“You would do anything to make me happy, right?” she asked.
“Of course. Why?”
“No reason. I just want you to know I’d do anything to make you happy as well,” she whispered back drunkenly, beginning to kiss my neck as she got on top of me.
“I know you would, but shouldn’t we wait until after your tricnoses to do this? Besides, you’re a bit drunk,” I told her, feeling her backbone jut out a tiny bit but recoiling into her spine a split second later.
“It’s only a light one, like last month’s, and I’m pretty sure you’ve had more to drink than me. I’m fine, Lance! Let’s do it now.”
She was definitely right about one thing—I was drunker than she was, because if I’d been sober, I never would have agreed … but I reluctantly did. And as the night progressed, she became more and more aggressive. I started to get a bit scared when she paused on top of me to let out a non-human growl. She stared up at the ceiling as fangs jutted out of her mouth and her claws ripped from her hands.
“Ugh! Let’s stop. I’m not comfortable with this anymore,” I told her, my voice shaking as she regained control. Her fangs and claws retracted back into her. I slipped into my boxers.
Lara objected unhappily. “Oh, come on, Lance! I’m having fun. I want this to be a special night for us. Stop being such a buzz-kill,” she scolded me gently.
“Why don’t you just sleep off the rest of the tricnoses in the cage, and then we can continue tomorrow night?” I bargained with her, trying to escape from underneath her.
She forcefully pushed me back down and adopted a very dangerous tone as she tried to slip off my boxers again. “You want to lock me up in the cage? Ha-ha! I own you, not the other way around.” She sounded demented, and then she began to kiss my neck again.
“Please, Lara, you’re losing control,” I begged her.
She continued to groan from her constant pains now. “I … will … never … be locked up,” she told me slowly, through clenched teeth. Her wings suddenly burst out of her back, and she let out a non-human roar.
I stopped struggling as a claw jutted from her finger. She placed it against my neck, laughing, half-insane, as she began to rape me. “Stop … please!” I kept begging her, but it was useless. After being raped for fifteen minutes, her eyes flashed for a second. I could see her worried expression as she stopped and got off me. She angrily let out a cry of pain, becoming upset by what she had done to me. She hurled herself into the jail, tearing up the walls of it and letting out enraged, lion-like sounds.
I rushed over to lock it and then slumped down a couple feet away. Lara continued to thrash around in it angrily. She fully transformed, briefly biting herself and causing fur to fly everywhere. She seemed to be fighting an invisible enemy. A couple minutes later, she passed out, like usual, on the ground and returned to her naked human form.
I felt a few tears trickle down my face as the fact that I had just been raped by my own wife dawned on me.
“I’m so sorry. Please forgive me,” Lara’s quivering voice called to me as she regained consciousness.
“Don’t be. I can’t complain that I got to have sex with my beautiful wife. It doesn’t matter.” I wiped away tears, turning away from her so that she couldn’t see me silently crying.
“I’m sorry, Lance. I’m so, so sorry. Are you all right?” She kept repeating the same words in a very soft, caring voice.
“I’m fine,” I lied, trying to act tough as I wiped away the remainder of the tears. I pulled out her pajamas from a drawer and passed them through the bars to her. She thanked me and put her hand out through the bars. “Keep me company?” she whispered. “It’s lonely in here.” She appeared to be thinking of a way to redeem herself from what had just happened.
I paused for a second, still a bit mad at her, but I hid my anger and nodded. I lay down beside the jail, holding her hand. “Of course I’ll keep you company. You’re my girl, and you always will be. That pesky tricnoses isn’t going to stop me from loving you.”
She sniffled, holding back from crying, and nodded. “I knew there was a reason I kept you around,” she joked, with a playful poke on my nose. “I’m going to start taking pills for my tricnoses. I can’t keep putting you through this. It’s not fair for you or me,” she whispered.
I felt myself jump for joy at this news. I nodded happily in agreement. “Good night, buddy,” I told her, flicking off the light.
We both stared out the window at a single star shining brightly in the sky. I couldn’t help but wonder how two species that were so different could be so much alike.
Chapter 13
Two and a half months later, I found myself in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Lara had been sick for the past few weeks. She’d been throwing up periodically and always seemed drained of energy. Her monthly tricnoses had mysteriously disappeared as well, which was even more worrying.
She was reluctant to see a doctor at first, but after a week of my nagging her to get checked out, she finally agreed to see our family doctor.
“This is such a waste of time,” she said unhappily after we’d sat there for over two hours, waiting for our turn.
“Making sure you are all right is not a waste of time,” I said affectionately.
She smiled gently and gave me a kiss. “I’m fine. I just caught a bug going around at work, that’s all.” She rested her head on my shoulder and stared gloomily at the floor.
“Lara Marini,” the secretary at the front desk called out.
“Finally,” Lara muttered under her breath. We both got up and headed down the hall to the examining room. A moment later we took our seats inside, as an older woman in her late forties sorted through some paperwork and pulled out a folder before acknowledging our presence.
“Hello there. What seems to be the trouble today?” Dr. Green asked us warmly, as a gentle smile spread across her face.
