I understood the risk Michael had been willing to take on my behalf. “Nikelaus appeared scared to challenge Michael.”
“Oh, he certainly was. Michael is infamous.” He started to laugh. “If he’d done it, I bet we’d be rid of Nikelaus soon enough.” He smirked and left me alone.
Nikelaus had abducted, injured and imprisoned me, and yet Michael was forced to pay for the damage I had caused when I escaped. I was furious and balled my hands into fists. I felt lost and alone. The episode with the Incendium had made it clear that my parents had hidden some things from me. If I was honest with myself, I had to accept that they had lied to me my whole life. They knew something, and it was time to find out what that was. Maybe I had made my life harder than need be. Possibly a single phone call to my parents would allow me to live a self-governed life again. Not that I wanted to break up with Michael.
The conversation would be anything but nice and easy. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, pulled my prepaid phone from my pocket and dialed my father’s number. “The number you have dialed is not in service,” a friendly automated voice told me. I dialed my mother’s number and got the same response. I had talked to them only a week earlier, so this had to be a mistake on the part of the service provider. I tried to tell myself not to worry, but of course I couldn’t stop it. I started calling their neighbors, one by one. They all claimed they had never heard of me or my parents. It was as if they had vanished overnight, or rather, as if they had never existed. They wouldn’t go into hiding without letting me know. They just wouldn’t. My father and mother would find a way to contact me. A yawning chasm of emptiness opened up before me. What if something had happened to them? I wouldn’t be able to handle another loss; I would go insane. Since the death of my sister, there was nothing I feared more than this. I couldn’t even allow the thought, for I knew I would suffer a nervous breakdown if I did. I tried to distract myself by taking a shower. When that didn’t have the desired effect, I turned off the hot water and let the shower get colder and colder. My imagination was undaunted, and kept creating a variety of horror scenarios for my parents.
I finally turned off the water and wrapped a towel around my body. Michael was waiting in the bedroom. He gave me a benevolent look, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me on the forehead. I eagerly accepted the comfort he had to offer. I sank into his strong arms, both physically and emotionally. While he changed the bandage around my arm, I told him what had happened, though he hadn’t asked. How Nikelaus had dragged me from the house, how I had given him some of my energy, and how I had escaped. I didn’t mention the conversations I’d had, or the Incendium. He listened closely and sympathetically. When I was done, he said: “You really humiliated him. I’m sorry you were abducted again.”
Abducted again, yeah, what was up with that? I felt as if I had ‘please abduct’ stamped on my forehead. He pressed his lips to mine. His kiss was unapologetic; he wanted more. But there were so many issues clamoring to be resolved, I wasn’t in the mood. I pushed him away. “Michael, wait!” He shook his head and kissed me again. He lifted me up with Peri speed and carried me to the bed. “I need to talk to you; it’s important!” He shook his head again and whispered: “Later.”
“I want to talk about my parents.” His head jerked up and he stared into my eyes. Getting his attention could be so easy. “I can’t reach them. Apparently their numbers are disconnected or something.”
“Did you try to reach their neighbors?”
“Yes, while you were talking to Nikelaus. They don’t remember me or my parents, though we spent Christmas with some of them last year.” Since he didn’t say anything, I went on: “You know what the irony in all of this is? I wanted to speak to them about your world for the first time, and ask them about my alleged abilities. So far I’ve always told them that my life was business as usual and that I was fine.”
“Where do they live?”
“In the U.S., California. I’m booking a flight tomorrow and then I will search for them.”
“You can’t simply go and do that, not anymore. You’re part of our world now and have to live by its rules. I will contact Hugorio and ask his permission. Then we’ll go and find them.”
“Hugorio? But why?”
“Because they live in his domain. “How about you and I drive to your house together? Maybe we’ll be able to find some answers there.”
“Of course, let’s do that.”
“I don’t mean to complain, but when did you change your mind about this?”
