Transitions

by Jesikah Sundin

  Her head was about to explode. Something. She needed something to throw. Her eyes rested on the knives and she nearly laughed. Instead, she grabbed a sports bottle left in the sink and hurled it at his head.

  He ducked, laughing, never breaking stride.

  She released a roar of fury.

  Mack scratched his ass, making sure she got a good view, then disappeared into his room.

  “I hate you, Mackenzie!”

  He laughed again, loud enough to ensure she heard him through the walls.

  “Asshole,” she mumbled.

  Closing her eyes, she inhaled deep and let out a slow breath through her teeth. She went back to the coffee maker and scooped new grounds. Checked the water level. Pulled out a new mug from the cabinet. Something sanctified by the dishwasher. Then pushed the button.

  Brewing.

  Confetti.

  The destruction of all her hopes and dreams.

  “You’re the soul-eater,” she muttered, tapping the machine in frustration. Just as her hip fell against the counter in defeat, a ping echoed in her head. “Please be Coal,” she pleaded to the universe. She brought up her message center.

  Mr. Awesome: “Happy Birthday, Lyn.”

  She bit back a smile and swiped a reply.

  “Thanks. Can I call you?”

  Mr. Awesome: “In one hour? I am presently in a meeting.”

  “Call me when you’re done.”

  Mr. Awesome: “Anything for the lady.”

  “In that case, can you destroy Mack?”

  Mr. Awesome: “Easily.”

  Lynden suppressed a laugh.

  “WILL you destroy Mack?”

  Mr. Awesome: “Let us delight in his imminent doom when I call for you.”

  “Talk to you soon.”

  Mr. Awesome: “Until then, my love.”

  She closed her message center and studied the coffee maker once more. Forget it. Better to go downstairs to the coffee shop on the corner and order a drink. Maybe a pastry, too. Grabbing her things, she marched toward the elevator just as Mack came out of his room, fully dressed and cleaned up.

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  She spun on her heel and walked backwards saying, “A place where you don’t exist.”

  “Ouch.”

  She walked, forward facing again, and punched the elevator button with her fist. Mack came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his head on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  “For?”

  “For being me.”

  “Not good enough.”

  “Don’t go yet. I’ll order us food.” He turned her around and rested his hands on her shoulders. “I won’t touch your coffee again.”

  “I’ll kill you next time.”

  Mack attempted a straight face. “You considered throwing the knives, didn’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Your ninja skills are improving.”

  The elevator door opened. Lynden turned her head and peered out the wall of windows, twisting the thumb ring Fillion had given her on her thirteenth birthday. Rain splattered on the window and a wind gust shook the glass. The weather spoke to her loneliness and she looked away.

  Today was her nineteenth birthday. Now she and Fillion were the same age for an entire month. She missed her brother. Missed his bossiness, his moods, and the way he made her feel important with his little gestures. This was the third birthday in a row where he’d been MIA. The first two he spent in juvenile detention. But, today, he was wrapping up mid-term exams at MIT. Ones that required his presence on campus. He’d been gone for two weeks now and would be gone for another two.

  But, really, she longed for Coal. So much so, her heart ached. And yet, he terrified her, from the moment she found him sprawled out on her lawn to this day. He offered a world of purity and the arms of safety she yearned for, though it meant she’d have to let go. Release her grip on the ledge of self-preservation––and free fall. To what? She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Still, she couldn’t stay away from him. The sweet addiction permeated every inch of her being.

  For two years, they had sustained a long-distance relationship dotted by visits lasting anywhere from a single day to one week. Two years that her love life had entertained the world—hot alien boy and earthling girl. Her Martian romance. Boy toy from Daddy. The knight in shining armor that saved the Nichols damsel in distress. Two years that she had loved a man forged from the pages of a fairytale. But a lingering fear, one she’d never been able to shake, continued to flavor her acceptance—and her happiness.

