by Marian Tee
Right now, Dyvian wasn’t his usual fashion plate self. He was wearing a jumpsuit of some revolting shade of orange. “Why are you dressed like that?”
“I couldn’t exactly wear a Gucci when I’m disguised as a garbage truck driver, could I?”
I clasped my hands in a show of gratitude. “Oh, the things you do for me,” I gushed. “I am forever in your debt.”
His eyes danced with sly, wicked humor. “Not to me, surely, but perhaps Lucian? After all, he’s the one who had to kiss you for a long, long time so you could get warm. So tell me, Deli, sister of my heart, where and how exactly did he kiss—”
“Enough.” A familiar shade of red darkened Lucian’s sharp cheeks.
It made me giggle and forget my embarrassment.
“It was the only way,” he said defensively.
“I could have kissed her,” Dyvian pointed out.
“Over my dead body.”
Dyvian and I succumbed to laughter, further increasing the sense of déjà vu.
When Dyvian had sufficient control of his mirth, he sprang to his feet and smiled down at me. “I hope to see you back home with us, Deli.” He waved jauntily before disappearing from view.
“That…was his most polite way of giving us time alone.” Lucian cleared his throat. “Deli—”
“Where are we?” I blurted out. I wasn’t ready yet to talk about what had happened at DVC.
“The park,” he answered, and I had a feeling he was disappointed at my question. “Just below Hallir’s cave, if you want to know. We stopped here to rest and wait for you to regain consciousness.”
“The cannon,” I breathed out, remembering what made me unconscious in the first place. “What happened?”
“It didn’t fire. Dyvian swiped it away in time. Then you fainted in my arms.” He inhaled. “You tried to save my life.”
“I would’ve done it for anyone.”
“I see.”
His mind, which remained unbarred, showed me how my words had hurt him, and I almost confessed it was a lie. But I didn’t. Not just yet…
“The Zekan…Aure-something…”
“Aurelius.” A ghost of a smile flickered on his face. “You can memorize the names of a million celebrities yet you can’t even manage one name of your enemy?”
I sniffed. “They matter. He doesn’t.”
Silence resumed between us, and though I could normally talk a mile a minute, I couldn’t think of a way to postpone the inevitable. I just didn’t want to risk finding out that all he had done was out of guilt, that he had realized he had overreacted and that he didn’t really love me. Inconvenient truths were hell.
Lucian gently hauled me up so I could rest against his chest. He tilted my face toward him. “You’re thinking silly thoughts again.”
“Are you reading—”
“No. But I know you.” He paused. “And I love you.”
I burst into tears.
To his credit, he didn’t even wince. “I’m sorry, Deli. I’m sorry for deceiving you, but I promise you with all my heart I meant you no harm. I just couldn’t help listening. I’ve never trusted anyone and then there you were, and I could hear your every thought.”
“Why was it so important for you to know my thoughts?” I whispered.
“Because I liked you right from the start and I was scared. You made me feel weak…weaker even than I had ever been when I was young. You made me feel almost…helpless.”
He stroked my face, tenderly tucking away the wisps of hair that had plastered themselves on the sweat-drenched skin of my forehead. “I have to be honest. I don’t think I even wanted to tell you,” he confessed awkwardly. “If I had stopped hearing your thoughts, I never would have had the courage to love you.”
“Coward,” I said between sobs.
“Indubitably,” he agreed in a grimly self-mocking tone. “It was cowardice that stopped me from telling you we were immortal, fearing that you would change because of it. It was cowardice that made me call you my ward when I wanted the whole world to know you were mine and that I was so damn lucky to have you love me. I was scared that you would think one day I was too old and boring and leave me. It was cowardice that made me stop from telling Dyvian he was right…that I love you.”
“Jerk.” I was crying harder than before, after hearing him say things I had never ever dreamt he’d be able to utter.
He winced. “I know. But I’ve learned from my mistakes, Deli. And I never make the same mistake twice.” He cupped my face and bared his soul. “I love you.”
Remembering how hurt I had been by his deception, I couldn’t make myself let things go just like that. “What if I don’t love you anymore?”
The hand stroking my hair lovingly stilled for a moment. Then he sighed and—his hand trembling just the slightest bit—resumed its rhythm. “I see.” There was no emotion behind his words.
“That’s it? You’ll let me go then?”
“Of course not,” he denied, shock visible in his face.
I was confused. “But—”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go.” His arms tightened around me, as if the mere thought of it was already a threat and I wanted to cry even more.
“I’ll just make you love me again. I have an eternity to do it.”
