Evanescent Ink (Copperline #4)

by Sibylla Matilde

  She went after Raven to exact it.

  Just before we went on break, I saw Maggie in the crowd throwing some serious shade Raven’s direction. Scowling with killer dirty looks.

  Glares that Raven had to feel… but simply ignored.

  I didn’t trust Maggie not to take it further, though. She could be pretty fucking brutal when it came to skanky comments and cutting remarks. I'd been the victim to them many times in the past, and I'd witnessed them even more. It had taken me a long time to realize just what a complete bitch my ex really was. No wonder my friends had despised her so much.

  So, even though Raven seemed unaffected from where I stood, I went straight to her the second Denny told the crowd we’d be back in fifteen. I needed to check her pulse. Things had felt so concrete earlier—so solid—but the newness of our shared feelings made me slightly worried that she may be a bit fragile in Maggie’s presence.

  When I stood before Raven, though, my fears proved completely unfounded. She personified absolute calm. Under control. Cool and secure. She tucked herself up against my heartbeat with her arms around my abs.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Of course,” she smiled against my chest.

  “I just wanted to check and make sure Maggie’s not fucking with you.”

  “Let her try, Drew. She can’t hurt me.”

  I pulled back and looked down at her in the low light of the Copperline’s neon beer signs. My tough, tenacious Raven, small and sometimes fragile, exuded a confidence that eased my worry.

  She slipped her hand up to cup my jaw and gave me a warm, reassuring smile.

  “Drew,” she said in a low, heartfelt voice, “you love me. She can't do anything to change that, and that's all I need. I was a scrappy little shit before, but your love makes me unbreakable.” She leaned up to kiss my lips, firm and just a touch longer than a fast little peck.

  She was fine. Better than fine, actually.

  She was unbreakable.

  My chest swelled with pride in her spirit. Her faith in herself. Her faith in me.

  “Do you really think you’ll be enough to keep him?” Maggie suddenly spat from behind me. Her voice was shrill, grating up my spine.

  Yet Raven shot me a feisty grin that set my mind at ease. She was geared up and ready, postured for a fight. I smiled down at her, gave her another hard, quick kiss, and leaned back to let her face off with my ex.

  Maggie was fuming.

  “You?” she continued, glaring at Raven. “A little freak like you? You won't make him happy. You're not what he wants or what he needs. Drew likes lots of pussy all at once. He'll miss that. He'll miss me!”

  Raven didn't even blink, stepping out of my arms to close in on Maggie, completely undaunted. The crowd around us grew quiet as Raven closed in with conviction.

  “See,” Raven shot back, “that’s it, right there. You don’t get it. You don’t get him. Go back to being a fucking lesbian, because Drew does want just me. Only me. I’m better than you and all your slutty little friends combined. So get the fuck out of here and leave my man alone.”

  “Are you serious? A little freak like you?” Maggie scoffed. “You'll never keep him. He'll go back to dreaming of fame and groupies and will leave you in the dust.”

  But Raven just brashly smiled back. “You’re wrong, bitch,” she retorted, eyeing her with a level gaze. “In all the time you were controlling Drew, you never listened to what he was truly saying. You don't know him at all. I’m the wildest dream he ever had, and I’ve come true.”

  “I should just kick your fucking ass,” Maggie snarled, but she stumbled back when Raven reached out and gave her a good, hard shove.

  “Go ahead and fucking try it,” Raven growled, pushing her again.

  A few people gasped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Felicity rise from her chair. Denny grabbed her arm, holding her back to let Raven settle this once and for all. Justin stood beside them, groaning a little every time Raven gave Maggie another shove.

  “Oh, God,” he breathed, “girl fight… that's hot.”

  Maggie’s confidence began to falter, and she struggled to keep the doubt from coloring her face as she stared down at Raven.

  But Raven kept at her, fearless and sure. “You may be bigger than me,” she said to Maggie in a low, throaty voice, “but I’m a lot fuckin’ tougher than I look. I will take you down.”

