by Lila Dubois
Luke’s mouth filled with blood and poison. He swallowed, wincing as the poison burned down his throat. Like Lena, his human form was susceptible to the poison. But unlike Lena he had the option to take another form, one that could digest the poison. When he drew untainted blood from the wounds he was working on he moved to another. Henry pressed a towel into his hands and Luke held it down over the cleaned punctures.
He and Michael worked in tandem until each puncture was clean. When they pulled back, lips and teeth stained by blood, the green and black tint of her skin was gone, leaving only angry red flesh. Luke shifted to kneel at her shoulder, cupping her head in his hands.
“Lena,” he whispered, voice low and rough. “Lena, can you hear me?”
His stomach gave an uncomfortable rumble and Luke pressed a hand to it. Michael was doubled up, his golden skin grey, bright spots of color flagging his cheeks. “Luke,” he whispered, voice reedy thin. “We need to change.”
“What’s going on?” Jane asked in a low voice, gaze darting between Lena’s thigh and Michael.
“They sucked out the poison,” Henry told her, “but as they are human right now, they are being poisoned. Luke, Michael,” he said, voice hardening from reassuring to commanding, “change. Now.”
Michael stumbled to his feet and down the hall, into the first doorway he found. Luke, unwilling to be separated from Lena, rose and moved to the open floor space in front of the TV. The minute he changed forms the poison lost its deadly hold on him. The particles broke down, absorbed by his body. He licked teeth that had turned to fangs, and found he could still taste Lena’s blood.
In this body her blood tasted different, sweet, like a fruit’s nectar, with none of the coppery bitterness he’d tasted as a human. Henry, who still held his human form, was pressing the cloth to her leg. Margo and Jane had crowded around Lena, stroking her face and hair, holding her limp hands.
Henry told Margo to hold the cloth in place and then stepped close to Luke so he could speak privately. “The wounds still need to be sealed. You need to remove the women, he is not as confident as he pretends and he doesn’t want them to see him yet.”
Luke nodded and then stretched out one wing to tap each of the women on the shoulder. “Come with me, Michael must seal the wounds, you cannot watch.”
Margo, who was poking at the membrane of his wing, asked, “Why not? I don’t trust you. I’m not letting her out of my sight.”
“Then Lena will die, and I will not allow that to happen.” Luke voice deepened with conviction, the fear and pain of almost losing Lena loosening his control. “She means much to me, and you mean nothing, so if I must blind you so that Michael can come out here and help her, so be it.”
Margo and Jane moved.
Luke herded them down the hall and into the office. He had to maneuver to get himself through the door, but once he did Luke stood with his back to the closed portal and spread his wings, making it clear they were not leaving the room. The floor vibrated as Michael exited his hiding place and trooped down the hall into the living room. The women were both slightly open-mouthed as they felt him go by.
“Why can’t we see Michael?” Jane asked.
“He and those who look like him have a great presence in human mythology, he is not ready to expose himself.”
“What is he?” Margo demanded, and Luke responded with a hard stare. She returned the insult by looking him up and down, and Luke remembered he was fully naked. Rather than flinch or feel embarrassed he raised his chin.
Easy footsteps and a knock at the door alerted them it was safe to come out. Luke changed forms, ignoring the once-over both Margo and Jane gave him now that he was a naked human man and opened the door.
He brushed by Henry without a word and moved into the living room. Michael sat by Lena’s thigh, which no longer ran with blood. Black dots marked each of the entry points.
Luke lifted her into his arms and sat on the couch, curling her against his chest, carefully arranging her injured thigh. Ignoring his audience, Luke stroked her hair and forehead, whispering to her.
“I’m sorry someone hurt you. I’ll find them. I’ll kill them for hurting you. I will never leave you unprotected again. I’m so sorry.”
Lena seemed to be peacefully asleep, the lines of pain which had marked her brow when they arrived were now gone and Luke could only hope she remained so.
