33 - Waiting
I don't know when exactly I fell asleep but it was not until late into the night, even then I tossed and turned frequently my dreams filled with images of finding Phil in the middle of the woods - sometimes he would be hurt but the worst was when I kept trying to hear his funny little heartbeat and it was completely missing.
Waking up the next morning was not pleasant; I was tired, stiff, and really cranky. My favorite means of feeling better was now unavailable to me, making my mood ever more sour. Growling at the sunshine streaming in through the windows, I attempted to roll over and pull a pillow over my head but it smelled of citrus and sage, reminding me of Phil and the fact that I was all alone today.
It was my hunger that finally forced me to get up and go downstairs. The lasagna that I had cooked for dinner last night had been thrown away in a fit. My stomach was reminding me of that fact in an extremely unpleasant way.
Deciding to keep myself busy was easy enough, finding something to actually do was a bit harder. The greenhouse plants were well watered, nothing needed weeding or harvesting. I found one small load of laundry but that did not take up enough time.
The house sounded especially quiet and empty this morning, usually there was the sound of Phil's unique heartbeat coupled with whatever he was doing. Most days I enjoyed the silence, especially after having lived in the dorms, but today it was driving me insane. I turned on the sound system and changed it to some angry girl music, nothing like Garbage to cheer a girl up.
I was in the middle of cleaning an already pristine bathroom when I heard a knock on the door right behind me.
I jumped up, dropped my rag and managed to kick my bucket of soapy water over. The words coming out of my mouth were not exactly ladylike as I turned around to see who had interrupted me.
"I am sorry I startled you." Tam told me from the door of the bathroom. "No, here let me help you with that. I will go get a mop." She was back less than a minute later and pushed me away as I attempted to soak up the water with my small rag. Phil's normally talkative mother was rather taciturn as we cleaned up the mess together, she spoke nothing until after the bucket and mop had been safely put away in the closet next to the kitchen.
"Is there any particular reason you are cleaning an already clean house?" She asked me looking around the kitchen. I had followed her quietly as she sat down on one of the stools next to the counter, her expression was neutral as she waited for me to explain my insanity.
I shrugged not wanting to share my fears, it probably would sound really stupid if I said it out loud.
"Phis sent me a message, he wanted me to check up on you." Tam finally told me after giving me a long look. "At first I thought he was exaggerating, but form the looks of things his fears might not have been as outlandish as I originally thought."
Worrying that she had been reading my mind I tried to think of nothing in particular but then I realized what she had actually told me. "Phil? Did you talk to him? Is he all right?"
"Yes, no problem, did he not send you a message? But then you might not have heard your phone with this music blaring." Her tone was amused.
I barely heard her finish the last sentence as I rushed to find my phone, I had not used it since we got to the island. After a frantic few minutes of searching through my room I found it in the bathroom drawer with the combs. Whey the heck had I put it in there?
Everything is fine here, it has been three days, will be back soon. Love you, Phil.
That was all he wrote but those few words were enough to loosen the constriction that had gathered around my heart ever since I watched him leave. What did he mean by three days? I went in search of Tam, maybe she could explain.
"Oh, we kind of have to send the phone messages through a strange relay so sometimes the time gets a little messed up." She waved her hand up and down like that would explain it all.
"Is he truly all right, or is he saying it just to stop me from worrying? What exactly are they fighting?" They had not been very specific about what they were going to fight, but the amount of armor and weapons they had taken with them spoke volumes.
"Has Phil told you nothing?" She asked somewhat surprised, then she laughed a little. "It always amazes me how much he takes after his father, you are going to have to discourage that." She shook her head as she looked off into the distance for a minute. I tried not to squirm with impatience, she looked like she was trying to decide something. It felt like it was always the women of Phil's family who actually told me the things I actually needed to hear.
"Phil has told me some, but I always feel like he leaves stuff out." This was an attempt to encourage her to tell me things, I remembered how his cousin Blossom had explained the binding process to me that night over dinner. Would Tam do the same thing with their mysterious enemy?
"Phil's father used to do that to me, I found that asking direct questions tended to be the best method for obtaining information." She was still thinking about something, making a decision, I hoped it would mean that she would explain. "Well direct questions and withholding sex." She mumbled that last part under her breath, she might not have thought I heard her.
I tried my best not to picture Phil's parents in bed together, unfortunately it was one of those circumstances where the harder I tried not think about it the more my mind focused on it. I could have gone through my entire life completely content to never having imagined Phil's parents doing the nasty.
"Look Leah, I am not going to lie to you, this is not a stroll through the park. But we spend a lot of time training and they are not let out until we are absolutely sure they can handle themselves. Plus he is never alone, Phila will be there to watch his back." She tried to reassure me.
For a moment jealousy consumed me, here I was at home doing nothing while Phil was out there in danger with another woman to protect him. That was supposed to be my job, guarding my man. "I feel like the weak little woman left at home while her big strong man goes out and protects the land." Is this what I was going to be doing from now on, staying safely on the island while Phil goes out to fight?
