"Okay, god dammit," she yelled slamming open the door, ready to drag him out of her apartment by the lapels of his jacket. "I don't care how you got here, why you're here, or
how you are getting out of here, but you are leaving right now!" He shrugged with, what seemed to be nonchalance, and moved towards the door. When he was a foot away, she
changed her mind and slammed it shut.
"You know, what? You are not leaving until I say this: You do not have a single right to come in, criticize my taste of music, make fun of my non biological family, ask me about my
immediate past, and don't believe a single goddamn word I've said. Valdis Eldson, you stay out of my new life or I will hire somebody to kick your ass. Now, good riddance!" This
time she opened the door for him the last time. At least that's what she hoped.
His hand leapt up next to hers, presumably to slam it shut. But, in fear, she quickly pulled it back, afraid of being sucked into the dark whirl pool of his mind. When he saw this, all
fiery anger melted into a calm determination for something . And she knew a calm anger was the most dangerous in killers. Valdis let the door shut quietly behind him. Just as Maria appeared powerful and imperious before, Valdis was now tall and frighteningly looming over her. Apparently he didn't know the rule of "building up" of emotions, either.
"Your new life? Your new life? And with what money would you hire this assassin? Your money from your job? Wait a second, you don't have one! Maria, you can't stand on your
own two feet; you're still dependent on your aunt. You still don't have many friends, and…"
"I don't give a fuck about what you think about me. Yes, maybe I am a little needy on her money but… this is different from before!"
"How? Do you send her thank you cards for every monthly check? Wow, Maria, that is just completely contrasting with your previous relationship. Why don't you just give up?"
"Shut up, just shut up Valdis. Whether you think it is or not, this is my new life…"
"But you're not being yourself, you're holding back…"
"Oh, and you know me, is that it? Tell me, Valdis, just enlighten me for a minute, and tell me who the real Maria Tybal is. Because we all know you've spent years with me,
studying my every move, my every feeling. Wait a second, you haven't! Are you trying to sweep in here to break my spirit and then tell me how to live my life, you've got a
another thing comin'! You have no right…"
"I AM YOUR SOUL MATE!"
"AND I WISH WITH MY ENTIRE BEING YOU WEREN'T!" She screamed back at the top of her lungs.
They took a breath, for the heated exchange exhausted both of them. Obviously tired, he sat back down in the chair in the dark corner, his hands running over his face.
"I have spent weeks looking for you, only to find out that my soul mate is dating a shape shifter. A SHAPE SHIFTER! For god's sake, Maria, couldn't you find yourself a decent
human! Any vermin would have been better than that flea bag."
"Oh, there you go throwing around the v word again. Couldn't your people come up with something better, or at least some synonyms? All I hear is 'vermin' for my species and,
believe me, that one gets old after a hundred years."
"Could you be serious?" He constrained his yells to a dull roar.
"You want to get serious, fine, I'll lay it on the line. You are the bad guy"
"Does that make you the good guy? Ha!" he scoffed.
"No, ass hole, it makes me the Santa Clause," she threw back. "Bad guys and non bad guys do not visit each other for tea. We do not converse, we do not socialize in any manner,
and we sure as hell don't summarize and judge each other lives! Isn't there some rule book in that sadistic society of yours that says, 'thou shall not rendezvous with human soul mates'?"
He paced, threw up his hands, and paced again. To Maria, it appeared as if he was holding back all his desire to either punch a hole in the wall or throw her out the window. Which
would have been a pity on both choices, since she had just painted the walls and washed the windows. Valdis stopped pacing and faced her with a look of utmost resolve.
"All my life I've felt so damn incomplete, I was so damn sure once I found my soul mate I would be so fucking happy I wouldn't kill a single soul. Then I meet you, I get a goddamn
ver, oh pardon me, human, for a soul mate and I spend a few more months feeling incomplete." His pacing quickened, and knocked down the chair beside him. Maria's eyebrows
rose at the action, and she privately thought her soul mate was being a tad melodramatic. Too much Jerry Maguire for this vampire.
