by S. J. West
Ok, this was weird. I looked up at the man. How did he seem to know what I was thinking? His last few statements seemed to connect with what I was saying to myself at the time, almost like he was answering the unvoiced commentary in my head.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Oh, excuse me for forgetting my manners,” he held his hand out to me. “I’m Dr. Lucas Hunter.”
I shook his hand. The moment my hand touched his I felt a tingling sensation travel from his hand to mine, up my arm and shoulders to my head, making me feel like I was about to faint. I felt him put his arm around my waist to stop my fall.
“Are you all right?” He asked me, making sure I was steady on my own two feet before relinquishing his hold on me.
“Yes,” I answered trying to shake off the effects of his touch.
Who was he? There was definitely something going on with him that I couldn’t quiet put my finger on. Was he a Watcher? Could he have been sent by Robert to spy on me?
“Here is your item, Dr. Hunter,” a sales woman behind the counter handed Lucas a shopping bag with a small box inside.
He took the bag from the woman and thanked her for being so fast with his purchase.
He turned to me. “I hope you find what you’re looking for, Lilly. I’m sure your fiancé will like whatever you choose. Good luck to you.”
Before I knew it he was out the door.
How had he known my name?
When Tara finally came back into the store, I took her aside and told her what happened.
“Who do you think he was?” She asked.
I shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.”
“But he didn’t seem dangerous?”
“No, the complete opposite, I felt really comfortable with him.”
“Well, we’ll need to tell the other’s later. There ain’t much we can do about it now. We’ll just have to keep an eye out. You find a ring yet?”
Tara and I spent a good thirty minutes trying to decide on a ring. Luckily, when I told the woman behind the counter my description of the perfect ring, she told me they had just received a shipment that day and that there might be a ring in there which would fit what I wanted. When she brought it out, I knew it was the perfect one for Brand.
It was a grey gold band that split into three individual bands connected in an invisible hinge design. When put together, the ring was concave in shape with two grooves in the middle where the ring split. If you didn’t know the ring could come apart, you wouldn’t think it should. The lady said I could put a hidden inscription inside the band of rings. She gave me a book of inscriptions to help give me some ideas. I already knew of one thing I wanted to inscribe in the ring, and it didn’t take me long to find another inscription I wanted to put in it.
On the first inner ring, I had them inscribe something simple and from my heart. On the second ring I had them inscribe something I knew would mean a lot to Brand:
To the love of my life, forever and always.
Deus Nos Iunxit 11-21-2012
“What’s that second one mean?” Tara asked, looking over my shoulder as I wrote down my selections on the order form.
“It’s latin,” I answered. “It means ‘God joined us’.”
“Oh yeah, Brand’ll like that.”
The sales lady said it would take a couple of days to have the ring ready since the engraving on this particular ring would need to be sent out to be done. I assured her there wasn’t a rush.
Tara and I went straight from the jewelry store to the costume store which was located on the other side of town. Tara busts out laughing when she stepped inside.
“Ok, that’s what you have to buy Brand,” she said pointing to the display of costumes.
I just shook my head at her. “Are you seriously going to make me dress him up as Prince Charming?”
“Yep, and that means you have to go as Cinderella.”
Well, at least I didn’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out what it was I wanted to go as. Tara quickly found a pink thigh high dress with a flower design in gold and lavender with pink long, gauzy flowing sleeves. There was also a pair of pink knee-high boots with a flower cut out on the sides and pink head-band which finished her 60’s themed outfit.
We were in high spirits when we stepped out of the store. At least until I saw who was standing across the street from us.
Robert stood on the sidewalk dressed in a simple white shirt and black suit. He tapped the black leather strapped watch on his wrist and grinned like he knew something I didn’t before disappearing.
“What’s wrong?” Tara asked, immediately following my eyes to the empty spot where Robert had been.
“We need to go.”
As soon as we got back into my car, I phased us to Brand’s house.
Brand was clearly troubled to hear I had seen Robert again, but he was glad I had taken his advice and come straight to him before Robert had a chance to do anything else.
“I got the feeling he was telling me time was running out,” I told Brand and Tara.
“He’s playing a mind game with you, Lilly. He wants to scare you as much as he can.” Brand couldn’t hide the worry in his voice. We knew Robert was up to something but what that something was completely eluded us.
“Oh, hey, don’t forget to tell him about that guy in the jewelry store too,” Tara reminded me.
I told Brand everything I could remember about my encounter with the man who called himself Dr. Lucas Hunter.
“And you’re sure you’ve never seen him before?” Brand asked.
“No, I’ve never seen him in my life.”
Brand stood, went to the kitchen and pulled a phone book out of the drawer. He came and sat back down with me, flipping through the yellow pages in the physician section.
“I don’t see him,” Brand said, closing the book.
“He might be on the internet,” I suggested.
“Come on,” Brand took my hand and we stood up to go to his computer located in the spare bedroom upstairs.