“Alright, monster-boy,” Margo said, dropping into a chair, “time to talk. After watching this I believe you didn’t do this, but someone did.”
“You’re right,” Michael said as he dropped to sit on the floor, Henry and Jane following suit. “Things among our people are more complicated than we told you.” He looked to Luke for confirmation that Luke hadn’t told them of this. Luke nodded. “You see,” Michael went on, “not all of us want to expose ourselves to the humans. There are some who want to keep hiding, retreating into the last unexplored places on Earth. There are others who think it is time to stand and fight, to eradicate humanity.”
Jane made a small noise at this and Michael tentatively placed a hand on her knee. After a moment Jane’s small hand fluttered down on top of his. His hand linked with Jane’s, Michael continued the story, “And then there’s us. We want to find a way to live with humanity, protecting both races and that’s why we’ve come to you. But there are those who want to stop us. We did not think we were followed, and only a few others know where we are, but it seems someone found us, and is trying to scare us.”
Silence spread as Michael finished his tale.
Margo, mouth turned down in grim lines, broke that silence, “You should have told us this when you first admitted what you were.” She turned to Luke as she said it, placing all the blame squarely on him.
“You’re right,” Luke said, tilting his head from where it rested against Lena’s, “but I did not think it would matter, no one was ever supposed to get hurt.”
“You should have told us,” Margo insisted.
“Yes,” Luke agreed. “As soon as Lena is well we will leave.”
Both Michael and Henry shifted unhappily, Henry rubbing one hand over his eyes, Michael’s head dropping to his chest.
“Wait,” it was Jane, whose hand was still linked with Michael’s, who stopped them. “Do you mean that there is an army of monsters headed for us?”
“No, it would be only one, maybe two, who would have bothered to track us all the way here to try and stop us. The majority of our people are desperate for a solution and support us.”
“Then why should you leave?”
“We will not risk you.” Michael said, turning to look at Jane, a lock of blond hair falling down over his eye. “We never wanted to hurt any of you.”
“But if we can’t help you, can’t make this work, potentially the people, er, monsters, who want to fight with the humans would take control.”
Luke opened his mouth to answer, but Margo jumped in, “That means we could potentially be damning the human race by allowing you to retreat now. No way, you’re staying, we’re doing this thing.”
Luke stared at her as Henry opened and closed his mouth. Hadn’t she just berated them for not telling her about their enemies, implying she wanted them gone?
“It doesn’t matter,” Luke said, recovering his composure. “I will not risk any of you.”
“You don’t have any say in what we risk, so why don’t you concentrate on finding the fucker who hurt Lena and stopping him? If you’re not going to help you can ve a chuparle el peson ha un chango.”
“Why would I go suck a monkey’s nipple?” Michael, who’d learned more human languages than Luke or Henry, asked.
“Uhh.” Margo’s face pinkened in a blush, and somehow that broke the tension. Jane giggled at her friend’s discomfort as Michael pressed Margo to explain the insult.
Luke hugged Lena to him, relief flooding him that their mission would continue. He almost hated himself for wanting to continue the project when he knew they were potentiall
y in danger, but more than that he didn’t want his time with her to end. There was no question that from now on he would keep her safe.
Margo twisted her wrist to look at her watch. “If you’re going to look after Lena I’m going to go. I need to call the others. I think we need to speed up the timetable on this project.”
“I’m coming with you,” Henry said, pushing to his feet.
“No you’re not.”
“Yes,” Henry’s voice changed, velvet soft, like well-polished steel, rather than Luke’s deep rumble. “I am coming with you, to protect you. It is possible our enemy saw you, that makes you a potential target.”
Margo looked over her shoulder at Jane. Michael nodded, saying, “I will go with her.”
Now in pairs, the four of them filed out, Jane using her key to Lena’s apartment to lock the door behind them.