  With every scant pause in her words, she heaved Maggie back again and again until the bitch was pinned up against the wall with genuine uncertainty in her eyes. She clearly hadn’t expected Raven to fight back. A bully to the core, Maggie’s bravado left her the minute Raven displayed a solid backbone.

  “So what’s it gonna be, bitch?” Raven asked.

  Maggie stared down at her in bewilderment, faltering in her nerve. She looked around at the crowd that had gathered, my friends who had become Raven’s friends. She'd lost and she knew it. Without another word, she wheeled around towards the door and fled.

  Raven turned back to the proud expressions of those around her and smiled widely.

  “God, that felt good.” she sighed. “I’ve fantasized about doing that exact fuckin’ thing for the last two years.”

  “That. Was. Awesome,” Sophie murmured as she sat perched on Brannon’s lap.

  “I know, right?” Felicity nodded, relaxing her stance back into Denny’s arms.

  I walked up to Raven and cradled her face in my hands. “God, I love you.”

  “I know you do,” she smiled back up at me. “I couldn't have done that if you didn't.”

  I pressed a firm kiss against her lips, wrapping my arms around her as she melted into my chest.

  “You are, you know,” I murmured into her hair. “You’re my wildest dream come true.”

  A couple months later…

  Raven reclined back on the couch, flipping through steampunk pictures in Pinterest on her iPad. She leaned forward as I approached and sat behind her, then lay back and snuggled a little closer against my chest.

  I loved lazy Sundays. No Ink. No Copperline. No place we had to be.

  Just Raven and I in her little apartment. In our own little world.

  The good life.

  “That’s a nice one,” I murmured against her ear as she clicked onto a picture of a wildly ornate dress. Layers of fabric set off with cording and lace and ruffles. “You’d look amazing in it.”

  “You just like it because it has a very short skirt,” she smiled softly.

  “I like it because it’s you. You happen to be very sexy… the short skirt is a bonus.”

  She flicked through a few more. One stood out to me. It was the usual corseted dress. Low-cut with a full skirt, high in the front and low in the back, but there was something different about this one.

  Unlike so many of the others, this one was white.

  “How about something like that?” I suggested. “Could you make something like that?”

  “Probably…” she murmured.

  “How long would it take?”

  She looked up at me in a little confusion. “I’m not sure. Not too long. It would take a ton of fabric, but I could find something to cut down and alter if I went with a different color—”

  “You don’t want to get married in white?”

  She froze and looked up at me.

  “Married?” she breathed.

  “Yeah, married,” I replied with a warm smile, “but I don’t want to wait too long. I’d marry you today if I could, so how long do you think it would take.” I smiled at her stunned expression. “You wouldn’t have to make it, either. You could find one like it somewhere, or maybe have someone else make it.”

  “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I’d make it.”

  “Do you think we could be ready in a month? Two?”

  “Yeah, but there would be other things to get ready, too. We’d probably need a couple months… at least.”

  “So how about June?”

  Raven sta
red up at me, and I could almost see her trying to figure out if I was really, truly asking what it sounded like I was asking. Like my own little clockwork doll, the gears and cogs were turning.

  So I pulled the ring out of my pocket. The minute I’d seen it, I’d known she needed it. I needed her to have it. I saw it in the display at the steampunk fair and, in my mind, I’d seen it on her finger. A fine white gold band, but ornate. Victorian in appearance, it had been crafted into a delicate vine that bloomed out to cradle a round-cut amethyst. When light hit the facets of stone, it almost glowed like a violet rose. So unique. Incredibly Raven.

  “I know it’s not a diamond,” I murmured, “but you needed something purple.”

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered back.

  “Marry me, Rave.”

  Swallowing back a sob, she nodded and responded with a hushed little, “Okay.”

  I slipped the ring on her finger and dipped my head to kiss it into place.

  Just like I’d seen it in my mind.

  Then I kissed Raven, and all talk of steampunk dresses and wedding plans were set aside while I made love to my fiancée.

