Leah's Hero - Miranda Martin Page 0,9
emerge from the hall to the main room and everyone is there. Instantly all their eyes are on me, and my skin crawls. A voice is screaming to run, hide, get out of here! and I’m frozen. I can’t take a step forward. Can’t move. Can’t even breathe.
Ziva keeps walking then four steps ahead of me she stops and glances back. She looks from me to everyone else in the room, placing a hand on her hip. She frowns and her eyes turn hard as she looks at every one of them.
“If one of you,” she says, in sharp, clipped words. “Has something to say, then do it, now.”
She ends her statement with Mick. The two of them glare at each other for an eternity of time that crawls past like razor blades slicing my skin. Finally Mick smiles and shakes her head. It’s a fake smile, or it looks like that to me, but it’s a smile.
“No problem here,” she says.
“Good,” Ziva says. “No one here is any better than anyone else. We’re all coping the best we can, and we need to help each other.”
“I agree,” Riley says, speaking up for the first time. She moves to stand next to Ziva.
She’s pale and fidgety, giving away her nerves, but she doesn’t let them stop her. Warmth rushes through my body watching her, and I wish, with all my heart, I could be as brave as her. Ziva is a natural, she’s in her element with all eyes on her. Riley isn’t, not at all, but she is doing it. A murmur of agreement goes around the room. Some nod and most return to their work.
“Yeah!” Michael exclaims loudly then he bounds across the room to stand next to me.
My cheeks flush hot. I look around for a place to hide or get away. He puts his arm around my waist and raises his other hand, waggling his finger at the group. I could die.
“We need to be nice to each other,” he admonishes everyone. “It’s tough. We’ll get through this together.”
The girls stare at him. My skin crawls, being at the center of this much attention. I’ve never been comfortable with it, and now with all my problems it’s even worse. When I received an award for my work as a nurse, they wanted me to make a speech in front of my peers, and I threw up before I could go on stage. That same sensation is happening now.
A bang breaks the moment, then Rakstan enters from the hall that leads outside. He’s dripping water on the floor, carrying an armload of wood. He stops as he enters and looks around at the standoff happening between us humans. His wings rustle, and his tail is twitching back and forth with a swishing sound as it moves across the floor.
“You’re getting the floor wet!” Ziva exclaims, breaking the strange moment.
Rakstan looks from his mate to the floor. She spoke in a mix of human and Zmaj, using some of the few words in Zmaj I know. Rakstan frowns at the growing wet spot on the floor where water is pooling off of him. Then he shakes.
Water flies off of him like a dog, landing on everything and everyone within ten feet of him. Cries of dismay and protest explode as people raise their hands to block the water and rush to move away. Rakstan’s smile goes from ear to ear. Silently he carries the wood over to the stack we keep next to the stove, and then he turns to Ziva. In a single stride he closes the distance between them and sweeps her into his arms.
He kisses her with wild abandon. Uncaring of the eyes on them. His passion fills the room, crashing against me like the waves of an ocean. Unbound, beyond comprehension in its depth. She wraps her arms around his neck, and he spins her around and around as their kiss continues. My chest burns watching them.
To have a man who looks at me like that… who loves me like that… but it can never be me. Staring at my feet I squeeze my eyes shut and try to steady myself. Only when I hear him put her back on her feet do I open them and look up.
The best part of the entire scene is it took everyone’s attention off of me. I’m grateful for that. Everyone is working, cleaning, scrubbing, organizing. Allie is sorting a pile of vegetables, so I walk over