Luke lifted his precious burden and carried her to the bedroom. He propped her on her side using pillows at her back and wrapped a wet washcloth over the angry red skin on her thigh. He draped her with the thinnest of the covers, pushing the others to the floor. Not wanting to disturb her, he pulled a chair up next to the bed and settled in to watch over her as she slept through what was left of the night.
Chapter Fifteen
Everything hurt. Lena woke to the sound of her own whimpers, as the pain dragged her from her healing sleep. She was lying on her side. Something was wrong with her leg. Lena touched her thigh, which was covered by a hot wet cloth. Whimpering, she pushed the washcloth away, even that small movement taxing her limited strength.
Smooth fingers eased her hands from her thigh, murmuring words she didn’t understand. Her lack of comprehension scared Lena, until she realized the words were not in English. Turning to look at her foreign-tongued caretaker, Lena was greeted by the site of a bare, rippled stomach and a forearm that flexed with muscles as he stroked her side. Lena blearily raised her gaze to the man’s face.
Luke.
The minute she recognized him Lena came completely, and painfully, alert. Adrenaline raced through her system as she remembered the winged form sweeping over her, followed by the glaring pain in her leg. Lifting her head she looked at her leg. Her thigh was swollen and red with black spots. She brushed her fingers over the skin and found it scorching hot to the touch.
Lena turned her head away from Luke, closing her eyes, though her racing heartbeat betrayed the false sleep. She heard Luke sigh and move away, his footsteps fading as he left the bedroom. Lena’s eyes popped open.
She had to get away. Luke was dangerous. She didn’t want to believe that he would hurt her, but it might be some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing, maybe he didn’t even know what he’d done.
Either way, she needed to get away from him.
Easing herself into a sitting position, bracing her injured leg with her hands, Lena snatched up her cell phone, which was helpfully resting on the bedside table.
With shaking hands she speed-dialed Jane.
“Hey, Luke,” her best friend answered.
Lena held the phone away from her ear and stared at it, puzzled until she remembered that she’d given Luke her phone.
She put the phone back to her ear in time to hear Jane say, “Helllllooo?”
“Jane,” she whispered, rough voice barely discernable. Lena tried to swallow but her mouth was dry.
“Lena?”
“Yes.”
“Lena, how are you? Why are you calling? You should be sleeping.”
“Something’s happened, something bad, I need you to come get me.”
There was a beat of silence, then, “Okay, honey, I’m on my way, but can you tell me what happened?”
“Luke attacked me, he threw darts at me or something, I remember seeing him, and I just woke up, and he’s here, and my leg hurts, and—”
“Lena. I know all that. I was on the phone with you when it happened. I came over and found you.”
Lena pressed her free hand to her head, trying to put Jane’s word together with what she remembered. Her head started to pound and her tongue was sticking to the inside of her mouth.
“Honey, are you still there?”
Lena let out a pathetic little sob, the pain and confusion overwhelming her. “I’m scared, I saw him. I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m on my way, I’ll come stay with you. But, Lena, you need to believe me when I say that Luke didn’t do this, I watched him save you, he wouldn’t hurt you.”
“But I saw him,” she cried in frustration, “he did this, he hurt me.”
Lena’s renewed sobs didn’t quite muffle the wet plop as Luke dropped the washcloth he held. Standing in the doorway, he’d heard much of what she said.
Lena panicked.
Dropping the phone she tried to get away from him, pushing backwards across the bed. In her fright she forgot to protect her leg, and planted her heel on the bed, thigh muscles flexing as she pushed. The pain was instantaneous and swift. She screamed, curling into a fetal position, one hand on her leg.
The wet cloth was draped over her leg, the cold immediately providing relief. Lena breathed deeply, though each inhalation shuddered with a choking sob. There was a fleeting touch to her brow, and then Luke was gone. Lena opened her eyes just as he turned to look back at her. His look of grief and pain followed her into unconsciousness.
Luke leaned against the wall and tried to breathe. There was a tight band around his chest, restricting his air and squeezing his heart. The horror on her face, worthy of any heroine in a monster movie, as she tried to get away from him, had ripped apart something inside him he didn’t know could be ripped.
