Damn, baby, I thought, eyeing that glorious side of him, it was almost painful knowing I was about to ditchallof that. No. What was I thinking? I shook my head. I couldn’t stay. I could hurt him again. I was siphoning him! I’m… I’m a total freak.
I had to go. Now. If he woke up… I knew myself. I’d allow him to talk me into staying and then I’d never leave. And I’d hurt him. I would. And if I could hurt him… Couldhe?
Nope. I was going.
With that settled, I rushed out the door. About to close the door on everything I wanted, desperately trying to wrack my brain how I could hide this thing that was now my face, I spotted it. Snatching up the sun hat on the hook by the door, I stuffed it onto my head. I was a freak! A fishy, bobble eyed, hag haired, horse faced freak! I couldn't head into the Human realm like this.
It’s okay. It’s alright. I’ll just… figure it out. I had at least until I reached the barrier to figure this all out and get Human looking again. Surely I could go Human long enough to get back home?
Chapter 4
Segrid
She’d left me. I’d expected as much, and had planned to fake sleeping in the hopes she didn’t catch on, so that I might quietly track my beloved. What had happened? My sweet bottled up jug of sunshine was a siphon, and a rather strong one as my bond to her solidified and broke the bindings that must have been holding her powers back. Even now, my back itched with what were sure to be something like runes. I’d never had true runes. Now I had mating runes.
Upon waking from the deepest slumber I’d ever partaken of to find my Queen had absconded with my van, I found a cup of tea and bacon and sun butter sandwich awaiting me. She was thoughtful, my bonded. Whether she realized it or not, she was caring for her male. I grinned like a green youth at the thought. Savoring every drop of tea and bite of the sandwich I’d procured for her and she’d set out for me, my heart felt a little fuller.
The next part of my plan was unsure. The happiness threatening to fill me ceased momentarily as the troublesome discovery that had cropped up during our joining had made itself known. Now that I knewwhatwas tormenting my sunshine, the stench of death lingering on the mark, trying to steal pieces of her sunshine, an impossible feat but staining my Queen’s happiness all the same, I needed to know who.
My skin began to itch at the base of the back of my neck as I started to pace. One look down at myself and a wicked grin kicked up. I’d claimed my Queen. She was MINE now. Possessive satisfaction filled me. I would just like to see the fool dumb enough to taunt my sunshine try and invade her dreams now with her linked to me. I’d know. Then they’d pay. But I had no desire for her to fill with fear from another visit to find the fool. If it could be avoided and apprehend the rotted bastard, that was the better solution.
My smile fell once more. She was vulnerable as things were. We needed to finish the claiming. Yes, I had bonded to my Vivienne, but she had yet to bind herself to me. She was not aware of this, of course, but with her siphoning powers heightened, and Selkie half on the fritz, who was to know what could become of all of it? I hadn’t a chance to tell her.
The more I paced, the harder my neck itched, until I’d scrubbed it raw. Dropping my hand with a long sigh, realizing just what was happening, I turned, scowling, and stomped to the back door. Storming right out of it, letting the thick security screen door thud behind me heavily, the second my feet found the earth, mud began to coil up my legs, until it was covering my lower half.
“What?” I barked, glaring into the forest and just beyond. “Best be showin’ yerself,” I fairly growled, “not in the mood for trespassin’ an’ games.” My voice thickened, deepening, until I sounded a lot like my Da. His accent was mistaken time and again as if he’d gotten it from the Human realm, but it wasn’t quite like that. He came by it from his home dimension. While it could maybe pass for it, maybe, Da was not from anywhere near these parts or any common adjoining realm.
“Tha’ any way ta greet yer sire?” a very deep voice rumbled, shocking the stuffing right out of me.
“Da?” I blurted, blinking as the man appeared like an apparition or something. My hand slapped to the back of my neck and I scowled. He was welcomed here. There was no reason for my senses to warn me of him like an intruder. Helm would come to no harm by him.
“No’ tha’,” he grumbled out with his gravelly voice. Runes lit, glowing bright and blue, like his eyes, he jerked his bald head towards somewhere off behind. “Got a hound snoopin’, ye do.”
“A hound?” My eyebrows arched curiously, but the question in my eyes as our gazes met and he cocked his head assessingly, had nothing to do with the intruder.
Da began to fidget. I almost smiled. Almost. “Ma thought maybe you’d be needin’- Thought maybe-”
Saving him from himself, I ventured lightly, “Hersight’skicking up a fuss?” And to save him from having to speak further on it, I admitted, “Found my Queen. Bit o’ sunshine but she be dogged by a Fang. A Deado. Dreamwalker. Nasty fucker.” I couldn’t help it, my words thickening like my tongue had suddenly grown larger, until I was back to my childhood and the thick words only Da and Ma could make out.
Da gave a grunt. “Ye claim her?”
“Aye, sir.” I wasn’t about to cop up to allowing her to run off after partially solidifying our bond. The old man cared, and sometimes that just made things worse. Da wouldn’t ever admit it, but he liked to ‘help’. As soon as she claimed me back, the pit in my stomach for fibbing to my sire could ease. Until then, I’d deal with the peach of a pit.
Da drew closer. I was hoping on him keeping his distance until the smell of my lie dissipated. It wasn’t so much a lie as an omission… kind of.
“Use the hound,” Da turned suddenly like he was to take his leave. That was Da, though. I wouldn't be holding it against him.
“The hound?” Hmm. My hand went to my chin and I rubbed at it. I was surprised to find stubble there. I was to grow a beard now? Did my Queen like beards? A smile tugged at my mouth, imagining her dainty little pale fingers sifting through a wealth of red growth.
My neck began to bugger again. Taking a deep breath, inhaling until my chest threatened to burst, I let it out slowly. It took everything in me not to laugh. “Thought ye’d left?” Borrowing one of Gren’s odd phrases when he knows someone is within the perimeter of the marsh,I sensed a disturbance in the force.
A noise and cursing had my lips quirking. If his scent didn’t give him away, that odd other Ornthren smell he carried on him, a heavy musk that made me homesick for the bridge and the world like Helm he’d created for us beneath it, I lifted my head.
“Fittin’ an’ fair, seein’ as ye fibbed first an’ all,” he grumbled defensively. My arms crossed over my chest as Da lumbered back into view from the cover of heavy brush.
“Son,” he said without preamble.
“Da,” I greeted back, trying not to laugh at his attempt at, as Ma calls it, a do-over.
