“Oh, of course, it’s so simple. Why didn’t I think of that?” I needed to come up with some way to distract Agent Prescott before he touched Daraxandriel but my mind was a complete blank. Maybe Dara and I should just sneak out the front door while everyone’s out back and make a run for it in the Mustang. That had a certain appeal, except that Dad was the Chief of Police and Prescott was an FBI agent. We wouldn’t get very far before their troops chased us down. “Dinner’s almost ready,” I told Susie resignedly. “We’re having barbecue on the patio.”
“I don’t do barbecue.”
“There’s corn and stuff and we got you a veggie patty. I need you out there to keep Lilith from doing anything.”
She heaved a sigh and got to her feet. “Fine, but you owe me.” She walked to the door but stopped when I cleared my throat.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I asked pointedly.
She frowned for a moment. “Oh, right.” She crossed over to her desk and retrieved her wand.
“No, not that.” I picked up the dress she’d worn for her photo shoot from the floor and held it out to her. “We have guests, remember? And no wands. We don’t want Agent Prescott thinking there’s anything unusual going on here.”
“He’s not much of an agent if he can’t figure that out in the first five minutes,” she grumbled but she took her dress and wriggled her way back into it. “You owe me double now.”
“We’ll settle up later.” I left before she found an excuse to up her price again.
Daraxandriel was sitting at her laptop with her arms crossed, glowering at her screen. She looked up eagerly when I came in but her smile faded when she saw who it was. Her rejection hurt a lot more than I expected.
“Oh, ‘tis only thee,” she grumbled. “I hoped Lilith had returned, that we may continue our quest.”
“She’s outside,” I told her, checking over my shoulder to make sure we were alone. “The demon hunter’s here.”
Daraxandriel gasped in horror. “And she does battle with him to defend me? I must aid her!” She jumped to her feet but I waved her back frantically.
“No, no, no! That’s not what’s happening! He doesn’t know she’s a demon and he doesn’t know about you.”
“He is a poor hunter an he walks into the lion’s den so unawares,” she declared. “I shall smite him and be done with him.”
“No! No smiting! We just need to get through dinner without him realizing what you are.”
“Thy plan seems ill-considered, Peter Simon Collins,” she said dubiously. “Whyfor should we not dispose of this troublesome pursuer whilst he is within our grasp?”
“Because my whole family is out there with him! We just need him to think that you’re an ordinary girl and he’ll go away and then we’ll figure out what to do. Okay?”
“Thou wouldst have me guise myself as a human again?” She sounded very unenthused and her tail reared up in alarm.
“It’s just for an hour or so, I promise. Just go out there, make some small talk, eat some barbecue, and leave. Just don’t shake his hand, whatever you do.”
“Lilith challenged me to be bolder in my intercourse with humans,” she argued. “I needs must reveal my true nature ere I can claim more souls.”
“Of course she does, she wants you to be caught!”
“Nay, thy dislike of her distorts thy comprehension,” she said stiffly. “She has only my goodwill at heart. She has told me so.”
“Oh my God,” I breathed. How did I get stuck with the most naive succubus in all of creation? “Look, this has nothing to do with being bold. It’s like – like – fighting the Blind Worm.”
“How so?” she asked doubtfully.
“You remember how that turned out, right?”
“Thou didst distract me,” she muttered.
“Exactly. But if you’d talked to that seer ahead of time, that wouldn’t have happened, right? Whenever you encounter a new boss, you have to study it first and discover its weaknesses. Well, Agent Prescott is a new boss. If you disguise yourself and keep him from realizing you’re a demon, then you can figure out how to fight him. Later,” I amended hastily.
“Thy words have merit, Peter Simon Collins,” she allowed reluctantly. “I shall heed thine advice, this once.” Her tail shook its spade tip frantically but she concentrated for a moment and it faded from sight, along with her horns and reddish skin. She blinked and looked at me resentfully with ordinary brown eyes. “I am discontent,” she announced.
