Sinful

by Jenica Saren

  "What the fuck is that doing here?" I screeched.

  Kellan rose to his feet and cradled the monkey in his arms as though protecting it from me. "She said he belongs with us," he replied, cocking his head to the side. My fucking gods, he came across as so innocent sometimes. It baffled me.

  "No, she didn't," I insisted. "She said it didn't belong with her."

  "She told us we should bring him back with us, Ria," Eliam said impatiently. "Now, if you're done whining, we need to get back before it gets dark." From taking selfies like a normal person to being asshole of the year in point five seconds - no matter what changed, at least I knew Eliam's jackass nature would remain a constant.

  Very reassuring.

  Without another word, he turned on his heel and started marching back down the invisible path he had led us down to begin with. I could have sworn these guys had some kind of built-in GPS device.

  Given all the things they could do, it would honestly be the least surprising thing to have come out of these last few weeks.

  Rolling my eyes, I projected a thought out to the others. Can you believe this guy?

  I got a couple of chuckles, but couldn't tell who they came from, since everyone was already trailing after mister King of the Twats with their backs turned to me.

  When I moved to follow them, I had to do a double take as I took up the rear behind Kellan. I could have sworn that monkey peeked over his shoulder and bared his fangs at me, sort of like a victorious and hungry grin.

  It seemed I was sleeping with lights on...

  By the time we made it back to the house, night had fallen and I was, essentially, a bitter old woman. There were signs of nature in my hair, I had mosquito bites with their own zip codes, and I smelled like a hippie - and not the fun kind you find at festivals, but the "I don't basic hygiene" kind.

  "I need a shower," I announced as I marched up the steps and through the front door.

  The door was almost never locked and I found that a little weird. Then again, If I was older than the dirt on the ground and more powerful than an a-bomb, I would probably not be very concerned about intruders, either.

  "Ria!" Drea's excited squeal was the only warning I received before I was nearly tackled to the ground by a blurry mass of curly brown floof. Yes, floof.

  After regaining my balance, I hugged her awkwardly back since she was basically wrapped around me like a... Oh. "Hey babe," I said as I settled for awkwardly petting her head. "The guys brought you a present."

  I caught Kellan's stunned expression out of the corner of my eye and resisted the urge to snicker.

  "A present? Really?" My tiny friend released me and whirled on the guys. "What did you bring - OH!" She gasped and pressed her hands to her mouth.

  Kellan shifted uncomfortably as I could see indecision battling behind his eyes. That's the least he deserved for bringing the demon creature back with us. It could sense my fear, of that I was sure.

  Drea approached slowly, cautiously, and held a hand out to the beast for it to either investigate or ingest. With that thought, I was seriously reconsidering my choice of revenge tactics. It seemed to have far less interest in eating her than it did in eating me, though, because in the blink of an eye, it was nuzzling against her hand and holding it in its creepy fingers.

  "Looks like he likes you," Kellan said in a low voice. Whenever he spoke to or of Drea, his voice held this hint of reverence.

  She smiled up at him, her face positively glowing. "You really think so?" She asked shyly. "What should we call him?"

  "Demon creature from hell," I muttered.

  "Huh? What was that?"

  "Nothing." Evil spawn of the Underworld.

  Drea appeared deep in thought for a while, just staring at her newfound pet. I didn't even want to imagine the names she was coming up with in that pretty little head of hers.

  "What about Alistair?" She suggested. "It's regal and sounds like a very handsome name for a very handsome boy, don't you think?" She looked unsure and I was, truthfully, surprised at her name choice. It didn't sound like something she would pick at all.

  Kellan made a low grunting sound and scratched the top of the monkey's head as it wrapped its tiny death-bringing arms around his wrist. "How about Bubbles?"

  My mouth popped open in shock as I stared at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. The others, still standing behind him in front of the door, all looked equally perplexed. Well, maybe not equally, but they definitely didn't see that coming.