“Well, my parents have vanished and their neighbors have obviously been put under a spell. I can’t do anything about it without your help. And I should definitely find out what I am.” He was getting suspicious. “Melanie, why is that so important all of a sudden?”
“Nikelaus said that if I was even a fraction of a different species descent, they would have priority claim on me or something. And everyone agrees that I am something rare, so …”
“It’s true: Once we know what you are, I know who to hide you from.”
“Let me ask you a dumb question then: Why do you continuously introduce me to mystical things and creatures? Wouldn’t it be safer to keep me from meeting them until you know what I am?”
“I simply like to show you off.”
Men! I smiled and shook my head. I had not told him every detail of my abduction. “I forgot to tell you something earlier: Your uncle discovered me before you did. The night we first met, Sarah and I went to a pizza place before heading to Peri’s Night. Your uncle and his business partners were sitting at the neighboring table. I was so happy to be with Sarah again that I didn’t notice him or his colleagues. As soon as he was done with his meeting, he followed us. We were lucky that Alessandro and Phillipe were interested in Sarah, because when he came to the club, we were already sitting at your table.” The next thought seemed absurd. I smiled when I uttered it: “Otherwise I might be with him now, and would think you were the monster. Maybe you would have abducted me and tried to persuade me that he had used me. He’s good at dissimulating.”
I found the idea amusing, but Michael clearly did not. He had held me in his arms the whole time, and I had enjoyed it, but now I was beginning to fear he would crush me. His embrace had become stifling and strong, as if someone was about to tear me away from him. “Ouch!” I complained loudly. He quickly loosened his grip. “I really don’t want to hear my uncle’s name for a long time.”
How could I believe even for a moment that he’d planned my abduction, just to harm his uncle? Nikelaus had managed to make me suspicious and wary. I felt ashamed of my thoughts.
Michael probably wouldn’t like my next idea either: “Once the police give me the green light, I’m moving back into my own apartment.”
“Are you crazy, that is way too dangerous!”
“Oh, but I’m so very safe here in this house?”
He stared at me, incredulous and offended. “Are you saying you’re scared here?”
“Not when I’m with you, but when you’re gone, I’m not safer in your house than anywhere else in the world. I’ve been beaten, threatened and kidnapped while I was here. At least in my own apartment, there are no supernatural creatures coming and going all the time. Sarah was almost killed here.”
“Why are you so frightened this time?”
“What do you mean?”
“A bunch of bad things has happened to you over the last weeks, but so far you handled them all in stride.”
“Hey, it’s only been a few hours. Plus I was sure that you believed I was dead, and thus you wouldn’t come to my rescue.”
He looked as if he regretted something. As if he was mad with himself. Michael studied me for a long time, before kissing me and picking up where he’d left off earlier, when I’d stopped him. It felt good to feel him inside me again.
Afterwards we lay there with our limbs intertwined for another long while. We pulled apart only when Stefan suddenly stood in the room, and I quickly slipped
under the covers. “Could you maybe knock next time?” They both smirked at my outrage.
“Excuse me, how awkward of me. It won’t happen again … though I’d have missed the best part.”
Michael threw his son a questioning glance.
“We found them. The others are already on the way,” Stefan explained.
“Great!” Michael jumped up. He was dressed within seconds and gave me an expectant look. “You should get dressed; we have to go. If you’re scared to be alone in the house, I’m taking you with me.”
“As soon as Stefan leaves the room, I’ll get ready.” They left the room with a smirk and a hasty: “We’re waiting downstairs.” It didn’t take me very long, and I skipped down the stairs in my new turquoise winter coat. It was freezing cold outside. Stefan and Michael were impatient. The latter grabbed me and picked me up, before running to the car at Peri speed. Too fast for me. When he sat me down in the backseat, I felt nauseous.