  Shortly after turning eighteen, New Eden Biospherics & Research demanded that she get an implant to monitor for pregnancy if she were to continue seeing Coal. She confronted her dad and mom, but they just brushed her accusations away with the justification that implants were standard protocol for all Earthen females who interacted with residents inside New Eden Township. No other explanation. She’d been too afraid to mention it to Coal, knowing it would send him into a rage. Same with Fillion.

  But monitoring for pregnancy was not what really worried her. That was something of a far more personal nature.

  The elevator doors closed and she let out a held in breath. Mack gently took her hand and led her to the kotatsu wrap-around couch he had purchased a few weeks back. She collapsed onto the cushions and pulled a blanket over her legs. He eased next to her, watching her closely. She knew that look: pity, worry, and compassion. It worked on her every time, too. Damn her weak heart!

  “So, you change your hair last night,” he said, studying her medium-length hair shaped in edgy layers.

  “Yeah. Coral’s work. Something for the new grown-up me.”

  “I like this color on you. It’s like you painted your hair with the blood of your enemies.” Mack made a kiai sound and pretended to slice a knife across her throat.

  She laughed, even though she wanted to remain mad at him. “It frightened your fawns.”

  “They’re terrified of blood. Makes them skittish.”

  “Good.” Lynden curled up against him and soaked up his comfort. “They’ll stay away.”

  She didn’t often criticize his hook-ups. Seeing girls tip-toe to the elevator come morning was a normal event two, sometimes three times a week. Always from Mack’s room. Never from Fillion’s. Her brother had turned into a monk, dedicating his life to the holy order of chain smoking and the pursuit of academics. School consumed the majority of his free time. The rest was taken up with whatever odd-end jobs their dad gave him to further train the future CEO. On those days she stayed clear of Fillion, who could be seen roaming the halls in search of a human sacrifice to appease his angry gods.

  Mack adjusted the blanket covering their legs and said, “I’ll pick up a new coffee maker today.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Consider it my birthday present to you.”

  “So you remembered.”

  He smiled at her, that up-to-no-good kind of grin. “Nah, my calendar just sent a notification.” Lynden punched him in the arm and he laughed.

  “Since you’re feeling benevolent, can you bring me Coal while you’re at it?”

  Mack nodded his head, slow and thoughtful. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.” His head fell back against the cushion. “Good thing I work today, too. One of you sounds like a dying goose when—”

  “We do not!”

  “Oh yeah you do. Hoooooooonk!”

  He proceeded to make more pathetic, honking, dying sounds and Lynden tried to be angry, but she burst into laughter. Mack tugged a strand of her hair when she snorted, the way he always did. A handful of the loneliness melted into butterflies and fluttered away with his gesture. The sting of tears burned her eyes. She looked up, studying a hairline crack in the ceiling while spinning the ring on her thumb.

  Thin air thoughts.

  Bury the emotions.

>   She was tougher than this.

  Rolling back over to his side of the cushion, his fingers drew across a canvas of air, eyes squinting in concentration. With a final tap, he closed his screen and said, “Breakfast is ordered. I added a box of hot coffee, too.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Two souls isn’t enough to fill you up.”

  “I’m not fond of fawn souls, either.”

  Mack tapped his Cranium. “Jenkins? ... Yes, send him up.” He looked at Lynden, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

  Damn, that was quick. What the hell did he order her for breakfast?

  Pushing off the couch, he walked over to the elevator to meet the food courier. Lynden’s stomach grumbled in anticipation. No, two souls wasn’t enough to fill her up. She hated it when Mack was right, even about the ridiculous.

  She picked at the fingernails she had painted a dark red early this morning. So dark, in fact, the color looked black except when hit with light. The blood of her enemies—ha! The linden leaf bracelet slid down her wrist and she fingered one of the copper leaves, flicking her lip ring as she tried to contain all the swirling emotions leaping through her head. She heard the elevator doors open, and her hands fell back to her lap. She peered over her shoulder with disinterest, how she greeted all strangers—

  Her pulse skidded to a stop.

