Chapter One
"Daddy I’m home." Sienna James called out as she stepped into the large greeting hall of the three-story Victorian style home. She listened for her father’s customary reply and was only slightly worried when the greeting was not heard. Soft strains of Beethoven could be heard through the study door on the first landing. "Daddy?"
The heels of Sienna’s shoes tapped rapidly as she ran up the stairs, the hem of her skirt swishing softly around her knees. She came to a stop in front of her fathers study and shuddered as the song "Moonlight Sonata" started playing. It had always seemed like such a depressing song to the young girl. "Daddy?" she tapped lightly on the oak door and it swung gently open. The sight that greeted her was nothing she had ever imagined could have possible.
"Oh My God!" she screamed as she dropped to her knees next to the body of her father. He lay face down on the tile floor and blood covered the carpet that her mother had so painstakingly searched for when Sienna was born. His feet were tucked under his mahogany desk, making it seem as if he had simply fallen out of his black desk chair and lay where he was, dead, because that’s what he was.
"Daddy" she wailed and hugged her fathers limp form to her chest, sobbing hysterically. She repeated "daddy" over and over, seemingly unable to say anything but the single word. She put a shaking hand to her father’s neck and felt no pulse. She cried harder still, sobs wracking her body.
Somehow Sienna pulled herself from her hi body and found the telephone. She dialed 9-1-1 and explained her predicament with disturbing serenity. The operator sounded sympathetic but it was so obviously faked. Sienna was not comforted when she got off the phone. She was not unhappy, she was not angry, she was simply numb.
A police car was on the way and so was an ambulance, but what did it matter? Her father was dead! There was nothing that was going to change that.
She sank into his favorite chair. When Sienna was five her father had pulled her into this very room and had dealt with the girls tears as he told her that her mother had been killed when a drunk driver hit her. She had curled up in his lap and cried late into the night and then gone to the funeral with a straight face. Tears had run down her cheeks, just as they were now but there was no way of discerning the thoughts going through her head. No one could tell what she was thinking or feeling. The chair rocked, Sienna had not realized that she was rocking the chair but the sound was a comfort. The leather rubbed against her legs and her mind was blank.
She never heard the doorbell ring or the pounding knocks. She only comprehended the paramedics when she saw her father being zipped into the body bag. Sienna's tears increased, her shirt quickly becoming soaked. She noticed none of it though. The paramedics picked up the bag and laid it on a stretcher, the zipper clinking lightly against the edge of the medal bar. Several cops came by and tried to get her to talk but she just stared blankly at them until they left, leaving her house empty and silent.
The stench of blood still clung to the room and to her clothes. The stains on her clothing and the carpet were quickly turning brown and she pulled herself to her feet. Sienna could hear her heartbeat in her ears, could feel her breakfast rising in her throat, she cringed and left the room, pulling her shirt over her head and throwing it across the hallway. She came to her room and looked at her reflection, tear streaks stained her cheeks and her eyes were red, proof that she had been crying. She stepped out of her skirt and threw it in the garbage, not caring about anything anymore and knowing that she would never get the stain out. Sienna pulled a washcloth from under the sink and soaked it in cool water; she then laid it across her eyes and sighed as the cold hit the stinging flesh. Stripping down, she ran a bath for herself and slipped into the warm water, laying down and closing her eyes. No sounds were heard in the house but the strains of Beethoven were still in her head, haunting her every thoughts.
Sienna woke up two hours later after the water had turned cold and everything had been momentarily forgotten. All of the day’s previous events came rushing back and Sienna's mind refused to accept that any of it had happened. She pulled herself out of the tub and got dressed in a pair of silk lounge pants and a tank top
She walked out of her room and down the stairs into the small kitchen, no larger than most homes despite the giant size of her mansion. She found some turkey and bread and made herself a sandwich, knowing she had to eat but not really finding herself hungry. Sienna took a bite of the snack and tried to chew it but found she could not swallow and spit the bite into the trash, after throwing in the rest of the sandwich she mechanically walked back up the stairs and stopped at her fathers study. She stared at the spot where he had been laying and walked over to his desk, careful not to step on any of the blood stains, almost as if she was afraid her father still lay in the same spot. Tears gathered in her eyes as she ran her fingertips over the picture that held the last picture she had taken with her mother, two days before the fatal accident.
Sienna sat down in her father’s desk chair and wondered what had happened to him, no one she could think of would want him dead; he was a very well known and happy person. He would never do anything like this to himself that much she was sure of. He had always talked of how if someone took their own life they would go to hell. He was always worried about doing something to hurt others or making sure he followed the bible strictly, he would never do anything to make God unhappy.
Sienna, however, was finding it very hard to be anything but angry with God. He had taken her mother from her when she was five, then he had taken her grandparents after that, now her father was gone too. She had no one to turn to. She was lost.
She thought back to the night she had discovered her grandparents were dead, that day she turned six, four months after her mother had been killed. No one tried to deny the fact that the elderly couple had been heartbroken. No one tried to make the little girl feel better. The funeral had lasted forever. It had taken place two days after Sienna’s birthday, she was turning six and she had seen more death than anyone she knew.
The young girl, now nineteen, pulled herself from her thoughts. She blamed herself, as would most people her age. If she had only been home a few minutes earlier, if she hadn’t gone to that last store… the "what ifs" went on forever. The phone rang, her hand came to rest gently on the receiver before it fell back into her lap, she would let the machine get it. The phone rang again, louder this time, chastising the girl for sitting there, doing nothing. It rang two more times before the machine came on.
"Hello, you’ve reached Christopher-"
"And Sienna-"
"James" the two voices chimed. The memories of practicing over and over were getting to Sienna but she dared not turn it off. "We can’t come to the phone right now but if you leave your name and number we’ll get back to you." "Bye" Sienna’s eight-year old voice chimed in.
"I’m looking for a Miss Sienna James, if this is the correct number I would appreciate it if you would give the Jefferson County police station a call regarding the accident that happened earlier. Ask for Nox. Thank You." The machine beeped again and Sienna glared at the device, wishing she could bore holes into it with her eyes. How dare they call her mere hours after she had found her father dead in their own home!
