When we broke apart, I still saw a shadow of the dangerous monster on his face, and I squirmed. He glanced up momentarily, looking over my head. In a flash, his expression changed from flesh-hungry to furious. I whirled around to see what the problem was, but I saw nothing except chatting guests and an inordinate amount of Dhal’atian flower arrangements.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, slightly alarmed.
“Please excuse me,” he said tightly. Then, just like the wedding, he swept away without another word of explanation, and I was left standing alone.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Venan
Her face was the last one I expected to see, but it riled me from the very moment I saw it. As I stormed across the tent toward one of the side flaps leading outside, she disappeared from view with only a flare of opalescent hair as evidence of her presence. She would not get away so easily.
I smacked the flap aside and rounded on her. She had not fled as I anticipated she might, but she was looking incredibly wary, and her muscles were visibly tensed in preparation of a quick getaway should the circumstances suit. I towered over her, my shoulders rising and falling with the deep breaths I was taking to keep myself calm. She looked back at me with defiance in her all-too-familiar eyes.
“Was the wedding not message enough?” I snarled irately. “Have you grown incapable of understanding when you are unwanted?”
Ola glared at me, lifting herself up onto the balls of her feet to better match my height. “Have you grown so cold that you are willing to forsake your own sister eternally?” she snapped back with an equal volume of venom in her voice.
“We have had this discussion more times than I ever cared to,” I dismissively replied. “For whatever reason, you continue to insist on thrusting yourself upon those of us who wish you gone from our lives, and you do so at the most selfish and inopportune times to boot. Clearly, you possess no consideration for the happy moments of the family for whom you claim to so dearly yearn.”
She looked worse than I had ever seen her, including when she had shown up to Zuran’s wedding. Her cheeks were now so sunken they were concave and shadowed; her eyes appeared to have retracted inches into her skull; her chin and cheekbones were so pronounced they could have acted as blades. Though her hair was as lovely as it ever was in its radiant hue, it was matted together like a nest and discernably dingy in finish. Her figure was diminished to a pathetic stick of a shape without a single muscle to be seen, and I would have been willing to wager she had not eaten a proper meal in weeks, if not months.
“What has happened to you?” I asked. I did not wish her to mistake the question for deep-seated concern, but the brotherly part of my soul was sympathetic to her plight just enough to at least want to hear an explanation for her gaunt appearance.
“I have lost everything. That is my plight,” she retorted. “And it is your doing.”
“Come, now, surely you have not regressed to blaming others for your faults, Ola,” I said a little tauntingly.
She sneered unpleasantly at me. “All I want is to be reunited with Mother and Father and you and Zuran,” she bit. “Why do you refuse to even consider my request?”
“Why do you bring the request to me?” I shot back. “You could just as easily approach Mother or Father. Of anyone in the family, Mother is most likely to give it some thought.”
“Because you are an Elder, Venan.” She spoke as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. “You have the authority to tell them they need to give me a chance. If I ask it of them, they may just say no and leave it at that. If you tell them they must, then they must. Can you not see why I would come to you first?”
“You are asking me to use my authority to influence an unpolitical situation. I will not do that.”
She stamped her foot and thrust an arm sideways, pointing aggressively at the tent. “Then, fetch Zuran. Bring him out here, and we can discuss this as a family. Maybe he can talk some sense into your stubborn head.”
“I will do no such thing, Ola. As silly as I think this is, we are here to celebrate Zuran’s unborn child. The last thing he needs to be thinking about today is his morally-questionable sister,” I rejected. “And, I might add, it would not be in your favor for me to tell Zuran you are here and ask him to come have a conversation with you.”
“Why not?” she demanded.
“He is the angriest with you, and that evaluation includes Khrel,” I told her. “If he knew you were here, he would very probably kill you on the spot just to ensure you are nowhere near his expecting wife. He loathes you, Ola, and I doubt he will ever find it within himself to trust you again. Your transgression affected him deeply, not only because it was an awful betrayal but because you cost him a valued friendship.”
Ola flung her head, whipping strands of hair through the air. “And you?” she persisted. “Will you ever find it within yourself to trust me again?”
“I sincerely doubt it,” I replied icily.
A corner of her lips curled down, and her eyes became nothing more than lashed lines on her once-pretty face. She shot a look at the tent as if considering stalking back inside and finding Zuran for herself, but another look back at me convinced her otherwise.
“You will regret this,” she intoned, her voice becoming low and gravelly. “I can promise you that, Elder brother. You will regret it.”
“I will regret not allowing you to ruin a special day in our brother’s life?” I snickered. “I sincerely doubt that too.”
“Make your comments. Make your jokes. I do not care anymore.” She was starting to back away, still facing me but easing backward slow step by slow step. “I have come to you, civilized and composed. I have been angry, perhaps, but you cannot take it upon yourself to consider for even the smallest fraction of a second why I might be feeling this way. You look at me and you see a traitor, nothing else. Well, you will regret it, Elder Venan. You will regret your cold heart and your thoughtlessness and your arrogance. I will repay you in kind, believe me, and I assure you I know just how to do it.”