  Coal’s gaze collided with hers. At first, his eyebrows formed a crease, like she looked familiar to him but he wasn’t sure. Recognition hit him a nanosecond later and his eyes flared as his mouth parted, a look of pleasure that reset her pulse. A smile stretched on his face until dimples appeared. That smile was dangerous. The kind that sent her thoughts skipping off the predictable, emotional path of safety into the wonderful, frightening unknown.

  She jumped to her knees and leaned over the back of the kotatsu. In his hands, he carried the most beautiful roses she had ever seen, each bud afire in hues of yellow, coral, and red. She should run to him. Accept the flowers. Kiss his face silly. Instead, she blurted, “You said you were in a meeting.”

  “Yes, indeed. I had a press junket at New Eden Enterprises early this morning.” Coal moved toward her. “I am yours until evening, however. Your father requests our presence for dinner, and then I will return to California with John.”

  She shrugged and looked away. From the corner of her eye, she noted how he halted all movement with her dismissive body language. What was wrong with her? She hadn’t seen Coal in six weeks. Forcing herself to smile, to show emotion, she lowered the security shields walled up around her heart. He studied her face, the longing clear in his eyes. His love made her weak. Made her consider ideas that illuminated the bars to the cage she placed around her life. Thoughts and feelings that whispered, “Be free. Be fearless.”

  “Your smoldering gaze sucks, Son of Fire.”

  “Still?” he asked, moving even closer. “I shall show you in other ways, then.”

  His accent had softened considerably over the years. But, when confessing emotion, the lilting, British quality thickened. It was sexy and she couldn’t fight its effects, even if she wanted to. Leaning down, he touched his lips to hers, tracing his thumb along the curve of her cheek.

  Mack groaned a horrible sound until, much to Lynden’s horror, its honking quality fully reached her ears. Oh, he was dead meat. Lynden broke away from Coal’s kiss as flames radiated from her entire being. The anger burned hot with rising vengeance. To make her point further, she shifted her gaze to the knives on the kitchen counter.

  “Oh shit. That’s my cue to leave.” Mack drew close to Coal and mock-whispered, “Beware, no coffee yet. She-demon feasting on souls.”

  “Mackenzie!”

  “I ordered breakfast and coffee, though. Don’t do anything until the rampage ends.” Mack placed his hand on Coal’s shoulder. “Be brave.”

  Lynden grabbed a pillow and chucked it at Mack’s head. It hit with a satisfying thwump and Lynden released a wicked laugh. Mack hissed at her, lifting his fingers to form a cross and backed up slowly into the elevator. When the doors shut, a loud honking sound echoed through the walls and Lynden lost it. She couldn’t hold back her laughter.

  To Coal’s credit, he never asked. He knew Mack well enough to know that it was usually better to leave these things alone. Jumping over the back of the kotatsu, he landed beside her and grinned that rascally, boyish smile that made her forget everything. Even her own name.

  Gently, he rested the roses in her hands and kissed her cheek, whispering against her skin, “She is fire, forged from the sun, a brilliance that burns with each touch, each kiss, until I am nothing but ash slipping through her fingers.”

  She twisted the ring on her thumb and half-whispered, “That’s beautiful.”

  “Happy birthday, my love.”

  His words struck an internal match and heat crept up her neck. She angled her head away, hoping Coal didn’t notice. But of course he did.

  “You are most becoming when you blush.”

  Lynden tossed the blanket and stood. “I’ll go put these in water.”

  He tracked her escape to the kitchen, saying, “I hope the food comes soon. I am famished.”

  “Shocking. God, you’re like a dog. Always needing to be fed, plus treats for good behavior.”

  “You speak as though good behavior is a rarity.”

  “I guess you’re right. Treats are necessary.”

  “I am wounded, Mademoiselle.”

  “Aww, poor Mr. Awesome,” she cooed. From under the sink, she retrieved a glass vase and filled it up with water, and then began arranging the roses. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were in Seattle.”

  “It is called a surprise. Pretend you like them.”

  A tiny smile tempted her lips. “Did Mack arrange for your visit?”

  “No, your brother had, actually.”

  She peered over the roses. “How? It’s still illegal for Fillion to have any contact with you, right?”