Sienna stood from her spot at the desk and walked around to face the wooden structure. She picked up the small but ornate rug and carried it outside, straight to the garbage. She went back into the house and up the stairs to the office door, once she was sure all of the blood was gone from the room she turned and went back towards her room. She got halfway down the hall before she realized that her stained shirt lay in the floor of the hallway. She bent down and picked it up by the sleeve, not touching the blood, she carried it back to her room like that, holding it up just by the sleeve. When she got back to her room, she threw it in the garbage with her skirt and sat down on the edge of her bed where she stayed for hours, ‘til the sun had set and risen again, thinking of her father and all the wonderful memories they had together.
She rose from the bed the next morning, stiff and disoriented. She went into her closet and changed into a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, pulling a hooded sweatshirt over her head she walked out the door and started her morning jog. Her legs and lungs burned after the first mile but she kept pushing herself. She enjoyed the feeling of the pain; it reminded her that she was alive, that the world was still going on as it had before the tragic death of her father. She ended up in downtown Jefferson before she finally allowed herself to breath normally. She strolled by the shops that she and her father had so often visited, the small coffee shops where they had sat and chatted for hours.
Not watching where she was going, Sienna ran into someone and fell to the ground, landing on her butt, no damage done. A gentleman reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet and smiling a smile so sincere it hurt Sienna to look at it.
"Are you alright?" He asked in a kind concerned voice. Sienna looked into his eyes and found herself smiling at their gray depths.
"I’ll be fine." She whispered and reached up to wipe away a hair that had landed in her face but encountered tears instead.
"Are you sure you aren’t hurt? Why are you crying?" he said.
"I’m fine. It’s just been a really long day, or yesterday was." Sienna said quietly, more tears quickly making their appearance.
"Will you have coffee with me? We could talk it over." He questioned gently.
"There’s nothing to talk about." Looking into his eyes she ground out the words through clenched teeth. Sienna turned back in the direction she had come and started walking home, regretting making the three mile run every step of the way. Her red hair swayed in the ponytail and her arms chilled in the cool November air. The man had long since stopped following her and she slowed to a stop. The colors around her had the same effect they had the first day she had noticed them. A deep crimson leaf, the color of blood, fell from the top of a tree and landed at her feet.
"Are you trying to tell me my whole life is going to be like this?" she screamed into the sky. The girl turned at the sound of a small sports car driving up beside her. The hood was down on the convertible and the young man she had met earlier stared at her from behind the wheel.
"You might not want to scream at the sky like that. Someone might think there’s really something wrong with you."
"How do you know there’s not?" She asked quietly, looking down at her sneakers in a dejected way.
Chapter Two
Sienna walked up to her door and waved as the gentleman who had given her a ride, pulled away. She remembered the way he dressed and the way he talked and the way his gorgeous gray eyes lit up as he talked about his job. It turned out that this very man was the one who had called her house, the one from the police department. His shoulder length black hair waved in the breeze as the quick little mustang gained speed and he waved over the back seat of the car. Nox was a very interesting man, that much was certain. His concern warmed her heart and she was actually glad she had shared the story with him.
She remembered he had said that he was going to come by the next day and talk to her about what had happened that horrible day. If she wanted to get an investigation going it needed to happen as soon as humanly possible
She turned and opened the large front doors, letting herself remember for a moment the impact of her discovery. Today as she walked through the halls, she felt more like a visitor in her home, someone who didn’t belong. The ornate paintings of the family members hanging on the walls seemed as though they were sneering at her and the gold inlaid furniture seemed vain. Sienna walked up to the third floor and stopped as head came level to the floor. She hadn’t been in this part of the house since her mother had died. She cautiously walked up the remaining ten or twelve steps and froze as her feet hit the landing.
What had possessed her to come up here? Why did she suddenly feel like a stranger in her own home? Stepping up onto the plush carpet, she covered her nose and a cloud engulfed her body. Apparently she was not the only one who had stayed away from the third floor. No one had cleaned the area in the longest time and Sienna coughed as dust covered her from head to toe. Recovering slightly, she walked to the first door she found and had a serious sense of déjà vu, she had done this very thing before.
It had been Christmas day when she was five, she had come up to talk to her mother who had been in this room sewing and she had paused at the door. She had knocked on the door and laughed as she heard things fall all over the floor. Her mother had shown up at the door with her hair a mess and an innocent grin on her face. Sienna had just laughed and she and her mother had played around in the used wrapping paper from the Christmas gifts.
Sienna pushed open the door and it creaked in protest to the sudden movement after being immobile for so long. The room still stood as it had that day. Nothing had been moved. The wrapping paper still lay on the floor though the once brightly colored patterns were now dull and faded and the box to the doll she had gotten that year still sat on the floor, ripped and torn, just as she had left it thirteen years ago. She walked over to the old sewing machine sitting in the corner and drug her hand lightly across the top of it, her hand collecting dust like a rotting corpse collects flies.
She sat on the small stool after wiping it clean of dust and observed the room. Mauve colored drapes adorned the windows and a light pink covered the walls, making the entire room look as if you were a fairy sitting in the middle of a rose. She smiled at her mother’s choice in decorations and cringed at her own, down on the second story she had a room painted completely black. She had gone a little crazy when her mother died, after the whole episode of showing no emotion she stopped talking. No one had known what was wrong with her except for her father. She had to be pulled out of school for the remainder of the year and her father had hired a tutor to home school her.
The one thing that seemed out of place in the room was a guitar, a beautiful guitar. Sienna stood to her feet and walked across the room, the wrapping paper crumpling under her sneaker-clad feet. Once she reached the opposite wall, she bent over and picked the instrument from where it rested against the pink wall. It had a rose tucked among the strings, still red and vibrant, freshly picked even. She brought it closer to her face and uncovered a card wrapped ‘round the neck of the guitar. She took care in opening it, trying not to let the brittle paper fall apart. "Happy Birthday my Sweet Angel, with all my love, Mom" Sienna’s eyes instantly watered and she smiled at her mothers kindness. She must have forgotten about the guitar while we were playing, she thought to herself. But then how would the rose still be alive? And why was the guitar not completely covered in dust from the thirteen years no one had visited this room. She strummed the chords thoughtfully and walked back over to the stool, careful not to cause any harm to her newly found gift.