“It’s just for a little while,” I promised. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
“Thou art indebted to me for this indignity, Peter Simon Collins,” she grumbled, following me to the door. “Thou must procure me fries anon.”
“I’ll get you all the fries you want, assuming we make it through tonight.” I stopped abruptly and she bumped into me. “Oh my God.”
“Whyfor dost thou balk?” Daraxandriel complained. “Is it not enough that I am unsightly? Must I be bruised as well?”
I turned on her in alarm. “Say my name!”
“Art thou so addled thou hast forgotten thine own appellation?”
I grabbed her shoulders. “Say it!”
She huffed a resigned sigh. “Peter Simon Collins.”
“No, it’s Peter! Just say Peter!”
She scowled at me irritably. “Peter Si–”
I clapped my hand over her mouth. “Just Peter. Nothing else, just Peter.” I carefully lifted my hand away.
“Peter Simon –” She blinked and frowned. “Peter Si–” She grimaced and tried again. “Pe – Pe – Peter. Peter,” she said firmly. “Art thou now satisfied?”
“No! You have to speak regular English! He’s going to know you’re a demon just by the way you talk!”
“What nonsense dost thy tongue declaim?” she snapped. “I speak the Queen’s English!”
“Yes, but it’s the wrong queen! You have to sound like the rest of us or he’ll figure out that you’re trying to trick him.” She pressed her lips together stubbornly and I grasped at the first straw that came to mind. “What would Lilith say if you made a mistake like that?”
Daraxandriel hunched her shoulders sullenly. “She would chastise me for my failing,” she mumbled.
“Exactly. So let’s prove to her that you can fool a demon hunter all on your own, okay?” I nodded encouragingly and she reluctantly echoed the motion.
“I shall abide by thy instruction,” she told me, “yet I fear thy debt to me grows beyond thine ability to repay it.” I cleared my throat and she let her breath out sharply. “You owe me more than just fries,” she ground out between her teeth.
“I’ll get you anything you want,” I assured her, and then I realized that this was a perfect opportunity to take the lead in round five. “In fact, how about you and I go out after all this is over?” I asked casually. “Anywhere you want, just you and me.”
“Art thou – Are you asking me out on a date?” she asked suspiciously. “Why?”
“I just thought it would be nice to spend some time together.”
“You’re only saying that because I look human again,” she accused.
“I’m not! You can look however you want to look, it’s entirely up to you. Okay?”
She eyed me and slowly nodded. “Okay.”
“Perfect! All right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”
Mom was in the kitchen arranging the burger fixings on a platter. She smiled at the two of us as we walked in.
“There you are!” she exclaimed. “I was beginning to think the two of you had run off somewhere.”
“No, ha ha, why would we do that? Here, we can take that.” I grabbed the tray and thrust it at Daraxandriel. “Use both hands,” I told her with a nod that I hoped conveyed the importance of keeping her hands full.
“I am not so artless that –” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to drop it, Peter,” she asserted angrily. She turned and wa
s immediately confronted by the patio door, which was closed. She looked from the platter to the door knob and back again. I opened it for her and she pushed by me with a sniff.
“Peter, can you take these napkins out, please?” Mom held out a sheaf of paper napkins. I grabbed them hurriedly as I heard Lilith’s voice from the patio greeting Daraxandriel. “Oh! And these, too.” She took two chilled beer bottles from the fridge. “These are for your father and Mr. Prescott,” she explained needlessly. I tucked the napkins under my arm and took them from her, eyeing the open door anxiously. “Hang on while I find the bottle opener.” She opened the utensil drawer and started rooting around.
“I’ll come back for it!” I practically leapt through the back door, only to find Daraxandriel standing right in front of Agent Prescott with Lilith beside them, a grin stretching from one treacherous ear to the other. Daraxandriel still had the tray but Melissa was already reaching to take it from her and Prescott’s hand was coming up. Dad stood by the grill with his back turned and Susie was inspecting her herb garden on the opposite side of the yard. In two seconds, Prescott and Daraxandriel would shake hands and there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop them.
