This chapter contains a mild lemon (adult content).
The full-length veil had finally been affixed to her hair, and trailed several feet behind her.
"I still think you should have had a Japanese wedding," Kai grumbled as he pulled the blusher over her face.
"He and I both grew up in Europe," she said as she took his arm.
Kai conceded the argument with a groan, and sensing that time was running out, changed the subject.
"Hey, I know there's pretty much no reason for me to say this, but – if he's ever a jerk to you, you just let me know and I'll kick his ass."
Saya could barely contain her laughter.
"What? You don't think I could do it?" Kai whined, feigning offense.
"Sorry, but you wouldn't stand a chance," Saya giggled. "But I guess that never stopped you from starting a fight before."
"True, true," he said with a thoughtful nod. "But my offer still stands. A guy's gotta look out for his little-sister-or-whatever."
Both of them caught the opening notes of the bridal march.
"Kai," Saya spoke quietly as she took her first step towards the altar. "Thank you – for everything."
He turned to her with a wide, almost silly grin. "Shut up, or I'm gonna start cryin'."
The heels of her boots made muted clicks against the floor, and her already over-taxed nerves tensed as the eyes of everyone in the church fixed on her. The self-consciousness faded when her gaze met that of the man standing closest to the officiant, after briefly traveling across the faces of the two men standing at his side.
Solomon stared in awe as the bride finally appeared at the back of the church.
How can it be possible for anyone to be this beautiful?
…
He pulled away the bow tied at the front of the gathered collar, widening it enough to pull it down over her shoulders and the rest of her body. For several seconds he simply gazed at her, both the lusty, appraising stare a man would give to a nude woman and the look of a cultured gentlemen appreciating a precious work of art.
He briefly recalled the only other time he had seen her like this, how she lay there, unconscious in his New York apartment three decades ago, when the proverbial devil on his shoulder had begged him to explore that body with more than just his eyes. But as Nathan had observed, he loved her too much to take advantage of her, or at least too much to take advantage of her more than he already was.
Tonight was obviously different.
His hands slid gracefully across her flesh as if trying to memorize every inch of her, so that even if she didn't become his in marriage, at least she would always be his in memory. Consistent with the stereotype of his sex, he was eager for that so-glorified pinnacle of physical closeness, but this primal impatience was offset by the smug and genuinely enjoyable realization that came to him as his lips crept across her skin. The silky gasps of unexpected sensation, the sumptuous sighs that were gradually evolving into ungovernable moans, the curl of her fingers that had found their way into his hair, the tense writhing that had seized the rest of her body - was all for him and him alone.
When her head fell back against the pillows, he sensed that the time had finally come. He briefly wondered if she could hear his heart pounding as he asked her the customary question.
"Are you ready?"
The maiden Queen made no real verbal response, simply an affirmative coo as his elbows took their places on either side of her, leaving his hands free to hold hers.
Fingers laced tightly together as hips slowly drew together, fulfilling their shared Darwinian destiny.
He knew he was hurting her, both by common sense and the wince that flashed across her features, but he also knew she had a high tolerance for pain and didn't shy away from showing it, as she had several decades ago, when he pulled a sword from her body. Nevertheless, the tiny internal tear did seem to awaken the instinct that always accompanied bodily harm.
His mouth fell open in an uncontrollable moan as she sunk her fangs into his neck, taking only a small amount, proportional to what she had just lost. He kissed away the stray drops of blood on her lips as he began to make love to her.
The initial caution loosened to a slow, deliberate sway, not just because he knew this was her first, but because he wanted to prolong his moment with her as much as he could possibly stand to.
"I love you."
The words had tumbled involuntarily from his lips. Her answer seemed to come of it's own accord. She cried his name.
Fingers gripped together more tightly, interlacing knuckles beginning to turn white, the ring still on her finger leaving a biting, yet at present completely unnoticed red indentation in the skin of both lovers.
Time had lost all meaning, so he wasn't sure how long he managed to hold out, how long he made slow, gentle love to her, how long it was before he gave in to the beast that coursed through his veins and he took her – no, they took each other, with all the abandon of heedless instinct.
