by Dahlia Lu
He snatched her hand away from his face. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“I know,” she replied with a shrug.
“Wrong, Nala. There is something terribly wrong with you,” Chevalier said with exasperation.
Nala eyed Trent and smiled. “You’re right. I’m fucked up. Not functioning right. I wonder why.”
Trent closed his eyes and inhaled another deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, he vanished from the room.
“That’s right, Trent,” Nala said mockingly to the space he was standing only moments ago. “Run! That’s what you do best.”
“You’re torturing him. And now, you’re doing it to me.”
“Put a cork in it, Chevalier.” A hand lightly shoved at his shoulder. She circled him as she ogled his faded jeans. “I know for a fact that you haven’t been with a woman since… forever. Do you still even remember how to do it?”
“That’s none of your business! Don’t ever drug me again.”
Amara helped herself to a glass of champagne.
“Alright,” she agreed. “We won’t need any of that next time.”
Chevalier looked positively horrified. “What next time? Never… N-E-V-E-R! Never! You already got the scene you wanted. Don’t ever use me for one of your ploys again.”
“Use you?” She smiled up at him. “What makes you think I used you? Why can’t it simply be that I want you?”
“I may be fallible, but I’m not stupid.”
She leaned in closer his ear. “You like touching my ass, don’t you?”
“I am not listening to this!” And he too, vanished.
Nala laughed hysterically as she sank into the sofa. “Oh, I love Chevalier. He’s so fun to tease.” She took in a deep breath to calm her laughter. “Give me a glass of what you’ve got.”
Amara poured Nala a glass of champagne.
“You are Amara, aren’t you?”
Amara nodded and immediately noticed an intoxicating scent was coming off of Nala. “And you?”
“They never told you about me?” She was referring to Trent and Chevalier.
Amara shook her head.
“That’s not nice.” She drained the entire glass in one shot. “That’s not nice at all. Short and brief, I am Trent’s instinct.”
“That’s impossible!” A demon and his instinct are one and the same, yet Nala claimed to be Trent’s. It didn’t make any sense.
“Yet here I am.” She waved a hand over her body.
“If you’re his instinct, then aren’t you supposed to be intangible and … inside of him?”
“Long story...” Nala dismissed it as not worth mentioning. Her beautiful, pale green eyes suddenly went keen with interest. “Enough about me, though. You’re the girl of the week.”
“Me?”
“Oh yes, everyone is talking about you.”
“Who is everyone?”
“The immortals...”
“Um… I don’t know them.”
“But they definitely know you.” Nala chuckled as she flipped onto her belly. “That crazed deity is hunting down immortals. He’s scouring the realm searching for you. It’s a bloody mess and I love it! Haven’t had this much excitement in years.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be a bad thing?”
Nala shrugged. “For some. I feel bad, I do.”
Amara hooded her eyes at the last comment. She knew it was not true. “Everybody I know is messed up one way or another,” Amara muttered. She wanted another full glass of champagne.
“Why is that crazed animal looking for you anyway?” Nala asked curiously.
“Truthfully…?”
“No, lie to me. Of course I want the truth!”
“Lucifer locked him up ages ago and now he wants revenge. He thinks I’m Lucifer’s bride and wants to use me to get to Lucifer. It’s a bad case of mistaken identity. The Lycan King kidnapped me. Now he’s pissed, people are getting hurt, and I’m shit scared.”
“You could have told him the truth.”
“Well, that’s the thing. Lucifer’s bride is my foster mother and if I had told him the truth, he would go after her. I didn’t want that.”
The faintest smile appeared on Nala’s breathtakingly beautiful face. She lifted up the empty glass of champagne in her hand. “What is she like?”
“Who…? My foster mother…?”
Nala nodded.
“Um…” Amara gave it some thought. “She’s nice and gentle most of the time and surprisingly fierce if the situation calls for it. She’s unbelievably gorgeous. She had the most beautiful rich, dark hair and these stunning violet eyes.” Amara smiled. “It’s been so uncomfortable calling ‘mother’ in the recent years, because she looks even younger than me.”
Nala’s eyes softened significantly. They almost looked dreamy. “Does she have any hobbies?”
“Why do you want to know?” Amara asked curiously.
“She is Trent’s mother, so theoretically, that means she is my mother as well.”
“I hadn’t thought about that! Why are you asking me? You’ve never met her?”
“Probably never will.” She shifted into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “Empty. Why is it even on? That man lives like the dead.” She swung the refrigerator’s door closed. “I’m going to crash somewhere else tonight. Nice to meet you...”
Another demon disappeared on her. Hours later, Chevalier returned to his apartment.
“Tell me she’s gone,” he said.
“She’s gone.”
He exhaled.
Amara couldn’t help it. It was her only chance of teasing him and she can’t pass that up. “You guys look good together. You’re roguishly handsome and she’s just drop-dead-gorgeous. What beautiful babies you will make together.”