She thought he’d done this. How could she have let him touch her, pleasure her, if she thought him capable of such a thing? Did she take lovers so easily that it did not matter if she trusted them?
Luke focused on that, and the more he thought about it, the easier it was to pretend to hate her.
She was a whore, a slut, both dirty human insults he’d never thought to use. Even as he thought these dark things, Luke’s battered heart cried out. She was neither of those. She was effervescent and kind, sexy and passionate.
Injured and in pain, Lena had every right to hate him, and though he thought he’d given her no reason to suspect him capable of such an act, the simple fact remained—he was a monster.
There was no changing that. He’d known that showing her his real form was a risk, because it would change her opinion of him. That change of opinion was irreversible. She was conditioned by thousands of years of human myth and legend to distrust and hate him.
But it hurt.
Rubbing his hand over his chest, Luke looked at the phone he’d picked up from the floor. He held down the number two until a picture of Jane, with the word “ringing…” appeared on the screen.
“Lena? Are you alright, what happened?” Jane answered, voice laced with panic.
“It’s Luke.”
“Luke, what happened? What’s going on?”
“She saw me and she was terrified. She tried to get away from me and hurt herself worse.” Luke’s throat tightened up as he spoke. He hated having to tell this human woman that her friend no longer trusted him. He felt the fool for having believed, if only in the secret places of his mind, that his essence, his soul as they called it, had touched her, transcending the physical limitations of their bodies.
Jane and Margo had seen him vulnerable, seen his regard for her, a clear statement of his interest. And now he had to tell Jane that Lena was so disgusted by—and fearful of—him that she’d injured herself trying to get away.
“Oh, Luke, I’m so sorry.”
Luke blinked in surprise. She was sympathizing with him?
“Don’t listen to her. She’s sick and hurting right now. I know she cares for you.”
“I am a monster.”
“No, you’re not. Okay you are, but not a ‘monster’ in the way you mean. I want you to listen to me,” there was a rattling at the front
door of Lena’s apartment, and Luke leaped for it, snatching up the knife he’d left on the counter, “she would never have invited you to stay with her—” a key rattled in the lock and Luke could hear Jane’s voice through the phone and through the door. He set the knife down. “—if she didn’t care for you.”
Jane stepped into the apartment, flipping her phone closed. She dropped the bags she carried, took a few steps to Luke and threw her arms around him. She was hugging him. It took Luke a moment to come up with the word for what she was doing, and once he realized, he slid his arms around her waist.
Holding Jane was different from holding Lena, there was no spark, no fire, but there was something warm, a calm that seemed at odds with the tense situation. As he relaxed into the hug, he started to understand why humans revered touch.
Michael stood in the door behind Jane, his jaw set as he watched Luke hug her. Luke met his friend’s gaze, and when Michael’s blue eyes flashed, lightning appearing in the depths of the irises. Luke released Jane, easing her away from him, watching as his friend calmed, shaking himself and then shooting Luke a rueful smile.
“Thank you,” Luke told Jane, one eye still on Michael.
“You poor thing, this must be so hard for you, but she’s got to be hurting.”
“I’m sure we got out most of the poison, but the cauterizing would have hurt.”
Jane looked slightly ill. “Let’s not talk about cauterizing, okay?” Both men nodded their agreement.
Jane picked up her bags and started down the hall to the bedroom. Luke stared at her, unsure if he should follow. He didn’t want to upset Lena again. When Michael trailed down the hall after Jane, Luke decided to follow.
Jane was sitting on the side of the bed next to the uneasily sleeping Lena. She held a short, oddly shaped stick in one hand. Jane grabbed Lena’s chin and stuck half of the stick into her mouth, then closed it. Next she pulled out a small amber bottle. The minute she did Luke remembered a similar white bottle full of pills Lena had given him to help with the pain of his shoulder.