Hands were no longer fisted as one, they grappled together, fingers outstretched, straining against one another, desperately grasping at each other's palms, intensifying tremors making it impossible for them to grip together for long.
There was no future, no past, no guilt, no war, no bed, no room, no world – there was only they two, floating in a warm, empty universe of euphoria until they careened into the fleeting ecstasy of release and fell into the delirious contentment that followed.
As soon as he had finished panting his recovery, he finally spoke.
"I love you Saya." Her hair fluttered slightly as he whispered. "Be my bride."
…
Solomon smiled subtly at the memory as the bride neared, but felt his heart seize in his chest when her eyes met his.
…
Saya was still standing in his arms, her back to him as he leaned over her shoulder.
She didn't say it to hurt him, she would have never been needlessly cruel to him. She only said it because she knew it was the only thing she could possibly say that might make him give up his suit.
She took in a deep, shaky breath, and spoke in a whisper so that he might not notice her wavering voice. "I don't love you."
His eyes slowly opened.
Solomon had prepared himself for a possible rejection, but what she said had caught him off guard. He hadn't anticipated that it would be so frank, so completely devastating.
Overcome by frustration, he roughly turned her around in his arms. He tore away the sheet as if it was a wall she could hide behind, and pressed their bare bodies together, pushing up on her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"That night you said you were happy about my feelings, why did you say that?" His voice remained terrifyingly calm. "You said you didn't have time left for sweet dreams about a future together, that's exactly what you said, those words have echoed in my head for the past thirty years, giving me hope." He choked slightly on the last word. "Why did you say those things? Was it because you wanted another man to be your slave? Why didn't you just say that you didn't have feelings for me then?"
Her mind flew back to that night, the night he had first asked her to be his bride. The night that she had felt something stir deep inside of her, feelings she had never known, or at least never acknowledged.
That night she had to remind her self that he had headed a company that did cruel and hideous experiments on innocent children, he had plotted to turn a substantial percentage of the human race into blood-thirsty monsters, he had tried to kill Haji twice and both times he nearly succeeded, and he had just stood there while Diva was about to kill her at the Zoo.
Despite that, the devotion in his words and the honesty in his eyes had made her soul ache, but in a different way than she was used to. For one beautiful moment, his overt adoration for her had overpowered her hatred of herself, and because of that, she had nearly accepted his offer.
"Because it would have been a lie!" she said in a pleading whimper. "I did have feelings for you, how could I not? You saved my life, you betrayed Diva for me, you said all those beautiful things, you were offering me everything I had ever wanted!"
Transfixed by emotional discord, she stood motionless as her mouth was crushed in a desperate kiss, his grasp on her body almost tight enough to be painful.
He released her lips for a split second.
"Kiss me back." It was both a demand and a helpless, abject plea. His arms closed around her even more tightly, and when her mouth finally opened, either to gasp for air or cry out in pain, he instantly took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, forcing his way inside until he had engulfed all five of her senses, the taste of his tongue, the heat of his skin, the scent of his body, the brief glances at his face, the hiss of his breath and her own whimpering hums. Whatever she was feeling inside, on the outside, it was only him, and it seemed he had every intention of correcting that as she felt his feet shuffling across the floor towards the bed, pulling her with him, as his lips inched their way down from her mouth to her neck.
It wasn't that he was trying to force himself on her, he was trying to wring out some kind of candid response, to make her to either confirm or refute what she had said with some sort of action, but still she neither resisted or indulged.
"mhhhhhh," the sigh escaped from her lips uncontrollably. Her body was almost limp in his arms, pliant clay in his hands, completely at his mercy as her blood simmered in response to the contact.
"mhhhhh," the sigh increased in pitch and volume as his lips moved down even further and with every passing second, she grew weaker and weaker.
That was the effect Solomon had always had on her, this man who had betrayed his allies and abandoned his greatest obligation to pursue personal happiness, and most striking of all, never seemed to feel any guilt or regrets about anything. He represented all the feelings and impulses that she had so tyrannically repressed, he exemplified everything she secretly longed for – freedom from duty and remorse. He made her want to give up, to give in, to ignore everything that mattered in the long run, to abandon all, her mission, her family, her conscience and even her soul, in favor of any kind of momentary peace or bliss.