Sienna laid the rose across the sewing machine and picked out a tune as she sat down astounded that the sound was still fairly accurate. She quickly ran through "Amazing Grace" and then went onto the song "El Shaddai" both were her mother’s favorite songs and she hummed as she plucked the strings. Soon her voice picked up the words and she sang with all her heart, tears running down her cheeks unnoticed.
Sienna sat in that room for hours, playing the instrument and letting her emotions control her. She left the room around eight that night and was actually not in the worst mood possible. Things were looking up, despite her recent tragedy.
Sienna walked into her room and once again felt the odd sensation of being out of place. She sat down on the black bread spread and crossed her legs before her, still cradling the precious guitar. She glanced around her room and was appalled in her choice of wall colors. How could she have picked out black as a wall color? Standing to her feet, she walked over to her closet and shoved around a few things, coming out moments later with the doll her mother had given her the Christmas before she died, the doll whose box still lay in the upstairs room, torn and covered in dust. The guitar still lay on the bed where she had left and, bringing the doll with her, she picked up the instrument and walked from the room.
Sienna once again mounted the stairs, but this time she was not leery of what she would find. She climbed back up to the third floor and, instead of walking into the completely pink room; she continued her trek down the hallway. She stopped at the third door and looked over the pictures that had been taped to the wooden structure. Securing the beloved items in one arm she pushed the door open and a musty smell assailed her nose. The room was bathed in sunlight from the window on the opposite wall and it seemed to warm her even as she looked at the wondrous glow. There lay against one wall a twin sized bed that was still covered in the butterfly print bedspread she had gotten after so much asking and hoping and wishing, across the room from the bed was where a dresser stood, painted light purple and green. Sienna’s eyes gazed lovingly over the room she had loved so much, the room she and her mom had painted and decorated just for the young girl when she was four or five. She smiled at the irony of this event. She was standing in the doorway of a room that had not been occupied in thirteen years when there was a room that she had decorated and painted and devoted two weeks to getting in perfect shape.
Sienna stepped into the room and walked over to the bed, laying the guitar across the pillows, she stroked the neck lovingly. What really disturbed Sienna was the fact that she had found the guitar the day after her birthday, free of dust or any signs of aging. It was as if her mother had put it there the day before, the day her father had been murdered. Her hand froze on the precious gift and her ears were drawn to the sound of the phone ringing. She stalked out of the room and down the stairs as fast as her feet would carry her. She snatched up the phone from the stand in the hallway and growled into the phone. "Hello"
"Hi, I’m looking for Christopher James, I was supposed to get a statement about my-"
"I’m sorry but my Daddy was killed yesterday and I would appreciate it if I could have some peace!"
There was silence on the other end of phone. "Good bye" Sienna said in a false, overly innocent voice. She could hear the man trying to apologize as she slammed the receiver down but in all honesty, she couldn’t have cared less. Just as she was turning around the phone rang again. She growled in frustration and yanked the receiver from the cradle. "What do you want?" she all but screamed into the phone.
"A date." said a masculine voice.
"Nox? Is that you?" she asked in disbelief, her anger temporarily forgotten.
"Yes and I want you to join me and my brother for dinner tonight." he paused for a moment and Sienna opened her mouth to argue but stopped herself as he came back onto the phone "Please. I would really love it if you would come. I know you've never met my brother but I think you'll really like him." he waited for an answer, secretly dreading her turning him down.
"Um, I don't know. It's really soon after my dad... you know."
"It sounds to me like you need some human interaction. Please it's just one night. After this you don't ever have to talk to me outside of the investigation and you don't even have to talk to my brother ever again if you don't want to." he pleaded.
"Ok." she sighed into the phone. "Maybe you're right about the whole human interaction thing."
"Thank you so much, you won't regret this I swear," he practically sang into the phone.
"What do you want me to wear?" she asked, running through the contents of her closet in her mind.
"Something fancy. I want to take you somewhere nice."
"Ok. What time?"
"Is seven thirty too early?"
Sienna glanced at the silver watch hanging from her left wrist. The dial read six o'clock. "Seven thirty is fine," she said softly.
"I'll see you then?"
"Yeah. Bye" she said quietly and gently placed the receiver in the cradle. Sienna smiled to herself and walked back into her black room, not even noticing the color of everything but walking directly to the huge walk-in closet on the far wall. She shuffled through her clothes until she came to the dress that she had been looking for. It was an elegant black dress that dropped low in the back and had only one sleeve, although it was a long sleeve. Draping the dress over the back of her desk chair, she stepped from the sweats she still wore and walked to her bathroom. She turned on the water and got it hot, hot enough that the entire bathroom was filled with steam, and then stepped into the spray. Sienna stood under the water for a long time, letting the heat soothe her muscles and wash the dirt from her body. When she stepped out of the shower twenty minutes later, she felt like a new person. Playing the guitar her mother had gotten for her had cleansed her emotions and now she felt as if her body had received the same privilege.
She walked from her room and grabbed the beautiful garment off the back of her chair and held it up in front of her twirling around and admiring the dress in the mirror. She felt as she hadn’t a care in the world and as if the awful events of the day before had been only a dream. She quickly donned the dress and went back to her closet for her shoes. Sienna emerged minutes later with the box in hand. Pulling off the lid she admired the black sandals, with their straps that came up and laced up around her ankles and the simple little bow that rested upon the strap going across her toes. She put the shoes on her feet and tied the straps around her ankles then stood to admire the effect in the mirror. Walking over to her jewelry box, she pulled out her favorite earrings and necklace. When Sienna emerged from her room ten minutes later, her dark red hair was pulled back into a simple French twist and she had applied a small amount of make-up. Her black eyes had been highlighted with an almost white, shimmering eye shadow and silver eyeliner, making her eyes look as if they glowed, despite their dark color. Pulling back her shoulders, she walked from the room and down the stairs just as the doorbell rang.