"Hmmm. I think what would help is for us to get out a little." Tam face became a combination of determination and understanding.
I did not know how I felt about this, Phil and I had been going outside for several weeks now - but somehow I did not get the impression that this is what she meant. "What do you mean get out?" My voice was filled with suspicion, when someone said get out a little in my mind it meant go to a bar or something. There were two problems with that line of thought, one was that as far as I knew there were no bars on the island and second it would be really awkward going to a drinking spot with Phil's mother.
"Just for today we are going to the planet of my father's people." She told me in the same casual tone that others would use to describe heading down to the local park. She gave a nod almost like I was the one that had suggested this plan.
"Wait as in another planet? With aliens on it?" I could not keep the amazement out of my voice. The island might have been a planet different from Earth but it looked exactly like home, and it only had family members on it. But she was talking about taking me somewhere completely foreign, on Earth I had never so much as left the country. Despite the fact that the Canadian border was so close to Seattle in my entire life I had never gone to Canada.
"There are no aliens on the planet, only modified humans. The aliens have either died out or left centuries ago." Tam tried to reassure me as she jumped off the stool and started heading for the door. "We need to go see Katie, you will need appropriate clothes for the journey."
For a moment I considered putting my foot down and not going, but then I realized there was nothing for me to do around the house. You could go back to cleaning the bathroom - that annoying voice was lucky that it resided in the back of my head because otherwise I would have kicked its ass by now.
Grabbing my boots I followed her out the door, heading to Aunt Katie's house. The journey took only a short time, but Tam was walking at a really fast pace. She did not say that much to me, but I could feel the waves of energy and excitement coming off of her. She must be really looking forward to visiting this planet, I wondered why she did not go back more often.
Everyone seemed to have the same style of house on this island, the grey dull metal with lots of windows; the only major difference was the size of the place, but most of them were rather square or rectangular in shape. The other portion that varied drastically were the gardens surrounding the house. Aunt Katie was an avid begonia fan, or at least if you looked at her garden you would make that assumption. There were pots of begonias all over her garden, some sitting on the ground in mismatched clusters while others were on pedestals by themselves. I could imagine how much of a pain it was to move all these pots outside in the spring, the begonias looked too delicate to survive the winters around here.
I had only met Aunt Katie on a handful of occasions, she was a petite woman with wheat colored blonde hair and pale blue-grey eyes. Like Alice Cullen she might be small in stature but their forceful personalities made you forget how small they actually were. Aunt Katie was always immaculately dressed with not a strand of hair out of place, I was curious to see what her house would look like. If I had to take a guess I was thinking something along the lines of the french court, delicate brocade covered chairs and lacy curtains and doilies everywhere along with small statues that could be knocked over and broken with merely a breath in their direction.
The curiosity as well as my desperation to distract myself from thoughts of Phil made my steps a little more hurried than they should have been as I followed Tam into the house just seconds after she knocked. I noticed that Tam did not bother waiting for an answer before she just walked into the house. The inside was wildly different from what I expected considering Aunt Katie's personality. Instead of the frills and lace dripping from every surface her house was distinctly minimalistic, the furniture was sturdy and solid looking - the brightly colored fabrics did not have one fleur de lis. No one could claim that it was not stylish, but it looked more modern than I would have guessed for a woman who could not be seen in public without her heels and lipstick.
We found Katie in a small office sitting behind a huge drafting table, again I was surprised. Instead of the fashion designs I was expecting, the drawing in front of her consisted of what looked like the schematics to an extremely intricate machine.
"Not what you were expecting?" Katie laughed as she finished writing down one last set of numbers. The math she was doing was way beyond anything I had seen before.
"What is that?" It almost looked like a weapon of some sorts.
"An engine for a space ship, it helps it move faster than light. Now what can I do for you?" She looked at me, but it was Tam who actually answered her question.
Aunt Katie took me to another room that looked more like what I had expected. The room was filled with racks of half finished clothes as well as bolts of fabrics strews across several large tables. There were those mannequin looking things with half assembled outfits on them, the gauntlet of styles ran from ultra modern to what looked like what they wore in the Pride and Prejudice movies. I could detect the smell of vampire, Alice had been here recently. It was a testament to the fact of how far along I had come that my hackles did not immediately raise after smelling her stench. Don't get me wrong it was still that nauseating sticky and sweet smell but it was not as horrible as I remembered - some part of it must have been in my mind. Tam abandoned me to Aunt Katie's care stating that she needed to go get ready as well.
I did not have much time to contemplate my surroundings as the very small but very bossy ordered me to go take a shower in the bathroom adjacent to the fashion studio. I had not realized that my smell was that foul but it might have been my preoccupation with worrying about Phil. It felt kind of strange taking a shower in someone else's house but it was best just to think of them as family, and this was just like being at one of my aunt's houses. I did not linger long in the shower as I was very curious about going to another planet with Tam, it was still kind of hard to wrap my mind around the concept of traveling between planets.
