first shown us around.

“They how did the door get locked?” Lance growled again, making the staff take a step backward as he took me to a couch and sat down with me on his lap. “It’s alright, Anna. You’re with me now. Tell me, what happened? Why did you scream?”

I whimpered, not being able to say anything. My whole body was trembling from the shock and Lance rubbed him hands down my back to try and sooth me. “It’s alright, calm down.”

And just as he said those words, I suddenly started to feel calm, my shivering lessened by the minute until it subsided completely after a couple minutes. I knew this was Lance’s doing because there was no way I would’ve been able to come out of this panic attack without his help.

“Can you tell me now?” He was asking as the world came back to focus once more. “Tell me, please.”

I gulped, because what I was about to say would be completely impossible, but I wanted Lance to believe me. So I gathered all my courage and told him the truth.

“Lance, I saw my father. But he’s been dead for ten years now.”