Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One)

by Vancil, Alicia Kat

  “Nualla, are you out of your mind?!” Andraya crossed the room and gestured dramatically. “Are you trying to expose us or something?” I really didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. “You never think, Nualla! You never think about how what you do affects all of us!” Andraya screamed at me.

  Alex finally stood up and walked over to my sister. “Andraya, that’s enough,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You know this was, and is, Nualla’s decision to make. We can have no say in the matter.”

  Andraya wilted under our father’s hand. As much as she would hate to admit it, he was right.

  “Nualla, did you marry this boy of your own free will?”

  “Yes.” I looked up into his face, tears pricking my eyes. The moment he had placed his hand on Andraya’s shoulder in my defense I had hung my head. I hated to disappoint him, and even though he had said it was my decision to make, disappointment still shone in his eyes. “No one forced me to make this decision. It was my own fault.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. “Fault?” When I didn’t answer he reached out and pulled me close for a hug. Smoothing my hair, he looked down at me. “Nualla, sweetheart, choosing a life mate is not something to be ashamed of. It is a big decision that is only for you to make.” He looked over and I knew he was glaring at Andraya as he continued. “And none of us, or anyone else for that matter, has a right to demand explanations from you.”

  I loved my dad; no matter how bleak things looked or how stupid I felt, he always made me feel better. “Really?” I asked, looking up at him.

  He smiled down at me. “Really.” He released me and took a step back. “Now since he is a Neodaemon, he will have to register at The Embassy and will no doubt have lots of questions.”

  I looked down at my shoes. “Yeah, about that…he’s human.”

  “Yes Nualla, you mentioned that, that is why he will…” Alex stopped talking when he saw me start shaking my head.

  “No I mean he’s still human.”

  “What?” Alex said, completely taken aback.

  “Way to go, Nualla, you even managed to screw that up,” Andraya said from across the room.

  “Andraya dear, you really aren’t helping,” Loraly said with a sigh.

  “But you married him?” Alex asked, looking confused and concerned at the same time.

  “Most definitely. We had fake ID’s, but I’m pretty sure we spoke the oath so—”

  “What do you mean by ‘pretty sure’?” Alex asked, his eyes narrowing.

  “Well…you see we were…” I looked at the floor and braced for the reaction to what I was about to say. “Well all three, I mean all four of us were um…really drunk.”

  Silence hung in the air, someone coughed but I couldn’t tell who since I was still staring at the floor. The silence drifted on till it became unbearable. Finally, I just had to look up. Alex was staring at me in complete disbelief. “You got married to a boy you barely knew while you were drunk?!”

  “Basically,” I admitted reluctantly.

  “Nualla, are you completely insane?!” Andraya shouted, but Alex put up his hand, and she didn’t continue.

  Alex looked at me, and I could see barely restrained anger behind his eyes. I had only seen it on occasion since he was a really kind person but still, it was frightening. He had only questioned my judgment a few times while I was growing up. However, he never had cause to question Andraya’s.

  “As I said, Nualla has made her decision, and we have no right to question it. Though I would have hoped she would have had enough common sense to at least make it with a clear head. What’s done is done—there is no going back. What I don’t understand, however, is why he’s still human?”

  My voice was tight and only came out barely audible. “Well we didn’t…”

  “You didn’t what?” Alex looked hopelessly confused, and I was hoping to avoid having to give him play-by-play.

  Fortunately for once in her life, Andraya opened her big mouth to actually come to my aid as opposed to her normal stance of kicking me while I’m down. “Don’t you see, she married him. She just didn’t sleep with him,” she said, a wide smirk spreading across her face.

  Our parents’ eyebrows shot up. “Oh!”

  Alex held up a finger and opened his mouth to say something, but then clamped it shut again. He began pacing back and forth across the floor deep in concentration before stopping and bolting out of the room and up the stairs.

  I slumped into the nearest chair and hung my head back. Why wouldn’t this nightmare of a weekend just end? Seriously, had I really ever done anything so bad as to deserve this?

  A few minutes later Alex came bounding down the stairs again, a large old book in his hand. I didn’t really have to look at it for more than a second to know it was The Kalo Book of Law. “The good news is we don’t have to kill him,” he announced loudly after entering the room.

  I shot to my feet. “Excuse me?!”

  “If you had told him our secrets without marrying him, the Grand Council would have had no choice but to order his execution. Since you did marry him, he is in no danger there. But…”

  “What’s the bad news?” I asked with a grimace.

  “You have to turn him within the year, or they will have to execute him.”

  “Great, so I have to tell him his options are death, delayed death, or possible death,” I said sarcastically.

  Alex’s pleasant mood hardened. “You didn’t tell him the consequences of becoming a daemon yet?”

  “No. Hell, I’m not even sure I told him what we are in the first place, let alone that turning him might kill him.”