There were some underwear and a plain white camisole waiting for me as I stepped out of the shower, quickly pulling those on I headed out to the room. Hopefully Aunt Katie would not be offended but in my defense most of the family I had encountered so far seemed to be very open about their bodies - and all of my important bits were covered.
Aunt Katie did not even bat an eyelash as I walked back into the room where she was currently shifting through a rack of clothes that had not been in the room before. "Fortunately for you the style of clothing you are looking for is relatively forgiving in terms of size. I have a couple of outfits that should fit you, so all I have to do is find the right color."
She finally mumbled to herself for a few minutes before finally deciding. The outfit consisted of what might have been loose pajama pants, the only difference was that flowers were stitched into the hems making them a little too pretty to sleep in. I had never seen flowers like that before, they were either someone was extremely imaginative or the flowers grew on an alien planet. They were made out of the same soft fabric as the camisole, if pressed I would have guessed it was linen but my knowledge of fabrics was limited.
The top was a long sleeve tunic that went all the way down to my knees, this too had the flowers at the hem as well as at the cuffs. I was not allowed to put on my comfy hiking boots instead they were replaced with a pair of light golden sandals.
She made me sit down in front of a large mirror, to the side were deep shelves filled with all sorts of lotions and potions. I was starting to get a little worried about her plans for me.
"Hmmm it would be far better if your hair was a little longer, but nothing we can do about that." Aunt Katie was eyeing me in the mirror as she combed out my hair, I had not cut it in a few months but even then it was only shoulder length. "This would look good with a few curls."
"The curling iron never works on me," I warned her as she ran her fingers through my hair.
"Curling iron? What is that... oh now I remember that primitive thing," she shuddered a little. "No we will not be burning your hair up, all it takes is this handy little spray."
She pulled a bottle out of the jumbled group on the shelf and after making sure it was the right one proceeded to douse my head with it. It had a flowery scent but there was some sort of chemical underneath it that I could not identify. As soon as the spray hit my hair the damp strands began to change in shape, my regularly super straight hair started developing waves and curls right before my eyes.
"Wow whatever that is can I have some?" I asked while twisting my head to try to see the full effect. Aunt Katie promised to send some over in the next couple of days, according to her to make the effects go away you just had to wash the chemicals out with some shampoo.
"All right makeup next," she told me as she got some brushed out, I had gotten out of the habit of wearing it in the past year. "You have very nice eyelashes so this should not take much." A thick black line was applied around my eyes and then she added some gold eyeshadow, I was surprised how good it looked. My eyes looked almost golden, if it was not for my dark coppery skin I could have passed for a vegetarian vampire. My only other make-up was the clear gloss she smeared on my lips.
When Tam joined me again she had a similar outfit to mine, though her tunic and pants were a light green. She too had let down her hair, it fell in brown waves down her back past her knees.
"Hmmm don't you look pretty." Tam gestured for me to turn around so that she could see the entire effect. "Yes, this will do. Though we might have to do something about your hair being so short eventually. Oh yes let us not forget the bells."
Before I could ask her to clarify, Aunt Katie had whipped out with a small silver bracelet that was covered with tiny bells. "You need to wear this around you ankle."
Tam looked immensely pleased with herself. "Perfect, thank you Katie. Sorry for interrupting your work."
"It was my pleasure, you know I don't get to do this often, my boys now refuse to let me dress them. It would be all right had they provided me with daughter-in-laws, but they are slacking in their duties in that regard." She grumbled under her breath, she did not see us to the door as she headed back to her drawings.
Tam and I walked slowly through the forest, I was careful to not touch anything considering my outfit was mostly white. "Why is it that every woman in the family seems to have long hair?"
"It is a combination of tradition, vanity, and practicality." Tam explained while she lightly stepped across a small stream. We were headed to the clearing with the flags, that was the only way to get off the island.
The tradition was of course due to the elders of the family, they came from a time when women had long hair. The vanity sort of was self explanatory. The practicality portion was the one she had a harder time trying to explain.
"How can long hair be practical, would it not constantly get in the way?" Letting my hair grow out was not a good thing, since it made me more hairy as a wolf.
"We have certain tricks to keep our hair from tangling. The reason for long hair is that you can hide weapons in it fairly easily. No one looks twice at a woman with the pretty comb in her hair, the comb that can also be used like a throwing knife." She shrugged at this point. "We are trained to be warriors from birth but it is not always practical to carry around a large sword, sometimes our weapons need to be a little more hidden."
Things always seemed to come back to fitting in and moving through society undetected, a wolf in sheep clothing.
I had gotten used to traveling through the bubble, but it was still a little disconcerting to step through the spot not knowing where you will end up. After the initial step and pull of the bubble all I saw was a blinding blue light. Blinking, I tried to adjust to the increased intensity of light, it was so bright that my eyes were watering.
