Sundown & Serena

by Tara Fox Hall

  “For what?” I replied, half-interested, half-cautious.

  “For breakfast and sex, baby,” he said bluntly, then grinned.

  His shyness was gone, his expression and tone direct and calm. “Got some more notches on your belt?” I teased, smiling to soften the cutting edge of my remark.

  “A couple,” he said, grinning again in a way I found very sexy and yet boyishly innocent. “But they weren’t like you, Sun.”

  I only had to hear him say my name like that, and I knew my answer was going to be yes.

  * * * *

  I got off early at six thirty by trading shifts on Monday with a friend. Terian and I got a quick breakfast, but the both of us weren’t thinking about food, even as we ate. We raced to my apartment in record time.

  Terian and I were all over each other, which made undoing my simple door lock a formidable task. Finally, I got it open, and we fell through the doorway, landing on the floor as we grappled with each other’s clothes. We somehow made it to the bedroom, but not to the bed.

  I unzipped his pants, and took out his erection, stroking him with my hand. Terian let out a growl of need, and pushed me back to the floor. He slipped on a condom from the drawer above my head, and with a thrust of his hips, he was inside me. I let out a sigh of pleasure.

  Terian chuckled low and kissed my throat. “Did you miss me, Sun?”

  “Duh,” I said sarcastically, and kissed him hard, reaching around to caress his firm, bare ass.

  Terian’s phone rang suddenly, then repeatedly. He made no move to answer it, his hips pumping on mine, as we groaned together. Just as we came, the phone stopped, our shared cries loud in the sudden silence. As we lay there still joined, trying to catch our breaths, it began ringing again.

  Grumbling, Terian pulled out of me and rolled onto his back, reaching into his discarded pants for his phone. “Yes?”

  Terian’s mouth suddenly dropped open. “Theo? I only gave one person this number! Why are you calling—?”

  Terian cut off abruptly, then rubbed his eyes, his muscles tensing. Fury came off him, mixed with despair. “It was you,” he said quietly. “Damn you, it was you she dreamed with.”

  He sat up, and hurriedly pulled on his jeans, using his head and shoulder to hold the phone. “Meet me at Alan’s Creek” he said quickly. “I can make it there in fifteen minutes! Shut up, and meet me there!”

  Terian hung up, slid on his shirt, and then hugged me tightly. “I have to go,” he said, his eyes scared. “I’ll be back in two hours or so. Stay here, Sun. I’ll explain when I get back.”

  He raced out the door, as I was still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

  * * * *

  I worried about Terian all night, but a few drinks helped me relax, at least to the point I didn’t pace. About one a.m., he returned with blood on his clothes.

  “What happened?” I asked warily, pointedly looking at the bloodstains.

  “Don’t worry, it’s not mine,” he said tiredly. “Can I use your shower?”

  “Sure,” I assented.

  Terian was in there a long time, at least an hour. I wondered how he could stand it, as given the tiny hot water heater this apartment had, the water had to be ice cold. Oddly, it didn’t seem to bother him.

  When Terian came out toweling his hair, he was clean, his expression resigned. “I have some things to tell you, Sun, and some questions for you. But I want to answer the questions you must have for me first.” He put down the towel. “About what happened, if you want to know, that is.”

  Fuck yes. “Whose blood was that?”

  “Some bad guys were holding a friend of mine against her will. They were going to kill her. Her boyfriend was the one who called. I helped him get her free.” He paused. “The blood was from some guards we had to kill, Sun.”

  That warning light came on again in my brain. “You killed people tonight?”

  “They were going to kill me and Theo.”

  “Why not call the police? And who is Theo? You sound like you don’t like him. There is resentment in your voice.”

  “The police wouldn’t have helped, Sun. These people...they operate outside the law. The police are in their pocket, and they’re utterly ruthless. They have connections to the highest state levels, some federal officers—”

  “Enough with the conspiracy theories, Terian. Why did you risk your life?”