  "Yes!" Drea squealed. "It's perfect!" Ah, well that explained that. Drea had confessed to me once that she hated her childish nature because she wanted to be treated like an adult like everybody else. By that logic, it made sense that she would try to choose a more sophisticated name than Bubbles.

  It also made sense that Kellan would be the first to realise this and come to her rescue.

  "You're naming the literal spawn of Satan... Bubbles?" I asked incredulously.

  Drea turned and blinked at me a few times. "He's not evil, Ria," she explained in a very serious, level tone. As she spoke, the monkey - Bubbles - climbed out of Kellan's arms and up onto her shoulder, its tail looping over the opposite shoulder and hanging there. "He's just a monkey."

  "An evil monkey," I mumbled under my breath.

  I turned on my heel and started making my way toward the kitchen for a glass of wine. I was going to shower, then take a bubble bath and blast the music as loud as I could. No evil monkeys, no psychotic inner selves, no crazed sex goddesses - just me and my bubbles. The sudsy kind, not the monkey-giving-me-the-death-glare kind.

  Of course, I couldn't actually see the death glare, but I could feel it.

  “I'm going to be upstairs in a hot bath if anybody needs me,” I announced as I started rifling through the wine fridge. I selected a random bottle of pink Moscato and held it up to investigate the label. It didn't look old enough that anyone would get pissy about me taking it. I started to look for a glass, but decided against it. The whole bottle would do just fine.

  Tucking the bottle under my arm, I opened the pantry to search for some sort of snack to enjoy with my wine. Finding a bag of pretzels clearly labelled with Beck's name, I snatched them up and headed out into the foyer, which was now empty.

  I could hear them all talking in the living room, but shrugged it off. I could deal with them when I no longer resembled the haggard old witch of the woods.

  There was an hour of relaxation with my name on it, and it came in the form of a porcelain tub with amazing water pressure. The rest I could deal with later.

  10 Drea

  In the living room, we were all sitting around while my friends talked about their adventure of the day and I played with Bubbles, who was currently chasing a wadded up sock, unwadding it, and then bringing it back to me to roll up and toss again. He was adorable.

  I was mostly tuning out what they were saying because I was a little upset that they didn't bring me along, even if I understood their reasons. As soon as they mentioned faeries, my heart plummeted to the bottom of my stomach and I wanted to cry, so it was better if I just tried not to listen.

  That didn't stop me from picking up on bits and pieces, though. I heard that there was a goddess, a nymph, magical floating lights - they mentioned those when they said Ria wasn't paying attention.

  Regardless of his own twisted reasons, I always thought that E was a little hard on Ria. I'd been clued into things for a couple of years, even though the guys tried their best to keep me mostly in the dark. She, however, had only been around for a few weeks and had already been through so much.

  Maybe that was why?

  The others all took to Ria almost instantly, like it was some sort of messed up fairy tale. And no matter how many times he accused them, I knew that none of the guys were in it for her looks or body, or anything like that. They were drawn to her, same as me. Something about her, from the moment we met, told me that we were going to be best friends, even though that sounded very idealistic o
f me to admit.

  Bubbles brought the sock back, and I absently rolled it back into a ball and tossed it, lost in my own thoughts.

  I just wanted to be included. I knew I was nothing special or anything, but I felt like these six - now seven - were my family. And, as family, I felt like it was unfair to leave me behind when I was just as much a part of everything as they were. It didn't seem fair.

  "I can feel your envy," Kellan said in a low voice from where he lay on the floor next to me. He was laying on his side, propping himself up on his elbow, and switching his attention back and forth between Bubbles and his conversation with the guys.

  I looked down at my hands that were fisted in my lap, trying to calm the flaming heat creeping up into my cheeks. "Sorry," I whispered. Kel didn't like it when I got envious of others because he said that my soul had a light that no one else's did.

  It was a beautiful sentiment, but was it too much to ask to just be accepted by somebody? Anybody? He had his family. He never had to worry about being left out.