"Sorry I guess I should have warned you," I heard Tam's voice beside me. I closed my eyes for a second before opening them slowly and shielding them with a hand. Looking around my surroundings I noticed we were in a small walled in garden, I could hear the trickling of a small fountain but it took me a minute to find it amongst all the green foliage. The small walled in area was smaller than my bedroom at Phil's house but someone had packed in as many plants as could possibly fit in the space. There were even some plants that were in pots against the walls, the high walls that were bright white and reflected the intense light of the sun above us.
"This is one of the houses that belongs to a family member. The high walls of the garden help camouflage our comings and goings." Tam spoke in a quiet, hushed voice. "They neighbors might get freaked out if they saw us just popping into existence."
I looked around me, somewhat bothered by the fact that I could not seem to recognize even one plant in the entire place. Well duh, you are on another planet. This is so freaky. Obviously it was not like the island where the plants reflected those from Earth, here is was a complete different ecosystem.
We did not enter the house like I expected, instead Tam led me to a small iron gate that led to what looked like a narrow alleyway. As soon as we stepped out of the garden door the temperature rose at least ten degrees. The contrast between the garden and the alley was astonishing, we went from the vibrant colored flowers to the dull grey road and white walls outside of the small sanctuary. My shoes made small clicking sounds that echoed off the high walls that surrounded us, apparently it was not only Tam's family that enjoyed their privacy. Tall two and three story buildings went straight up along both sides of the road and were only broken up by tall garden walls, it really was starting to make me feel a little claustrophobic. Some portions had small iron gates where you could see other private gardens, others had small metal grates that seemed to be the windows of this place. I tried not gawk too much as there were other people around.
"Wow this is really hot." I was glad to be a wolf, since temperature did not affect me as much as it would another human.
"This is still early morning, wait till noon, then you will see what hot is." We strolled slowly through the street moving at the speed of the residents. I tried to look at them from the corner of my eye, so that they would not notice my perusal. They looked completely human to me, their dark hair and eyes would have made them more likely to blend in with people from India. The long flowing tunics seemed to add to this image, I was expecting the Taj Mahal around the corner. I considered sharing this joke with Tam but decided against it. Best not to make her think me completely ignorant.
I don't know what I was expecting from another planet but it was not this. Maybe green skinned little men with large black eyes; I had been watching too much television.
"Everything seems so normal, almost like Earth." I spoke in a hushed tone. The bells on my ankle were making small tinkling sounds with every step I took. "And what is up with the bells?"
"It is something that is worn by young women to signal the fact they are not married." She explained with a twinkle in her eye. "Maybe you can meet a nice young man here."
"But I am dating your son, remember Phil?" Why would she encourage me to go out with someone else, I thought she wanted me to have grandkids for her.
"You are not married to him." Came Tam's not so subtle hint and I finally understood. She paused for a moment letting that sink in before she continued. "If you were married you could go with him when he goes to fight."
"I was led to believe it took more than just a few vows in front of a priest for me to be able to join him in the fight." I knew for a fact that I would have to go through some genetic modifications.
"So my son has been talking to you at least about some things." She gave me a sideways look, as we turned the corner. "Yes it would require you to be genetically modified. You must be able to manipulate space and time. Oh and reading minds is essential as well."
"Why is that..." I started to ask but then I looked up. The houses were not as close together in this street, and I could actually get a good look at the sky.
I had never seen the sky this color, it was almost a shade of purple, this helped reinforce the fact that we were no longer on Earth. When I quietly asked Tam about the color she explained it was something to do with the Nitrogen content of the atmosphere being different.
"As to why you need to be able to read minds, there are certain things that we hunt that look completely human. It is only through their thoughts that we can tell they have been infected." She explained casually as we walked down the street, I was getting worried. What if someone were to hear us?
Tam must have noticed my paranoia because she was quick to explain that no one spoke English on this planet. The humans were brought here before English had developed on Earth.
"So what is infecting them." That seemed to be the word that kept popping up. Infection, the family members that had gone with Phil had used that word as well.
"There were not that many aliens, humans far outnumbered them. Humans are very good at reproducing, so when they brought us to these planets we bred quickly in their research labs. Think of humans as the white lab rat of the alien world, our high numbers were seen as a potential tool by some and as weapons by others. Someone, we don't know who, created a sort of machine-cell hybrid. These small creatures are capable of self-replication like a regular cell but they also have some components that somehow allow them to be controlled wirelessly." She continued her explanation as we walked along the street. There were more people around us now, they were carrying what bundles and baskets. Some were filled with unrecognizable objects and others were empty. The street widened to the point of it being a square, filled with people and carts selling all sorts of goods.
There were vendors walking around hawking their wares, I may not have been able to understand the words but their gestures and tone was self explanatory. Buy my stuff, you know you want to.
We weaved our way through the thickening crowd, the number of people making it hard for us to continue the conversation. It helped that I was a little taller than most people here, upon closer inspection they tended to be a little shorter and stockier than I was. The combined smell of the people, various foods, and other things was nearly overwhelming. Especially after having been around only Phil in the past month, the island tended to be quiet for all my senses.
