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He was going to kill whoever was making her scream.
4
LILI
Lili couldn’t believe what a strange and interesting turn the night had taken. She’d gone from running for her life to meeting two extremely interesting and attractive Kindred warriors. So interesting in fact, that she wanted to get to know them better—that hadn’t happened to her with any man in years.
Her best friend, Rachel, was always saying she wanted to set Lili up with one of the big alien warriors, but Lili had always declined before, saying she wasn’t interested. She liked the Kindred, but she also liked being single—mainly because she’d had a really bad marriage in the past. Her ex, Mitch, hadn’t been abusive, but he had been a big man-baby, which was nearly as bad.
The worst thing about Mitch was that he hadn’t wanted to help around the house in any way—he didn’t even clean up the messes he made himself! He didn’t cook or wash the dishes when she cooked. He even refused to do his own laundry and when Lili had stopped doing it, in protest of their uneven division of labor, he had simply taken it down the street to his mother’s house and let her do it for him.
What a Mama’s boy, Lili thought in disgust as she remembered her lazy, good for nothing ex. One good thing about being with Dark Kindred would be that there was no Mother-in-law to contend with. Since the two of them had been grown in a tank, there would be no in-laws at all. How great would that be?
Don’t be silly—what are you thinking? she asked herself as she found her way into the ladies bathroom, and pushed open the door. There was a thumb bolt on the door for privacy, which she would have locked if there had been only one toilet. However, there were two stalls and one of them was occupied.
Lili left the door unlocked, went into the empty stall, and settled herself to do her business. But her mind was still on Dark and Light—she just couldn’t stop thinking of the two big warriors.
You just met them and besides, what happened to “single for life?” she asked herself.
That had been her motto after her divorce. Things had gotten so bad in her marriage that it had turned her off ever wanting to be with any man again.
The relationship, which had been rocky for some time, had really deteriorated after Mitch lost his job. Prior to that, both of them had been working and Lili had also been taking classes and working towards her degree. Despite her busy schedule, she had shouldered all of housework herself, since Mitch refused to help.
After he lost his job, she was paying for everything but she’d thought that at least now he would lend a hand around the house. What excuse could he give not to, since he wasn’t working?
As it turned out, Mitch didn’t need an excuse. He simply point-blank refused to do anything except lay around all day, making even more messes for her to clean up. Piles of dirty dishes on the coffee table greeted her every day when she came in from work and stinky socks and dirty underwear were dropped—seemingly at random—all over the floor.
If Mitch stirred himself to make anything at all for lunch, (his specialty was cheesy Ramen noodles) then the dirty, crusty pot would still be sitting on the stove. He wouldn’t even put it in the sink and run water in it so she wouldn’t have to spend half an hour scrubbing it to get the gunk out!
“You could at least load or unload the dishwasher!” Lili had told him during one of their many fights. “Or run a load of laundry. Or hell—even just make the bed for once—it wouldn’t kill you, you know!”
“That’s women’s work,” Mitch had snapped at her. “Don’t try to get me to do your job, babe—I wouldn’t ask you to do mine.”
“And what job are you talking about?” Lili had flared. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you got fired! And now you won’t help around the house, even though I’m paying for everything.”
Mitch’s face had gotten red and he gave her a sullen expression.
“Way to kick a guy when he’s down, Lil. I’m talking about the things I do around the house. Like mowing the lawn or raking the leaves or getting the car’s oil changed—stuff like that. Those are a man’s job, which is why I never ask you to help with them.”
“Those things don’t need doing all the time!” Lili had exclaimed in exasperation. “You mow the lawn at most once a week. And you rake the leaves a few times in Fall. You change the car’s oil two or three times a year. In the meantime, there are dirty dishes and dirty laundry to wash every single day. The bed has to be made, the floors have to get swept and mopped, food has to be shopped for and prepared for meals every single day. But you won’t help with any of it. How is that fair?”
Mitch had mumbled again about how men and women shouldn’t do each other’s jobs and pointed out how his parents had been married for forty years with the same division of labor and they were perfectly happy.
“But your Mom doesn’t have to work outside the house,” Lili reminded him. “Your parents’ generation could afford for a woman to be a stay-at-home mom and housewife—we can’t. I shouldn’t have to pay all the bills, go to classes several times a week, and also do all of the housework. It’s not right!”
“Well, you know babe, if you quit those stupid art classes, you’d have more time to get stuff done at home,” Mitch had pointed out. “I mean, what are you really gonna do with an Art degree anyway? It’s a pointless waste of time and money when you could be doing right by me and getting the house into shape. It’s kind of a sty in here, ya know?”
Lili had clenched her jaw in pure fury.
“It’s a sty because you lay around here all-day making messes for me to clean up!” she’d snarled through gritted teeth.
“Because cleaning the house is the woman’s job,” Mitch had insisted. “Along with other things.”
“Other things? What other things?” Lili demanded. “What else do you want me to do besides work a full-time job and then come home and pick up after your lazy ass while I also do all the shopping, cooking, and cleaning?”
“I’m talking about a wife’s most important job—her marital duty,” Mitch had said importantly. “Babe, we haven’t had sex in weeks—I have needs you know.”
“You have needs? Seriously?” Lili spat at him. “What about my need not to come home to a filthy house every day—filthy with messes you made?”
