Chapter 29

Nuada woke up abruptly. He pushed himself up from the bed and in total darkness touched the floor until he found his lance. He remained completely still. Alert. His dilated iris sucking in the little light available and his golden pupils reflecting it forwards. Silence. Nothing.

"Nuada?"

He turned around suddenly. Loreto's sleepy voice brought him back to reality. It took him a few minutes to remember. He wasn't in his shelter in New York's sewers but in the human agency for paranormal investigation. He wasn't alone, but with Loreto. In her bedroom. In the middle of the night. He left his lance out of his reach and went back to bed. Immediately Loreto clung to him and hugged him by his waist as she snuggled pressed to his chest, slightly yawning against his skin. The softness and warmth of her naked body against his moved him. He hugged her strongly by her back towards him and kissed her head. He recalled the last hours. They had made love. He didn't remember when was the last time he had loved and been loved with such intensity. Probably when Bethmoora was still intact in all its glory and honor and his biggest worry was how to make a space between his lengthy training sessions to meet up with the elf who took his breath away. Her memory vanished with time. She had been one of the many casualties of the Great War. Back then he couldn't think about starting a family, for his father still reigned and he would continue doing so for eons to come. War changed everything. His once open and kind heart filled itself with revenge, venom and the pain of treason. He had never again thought of love with his heart so heavy with rage and resentment. The temptation of flesh had subdued his will on many occasions. His golden blood still ran hot through his veins and his heart always continued beating slowly and strongly in his chest. However, in those rare opportunities he allowed himself to feel sorry for himself in the small hours of the night under some bridge or climbed on some attic of the world in the darkness and on his own, he always concluded he hadn't been conceived to love but called to fight. The life of a warrior doesn't allow for any love promises. Any day can be the last, any encounter can be lethal.

Loreto let out a faint moan and made herself comfortable, clinging to his torso. Nuada smiled. What had he done to deserve a new chance to love? Emotion choked his throat and eyes. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. Tears rolled down his temples and landed on the pillow. He enwrapped Loreto with all his body and tangled his legs with hers. He kissed her forehead and endured in silence the stubborn knot in his throat. Every day from today forth, every instant, second, every single smile of hers, every touch of her skin, every kiss... She'd go, Loreto was human, he had but a few more decades with her before losing her. Her body would give in to time as she would age. She'd get sick. It was humans' destiny. Nuada hugged tight and heard her moan. Loreto pushed herself up and faced him in the darkness. He saw her features perfectly. Absolutely gorgeous. She softly caressed his face and stopped at his wet eyes.

"What's going on? Are you all right?," she whispered, alarmed, against his mouth and dried his tears with her fingers.

Nuada kissed her lips and swallowed the tears in silence. Her hairs tickled his face. He could read her growing concern for him.

"I don't want to wake up one day and not find you here," he whispered against her lips. He caressed her cheek. "Now that I've found you... You'll go one day and you'll leave me alone for eternity."

Loreto curled herself on him, covering him totally with her body. She sobbed in his ear. She discreetly sniffled and moved away to face him.

"Before that you'll see me become a grandma all wrinkly and hunched," she whispered in between sobbing and chuckled with bitterness. "It isn't fair," she kissed his lips, "you'll carry on just as always and I'll become an old lady," she said amused and sniffled.

"And regardless, until the very last day of your life, I'll be there, I'll take your hand and I'll be the last one you'll see."

They merged in a kiss flavored by tears. Loreto hugged him by his neck and made it to his ear.

"Let's not talk about death. Let's make love."

A week went by in the blink of an eye. Time ran through the fingers in Loreto's arms. He had no news of the druids who stayed in Antrim, neither of the inhabitants of Bethmoora in the New York sewers nor of the human leaders. The world seemed to have made a halt in the middle of its mess to allow a kind of suspenseful peace Nuada wasn't sure he liked. Nevertheless, he couldn't complain. The agency's residents had already noticed the bond between him and Loreto. They saw him going in and out of her bedroom and noticed them exchanging looks loaded with lust across the library. He didn't understand the ease with which the demon Hellboy and his human partner openly showed their affection before everyone. Anung Un Rama may have been the son of the Fallen and therefore of royal blood in the underworld, yet despite his age, his behavior resembled a human teenager. Nuada and Nuala hadn't been raised like that. Much on the contrary. Affections were meant for intimacy. Out there, nothing and no one was to risk the respect and dignity of their position before the eyes of the world. Loreto didn't seem to understand it. One day she let herself fall on his lap, hugged him by his neck and stole a kiss from his mouth. In the library before everyone. Nuada was paralyzed as he swallowed the anger and shame the best he could. The comments and jokes soon arrived to his ears. It was humiliating. He took her away from his legs, stood up and went out to the aisle. Loreto walked behind him. She wondered out loud what was wrong with him. Nuada entered her private room and waited for her to join him inside to close the door behind him.