"Then on January first, I get a helluva wake up call saying 'Valdis, this is your one and only soul mate, whether you like it or not.' Plus, you gave me this speech about how happy
you were going to be, all by yourself. What about me? I realized. It's not freakin' fair for you to be so happy when I feel like rotting in hell. So I'm here, trying to feel fucking
complete, and you're not cooperating!"
Lord, he's selfish, Maria thought, privately amused. Kinda reminds ya of someone, doesn't it? Her mind retorted acridly. She pondered if one could survive with three quarters of
one's brain when she realized her soul mate had finished his monologue.
His chest was heaving and she stared at him coolly, with one eyebrow raised. "Is this the part when I say, 'Kiss me you fool,' or would you prefer, 'You had me at hello'? No wait,
that wouldn't work because you didn't say 'hello.' That's not very polite…"
Wrong thing to say idiot, idiot, and may I add idiot… Without a word, he picked up blue glass picture frame and hurled it to the wall next to her. "I was trying to be serious!"
Don't be scared, she told herself repeatedly after she mourned the loss of her frame. "Oh," she said with mock realization. "I couldn't tell with you acting like the trailer trash on
COPS. Where's your rifle and beer can?"
"I'll whip them out when you wear clown make up and show your hot pink curlers," he answered tiredly. Before she could fake a heart attack for his first joke, he went on to say,
"You do realize that this new boyfriend of yours has been lying to you."
"I've had my suspicions. But, then again, I haven't been Miss Honesty with him either. It's not one of my strongest points." He gave and quickly wiped away the tiniest of grins.
From out of the blue, cynical thoughts clouded her mind.
He's doing it again, you know what I'm talking about. He's chatting you up, making you spill your thoughts. Then he'll hurt you or he'll use the information against you. Valdis is not
to be trusted and you know it. Why are you still talking to him?
Normally, she could have ignored the paranoid hiss, but her voice of reason was right. Valdis had hurt her before, for example the docks. And that short encounter had thrown her
in turmoil for weeks. The last thing she needed was a re run.
Her voice of reason sensed victory, and threw images to ensure the self persuasion.
"The disgusting prostitute you call your mother has more worth than you could achieve in your life time."
"No." She was hardly aware she spoke.
"People care about me, Mari. Can you honestly say the same thing?"
She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to shut out the vindictive images.
"I want obedience and compliance in the women around me, all women. Those who don't learn, are punished."
Then, as the last memory, perhaps the most painful event came crashing to her. It felt like she was experiencing an out of body experience. She saw two young people, standing on
a shadowy dock. Hateful words poured from their lips, but she could hear nothing. Then he raised his hand and slapped her. Just like that, as if she were nothing. The woman had
not touched him physically before, yet he had struck her. It did not fit logic nor fairness and drove her to be unbelievably in
censed.
He's the same as Dorian, she rationalized.
Maria opened her eyes and found herself facing his chest. Her breaths were shallow as her eyes slowly traveled to her soul mate's handsome face, for she didn't dare move her
head and touch him, skin contact or no. Valdis peered down at her, concerned for some reason…her?
Concern my ass. "I know what's going on, Valdis. I know there are Night Worlders after me, the scapegoat for their downfall. Who would have guessed Sir Valdis Eldson would have
become the pest control? This is why you're here, isn't it? To take care of the, oh what's that word that is over used and over played…vermin, right?" He stared blankly at her, and
then began to laugh, no mirth in his chuckles. It was dry laughter of disbelief, of one tired of his misfortunes. Finally, after forcing Maria to assume his insanity, he spoke.
"Good one. I came here to kill you? That's ridiculous, that's preposterous, that's utterly insane. Of all the people in the world, I never expected my soul mate to be the stupidest
female on earth."
She disregarded the insult, because the tone of his voice startled and roused curiosity within her. "And pray tell, why would the thought be so outrageous?"
