“Then what seems to be the problem?”
“I ... uh ... It’s just an issue with him trying to get approvals ...” And marry me. I shake my head. “I think I can handle it, for now.”
“Well, keep me in the loop. We don’t have him on assignment for the next few weeks, for obvious reasons, which means you shouldn’t have much contact with him. Though I appreciate the information you’ve been able to provide about him, I don’t want you engaging if it’s at risk to your safety or general well-being.”
“Right. I’ll just stay away from Taranis for now.” And I’ll try to stay away from Darius too.
Chapter Twenty
Darius
I’m lying buck-ass naked on the rail of my balcony, contemplating life, the universe, and everything, my hands locked behind my head, my feet crossed at the ankles.Just leave. It’s been two days since she said those words to me. I haven’t seen her since. I haven’t seen anyone since, but somehow it’s not seeing her that’s bothered me more.
I reach up and twiddle my horns. I’m starting to like them. The sun shines down on my skin, warming me. I still haven’t been to the COE, even though they’ve called me incessantly since my reversion. I will need to go see Sandra and her design team eventually because I need something that fits, especially if I want to be seen in public again with Monika.
And I plan to.
The online chatter, I haven’t paid much attention to, though the couple times I’ve tried turning on the TV, I’ve seen those irritating images of me reverting alongside Cynthia’s elated face. There’s a lot of speculation about what’s gone on between us. The world seems very aware that Cynthia is in the hospital with two broken legs and that I haven’t gone to see her. It’s the first time I’ve seen negative press about myself hit the big screen and it feels ...
It feels liberating.
I grin slyly up into the sun, baring my fangs to the clouds as if in challenge. I think I have decided. I may not have figured out my entire life, but I have figured out my next few days. Fuck, kill, kill, destroy is feeling a little less ... optimal now that I’ve got Monika’s annoying words ringing through my head. I might need to amend them.
Fuck Monika.
Marry Monika.
Destroy the weapons.
The Marduk can live, so long as he stays out of my way. As for the COE? I suppose I could consider leaving it intact. Or just leaving it.
I’m about to get up and descend a few floors to act on parts one and two of my plans when the phone in my pocket starts buzzing with a sound it’s never made before.
I pull out my phone and stare at the red warning light flashing, taking up the entire screen.Incoming...Aerial Object Incoming...Incoming... I glance out at the Sundale skyline over my right shoulder and cock my head as the next breeze sweeps my skin, cooler and harsher than the last. I can just barely make out the speck of golden color traveling toward me at an alarming rate, and I smirk, sitting up on the rail, my tail curling around it for balance.
Interesting.
I watch the golden imbecile materialize in sharp clarity, his clothing rippling over his body in the wind he creates as he dives like a bullet straight toward me. For whatever reason, I don’t feel compelled to stop him.
The weight of his body hits me from the front with full force. I had the presence of mind to slide my electric glass balcony doors open or else we would have gone straight through them as he tackles me onto the polished concrete floor of my living room. I’m able to form an electrical current around myself that buffets some of the impact, though it doesn’t help when the Marduk straddles my chest, lifts a fist, and then hits me. The bastard punched me in the face!
I can’t remember the last time I was punched. Clawed and daggered, shot and set aflame, sure, but punched? Like a human would punch another human? It’s the shock of it that keeps me from doing anything, and I’m horrified to find that being punched in the eye actuallyhurts.
“Ow!” I yowl, shoving a lightning-filled hand against his chest and sending him flying off me and back onto the balcony.
The sunlight glints off his appallingly golden hair. He looks like that ugly lion from the story of the girl who went to the magical land and murdered a bunch of people. I always liked that girl’s deceitfully carnivorous energy, though I never understood why she kept so many friends missing essential body parts.
“Youdareattack me in my own home?” I gasp.
He advances on me, coming to lord over me, and grabs me by the throat, but only because I let him. It’s very strange, being so much larger than he is now. “Youdare ...”
“I dare? I dare what?” Even if I’d been blindfolded, I’d know who it was by the smell. He smells like rain, and the sound of thunder accompanies him. I meet his gaze and see that his eyes are black with red streaks. Hmm. They don’t often get red with me.
His hand clenches around my throat. Wind batters me from all sides. But that’s fine. I know I could kill him now in ... one, two,threeways very easily. I could electrocute his mind until he was nothing but a vegetable, or I could stab my claws through his stomach, root around in there a bit, and pull his heart out through his bellybutton, or I could do both simultaneously.
“Why did you go to the coffee shop?”
The fuck? “Excuse me?”
