“That was kind of cool,” I said, looking at my feet in surprise.
Lara gave me my good-morning kiss before leading me out the front door, where we headed down a long narrow street to a restaurant around the corner from our house. The place was empty, aside from the waitress at the counter. She came over to hand us menus and serve us coffee. Lara ordered some type of fiend food, while I went with the classic bacon, ham, and eggs combo.
Another couple entered the restaurant, and they instantly spotted us and came over to our table. “Mind if we sit here?” the woman asked, motioning to the empty space beside us.
“Not at all; go ahead!” Lara told her pleasantly, eager to make new friends. “I’m Lara, and this is Lance.”
“I’m David, and this is Carana,” David replied congenially. I couldn’t help noticing the scar across the top of Carana’s left hand. We all smiled at each other in a friendly manner as the waitress took our orders.
“So where do you guys live?” Lara asked, once all our food had arrived.
“Number 359,” Carana said, digging into her plate.
“We’re in 365,” I told her.
Carana nodded as her eyes flashed green, and a packet of sugar instantly flew across the table, opened itself, and poured its contents into her coffee.
“So David’s the fiend, I guess?” I teased. Everyone cracked up at my lame joke.
“So are you guys married?” Carana asked, glancing over at the ring on Lara’s finger.
“No,” I told her. “Yes,” Lara responded at the same time.
David and Carana looked at each other before bursting out in laughter at our response.
I looked away, embarrassed, wondering why Lara thought we were married. I could feel her angry stare burning into the side of my face. I glanced over at her cautiously—she looked like she was ready to strangle me. The four of us sat in silence. Lara seemed to become angrier the longer we sat there.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” she said bluntly, getting up and angrily marching down the hall, with her hair flying behind her.
I knew I was in deep trouble—loud noises, followed by the sound of shattering glass, erupted from the bathroom. “Um … I think I’ll go to the bathroom as well,” Carana told us, rushing down the hall toward the angry sounds.
“Well, I’m dead,” I said to David. I folded my hands and twiddled my thumbs, debating how far I’d make it if ran away right now.
“You think she is actually going to kill you?” David asked skeptically.
I shrugged. I was scared stiff. I could actually feel my hands shaking every time a noise erupted from the bathroom. “Does Carana have this kind of temper?” I asked him.
“Worse,” he replied with a laugh. “She hung me upside down for half a day in the bathroom, running the shower water on steaming hot because I told her we should wait a couple weeks to get married. But why did you say you weren’t married?”
“Because we aren’t. We just got engaged yesterday. We never had any of those official ‘you may now kiss the bride’ words,” I explained to him.
“Aw, that’s funny. You’re going to get yourself killed over a miscommunication.”
“So your marriage was forced?” I asked.
He nodded. “Wasn’t yours?”
“Nah, I proposed to her,” I replied.
“Wow, you’re a fool,” he grunted.
I laughed nervously, knowing it looked like a stupid decision right now. He didn’t know the Lara I knew, though. She wasn’t always like this. We were just having a bad day. Every couple has them once in a while. “I don’t understand why Carana forced you into a marriage,” I said, hoping I didn’t seem too nosey.
“Well, from what I’ve gathered, male fiends apparently treat female fiends like shit, so it’s becoming a popular trend for them to shack up with humans,” he explained.
I wondered how much credibility this guy had. I had to admit that it made sense in a way.
“You seem like a cool guy,” he said. “Here—take this. You’ll need it.” He pulled a handgun out of his belt and slid it across the table to me. “The best advice I can give you is to kill her before she kills you. That baby is fully loaded with a fifteen-round clip.”
“Nah, I don’t need that,” I insisted, pushing it back nervously before anyone could see it.
“Take it!” he insisted.
I reluctantly took it and tucked it behind my back, under my shirt, just in time.
Lara stormed out of the bathroom, her eyes flashing yellow in my direction. “Get up right now! We’re leaving,” she growled at me.
I felt her powers lift me off the seat, forcing me to follow her. She grabbed my arm, letting her power wear off on me, while roughly dragging me outside. She stormed down the street toward our house. Once we reached it, she ripped open the door and threw me in our room. She immediately began to yell as I tumbled across the floor. “Are you committed to this relationship or not?” she screamed at the top of her lungs. She snatched me by my hair, throwing me angrily against a chair.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” I groaned.
“Bullshit!” she shot back, unconvinced.
I saw her claws sprout from her fingertips, and she swiped them across my face in a blind rage, ripping deep into my skin. Blood gushed out the side of my cheek. She picked me up, tossing me like a doll into the wall. I banged my forehead against the side of a table as I fell. I was dizzy; everything was spinning. I reached under my shirt for the 9mm David had given me and pointed it at Lara, just as she took a step forward to finish me off.
“Whoa! What do you think you’re going to do with that?” she asked, stopping in her tracks. She raised her hands slightly, gesturing for me not to shoot. “I’m immortal. Did you forget that?” she asked, chuckling to herself.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Lara,” I said, aiming at her chest. My hand ceased to shake as adrenaline pumped through my veins.
