Fade wasn’t eating, merely watching Heather make a mess of herself with crumbs and Malkie, which was like nothing she’d ever eaten before. There was a faint honey-ness about it, but it had the deep dark depths of molasses melded with the sweetness of corn syrup. Most peculiar but very tasty. She could already feel the sugar high popping a sweat out of her pores.
“You like it?” he asked after her fifth cake.
She grinned at him around a pastry that was like a mixture between a croissant and a palmier.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” The smile lightened his face and his eyes drifted over her, before he murmured, “I have a gift for you. Two, actually.”
“You do? For what? It isn’t my birthday.”
“You will soon learn that I don’t need a reason to buy you a gift, but no, this is an engagement present.”
“Oh, Fade, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I did. And it’s a selfish present…”
Before he could continue, she butted in with lascivious pleasure at the idea of dressing naughtily for him… “Is it dirty underwear?”
He immediately scowled. “Why would I purchase you soiled underclothes?”
Chortling, Heather shook her head. “Dirty as in adult? As in barely there lingerie?”
His frown cleared with his comprehension but he shook his head. “No. Selfish in that it will give me more pleasure than you… it is a safety device, Heather. I wish you to wear it at all times. I had one of your father’s Elders craft it for me.”
Leaning over to his side of the bed, he dug around in one of the long commodes that were a regal form of bedside tables. When he returned, in his hand, he had a rectangular box in a peculiar fabric that seemed to be like leather. Had they been on Earth, she would have classed it as a jeweler’s box for necklaces. In the other, he had a sack.
When he handed the case over to her, he murmured, “This must always be in close contact to your skin. If you press the pendant, it will act as an alarm. It will emit a sound that will cause the people in the vicinity to pass out. You too will also collapse. With our bond, I can sense if you are in danger or not. Just as you can with me. This will give me time to get to you.”
Touched at the idea of his present revolving around her security, she opened the box and gasped. It was hideous. She tried to school her features not to show her repulsion, but Fade must have spotted because he chuckled. “I know. It is not pretty. But come, I will show you, it is enchanted.” He beckoned for the case and she handed it to him. He reached for the chain, which was like nothing she’d ever seen before.
It was like a long strand of slime. Green, snotty slime.
When Fade picked it up, it began to glitter. Making it sparkly, green, snotty slime.
With his free hand, he tugged at the sheet that still covered her and kept on tugging until it rested on her lap. He then lowered the chain of gloop over her head and once it was free of her hair, he dropped it. The instant it touched her skin, like cream, the snot was absorbed into her flesh.
There was a cold burn as her pores sucked it up and then, a hot burn that made her shriek and the tray on the bed wobble as her body began to jerk in reaction to the intrusion of this alien substance.
A cold sweat broke out over her body and she glanced down to note that the sweat that popped free was bright red. Like blood. She gasped and gritted her teeth, her eyes, filled with accusation, catching Fade’s. He grimaced, reached out a hand for her shoulder and squeezed comfortingly.
The odd pain continued for a few moments and then, there was a sudden surge of agony between her breasts. So severe was the sensation, she cried out and fell backwards, her body tumbling off the bed and on to the floor. She almost passed out as a fierce heat burned her chest, as hot as a brand. The pain seemed endless until suddenly, it winked out.
She gasped for breath and only then noticed that Fade was knelt beside her on the floor. His wings were ruffling with his agitation and the scent calmed her unease and memories of pain.
“I’m sorry, dearling. The Elder said the reactions with each wearer are different.” He swallowed. “Beg pardon, I just wanted you to be safe.”
She reached up to cup his jaw in her hand and patted it. “Just warn me in future, okay? I thought I was dying.” Only the knowledge that he’d hurt himself before he would her, kept her from snapping at him. She’d felt terror briefly, but it had been outweighed by the sheer amount of pain battering her.
Heather just hoped the safety device was worth all the bloody trouble.
He nodded, grateful for her calm and murmured, “Look, you press this here.”
She looked down and almost fainted. A golden box was somehow attached to her skin, between her breasts. She jumped up and ran over to the bathroom, where a floor to ceiling mirror was suspended. Heather studied the box and saw a large, faceted stone in the center of it. She imagined this was the button. She gulped, for it looked suspiciously like a huge ruby. In fact, it had to be, but it was as large as a quail’s egg. Surrounding it, were a multitude of diamonds, in various cuts. The box was about the size of a ring box and in a gleaming rose gold.
What freaked her out was the way it was welding between her breasts. There was a seamless join, almost as though it had grown from her body.
Fade appeared behind her in the mirror and she could see his wings were still ruffling with unease.
“I just press the ruby, right? And that’s the alarm?”
He nodded. “Yes. Is that what you call the stone? A ruby?”
“Yeah. Don’t you have them here?”
“No. I have never seen one like this before. Our jewels are rarely one color. They’re prized for their striations.”
“That’s weird. On Earth, rubies are one of the most precious stones. Save the ones around the central stone. They’re called diamonds.”
“The sleckil always manifests as jewelry according to the Elder, but the style varies upon the wearer.”