In that way, he was Haji's polar opposite.
Haji had always made her strong. He had always given her the strength to put aside her own desires for the sake of doing what was right. His fortitude, his resolute selflessness and unwavering devotion had always unconsciously inspired her to keep going, to honor the oath she had made to those who had died and to those who would die if she didn't act, to delay any kind of repose or gratification until she had done what she knew she had to.
She felt the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed, and her heel met an object that had fallen to the floor. She heard the scabbard clink against the blade.
"hhh-Haji-"
Solomon's eyes snapped open. She wasn't just calling out the name of her other lover, nor was she calling for his help. She was stating her feelings in the most articulate way she could manage at the moment. His body shifted up against hers until they were looking eye to eye and he finally saw that she was on the verge of tears, staring helplessly up at him, pitiful, glowing red eyes begging him to stop what she knew she couldn't, to stop what her royal chiropteran blood craved so elementally.
Suddenly he was shocked and disgusted with his own actions, completely ashamed of himself for the first time since he had been reborn as a superior being, far more remorseful than he had ever been about any of his crimes against humanity. His eyes returned to their natural green.
His grip on her loosened until he was holding her gently as she finally started to cry, clinging to him in her distress, even though he was the one who had caused it.
He drew in a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I-", he exhaled, and never finished his statement. It was then that Solomon realized that in a way, he had been right all along about her feelings for him.
She does love me.
She does…
Just not as much as Haji. Not enough to leave Haji.
He released her.
Her stance wobbled a bit as she found her balance again. Not ten seconds later, her lover was fully dressed and opened the door to take his leave. His lips parted in an attempt to speak, but again, no words came. He pushed himself forward, softly shutting the door behind him before she could see him bury his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking in time with inaudible sobs.
…
Both Chevaliers were her grooms, Haji in the eyes of human society, Solomon in the eyes of ancient chiropteran custom.
She always did seem to prefer the human way of doing things.
Saya's gaze shifted from one groom to the other, fixing on Haji, his exultant expression one that she had never quite observed in him before, even during their idyllic days at the Zoo.
Distracted by the heartwarmingly nostalgic sight of her smiling as she clutched a bouquet of pink roses and red lilies and wearing that old-fashioned Victorian dress, it was only then that Haji noticed the blue rose over her ear.
His throat vibrated in a silent growl. He knew perfectly well who had given it to her. Who else knows where to acquire a blue rose?
However, he was able to calm himself almost immediately, though for a somewhat more convoluted reason than what one might have guessed. Upon taking up residence at the Zoo, over the next few years, Haji had been quite adept at absorbing the subtleties of the upper-class culture of the time. This included a familiarity with the then-commonly understood Language of Flowers, in which surprisingly specific symbolic meanings were assigned to virtually every plant and flower one could think of, allowing a gentleman to compose a fairly complex love-letter with nothing more than a well-arranged bouquet. Naturally, this idea had great appeal to Haji, a man of few words who had fallen deeply in love with his best friend. Many times he had presented the object of his affection with a carefully chosen bunch of flowers, but somehow she always managed to be oblivious to their tacit but often bold declarations of passionate, eternal love.
It was his knowledge of a flower's meaning that relieved whatever aggravation he might have felt at seeing her with Solomon's blue rose on her ear. Blue roses had a very clear symbolic meaning.
The art of floriography probably lost its popularity before his time, I'm sure he doesn't know the significance of that flower. Strange that it's meaning is so relevant to his situation.
A blue rose means "Unattainable love."
He desired something that he couldn't have.
Haji felt a small swell of pity for his rival for the first time since watching Solomon essentially give his life to protect Saya from James.
Solomon's stare remained locked on the bride as she neared the altar. He forced his false smile to widen, in hopes of making it appear that the unusual gloss in his eyes was due to happiness. She was so close now, so close that he could reach out and touch her, he could pull her to him and show everyone how he still felt.
That sweet smile… she does truly look happy.
Some words he had once said to Haji came to mind.