“Hello!” I spun around at the new voice behind me and goggled at Mrs. Kendricks coming around the side of the house. “I hope you don’t mind me just barging in. I heard voices out back and I was afraid you wouldn’t hear the doorbell.” She winked at me and then scanned the rest of the crowd. “I was just –” Her voice trailed off and her mouth fell open.
I turned back to see what stopped her in her tracks. Prescott and Daraxandriel had their hands outstretched, just inches apart, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was gaping at Mrs. Kendricks, just as astonished as she was.
“Ryan?”
“Arial?”
Between one breath and the next, they met in the middle of the patio, seemingly without traversing the distance between them. They wrapped each other up in their arms and locked lips, exchanging a kiss that was at least a twelve on a ten-point scale, frantic and primal. I was surprised they didn’t spontaneously explode into flame.
They broke apart with a gasp, staring into each other’s eyes, and then Mrs. Kendricks stepped back and slapped Prescott hard enough to snap his head around. “I waited for you!” she shouted.
“I’m sorry!” he said in anguish. “I couldn’t get away.”
“Three months!” She shoved him and he stumbled back onto the grass. “Three months and nothing! Not a call, not a letter, nothing!”
“I came looking for you afterwards,” he said, his voice breaking. His left cheek looked like it had a five-fingered sunburn. “You were gone. No one would tell me where you went.”
She turned her head away, hugging herself. “I had to go. I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“I’m sorry.” They looked at each other in bright-eyed silence. “I’ve thought of you every day since then,” he said quietly.
Her lips trembled as if she was struggling not to cry. “I missed you so much.”
Mrs. Kendricks held out her hands and Prescott took them in his, pulling her closer. They hugged each other and just stood there with their eyes closed. The rest of us stood frozen, stunned into silence, until Mom appeared in the doorway, holding the bottle opener aloft.
“Found it!” she declared triumphantly. Then she noticed the rest of us. “Did I miss something?”
20
True love is an odd sort of concept. It implies that there’s a special kind of love distinct from the regular sort of affection that couples feel for one another. It’s not actually clear what that distinction is, though, which makes it difficult to tell if the love you feel for someone is true love or just ordinary love. The claim that you’ll know it when it happens to you just begs the question. What is true love?
Romance novels and fairy tales fill up a lot of pages illustrating true love, even if they don’t always call it that. Usually the hero and heroine of the story lock eyes across a crowded room and instantly know that they’ve found that one person they’ll spend the rest of eternity with. Of course, things are never that simple and the two of them will have to overcome almost insurmountable odds before they can finally be together. The point is, from that very first moment there’s no doubt in their minds that they’ve discovered their one true love and nothing ever shakes that conviction.
Spoiler alert: fairy tale romances are just make-believe. There might be violins and fireworks when you first lay eyes on someone but that’s not true love, that’s infatuation. There’s no way to know for sure if the other person is a suitable match without spending time with them, no matter how much your heart flutters when you think about them. Even then, it’s a hit-or-miss proposition. If true love is really a thing, why do so many marriages end in divorce? With that sort of track record, true love is obviously just wishful thinking.
“We met when I was sixteen.” The adults had commandeered the patio chairs and Mrs. Kendricks and Prescott sat side-by-side, their fingers interlocked under the table. “At the time, I was living in a tiny little community called Warwick, about an hour west of Philadelphia.”
“This is so romantic,” Melissa whispered to me. We were seated on the grass a short distance away. Daraxandriel was on my other side and Lilith sat beside her, glaring daggers at me and Mrs. Kendricks the entire time. Susie was by herself near her garden, showing no interest in the proceedings whatsoever.
“Is that where you two met?” Mom asked eagerly. She was as enthralled by the tale as Melissa.
“A few miles away. I’d gone out into the woods that morning to pick herbs and flowers for my mother. She made home remedies and lotions and the like,” Mrs. Kendricks explained. “It was the first day of spring and everything was blooming. It was such a beautiful day, I lost track of time.”