“That’s nuts.” She shook her head, as her fingers trailed the box. She couldn’t take her eyes from this new protrusion. “Especially as it yielded an Earthen jewel.”
“Perhaps, but it will keep you safe and that is all that matters to me. The sound is pitched to alter the waves that make our minds work. Once this happens, our body shuts down to protect the mind and allow it to recuperate. The effects can last for days, so severe is the sound.
“The box reacts to your heart’s beat. From it, it will detect the severity of the situation. If you are truly panicked, the sound emitted can disarm for days. If you are merely afraid or highly nervous, then it will beep a sound that will cause confusion. You too will be confused, but by the time your mind returns to its earlier state, it will cause a slight amnesia and you will be safe.
“Sleckils aren’t a well-known magick. But if anyone sees it, ever, I want you to lie and say that it is a form of jewelry on Earth. Just like your pierced ears. They will not question what it is, that way. And that lie is aided by the strange stones. It should be adequate cover.”
Her lips twitched at his reference to her ears. It had perplexed her entire family and the doctor that as her ears had made the strange transformation into those of an Elfen, the two holes at her lobes had remained. Only the week before, her father had gifted her with a pair of earrings as well as a set of cuffs as a coming of age present. The earrings were a prototype, by the sounds of it. The palace’s jeweler had never made anything like it before.
“That should be a good cover story.”
“I have something else for you and these are also for your safety even though the repercussions of their use terrify me, your safety and protection is all important to me.” It was only then that she realized he’d brought the sack from earlier into the bathroom with him. Burying his hands into it, he brought out some doorknobs that were like those her aunt had left her, but were heavily weighted with the stones that were obviously the jewels he’d mentioned earlier. Each one had a large cabochon stone with sh
ades that made a rainbow look bland. There were three in all. “We must find a way to hide these within your clothes. They are different to the ones that brought you here and even rarer, it took a long while for your father to have these sourced. You must utter the word abrel and it will attach itself to a door, there is no need for the work we had to undertake on Earth. Mother Mearth’s magick will take that tedious task from you.”
“But I could enter a different country. Or it could take me back to Earth. I don’t want that. Surely the sleckil will be enough? Why do I need these, as well?”
“We are living in troubled times, my love. We must protect you and I can’t always be with you. There are times, when you will be alone and you must have these things to secure you. You must be prepared to use them. And if they take you to Earth, you must not fear. For I will never let you leave me. I will seek you until the end of my days. I will keep one and you keep the other two, that way, if the knob does take you away, then I will have the means to find you. And if that doesn’t work, then I’ll commission the entire land to bring similar magick with them. I will find you. But for your own safety, you must have them close to you. Do you understand?”
“I do. But I don’t want to.” She swallowed back tears, because there was an earnestness to his voice that frightened her. He truly believed that she was in danger and she could handle that. Hell, she’d lived in New York and had been mugged before she’d learned self-defense. Fear was one thing, but something that would take her away from him?
Now she’d found him, Heather wasn’t sure she could live without him. No matter his words that he would not rest until he found her again. People went missing everyday back on Earth and no one ever found them, despite ceaseless efforts and attempts to find them again.
How would she survive without him?
Chapter Fourteen
For the first time, Heather felt as though a snake had entered her new paradise.
And she didn’t like it.
It had been a surreal morning thus far. And it looked set to get even weirder.
She’d been awoken this morning with a gaggle of noblewomen. Accustomed to being awoken with some part of Fade’s body penetrating hers, it hadn’t exactly cheered her up to realize that he was down the hall with a morning erection going to waste.
Heather fully admitted that she’d turned into a whore, where he was concerned. But the fault lay with his cock and the delicious body it was attached to. How could she ignore it? Deny herself such pleasure, when every part of him was tailor made for her?
No, the morning had started off in the worst way possible. And then, she’d had to endure breakfast with the beaming, smiling, blushing women who had been sent to tend her.
According to Jenderian tradition, or so her father had told her, she was to choose up to five women from this set to be her ladies in waiting. Or attendants as the Mearthen referred to them. They would follow her, wherever she went. Be it Haden or any other kingdom. Tend to her every wish. Be her friends and companions.
The idea made her nauseous.
Not a one of them, even though they were her peers, would ever understand what made Heather tick. How could they? They’d been reared gently. With the proverbial silver spoon slipped between their lips at every step of their adolescence.
She’d been reared in New York. And New Yorkers were a hardy bunch. Even the rich guys were tough, New York and its vibrant, bristling energy was the reason for their wealth. The city formed each and every person, giving out options at every stage. To be a criminal or not to be one, that was one of the questions. To be educated and strive for a career that would line a person’s pockets eventually leading to a heart attack from the strain or to be an average Joe worker with never enough money, was another. To be a victim or a fighter was the principle stage behind Heather’s point.
These women weren’t fighters. She didn’t know them enough to say they were victims, but they certainly weren’t like her who had fought for her very survival at different periods of her life.