He gave a humorless laugh. “Over my dead body and even then, I wouldn’t let her touch my corpse.”
“If you’re dead, then what’s stopping her?”
“Don’t get smart with me, Amara.”
She muted a giggle. “Since Trent dropped me off here, are you my guardian or something now?”
“The answer is yes. It’s not something I’m unfamiliar with.”
“Can I go to school?”
“Uh…”
“One prison to another…?”
“I didn’t say ‘no’, but I can’t protect you while you’re at school.”
“Apply at my university, Chevy. Do some demon hypnosis thing and get yourself in. It’s only a semester. It’ll be a breeze for you.”
His hand flew to the back of his neck, rubbing vigorously. “I don’t know about this.”
“Why not…?”
He diverted his gaze and mumbled something.
“I can’t hear you.”
“I never even finished high school, okay?” He dropped his shoulders. “Back then, I had to work day and night to support myself and Kali. It has been so long since I’ve been in a classroom. College is so…” He groaned out of frustration. “… I don’t know.”
“Afraid of failing, are we?”
“I’m a simple guy. I’m good with my hands and that’s about it. I know I’m not the brightest light bulb in the room, so I’m going to say no to that one. You can go if you want, but it will be at your own risk.”
I won’t be safe anywhere, Chevalier.
She knew that for a fact. She might be able to evade him for weeks, months, years, but not forever. Amara sighed. Contrary to her previous belief, she won’t be safe from him, even in the realm of the dead. When she was half-conscious from fever, she could have sworn she’d heard him say that he would drag her back from the realm of the dead. She believed him.
Was he actually worried about me? Impossible...
She would sooner wait for it to snow
in mid-July than to delude herself that he actually cared about her. He was a cruel and condescending man, incapable of caring for another being. It was the truth. She was sure of it.
For some reason, the truth stings like a fresh slap.
Chapter Thirteen
Three weeks went by. It had been so eerily peaceful that Amara felt skittish every time she turned a doorknob. She was bracing herself just in case he was standing on the other side with homicidal intentions like the psychopathic killers in horror movies.
The only thing that did happen was that her paranoia made her appear even weirder in the eyes of her classmates.
On the brighter side of things, at least she could breathe easy now that the finals were over.
Her fingers nervously ran over the sapphire necklace around her neck, as she stared out of the window of the chemistry building’s cafeteria. Lizzie sat on the opposite side of the table with her new beau acting like newlyweds.
Amara had to admit that this guy was a major upgrade from the last. He was tall, decent looking, and the heir of a fortune. The former boyfriend looked like he just jumped right out from one of Tim Burton’s movies. He wore way too much black eyeliner for a human being and looked like he was running out of surface space for new piercings. Amara felt nervous whenever he was around the apartment.
“I forgot to give you these the other day,” Lizzie said as she pulled out a stack of envelops held together by a rubber band.
“What are those?”
“You haven’t been home in like a month, so the bills built up in the mailbox.”
“Ah right.” Amara took the utilities bills and dropped it into her bag. “I’ll enroll on paying bills online from now on.”
“Where have you been by the way? You got a boyfriend, is that it? You’ve moved in with him?”
“No, no, I’m staying at a relative’s place right now, because of a family emergency.”
“Still a virgin?”
Lizzie’s boyfriend choked on the milk he was drinking. Some of it was running down his nose. He snatched the napkins from the tray to wipe it off.
“You heard me right, Robert,” Lizzie said to him. “She’s one of those rare creatures and it’s not because of lack of opportunity either.” She huddled toward him. “See that guy in the striped shirt over there? He’d asked her out persistently for the last two years and was repeatedly shot down. Poor guy...”
Robert followed Lizzie’s gaze. “Good looking fella.”
“I know right!” Lizzie exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you, Amara? Before you know it, you’re going to die a virgin and you won’t know what you’ve been missing. Right Robert…?” The question ended with a passionate kiss.
Anger and embarrassment was burning at her cheeks. “Lizzie, will you drop it?”
“Drop what?” She asked innocently.
“The whole ‘there is something wrong with Amara because she doesn’t sleep with every person she sees’ thing. You do it all the time and it’s getting my last nerve!”
“Somebody is on the rag.”
Amara bolted to her feet. “Talk to me again when you learn to respect the way I live my life!”
Amara staggered a few steps when the sudden rush of a headache came to her. She leaned against the wall for balance and when she opened her eyes again, she was already at Chevalier’s apartment. She didn’t remember walking out of the cafeteria or the drive home. She didn’t even remember entering the front door. One minute she was in the chemistry building’s cafeteria, and the next…
Did I just…?
A disbelief smile cracked on her face. She’d teleported for the first time! She’d tried so many times, but had never been successful before. All she knew was that she didn’t want to be at the cafeteria any longer and she’d shifted back home. Realization hit. She’d shifted in front of a crowd. There was no telling how many people saw it.
“Amara…? You’re home early.”
Amara turned toward Chevalier’s voice.
