by Quinn Loftis
“Trik, this is just a questionnaire on things that I feel are important for me to know. Your phone number, address, emergency contact info, that sort of thing.”
Trik looked down at the paper in his hand and scanned over it. The first five questions were indeed generic information questions. Question six was a tad more personal and asked if Trik had ever consumed alcohol or smoked cigarettes. Question seven asked if he had ever tried or was currently using recreational drugs. It wasn’t until question ten that Cassie’s father hit his famous stride.
Under the pretense of trying to concentrate on the paper before him, Trik began to read aloud, knowing that it would only cause Cassie to cringe. “Number ten, have you ever participated in a sexual encounter.”
Right on cue, Cassie groaned.
Trik smiled to himself and continued reading silently. He frowned at one question in particular and began to read out loud again. “If your mom asked you to buy her a bra and she said to get her a 34 C, would you know what that meant? If so what does the number 34 represent and what does the letter C represent?”
Cassie groaned when Trik stopped. She couldn’t look up for fear that he would tell her to have a nice life and walk as quickly away from her crazy father as he could.
Trik looked up at William Tate after reading the question and chuckled. “Mr. Tate, I think the better question would be what kind of weird relationship do I have with my mother that I would be buying her a bra?”
Cassie peeked through her fingers, first at Trik, and then at her dad. To her surprise her dad was chuckling right along with Trik.
William held his hand out for the paper and Trik handed it over without having written down a single thing.
“Maybe I go a little over board in my protectiveness of Cassie,” he admitted.
Trik shook his head. “I can understand why,” he turned to look at her and she had finally dropped her hands from her fac e. He smiled at her as he spoke. “I feel very protective of her as well.” He looked back at her dad and the smile was gone and his face was serious. “I assure you Mr. Tate, I will treat her with respect and I will keep her safe.”
Cassie’s dad stood and everyone followed suit. He held his hand out to once again shake Trik’s hand.
“Thank you. It was very nice to meet you, Trik. Have a good time and please be safe.”
Cassie took Trik by the hand and pulled him out of the door before her dad decided to ask Trik to pull out his wallet to see if there was a condom in it.
~
“What did you think?” Sylvia asked William after shutting the door as Trik and Cassie drove off.
He narrowed his eyes in thought and rubbed his chin. “He seems a lot older than eighteen, but doesn’t look older. I think he was telling me the truth about respecting her. He won’t touch her without her permission.”
“I have to agree. The way he looks at her, like she is the only thing in his world and more precious than the most beautiful diamond.”
“The question is, is that a good thing or not?” He asked her.
“They are young,” Sylvia agreed.
“We’ll see how tonight goes,” William said. “Heck, she might have a horrible time and hate him by the end of the night.”
She shook her head at her husband, “I don’t think Cassie could hate anyone.”
“Everyone has their breaking point Sylvia, you know that.”
~
“That wasn’t too bad,” Trik told Cassie as they drove, to where Cassie didn’t have a clue.
“Trik, he asked you about your sex life.”
“Or the lack thereof,” he interjected, which earned him a fist in the side.
“He asked you if you understood bra sizing. What exactly would you consider too bad?” She asked, obviously still very embarrassed by her father’s actions.
“Well it could have been worse.”
“No I don’t think so,” she said shaking her head.
“What if he had asked me to label pictures of sexual positions?”
Cassie slapped her hands over her ears. “You did not just say that. I am going to totally ignore that it even came from your mouth.”
Trik laughed and pulled one of her hands away. “Okay I’ll conduct myself in a more gentlemanly manner.”
She lowered her other hand cautiously.
“Or what if he would have asked….”
“STOP! Not another word.”
“Okay, okay,” he relented.
“So where’d you get the fancy car?” Cassie asked, changing the subject, as she sunk into the rich leather seats of the BMW.
“I’m not without my resources,” Trik winked.
Her eyes widened as she asked. “You didn’t steal it did you?”
Trik looked at her from the corner of his eye and then back to the road. “Cassie, I’ve been around for quite a while, surely you don’t think I haven’t the money to purchase a car.”
Cassie shrugged. “Dude, you work for an evil elf King hell bent on taking over the world. I don’t think it’s a stretch for me to consider that you might have illegally procured a vehicle.”
“Okay I concede your point.” He glanced at her then a crooked smile appeared. “What’s with the big vocabulary? Procured?”
“I’m just trying to keep up,” she told him, “one minute you are throwing out slang with the best of them and the next you sound like Wilfred.”
“Who’s Wilfred?”
“You know, Batman’s butler.”
Trik laughed and butterflies danced in her stomach at the joy that shone on his face.
“You mean Alfred?”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open. “How do you know that?”
“I’m seriously beginning to be insulted, beautiful. You think that just because I’m old…”
“Ancient,” she interrupted.
He frowned at her. “Fine, ancient, and from another race, you think that I don’t know anything about your world.”
“Do you watch a lot of movies?”
“I have a human friend that I’ve spent time with and he often wants to sit and watch movies. He calls it male bonding.”