Streams of hair snapped as she spun on her heel, and she ran down the length of the tent, where she turned its corner and disappeared from sight.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Octavia
After Venan left the tent, I decided I didn’t want to just stand in the middle of the room like an idiot by myself, so I wandered in the direction of the table Edie had pointed out. There were two tables by the diaper game, and I wasn’t sure which was hers, but, before I could make an executive decision and plop down at one, two A’li-uud approached me.
I recognized them from Zuran and Phoebe’s wedding, but I wasn’t completely sure who they were. As I studied their faces as they neared, however, it dawned on me. The features were too familiar. The woman’s face was sharply-angled with a prominent yet delicate nose, and the man had a set of deeply-slanted eyes so white they appeared to glow. There was only one couple they could possibly be: Venan’s parents.
My stomach jumped, but it wasn’t the same kind of jump I experienced with Venan. It was nerves, real nerves. Meeting the parents of a human boyfriend was scary enough in itself, but meeting the parents of my alien boyfriend who I couldn’t be sure was my boyfriend because we’d never properly discussed it was another matter entirely. I wanted to make a good impression, but I had no idea how to do that with A’li-uud. Their customs were so different that I had to be worried about saying or doing something wrong without even realizing it. The only thing I knew to do for sure was to incline my head as a show of respect, but I couldn’t be sure exactly when I was supposed to do that or how often.
“Hello,” the woman said when she was close enough to speak without raising her voice. She sounded kind, and the aura she emanated was ripe with the sweetest sort of gentleness. The intimidation I was feeling lessened slightly.
“Hello,” I replied. I dropped my chin quickly with a much jerkier movement than I’d ever seen Venan use, but it sufficed. She mirrored
the gesture back to me.
“You are Octavia?” she asked hopefully.
I nodded, and then thought nodding was too casual and added, “Yes, I am.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you.” She inclined her head again, this time more deeply, and she kept it lowered for a longer period of time. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to do it back to her, but she started talking again before I could. “My name is Oraaka. I am Venan’s mother.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” I replied. I started to extend my hand out habit, but I withdrew it quickly and placed it awkwardly at my side.
The male who stood just behind her right shoulder was looking at me quizzically, as if he had never seen a human before though I knew from my own experience he very well had. Oraaka motioned to him with a floaty hand. “This is Venan’s father, of course. We have heard much about you.”
He tilted his head, and I returned the gesture, before reacting to what she’d said. “Have you?” I was surprised to hear they knew who I was, let alone anything further to qualify their knowledge as “much.” “Venan never mentioned he talked about me to anyone.”
“Oh, it was not from Venan,” she hastened with a soft chuckle. Her husband crooked a mild smile. “Dear me, no. Venan is too reserved to speak about things so personal. No, I am afraid it was our other son, Zuran, who has revealed the wealth of information.”
The wealth of information. I was back to being completely nervous again, mainly because, if their source was Zuran, I didn’t have the faintest idea what he had told them. And, based on everything I knew about him, it could’ve been anything. “I hope he made me sound flattering,” I quipped, only partly kidding.
Oraaka chuckled again and nodded. “Quite,” she assured me. “We have been eager to make your acquaintance. I am uncertain whether you remember us from Zuran’s wedding, but we remembered you after he told us your description. We did not speak, of course, but you were very striking then. You are still, as a matter of fact. My son is indeed lucky.”
“Thank you,” I murmured bashfully. It was a different feeling of embarrassment to hear the compliment from Venan’s mother than it was from him, but my humility took hold anyway.
“I hope you understand just how sincerely I mean it when I say he is lucky,” she pressed on. She looked a little insistent, like she was trying to pass me a message with her mind instead of outright saying it. “Since you came into his life, Venan has improved tremendously. He used to be in such a miserable state, you know. Of course, he went through some truly terrible experiences of which I cannot begin to understand, and he has always been a sensitive boy despite his desire to be perceived as strong and unyielding. Now that he has you, however, he has changed. You have brought back the carefree child in him without eliminating the grown, steadfast adult. I cannot thank you enough for that.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I said in earnest. I felt compelled to reach for her hands and give them a squeeze. She was so endearing, so genuine, and so obviously a mother that it made my heart ache for my own mother just by talking to her. “All I’ve done is try to be there for him and get him to understand that he needs to focus more on what makes him happy and less on what makes everyone else happy. It’s kind of an uphill battle, though”—I added this with a light laugh—“since he’s an Elder and his job is kind of to make sure everyone’s happy. But I think he’s gotten it now.”
Oraaka’s eyes were glistening slightly. I knew A’li-uud didn’t cry like humans did, but I could’ve sworn I saw tears starting to form on the lip of her lower eyelid. No shining droplets fell down her cheeks, though, so my eyes might have been playing tricks on me.
