“I’m afraid not, my prince.”
“Dad, please cut the prince crap. It feels weird.”
“Well, becoming an actual royal instead of just a royal pain in the ass hasn’t changed him a bit,” Rusty said, getting up. “Can we all go now? I bet they’re cold and they’re wet.”
“Best take them to the ambulance and let them check both of them out,” Henry’s father said.
I looked then, only now noticing the ambulance with its lights off parked just beyond. The crew stood, staring slack-jawed. I pitied them, then. I hoped they wouldn’t be killed to keep the secret of the monster from the deep they’d seen.
“Yeah,” one of the paramedics said. “Um, we can do that.” He hurried toward us. “Fucking weirdest call I’ve ever been out on,” he said. “I feel like I walked into the sequel of The Rocky Horror Show.”
Shannon giggled at that. “It’s just a step to your left…”
I smiled then, happiness at hearing his feeble joke settling my jitters. If he could make jokes now, he’d be okay. I was sure of it.
They gave us the all-clear, our hearts beating as they should and our breathing normal. A lot of money then changed hands.
“No one would believe us anyway,” the one said, the man who’d made the Rocky Horror reference. The other man agreed. They both got back into the ambulance and drove off.
“I’ll contact the hospital administrator when we get home and have that report and call out scrubbed,” Dad said.
Henry’s father nodded. Rusty’s father sighed in resignation, then signaled his mutual agreement.
“What about Roy? He’s still down there,” Shannon spoke up.
“And he can stay there until he washes up or someone else finds him,” Henry’s father said. “Best thing we can do is say he tried to kidnap you, but failed, and he ran away.”
“And we didn’t call the police why?” Shannon pressed.
“Oh, they’ll be a police report in place,” Rusty’s father said. “They’ll issue an APB on him. “He walked away, pulling his phone out and tapping the screen. He then began to press buttons on the side of the phone.
“Is he calling them now?” Shannon hissed as we were herded back to the car we’d arrived in.
“He’s talking to the chief, yes,” Henry’s father confirmed.
“I best call your mom,” Dad said to me. “I bet if I turn my phone on, it’ll blow up from her trying to find out what’s happening.” He grimaced. “We had to mute our phones and then turn them off, as they kept pinging us and ringing while we were trying desperately to listen for you.”
“Thanks,” I said.
He nodded. “I was terrified that I’d lost yet another son,” he said. “I couldn’t face telling her that.”
“Another son? You had a brother?” asked.
Dad took out his phone and switched it on. He was right, it blew up immediately with notifications.
* * *
The drive home was filled with nothing but explanations. Explanations made while on speaker to tell those left behind at the gala that we’d found Shannon and to meet us at the penthouse so all that needed to be said could be done once. Then half-assed explanations to Shannon, that we weren’t human. That Arrakus wasn’t a demon, he was a being from the Void, but that his kind had given rise to many of the legends about Kraken, demons you made bargains with, and more. He sat back, overwhelmed. Then we were in front of the condo, and the car dropped us off, turning around to take the rest of the passengers home. They had people to call and could hear about how this went down, in the morning.
“I still have so many questions,” Shannon said.
“Let’s go in, get you showered and in something warm, and then we shall give you all the answers you want, my prince,” Dad said.
I really wished he would cut that out.
We rode the elevator up in silence, Shannon holding my hand but standing away from me, his body language betraying his conflicting emotions about my inhuman status.
“I’d like to shower and change alone,” he said, dropping my hand as we entered the penthouse. My heart sank.