  Alex placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Nualla, there are only a few ways this can turn out. Either you turn him and he may possibly die, or you give him to the Council to be executed, or you annul the marriage through human means and spend the rest of your life alone until he dies.” He took both my shoulders and looked at me sadly. “I wish there were more options honey, but there aren’t. But whatever you choose we can have no say in it.”

  “Well I don’t want him to be executed, so option two is out. And I cannot say with complete certainty that I didn’t let any of our secrets slip, so option three is out. So I guess all that’s left is option one,” I said, sighing. “I’m just not looking forward to explaining everything to him.”

  Loraly, who had been watching us all with wide shocked eyes, finally moved closer and put an arm around me. “Nualla, honey, is he at least a nice boy?”

  I thought back over the week; Patrick was more than nice really. I mean he hadn’t put up any resistance to the crazy things we had dragged him off to—most would have at least put up a slight protest. A smile crossed my lips as I looked at her. “Yes, very.”

  “What is his name?” she asked, with a reassuring smile.

  “Patrick.”

  “What’s his last name?” Andraya asked, with a smirk.

  I just stood there for a second racking my brain, I knew he had told me, now what was it?

  “You married a boy and you don’t even know his last name?!” Alex had his head in his hand again, but more out of loving frustration than anger.

  “I do know it—I swear—I just can’t remember it at the moment,” I said quickly.

  “It’s Connolly, Patrick Connolly,” Nikki said, coming to my rescue.

  “Are you sure, Nikkalla?” Alex asked, turning to her.

  “Yeah. He goes to our school—actually he’s even in some of our classes. He’s wicked smart. Well, at least most of the time anyway.”

  “Well that’s a relief,” Alex said with a slight smile.

  12

  Solid Reminder

  Saturday, January 14th

  NUALLA

  The past two da
ys had completely drained me, so much so that lying in the middle of my floor and staring at the blank ceiling seemed like a perfectly logical way to spend the rest of Saturday night. My life wasn’t dull by any means, but it also wasn’t normally this chaotic either.

  My relationship with Patrick had gone from zero to sixty in no time flat, but it wasn’t exactly his fault. I was the one who had dragged him to Vegas. I was the one who had gotten him wasted at the club. And I was the one who had brought up the stupid marriage thing. To be perfectly honest, I had been basically ruining this boy’s life for the last forty-eight hours.

  Gods, I was a terrible person. And soon I was going to have to tell him everything. The truth about what I really was. The fact that he might die. The fact that very shortly he would no longer even be human…if he was lucky.

  Nikki came in and sat on the edge of my bed. She fidgeted for a while before finally asking, “Nualla, what are you going to do about Patrick?”

  “The only thing I can do Nikki, stay married to him and tell him the damn truth. Oh, and hope he doesn’t run screaming when I do.”

  “Are you going to call him tomorrow?”

  “How, Nikki? It’s not like I’ve got his phone number.” Geez that sounded bad.

  “Oh…right.”

  “I said I was going to meet him at school Monday,” I said, still staring up at the ceiling.

  “Are you?”

  “Of course I am, and since everyone will be staring anyways I might as well make a show of it,” I answered, smiling to myself.

  “What exactly are you planning on doing?” Nikki asked suspiciously.

  “Oh I don’t know, walking up and kissing him in front of everyone sounds like it would be a great idea.”

  “You’re going to give that boy a heart attack.”

  “Naw he’s probably over the shock by now. But his friends, on the other hand…” I said as I turned to grin mischievously at her.

  “Oh, you’re evil.”

  “Whatever do you mean?” I said, feigning innocence. The response I got back was a pillow in the face.

  PATRICK

  Though Nualla had told me to go home, I didn’t—well not right away at least. Why? Because I knew what I would find there. Nothing. No welcoming hugs or even a stern faced, “Where the hell have you been all weekend?” My parents were always away on business.

  Always.

  Last summer I had tried to see how many days I could go without coming home just to see how long it would take before someone noticed. After two weeks I finally gave up. So mostly it was like living alone. Most teenagers would have loved it. I, on the other hand, hated it. I had thought about getting a pet for company, but my mother was allergic. Not that she was ever home enough for it to matter, of course.

  I passed on the taxi and rode BART back into the city. I really needed the time to clear my head before I returned to the real world. So I wandered the streets until I finally decided to get myself some dinner and trudged home.

  I opened the door to silence. I had a few missed calls from Connor, but I didn’t feel like talking to him. He could just watch Saturday night anime by himself. There were no missed calls from my parents, but there was no big surprise there.

  I ate my dinner half-heartedly at the table before trudging up the stairs to my room. Kicking off my scuffed black All Stars I flopped on my bed and rolled over onto my back. With a sigh I opened my phone’s picture album and looked at the pictures again. Just to torture myself, really. These pictures were the only thing that proved that this weekend had not been a figment of my imagination. Well that, and the ring on my finger.

  Looking at the ring, I decided I probably couldn’t wear it to school, but I also didn’t want to not wear it. After a lot of wrestling with myself, I opted to wear it under my shirt on a chain. It was probably silly, but I liked the idea of having a solid reminder that what I had gone through in the last week had been real.