Valdis moved toward her, silently and expressionless. The look of him made Maria recall the graceful pace of a white tiger, blue eyes flashing in the dark. He came uncomfortably
close, then unbearably close, then so close she believed she was damn near suffocated. Maria had backed up into a corner between her desk and the wall. He leaned forward.
"Because," he whispered, his breath ruffling her hair. "I saved you." She couldn't think, he didn't give her time to think, to rationalize, or to push him away. The three simple words
turned her mind into a nebulous quivering mass of tangled babbling thoughts. Not enough to take major actions. Mari could see what was happening, but felt powerless to stop it.
His hand rose by minuscule degrees to her cheek. Seconds ticked by with overwhelming slowness. Then when she could feel the heat of his hand on her cheek, and when she could
smell the crisp scent of a cool forest emanating from his body…
"Get out." His hand gently brushed against her cheek, but she struggled against the current. "Get out, Valdis I mean it," she pleaded softly. It had never occurred to her that she
would plead to anybody, let alone Valdis. Panicked hands rose to push him away, only to be captured in his grasp.
"No, you don't, Maria," he refused tenderly, " I could tell when you mean it."
Somewhere in the land of fog and fuzz her mind had dissipated into, a thought sparked. Confusion, indignation, and then feminist righteousness given to all women flushed away the
cloudy thoughts of romance in her head. She snatched her hands away.
"Oh, I see how it is. I'm just a girl, a human girl to be exact, so I don't know what I'm saying? I need you to tell me when I mean it or not?" Maria pushed him away and rushed to
throw open her bedroom door. "You may feel so damn incomplete that you can't stand it, Valdis, but I've spent almost twenty years without you and I'm doin' fine. And this may not
be the independent 'I am woman, hear me roar' shit that you were just tellin' me about, but at least I'm trying. Now, listen very closely. Haul. Ass."
Aw, poor baby, she thought spitefully when hurt spread across his face. "I'd feel sorry for ya, but I think it's about time life kicked you in the ass. Out, Valdis, or do I have to call
the cops?"
"I'd kill ten cops with one hand," he pointed out with immature pride, which seemed to dominate all other emotions in any being born with the Y chromosome.
"And I'd like to see you explain the medical wonder of healing from a bullet wound in five seconds. Can we say lab rat?"
I'm not leaving. It completely disconcerted her, to have a thought not of her own in her head. There was a natural coldness to his message, iciness laced with each syllable.
Fortunately for her, that was when the knocking started.
"Maria! Santa Maria Tybal!" A man with a horrible Italian accent pounded at her front door. She turned to smirk at Valdis, but he was nowhere in sight. Nothing moved save the
rustling of her curtains.
Kyros had his hand poised for another ruthless hammering on her defenseless antique of a door. "Santa Maria Tybal!" he exclaimed with the attempt of an accent, a goofy smile
spread from cheek to cheek. He let out a whistle when he took in the sight of her.
"What are you doing here?" All energy had drained from her, confirming her earlier excuse for their shortened good night kiss.
"Well, I was in the Lincoln Tunnel when, there in the sky I saw it: not a bird, not no freakin' plane…"
Maria frowned at the double negative.
"… but the Bat Signal. Some poor son of a bitch went home with an unsatisfactory good night kiss, could you imagine the hell's he's going through? So it was up to me, Batman, to
save the poor bastard before…well before I die, honey."
Kyros moved towards her, his arms outstretched and his expression like a sailor on leave. Again, Maria frowned, for he didn't even try to make her smile. After a night of Kyros,
Valdis, and Kyros again, Maria felt as if she would faint or explode.
"Jesus please us, Kyros you're an Arctic Fox, not some stupid bat. And how the hell can you manage to see a bat signal if you're in a TUNNEL? Now get your ass in here, we gotta
talk!" He jumped back, surprised and suddenly not in the make out mood. She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the apartment.