  June

  Brannon seemed nervous… again. He checked his watch for the eight-millionth time… again. He sighed loudly and began to pace back and forth, pulling at his collar… again.

  “Where the fuck is he?” he groused.

  It was like Cody and Ilsa’s wedding all over again.

  Except that we were in the Copper King Mansion this time.

  I was channeling my inner Cody, doing what I could to stay calm and laid back. I wasn’t really nervous about what I was doing. I just wanted it over. I just wanted Raven to be my wife.

  The real Cody was doing exactly what I was trying to do. Laid back as usual, he just smiled and shook his head at Brannon.

  “Jaysus,” Denny exclaimed as he came through the door, “wait ‘till ya see what the girls are wearing. They’re all done up to the nines, but in their knickers.”

  “They’re in what?” Brannon asked. “Speak English, you fucker.”

  “Corsets and frilly, lacy petticoats and the like. They look like they should be in an 1800s Dublin brothel.”

  Brannon and Cody just kind of stared at Denny, obviously trying to picture his vague descriptions. I thought I’d help them out a bit.

  “You guys know how Rave dresses, right?” They both nodded slowly. “Well, picture that, but just a little more sexy. A little more extreme. A little more… more.”

  “Holy shit,” Cody gasped. Yeah, Cody gasped. Cool and laid back Cody… he gasped when that image hit his brain.

  “Damn,” Brannon breathed, forgetting for a moment to be grousing about Justin running late.

  “Mmm… yeah,” I grinned. “Welcome to Raven’s steampunk world.”

  A half-cocked smile touched Cody’s lips. “Makes these get-ups we’re wearing a bit more bearable.” He looked down at his brocade three-piece suit. All three guys were dressed in similar black, long-tailed coats, each with a different colored vest over a black dress shirt. Brannon in deep blue, Denny in an emerald green, and Cody in a dark magenta.

  Mine, of course, was purple.

  Each guy also had a Mad Hatter style hat decorated just slightly different with various gears, feathers, chains, and laces. On mine was a pair of black goggles with purple lenses and the purple feather Raven had worn to the steampunk ball. The very one that had fallen on the floor next to William A. Clark’s bed.

  Their looks were complete with boutonnieres crafted of brushed aluminum, sculpted into metal roses.

  Raven had pulled Felicity, Ilsa, and Sophie in to plan the whole look and feel, and they’d done an impressive job. The guys had been extremely skeptical of the idea, much like I had been when Raven had dressed me up that first time, but I had no doubt they’d come around once they got a good look at how the look transitioned in their women.

  Nothing was sexier in my mind than Raven in full steampunk. A look they were starting to imagine as they waited for the ceremony to start.

  The girls were upstairs in the master sitting room getting ready while we waited in the octagonal parlor a floor below them. Guests had started arriving and were milling about through the main floor of the house, checking out the ornate industrial age decor of the Copper King.

  Justin, of course, was late again. At least he wasn’t officiating this time. Raven’s old high school friend Lloyd had taken that honor. Justin was a bit unnerved by the prospect of being paired up to walk down the aisle until Raven had paired him up with her cousin Lacey.

  He’d met Lacey. He liked Lacey. He’d done Lacey the last time she’d come to visit and didn’t have any qualms about doing her again. Justin quit his bitching and went with it.

  Finally, everyone was there and in place. The guys stood with me at the end of the parlor as Max and Eoghan, ring bearers once again, came forward. Each kid was dressed like a newsboy with their knee-length trousers and what Raven called a driver cap. To add to the steampunk vibe, Raven had decked them out with sci-fi appearing leather holsters strapped to their little belts, complete with little brushed aluminum blasters.

  Then came the girls. Each one of my friends groaned as his woman came down the aisle. Each girl was dressed in a dark, crisp skirt that hung in full ruffles to the floor in the back, but hit them about mid-thigh in the front to showcase knee-length lace-up boots. Small cap sleeves draped just off their shoulders, and each wore a laced corset in the same colors as my friends’ waistcoats.