"Don't you just love the energy of this place?" Tam asked over her shoulder, as she pushed her way past a group of women haggling over some pottery.
I could see what she meant, this was life. Vibrant, loud, and smelly but life nonetheless. She stopped in front of a food stall, my stomach woke up enough to remind me of the fact that I had only had a bowl of cereal and that was hours ago. She bought us hot drinks and some sort of crumbly pastry wrapped up in a leaf.
It was surprising how vigorously Tam seemed to fight the man over the price, I had been under the impression that the family had a great deal of money. But maybe that was only on Earth and it was different here.
My eyes swept across the crowded square, it must have been painfully obvious that I was a tourist. It was impossible not to stare at everything around me, watching people fill their empty baskets I came to realize that this must be the grocery store of the area. Someone in one corner was strumming some sort of instrument, a small bowl in front of him asking for donations, it was hard to hear him over the roar of the crowd. Two children were enjoying the music at least and were twirling in the small space in front of the musician - I was willing to bet that the music they were dancing to was in their heads since their rhythm did not match that of the snippets of music I could hear. Children could be so amazing in their innocence, while the adults ran around hustling and bustling they found the time to enjoy themselves.
I could feel a small smile on my face as I watched their antics, Tam was right about this place in that the energy was high - if I had to use one word to describe the feeling of this place I would definitely go for chaos.
A few steps away a woman with her basket heavily loaded was frantically searching around, her face filled with fear - she was a tiny little thing but what caught my attention was the fact that she looked close to tears. I could not understand what could possible cause her that much distress, she was looking down at her feet and trying to see around the crowd around her. I would not have been able to see her had it not been for my height, sometimes it was good to be a wolf. It was not until she picked up a small rag doll that my mind quickly made the connection. Catching her eye I pointed at the two children dancing in front of the musician, she looked confused for a minute before pushing through the crowd and finding her dancing children. I smiled as she scolded them for merely seconds before sweeping them into her embrace, after she put them back on the ground she turned back to me and gave me a nod while touching her her fingers to her forehead.
"I can't take you anywhere, you see the need to play the hero constantly," Tam laughed next to me. I rolled my eyes as she handed me the good she had obtained.
She encouraged me to try the food with a smile, but she need not have bothered. I was a werewolf, I would pretty much eat anything. Well, anything cooked that was, I did have a few standards unlike my fellow wolves.
The food neatly folded into the leaf ended up being some sort of sweetened grain I could not recognize, but it kind of reminded me of oatmeal but it was more crunchy. The drink tasted like tea, but it was not like anything I had ever had before.
"Don't eat the plant shavings at the bottom, they are just there to add some sweetness." Tam warmed me as we weaved our way out of the market. By the time we were at the edge we had finished our small snack, she showed me where to place our empty mugs.
"If you look on the bottom it has the vendor's sign on it. At the end of the market day they come and retrieve their cups. Much better than styrofoam." We made our way out of the market, we were headed in the direction opposite but as we left there was one market stall that caught my eye. I have to admit that all of a sudden both my X-chromosomes decided to make themselves known, there was something pretty. Upon closer inspection the small stall was selling hair combs, brooches, and an assortment of other bits all made out gold filigree and pretty little polished stones.
"Oh that is pretty." I looked at display in front of me.
"Which one do you want?"
Suddenly embarrassed, she had already fed me lunch but I was not going to let her get me something this frivolous. "Oh I was just admiring them, I don't really want one."
"Oh really?" There was skepticism in her voice. "Is that why your thoughts are screaming: pretty, I want?"
"I don't have any money with me,"
"Don't worry a little quartz and gold trinket will not break my budget." I could hear the laughter in her voice. "Just pick one out Leah, if it makes you feel better this will be a great opportunity to harass my son about not buying you enough jewelry."
"He buys me gifts all the time," I defended my boyfriend, "he even spent the time to put the necklace I destroyed back together."
"I am just teasing you Leah, now make this old woman feel good and let her buy you something."
I could not help but laugh at her old woman comment as I looked back at the selection. "You say this is quartz, that is something we have on Earth too."
"Yes the pink stuff is rose quarts, and of course it exists on Earth too. You will have the same geology in both places since the rules of physics are the same."
In the end I picked a hair comb with delicate little pink flowers made of the pink quarts held together by the thinnest possible gold wire. Tam was happy enough to slide it into my hair as soon as she paid for it, the teeth of the comb were wide enough to hold even my thick hair.
We did not linger much longer at the market instead we left the large crowd behind, and I was able to go back to my earlier line of questioning. "So what does the infection do?" We the big group of people and could walk side by side again.
"We joke that it makes you into space zombies, but that would be a blessing." She paused for a moment and looked around seeming to gather her bearings. We turned down a narrow street to cut across to an even larger avenue. To my surprise there were people on horses here.
"Why are there horses?" My questions about infections forgotten.
"Oh, they were somehow brought over when the people were. They are very important, treated almost like members of the family. Never insult a person's horse unless you want to fight." Her tone was matter of fact but I could detect a glint of humor in her eyes.