Chapter three
Nox walked up the steps and stopped under the awning. Shaking out his umbrella, he wondered when it had started raining. The sky had been perfectly clear when he ran into Sienna that morning; it had, in fact, been clear when he dropped her off. However, after he dropped her off and started the drive home it had started drizzling and now it was an all out storm. He shrugged and straightened his tie, hoping that he looked half as good as he knew she would. Giving up on looking any better, he reached out with a shaking hand and pressed a finger to the warm plastic of the lighted doorbell. He saw a shadow moving behind the curtains of the window next to the door and tried to breath normally. Why was he getting so worked up over this girl? Why did she have this effect on him when none of the others did? He could answer at least one of those questions. None of the others had the same kind of beauty and grace that Sienna had, her father had been killed the day before and this morning she had gone out for a jog like nothing had happened. He wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. It could mean that she simply didn’t let tragedy affect her or it could mean that she was unaffected because she was the one that had killed him.
All thought was forgotten when Sienna opened the door. Nox was sure his mouth must have opened far enough to hit the floor but Sienna only giggled and did a spin. The dress was amazing. It looked as if it was made of her, and given the looks and size of the house it was quiet possible that this family had enough money to have custom made for her. It was revealing yet at the same time conservative enough to suit his Christian values. "Do you like it?" she asked shyly and his gaze was immediately drawn to her face.
"You look gorgeous." He said sincerely and leaned down to bestow a kiss on her cheek. He pulled back and looked at her eyes. In their black depths he found excitement and happiness but what really set him at ease was the fact that he found sadness hidden behind the other emotions. It meant that she couldn’t have killed her father, right? If she had killed her father, she wouldn’t be nearly as sad as her eyes revealed she was.
"Oh, um here this is for you." He told her, a white rose in his outstretched hand. She pulled the rose from his grasp and inhaled the sweet aroma. He turned and opened the umbrella then offered her his arm. She placed her hand one his arm and he turned just as she walked back into the house.
He stared in silence for a moment for a moment before he stepped onto the threshold and looked around the corner to see her pulling something from the closet in the entryway. She turned and told him "I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that it was as cold as it is outside."
"Oh, it’s ok. I didn’t realize that was what you were doing. I thought you were just going to go back inside and leave me out here in the rain." She laughed and started pulling on what he now recognized as a black sweater. He once again offered his arm to her, which she gladly accepted after laying the rose on an in table, they walked down the steps, under the protection of the umbrella Nox had brought. He opened the passenger side door for and made sure she got inside without one single drop of water landing on her dress. He walked around to the driver’s side and got in, it was then that she noticed he had not fared anywhere near as well as she had. He was soaked. She started laughing and realized it felt so much better to laugh, even in times of sadness, laughing was far better than crying.
Sienna watched as he pulled off his coat and instantly decided she liked him better without the jacket. She couldn’t help the attraction she felt for him, she couldn’t change the way she felt when she saw him. She leaned over and kissed him, not a simple peck on the cheek but an all out kiss, square on the mouth. He didn’t respond at first but after a second or two he did. She poured all the emotion she was feeling into the kiss and she knew she was doing this out of emotional overload. That much was infinitely obvious to them both, however Nox did not try to stop the kiss he deepened it instead. Sienna pulled back and tried to get her breathing back to normal. "I am so sorry about that." She apologized "I guess my emotions are running a little rampant right now." She looked at her hands folded in her lap and avoided his gaze.
"It’s not like I was complaining." She heard him mumble as he started up the car and pulled away from the curb.
They made small talk on the way to the restaurant but it was strained. When they got to the restaurant, Sienna was amazed to discover that it was the same one her dad had brought her to on her sixteenth and eighteenth birthdays. She breathed a sigh and stared at her feet, she could do this, she knew she could. This was not dinner with her father, this was a simple dinner with two young men who were trying to help her with her problems.
Nox placed a hand gently on her back and they followed the waiter to their table. It wasn’t until Sienna was seated that she noticed that there was another gentleman sitting at the table with them. He looked exactly like Nox but with white hair. He was wearing a gray suit jacket with a light blue button up shirt on, the gray brought out his eyes and when he smiled Sienna couldn't help but smile back.
"Hello, I’m Helios. You must be Sienna." He extended a hand and Sienna gently took it. "My brother told me you were beautiful but I never imagined you would be this gorgeous." He smiled easily and it was instantly obvious that both of the brothers must have been charmers at their schools.
"Well I’m sure I don’t look quiet the same in an evening gown that I do in sweat pants and a t-shirt." She responded, sending an accusing grin at the dark haired brother.
"Angels must have been smiling on the day you were born." Helios smiled down at the empty plate in front of him.
Sienna’s smile slipped several notches and she reached for the water, hoping to dislodge the lump that had appeared and seemed to keep her from swallowing. "Can we please not talk about angels or heaven or anything of the nature? I just want a peaceful dinner with two of the most handsome men in the city."
Helios sent his brother a look that was unknown to Sienna and Nox almost glared back at him. "It’s fine. We don’t have to talk about it if it makes you uncomfortable." Helios said gently.
"Thank you. But it isn’t so much that it makes uncomfortable than it simply disturbs me as to how anyone could love a god that would kill off their family members and the people that are closest to them." Sienna explained as calmly as possible.
"Maybe it was simply time that they joined God in heaven." Nox suggested quietly.
"How can you say that? You mean that my father was meant to be brutally murdered? Did you even see the body? He had been stabbed in the back with a letter opener. The point of the stupid thing was sticking through his heart." Sienna choked on a sob and covered her face with her napkin. Tears quickly soaked through the napkin and she became cold for an unknown reason. She longed for the warmth of the sweater that at some point had been removed. She started shaking violently and she stood unsteadily to her feet. Helios and Nox both immediately stood up on either side of her but she pushed past them and towards the ladies room. Just as she went to open the door everything went black and she felt herself falling into darkness.