The Peris were euphoric at the prospect of a fight, while we were going down the highway at more than 120 miles per hour. Was that why they needed their cars with plenty of horsepower? When we reached the destination, I was happy to still be alive. We joined a group of Peris and vampires, most of whom were familiar. Jeremeia, the vampire who’d bitten Sarah, and his brother Daniel were present as well. We had gathered on a sprawling meadow, and at its center stood a fascinating house. It looked as if it belonged on a Greek island in the Mediterranean: Whitewashed walls, an azure blue balcony and a blue front door. There was a tall stone fountain in front of the house, about a hundred yards away from where I stood.
Michael hadn’t told me to be careful, so I assumed we were still miles away from any problems or strife. My curiosity led me to the fountain, because I wanted to take a closer look, but then a frantic ruckus started up behind me. I jerked around in fright and saw Michael, Stefan and Jeremeia storming in my direction. Halfway to where I was, they ran smack into an invisible wall. The whole ballyhoo didn’t bode well. I gave Michael a questioning look, and then I felt something breathe down my neck; hot, panting breath. Stiff with fear, dying a thousand deaths in my mind, I slowly turned around. I looked into his eyes, recognition dawning on me like a relaxant. I opened my arms wide, laughed, and wrapped them around his neck. “Thomas! What are you doing here?” I was so happy to see my oldest best friend, and the one man in my life with whom I could be sure there was nothing sexual between us. He was gay. We’d gone out together as teenagers, both eager to pick up boys. Most of the time that had ended with us sitting alone at a table, telling each other how awesome we really were. He’d moved in with his brother a short while before Elke had died. We’d lost sight of each other after that. His light blonde hair was ruffled by the breeze. I had missed my tall friend and his amicable face. I ignored the yells and screams behind me. When I let go of him and stepped back, I noticed that he was naked. But I had touched a fur coat before; was I going crazy? “Why are you naked? Aren’t you freezing?”
He laughed, but it sounded like panting.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, still confused.
“The better question would be, what are you doing here?” he countered, his voice deep and growling.
“Right, that’s a long story. You wouldn’t believe me. What happened to your voice?” He licked my face with his long, raspy tongue and put his hairy paw on my hand. Wait a minute! Something was seriously wonky here! I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them again, and staggered backwards in shock. Holy shit! My best friend was a werewolf! The wolf in front of me had about the same shoulder height as me. “Melanie, come on, you’re not suddenly afraid of me, are you?”
“No, I’m not, even though I guess I should be. After all, three women I knew were mauled by werewolves so far. Probably because they smelled of me.”
His good-natured, loyal wolf eyes were confused. “Why would it be your scent? You didn’t do anything to harm us, did you?”
Several men appeared behind him, all fully clothed. If they were werewolves as well, they must be in their human form now. Dusk was falling rapidly now, and their sight became creepier by the second. Their leader, a tall, black-haired man, studied me with alert curiosity, before drawing a deep breath and laughing maliciously. “Thomas, she’s Michael’s girlfriend! Kill her!”
I heard Michael scream “Nooo!” behind me.
Thomas’ wolfish face was reproachful now. “You always had a bad taste in men, my dear. Tell my brother he can kiss my ass, I won’t kill my best friend.”
“Why don’t you tell him that yourself?”
“Hello? I’m in my wolf form, and he can’t understand me while he is still a human.”
The men were staring at me and Thomas, obviously dumbfounded. No surprise there; I was chatting with a giant wolf. I uttered a frustrated snort and then declared: “Thomas told me to tell his brother to kiss his ass. He won’t kill his best friend … and that would be me.”
“That is impossible. You can’t understand him.” The black-haired guy frowned and came running at me, but Thomas moved to protect me with a growl. I immediately turned and ran towards Michael, hearing terrible noises behind me, and then two of the men had reached me and were blocking my path, naked as God had made them. I was beginning to understand. Apparently I didn’t easily see the magic that transformed a man into a werewolf. They had changed. I squinted and shut my eyes as I’d done with Thomas, but I still saw naked men. I’d have preferred large wolves. One of the two, an African-American man, sidled up to me. “You’re not going anywhere, you got me? Or else the big bad wolf is going to eat you.”
“Gotcha. I’ll stay right here,” I replied.
