by Lindsay Nall
“It’s between me and him and no you cannot use your abilities to get him to tell you what happened.” Tadum narrowed his eyes at the woman lying on his chest.
“Then you should tell me.” Mari fidgeted for a minute before he sat up making her sit up as well. “Mari…” She sighed heavily but nodded telling Tadum what had happened to cause her and Bart’s falling out. It wasn’t a long story, at least not to tell him as he knew her family so well but with every sentence she could feel the anger in him building. “I’ll kill him.”
“Leaf… it’s ok. It’s between me and him.” He grumbled a few more oaths but nodded. She would never forgive anyone if they tried to stand up for her against Bart let alone if he did it. “Thank you though.” He turned a quizzical eye on her. “You’ve always protected me.”
“You’ve done the same for me.” She nodded setting a hand on his chest where he carried his mark of the fourteen over his heart.
“Show me.” He looked away from her not wanting to see the worry in her eyes, he hated that she worried so much about him. “Leaf…” Sighing he removed his shirt but still could not bring himself to look into her eyes. Carefully her fingers traced over the mark on his chest, across his right shoulder and down his bicep. “Its spread; you’ve been pushing yourself too hard again…”
“I’m fine.” Her hand froze for a second from where she had been following the design on his arm but after a sigh resumed tracing out the pattern.
“You’re healing slower aren’t you?” He made a noise in the back of his throat that she knew meant he was annoyed she knew the truth. “I see…”
“I’ll be fine; you have training to worry about.” She smacked him on the head hard enough for him to forget he was trying not to look at her and swing his gaze around to meet hers full force.
“You know better than to say things like that to me.” He would never understand how she could infuriate him more than anyone else on this planet but at the same time make him feel so vulnerable.
“I know.” Pulling a hairpin from her ponytail Mari stabbed her finger then took Tadum’s hand and stabbed one of his. With a shake of her head she pressed their fingers together to allow their blood to combine.
“You need to promise me something.”
“I don’t make promises.”
“You used to and you need to this time. I know you hate it but I want you to be more careful, you’re so reckless sometimes…”
“I’m not reck…” He stopped at the look she gave him.
“I can’t lose you and you know I feel every time the mark spreads.” Tadum nodded looking down to the mark watching as the design on his arm and shoulder disappeared until only the symbol of the archer, the fourteenth constellation of Lucifer, remained.
“Ella?” Vander whispered drawing her attention away from the stars, the two had found her on a back balcony enjoying the warm night.
“Vander, Nyght, is something wrong?” The two men looked at each other then back to her not sure how to ask what they wanted to know or if there was a right way to ask it. In a way, it kind of felt like they were sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.
“Yes, no, we just…had a question.” Vander scratched the back of his head and looked to Nyght who held his hands up in surrender. “Err, we were just wondering…”
“What?” She sounded both annoyed and intrigued at the same time making Nyght step into the conversation. She could feel the curiosity rolling off of the two of them making her wonder just what they had been up to after leaving the dining hall.
“Marisol and Tadum, are they…?” He chewed his cheek and tried to ask his question again. “I mean we just thought you would know if they were, you know? I mean you knew Mari before and…” He trailed off when he realized he sounded like an idiot.
“You want to know if they’re a couple?” Ella blinked at the two and turned back to the stars with an odd look on her face. “You’ll have to ask them.” She shrugged.
“What? Tadum would never tell us!”
“And we barely know Marisol!”
“They have an unbelievably special bond.” She was silent long enough for the two of them to realize that was all the information they were going to get from her. She had never been a big talker, her voice was always quiet, reserved. They sulked off back to the dining hall to ask everyone who they thought might know the answer to their question but getting the same response from everyone else as they got from Ella. If they wanted the truth they would have to ask Tadum or Mari themselves.
“There’s something you’re not telling me.” Tadum grumbled as the two made their way down one of the hallways. He had agreed to give her an impromptu tour after she had recapped what had happened in Karter’s office. Sure she knew the basics of the layout of the building but it had been five years and at the time her mind had been a mess back then.
“Would you leave it alone already!” She was getting frustrated with him, granted she should have known better than to omit anything from her explanation earlier, that eventually he would figure out something was missing. She had just hoped it would take him longer and that she wouldn’t be around when he figured it out, she should have known better.
“No.” He was so obstinate sometimes.
“Please Leaf…I don’t want to get into it.”
“Then you should have told me the truth, to begin with. What exactly was in that file other than what you told me. I know you, you left something out, something big.” Marisol shook her head; she should have tried to make something up, anything. Picking up her pace she tried to walk ahead of him hoping he would take the hint to drop the conversation but that wasn’t in his nature, he just couldn’t let things go. Grabbing her wrist, he spun her back to him and wrapped both arms around her to keep her from leaving. “Tell me.”
“Leaf…” Marisol sighed heavily and put her head on his shoulder. “Please.”
“If it’s hurting you this badly then it’s important.” She shook her head lightly. “Do you not trust me anymore?” Her head snapped up at his question and she glared at him.
“How could you ask me that!?” It took all his effort not to flinch at the anger in her eyes.