“You got lost,” Prescott corrected her. She bumped him with her elbow, rather forcefully, judging from his wince.
“I knew the way home,” she insisted. “I was just off the main trails, that’s all. Anyway, it was starting to get dark and I saw something following me through the trees.”
“Oh no!” Mom gasped. “What was it?”
Mrs. Kendricks and Prescott looked at each other. “Wolves,” she said carefully.
“Definitely wolves,” he answered with a nod. It obviously wasn’t wolves.
“That whole area’s pretty built up, isn’t it?” Dad asked with a frown. “I wouldn’t expect to see wolves there.”
“Warwick’s right on the edge of one of the state parks,” Mrs. Kendricks explained smoothly. “It’s basically a giant nature preserve.” Dad accepted that with a thoughtful nod. “In any event, by the time I realized they were there, they’d already surrounded me. I thought I was dead.”
Mom gasped and clutched her heart and Melissa grabbed my hand but Dad just cocked his head curiously. “It turned out okay, obviously.”
“A hero happened to wander by at the last moment.” She smiled at Prescott, who rolled his eyes.
“I was tracking the, uh, wolves,” he said. “Some friends of mine had spotted them a couple of days earlier and asked for help hunting them down. I only caught up with the pack because they’d slowed down to stalk Arial.”
“What happened?” Mom asked breathlessly.
“I don’t remember the details,” Mrs. Kendricks confessed. “It was dark and I was doing my best to stay out of the way. There was a lot of shrieking and claws, I do remember that,” she shuddered, “but before I knew it, they were all dead. Ryan was hurt, though.” She reached up and brushed her fingers along the scars on his temple.
“One of them got behind me,” Prescott said grimly, evidently mad at himself for his mistake.
“He couldn’t walk and I couldn’t carry him, so we had to stay there all night.”
“I told you to go get help,” he reminded her tersely.
“I wouldn’t have been able to find you again,” she countered heatedly. “You might have died!” She suddenly
remembered the rest of us looking on and cleared her throat. “Anyway, I, um, we, um –” She faltered and I could have sworn she was blushing. “I, ah, kept him warm through the night and his friends found us the next day.” A shadow passed over her features and she let go of his hand. “You promised you’d come back,” she murmured.
“I had to go,” he said sadly. “There were more ... wolves. They needed my help.”
“I waited. I looked for you every day.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t have a choice.” Silence fell over the back yard and we pretended not to notice Mrs. Kendricks wiping her eyes. “Where did you go?”
“I moved to Kentucky that summer to stay with my aunt,” she said quietly.
“I asked your mother what happened to you. She wouldn’t tell me. She seemed angry.”
“I made a decision she didn’t agree with. I don’t regret it, not for an instant, but –” Mrs. Kendricks sighed. “I wish things had turned out differently.”
“So do I.” Prescott tentatively reached out for her hand and she let him take it, a new smile teasing her lips.
“And now here you are, twenty years later,” Mom enthused. “This is so – so romantic!” Melissa sighed in agreement beside me.
“Only nineteen years,” Mrs. Kendricks corrected her with a laugh. “Hardly any time at all.”
“Far too long,” Prescott argued. They looked each other in the eyes.
Melissa’s elbow connected with my ribs. “Ow!” I grumbled in protest. “What’s that for?”
“They’re going to kiss again!” she predicted eagerly.
“They are not,” I argued. “Not with all of us watching.”
I was wrong, of course. Mrs. Kendricks and Prescott locked lips long enough for Mom and Dad to avert their eyes in embarrassment. When they finally broke apart, Mom took the opportunity to jump to her feet.
“So, who needs a refill?” she asked brightly. She and Mrs. Kendricks had wine glasses while the menfolk were still nursing their beers.
“I’m good, thank you, June,” Mrs. Kendricks smiled. “I’m driving, after all.”
“As am I,” said Prescott, although he quickly finished off his bottle. “I need to head out soon.”
Soul Mates Page 25