“Hey, could y’all take me home and tell me what you find out later?” Tara asked. “I need to go finish my report for my biology class.”
We phased Tara home and went straight back to Brand’s spare bedroom.
Our search for Lucas Hunter didn’t take long. He was a doctor of pediatric oncology with a well established practice in Jackson. He had been there at least ten years. From what we could tell, he was highly respected in his field for advancements in curing his pediatric patients of cancer.
There was a picture of him on his practices website. It was definitely the same man I met in the jewelry store.
“So he’s not a Watcher, right?” I asked Brand. “You don’t seem to recognize him.”
Brand shook his head. “No, I don’t know who he is. It could be one of Will’s kind. He might know.”
Brand took out his phone and found Will’s number on his contact list. “Hey, could you come over to my house. Lilly and I have a question for you.” There was a pause. “We’re on the second floor in the spare bedroom.”
“I’m here,” I heard Will say out in the hallway a second later.
I called out to him so he knew which room we were in. When he came in, Brand pointed to the computer screen.
“One of yours?”
Will studied the picture on the screen. “It’s hard to tell from just a picture. But, I don’t recognize him. I would need to get close to him to tell. Why?”
I told Will what I had told Brand about my encounter with the man.
“Give me the address to his offices in Jackson. I’ll try to get up there as soon as I can to check him out.”
“Is it possible Lucifer has sent someone else to look after Lilly?” Brand asked while writing the address down on a scrap piece of paper and handing it to Will.
Will shrugged reading the address before putting the paper in his back pocket.
“Anything is possible with him, but he hasn’t told me anything a
bout it. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Thanks, Will,” I said.
Will looked at me and nodded. He tried to give me a reassuring smile before he disappeared but I could tell he was worried about this new development.
Brand stood from the chair at the computer and took me into his arms.
“I think we need to stop thinking about things for a while,” he announced before kissing me until all I could think about was him.
When he finally pulled away, I heard a low moan escape his lips.
“It gets harder and harder to pull away from you,” he sighed, kissing my forehead first and then my cheeks before he returned to my lips.
I understood his torment. It was getting harder for me too.
“Three more weeks,” I said, forcing my lips away from his for a deep breath. “Besides, I still need to go see a doctor for birth control. I think they say you need to be on it for a little while anyway.”
With the reminder of the repercussions our love making could have, I felt Brand’s arms loosen around my waist.
“I spoke to someone about that,” he confided. “We’ll need to have you on birth control and I’ll need to use something also, just to be sure we don’t have any accidents. Birth control is only 99.9% effective from what I’ve read.”
“Who did you ask that sort of question?” I was curious to know who Brand would go to for such knowledge.
“Do I have to tell you?” he asked with a lopsided grin, obviously embarrassed.
“Well no, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but I would like to know.”
With a resigned sigh he said, “Malcolm.”
I couldn’t help the giggle which burst out as I tried to imagine Brand going to Malcolm with such a question.
“Why him?” I asked, still chuckling about the scene of their discussion playing in my mind.
“He’s probably the most promiscuous Watcher I know. I figured he would know better than anyone how to not get someone pregnant.”
“He didn’t give you a hard time about asking did he?”
Brand lifted an eyebrow at me, “Do you even have to ask?”
Poor Malcolm. I knew how he felt about me and could only imagine how awkward it was to tell Brand what he needed to know before we made love for the first time. But I also knew him well enough to understand he wouldn’t have been able to control himself and probably tortured Brand as much as he could to garner the information from him.
“I don’t want to use a condomn the first time. Ok?” I said.
“Why?” Brand seemed suspicious of my motives.
“Because I don’t want my first time to be filled with passion and then you have to stop to put one on. I mean it’s not like we don’t know each other. Neither of us have a disease, and I’ll be on birth control anyway. Please,” I begged. “Just not the first time, ok? After that you can use as many as you want.”
A cheeky grin spread across Brand’s face. “I’ll remember you said that.”
Later that evening, Brand got a call from Allan. From what I heard on Brand’s end of the conversation, Allan had completed his genetic comparison of my grandmother’s DNA and found the results were similar to my mother’s, as we had already thought they would be.
“We’d be delighted to, Allan,” I heard Brand say as I was just finishing up my chemistry homework. “Ok, see you then.”
“What are we delighted to do?” I asked.
Brand came and sat beside me at the dining room table. “He invited us to eat with him and Angela at their home tomorrow night.”
“I assume that’s unusual from the look on your face.”
“I’ve never seen Allan walk around inside his own home,” Brand said completely astounded. He looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “Though I have my suspicions he just wants to see you again and dinner with them seemed to be the most congenial way to request your presence.”
“I wish I knew why I affected your kind the way I do.”
“It’s not just us,” Brand said.
“What do you mean?”
“That night your car broke down and you sought help from Abby. Do you remember what she did while you were in there?”