If you truly are Saya's Chevalier, then should you not wish for your master's happiness…
His stare briefly shifted from the bride to the groom.
…
I could kill him.
I could kill him right now.
I could kill him, she would love me if it wasn't for him.
I could kill him, then he would be gone.
It wouldn't be difficult, he only uses his chiropteran powers to protect Saya, not himself. I could kill him.
Saya will be angry with me, no doubt, and grieve, perhaps for many years, but I have all the time in the world to make her forget. I know that I can make her forget. I did that night in New York. She would have been mine if he hadn't shown up.
I could make her happy. Happier than he ever could. All he can offer her is the constant reminder of her own tragic past. It's for her own good. There would be only misery in her future with him.
I will kill him.
I'll kill him the same way I killed Martin, take off the head, crush the heart, wait for the blood to drain and burn the remains.
One less to choose from.
Solomon waited for his rival at the intersection of the sidewalk and a dim ally beside the Naha hotel where the rendezvous had just taken place. This wouldn't be a duel. This would be murder.
That didn't bother him in his current state of mind. It had been a long time since he had learned how to detach himself from the responsibility of taking lives.
Enemies aren't people, thus remorse should not be wasted on them.
But before his victim appeared, a familiar voice sounded behind him. Solomon didn't bother to face the one who had spoken.
"Well you look awfully glum for a man that just nailed his dream girl. I take it you made her an offer and she refused."
"I am in no mood for your games, Nathan."
The ancient Chevalier smirked. "Strangely enough, I didn't come here to tease you."
Solomon took the bait and asked the question his brother was fishing for. "Why are you here, then?"
"To make sure you're still alive."
Solomon turned to face his older brother. "What do you mean?"
"You deflowered her, did you not?"
Solomon's silence had a clear affirmative subtext.
"After all, the other Queen's blood is always deadly to us, not just with ingestion and injection, but with intimate contact as well, and it doesn't get more intimate than that. It isn't as instantaneous, but it is fatal." He gave a short, heartless laugh. "Diva was telling the truth when she said that she killed the Miyagusuku boy by giving him her blood. She always was cryptic, I always wondered if it was intentional or if her early isolation also effected her language skills." He paused. "Originally Yuki and I simply planned on reviving you after you were dead, however, she and I estimated that witnessing you die in such a way might be the last straw for Saya's fragile psyche. So, we decided to give you the blood before your big night, in hopes that if it were in your system, it would negate the poison, thus saving Saya from a very traumatic experience. It seems to have worked." He put his fist to his chin and thought for a moment. "But I must admit, there is a part of me that would have just loved to see you die in front of her, that would have made such a moving scene. I'm sure you would have delivered a spectacular performance." The ancient Chevalier took a few steps toward Solomon. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it was for your own good. You wanted Saya so badly and trust me, it's hard to fully enjoy sex when you think you're going to die immediately afterwards."
Yuki stepped out from the shadows and stood beside her Chevalier.
"You know Solomon, in the old days, your life would be considered a sacrifice to ensure good luck and a happy life for your daughters, and it would become your duty to watch over them from heaven." Yuki gave a brief, sober laugh and her tone turned bitter. "Load of good that did my daughters. I say screw tradition."
"I agree," her companion declared, "Who cares what the elders said, after all, we are the elders now!" Freddie paused. "In light of this revelation, I think you owe my wife another thank you, seeing as you aren't dead."
"Perhaps it would have been better that way." Solomon muttered, but with all his usual tranquility. "To die for her happiness, what more could I ask for?"
"Oh lord!" Freddie groaned. "I think that having that emo hairdo for so long has gone to your head!"
Solomon ignored the comment. "I will thank Yuki though, for the thought if nothing else," he paused. "I suppose you two will be leaving then?" Solomon subtly urged.
Freddie's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why are you still skulking around here anyway?" Solomon did not answer.
Freddie arched a brow. "You're planning to fight Haji." Freddie leaned forward and looked his younger brother in the eye, as if he was reading words on a page. "Yes, that's exactly what you're thinking."
Solomon glared at the ancient Chevalier. "I wasn't aware that mind reading was a power our kind possessed."