  “The woman who was being held saved my life a few months ago. She risked herself for me back then and got hurt for it.” He paused. “I owed her.”

  There was a lot more emotion in his tone than mere obligation called for. “Who was holding her? How did they get her in the first place?”

  “A guy named Devlin Dalcon grabbed her at her home when Theo wasn’t there. Sarelle shot some of his men, but they overpowered her and took her to Devlin’s brother, Danial—”

  Sarelle was the woman’s name, the one he’s carrying a torch for. “Why take her there?”

  “Danial and she were...married before. Devlin wanted her for himself. He wanted to run it by Danial first, I guess.”

  He’s stumbling over words and pausing a lot. I concluded Terian was leaving out much of the truth. “Why would a crazy guy willing to do a home invasion with armed guards care about checking with his brother for “ex” permission?”

  “Danial told him to do what he wanted with her, since she’d left him.”

  This was beyond illogical; this was crazy. “No man has that kind of power over his wife, much less an ex.”

  Terian nodded in agreement. “It didn’t last even a week. Danial’s too much of a possessive bastard. He hit her.”

  Anger focused my thoughts, remembering times I’d been hit myself by people who professed to love me. “Bastard. Did you smack him around a little, I hope?”

  “Yeah. They won’t be bothering her again.” He flashed me a proud smile.

  I didn’t reply. I had too much on my mind and it had nothing to do with what he’d just said. Every time Terian mentioned Sarelle, it was obvious that he still had feelings for her. While it hadn’t mattered when she’d merely been a woman he liked a few months ago, it was bracingly upsetting to know he still felt the same way now. Worse, he’d run off with barely two words to me, to risk his life to rescue her.

  “Do you mind if I stay here with you?” he asked awkwardly, coming closer to hug me. “I’d like to be like we were, back before I left,” He took a deep breath. “I won’t pressure you for anything more, Sun.”

  Leave off discussing Sarelle for now. Don’t ruin this. “Okay,” I said, squeezing him in my arms.

  Chapter Four

  The next six months were blissful. It was summer, the flowers were blooming, and I was in love. Terian and I went on picnics, went hiking in parks, swam in the local pool, and made love at every opportunity. Yet even as I was blissfully having it all, I began to wonder at some of my lover’s odd habits.

  Terian never seemed to get too hot, even on the hottest day. He didn’t seem to sweat at all, except when we made love for hours, and even then, it was barely noticeable. Yet sometimes his skin seemed hotter than it should be, to the point where touching him was uncomfortable. Weirder still was that happened most often when I startled him.

  He seemed to like food of all kinds, but sometimes he ate meat that was so rare it sickened me. He always said he’d cooked it, but it looked completely raw to me. I told myself that was quirky, but not abnormal. And if I felt my skin crawl sometimes when something upset him, I chalked that up to my empathizing with him. But what bothered me the most was our sex life.

  It was plain weird that he refused to have sex with me without a condom, even after I got a clean bill of health from my gyno along with some birth control pills. I used all the normal arguments guys had always used on me: it will feel better, its more natural, we’re protected, but to no avail. Terian just repeated that it wasn’t safe, and that he wouldn’t have sex without a condom, period. So I shrugged and agr
eed, thinking him paranoid.

  What broke us wasn’t any of this, though; it was his refusal to let me see his real eyes.

  Terian had worn colored contacts the whole time I’d known him. Sure, they were the kind people wore for a month at a time; that wasn’t the problem. After being with him for six months, I just wanted to know what color his eyes really were. Yet Terian flatly refused to let me see him when he changed his lenses out. I tried asking nicely, then bluntly, then angrily. He just refused, quietly reiterating again that the eyes he was born with weren’t very pretty, and then requested that I leave it alone.

  I didn’t leave it alone, of course; I just bided my time. Finally, in October, I got my chance.

  Terian was opening his new contacts in the bathroom behind a locked door when his phone rang. When I heard him answer it, I knew I had just a few seconds to get in there and solve the mystery. Jimmying open the door quietly with the top of a pen, I peeked in. Terian’s back was to the door, so he didn’t see me. I still don’t know to this day how he missed hearing me, but some of his distraction likely was because the person he was talking to was the infamous Sarelle, known as Sar to her friends.