Chapter four
Helios rushed forward as Sienna and reached her just as she hit her head. Nox was not far behind but he was being detained by the crowd gathering around the now unconscious girl. Helios started spouting orders at everyone "Call an ambulance! Get me something to put under her head! Get me some water!" Three waiters rushed off and one came back saying an ambulance was on the way. Another came back with a glass of water and one of the tablecloths that had been in back. Helios lifted her head and put the tablecloth under it just as his brother finally made his way through the crowd and, taking the water from the waiter, he crouched down next the two bodies. Nox dropped a few fingers into the icy water and gently started flicking the liquid on Sienna’s face, hoping the moisture would revive her.
"Move!" one voice yelled.
"Out of their way." Another shouted.
The brothers looked up to see a stretcher being pushed through the crowd and they both stepped back as the paramedics slipped a backboard under her and lifted her onto the stretcher. The manager of the restaurant came out of the back and waved off the people telling them to get back to their dinner. He told the brothers not to worry that everything was on the house and that he wanted to get back to their friend. "Her father is one of our best customers. We all think so highly of Sienna. You will let us know how she comes out of this won’t you?"
Both of the boys nodded and walked out the front door. "I’m going straight to the hospital. You can’t really, you are still on duty and it’s out of your county." Helios quickly explained to his brother. "I’ll call you as soon as I know something."
Nox simply nodded, his face a mask of depression as he walked back to his mustang. He waved at his brother and pulled out of the lot and went down to the police station to work some more on Sienna’s case. He spent the entire trip praying for her safety, her welfare and most of all he prayed that she would find Christ in the midst of all the tragedy she was going through.
Helios arrived at the hospital not ten minutes after the ambulance had gotten there. He rushed up to the desk. "I’m looking for a girl named Sienna James." He said frantically.
The nurse looked up at him, she had a stern teacher look about her "Are you family?" she asked in a tone that told you not to challenge her.
"She has no known living relatives, her father was killed yesterday," he told her, repeating the information his brother had given him this afternoon.
"Oh." The nurse shuffled some papers around and looked back up at him. "What’s your name?" she asked, more softly and more kindly then before.
"Helios."
"Last name?" she asked, once again using the stern teacher look.
"I don’t have a last name. My brother and I were both foster children and we each refused to take their last name." He explained like he had so many times before.
"Room 213"
"Thank you and God bless." He yelled running down the hall towards the room she was supposed to be in. Slowing to a stop, he looked in the small window that was provided on the door. Sienna appeared to be sleeping and no one seemed to be around so Helios gently pushed the door open and walked over to her bedside where a small blue chair sat. he walked up to her bedside and took her hand before gently lowering himself into the uncomfortable plastic chair and closed his eyes to begin praying. However no prayer would come. For the first time in his life he found it impossible to pray to his heavenly father. When he closed his eyes all he saw was Sienna falling in the middle of the restaurant and he was afraid for her. He could only imagine her falling into darkness, eternal darkness.
"Lord, I’m not even going to try to put what I feel into words. You know my heart better than anyone, even me. Read my heart and help me please." He whispered into the almost silent room. A steady rhythm was beating on the heart monitor and a machine supplied her lungs with all the clean oxygen they needed. The room was peaceful. Helios slipped his hand from Sienna's and pulled out his cell phone, dialing his brother's number.
"How is she?" Was the first thing that was said.
"She looks like she will be fine. They have her hooked up to a heart monitor and an oxygen tank but she looks like she’s sleeping." He told his almost frantic brother. "Get some sleep and I’ll call you in the morning to come trade off with me."
"Ok. Call me if there’s any change."
"Ok, bye." Helios tucked the phone back into his pocket and smiled at the irony of it all. For probably the third time in their lives they had both fallen for the same girl. He looked down at Sienna and her eyes flickered, a sure sign that she was close to consciousness. "Sienna?" Helios picked her hand back up and squeezed it gently "Sienna I want you to open your eyes. Please Sienna it's Helios. I want you to open your beautiful black eyes and give me a smile like the one you gave me at dinner." Her lips twitched at his request and she slowly blinked until her eyes were used to the lighting in the room.
"Where am I?" she asked with a hoarse voice. "Why does my throat hurt so bad?" She turned her head and gave him the smile he had asked for. "Why did you want me to smile?"
He picked up her hand and bestowed a kiss on her knuckles. "You are in the hospital because you passed out at the restaurant. Your throat hurts because they have been forcing oxygen down your throat for about a half hour. And I wanted you to smile because that was the only way I knew how to get you to come back to me." He smiled at her. "You've had my brother out of his mind with worry."
"What about you?" she asked with a small secret smile on her lips.
"I was pretty worried."
"I'm kind of glad to hear it, as weird as that may sound." she squeezed his hand. "So do you know how long it will be before I can get out of here?"
"No but I'm sure I could find a nurse and ask for you."
"No need" she smiled and held up her other hand with the call button for the nurse.
A nurse appeared in the doorway moments later and looked in on the two. "Oh, you're awake! Let me get you some water and something to eat." the nurse smiled widely and turned to leave the room.
"When she comes back will you tell her thank you for me? Please? I would have but my throat is killing me." Sienna asked in a voice just above a whisper. Helios nodded as the nurse came back into the room with two glasses of water and a bag of graham crackers under her arm.
"Sienna wanted me to thank you. She said her throat was bothering her and she thought all you would be able to hear was her grumbling." Helios said, handing one of the glasses of water to Sienna.
"Don’t worry about it sweetheart it’s my job." The nurse replied walking towards the door. Sienna waved and saw a return gesture just as her mousy brown hair turned around the corner.
"Ma’am?" Helios called.
The nurse popped her head back in the room. "You need something kids?" she smiled warmly at the two.
"I was just wondering when I could take her home. If you don’t mind me asking." Helios smiled at the nurse and Sienna could see his charm working its magic.
The nurse shot a knowing grin at the two of them "I’ll need to ask the doctors but I would imagine they would want to keep her here over night. They can be kind of picky when it comes to head injuries like you got." Sienna nodded with a pensive look on her face. "Here Hun, let me help you with that." The nurse told her moving towards the edge of the bed. She pulled a lever and the bed rose into a reclining position. Sienna drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them.