"Communication by means of projecting messeges into the mind of another member of our race – yes, outright mind-reading - no," Freddie stated matter-of-factly. "I just know that judging by your past actions, you have absolutely no brains or conscience when you're all worked up over Saya." He paused. "And I know a desperate man when I see one."
"This doesn't concern you, Nathan."
"Oh but it does, it concerns me quite a bit. I am not going to allow you to kill a member of our clan just because the woman you love loves him more than you."
"I am warning you Nathan, stay out of this."
"Or what? You'll fight me too?" he said with a mocking chortle.
"Tempt not a desperate man!"
Freddie laughed hysterically for a few seconds before speaking, in the girlish tones of Nathan Mahler. "Romeo, act five, scene three, and they called me a drama queen!"
Solomon's eyes flashed red, and his weapon extended from his sleeve.
"I love her Nathan, I will do whatever it takes."
Solomon flinched in discomfort as he spoke the last word in the sentence, immediately realizing that his blade-arm had been sliced off, and his elder brother was now holding the detached limb by the wrist.
"You really need to mind that arm a little more, it gets sliced off almost as often as Haji gets impaled." Freddie paused after a brief, derisive chuckle. "Grow up!" he growled as he slapped Solomon hard across the face with his own severed hand. "Do you really think that killing Haji will make her come crawling to you? That's the most delusional thing I've heard since Carl died! Killing him will only make her despise you, and I think if there is anything the past has shown us, it's that she tends not to just let things go! If you kill Haji, she will come to you, oh yes, she'll definitely seek you out, and she wont rest until she's killed you, and FYI, Yuki's blood only works once, not that I would encourage her to bail you out under such circumstances. And even so, it wouldn't matter because I'm not going to let you kill him. You know damn well you're no match for me, and should you think it would be terribly romantic for you to die in such a battle, keep in mind that it would be no problem for me to defeat you without killing you. You wouldn't be a romantic martyr, just a sore loser in more ways than one! So will you knock it off with this stupid shit! What kind of macho asshole respects his woman so little that he wouldn't let her make her own decision?! Take a deep breath, stop being such a pitiful contentious idiot!
Solomon remained motionless as the red left his eyes, abandoning his murderous plans not because of his brother's threats, but because he knew he was right. In killing Haji, he would only become Saya's sworn enemy, beginning whole new vendetta.
Freddie gave him a stern glare, as if he were a parent looking at a naughty child, and gingerly handed the bloody limb back to his younger brother.
"You love her and she loves Haji. Get over it," Freddie said as Solomon slid his arm back into its sleeve.
"That's easy for you to say, it would appear that you have the woman you've always loved," Solomon muttered despondently.
"After spending several thousand years believing that I would never see her again. Who's to say that Saya wont come 'round after a few millennia? Our species is immortal, so it's impossible to say whether or not we mate for life. Now Solomon, I know you're not human, but will you please just be a man! Saya has made her choice, and no offense, but I think she made the right one, not just because I think poor Haji deserves some return on all the time and injury he has invested in that woman, but because she needs him. That's all there is to it. Haji can give her one thing that no one else can, something she needs more than protection or adoration. Haji can give her closure. All the hostile chiropterans have been wiped out, and the last samples of delta 67 have been destroyed, so there will never be another chiropteran made from Diva's blood. Saya's crusade is over, and soon she will have to come to terms with two hundred years of trauma and pain, she will no longer be able to use her mission as an excuse to shut out her past. She will have to face the terrible things that have happened to her as well as the terrible things she has done, this may be her most difficult battle yet, and Haji is the key to her victory. Haji who has been there, who has witnessed every traumatic event that still clings to her consciousness, Haji who understands the nature of her suffering, because he has suffered through it with her. She needs him. I have no doubt that you are capable of being very sweet and supportive to her, but not the same way Haji can. If she doesn't get the help she needs, she will loose herself, and I know you don't want that to happen. Like her first Chevalier, Saya too carries a coffin on her back, and without his support, she will be very much in danger of being crushed under the weight of it."
Solomon was silent for a moment as he recalled what Saya had said a few months ago in Diva's tower.