"There are no cars here, but there seems to be electricity." I noticed the wires running between houses as well as the street lamps.
"There are actually motorized vehicles but this is the inner city and they are barred from entering. There is a fear that the pollution would harm these old buildings as well as the practical problem of the streets not being wide enough to accommodate them." That made sense, if their cars were as wide as ours there would not be enough room for pedestrians.
I followed the line of the avenue and finally noticed what was at the end, at the top of the hill was the biggest building I had ever seen. "Wow, what is that?"
"That is the palace, and our destination." She had stopped to look at the castle, I could hear the pride in her voice.
If this was the country of her father I could see why she would be proud. The palace gleamed in the sunshine like a diamond. The bright rays of the sun reflecting off the white walls, bright blue and green banners were moving lazily in the wind.
"We can go in there?" I could hear the excitement in my voice. I had never been inside a real castle before.
"Of course, we can be tourists for the afternoon. We can even go to the Coiri...you would call it Senate, if you wish to see the government at work. Depending on the topic they are discussing things can get pretty interesting." She started walking again and I hurried to catch up, not wanting to be left behind.
The palace was at the top of a hill surrounded by the white garden wall that was extremely commonplace here, I noticed there were guards with serious looking weapons at the gates but they let the crowds through with just a cursory glance. Inside the walls it was like an oasis, the temperature which had been steadily climbing became tolerable. Everyone gave a sigh of relief as they entered. The inside of the walls were not white, at first I thought it was a painting but it turned out to be a beautiful mosaic depicting what I assumed to be various plants and animals.
My initial assessment of the palace was wrong, it was not one building but many of them of different styles and sizes placed together like a misfitting jigsaw puzzle. The most impressive had to be the building in the middle, it looked slightly like my dream castle. For a moment I wondered what it would be like to live in this place, I pictured myself as the princess in a long and flowing dress waiting for my knight in shinning armor. Over the past month or so my knight had started to take on the physical characteristics and personality of Phil; so maybe I had begun to build my castle in the sky again. This time the foundations were a lot stronger, this castle would last.
"Do you like it?" Tam interrupted my daydreaming.
"Oh my god I have never seen anything like it! I keep expecting a sultan to come traipsing out with his turbaned head and curved sword. I can picture him yelling 'get off my lawn you hooligans.' Is there a king or raja or something?" The palace was much more impressive up close, even someone like me who knew nothing about architecture could appreciate the awesomeness of this place.
"No there is no king, but there is a queen." She told me with a laugh.
"But you said there was a Senate?" I was getting confused.
"Yes it is sort of like your country, with a judicial and legislative branch; except here the executive branch is not elected. The queen's family has ruled this country for millennia, they are among the longest lived monarchies on this planet." She looked around with a great deal of pride. "There are parts of the castle that are almost that old, though of course it has been added onto a great deal over the years."
We walked though the beautiful gardens, the people around here were a little different looking than those we had seen in the market. Not everyone wore the tunic and pajamas like we did, there were a lot of people with cameras and backpacks. They also had more varied colorings from the dark hair and dark eyes of the natives. Tourists, in shorts and what looked like a Hawaiian shirt. I guess Earth did not have the monopoly on tacky clothes.
Tam quickly walked past the larger groups to take me to some of the smaller less used paths; she appeared to be very familiar with the gardens as she led me through with ease. I was glad for it, the large number of people were starting to get to me. In some corners of the garden I could pretend that they did not exist, I had become spoiled in the past month.
"I never realized how much people get on my nerves." Honestly, I wanted this place all to myself.
"That is one of the reasons it is not a good idea to stay on the island for long periods of time. You forget how obnoxious humans actually are." Tam thought my sentiments were amusing, she must not have realized how serious I was.
"It is not that they annoy me..." I tried to explain how hard it was to have wolf senses sometimes.
"Get out of my way you mortal." She stood up to her full height and gave me the total impression of a queen looking down at the peons around her.
My laugh bounced off the walls, echoing back at me. We walked over a small bridge and looked down at the small pond underneath us. The sound of loud footsteps interrupted our solitude.
"Are you ready to face the mortals yet again?" She asked me holding out her elbow.
I linked my arm through hers as we headed towards one of the smaller side building, the guards were a little more diligent this time. We had to walk single file through a small tunnel that reminded me of metal detectors. With my luck of course I set it off, one of the guards waved at me to step aside. He used something that resembled the hand wand metal detectors you see at airports, it beeped when it got to my right ankle. I had forgotten about the bells.
The guard gave me and extra toothy grin as he flicked the little bells making them jingle.
"I think you may have made a conquest." Tam told me after I had been waved away by the guard.
I looked back over my shoulder to see the guard still staring at me. "Or maybe he is suspicious of the strange woman."
Tam's face took on a serious look for a moment, before she smiled brilliantly. "Who is the mindreader here?"
I decided it was best not to continue the argument, especially since I was dating her son. Quickly I tried to clear my mind of the images of what exactly I had done with him in the past few weeks. I was fairly certain that she did not want to know all the details.