"Thank you." She mouthed and smiled as the middle-aged brunette left the room.
"Are you ok?" Helios asked from where he still sat. Sienna nodded but her expression remained thoughtful. Helios reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Are you sure?" he asked quietly. Sienna looked into his eyes and he could literally feel her pain.
"I want out of here." she whispered, her voice slowly returning to normal. "I feel like a caged animal. I haven't ever told anyone this and I really don't want you to freak out on me but this isn't the first time something like this has happened to me." Helios gave her his full attention. "This happened when my mom died. Thirteen years ago she was hit by a drunk driver, she was dead when they got to the scene, the driver had never bothered to stop and help her. When I found out my emotions shut down for a while but when they did return, they hit me so hard that I went into shock and ended up passing out. My dad brought me to the hospital and they told him that this particular type of grieving was rare but not unheard of. So basically for the rest of my life I have to worry about slipping into shock the day after something happens to me," tears slowly made their way down Sienna’s face. "Every time I come here I get claustrophobic. It feels like we are all caged animals. They keep us like this so we can’t see the public and they can’t see us."
Helios reached out and wiped a tear from her cheek. "No they don’t. They bring you here to help you." she gave a half-hearted smile and gave in to the tears. Helios engulfed her in a hug, she simply sniffled into his sleeve.
Nox paced in front of his couch, walking to the coffe table, turning and walking back to the recliner, then repeating the process. "They should have called me by now." Nox told himself, his voice barely above a whisper. "Why haven't they called?" he was fighting an internal battle, between trusting God and taking matters into his own hands. "They should have called by now. He wouldn't just leave me in the dark. Something must have happened." He picked up his cell phone and opened the lid, starting to dial his brothers number almost before the lid had come to its full extension.
"She's fine." his brother's voice said quietly. He could hear people puttering around in the background and he knew his brother must have gone into the hallway for the phone call. His brother knew him well enough to know his emotions far before he had spoken and Nox was once again amazed at how close the two had gotten over the two years they had spent living in the same house.
"What did the doctor's say?" he asked, his voice almost hysterical. He heard his brother sigh and he could tell he was smiling to himself. "Dont sit there laughing at me, I can tell you are, or at least want."
"The doctors said she is going to be fine." Nox said in a slightly more serious voice. "She went into shock from being out about today."
"But I just invited her to dinner." Helios told him, feeling more miserable by the minute. He sunk into the recliner and propped his feet up on the coffee table.
"Get your feet off the coffee table dear brother." he heard come through the receiver. He imediately pulled them off the glass surface. "How could she have slipped into shock the day after something like that happened?" he asked, more to himself than to his brother.
"She said it happens to her, it happened when her mother and grandparents died as well." The black haired brother said quietly.
"Is she awake, I mean can she talk and all that kind of stuff?" Helios asked quietly.
"Yes.... Do you want to talk to her." Nox asked, silently wishing that he wouldn't say yes.
"Of course, that would be so wonderful." he said in a rush. He heard Nox sigh and the background got quiet. He could hear some hushed words and then the phone changed hands.
"Hello?" Sienna's voice greeted him softly. For a moment he forgot why he had even called her in the first place. "Hello?" she asked again, a little louder.
"Hi." he said, snapping back to his senses. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm ok." she answered softly, her voice still scratchy from the oxygen tube.
"I'm sorry for over exerting you, ecspecially the day after something like that happened, I should have waited." he said in a rush.
"And if you had I would have been in my house, alone, when I passed out. It wasn't me going out that triggered it." she reassured him, smiling slightly at his willingness to take the blame. "It would have happened sooner or later." she coughed a little and Nox pulled the phone from her hand.
"Hey Helios, I'm gonna see if I can get her released and I'll take her back to her house. Your next shift starts in an hour." he told his brother before another word was spoken. It made Nox uncomfortable to listen to the girl he liked talk like that to his brother, to smile like that over his brother.
"Alright." Helios said softly, "Thanks for letting me talk to her."
Nox nodded slightly and told his brother "goodbye", flipping the lid closed. He turned to Sienna and smiled brightly at her. "You ready to go home?"
"You have no idea how ready I am." she told him, pulling herself into a sitting position.
"Well, I'll go get your release papers squared away." he told and walked out of the room , on his way to free her from her prison.
Chapter five
Sienna stepped out into the sun and stopped, Helios stopping a few seconds ahead of her. She looked up towards the sun and smiled as the heat hit her face, "So much nicer." she mumbled to herself. Helios walked back over to the young girl and smiled.
"You feel better?" he asked quietly. Sienna's eyes snapped opened and she came face to face with Helios.
She chuckled slightly. "So much." she whispered.
Helios reached out and grabbed her hand and he froze for a moment. He felt an electric shock run up his arm and he made his eyes meet with Sienna's. He cleared his throat, "You want to go get something to eat?"
Sienna smiled, "You mean since I didn't get to eat dinner with the two of you last night?" Helios nodded and Sienna started walking in the direction of the parking garage, pulling Helios along with her. "Come on, you promised me food." she coaxed.
"Slow down." he chuckled, tugging on her hand to make her stop her crazy speed.
She slowed down and walked calmly beside him. "So, what do you do for a living?"
"Not much." He told her. "Sometimes I help my brother with his cases but mostly I help people I meet on the street."
Sienna gently swung their hands between them as they walked along. "But you don't get paid for stuff like that do you?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Not in money." he responded, squinting in the direction of the sun.
"How can you say you get paid if you don't get money?" She stopped and turned toward him, a suspicious look on her face.
"I'll get paid so much more when I get to Heaven."
Sienna pulled her hand back and continued walking, "Where did you park your car?" she asked tensely. Helios sighed, if only this girl could see what she was missing in her life, maybe she would realize what she needed. She needed the power of Christ in her life and Helios felt that he had been sent to help her acheive that point in her life. He looked back up, not realizing that he had let his gaze drop to his shoes and put on a false smile. "Level two." he said quietly.