  She called every week now, though Terian didn’t tell me why or what they talked about. But he’d often go for walks alone after they talked, and then return home eager for sex. I didn’t need it spelled out for me that Theo wasn’t in the picture with Sar anymore, and that Terian was thinking hard about leaving me to go to her. He’d slipped once and said something to the effect that I resembled her. After that, I couldn’t help feeling jealous of her, even though I knew he hadn’t been with her or anyone else since he’d come back to me.

  Terian looked up in the mirror. I let out a gasp. I’d expected hazel eyes, grey eyes, or maybe even icy blue eyes. But his eyes were none of those. His eyes were bright, deep red.

  I turned to run. Terian had hold of me before I’d gone a step, angrier than I had ever seen him. “You wanted to see! Go ahead, look!”

  “What are you?” I demanded.

  “I’m half demon,” he grated out.

  “How?”

  “My human mother had sex with a demon,” he said sarcastically. “You do know how sex works, right?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not,” he said suddenly, hugging me. “I wanted to tell you, Sun. I was afraid though, afraid you’d be scared of me.” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t want you to be scared of me.”

  “I’m not,” I said slowly. “I’m not scared.”

  “Good, because I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” he said anxiously. He went to one knee. “Would you marry me, Sundown?”

  I felt like throwing up.

  “I love you,” Terian went on. “I should have told you sooner, but...I needed to work some things out for myself. Now that I have, I want to be with you.”

  “What about Sarelle?”

  Terian blushed. “She told me she didn’t like me as more than a friend. Nothing’s changed. She...she’s—”

  So I get you by default. No. “I can’t marry you,” I said, letting out a long breath. “I don’t want to get married, Terian. Not even to you, and I like you a lot—”

  “You wouldn’t have to give up your, um...lifestyle. Things would be like they are now.”

  “Then why can’t they stay like this?” I asked bluntly. “I couldn’t wear a ring for you, not even an engagement ring, not to work. My boss frowns on that, says it makes the customers think they can’t ask us to dance, if we’re married.”

  “Then he’s an asshole!”

  “Terian—”

  “Look, I have a lot of money now! You don’t have to sell yourself! You could do anything you wanted, go back to school, get a degree—”

  I felt one of my legendary rages coming on. Who is he to think I needed to better myself? I’m fine like I am!

  “I don’t want a fucking degree! I want my own life! I want to do what I want, and that’s not marrying any fucking demon!”

  “Half-demon! I’m only half!”

  “What’s that mean anyway? You tell me you want me to marry you, but only because I accidentally find out what you are?”

  “No,” Terian said, hurt. He went to his drawer, and took out a box. “I got this for you a month ago. But I didn’t want to rush you. I was willing to wait years if that’s what it took, decades even, until you began to age, and maybe decided marriage wasn’t so bad.”

  I got an ominous feeling and went perfectly still, as what he was saying sunk in. “Until I began to age?” I repeated in slow measured words. “‘I’? Why not ‘we’?”

  “I don’t age,” Terian said sadly. “I’ll look like this in another fifty years, Sun. But—”

  “How old are you?” I whispered, staring at him.

  “Seventy or so,” he said in a low, broken tone.

  I lost it right there. “Seventy!” I cackled. “And you were a virgin! How could you have waited seventy years to get laid?”

  “I thought I might hurt a human woman, if I was with her,” he replied, tears in his eyes. “I didn’t know what I was.” He swallowed hard. “I only recently learned that I wouldn’t, but that I’d have to use condoms, always.”

  “I’m not marrying you! You love Sarelle!”

  “She doesn’t love me!” he roared, and I felt an unseen wave of black evil come out of him and wash over me. I let out a scream, and like magic, it dissipated as if it had never appeared. But the memory of it lingered, making my skin crawl. I backed away from Terian, my eyes wide and scared.