Cassie smiled. “Do you like movies?”
Trik thought about it. “I guess some of them. I’m amazed that they create such worlds in their movies but can’t fathom that they might actually exist.”
“We are often scared of what we don’t understand and what we don’t understand we often chalk up to imagination, not reality,” she said.
Trik reached over for her hand and brought it to his lips. He placed a kiss tenderly in the center of her palm. “Sometimes you seem so very young, and then you go and say something like that and I wonder if you too have been waiting for me as long as I have for you.”
They drove in silence, lights from the other cars shined into theirs and Cassie watched as each car illuminated Trik’s face for brief moments in time and each time she was caught breathless by him. She finally tore her eyes from him and began to pay attention to where they were. Her eyes widened as they pulled into the parking lot of her dad’s building.
“What are we doing here?” She asked.
Trik got out of the car without a word and came around to her side. He opened the door and helped her out, quickly wrapping an arm around her, blocking the cold night air from her exposed skin as he pulled her into the protection of his body.
“I have something for you,” he said as they began walking.
Cassie’s brow rose. “And it’s in my dad’s building?”
He nodded but didn’t say anything more. He led her to one of the large glass windows and pictured the conference room he had been standing in when the Forest Lords had brought his Chosen to him. He stepped through the glass pulling Cassie with him.
They emerged into the conference room and Cassie’s mouth dropped open.
She turned in a circle as she took the room in. Candles lined the walls on shelves, that hadn’t been there the last time she was there. The long
table that had been in the middle of the room was gone and in its place a small round table that held a single, small black box. Light from the candles fell down across the box and though it was the smallest thing in the room it seemed to take up the most space. Soft music played, though she didn’t know where it was coming from.
She finally looked over at Trik who was watching her with eyes full of passion. He reached for her and pulled her into his arms. He wrapped one arm around her and his hand found the bare skin from the V in her dress. He took her other hand in his and held it to his chest and began to move with her.
“I wanted some time with you alone. And I thought what better place to go than where we first met. Once we arrive at Lorsan’s I will get little time to hold you,” he told her as he pulled her tighter against him. Cassie laid her head on his chest and immersed her senses in Trik. His scent, the feel of his body, the touch of his hand on her back, the breath pouring over her hair as he laid his cheek against her head. Cassie didn’t think it could get any better than this. Trik chuckled as he caught the thought.
He leaned down and whispered into her ear, as his lips grazed her skin. “It gets better beautiful, much, much better.”
Cassie’s breath caught and they stopped dancing as she looked up at him. He took her face gently in his hands and his traveled over it. She was sure that he was going to say it, but she locked that thought away. She wouldn’t ruin this moment by worrying about what hadn’t been said. She would focus on all he had said to her. He trailed his thumb across her lips as he spoke.
“Arwenamin, a'maelamin, lle amin ar amin naa lle nai. Amin mela lle .”
Cassie listened as the language of his people rolled off his tongue and poured over her heart.
“What did you say?”
He moved his thumb from her lips and caressed her jaw as he brought his lips to hers. As he spoke , his lips brushed hers with every word. First in Elvish, and then in her language.
“Arwenamin means my lady, A'maelamin , my beloved, lle amin , you are mine, ar , and, amin naa lle nai , I am yours to command.”
Cassie felt each word in the very deepest part of her soul. She felt her soul reaching out to him, wrapping her in the promise of them. She pulled back from his lips and her head tipped to the side as she examined his eyes. “What about that last part? What did that mean?”
Instead of answering her he pulled her over to the table that held the little black box. Cassie felt her heart begin to race as she watched Trik pick u p the box, opened the lid and pulled out a ring. It didn’t look like an engagement ring and she couldn’t decide if she was glad or disappointed. He took her left hand and as he slipped the ring on her finger she felt him tremble. That’s when she realized that this was extremely significant.
He stared at the ring on her hand. His eyes were intense and she watched as he dropped his human guise and his Elfin form took over. Her eyes widened as a halo of light bathed them both in warmth and as suddenly as it had come it was gone.
“Trik?” Cassie said hesitantly.
He looked up at her as his thumb stroked across the ring. She didn’t look at it. She couldn’t, not yet, not until she knew for sure that his heart belonged to her.
“I cannot tell you what it means right now. What I can tell you is that I am yours; I will follow you to the ends of any realm. Never has there been and never will there be anyone who holds my heart as you do.” He pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers. His hands followed the contour of her body drawing her closer to him. He deepened the kiss as she opened her mouth to him and he drank her in as a dying man who had gone a lifetime without water. Trik walked her backwards until her back was pressed against the wall. His lips left her mouth and she groaned in protest. He smiled against her skin as he kissed her jaw, behind her ear, down her neck, and across her collar bone.
Cassie gasped when Trik suddenly turned her around so that her back was pressed to him. He gently brushed her hair aside leaving her neck bare and the complete V of her dress visible. He kissed the back of her neck and up to her ear nipping her before he whispered. “I’m not sure I approve of how deep this plunge is my love.” He punctuated his words with a finger trailing down the opening from her neck to her lower back where the V ended.