  I flopped back on the bed and flipped through the weekend’s pictures until I passed out. And dreamed of nothing.

  13

  Reality Check

  Monday, January 16th

  PATRICK

  By Monday morning I had convinced myself it had all been a dream. Even the ring under my shirt was not enough to convince me anymore. I had spent most of Sunday sitting at the computer waiting for Nualla to do something, anything. Change her profile status, add a few innocent pictures of us, hell, even just send me a little message.

  I was pacing in front of the steps of the parking lot entrance to the school by the time Connor showed up.

  “Hey man, how was your weekend?” he asked, punching me good-naturedly in the shoulder.

  What I wanted to say was, “Great! Went to Vegas, married the girl of my dreams, can’t really complain.” What I actually said was, “Did something really stupid that I will hopefully never live to regret.”

  “Really? What?” Connor asked, unable to conceal his interest.

  The girls showed up before I could think up a reply. “Tell you later,” I said out of the corner of my mouth.

  “Hey Connor, Patrick.” Jenny’s tone sounded slightly irritated when she said my name. I couldn’t think of why though. “How was your weekend?”

  “Mine was boring as hell, but Patrick’s was apparently interesting,” Connor answered as he smiled conspiratorially at me. I silently vowed to beat the crap out of him later for saying anything.

  “Really? What did you do, Patrick?” Sara asked as she slid her thumbs down the straps of her backpack.

  I just stared at them blankly as I racked my brain for something I could say that wouldn’t get me in trouble. I was so busy trying to think of what to say in fact, that I didn’t notice Nualla’s approach until she was only a few feet away. “Hi Nualla, how was your—” was all that I was able to say before she slid her hand around my neck and pulled my lips to hers.

  Her kiss made our previous one look like a peck on the cheek and hinted at things I couldn’t quite remember from Friday night. It was definitely not the type of kiss one did in front of a crap ton of people at school that’s for sure.

  Eventually, Nualla pulled away slightly and smiled up at me. “Did you miss me?” I just stared at her dumbly, trying to regain my composure—or any brain function really. She reached up and brushed a piece of hair away from my eyes. “Care to walk with me to my locker?”

  “Sure…” I answered unsteadily.

  With a smile, Nualla slid her arm through mine and started walking toward the building. I didn’t even resist; just let her pull me gently forward. I turned back around to see my stunned friends gaping at me, along with half the school. Today was becoming a very interesting day, and I hadn’t even made it into the building yet.

  By the time we got to her locker, I had mostly gotten over the shock of her sudden display of affection in front of the school. Hell, who was I kidding—I was still completely stunned.

  Nualla opened her locker, and I leaned against the one next to it. She placed her coat inside as she looked at my hand. “Where’s your ring?”

  “Here,” I answered, placing my hand over my royal-blue tie that poked out just above my black sweater vest and hid the lump of the ring completely.

  She smiled up at me conspiratorially. “Mine too.” I looked down and saw that she now had two chains around her neck; one holding the pendant she always wore and the other disappearing under the edge of her uniform.

  I had no idea what to say after that. I had been going over what I would say to her in my head, but what she had done back there in front of everyone had blown it all out of the water. So I just stood there silently watching her, trying to look as if I belonged there beside her, but probably failing miserably at it.

  Nualla looked up at me with a suspicious smile. “What?
”

  “I’m just not sure what to say or where we stand. I see that you want to keep, well what happened this past weekend secret. I’m just wondering what I should say when people ask, because they are going to ask,” I said as I ran my hand nervously through my hair.

  “You should tell them we’re dating,” Nualla said as if it had been the logical answer all along. I had waited years to hear those words, had imagined what they would sound like, but to actually hear them coming out of her mouth was another thing entirely.

  I swallowed hard; best not to look too excited in front of her, she might change her mind and decide I was crazy. So instead I asked, “So who asked whom?”

  “I believe it was you who asked me,” she answered with a playful crooked smile.

  “That’s right, because you said you would only tell me your secrets if I married you.”

  “You remembered that?” she asked sheepishly. “Look, Patrick, I—”

  “You know, you really don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I said, avoiding her gaze.

  “I’ll tell you, just not here, okay?” she said, looking around the halls.

  “Oh, right,” I said, looking around the halls as well. Everyone who passed us was doing a double take or just outright staring. “Because we’re in the middle of a hall.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But you will tell me, right?” I asked, meeting her eyes again.

  “A promise is a promise,” she answered with a slight grimace.

  “What the hell was that about?” Connor asked as he dropped into the desk next to mine in first period Trig.

  “What?” I said, playing dumb. I knew exactly what he was asking about, but it was worth a try.

  “You know what I’m talking about; that stuff that went down in front of the school like fifteen minutes ago,” Connor said, leaning in and looking at me expectantly. I was acutely aware that everyone else near us had also leaned in to hear my answer as well.