Urban Decay: Darkly Mine Season One

by Leona Windwalker

  “Is he calling them now?” Shannon hissed as we were herded back to the car we’d arrived in.

  “He’s talking to the chief, yes,” Henry’s father confirmed.

  “I best call your mom,” Dad said to me. “I bet if I turn my phone on, it’ll blow up from her trying to find out what’s happening.” He grimaced. “We had to mute our phones and then turn them off, as they kept pinging us and ringing while we were trying desperately to listen for you.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  He nodded. “I was terrified that I’d lost yet another son,” he said. “I couldn’t face telling her that.”

  “Another son? You had a brother?” asked.

  Dad took out his phone and switched it on. He was right, it blew up immediately with notifications.

  The drive home was filled with nothing but explanations. Explanations made while on speaker to tell those left behind at the gala that we’d found Shannon and to meet us at the penthouse so all that needed to be said could be done once. Then half-assed explanations to Shannon, that we weren’t human. That Arrakus wasn’t a demon, he was a being from the Void, but that his kind had given rise to many of the legends about Kraken, demons you made bargains with, and more. He sat back, overwhelmed. Then we were in front of the condo, and the car dropped us off, turning around to take the rest of the passengers home. They had people to call and could hear about how this went down, in the morning.

  “I still have so many questions,” Shannon said.

  “Let’s go in, get you showered and in something warm, and then we shall give you all the answers you want, my prince,” Dad said.

  I really wished he would cut that out.

  We rode the elevator up in silence, Shannon holding my hand but standing away from me, his body language betraying his conflicting emotions about my inhuman status.

  “I’d like to shower and change alone,” he said, dropping my hand as we entered the penthouse. My heart sank.

  “Go use ours,” Mom said, hugging me. “You can borrow your dad’s robe.”

  I hurriedly scrubbed the dreck off of me., then hopped out. I saw Dad’s robe, but no underwear and I couldn’t put back on the ones I was no longer wearing to begin with, thanks to Arrakus. I giggled then, a high pitched sound that sounded manic even to my ears. I’d been sat there wearing soggy tattered clothes, my bare ass hanging out, the entire time they’d been genuflecting. It was absurd. But hey, given that, I could wear the robe and go commando beneath. They’d never know, and if they guessed, I doubted they’d give two shits about it. I slipped the robe on, tied it, and padded out to where I could hear voices. Mugs of hot chocolate sat on the island, a spray can of whipped cream by them, as well as an opened bag of marshmallows.

  “Chocolate fixes nearly everything,” Mom said nervously.

  “True story,” Shannon said, emerging from my room and crossing the space to reach us. He picked up the can, shook it, then removed the lid before adding a mountain of fluffy white goodness onto the top of one of the drinks. He offered me the can `and I took it. He picked up the marshmallows and out on as many as he could without them falling off.

  We all watched him silently. He seemed to be taking this rather too well.

  He took a sip, closing his eyes. “Oh, yeah, that’s good.” He reopened his eyes, setting down his cup but keeping both hands curled around the warmth of the mug. “Okay, nobody say anything yet, just let me speak. So, I was at the gala and went to the bathroom. Santa came and stuck this dirty rag of stinking of sickly perfume in front of my nose, and then I woke up with Octo-Dude and River here doing the nasty while River feels up my chest and kisses me. There was weird gold light, then we were in that cold, nasty ass water, Roy is dead, still wearing parts of that Santa outfit, his guts are being literally used for garters or whatever, and now you guys think River and I are royalty.” He took a deep breath. “Whew. Did I get things right so far? And uh, was I dead, or did I imagine that?”

  “Well, You’re mostly right,” I said. “Octo-Dude is named Arrakus,” I began.

  “Yeah, yeah, you guys said that in the car. Along with you not being human and how he’s a being from the Void. Are you from there, too?”

  Dad sighed. “This is going to take a while.” He reached for the can of whipped cream. “Right, so, when the universe began, it sprang from the Void.” He squirted some whipped cream onto his hot chocolate.

  “Yeah, got that.”

  “There were already beings living in the Void, and some ended up in our Universe. They multiplied, spawning their young on the worlds they found.”

  “And Arrakus was spawned here, on Earth?”

  “Yes.” Dad went on to explain about how Man discovered they could communicate with Arrakus and the few others like him they encountered from time to time. That they could be given eternal life, for a bargain- the price of a soul, more or less. Not the soul of the one to be Made, no, they needed that for fuel, for the making. It had to be from someone mature, yet hale and hearty with a good many years left, as it was the life-force that mattered most for the Making. The beings often also ate the flesh or snacked on the blood of their victims, but that was considered a bonus.