Sienna continued walking, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. She still wore the evening gown she had on the night before. She hadn't had much more of a choice when getting dressed that morning but the heels that she had so lovingly picked out the night before, now simply made her feet ache. She was getting a tension headache and she could tell now that it was going to be a very long day. She slowed down when she got to the top of the stairs, she didn't know what Helios' car looked like. He remained a few steps behind her and came to a stop on the top step, standing next to her in the shade, letting his eyes adjust to the shade.
He ushered her over to the car and opened the passanger side door for her, his small car matched his brother's almost identically, the only difference being the color. Nox had a black mustang where as Helios had a sleek silver one. Sienna absent-mindedly fingered the small silver charm around her neck, remembering how happy she had been when her father had given her the rose necklace. The door slamming shut brought Sienna out of her reverie and she looked over art the man that she had met only the night before but she felt as if she knew him, had known him for quite a while.
"Can you just take me home?" she asked quietly, her voice cracking slightly.
Helios looked over at her with a puzzled look on his face. "I thought you wanted lunch."
"I just want to go to bed." she whispered. He nodded and started off toward her home, only hoping that she be ok one of these days.
Nox flipped through Sienna's case file for the fourth time in as many hours. It didn't make any sense. There was no one that had it for her father. He was an upstanding citizen, he payed his bills and he was an all around good guy. So who would want him dead? He slapped the file closed angrily and stood up, walking to small water cooler in the corner of the room.
"Still working on the Christopher James case?" one of his friends asked, coming to stand beside him.
"I don't get it Jim." he told the man, stroking his chin in thought. "There is no one in the area that we know of that would want to hurt that man. It makes no sense." He turned back towards his desk and picked up the file.
"What about the daughter?" Jim asked him, following him over to his desk.
"I really don't think that she would have done this." he said turning around. The truth was, he had been considering the same thing but then, why would the girl have been so unresponsive at the scene or why would she have slipped into shock the previous night at the restaurant? "She was unresponsive at the scene and she slipped into shock late last night." he said, thinking aloud.
"You were with her last night?" his friend asked, knowing that it was company policy not to get involved with victims or suspects for that matter.
"It's beside the point." Nox said as he turned around to face his friend again. "The point is, she is acting way too much like a victim to be anything but."
"But she's our only choice."
"I know and that's what I was afraid of."
"Are you falling for her?" He asked, looking at his friend with a sort of sad admiration.
"Of course not." Nox said pulling the file toward him again. "My brother wanted to meet my newest case."
"Is she alright mentally?" Jim asked, dropping the subject.
"She seems so."
"Could she be bipolar or skitzophrenic?"
"I don't think so but I suppose anything is a possibility. But if she was just bipolar she would still have the memory of doing anything. Right?"
"Yeah that should be the case." Jim told his friend. "Well good luck anyway, I am going to take my lunch break."
'I didn't realize it was lunch time already." Nox said, looking down at his watch with a surprised expression on his face.
"It's two o'clock." Jim glanced down at his watch. "Man, you've been here since six o'clock this morning."
"I know, but I just want to get this case solved."
"You are falling for her."
Nox looked down at his desk and shook his head. "I don't know what it is about her." he sat down in his chair and leaned his head back, covering his face with his hands. "Something about her draws me in." He looked up at Jim standing in the doorway. "This is the second time my brother and I have fallen for the same girl." Jim ran a hand through his short brown hair.
"I say that you let your brother have her, you need to focus on the case. You know how much trouble you would get in if the supervisors found that you were involved with the victim."
Nox nodded and stood up, walking toward his friend. "Come on, I'll buy you lunch."
Chapter six
"It's the white one on the left." Sienna said pointing out the windsheild.
"You mean the three story mansion?" Helios asked sarcastically.
"Yeah." He pulled into the driveway and stopped in front of the door. "You want to come inside? I can make us some sandwhiches." she said softly, opening her door. He nodded and undid his seatbelt. They walked up the driveway in silence, Sienna hoping that he wouldn't bring up religion and Helios wondering why she was doing something like when she seemed to be angry at him.
Sienna pulled out her key and opened the door, pulling off the sweater and laying it across the small table inside the door. "The kitchen is through that doorway. I need to go upstairs and take off this dress, I'll be back in a second. Feel free to explore." Sienna turned and walked up the steps, each step becoming harder to make as she went. She felt as if she would meet the same crisis she had two days before, she knew in her heart that she couldn't, there was no one important left in her life but she felt the same dread she had that day when she heard "Moonlight Sonata" start. When she reached the top of the stairs, she turned right and walked down the hallway, stopping just inside her doorway. She flipped the lights on and walked over to her closet, pulling out a pair of soft pants and a t-shirt. She quickly donned the clothing and walked back down the stairs.
"Helios?" she called in a tired voice. He popped his head out of the kitchen and doorway and held up a sandwhich. "Want one?" he asked.
She smiled and shook her head in the negative, food just had no appeal.
"You need to eat sooner or later."
"I know." she said softly, walking past him to the refrigerater. She pulled out a bottle of water and took a sip. "Everytime I think about eating, I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"But if you don't eat, you'll get sick." He held out a sandwhich. "You know they sound good." He wiggled it under her nose. "Come on, take a bite."
She chuckled and pushed his hand away. "How about I start with an apple?" she pulled one from the bowl on the counter. "Acceptable?"
"It's a start. " he said biting on the sandwhich.
"Come on, let's go sit in the living room." she lead him through a door and they walked into a small but cozy looking living room. Sienna sat on a large brown, suede couch and bit into her apple. Helios sat down next to her as she leaned her head against the tall backrest. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Sienna turned to Helios. "Why did you stay at the hostpital with me?"
"You needed somebody but you no one was there for you. My brother would have done it but he had to work today."
Sienna's brow furrowed. "But you two don't even know me."
"It doesn't matter."
"No one I know would have done something like that." she said softly.
After a few minutes of uncomfartable silence Helios asked, "What do you do for a living?"
"I just graduated from high school last month, I start college in the fall."
"How old are you?" he asked with a slightly shocked look on his face.
"19." she told him with a smile. She picked up her apple core and stood, he followed suit and they walked into the kitchen.
"You have a beautiful house."