"You shall not do it anymore," he ordered and fixed her with his gaze. "We are not married, and even if we were, that is not the worthy behavior of a king and his queen."

"You do not boss me around! I'm not one of your servants!," she barked and pointed at him with her index. "Besides, what's so unworthy about a kiss, would you care to explain?"

Nuada sighed exhausted and rubbed his face roughly.

"That is not how a prince ought to behave! You're not my...," he paced the room from one side to the other searching for the right word, "my mistress, my concubine, you are my future queen! And that's how I wish others to see you."

Loreto observed him open-mouthed. She laughed to herself while she shook her head and sat at the border of the bed.

"I suppose I should have foreseen this," she said like a thought out loud. She sighed and faced him. "I understand what you mean but now make an effort to understand me," she gestured to her side and tapped the bed calling him.

Dubious, Nuada sat down at her side.

"Have you never been in love before? Have you never felt the urge to scream to the world your love for someone?"

The Prince drew a smile on this face and caressed her cheek.

"I never thought to feel like this again!," Loreto confessed and looked at him with her eyes shining bright.

"Like this how?," Nuada said and leaned his forehead on hers.

"Like it's the first time," she said and kissed his lips.

He sighed and cupped her face with both hands. They broke the kiss and smiled, still with half-closed eyes.

"I fell in love once an eternity ago," Nuada confessed and adjusted himself to face her. "We were young and the situation with the humans was still under control. I had nothing else to do but to study the art of war, train from morning to evening, accompany my father to his duties and engagements and learn from him. And she...," the Prince closed his eyes and attempted to remember, "she was the most gorgeous Elven maiden in the entire kingdom. She was one of the ladies in waiting of my mother. For as long as my father reigned, it was prohibited for Nuala and I to marry and start our own families. She knew it, yet as the crown prince, I liked then the idea of one day making her my queen and I had my mother's support for it."

Loreto observed him closely and in complete silence. She took his hand and kissed its back.

"What's her name?," she asked, barely audible.

Nuada looked her in the eyes.

"What was her name. She fell in the war," he uttered barely. "I don't remember her name."

Loreto embraced him slowly and nestled him between her neck and shoulder. Nuada let himself be hugged and sighed.

"What happened to your mother?," she asked in a whisper and moved away from him to face him.

"The humans took her prisoner and killed her."

Nuada swallowed hard and clenched his jaw. The piercing tears manifesting through the corners of his eyes wanted to betray him. Loreto gasped, shocked. She covered her wide-open mouth and questioned him with her gaze bulging in tears. The Prince's heart shrunk in pain at the memory and for her. He didn't wish to remember. The memory of those years hurt him and brought back the resentment against humanity he was so badly trying to leave behind. He dried Loreto's tears and hugged her to his chest. They collapsed on the bed. She pushed herself up on her elbow and softly caressed his hairs and face. She was capable of feeling his sorrow as hers, something unheard-of in humans.

"I'm so terribly sorry! I don't know what to say," she mumbled still in shock and softly kissed his lips.

The Prince responded to her gesture and slightly combed her hairs with his fingers.

"My mother wouldn't have allowed the truce with humans. She was the real leader of Bethmoora, not my father. He was weak and ended up yielding. We still suffer the consequences of his mistake today."

Three knocks on the door made them jump. They got up from the bed. Loreto opened. It was Agent Krauss.

"Forgive the intrusion in your privacy, Miss Clair," he said with solemnity. "The scientific commission of the WHO has finished their investigation and test on the ichor of the Elemental's descendants," he said with a metallic voice and strong German accent. "The human leaders have come to a decision about the future realm for Bethmoora."