That was my cue for my happily ever after, but I wasn’t done torturing him. Maybe I was being vengeful and bitter, but Lucian had known everything about me through my thoughts. He had to give me the same privilege. It was the only way I could feel we were on equal footing.
“And what if I love Michael?” I held my breath.
He had gone still again. “Do you?”
“Just answer my question.”
“I’ll step back…”
I tried to hide my disappointment, knowing I should be flattered but I wasn’t. I liked it better if he fought for me instead.
“…And then I’ll wait for him to die before I work on making you fall in love with me again,” he ended.
I gaped, unable to believe someone as honorable and well, proper, as Lucian could think something like that. “That’s so…yucky?”
“I love you that much,” he said so simply and, of course, I had to burst into another bout of tears.
Giving up fighting the inevitable, I babbled almost incoherently, “I love you, Lucian. I love you, and I really missed you, and I thought about you all the time, and I—”
He pressed one finger to my lips, his eyes wary. “Does this mean,” he asked slowly, “you forgive me?”
“Like I could ever not forgive you.”
“But—”
I pulled his face down and kissed him, not in the mood to hear all his stupid reasons for thinking he wasn’t worth forgiving. A long, luxurious sigh escaped me as our lips touched. This was what I had been aching to do since he tried “warming” me up to turn invisible.
When he finally lifted his lips from mine, I said quickly, “I want something.”
“Anything,” he replied with such speed and certainty I couldn’t help kissing him again.
“Well?” he prodded with a smile when we broke apart.
I gave him my best angelic smile and said, quite baldly, “I want to…uhh…I want to make love to you.” I was stumbling all over the words, but I was determined to say my peace.
He smiled back, dazzlingly so, and his answer was just as quick and certain as earlier. “No.”
“Lucian.”
“Don’t be absurd,” he scolded gently. “You’re still too young.”
“But I hate it that Angelica knows you that way and I don’t.”
He kissed my pouting lips, my nose, my hair, and in a second, he was carrying me in his arms, walking toward the park entrance.
“Lucian,” I nagged.
“You’re still too young.”
“You did it with Angelica. She’ll always make it seem like I don’t know you as well as she does—”
“Then she’s wrong because you know me where it
really counts.”
I had to giggle. “Lucian, is that you? That was so mushy.”
He muttered something incoherent and distracted me by nuzzling my cheek.
“Wait.”
He stopped the delicious things he was doing with his lips and raised a brow.
“How long do I have to wait?”
“At least till you graduate from college,” he replied after a while.
“That’s too long,” I wailed.
“Don’t be such a baby. Besides, if you want to worry about something, consider your sister.”
That shut me up.
He groaned. “I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to say.”
“But you’re right.”
“No, I’m not. I’m a cold, tactless jerk and I’m lucky I have you. Davie’s all right,” he assured me. “I suppose you know the Zekan prince is in love with her?”
I nodded.
“He’s a good sort, actually. Just…misguided. It’s really too bad he’s Zekan. I’m certain he’ll keep her from harm, but if you want us to try rescuing her now, we will.”
“No,” I decided after a moment. “I trust you, Lucian. If you say it’s better to wait for her to get well then that’s what we’ll do.” My eyes narrowed. “But back to what we’re talking about—”
“No negotiations.” He nuzzled my cheek.
I sighed, told myself I had an eternity to convince him otherwise, to quit complaining, and enjoy Lucian’s newly discovered affectionate side.
###
AWAKENED
The Zombie Who Loved Me
Draugar
Draugar come from fallen warriors the Goddess has breathed into life to guard skat, which are the greatest and rarest living treasures of the earth. They are immortal but not impossible to kill and the majority of these warriors originated from Scandinavia, during a time when Vikings ruled the land and sea.
Never talk to strangers. I’m a nerd. I should have known better. But I’m a sucker for helpless old women. Who knew she’d turn out to be an evil goblin in disguise?
Chapter One
“Is it still far?” I was getting nervous. Tivoli Gardens, with its pretty lights and camera-wielding tourists, was fast becoming a dot in the distance. Imperial Hotel, where I shared a room with the other back-up dancers, was good as gone. Worst of all, I had no idea how to get back.
Better worry about it later, though. The important thing was to help this poor lady save her kittens.
“Alvaws jizr,” she wheezed, leading me to a darkened alley.
That translated to ‘almost near’. It had taken me a bit of time to understand her accented English; if I had my eyes closed, I would’ve mistaken her voice for a car engine.
“Great!” I tried to keep my voice moderate, knowing how my American accent could grate on Scandinavian ears.
Peering doubtfully at the menacing shadows moving over the vandalized walls, I asked warily, “Are you sure---”
“Hurry! I can hear them crying.”