Cassie hissed at his touch and arched her back. “You don’t get to complain, you picked out the dress,” she told him breathlessly.
Trik chuckled against her soft skin, “Touché, Arwenamin .”
Cassie looked over her shoulder at him. “Am I,” she paused as the emotions she had been holding together began to crumble, “am I your lady?”
“Shh, my beautiful one.” His words only made Cassie’s tears fall faster. “Of course you are mine. Have I not shown you, told you, possessed you body and soul?”
“Yes,” she whispered through the tears and though he had done all those things, one thing still remained and she tried to stop the thought before it came but she knew that he had seen it when he tensed. It took only one heartbeat for him to relax again.
The tears stained her face as she began to compose herself. She was being ridiculous. Trik had shown her how he felt about her; she didn’t need to hear it to know it was true.
He held her face and kissed each tear away and then pressed one gentler kiss to her lips.
“We should go,” he told her as he stepped back and helped her straighten her dress.
He smiled and considered her slightly tousled look. “You are breathtaking after I have loved on you.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Is that a compliment for me or you?”
He took her hand and laughed as he pulled her back towards the windows. “A little of both I suppose.”
“Of course it is,” she mumbled as they once again stepped into the glass.
Chapter 12
“I feel it deep inside me. Something pushes, a memory, but I do not know if I want to learn what that memory is. The realms are restless, as dark skies overtake the light. I know everything is about to change. I’m going to have to make a choice. What if I choose wrongly? What if I choose her? I don’t know if I can be what she needs. I know I don’t deserve her. I know that I have done something in my past that has made me unworthy of her love. What is it? What did I do? I know who I was, but I don’t know how I became who I am.” ~Triktapic
Cassie and Trik walked down a long corridor, with cathedral ceilings and pristine, black onyx walls. It was a breathtaking sight. Spaced evenly along the length of the corridor were torches hanging on the walls. The flickering flames cast shadows across the floor appearing as if caught in a timeless dance.
When they had stepped into the glass of the conference room window and out of a mirror into one of Trik’s suites in the Dark King’s castle, Cassie was convinced that she had to be dreaming. Everything she laid her eyes on was beautiful, made of the highest quality and most precise technique. It was clear that Lorsan spared no expense.
Even now as she walked through the castle and down the corridor gradually growing closer to th e main room, the evidence of his greed was all around her.
“Why does he have so many nice things?” Cassie asked Trik.
Trik looked down at her as his brow furrowed. “Because he can.” His answer was so clipped that Cassie realized that Trik had thought her question ridiculous.
“We shouldn’t always do something just because we can, Trik.”
Trik let out a deep breath and lowered his eyes. “I know,” his words were barely above a whisper.
They finally stood before the large doors of what Trik had called the main hall. Cassie never understood why they called a large room the main hall, when it wasn’t a hall at all. She shrugged off the thought and brought her mind back to the matter at hand. She was about to enter the room where the Evil King and his Queen were waiting for them. They had put together this Happy Chosen party and she was the guest of honor. Yippee, she thought to herself. She felt Trik squeeze her and saw a smirk on his face. He was looking into he
r mind and catching her little sarcastic tidbits.
She let out a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face, though all she felt like doing was throwing up.
“Please don’t,” Trik whispered to her.
“Would you please mind your own business?”
“You are my business, beautiful,” Trik told her never missing a beat.
He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. His eye caught on the ring and he touched it lightly. “Better take that off for now. Can you put it somewhere?”
Cassie quirked an eyebrow at him. “I’m wearing a dress that fits like a second skin and you ask me if I have some place to stick a ring?”
Trik grinned and it was a wicked, wicked grin. “That dress is no doubt incredible, but it’s what’s underneath that is stunning.”
Cassie blushed as she slipped the ring off. She looked down at herself and thought nothing could be done for it. So she looked up at Trik with her own wicked grin and stuck the ring down in her ample bosom. Her grin spread even wider when Trik’s eyes nearly bugged out of his glorious face.
“If you,” Trik started to speak but Cassie held up a hand to stop him and whispered. “Not a word.”
The doors to the main hall began to open and Cassie held her breath as she waited.
“Breathe love,” Trik whispered.
When the doors were finally opened all the way Cassie was able to see that the black onyx theme carried into the hall. The only difference was the subtle red accents added to this room. The tables along the side of the room, which held every food under the sun, had a black table covering with vases of red flowers spaced throughout.
Huge chandeliers with silver candles hung from the cathedral ceiling. In-between each chandelier was a banner with a different picture depicted on them. There were a total of four banners alternating in color from red to black holding a picture that was the opposite of the banner. So the first banner was black and had a red snake, or what looked like a snake on it. The second banner was red with a black tree on it, the third black with a red dragon on it and the fourth was red with black stars on it. Cassie stared at the banners and for a moment she swore she saw the great red dragon move.