  He rubbed small circles over one of my knees in a reassuring gesture. "I think he was meant to be with you all along," he commented as he watched Bubbles try to unravel the sock once again.

  I looked at him curiously. "I thought you brought him for me?" I asked in confusion, my brows knitting together.

  He let out a small snort that was barely audible. "No, Ria said that," he said with an eye-roll. "But I think she was right, even if she didn't know it. He belongs with you. You already have a thread connecting you two."

  Kel plucked an imaginary string in the air and I cracked a smile. There was a chance that the string wasn't imaginary, but it made me happy, either way.

  I turned my full focus on him and tried to keep my anxiety from returning. "I want you guys to start bringing me on these trips and such," I told him quietly.

  His eyes were stormy and I could tell that he was going to tell me the same thing he always did, just another variation of the same words.

  "I don't think that's a good idea, Drea."

  "Well, why not? I've known you guys for a long time now and I always feel like I'm on the outside," I explained, trying to get my point across. Kellan had trouble putting himself in other people's shoes, so it was always my job to break it down for him. "I know I don't have powers and I don't know how to do parkour. I don't really know how to do anything, really... But I don't want to have to know about all of these amazing things out there in the world, not when I'm not allowed to see or touch them, to enjoy them."

  He was staring at me with a deep frown and I could tell he understood but didn't know what he could do. As sweet as he could be when it was just the two of us hanging out, you'd think he'd be a little less of an emotionless brick wall.

  But nope.

  "I make you feel like you're an outsider." It was a statement, not a question. Kel wasn't the crying type, he was the shut-down-and-talk-like-a-robot type. I saw as it started happening and I clasped his hand that was on my knee in my own, wrapping my fingers as far as they would go.

  "You don't make me feel that way, Kel, I just feel that way... Sometimes," I reassured him. "I want to see the faeries and the glowing orbs of light. I want to see that place you told me about where the stars look so close that you can almost touch them. I just want to see the things that I never knew the world had to offer me, I want to see more than this little town that feels like a prison."

  Curiosity filled his expression like it always did when he was starting to catch on to something. "You want to see the faeries?" He asked.

  I nodded solemnly, trying to keep my excitement at the mere mention to a minimum. "I do."

  His expression never faltered, still sitting on the precipice of wonder and confusion. "Then I'll take you to see them one day," he conceded. "And I'll protect you."

  My heart got all kinds of warm and fuzzy. "You will?" I asked excitedly. "Really?"

  He nodded once and turned his hand over to clasp mine. "Of course, I will always protect you. I promised."

  That wasn't exactly what I meant, but I'd take it. "I'll hold you to that, big guy. Remember, pinkie promises can't be broken," I warned as I held my other hand out to him, pinkie finger extended.

  Kel looped the pinkie of his free hand through mine and I didn't even bother to hold back the grin of sheer joy that stole over my face. I remembered the very first pinkie promise he had ever made me, and it was the first time he had even heard of it.

  Like he had said before, he had pinkie promised to protect me. I was working at the coffee shop and had also just kissed a girl for the very first time the night before. I was walking on air, but her two older brothers... Not so much.

  They came into the shop and acted normal, making basic small talk and small town chit-chat. When I handed them their drinks, the promptly poured them on me. They then threw the mugs at me. Then they trashed the place. In the midst of flipping another table, Kellan walked in;

  this gigantic guy who had only ever sat in the back of the shop, people watching and silently mulling over his own thoughts.

  He came right in, saw what the boys were doing, and promptly scared them off by lifting both of them up by their throats and whispering a few words in their ears. They ran out of the shop and hadn't come back once in two years. I'd heard a rumour that they had joined the military right after the altercation, but I couldn't bring myself to care if that was the truth or not.

  After that, he came over to check on me and said, "you're too small and fragile. You need a bodyguard."

  We ended up talking while he helped me clean up and he said he could protect me. I told him if he was serious, he had to pinkie promise me. The look on his face was priceless back then because he didn't understand what a pink promise was. When I explained that it was a special promise that could never be broken, he insisted that he was willing to promise to protect me forever. No matter how many times I tried to explain that he didn't have to do it forever, just keep the promise, he wouldn't accept it.