We entered a beautiful room made of stone, since that seemed to be the building material of choice, there was a huge desk with several people behind it.
"You can tell what their jobs are based on their sashes." Tamora explained to me. All the people who worked here seemed to be wearing the tunic and pajama sets in a variety of colors. The guards however all had dark red sashes going from their shoulders to their waist. "The ones who maintain and run the buildings have yellow, those who take care of the animals and gardens are green, and the queen's personal servants are blue."
Looking around us I noticed both dark red and yellow sashes. We did not stop at the front desk like everyone else. Instead Tam led me down one of the hallways, she was pretty confident as she led me around. Almost like she owned the place, but I guess when you are several thousand years old you might know a few things.
The rich history that was reflected among these walls was beyond description, here I was in my element. I tried to soak up as much as possible as Tam walked me past tapestries, pottery and weapons. "We can come back another day, but if you really want to know everything you should bring my son Myles. He is the historian."
I don't know how long we spent wandering down the halls, there was just so much to see. "How is it that one family was in power for such a long time?" I might have only taken the first semester of US History but I had learned enough through the years to know families could not hold onto power for very long. Inevitably all dynasties would fall, whether it was due to wars, politics, or just poor luck.
"You already know the answer to that." When I looked at her curiously she laughed at me. "The members of the royal family have the spirit. It used to be a solely royal trait but there were some illegitimate children along the way and it became more common. Though it has really been diluted through the years even amongst the nobles. It is only in the past few generations that we have seen our kings and queen have truly powerful spirits."
"Where are we going now?" I asked quietly as we left the museum building behind, we were headed to another one across the way, there were fewer people going our way.
"To the Senate, it is in session right now, and unless I miss my guess they are discussing the budget." She gave me a big smile. "It is always amusing how heated the conversation gets when it comes to money."
We went through another set of metal detectors, this time I removed my bells and gave them to the guard before I walked through. The foyer was not as elaborate as the one to the museum, there was two curved staircases on either side of two massive looking doors that were thrown open. I could see the people gathered inside, there was a heated discussion going on with raised voices and flailing arms. Instead of going through the two large doors we headed upstair, to a balcony overlooking the gathering.
This place seemed a lot more casual that the pictures of the US Senate I had seen. The room below us was huge with tiers of steps that were half circles surrounding a large statue of a woman holding what looked to be a dragon's head.
Everyone was sitting on small cushions surrounding low tables that were covered with paper, pens, and folders. There did not seem to be a focus, or someone in charge; everyone was talking all at once. We watched the fray for a few minutes as the arguments seemed to heat up and get louder. I may not have understood the words but the tone and the hand gestures made it quite clear, there were some really upset people.
"This seems somewhat of a free for all." I whispered into Tam's ear.
"It is today, they are doing the budget. Don't worry the queen will reign them in eventually, I think she is just letting them vent their spleen for a little bit before she tells them to stop acting like a bunch of babies." She was assessing the crowd with a stern eye.
"The queen is here?" I looked around the pit below us. I do not know what I expected to see, a crown maybe, a big flashing neon sign. But there was not anyone that seemed to stand out as royalty. Just a bunch of angry men and women, it was interesting to note that there were about equal number of both genders in the crowd. I had noticed that when Tam had been talking about their history, it seemed equality of the sexes was figured out very early on in this country's history.
There was a momentary lull in the arguments and that is when she spoke, the queen. I don't know how I knew that she was the queen, but I was willing to bet on it. She did not raise her voice, but even high up on the balcony it was clear as a a bell. Her voice was crisp and each word was enunciated, normally when someone speaks another language the words seem to blur together but not this time. Each word came out clearly, distinctly and ringing with authority. Everyone stopped talking and listened, it was very impressive to say the least. I looked down to find the source of the voice, even sitting down she was taller than most of the people around her. Her face was slightly turned away from me, her profile was not pretty but strong; her jaw, her forehead and even her slightly curved nose all looked hard and added to the determined look.
It took me a moment to recognize who she was. "Sassy." I said a little louder than I intended. The people around me gave me a dirty look, apparently you did not interrupt when the queen was talking.
"Josefine-ki is what we call her here. That is Kendrick-ka next to her, the heir apparent to the throne and her right hand man." Tam told me quietly.
I looked next to Sassy and saw Kendrick sitting there. How had I not noticed a man that large? "Why did you not tell me she was queen?"
"You never asked me the queen's name." There was a small smirk on her face.
That was when I remembered, it was Kendrick that had gone off to search for my little brother when he had run off. I sent a prince to search for my little brother who had run off because his girlfriend was making out with another man. Come to think of it Sassy got to see me totally naked when she found Jenny and me in the cave. All of a sudden my face burst into flames. I know as an American we were not supposed to care about such things as titles, but there was just something especially embarrassing about the situation knowing you were seen naked by royalty.
My thoughts must have sounded extra loud because Tam looked over at me. "They are only considered royalty here, anywhere else they are normal citizens."