  First came Lacey in a dark cranberry red to match Justin, followed by Ilsa in a rich magenta, Felicity in a dark emerald, and finally Sophie in a deep teal blue. Sophie’s corset was modified slightly to allow for her rounded little tummy since she was approaching the third trimester of her pregnancy. The girls’ bouquets were a mixture of sculpted metal flowers like the boutonnieres with some jewel-tone roses tucked in as well.

  Finally, Joe stepped into the doorway and, with a slight bow, motioned for Raven to step forward as well.

  Spurning the typical white, she’d gone with her favorite color. Purple was rare in nature, she had explained, but the color meant peace and magic and mystery. Since Raven was all those things personified, it seemed perfect for her.

  She simply glowed in deep plum-colored satin. A cut similar to the bridesmaids, but her skirt, still high in the front and low in the back, was fuller with a heavy cascade of black and purple ruffles that trailed on the floor behind her. Where the other girls had black skirts with richly colored corsets, she wore a deep purple skirt with a black corset.

  As she walked towards me, I suddenly felt faint. Raven was mine. All mine. Only mine. My heart began to beat faster and stronger with every step she took until she was standing right there before me with pure love shining in her eyes.

  Joe handed her over to me, maybe a bit regretfully, but with a glance that told me he thought I was the one person that would appreciate all that Raven embodied.

  “Thank you,” I couldn’t help but say when his eyes met mine.

  “Just take care of her,” he softly replied.

  “I will.”

  He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the forehead, through the netting that spilled down from the headpiece of brushed metal flowers and obscured her eyes.

  “And you, little Raven… take care of him, too,” Joe murmured to her. “You’ve got a good man here.”

  Raven turned her violet gaze up to mine. “I know,” she smiled. “I will.”

  Our wedding was short and sweet. Perfect in every way.

  As short as the reception was long. Raven had gotten some of the musicians from the steampunk ball to come play. It was almost perfect, although it stretched out long into the night. All great craic, as Denny said many times, his thick Irish accent becoming thicker with every flaming absinthe drink, but I wanted nothing more than to disappear up into the master with Raven.

  We cut the cake. Thick layers of chocolate decadence decorated wi
th shades of frosting from lavender to purple. Everyone remarked on the odd refreshments, like the absinthe drinks and the Parma Violets. Felicity had brought a shit-ton of the small, purple candies back from a trip to Ireland to visit Denny’s family. She thought Raven might like them, saying they tasted like purple. I gave them a shot, but didn’t agree.

  In my mind, Raven tasted like purple.

  But, much like Felicity had anticipated, Raven had loved them, so much that she ordered a shit-ton more to serve in place of dinner mints at the wedding.

  We danced our first time as man and wife, and Joe, taking his uncle-of-the-bride role seriously, cut in.

  I shot her garter like a rubber band and laughed as it hit Justin square in the face. The guy was horrified, jumping back from it as though it was poisonous. Raven chose not to throw her bouquet, deciding to keep it instead. Besides, the thing was half metal and could be dangerous to toss around.

  It was now nearing one in the morning and I was growing really fucking antsy to be alone with my wife.

  I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Felicity smiling up at me.

  “She’s ready,” she smiled as she tucked herself up against Denny’s slightly intoxicated form.

  “She went up without me?” I asked.

  “She wanted everything to be perfect. Go ahead. We'll take care of the crowd.”

  I looked around the room. In spite of the late hour, the party was still in full swing, much like it had been during the ball, and fuck if I wanted to wait any longer.

  So I clapped Denny on the shoulder with a grin and hurried up the stairs without telling another soul.

  As I opened the door to the master suite, soft candlelight glowed over Raven, standing there before me in a short violet satin nightgown with a long black lace duster.

  “Hi, Mr. Massey,” she whispered, catching her lower lip in her teeth.

  “Hi…” I breathed out, “Mrs. Massey.”

  She took the few steps closer to me, the warm candlelight intensifying the contrast of pale skin and dark shadows. Her perfume infiltrated the air around me as she gently pushed the coat from my shoulders and began to undress me.