Ooh. Never came across octogenarian hearing this good. Mine heard zero. “Coming,” I called back. I felt around for the walls, taking baby steps. My glasses – steel-rimmed, broken more times I could count, and a hundred points below my grade – were not enough to give me 20/20 vision at night.
And then she was gone.
“Granny?”
“I’m here,” a voice whispered near my ear. I turned just in time to see Granny’s sweet, wrinkly face morph into a not-so-sweet hook-nosed monster.
What the---
Then my world exploded in sheer agony, her blow taking me by surprise and sending my eyeglasses to God knew where.
The old lady wasn’t so helpless after all: anyone with an uppercut like that could make Manny Pacquiao see stars. Then again, the old lady wasn’t an old lady in the first place.
I thrashed in her hold, violently. Everything was a blur without my glasses, making me miss more than I hit. But it didn’t matter. All I could think of was my stepmom and how I just could not die. She wouldn’t have anyone else if I did.
“Stay still,” Granny Monster growled.
“Piss off---”
Gunshots burst in the night, cutting me off. Before my mind could digest what was happening, Granny Monster suddenly shrieked.
Her hold loosened, followed by the thud of her body as it fell.
I dove to the ground, grimacing in pain as my elbows scraped against the rough surface. I covered my head, keeping myself flat as more rapid gunfire pierced the air. What. The. Heck. Was. Happening?
One second, two, three, five seconds passed. There were sounds of a scuffle, more gunfire, and lots of those growling machinery noise, but miraculously, I was still alive.
I began groping around the snow-coated ground for my glasses. Somewhere around this dark and dreadful alley, my glasses would be on the icy ground, shivering. Poor glasses. Poor me. We were lost without each other.
My hand came into contact with warm dead flesh. Ugh. I almost gagged but went on searching. Another obstacle came. Leather. Maybe a shoe---
“Gwargh!” was the best I could manage. You couldn’t do much more when someone had you by the neck and your feet were dangling in the air.
“Vrrr zrrr brrr!” Just my luck to have Captor #2 not understand I was verbally waving the white flag.
“Don’t…speak…Danish,” I gasped out.
His grip tightened. He spewed out more Transformer-like noise and a generous amount of spit.
“Don’t…speak…German…either.”
I did my best to score a punch, but it was hard to hit your target when you were 99% blind.
Captor #2 suddenly made a gargling sound and his fingers uncurled its chokehold. A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I waited for him to dump me on the ground or smash my head against the floor but instead, I found myself another person’s captive.
Honestly – WHAT THE HECK WAS HAPPENING?
Captor #3 had slimy bumpy skin. I wasn’t exaggerating. He needed to be in the ER of some posh Beverly Hills dermatologist’s clinic, pronto.
His arm fastened around my waist in an iron hold, and I might as well have been in chains. I screamed and bounced as he started to run. Held my breath, too, because Captor #3 stank like rotten vegetables. And by God he felt huge, if his thunderous footsteps were any indication.
“Please let me go! You’ve got the wrong person!” I had to make them realize that. I was just a lowly, nerdy b-girl on her first time in Denmark – heck, make that my first time outside Florida! I was here to dance back-up for a pop star. My kind didn’t get involved with stuff like this. Wild victory parties and having flings with celebrities, yes. Crazy, violent pseudo-grannies and shootouts, never.
“NO.” His voice was deep and rumbling, sort of like a thunder hinting of a Category 5 typhoon, drowning out the noise of gunfire. I wished it wasn’t so, but I had a very bad feeling all those guns were trained on me and that was why I could feel Captor #3 twisting and turning as we continued to run from…who? Captor #4 to infinity?
I tried getting out of his hold one more time, but it was impossible. Every one of my captors seem to be inhumanly strong, darn it. “Let me go!”
“I’m not---”
“Quiet!” His hiss was more like a dragon’s than a snake’s.
“But I’m not---”
“You are Dazzle White---” Captor #3 crouched and swung me down to carry me by the waist at his side as I felt him crawl into some sort of tunnel-like passageway.
“---and I have been awakened to protect you.” He got to his feet and swung me back up over his shoulder.
Fear and relief made me dizzy. Okay, the roller-coaster twists and turns helped, too. The sound of gunfire was fading, and all I could hear was the heavy pounding of my captor’s footsteps. My mind tried to take it all in.
The bad news: my name was Dazzle White.
The good news: stinky Captor #3 may turn out to be Rescuer #1.
Chapter Two
The gentle rush of a nearby stream and the rustle of leaves woke me up. A city girl by heart, I found the sounds almost unnerving. The only time I heard them was when I had a bucket of popcorn with me.