“I haven’t really been feeling like myself over the past few months,” Lara explained.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dr. Green said. “Let me have a quick look at you.” She rolled her chair over to Lara and told her to open her mouth. “Everything seems fine there,” Dr. Green said after looking at Lara’s throat. She then told Lara to strip down to her underwear.
I felt useless. I stood up and found a spot against the wall. I watched as Dr. Green made Lara do seemingly random things, such as stand on one leg, lift her arms up, and stuff like that. “Your skin is fairly pale and clammy. Have you been drinking your daily ration of blood?” Dr. Green asked.
Lara nodded, and I told the doctor, “Her skin has been that way for about a month now.”
Dr. Green and Lara both turned to me, as if just realizing I was still there. “Thank you, Lance,” Dr. Green said and then turned her attention back to Lara. “Are you still able to transform?”
Lara shook her head.
“Would you mind leaving us, Lance?” Dr. Green asked. “This may take a while.”
“But—” I began to protest.
“Go play some games with Tracy,” Lara interrupted. “I’ll meet you there.” She smiled and gave me a reassuring wink. “I’ll be fine.”
I glanced at the two of them unhappily but obediently left the room, angrily heading outside and down the street to the basketball court. Tracy was hanging out, relaxing in the sun against a tree, half asleep. “Hey,” I muttered, trying to hide my anger. I gave her a light kick against her shoes.
“Oh, hey, Lance! Lara’s done already?” she asked, opening up an eye.
“No.”
“Why are you here then?” she asked.
“That’s what I’m wondering,” I said grumpily.
“She’ll be fine, Lance. Want to kick someone’s ass real quick before she’s done?” Tracy asked.
I sighed, knowing sh
e was trying to cheer me up. I took off my shirt, accepting her offer and getting ready for a game. We stood on the sidelines, waiting as another game finished. It was extremely hot out; I didn’t even understand how people were able to play in this heat. Tracy and I found a match, but my head wasn’t in the game at all.
We walked out to center court where two tough-looking opponents were waiting for us. The stronger looking one of the pair was there, the ball grasped in his hands. He glanced back to his partner ready to start the game by checking me the ball. A player checks by simply passing the ball to his opponent at the start of every point to reinitiate the game.
I was checked the ball, trying a quick fake on the guy but failing miserably and nearly colliding into him. I backed off and heard Tracy clapping her hands to signal she was open. I spotted her and chucked it in her direction, but it was too far to the right and one of our opponents intercepted it.
“God damn it!” I cursed angrily as Tracy ran after it, trying to recover from my mistake.
A strongly built guy knocked her down and snatched it from her. Then he did a beautiful jump shot from the three-point line, which swooshed right through the net. I was checked the ball again, trying to fake my man out instead faking myself out by accident as I fumbled the ball. He jumped on the opportunity, instantly grabbing it and racing toward the net. He threw it up against the backboard as his buddy raced to the net, jumping up and slam-dunking the ball.
“Come on, Lance. You’re better than that!” a kid called from the sidelines. I looked away in embarrassment. I was not only letting myself down but also the fans that Tracy and I had attracted over the past few weeks. “Looks like the legend is crumbling,” one of them grunted.
I stood there, panting for breath, as our opponents scored two more three-pointers; it was already eleven to zero on us. “Let me take back,” Tracy said to me, taking my spot at center court getting checked the ball. She faked left, bolted right, and sprinted in between the pair, laying the ball up into the hoop and nicely bringing the score to eleven to two.
“Lance!” I heard Lara’s voice call out.
I glanced over to the bleachers and spotted her waving at me. She took a seat to watch the game. I felt a new hope surge through me, instantly gaining my confidence back. “I got this,” I promised Tracy.
“Are you sure, Lance? We’re down way too far to let them get any more baskets.”
“Give and go,” I said.
She nodded, retaking her old position. I was checked the ball instantly and tossed it to Tracy. She faked a shot, and her man fell for it trying to block her. She passed it through to me. I raced to the net, grabbing it with one hand, lunging up, and slam-dunking. “Wooooo-whooo!” I heard the crowd cheer from the sidelines.
We nearly lost the game but it ended at twenty-one to nineteen, our favor, probably one of the closest calls we’d had in the last couple of days.
“Nice game, man. Anytime you want to go again, just hit us up,” one of our opponents told us as we shook hands.
“For sure,” I said, and Tracy and I received our fifty crome each for the win.
“Nice job!” Lara said, but she was interrupted by a few fans who rushed over to Tracy and me, asking for our autographs. We both obliged, and then the three of us rushed away. “Geesh, you guys are like superstars out there,” Lara said with a laugh.
“I know. I almost want to lose, just to get them off our backs for a little bit,” Tracy told her.
The three of us laughed and then parted ways, as Tracy headed in the opposite direction toward her house. “So?” I asked Lara.
“So what?” Lara said. A dumb grin spread across her face.
“What did Dr. Green have to say?”
“She told me that everything is fine. She thinks that I might be ascending, so I need to drink more blood for the next couple of months in order to prepare my body for the change.”