How could they understand her? How could she befriend them? And while very little of her still felt like an Earthling, in this case, she wanted to ask how she could make friends with these aliens?
She didn’t mean that in a xenophobic way. But to her, they were aliens. Day to her night. Sun to her moon.
Being set upon them as they breakfasted with her had soured her day all the more. They didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t chatting with them, hell, they were doing enough of it themselves without any help from her.
She’d enjoyed her Malkie and bread, something she’d taken to craving at least a couple of times a day. Topped it off with the Mearthen equivalent to coffee, hilkien, and nibbled at some fruit. A plateni which was near as dammit a banana, but the outer flesh was a mixture of blue and red with the inner a pale green and a manzen, a purple apple-like fruit that was sour enough to have her eyes crossing.
Then, they’d dressed her.
Stripped her naked, ignoring her complaints and protests, actually bathed her, massaged her and then helped her to dress. She’d never been so goddamned embarrassed in all of her life.
And now alone, after having managed to dismiss them regardless of the breach in protocol and tradition, Heather was taking stock of herself and the situation. She felt none of the excitement she was supposed to feel, but at the same time, she had absolutely no bridal jitters. Her blood was bound to Fade’s, the connection was more than just one of the heart. It was intrinsic as her DNA.
No, she was discomforted more by the idea of getting married in front of what, according to the gaggle, were a hundred thousand people than she was at legally declaring herself as Fade’s. She hadn’t been involved in the invitations, that had been left to her mother’s social staff, but still, one hundred thousand people?
The gaggle had to be wrong. Surely?
Hell, the last time she’d been around that many people, she’d been at a music festival. And even then, there had been that number of attendants over the entire two day spectacle. Not at once.
But it would seem that a crowd of revelers would be attending her wedding.
Woo-hoo. Not.
On top of that, she had nerves about the ceremony itself. A few days ago, they’d had the wedding rehearsal. It was surprisingly similar to that of Earth, but the vows had different words. Same meanings though just in a different order to Earthling tradition. ‘To cherish and to hold’ instead of ‘to have and to hold,’ for example. She was afraid the little discrepancies would catch her out and she’d inadvertently revert to the way she’d seen on TV back in the US.
Part of it was spoken in Firfesh, the only language she spoke, that of the royals. But the rest was spoken in Mearlish and those parts, she’d had to learn by heart. Speaking in both languages, she was addressing her union to her peers and to the commoners of Mearth.
She was certain she’d fluff up her lines, she’d never been one for standing in the center of a stage. Am dram had completely left her behind, when her class had ceased its yearly productions of the nativity. And she couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.
Heather wasn’t sure what it all meant, but something happened during the ceremony. By uttering the words, they were zoning into a direct channel with Mother Mearth. The very idea of that was enough to freak the hell out of her, never mind all of her others anxieties to add to that.
The only place she had no concern, was her appearance. Heather studied her reflection in the 360 degree mirror surrounding her. Her butt didn’t look big, it appeared taut and trim in the tight skirt of wedding dress. Her boobs were pushed up and looked like soft pillows beneath the corset she wore. The gown was in a strange color, but then, every color on Mearth was strange to Heather’s eyes. They seemed to have gone out of their way to create them. This was a platinum color, it had strange swirls of white and grey and silver within its depths. Yet somehow, despite the melding of shades, it didn’t look tie-dyed. Those tones were hidden amongst the weave.
“People would pay a small fortune for fabric like this back on Earth,” she muttered beneath her breath as she twisted and turned, assuring herself that she wasn’t about to make a fool out of herself as she walked down the aisle.
The skirt was like a long pencil skirt. It brushed her ankles as it clung to every line of her hips and legs. The band of fabric about her feet was so tight, that she had some difficulty walking. She’d figured out a kind of one-two shuffle that surprisingly, didn’t make her look like a complete moron. It was like a slow glide that suited the outfit and of course, the occasion.
The bodice was a sweetheart neckline, but rather than smooth waves like the top of a heart, they were diamond sharp. The points were tipped with the stones Mearth prized and they dug into the soft clouds of her breasts. The same stones covered the bodice in a strange pattern that reminded her of lace. It was a beautiful effect. Where bodice met skirt, there was a ruffled cummerbund in a shade that reminded her of purple, but was too red and too blue to actually be it. The sash curled about her hips and draped at her back, down to the floor. Here, it widened and lengthened into her train.
The bodice hid the freakish box that had welded itself to her skin. The neckline dipped low, but not low enough to expose Fade’s security device. And even in this dress, he’d insisted that the seamstress add pockets to the inner layer of fabric for the doorknobs. Peculiarly enough, the dress looked better with the added weight at her ankles. With her normal walk, they banged her ankles every second step. With the weird glide she’d configured, they merely swirled about her feet.
She looked odd. Like she was marrying an alien on his planet.
But considering that was the truth, she looked good enough. In fact, all the sex must have been doing her good, because without even meaning to and regardless of all the food Fade made sure she ate, she’d managed to trim down a little. Nothing too extravagant, but unused muscles in her body were seeing a lot of action and so, were firmer and tauter.
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