  He started toward me. “Sun, I’m sorry.”

  “Get out!” I spat at him. “You’re evil! I can feel it, Terian! Get out! Get out and don’t come back!”

  “Sun, I love you!”

  “I don’t love you! Get out, or I’m calling the cops!”

  Terian gave me one last pained look, and then he packed his things, and left.

  When he had gone, I spent the rest of that night crying, because I had lied to him. I did love him. And I’d quit my job earlier that day, because I knew he wanted me to, and I had been hoping that he was going to pop the question.

  * * * *

  I moped around my apartment for a while. What was the point in going anywhere? I no longer had a person who wanted to spend time with me. I told myself that he’d lied to me about what he was. He’d kept it from me, and he was an evil being, the kind every religion in the world said was in league with the devil. So what if he was half-human? So what if he’d been the one man who’d never hurt me? I told myself repeatedly that it didn’t matter, and didn’t stop repeating the litany until I finally believed it.

  I went later that day and got my job back at Hotcakes. It wasn’t as if I needed the money right away. Terian had left me money in our joint account, enough to live on for a while. But it was going to run out eventually. It wasn’t great to be ogled again, especially after I’d been telling myself all week I was done with that, but I’d done it before. And I took to it like I’d never left.

  Days passed, then weeks, then a month. But the time that went by didn’t help the loss I felt at not having Terian in my life. If anything, it made it worse. Every day I’d spent with Terian seemed to have taken on a rosy glow, like the best memories always do. I remembered all the good times we had touched, and been happy together, and how good it had been, having someone for the first time in my life who had loved me, really loved me.

  Had I made the biggest mistake of my life? I was feeling more and more like I had ruined the only good thing I’d ever had. That feeling of self-destruction lingered and grew day by day, as I became more and more sure that there was no point in anything I did, and that the pain I felt was not only permanent, it was warranted.

  Eventually, that self-contempt drove me to my worst dive bar. It was a rough place, one I went to only when I was feeling truly awful, and wanted to find a man to make me forget my pain. Davy’s was a good place for that. There were always a lot of rough men
there, no matter the night. If I was blatant about what I was looking for, I knew it wouldn’t take long to find one. Maybe if I had sex with someone else, I could move on. It was a given that whoever I picked up here wouldn’t be a knight in shining armorhe’d be a coarse bastard. Yet I was confident that I could handle any situation that cropped up; I always had before. And if something happens, it’s just what I deserve.

  Oddly, when I walked in that night, Davy’s was practically empty. Where is everyone? It’s Saturday night.

  The jukebox was on, playing “Sympathy for the Devil” by Guns and Roses. The weird thing was it was playing quietly, the normal super loud volume turned down to barely audible. I could just hear the song over the sound of some scuffling noises coming from the back room, where the pool tables were.

  I wandered into the back room, and found the source of those noises. A man was sitting on the pool table, a woman astride him, and she was riding him so hard the table legs were rocking. He had her hair gripped in his fist, pulling it back as she rode him.

  God, that’s bizarre! Who the fuck has sex like this out in public? I was so shocked I couldn’t speak. I just stared at them with my mouth open.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Gary the barkeep whispered. He was cowering behind the bar, his eyes scared. “Get out of here, Sundown.”

  “Why?” I murmured.

  “Now, Gary,” a clear and beautiful voice intoned. “You’ll frighten your one legitimate customer. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

  I turned to the sound of the voice, and saw a tall dazzling blond man in back of me. He was very good-looking, his build much like Terian’s; tall and broad shouldered. But his coloring was fair, very fair, his heart-shaped face almost like an angel’s. His eyes were a weird light shade of brown I found unsettling. Wait, are those red tints? Is he a fucking demon too?

  “Come and sit with me,” he whispered, taking my hand, and bringing it to his lips. “My friend doesn’t like to be watched.”

  I looked back over to see both man and woman had stopped having sex, and were staring at me with hostility. Though I had every right to be where I was, I blushed red and turned away.