“So you really do understand us. You could prove useful.”
Clever or not, I couldn’t help it: I rolled my eyes. Every damned supernatural creature seemed to see something useful in me.
Michael had uttered a slew of threats, and now Thomas, who was blocked by two of his kind, spoke up in a growl: “Guys, let her be.” The second wolf – or naked man, from my perspective – bared his teeth and asked: “Are you choosing her over us? The Peris killed my wife, your brother Paul’s wife, and several others. What if they had murdered your boyfriend?”
“You just said it: The Peris did that, not her. Trust me, if you kill her, they will be the least of your problems.”
Paul, the dark-haired man, approached me from behind. He reveled in Michael’s desperate look when he put his hands on my shoulders and then slipped them forward, wrapping them loosely around my neck. “The Peri seems to be rather fond of you,” he whispered into my ear, before dragging his very human tongue up and down my cheek. It was disgusting and made me retch. I didn’t have to look at him to know that his malicious gaze was fixed on Michael, who stared back at the insufferable creep.
He chuckled into my ear. “Michael, I’m taking your plaything inside now, to have a little fun with her. I’ll bring her back out afterwards, so you can watch as I tear her apart.” His words made me shiver and I started to kick out at him in mounting panic.
“If you do that, I’m going to kill you and everyone you care about!” Michael promised, his voice suddenly demonic.
“You already did. You shouldn’t have killed my wife.”
“I did not. You people started to murder our charges for no reason!”
“That is a lie,” one of the other men protested.
The black-haired one was oblivious to it all. He continued to drag me towards the house, flanked by several of his colleagues. Michael urged his people to hurry up with neutralizing the barrier, while he paced along the invisible demarcation line. I could hear sounds of a melee somewhere further off. Thomas swore and growled. The other wolves tried to placate him. “Come on, Thomas, Paul won’t really harm her. He’s merely putting on a show to rile Michael. Do you think we’d let him do that?”
Apparently I was really the only person who understood the wolves.
“Paul, you’re not a monster,” I suddenly heard
Thomas’s human voice cry out.
“We’ll see about that.” Paul ran his lips down my cheek. “Such tender skin! Michael, you should say goodbye to your girl.”
I let out a horrified whelp and wiggled free of his grip, but he grabbed me again. I kicked and lunged and bit, but I couldn’t shake him. Paul dragged and hauled me towards the house, determined and reckless. Maybe he would not harm me, as the others had claimed, but I wasn’t ready to risk it, to simply wait and see. I did not want to be at the mercy of yet another pack of hostile or scheming creatures. “Let go of me now, or I’ll break the spell that protects your estate,” I threatened.
“Good luck with that. It was made by a Peri and an elf.”
“She can do it. Brother, you have no idea who you’re messing with.”
“Enlighten me then.”
“I can’t; I’m bound.” Thomas was standing naked in the biting cold. It was obvious that he was freezing; his teeth chattered when he spoke. He changed back into wolf form.
“You just want to save her, that’s all,” his brother insisted.
I didn’t want to be responsible for a massacre, but that was what would happen here if I lifted the barrier now. I didn’t want to sacrifice myself either. If I could prove to them that I wasn’t bluffing, they might see reason. I wanted to force Paul and the others to agree to talk this over. Michael’s expression was murderous, while Stefan seemed more level-headed. “Stefan, would you come over here for a moment? I’m going to open a breach, and if they attack you, I’m taking down the entire barrier.”
I’m not afraid of them,” Stefan laughed. There was a loud boom, Paul went down, and Stefan was there to catch me before the alpha wolf could drag me down with him. Then he stood before them, shielding me with his body, while they backed off. I pointed a finger at Paul: “This one is a pig, but the rest of them don’t strike me as bloodthirsty killers. They thought he was merely putting on a show. He wanted to torture Michael. And the white wolf over there is my best friend. We go way back. I think you guys should talk.”
Peris Night: Terakon (Secret Language) Page 20