  “True.” Coal jumped over the back of the kotatsu and joined her in the kitchen. “As Mack would say, ‘Oh ye of little faith.’”

  “Oh god. You’re smarter than that. Don’t ever quote Mack.”

  “Ah, yes. You commissioned my services to ensure his destruction.” He leaned his back against the counter, his arm touching hers, and whispered into her neck, “How else may I serve you, Mademoiselle?”

  The breath in her lungs formed a riptide. A current that fluttered its way from her mouth in silent confession. His hand reached out until a single finger curled around one of hers. Ever respectful, ever patient. Her heart gulped loud, rapid beats to keep from drowning. But her pulse wanted him, needed him, and trembled in fear with every feeling he invoked. She could seduce him, take control and make this moment more predictable, more safe. It would be easy. In the end, however, it still wouldn’t change a damn thing.

  “You bewitch me,” he said in a thready whisper. He planted a soft kiss beneath her earlobe. “I am completely under your spell.”

  “Coal...”

  “Yes?”

  She lifted a side glance his way. “Kiss me.”

  “Whatever pleases you, mon joli petit dragon,” he whispered.

  Slipping a hand up her cheek, he turned her head until his mouth captured hers. His hand traced her neck in sensual lines, whispering erotic sweet nothings across her collarbone, until his fingertips toyed with the strap of her cut-away sleeve, pulling the strings. The black silk gave way on one side, folds draping open to reveal an edge of black lace and the swell of her small breast. Satisfied, he deepened his kiss as his fingers slid along the bare skin of her shoulder, before both hands ran down the length of her back, pressing her body to his as if she were malleable, art he was crafting, a dull, uninspiring object he had the power to make beautiful with his touch alone.

  Freckles faded into a creamy, velvet complexion. Her tall, boyish body transformed into a figure boasting soft, pleasing curves. Femininity continued to flame through her veins ben
eath his touch, incinerating each insecurity, each imperfection from her mind’s eye. She was completely lost to his kiss. To him. So much so, she didn’t hear the elevator doors ping open until Coal smiled against her lips. He was such a rascal.

  “Leave the food on the table,” he hollered over her shoulder.

  “A tip,” Lynden whispered.

  Coal dug around in his pants pocket and pulled out a few coins. “I shall return shortly,” he said with slight bow and a seductive lift to his mouth.

  The heat left with Coal and Lynden dragged in a deep, ragged breath. Adjusting her clothing, she tried to appear like she didn’t give a shit. Nothing affected her. Not even him. Especially him. It was too easy to forget.

  But the fear clawed at her unraveled vulnerability, growing more persistent.

  One day, he’d wake up from this love affair he professed for her world. And, when he did, she’d be part of the dream that faded away as reality settled. This is what terrified her the most. She wasn’t the pure, spotless bride he was raised to marry, and wishful thinking or assimilation wouldn’t change this fact. Despite his poetry, all the pretty promises, and his many acts of comfort and protection, he’d soon realize this truth, too.

  She had never been good enough for a man like him, and never would be.

  Half-eaten food from a late lunch and cold cups of coffee littered the pub-style kitchen table, all but forgotten. Pressed into the folds of her bed, a supernova of heady, delirious bliss painted the night sky in her heart as Coal left stardust on her skin.

  The hard planes of his body moved against her softness with sensual grace. His breath pulsed hot on her skin, flutters of passion that teased the crook of her neck. She released Coal’s platinum blond hair from its tie causing silky strands to fall across her cheek in a cool, seductive caress. With a final kiss where her neck met her collarbone, he repositioned, creating momentary distance between their torsos. Her eyelids slipped shut, overwhelmed by the sweet, warm sensations exploding through her. But he was a visual feast, far better than anything her imagination could ever conjure. A mythical god. Opening her eyes, she watched the corded muscles of his chest and shoulders dance to the rhythm their bodies created. Her hands trailed down his abdomen in appreciation until she gripped his hips in an act of possession, her fingernails digging into his skin. A moan left his mouth as his lips crashed into hers.