  He promised to protect me and that was exactly what he had done every day since then. And I loved him for it more than he would ever know. He was my friend, older brother, and protector, and I couldn't have asked for more.

  "What are you thinking about?" His voice in present-day shocked me out of my reminiscent thoughts.

  I smiled over at him and shook my head to clear away some of the nostalgia. "Just about how we first became friends," I said.

  He opened his mouth to say something else, but when I looked around for Bubbles, I couldn't find him. I got to my feet and looked around the sitting room.

  "Have any of you seen Bubbles?" I asked the others.

  They all shook their heads in response and I felt myself getting worried.

  "You may check Ria's room," Eliam said distractedly. "She's positive that he's out for her blood." He snorted a laugh and rolled his eyes.

  I didn't think twice, I dashed for the foyer and up the stairs. If I had longer legs, I would have been taking them two at a time. When I got to Ria's room, the door was cracked open. I pushed it open a little further and found Bubbles sitting on top of her crimson red comforter, playing with the sock.

  "Thank goodness I found you, silly boy. You scared me," I breathed, clutching my hand to my chest.

  Bubbles fumbled with the sock and dropped it. "Oh fuck."

  I froze in my tracks and stared at him, my adorable new – and not male – monkey companion. I blinked a few times and shook my head. Maybe I was crazy now.

  "Did you just..." I started. "Did you just talk?"

  Bubbles was staring straight back at me, unblinking and still as a statue. "Uh... No?"

  My knees buckled underneath me and I fell to the ground with a thud, landing on my butt. There was no way this was happening. I'd lost my mind. I mean, I'd figured it would happen sooner or later, given the transpired events two weeks before, but I was kind of banking on sooner.

  "Kel?" I called out, my voice cracking. "Kel!"

>   Heavy footsteps could be heard thundering up the stairs. I held my breath as I listened and didn't let it out until I felt him lift me up and set me on my feet.

  "What happened? Are you hurt?" He demanded.

  "Kel," I whispered. "I've gone crazy. Totally crazy."

  He spun me around to face him and examined me carefully, his eyes roaming over everything from my head to my toes. "Why do you think you're crazy?" He asked warily.

  I turned slightly and pointed a shaking finger at Bubbles, who was perched on Ria's bed, long tail whipping and curling behind her. "She talked, Kel."

  With Kellan, I never felt like I had to over explain a situation if it meant danger. Feelings were one thing, but Kel knew what danger was and took it very seriously. That was demonstrated in the way he released me, marched over to the bed, and picked Bubbles up by the tail, dangling her upside down.

  I let out a squeal because I didn't want my new friend hurt because I'd lost all of my marbles in one instant.

  "Ow! You big oaf! Put me down!" Bubbles snapped, her high pitched voice ringing out around the room.

  Even though he had taken me at my word, Kellan still stared down at the dangling creature with surprise. "You speak."

  "Yes, I fucking speak, now put me the hell down, you overgrown guard dog!"

  We both stared on in speechless shock, even as more sets of footsteps pounded up the stairs. The other guys barged into the room and I could feel the energy in the room shift to something resembling humour.

  "That's not how you hold him, dude," Beck joked.

  "That's also not what getting some tail means," Rafe added.

  Of course, they would be the ones cracking jokes when I was either spreading crazy or a freaking monkey had just spoken. Clearly. In plain English - well, cursing English, but still.

  "Would one of you morons mind lending me a fucking hand here? All the blood is rushing to my head!" Bubbles demanded. “And I’m not a him!”

  Just like that, the humour in the room melted away and was replaced by emotions like suspicion. I stood still as the guys all walked past me and examined Bubble. They poked her, eliciting more colourful language. They talked about her - more cursing. And they questioned her; I was about to start calling it speaking in cursive if she continued on like she was.