  “Ewww,” Shannon interjected.

  Mom got up to boil the electric kettle so we could have more hot chocolate. Dad then explained about the Family in an overview. Shannon looked at me, and I told him how I ended up within the fold, getting Made.

  “Oh my God, so you were born before the turn of last century!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been boning an old man!”

  I sputtered the hot chocolate I was trying to sip, sending marshmallows and whipped cream everywhere. Mom looked stunned while Dad looked away.

  “I’m kidding,” Shannon flicked his hand. “Okay, I’m really not, but I’m hanging on here by a thread, and if I don’t laugh it off, I’m going to curl up in a ball and go catatonic or something. So, please, carry on.”

  Mom came over with a cloth, wiping up the mess I made.

  “Well, as River just said-”

  “Only he’s not River, is he? Was there even ever a River?”

  “Yes, there was,” Dad said, angrily. “Look, I know it’s all a big shock y=to you, but you don’t get to hurt my wife like that. Not over the death of our son.”

  Shannon looked abashed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think. You did say something in the car about having a son you lost.” He looked at Mom sorrowfully. “I need to think before I speak, sometimes.”

  She nodded. “We all do. The story about River and his accident are all true, up to a point.”

  “He died at the scene and the ambulance crew took him to a human hospital. By the time any of us knew anything, he’d been gone too long. He had departed,” Dad said.

  “So, like his soul wasn’t still tied to his body, but mine was? Because Roy killed me.”

  “He used too much chloroform or whatever that was,” I said, the memory of the discovery of that rag and then finding him so still, watching him slip away, hit me hard. I bent my head, cupped my hand over my mouth and sobbed. Mom slid an arm over my shoulder, but the thing that gave me the most comfort wasn’t the loving support of a parent, but the understanding embrace of the one I now believed to be my soul mate. He got down off of his stool and hugged me from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder.

  “Hey now, he said softly. “This is all kinds of fucked up, but we’ll figure it out. I’m here, and I’m alive. Kinda. I’m breathing, use the toilet, eat and drink, have a heartbeat, and all that jazz. Everything else, I just need to wrap my head around, okay? You, well, you, I don’t regret. If I had to choose, I’d choose you every time, and I know that’s what you did for me.”

  I nodded, unable to speak, my tears still falling. I was beyond grateful that he understood. “I knew it was selfish,” I choked out, moving my hand to speak.

  He peered at me. “Selfish? How was it selfish to not let me die?”

  “I made you a lich. You’ll have to feed on the life f
orce of others.”

  “Yeah, okay,” he said, sidling around to my side. He pushed my self into my lap, twining his arms around my neck. “I don’t think you were selfish for saving me. The feeding thing, I am not going to lie. I have a real problem with that unless they’re evil villains. I have zero problems feeding off them. Hurt kids, animals, or old people, and I’ll chow down. I mean, you don’t go around looking for people you can sneak up on and grab them for a snack, do you?”

  I blanched. As a lower level member of the Family, that was exactly what I’d been left to do. Dad patted my arm. “As the prince and prince consort, you can make changes in how things are done.”

  “Wait, you did do that?”

  I cleared my throat. “I didn’t want to.”

  “But you did.”

  “It was either that or become a desiccated thing that couldn’t move.”

  “Ugh. That’s gross.” Shannon wrinkled his nose. “Okay, so, that was a thing, but what about now?”

  “Legacies are provided meals, though how they are obtained may not always meet with your approved criteria,” Dad admitted.

  “But he’s all of a sudden your prince and so am I, so we can change that.” Shannon looked at Dad, his gaze challenging.

  “Yes. Arrakus named you both as his and gifted you with some of his essence. We can feel it emanating from you. He claimed you, sending out to us all an image of a crown on you both, to make sure we understood. He’s made River our prince, his official mouthpiece. He’s over all of us from Arrakus’ line. You’re River’s, so he claimed you, too, though River Made you if what I’m sensing from you is correct.”

  “It is,” I stated baldly. “Arrakus bolstered me, but I did the making.”

  “Right,” Dad mused. “So, River’s your Maker and your lover, so that makes you the Prince Consort. You can co-rule, basically, but can’t enact changes on your own, while he can if they are the will of Arrakus. Arrakus can talk to him telepathically because they’re bonded.”

  “Right. Back to this eating thing. How often do I have to do the suck the soul thing?” Shannon changed the subject.

  “At least once a month, optimally. You can go five to six weeks before you look deathly ill.”