“Stupid question.”
“Damn straight it was.” She growled but her face softened quickly. “If I tell you this it doesn’t go anywhere; I’m not even sure Karter knows.” His eyebrows went up at this but he made no other movements as she explained what she had omitted earlier. “Please, I can feel your anger, don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’ve never done anything stupid.” She glared at him out of the tops of her eyes. “You wish for me not to do anything? What if I found…”
“No.” She cut him off. “I just want to forget it. I just want to finish my training and become a Shadow that can make everyone proud. I don’t want to let anyone down, I don’t want anyone to do anything to try and protect me and I don’t want anything to come of this information ok?” Always so hardheaded, his Marisol, never taking handouts, rarely taking help until she had tried it by herself first. If this was what she wanted he couldn’t deny her of it, especially considering how close to her heart this was.
“As you wish.” He whispered putting his forehead to hers. They both heard a muffled snicker making them freeze. Turning they looked at one of the doors off the hallway that was partially open. Tadum walked over to it and slammed it open. Hard.
“Hey man what the hell!” Nyght yelled coming out from behind the door rubbing his ear. Vander followed slower rubbing his nose as he blinked away tears.
“Still think it’s just curiosity?” Tadum asked looking over his shoulder at Marisol.
“What the...?” She muttered walking over as the two eavesdroppers straightened up.
“We were uh…” Vander stuttered looking to Nyght.
“Relax Leaf we didn’t see anything.” Nyght said smirking when Tadum glared at him.
“Don’t call me that!”
“Leaf,” Marisol whisper
ed making Tadum stop mid growl. “it’s ok.” He looked to Mari and made a rude noise under his breath. “You two need to learn some self-control you know that?” She asked looking to Nyght and Vander who both looked back at her embarrassed.
“Sorry.” They both whispered but Mari just giggled which made Tadum turn his glare on her.
“Oh lighten up Leaf, I told you they were curious. Stop looking at them like they stole your favorite toy.” Tadum growled again and intensified his glare.
“I don’t have toys!” Mari giggled harder at his outrage.
“Why don’t you go get something to eat? I’ll explain everything to the snoops and see you later ok?” Tadum grumbled for a few moments but eventually decided anything was better than dealing with Nyght and Vander at that moment. “Come walk with me.” Marisol nodded over her shoulder and started down the hallway, though she wasn’t quite sure where she was going, it didn’t take long for Nyght and Vander to fall in step on either side of her.
“How come he doesn’t freak out when you call him Leaf?” Nyght asked.
“I never really asked, I guess it’s because of our history together.” She shrugged and let the question go. She was waiting for them to ask the big question, the one she knew they both were wondering about. After a few moments of silence, Vander spoke up.
“I hate to pry but are you two…I mean…you and Tadum…” He blushed lightly and stared at the floor.
“You want to know if I’m Leaf’s girlfriend.” She looked first to Vander, who nodded, then to Nyght who just looked back at her with those silver eyes of his making her mildly uncomfortable. “I was, a little over five years ago now.” Vander’s step faltered but Nyght kept his eyes focused on her. She felt like he was seeing down into her soul making her look away. Though the scars on her heart had healed long ago it still carried a sting with them that she didn’t need anyone to know about.
“But he’s so…” Vander trailed off waving a hand in the air not sure how to describe Tadum.
“Antisocial? Antagonistic? Scary?” Mari smiled lightly waving Nyght’s words away.
“That’s all show.” Nyght cast a disbelieving look over her head to Vander. “He’s very sweet and caring granted I thought the same thing you did when I first met him.”
Nyght thought for a minute about her statement wondering how someone from the East District would meet a Shadow to begin with and voiced a question about it. “Oh, he was mostly dead when I met him.”
“Dead!?” The echo of both men’s voices rang down the hall. “Like dead dead?” Mari cocked an eyebrow at Vander.
“I’m not quite sure what ‘dead dead’ is but if it’s anything like barely hanging by a thread then yes he was ‘dead dead’.”
“I guess the usual way we would go about this is asking Tadum how he met you but given that he’s…well…Tadum, would you mind telling us?” Nyght watched as a pained look flashed across Mari’s face but it was quickly replaced by a placid look.
“I suppose, you’d never get it out of Leaf anyways and you two have already proven that you don’t stop until your curiosity is sated.” Vander gave her an apologetic look as he absentmindedly rubbed his nose. The three stopped at a small balcony with a bench, Mari headed over to lean on the banister leaving the bench for Nyght and Vander to settle themselves on. “My father found Leaf after picking up his distress call by mistake. Leaf had been dispatched to the field with four researchers to oversee the closing of a supposedly dormant tear. You know, a Shadow to oversee in case a stray demon happened to pop its ugly head out?” The two men nodded. “As it turned out the tear wasn’t dormant, far from it to tell the truth.”
“It was a setup?” Vander interrupted.