“You dear girl,” she whispered. She stepped forward and, the next thing I knew, I was engulfed in a hug so tight I could have mistaken her for Edie. Although, the energy in the hug was sufficiently different than Edie’s, not to mention that I wasn’t being bounced all over the place while it happened. “You are quite the blessing. I have thanked the Grand Circle several times that he found you, but I will be sure to do so daily from now on.”
When she withdrew, I realized her embrace had created within me the kind of warmth I hadn’t felt since my mom was alive. Venan was amazing, and his affection was something I adored above anything else, but there was a special kind of affection only a mother could give, and I felt it at that moment. I was struck with a stabbing sting of longing, yet I felt fulfilled in a way I couldn’t put into words. I wanted to thank her as vehemently as she had thanked me.
Just then, Venan reappeared. He crossed the tent toward me, weaving between tables, and drew up at my side. Oraaka stepped to him to take him into her arms momentarily as well, and I heard her saying something to him in A’li-uud that brought a strained smile to his mouth. When she released him, she said in English, “I hope we can talk later, Octavia.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” I told her enthusiastically.
She and her husband said their temporary goodbyes in favor of greeting Zuran and Phoebe, and I turned to Venan. “Your mother is amazing. She’s very sweet.”
“She is, yes,” he agreed. He sounded distant and unconcentrated.
I leaned slightly to peer into his face and asked mildly, “Are you okay?”
He didn’t look at me right away, following his parents’ backs with his eyes for a few breaths. When he looked down at me, I saw some of the stress that he’d reappeared with melt away, and he nodded. “I am now.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Venan
The baby shower was perhaps the most frivolous event I had ever attended, though I admittedly had not attended many events in my lifetime. Humans outnumbered A’li-uud in droves, and they were mostly females who squealed at every gift Phoebe opened and played silly, somewhat repulsive games about faux baby waste. My attention was waning by the time the meal was served, and I was unable to process more than a few consecutive words in conversation by the time the musicians were finishing their final song. Octavia seemed much more enthusiastic, cheering along during the games and cooing in tandem with the onlookers when Phoebe unwrapped a gift she found cute. If there was anything I enjoyed over the course of the afternoon, it was watching her.
Ola’s surprise visit to the party was enough of a cloud to hang over my head even if I had found the baby shower exhilarating. I was not so much bothered by her aggressive attempts to be forgiven and brought back into the family as though nothing had ever transpired as I was by the threat she had made at the end. Had she simply warned she would seek vengeance, I would have easily dismissed her and forgotten her while watching Octavia’s face light up when she saw the miniature jodhpurs identical to those Dhal’atian warriors wore. Because she had made a point of telling me she had a plan in mind, however, it lingered in the back of my mind across the hours until it severed my ability to overlook it.
I was relieved when the guests started leaving, and I began eyeing Octavia for a sign that she was prepared to join the departing fray. She and Edie were gabbing endlessly, though, with Edie’s human beau lounging in his chair lazily, and it seemed she would remain there all night if I did not say something.
“Should we leave so the hosts feel no need to linger behind to entertain us?” I suggested casually when Edie flounced away for a moment to get another beverage.
“Oh, I figured we’d hang around a while longer to see if Edie needed help cleaning up,” Octavia replied a little apologetically. “Is that okay? I mean, she did set all this up herself, basically.”
I wanted to protest, but her selfless generosity endeared her to me, and I took her hand to lift it to my mouth and give it a soft kiss. “Of course,” I complied.
She smiled, and Edie bobbed back into her chair. Their conversation resumed as if it had never been interrupted, and I sat back in my chair to lounge just like the Corporal. It seemed he knew very well about Edie’s habit to draw socialization out until it was bled dry.
Eventually, after what felt like many hours but w
as more than likely only one, the rest of the guests dribbled out of the tent until Octavia and I were left with Edie, her soldier, Phoebe, and Zuran. I was relieved to hear Octavia ask Edie if she wanted any help cleaning up and Edie’s flippant response that she intended to do no clean-up until the morning. Only then did I realize night had fallen. I hooked an arm around Octavia’s waist and steered her in the direction of my brother, who was piling the many gifts into several small, manageable piles.
“Well, Zuran,” I said loudly, drawing his attention from the presents, “I can honestly say I would never have imagined a day like today with you as the centerpiece.”
“Well, brother,” he returned as he stood to face me, “neither would have I.”
He grinned, and I grinned back at him. Octavia was elbowing me in the ribs, and I knew it was to urge me to say something supportive to him or offer my congratulations, but I squeezed her side to quell her elbows and continued to tease my twin. “I can only imagine what else you will have to endure now that your life has become half-human.”
“Say what you will, but do not forget you are not far behind,” Zuran zinged, swiveling his eyes to Octavia pointedly.
I felt Octavia take in a sharp breath and swing her head up toward me. It was no different than the awkwardness I felt when Edie was saying things about having children. I did not wish to upset Octavia by saying the wrong thing in response, so I merely remarked, “We will see, I suppose.” Tilting my head, I offered, “Congratulations, brother. It pleases me to see you so fulfilled.”
Venan: A Paranormal Sci-Fi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 7 (The End) Page 19