Chapter 31: Wounds

                                    

                                          


                          
Lady Luiza and Elena returned to the living room and distributed the teacups between everyone. Lex made sure the left side of her face was obscured by the dancing shadows along the walls. Lady Luiza handed the cup to Lex, who gratefully took hold of it. The aroma of the warm drink was so soothing she couldn't help but take a small sip. It tasted normal at least.
                          
''My dear Lex, where have you been all this time?'' Lady Luiza asked, going to Elena's injured father in order to change his bloodied bandages once more.
                          
Lex, unsure how to respond just pretended as if she didn't hear the old woman correctly. Besides, the drunk on the other side of the room was glaring daggers at her. Avals had even manifested a few times to try and provoke her, but Lex held her tongue. The others in the room may not have been able to hear, see or feel Avals, but the sure could see, hear and touch Lex.
                          
She took another sip of her tea, not saying a word. Sadly, the drunk decided to speak. ''I don't like you.'' he grumbled.
                          
''I don't particularly care if you do or don't like me and trust me, the feeling is mutual.'' she quipped, finishing off her cup. Lex could tell that Lady Luiza must have been shocked by her attitude towards the man. When she had worked here for the old woman, Lex had kept a neutral expression and never talked back to someone no matter how much they verbally attacked her.
                          
The porcelain teacup clanked against the table softly accompanied with the heavy footsteps of the drunken man approaching her. ''You bitch... just what are you hiding.'' he growled again. When Lex looked went to look at him, the bottle of alcohol shattered against her skull. Lex grunted and reached for where the bottle had made contact with her head to check for bleeding. 
                          
''Anton!'' she heard Lady Luiza shout. There was a tugging feeling around her head and someone grabbing her hair. She tried to reach for her eyepatch but it was ripped from her face and the hand that held a firm grip on her hair had ceased. 
                          
The drunk named Anton back away from her and stepped towards the fire to get a better look at her eyepatch. Lex on the other hand, clasped a hand over her left eye, not to conceal it but to try an easy the dull throb she felt. The stench of the alcohol burned her nostrils so badly she was half convinced her nose would start bleeding. She brought her hand down to check for blood, but instead she found black, watery liquid gracing her fingertips.
                          
''This is the Beneviento crest...'' the drunk muttered, looking towards her with shock. His expression went from shock to anger in a flash. ''You! You were in on this! You're from that damn Beneviento place! You knew about this! I knew those damn Lords of Mother Miranda were in on this! You knew about the attack!''
                          
In the middle of his shutting, he tossed the eyepatch into the roaring fire. Without thinking, Lex shot up and roughly shoved the man away and her left hand dove into the fire. She could heard her hand sizzling and the smell of burning flesh mixed with alcohol made her gut twisted violently. Her hand started twitching violently as her fingers wrapped around the leather of the eyepatch. She ripped the eyepatch from the fire, completely ignoring her burned hand, she inspected her eyepatch. There wasn't any major damage to the eyepatch, just a few darken burns around the edges of the white leather strap.
                          
Lady Luiza and Elena were at Lex's side, gently inspecting her hand. Her usually pale hand was bright red with sizzling boils littering almost every corner of her hand. Steam was emanating from the boils but it wasn't clear if it was from the sudden change of temperature or from her body steadily healing the burns.
                          
Lady Luiza and Elena quickly brought Lex to her feet. Ignoring Anton's drunken shouting, the two women rushed Lex into a separate room, away from everyone else. Making it to the kitchen, Lady Luiza searched through the cupboards for anything to wrap up Lex's injured hand. Lex couldn't particularly care about her burned hand, she was more concerned with the gift Donna made for her.