“Do you mean the growling?”
“Yes. She felt your presence in the house.”
“What do you mean she felt me?”
“It’s the only way she could explain it. She felt you there and had this almost uncontrollable urge to be near you. That’s one reason Rose Marie was so upset. She thought Abby was going to break down her cell and attack you.”
“You know, Malcolm said something similar happened with Sebastian the first night we met. I do remember feeling like Sebastian wanted to come closer to me then. Why do you think that is?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Do you ever think we’ll figure out why I’m so strange?”
I didn’t mean for the question to come out as a whine, but it did. Why couldn’t I just be normal?
“You are not strange,” Brand said, standing from his chair while taking one of my hands in his urging me to my feet. “You are the most wonderful person I know. Don’t ever think of yourself as anything less.”
I leaned my body against his for warmth and comfort. “You’re just saying that because you’re hopelessly in love with me.”
“It’s because of who you are that makes me hopelessly and endlessly in love with you,” he said trailing small kisses down my neck.
I completely lost track of time for the rest of the evening.
Since there was a six hour time difference between our time and London time, Brand and I ditched physics class, and I took some time off of work that afternoon so we could have lunch/dinner with Allan and Angela.
We needed to be there before nightfall anyway. Angela called Brand earlier that morning to make sure we came well before she was due to transform. She also asked us to bring Abby since it had been so long since she last saw her friend. But, wherever Abby went, Sebastian had to go. They had been joined at the hip ever since they declared their love for each other. From what I knew, they spent almost all their time at Malcolm’s home.
“You know,” Brand said to me while we were getting ready to go to Allan’s, “why doesn’t Tara move into Abby’s house? She’s not using it anymore and it would be nice to have Tara closer to us. Do you think she would like it?”
“Why don’t you ask her?” I suggested. “I think she would appreciate hearing the invitation come from you.”
If the offer came from Brand directly, I was sure Tara would feel more like she really was going to be a major part of our new family. I had worried about leaving her in the apartment alone after I married Brand. For one thing, I wasn’t sure she could afford to pay for it on her own, and I knew she wouldn’t take money from me even if I tried to help her out. And secondly, if she was just down the road from us, she could come over anytime she wanted and hopefully not feel like she was intruding into our space.
I understood the relationship Tara and I had with one another would have to evolve once I was married, but I felt like our friendship was strong enough to endure such a drastic change in both our lives. We were sisters by choice, and I always thought that was a stronger bond than simply being born from the same parents.
By the time we all arrived at Allan’s, it was 4pm London time. We had at least two hours before we would need to leave and get Abby and Sebastian back to Lakewood. Abby didn’t bother with ringing the doorbell to Allan’s house and simply stepped inside like it was a second home to her.
“Angela!” Abby called from the foyer.
Angela came bounding down the stairs from the second floor and flew into Abby’s arms laughing.
“Can you believe it?” She asked Abby, full of joy and excitement. “He’s really serious about changing this time. It’s totally different than the last few times he’s tried.”
“Well, I hope it works out, Ang,” Abby told her happy friend while kissing
her affectionately on the cheek. “I know you try to pretend the way he is doesn’t affect you, but I know it does.”
Angela looked at Sebastian. “Hiya, you must be Abby’s new squeeze.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Sebastian said with a slight bow in Angela’s direction.
Angela looked to me. The unvoiced pleading in her eyes told me she hoped my presence would help her father overcome his fear of the outside world.
“Where is Allan?” Brand asked.
“He’s still in his room,” Angela answered, tugging her lower lip in worry with her teeth. “I was hoping you and Lilly could go in there and get him. He might feel braver if she’s with him.”
We didn’t have to be asked twice. Angela opened up the hidden doors leading to Allan’s sterile environment for us. After passing through the decontamination chamber, we stepped in to find Allan sitting on one of the metal stools inside his glass bubble. He was dressed in a nicely tailored grey pinstriped suit with a white shirt and grey silk tie. The trepidation on his face had me worried. Angela was so sure her father was finally strong enough to face his fears. I was glad she wasn’t with us to see Allan’s anxiety. It didn’t take long for Allan to realize we were in his space. When his eyes rested on me, they immediately lit up and his anxiety seemed to fade away a small bit.
He stood from his chair and opened the door to come out and meet us halfway.
“I’m so glad you both could make it,” he said trying to put on a brave smile.
I knew he was nervous about leaving his safety net and venturing out into his house for what would be a prolonged period of time, at least long enough to eat supper.
I let go of Brand’s hand and walked up to Allan. I wasn’t sure how he would react, but if he was serious about changing his life and providing his daughter with a better way to live than the caretaker role she had been forced to play all these years, he needed to be nurtured and at the same time tested to see how far his limits could be stretched.
I put my hand on Allan’s forearm. He didn’t flinch away. He even seemed to relax a bit under my touch.