“Yes by a middle-class demon. It waited until they started sealing the tear to attack killing the four researchers and leaving Leaf for dead. My father brought him back to the East district charging me alone with the responsibility of taking care of him.” Well, that wasn’t the complete truth, her father had charged her with taking care of him yes, but had also charged her with making sure no one else in the district found out he was there just as Bart had done when Vander was there. There was also that whole her saving his life thing. She knew by the way Nyght looked at her that he knew she didn’t tell them the whole truth but when he interjected nothing she continued. “He was unconscious for five days and when he finally came to he yelled, screamed, insulted me and even threw a plate at me but I just moved out of throwing distance and refused to leave. One day I left to take a shower and when I got back Leaf had pulled out the chess set and asked if I would play a game with him. He was healed completely within the next week but stayed for the next three months to help train me.”
Mari began fiddling with the chain around her neck as she continued speaking. “I still remember the day my father came to speak to me, he asked about the time I had been spending with Leaf, what I thought of his company and if I was happy while he was around.”
“Were you?” The smile that played around her mouth spoke more than her words.
“Happier than I had been since my mother had passed.” Nyght cataloged that bit of information so he didn’t end up saying something stupid to her later. “Later that evening Leaf asked me to marry him. I knew it wasn’t his idea, that my Father had put him up to it and I voiced my opinion about it in a very… unladylike manner.” Both men sat up a little straighter. “Have either of you ever noticed the scar under Leaf’s left eye?”
“You mean the one that, when asked about it, Tadum said didn’t exist?” Vander questioned. Nyght covered his snicker with a cough.
“Probably, that man will take his pride to his grave.” Slowly she pulled her necklace out of her shirt holding up the ring on the end of it for the two men to see. “He proposed to me with my mother’s wedding ring.” Nyght eyed the piece of jewelry noticing there was another object hanging from the chain that she hid in her hand before she quickly put it back in her shirt placing her hand over her shirt where the necklace rested near her heart.
“I’m sorry but how exactly did you react unladylike?”
“I punched him in the face after he shoved the ring on my hand.” It was Vander’s turn to try and cover his snicker but all he did was snort making Nyght and Mari both laugh. “I apologized later of course and tended to the cut I’d made. We had a long talk about what had happened and I agreed to marry him.”
“Just like that? After only knowing him for a few months?”
“I loved him, very much. I think some part of me thought that by marrying him it would keep him safe. That the idea of having someone to come home to or even a family might make him more careful…” She shrugged dropping her hand from her chest.
“I know you’re uncomfortable.” Mari locked gazes with Nyght at his assumption. “But may I ask, why didn’t the two of you get married?”
“I don’t know. He called me one night, only a month after our engagement had been announced. He never really gave me a reason, never said that he didn’t love me or that he didn’t want to marry me…” She went quiet, trapped in her own world of memories not noticing that Nyght had stood to approach her or that Vander had made himself scarce. With his new-found knowledge of her right hook, Nyght was careful as he reached out and gently placed an arm around her shoulders.
“I’m sorry we asked you about your personal life. I’ll walk you back to your room.” They made their way slowly at first but after a few minutes, Mari shook her head and came to a stop. “Mari?”
“Why did he…?” She turned from Nyght and started back down the hallway.
“You’re not going to confront him are you?” She nodded at Nyght’s question and kept walking until he grabbed her arm to pull her to a stop. “Do you think that’s such a good idea?” She thought about it for a minute then shook her head. If Tadum didn’t feel the need to tell her back then than why would he tell her now? Sure he would explain if she asked him to but did she want the answer? Did she want to know why he broke
her heart five years ago?
“Goodnight Nyght.” She turned without another word and walked back to her room alone and in silence.
Nyght woke from a deep sleep with a growl. He should have been accustomed to not sleeping through the night; he’d never been able to do it his entire life. He’d always awoken in the night completely alert whether he had had one hour of sleep or six it didn’t matter. The night was his calling, well, half of his calling. The demon blood that ran through his body called to the night. Throwing on his sweatpants and a tee-shirt he made his way down the corridors of the headquarters building and out into the well-kept lawns and gardens. He passed the large pond decorated with stone cherubs and laughing children, a reminder of what they fought for, its glassy surface reflected the sky around the night-blooming water lilies, the koi fish in it silent and still with the late hour. A cobblestone path led from the pond into the large bushes and flowering plants of the courtyard. He walked taking in the scent of evening primrose’s, night gladiolus’s and dragon fruit flowers all strategically placed so in either day or night there were always blooming flowers. Ahead of him the path curved to the left following the hill down and into another smaller courtyard but cut into the bushes to the right was a small path barely visible that would lead him to the cliff edge that overlooked the ocean. To his surprise when he got through the bushes his spot had been taken by another.
Mari sat in the circle of moonflowers and Casablanca lily’s watching the waves roll in and out from the cliff edge. The drop to the water was only two or three stories, enough to hurt but not enough to kill you if you knew what you were doing.
“Couldn’t sleep?” She didn’t jump at his voice as Nyght thought she would, instead she just shrugged not even turning back to look at him. “Probably from traveling, I get like that too sometimes after a long trip.” He was lying to her. He didn’t like it but from how she had reacted to him this far he figured she didn’t know the whole truth about him and the longer it could stay like that the better. “Mari?”