“Me neither,” she said sincerely.
I could see the tense muscles in her body were beginning to relax a bit as she came back to reality. “You already have, though, and you were about to kill me,” I pointed out, wiping away blood that was trickling down my forehead into my eyes.
“I may have lashed out a bit, but I’m back in control now, Lance,” she assured me calmly. She took another step forward but stopped instantly when I clicked off the safety. “Come on—it’s me. Your buddy. I’m not going to hurt you. I was just angry. Why would you tell them we’re not married? I’m starting to feel like you don’t want to be.”
“I do want to be,” I told her, relaxing my grip on the pistol a little.
“A couple days ago, you were talking to me about having a baby. Now you won’t talk to me about it. How do you think that makes me feel? I let that slide, and now you’re saying we’re not married. It was a bit overwhelming.” I could tell she was trying to reassure me that she was fine now.
“We aren’t married, though. We’re engaged. And I do want a baby, just not right now, Lara. We agreed that we would wait until we both felt that the time was right,” I replied calmly.
She stared at me, still holding her hands at her side. “What does ‘engaged’ mean?” she asked, looking suddenly confused.
“It’s like being pre-married,” I explained to her. “You could be engaged for days, weeks, months, or even years before you decide to have a wedding. Once a preacher says all his stuff, then you’re married.”
“Well, I apologize then, Lance. I didn’t mean to be so pushy. I truly am sorry, but I didn’t know there was such a thing. Just put the gun down. It’s over now. I’m not mad anymore.” She took another step toward me.
“No! Stay away from me!” I ordered her. My hand began shaking again as she ignored me, coming closer. I begged her to back away, but she didn�
�t. Once she reached my side, she slid her hand across my face, instantly healing it and washing the blood away, along with the waves of pain pulsing through my cheek.
The barrel of the 9mm was right against her chest now. She stared at me, not fazed at all by it. “Want to get married tonight, Lance? Under the laws of Dracona?” she whispered into my ear, stroking me comfortingly. Her hand slid along the gun, on to my hand, where my finger was gripping the trigger. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Lance. Just open up a bit to me so I can.” She kissed my cheek, the one that had just been healed.
“I do too, Lara,” I sniffled, feeling my voice quivering. I knew she could hear how scared I was.
“Do you still love me, Lance?” she asked gently, taking her other hand and running it along my back. “If you don’t love me, pull the trigger. You know how to do it. You’ve done it to seven hundred sixty-two other fiends. How am I any different?” Tears slowly trickled down her face as she told me, “I promise I won’t come after you in my next life.”
“I love you, Lara. You’re not like those other fiends. You saved my life,” I told her, returning the kiss. I clicked the safety on the pistol and slowly tilted it into her hand. She took it, placing it in her lap, and plopped down on her butt, reaching back over to me and making out with me. She wiped away her tears and took the magazine out of the pistol, twisting the barrel with her fiend strength as if it were a piece of tin foil.
She took out the ammunition inside the magazine and let it fall harmlessly, one by one, to the floor. “We need to learn how to stop these silly fights, or one day, one of us is going to get killed over something stupid,” she sniffled, throwing the magazine aside.
I nodded in agreement. “I feel like I’m in a relationship with a schizophrenic,” I joked, pausing for a second to lean across and give her a kiss. “We’re fine. Fights are healthy for a relationship,” I said, making air quotes with my fingers as I said the word “healthy.”
She remained silent for a moment and then nodded in agreement before speaking. “I know they are, Lance, but in our situation, we should try to keep these fights to a minimum level of violence. We’ve had, like, six fights since we met, and all of them could have been fatal—for you rather than me.”
“Two of them you had no control over, though,” I reminded her.
“All I’m saying is we should set up some ground rules for our fights, to try to keep them from escalating into something bigger, like today,” she suggested.
“All right. I’m down for that.” I smiled and leaned over to brush her hair away from her eyes.
“Remember that time by the lake when I first gave you this?” she asked, poking the fiend scar on my chest.
“Of course. And I told you about Rachel.”
She nodded. “Well, that should have turned into a physical fight, because under the laws of Dracona, lying is a big no-no, but we didn’t fight because we listened openly to each other and worked it out. Am I right?” she asked.
“So basically, you’re saying we should try to talk out our problems instead of waiting until the last minute?” I asked.
She nodded in agreement. “And I’ll work on controlling my temper,” she promised me as we got up. “There is no need to be nervous about our marriage tonight,” she added, taking my hand and giving me another light peck on the lips.
“Easy for you to say,” I shot back with a laugh.
“No, for real—getting married is not that big of a deal in my culture,” she told me, flopping down on top of me as we lay down on our bed. “Where I come from, most girls are married by the age of eighteen.”
“You’re not like most girls, though, Lara,” I told her.
She blushed. “I’ll make sure it is a fiend/human-ish wedding,” she told me, stripping down to her underwear.