Freddie could clearly see that Solomon had just gone from a desperate man to a broken one. "I know that this must be very hard. Even if chiropterans mate for life, there is more to life than mating. As wonderful as love is, it really isn't everything, trust me, I lived without it for several thousand years, and I was reasonably happy most of the time. Requited love is only one way to feed the soul, but the world is full of other paths to spiritual wholeness, you just need to find a new purpose. I had the stage amongst other things, James had his army guy stuff, even Amshel had his evil experiments, but if you let anger and loneliness rule your life, then you'll probably end up just like Carl, and I don't want to see that happen to you, for several reasons. First of all, I'm kind of fond of you, second, I'll be the one who has to kill you and finally, I really don't think that the cape slash mask combo would suit you."
Solomon's morose expression didn't change. Disappointed that his assertion hadn't even elicited a smirk, the elder Chevalier continued on the subject, in hopes of getting a chuckle out of his dejected brother.
"I mean really, what was with that whole tuxedo-bat-man look? I know the man was completely insane, but that is no excuse for such a cliché abomination of an outfit."
Yuki giggled. "Oh you're one to talk, I've seen pictures of you wearing a frilly purple blouse and pink stretch pants, and you're wearing cowboy boots right at this very moment!"
Freddie put his fists to his hips. "I like cowboy boots!"
"Hey, I've seen old pictures of you too Solomon!" Yuki giggled. "What was with those heinous white suits? What were you, a Cuban drug lord?"
Solomon sighed and smirked in acknowledgment of the comment, if only to get them off his back. At this point, all he wanted was for them to leave him to morn the death of his dreams in peace.
…
Up until that night, I would never have thought it possible for one to feel anything that intensely.
To feel more alive than ever and to feel like dying all in the span of under an hour.
Immediately after his older brother's intervention, he had hopped into his car, drove it to a ferry bound for Hong Kong, then North through mainland China and Siberia, across the trans-bering bridge to Alaska, and then over most of North America, all the way to his New York apartment. It took him two weeks and twenty-five speeding tickets to get home, never once stepping out of the car, never once loosing his vacant inconsolable stare. When he finally arrived, he spent the next three weeks in seclusion, only immerging from his dim living room to board a plane, two days before the wedding, absolutely hell-bent on looking happy for Saya, even if it killed him.
Perhaps it would have, if not for his immortality. To smile for hours while feeling such despair takes it's toll on both the body and the soul.
By the time his mind had returned to the present, the vows had already been made.
The officiant declared them man and wife, not realizing that his words served only to placate cultural expectations the bride and groom had been brought up with, superficially validating their bond in the context of mortal custom and law, when in fact, it had been a very long time since the two of them had been a matched set in the eyes of God and anyone else who truly knew them.
Saya's most beloved Chevalier leaned down for the kiss, the sort of innocent peck that would have been acceptable had they gotten married when he had originally hoped.
It was somewhat disappointingly chaste, at least in the opinion of his white-rose bearing groomsman.
"Oh, this is ridiculous, what are they, siblings?" he muttered to his imaginary audience before raising his voice to a crude holler. "Slip her the tongue!"
The hands of both bridesmaids immediately slapped over Freddie's mouth.
"What?" he whined as he pried their hands away from his face. "They're French, for god sakes!"
There you have it.
I welcome, and eagerly await your opinions and criticism, and am genuinely interested in hearing your points of view.
Many of you are undoubtedly displeased with this outcome, and some of you are probably pissed at me. If you are a heartbroken Solomon fan, I urge you to stick with me for the final few chapters, as his part in the story is not over.
If you are truly inconsolably disappointed with Saya's choice of husband (or if you just feel like it), then I welcome you to write and post an alternative ending, though I recommend that you wait until this story is concluded.
This chapter has also been my maiden voyage into the world of citrusy-ness, and will probably also be my last, unless my readers would like a Haji/Saya scene.
I there is something else I should note, for the sake of anyone who is not be familiar with such things. Girls do not always bleed during their first time having intercourse, I know this for an irrefutable fact. I'm just using that stereotype as a plot device.