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That I can do. Obigor is asleep on my lap but doesn’t mind too much being settled on the warm seat I have recently vacated. I shut the door, and give my attention to Order, who is looming over me with a stern expression on his handsome face. He’s still wearing normal human clothing which keeps his extra limbs secret from the world, but he has pushed his sunglasses up so his lower two most human eyes are focused on me with bright blue intensity.
“You are my pet. I do not expect obedience yet, because naturally you imagine yourself to be an independent woman who need not answer to any mutant monster creature. But when you meet my family, you will be obedient. I will not have them thinking that I have been emotionally ensnared by a rebellious, disrespectful…”
“Are we talking about me?” I have to interrupt him.
“Yes, we are talking about you.”
“I’m not rebellious or disrespectful. I think you’re thinking of Sally. She’s very rebellious and disrespectful.”
There is a brief pause where he considers what I said.
“You might be right,” he says. “I have not been impressed by the people I have encountered thus far, Sally especially. But you, my dear sweet human pet, are not without your own misbehavior.”
“Are you sure?” I smile sweetly. “I feel as though I’ve done everything you’ve asked, in the way you’ve asked. Maybe you’re disappointed that I’m not more disobedient.”
“No, Tessie.”
I notice that he is working on something between his hands, something made of the web that springs from the tips of his fingers. I am curious, leaning back against the car door, wondering what his plan his. Then wondering what my plan is. I don’t have one, I suppose. I am being carried along by fate and the mystery, the sisterly need to find my partner, Sally, and my intense curiosity.
He is weaving his silk into something like a collar. It’s pale and white and not quite gothic but very beautiful because this is not mere plain silken material. His fingers dance and create patterns in the weft. I recognize them as my name. He has spelled T E S S I E out in the thicker strands.
“That is so pretty!”
“It is more than pretty,” he tells me. “It marks you as mine. It will show you who you belong to if you are ever tempted to forget. He approaches me with a masterful bearing. “Kneel for me.”
I look down at the ground. There’s cigarette ash and little shards of broken glass. I look back at him.
“Alright,” he says. “Don’t kneel. Just come here.”
He beckons me toward him. I feel a little pang of amusement and tenderness. He is trying so hard to claim me, and yet the circumstances just won’t allow it. The world keeps intruding on us with its mysteries and inconveniences.
I take three steps toward him and he places his freshly made collar around my neck. It clings firmly to my throat in what feels like a dominant grip on both the front and the back of my neck. I am being held by him and he’s not even touching me.
I did not expect this collar to have any real effect on me. I was merely humoring him when I let him put it on. But now it is on, I feel a surge of something very like submission, and even more like belonging. It feels warm, and safe, and right. It transforms this rest stop into a nearly enchanted place. The sunlight coming through the trees is beautiful, dappled light falling over us both.
“Night is coming, and we are still distant,” he says, letting his fingertips caress my cheek. “We should continue on our way.”
“We are going to need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to regroup and to plan what we will do if it turns out that your home isn’t safe to visit. We’ll need to call for backup.”
“No backup,” he says as we get back on the road. “No police.”
“Uh, I am police, my guy.”
That gets me another sharp look. He doesn’t like it when I’m too casual. I think he thinks it is disrespectful.
“You have no jurisdiction here.”
“Chief Connor can and will call in the cavalry for us if he has to. He’s not planning on losing another member of his staff. He doesn’t like having to meet new people. If Sally and I both go missing, his precinct will be entirely out of detectives.”
“I have no intention of letting you go missing, and we do have a place to stay. A secondary location. My family has several.”
“You mean like a cabin?”
“Not quite.”
* * *
“Order. This is a hole in the ground.”