  “Oh, goody,” Shannon said sarcastically. “And you say the Legacies, the ones at our school, are all members of the Family.? And you choose among them who gets to be Made undead and who doesn’t.” He shook his head in disbelief. Sliding off of my lap, he wandered over to the patio windows, looking out to sea. “You know looking out there, it’s hard to believe there’s anything like him in all of that. Or that beings who suck life out must do it or decay. So they slurp it on out of people, then go about their lives like they’re normal. Take you for example, Mr. Montgomery. It’s apropos, don’t you think? Your company takes decaying buildings and neighborhoods and revitalizes them. It’s like a metaphor.”

  He turned around.

  “Am I right in thinking that as ya’ll have all been landed with us as royalty to run things on behalf of Arrakus-”

  “Lord Arrakus,” Dad corrected.

  “Excuse me, Lord Arrakus, we will be staying here?”

  “It’d probably be best,” Mom agreed. “There are online schools, I’m sure the college can make arrangements to do that for you.”

  “I’m sure,” Dad agreed. “We certainly endow them enough, and there are special extenuating circumstances. Be handy to have another architect on board, too.”

  Shannon sighed in frustration., throwing his hands up in the air. “You know what? Fine. Sign me up for online classes. I am not giving up my degree for anybody. “He pointed at me. “Make those changes! We now only eat those who are evil!”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  “I’ll make sure this trickles on down where it needs to,” Dad said. Thank fuck for that. I had no idea what to do.

  “Okay, I’m dealing for now. It’s probably going to take decades before I’m okay with it all deep down and not just superficially, though.”

  “I still struggle with it,” I admitted.

  His face softened. “We’ll make sense of it together, yeah? They tossed you into the deep end of the pool, and you had to learn to swim, same as me.”

  “I was the one tossing you, though,” I said guiltily.

  “No, Roy did that when he…,” he hesitated, “hurt me,” he finished.” You saved me, my handsome prince, You are my fucking hero. Now, let’s go to bed and hope that in the morning, it feels more normal.” He walked across the sort expanse of the living room to my bedroom door. I followed him. “Night,” I wished my parents.

  “What’s your real name? The one you were given when you were born as a human baby?” he asked me once the door closed behind me.

  “Laurent.”

  “I like that. It suits you.”

  “Thanks. I like tweed and flat caps,” I blurted out.

  He raised his eyebrows at me. “Okay, that came out of nowhere, but I think I see the connection. You’re Laurent, you were the age you resemble somewhere around 1920, and you prefer to wear the tweed and flat caps of your time?”

  “Yes.”

  “Guess tomorrow, we’re going shopping, then. We are going to be us, not whatever persons they want us to be. Get me?”

  I nodded.

  “Good. Now, it seems to me they are even more fucked up than they have to be, so that’s why Arrakus decided to have us straighten them out.”

  Yessss. Beeelovveeedd.

  “He says you’re right. That, among other things,” I replied, thinking back to the man on that long ago shore.

  “Mmhmm. So, we’ll sort out all the little things like clothes that say who feel we are, to wear about when we don’t need to dress a certain other way. And in return, we become part of this Family, of this city.”

  Part of the city, with its urban decay. It was fitting, as was his observation of regeneration.

  “We’ve got this,” I said, agreeing. I would do anything, as long as we remained together.

  “We do, now come get in this bed with me. I’m frazzled from dealing with all this shit.”

  I disrobed, not bothering to grab a pair of undies from the drawer. Pulling him to me, I spooned against him. The mental strain having exhausted him mentally, he soon fell asleep. I didn’t mind. He was now truly mine for eternity, and I was his.

  Beeelovvveddd, Arrakus agreed.

  About the Author

  Leona is a military Brat who grew up to be longtime staunch supporter of human rights and environmental causes. She is also proud to have served in the Army and likes to promote veterans’ causes. Her favourite genre to read is M/M fiction and she particularly enjoys science fiction, fantasy, and action/suspense sub-genres—especially if they have a nice seasoning of romance. She has far too many books on her Kindle, has overloaded her phone with even more and, when not reading, writing, being driven to distraction by her children, or being overlorded by her three cats, can be found trying to locate the portal that the sock monster uses to steal socks from her dryer.

  Also by Leona Windwalker

  The Talani Trade Alliance

  Accused

  Judged

  Urban Wolves

  Jared

  Lamar

  New Beginnings

  Sol’s Solstice

  Ben’s Beginning

  First Contact

  Haaken’s Honour

  Standalones

  Ensnared

  Beloved Possession

  Angels Among Us: A Second Chance Holiday Romance

 

 

 
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