“What is up with that expression on your face?” He asked. “You look like you’re about to cry.”
“I shifted.”
He blinked.
“I just teleported from the school cafeteria back to here.”
He chuckled. “That’s not possible, Amara.”
“But I did!”
“You’re human.”
“I know!”
“Maybe you just forgot how you got home. It happens.”
“I shifted! I dematerialized at one place and reappeared in another! I did it without thinking and in front of a lot of people! Here I’ll show…” She dematerialized and reappeared in front of him. She looked up at him and met his soft gasp.
Her head felt like it was splitting in two. Chevalier caught her before she lost her balance. He scooped her up into his arms, carried her into her room and placed her on the bed.
“I don’t understand how.”
“I study magic.”
“You what…?”
“I’ve been studying magic for many years now. There were a number of books on it and I had a lot of spare time.”
He sighed. “How are you feeling now?”
“My head hurts…my body feels numb.”
“I think that’s a tell-tale sign that you shouldn’t do that again.”
She nodded in agreement. “If I do it wrong next time, I may end up with a kidney for a heart.”
That made him chuckle. He affectionately ruffled her hair. “Get some rest, kiddo. I’ll ask Trent to come over. He could give you better guidance on the matter.”
She thanked him before he left and she took a nap to evade the headache.
Trent arrived later that afternoon, looking a complete mess and missing his left arm. His clothes were bloodied, torn and burnt. His blood dripped heavily on the wooden floor.
“Oh god…!” Amara cried at the sight and then ran to his side. “Your arm…! How can I help! There is so much blood!”
“What happened to you?” Chevalier came to his side to aid him.
“Chivalry happened,” Trent replied casually, although his complexion was ghostly pale. “I was trying to save a group of Lycans from being torn from limb to limb by a raging deity.”
“It did not go well?”
“He can freeze time,” Amara said hurriedly. “We need to stop the bleeding!”
“It’s fine. It will regenerate in less than a day and yes, I figured that part out. I saw him used it on the Lycans. Time spells are only temporarily effective on me, so when it wore off, I trapped him inside his mind. He is still standing in the alley as we speak.”
“And you ended up looking like this? He tortured you?”
“He thought I was Lucifer.”
“The hospital…!” Amara yelled out in panic. “We need to get you to a hospital.”
“Don’t be crazy,” Chevalier said as he returned from the bathroom with a bath towel. He handed it over to Trent, who took it and pressed tightly against the wound. He closed his eyes as if to absorb the pain.
“I’ve heard that you resembled your father, but by how much?”
“Almost a replica,” Chevalier confirmed. “If you don’t know them personally, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
“What’s the difference?” She asked out of pure curiosity.
“If you don’t have the urge to punch him then it’s Trent.”
“Is this fact or opinion?”
With serious expression on his face he answered, “Both.”
“Is that true, Trent?”
“I cannot speak ill of my sire regardless of how I feel about him,” Trent replied. “I need to clean up. I apologize for staining your floor, Chevalier.”
“Don’t worry about it. Wooden floors are easy to clean.”
“Before y
ou go, might I ask a favor of you?”
Trent nodded.
“If he thinks that you’re Lucifer, then don’t correct him.” When she saw that puzzled expression on his face, she continued, “Since he thinks that I’m Kali and um… if he knew about you and… that would be very confusing.”
“You should correct the misunderstanding,” Trent said.
“No!” Amara protested. “He would go after our mother! I can stand his verbal abuse, but can she?” Amara shook her head. “I don’t think so. You have no idea how condescending that man can be. I prefer things as they are.”
Chevalier had a worried look on his face. “Do you really?”
She was terrified of him, but she can’t tell them that. “Oh yeah, he’s met his match.”
They believed her.
“Are you sure you don’t need medical attention?” Amara asked again.
A sharp shriek from the other side of the room caught their attentions. Nala stared at Trent with a pained expression on her face. Her eyes trailed down to the missing arm as she sank onto the ground. Her nails elongated, digging into her chest, as though she wanted to rip out her heart. Tears sprung endlessly from her pale green eyes. She began to wail.
“Ah no…! Not again,” Chevalier muttered.
Trent rushed to her side and snatched her hand away from her chest. “Nala, I’m fine.”
Nala shook her head, refusing to believe him, and bit into her lower lip.
“Nala, listen to me. It’s fine. It will regenerate.”
Both of her hands covered her ears as she screamed like a wounded animal. Her small body trembled uncontrollably.
“Nala…!” Trent shouted at her. “Stop this! You must stop this now!”
She wrapped her arms tightly around him and look at him through a scene of tears. “Who…?” She snarled. “Who did this to you?”
“Nala, calm yourself.”
“I must know,” she said in a shaking voice. “I will inflict a thousand wounds and watch him bleed to death!” The fierce look melted away and she began to cry again.
Trent inhaled a deep breath as he laced his fingers through her hair. “Now do you understand how I feel when you intentionally hurt yourself?”