“So you’re not mad at me about what just happened?” I asked. I wanted to make sure that everything was cool between us.
“Of course not,” she told me with a playful punch. “To tell you the truth, I think it was more jealousy of another female being around you than your saying we weren’t married that got me upset.”
“Are you going to keep the ring?” I asked.
She looked at the red diamond on her finger. “Of course! It’s the most beautiful gift anyone’s ever given me. It symbolizes that we love each other, right?”
I nodded, stroking her hair affectionately. “So it’s settled then? We’re getting married your way tonight?” I asked her.
She rested her head on my chest and nodded. “Our way,” she reminded me softly.
Chapter 11
We got married that night, as planned. Lara was on my back, gently cutting the marriage tattoo into it. Once she was finished, she held a mirror for me so I could see it.
It took up my entire back; I smiled and nodded my approval. Her smile reflected back to me in the mirror. She then drew a sketch for me of what her tattoo should look like. She got undressed and handed me the knife to carve it into her skin. It took me about three hours to finish it, stopping for her to heal sections of it periodically.
Once I was finished, she healed the rest of it, making it turn dull black like mine, and then she sat up on the bed with me and looked at me affectionately. She placed her hand against my chest where my heart was and placed my left hand on her chest against her heart. I laughed uneasily as she placed her other hand on top of my free hand, holding onto it firmly.
“Are you ready?” she asked calmly.
I nodded.
“Why are you shaking, then?” she asked. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re just two friends saying to someone else that we want to be closer friends,” she whispered softly.
I took a couple of deep breaths, steadying my hands, and she nodded contentedly as I calmed myself down. I nodded once I was ready, and she closed her eyes. She began to recite a prayer in Jural. I felt shocks from her hands transferring to mine as she continued reciting. Time seemed to stand still as she went farther and farther into the prayer.
Her hair began to float up around her, and she opened her eyes. Silverish-blue light shone from them, illuminating the pitch-black room with a flickering blue glow. Her chest heaved in and out as she strained her voice, reciting what seemed to be the last of the prayer.
I could feel a constant flow of power from her to me now. It felt like it was flowing through my veins. I could feel my pulse in my throat. I wanted to let go, but Lara had such a tight grip on my hand that it did more harm than good to attempt to wriggle it free.
A non-human voice came from her. “Repeat after me. Tana marana Lara pernado olangi.”
I repeated the words, and Lara’s eyes lit up even brighter. The entire room was now filled with the flashing blue light. She leaned forward, kissing me on the lips.
I kissed her back, and a sudden flash of blinding white light was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness. When I opened my eyes, I was lying down, with white mist gently floating around me. I glanced down and saw the earth hovering below me.
The mist slowly swirled by, making it nearly impossible to make out anything around me. I stood up, glancing around, but felt lost and confused. Lara’s outline appeared through the mist a moment later.
I sighed in relief as she held out her hand to me. She was wearing a beautiful white dress. Her hair was tied back, with a rose tucked behind her ear. I grasped her hand, and she smiled reassuringly to me, while I looked nervously around the foggy sky.
“You look beautiful,” I told her, focusing my attention on her as she led me through the puffs of mist.
“Thanks. You don’t look half-bad yourself.”
I looked down at myself and was surprised to see that I was wearing a tuxedo with a tie and dress shoes. We walked along the silent world Lara had thrown us into until the mist began to fade aw
ay, and I suddenly could see a man in the distance, standing patiently next to a gazebo. As we approached him I realized that he was the preacher.
He was tall, with aged eyes, but he looked surprisingly young. Fiend wings were visible from his back; he was wearing a white cloth-like material that covered his body from the shoulders all the way down to his feet. Shadowy figures of people appeared around the foot of the gazebo, all looking up at us. Some waved, while others tried to communicate with us, but no sound would escape their mouths. A girl—or what I assumed was a girl—pushed through the crowd of black-misted people and rushed up to me.
I couldn’t make out many of her features; I only assumed it was a girl by the long mist protruding from the back of her head. She tilted her head, giving me the peace sign, and I instantly knew who it was.
“Rachel?” I exclaimed in disbelief.
The shadow nodded, bringing its hand up and touching the sides of my face. She accidently shattered her mist hand, but it reformed itself as she took a step back. She glanced over at Lara, who was waiting patiently, and then turned back to give me a thumbs-up in approval. I glanced at Lara pleadingly, and she nodded, knowing what I wanted.
I hugged the mist—and accidently broke it. Once the mist figure of Rachel reformed itself, she wrapped her arms around me and then walked away from the gazebo, waving good-bye before vanishing back into the crowd.
“Lance?” Lara asked softly, taking my hand and nodding toward the preacher.
“Okay … I’m ready.” I tried to get a hold of myself as the preacher began to speak.
“We have gathered here today to witness the first-ever mixed-species marriage,” he began. “A day to remember. A new page to be written in the laws of Dracona. Lance, do you take Lara to be your lawfully wedded wife, through sickness and health, until death you do part?”
The Unexpected War Page 12