"Thanks. You want the tour?"
"Yeah, that would be great." Helios told her, following her footsteps.
"This is the second floor." they stood on a deep red carpet that reached both walls, sitting under all of the furniture of the small upstairs livingroom. The couch was blue, so a deep a blue that it almost looked black, angled toward the couch were two matching armchairs and in the middle of it all there was a glass coffee table. "This is the loft." She said stratening one of the few plants that were scattered around the room. "Down this way..." Sienna turned and walked in the other direction, coming to stop at the first door. "is my dad's study." Everything still looked as it had that day, everything save for the carpet that she had thrown out. There were wall to wall bookcases and two of the wall and one of the remaining ones was completely devoted to a window.
"That is an incredible view." he told her, staring out at the lake that was situated in the backyard.
"Yeah, he always liked that about this room." she grew quiet and continued on the tour, showing him her bedroom, the guest bedroom and the small bathroom at the end of the hall. "Well, there was the tour." Sienna smiled as they came back to the steps.
"What about the third story?" he asked, curious about the spare floor.
"Maybe next time you come by. It's still a little hard for me to go up there." she whispered.
He nodded politely and walked back down the stairs. "Thank you."
"It was a pleasure." she told him honestly. She hadn't thought that it would be easy to show him into her life but she had been surprised. "Feel free to stop by again. I can always use the company."
"I will." Helios opened the door and turned to face her. "Goodbye." he whispered softly as he pressed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Then he turned and walked back down the driveway, only looking back as he was getting into his car.
Sienna closed the door and leaned against the solid wood, "What am i getting myself into?"
Chapter seven
Nox paced about his office. They were still no closer to finding out who had killed Sienna's father and it had been two weeks. More importantly in the young man's mind though was the fact that he had only gotten to talk to her twice and both times were on the phone. His brother, however, had been over to the girl's house three times since she had come home from the hospital.
"Hey man." Jim said as he entered the sparcely furnished office.
Nox dropped into his desk chair and layed his chin on his hand. "Hey." he mumbled.
"Still stressing about the girl's case?"
"There is still no one who would have done it that I can find."
"There has to be someone." Jim muttered to himself, sitting in one of the more uncomfortable chairs in front of the desk. He stared at the carpet, one of the more generic rugs, the ones that they bought for function and not for fashion.
"There's not." Nox practically yelled. "Everybody loved the man! He gave to charities, he was always in the places he said he would be when he said he would be there, and he was always in church on Sundays, rain or shine. No one in his right mind would have a problem with this man!" Nox stood to his feet and continued his steady track back and forth across the floor.
"Hate to break it to you, man, but most of the people who murder aren't in their right mind." Jim told his friend, coming to stand in front of him. "Someone is going to kick you off of this case if they realize how much you are freaking out about the girl. Plus, I really don't think the boss wants to replace the carpet because you wore a hole in it from pacing." Jim set a hand on Nox's shoulder. "You need to go get some sleep. You have been up at this office for forty-eight hours straight."
"I've been sleeping on the couch." He said defensively, pointing at the even more uncomfortable looking couch. It was only about four feet long and looked like it had been sitting out in the rain for several weeks. His freind raised an eyebrow and Nox sighed. "You're right. I need some sleep."
"The boss probably won't let you stay on this case very long Nox."
"Did he say something?" the raven haired boy asked, suddenly a very solemn look on his face.
"Yeah, he thinks you are too involved emotionally." Jim told him seriously.
Nox shook his head and picked up his briefcase. "Tell him I'm taking a sickday, the rest of today and tomorrow." he started to walk out of his office.
"Don't you mean just for tomorrow?" Jim asked. "It's already ten, man."
Nox groaned and walked down the hallway, looking forward to his bed, maybe he would stop by and talk to Sienna tomorrow, then again, maybe he would just sleep.
Sienna laughed as she opened the door. "Hi, Helios, long time no see." The young man had come over every day for the last three days, at exactly the same time and he always asked her the exact same question.
"Would you like to join me for lunch?"
"That would be lovely, thank you." She told him as she had each of the previous days.
He bowed at the waist and swiped an arm in front of him. "Your steed awaits." he held out his hand and she grasped it as he led her to the mustang. They went to the same little cafe they had frequented for the last two days and sat at the same table.
"Iced tea please." Sienna told the waitress came as she came and took their orders.
"Same." Helios said.
"So what is todays topic of discussion?" Sienna asked. "Philosophy, genetics, physics?"
Helios regarded her carefully. "You pick."
Sienna stared at him for a moment, this was new. He had never just told her to decide. She looked down at the table top for a few moments. "I actually have a question-" she was cut off for a moment by the waitress as she dropped the drinks back off at their table.
"Thanks." Helios mumbled taking a sip of the beverage. Sienna smiled her thanks at the girl as she walked away. "What were you going to say? You had a question?" She stared down at her glass, running her forefinger across the rim gently. It started to make a ringing note and Helios gently rested his hand on hers. She looked up at him and smiled slightly at the questionging gaze.
"Yeah." She muttered. "Why do you believe so strongly?"
"Beleive what? My faith?" she nodded slightly and Helios leaned back in his seat, sighing softly. He had hoped she would ask about it sooner or later but he never would have dared to hope she would ask this closely to them meeting. "I don't see how people don't beleive." he said softly and simply. "Why don't you beleive?"
"After everything that's happened to me I guess I don't really see how there can be a God." Sienna looked down at her hands resting on the table and sighed. "You have no idea how hard it is to loose everyone in your life. And I do mean everyone. My mother died in a car crash, hit by a drunk driver. My grandparents died of grief four months later, on my six birthday incidentily. My friends all desserted me after that, they thought I was jinxed, maybe I am. Then, thirteen years later, on my nineteenth birthday, my father is found murdered in his study." She looked up at him, tears running slowly down her cheeks. "How could God be so cruel?"
"But you aren't ever really alone" He said gently.
"Don't go all preachy on me right now. Please answer my question."
Helios stared at the girl he had just begun to get to know. He had all the answers to the questions that most anybody could ask but she had stumped him. How could God let something like this happen?