“Ascending?” I asked.
“It’s when a fiend makes the transition from being a teenager to adulthood, becoming more powerful,” Lara explained.
“Oh, that sounds cool.”
We held hands as we walked along the street to our house.
“It’s ridiculously hot for mid-September, huh?” Lara said conversationally, once we finally arrived back to our place.
I grabbed us both a drink from the fridge. Lara took a bottle of pills from her pocket and popped one in her mouth; then she chugged down the soda I had offered her.
“What are those?” I asked, pointing to the pills.
“Supplements that Green gave me. She told me it would help me feel better.” After a couple of minutes of sitting around in boredom, Lara asked, “So what would you like to do today? It’s too hot to get anything done.”
“Maybe go for a swim down at the pool?” I suggested hopefully.
“All right, sick idea,” Lara agreed. “I’ll be right back.” She grabbed her bathing suit and went into the bathroom to change.
I rummaged around in my dresser for a second and found my swimming trunks. After putting them on, I went to the bathroom door and peeked through the crack. Lara was standing in front of the mirror in her bikini. She turned sideways, placing her hands underneath her breasts and lifting them up momentarily. Then she lowered her hands to her belly and let out a sigh as a tear trickled down her face. “God, I hate you, Lara,” she whispered to herself, wiping away the tear and flicking her beautiful long hair away from her face. She stared at her reflection gloomily.
I felt so bad for her. I didn’t know what was wrong, but she had been this way for the past two months now. It felt like the more I tried to help, the more frustrated with herself she became. I knocked on the door, and she quickly straightened up and messed up her hair. “Come in,” she said.
I put on a fake smile, pretending I hadn’t seen her little breakdown. “You ready to go?” I asked.
She beamed at me and held out her hand, which I accepted, hugging her close as we made out with one another. “Geesh, what’s gotten into you today?” she giggled as we finished up and headed out the door toward the pool.
“What do you mean?” I asked as we walked along the busy sidewalk.
“I don’t know; you just seem more affectionate than usual,” she said, glancing up at me with a shrug.
“That’s because I love you,” I whispered. I ran my hand along her back and rested it on her waist.
“Tell me, Lance … what do you love about me?” she asked. She stopped in the middle of the baseball field and stared up at me to see if I was telling the truth.
“Everything,” I whispered, leaning forward to give her a light peck on her forehead.
“What’s everything?” she asked.
“Your hair, your eyes, your beautiful smile—see? There it is.” I paused as she smiled genuinely up at me. “That smile is what kept me going when times were hard, back in the prison, Lara. I love your personality; how you never take no for an answer. In a way, you’re just like me—a stubborn son of a bitch—and that’s the only reason we fight so much. But you know what?”
“What?” She giggled, knowing I was telling the truth.
“I love it, because life without you would not be worth living.”
She gasped, my line seeming to have shattered her wall of isolation that she had set up over the past few weeks. “Oh, Lance … I love you so much. Don’t you ever forget that!” she cried out happily, hugging me close for what seemed like forever, as tears began streaming down her face. “There’s something I need to tell you,” she said nervously.
“What is that?” I tried to mentally prepare myself for whatever was coming next, knowing it was going to rock my world.
“I’m pregnant.”
We stared at each other for a moment, her words not quite registering in my head. “But … I … I … wh
at?” Her words hit me like a freight train, and I began to panic.
“Shhh … shhh … Lance. Lance, calm down. It’s going to be okay.” She tried to comfort me by resting her head against my chest and holding onto me tightly.
I tried to calm myself down, convincing myself that it wasn’t completely her fault. Yes, she had lied straight to my face not even an hour ago and intentionally had taken that pregnancy pill without my consent. But on the other hand, I had been avoiding the topic completely. She probably didn’t bring it up because she didn’t want to have another fight with me.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly placed my hand on her belly, confirming her story. It wasn’t noticeable, but there really was a tiny bump that could be felt around her stomach as I ran my hand along it. “You can let go now; I’m fine,” I whispered, stroking her hair affectionately.
“I’m not falling for that trick,” she whispered, holding on to me for dear life, as if I might just take off, hop the two-hundred-foot fence surrounding Monatello, and make a beeline into the woods, never to be seen again.
“I can’t … breathe …” I said. I coughed, and then we both broke out laughing. She loosened her grip and looked up at me, love sparkling in her baby-blue eyes. We lay down in the middle of the field, stunned by the realization that we were going to be parents—it seemed to hit both of us.
“Lance, listen to me,” she said gently, running her hand across my face. “I would never lie to you to hurt you in anyway. I asked you if you would do anything to make me happy, and you said yes. I, in turn, promised you that I’d do anything to make you happy.”
I glanced over from her stomach to her face before responding. “I know,” I said. I gently rubbed my hand across her belly and asked, “What is it?”
“A girl,” she said. She took my head in her hands and pressed it against her stomach; I rested there, happily. “I’ve decided to call her Rachel, in memory of your old girlfriend, even though traditionally, most female names end with the letter A,” she informed me affectionately.
The Unexpected War Page 14