August 8, 2000
"Fill me in on the details, Ky…" She heard a huge intake of breath through the ear piece of the phone. "Wait, wait, let me rephrase that. Summarize, ten sentences or less."
"Okay, here's the deal. That one didn't count because it wasn't officially apart of the summary, you know what I'm saying, Hannah? Any way, Maria knew the whole time who I was,
what happened, all that good stuff. About a week ago, a stranger paid a visit, which really means meant to kill her. Luckily, I stepped in and saved the day. Any who, she says he
was sent by somebody or other and she's asking for a favor. Mainly, that we kill him. How many sentences was that? Six, or five. Either way that's pretty good for me right?"
"She remembers everything!" Her exclamation nearly made his sensitive ears burst. Others enjoying their morning coffee turned towards her, and then wrote her off as a
fermented tourist.
"Well, what you expect me to do, read her mind? Foxes are smart, but not that smart. Oh, and can you believe it? She broke up with me."
"Yes, except you're an exception." Kyros wasn't sure whether to give thanks or defense.
"Hey, what are you doing on the mission any way? What about Quinn, Winnie, you know, the regulars?"
She bristled, but kept her voice level low. It would be horribly embarrassing to make a scene at the café, where everybody appeared detached and isolated from the world.
Probably to escape the noise of this city. "Just because I am the boss's soul mate doesn't mean I can't do missions. True, it may not be my style, and yes, I have had no experience
whatsoever. But I will not sit around the mansion when everybody else is on vacation. Besides, there are a lack of volunteers due to extended vacations everybody seems to be
taking."
He was observed his surroundings, the roof of Maria's building where the confession had taken place. When she cleared her throat, he turned his attention back again. "Right, right,
besides all you have to do is talk, which you do well by the way. And run."
"Run?"
"Yup, she should be jogging across the street from in two minutes. Sweaty, heaving chest, and ready to lie down and rest…" He sighed wistfully. "Wanna switch places? I'll be over
there in a ten seconds."
"No thanks, Kyros. Like you said, I'm a great orator."
"Keep your mind out of the gutter, Snow."
"Hey, it was there since day one. See ya, Snow." It was an old joke. Hannah sighed, and idly stirred her cold espresso. There were dog walkers, shoppers, business women, and a
small girl in shorts and a midriff top…
"Maria!" She yelped and got to her feet. The head of black pony tail did not turn around, and she kept the same pace as Hannah struggled to catch up in her leather boots. "Maria!"
It wasn't until she waited for the Walk sign to flash at an intersection did she finally slow down. Even then, Maria was preoccupied checking her shoe laces and stats on her watch.
"Ma…ria," Hannah panted tiredly, leaning against the traffic light pole. Passerby's bumped into her shoulder, some rudely and others indifferently. "We…need…to talk," she huffed.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. There's gum and god knows what on there." The reply appeared to be directed to nobody as Maria bent down to one knee to tighten her shoe.
"Anything in particular, Snow?"
Snow, she thought, baffled at her old friend's cold greeting. From Kyros' wordy accounts, Hannah had learned Maria had revived the élan that she tucked away after the death of the
Yolkens. The current behavior illustrated less than girlish warmth.
"Um, about this old friend? We need to know…" She trailed off when she realized she was talking to nobody; Maria had began jogging as soon as the sign permitted. It was time to
torture her feet once more.
By the time she caught up, Hannah believed that visible sweat marks near the under arms and upper back were inevitable. She began to believe Nissa's claim, "Missions aren't just
the glamour of beating the bad guys. That's half of it."
"Maria, I said that we need to know…" Maria stared straight ahead and, unlike the novice Hannah, expertly wove through the stream of crowds.
"His name is Valdis Eldson, and he's currently staying at the Four Seasons. Not sure what room, but hey I had to leave your people something to do to feel useful. If possible, I want
it to be the slowest death in the history of time."
" 'Your people?' Maria, why are you suddenly separated from us?"
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