That is when it occurred to me, Phil had introduced Sassy as his cousin. Did this mean he was royalty too? I was too distracted with my thoughts and it did not help that I did not speak the language but I stopped paying attention to what was going on below me. It was kind of a shock when Tam spoke up and made a statement in a loud voice.
There was an answering question made in a sneering voice from below; someone did not like what Tam had said.
Tam spoke again, the authority in her voice convincing me of her certainty despite the fact that I had no idea what the heck she was talking about.
At this point Kendrick spoke up, I did not understand any of his words except for the Tamora-ki. I guess that answered my question, no wonder Tam had been so proud of the castle and history of this place. They were the story and history of her ancestors, her bloodline.
I watched as Tam really got into the discussion, it was somewhat amazing to see her go at it even if I could not understand a word. Her normally high energy level came out only in her voice, the rest of her body looked relaxed as she made her arguments.
When things got especially heated Sassy would chime in and seemingly redirect the conversation, you had to admire her skill and patience with this crowd. I would have been throwing things by now - especially when grown men and women began to practically whine.
Suddenly three bells rang all at once. Instantly everyone was in motion, gathering up papers and personal possession as they all got up and started filing out of the place.
"It is three bells, this conversation will have to wait for a few hours while everyone goes to get something to eat and take a nap." I followed Tam down the stairs, we did not head out the door like I was expecting instead we waited along the side.
Sassy and Kendrick came out the main doors, they had picked up a group of men with red sashes. The guards, I guess they worried about assassination attempts here too.
The queen was listening to someone talking to her as she walked by us, but that did not stop her from turning to us and nodding her head at us.
Tam took this as a sign to follow. "We just scored lunch."
Sassy and her entourage did not use the front door we had come through, instead we went outside through a small side door that looked almost like the janitor closet. They kept a quick pace as we walked across to the next building, it was the palace that I had seen originally. Only the guards remained with us, everyone else was left behind as we exited the Senate building. "This tower section is part of the original castle." Kendrick informed me as we passed through the large circular room.
"The ground floor is open to tours," Tam whispered in my ear, there was a group of obvious tourists being led by a yellow sashed woman.
Heading up a curved flight of stairs the guards abandoned us as well. "So how do you like the city?" Sassy asked me in a quiet voice as we walked down what seemed an endless hallway line with what looked like priceless pieces of art nestled into the crevices in the walls.
"It is very different than what I am used to." It was hard not to be shy all of a sudden.
"Yes I know, it was somewhat of a shock when we came back from Seattle last month into this." Kendrick's smile put me more at ease. It had not taken me long to get over my initial fear of Kendrick, the tattoos aside her really was a big teddy bear at times he was more protective than Phil - especially when I was sick and staying with the Cullens he would stop by and make sure I had everything I needed. Sassy had still intimidated me, there was just something of her demeanor that smacked of power and authority, now I knew why - not that I had done that much socializing with her, she had been somewhat standoffish in the past.
"If the guardians of a planet leaves for a little vacation, we all tend to go and do something else too. So when Phil left for the island we decided it would be a good time to come check up on things here." Kendrick explained as we walked down the hall, it was nice when people answered questions I did not even ask.
The people that we not encountered all wore blue sashes, marking them as the queen's personal servants. I noticed every one of them stopped and bowed as we past before they went back to their duties. I got glimpses of low furniture and beautiful pieces of art as we walked past the archways, there seemed to be few doors around here. Instead they had arches that were covered with some sort of cloth that could be pulled down to give a little privacy.
An older woman with a blue sash soon caught up with us and Sassy started giving orders, I was given a quick sweeping look from the other woman but after that I was politely ignored.
"She is the head of the queens personal servants, you might call her the housekeeper." Tam answered my question even before I could ask. This woman looked a little more capable than Cindy, our housekeeper back in Seattle.
We finally stopped at an archway that was covered with a gauzy piece of cloth, Kendrick held it aside as we all filed in. The housekeeper did not follow but walked away after a quick bow.
The room was made of the white stone like everything else around here but it was almost completely covered with beautiful tapestries depicting hunting scenes, as well as various animals and plants I could not recognize. There was a small fountain in one corner, the trickling water made a very pleasant sound. The center of the room was sunk in a few steps and contained the only furniture that I could see. Along one side there were some intricately painted screens that blocked out the sunshine streaming in the metal grates that were the windows in this place. The sunken-in area contained layer upon player of beautiful carpets, as well as a variety of jewel toned pillows. There were low tables with mosaic patterned tops and metal legs in various shapes.
We took our shoes off before we stepped down into the carpets. "This is amazing, everything here is a work of art." I looked around like a country bumpkin wanting to touch and feel everything.
"Sometimes I forget how beautiful everything is, it is hard not to take it for granted when you look at it all day and everyday." Sassy was not a pretty woman by any means, her bone structure and demeanor both added to the impression of great power. But when she smiled you wanted to smile with her, for a moment you forgot that she was a powerful guardian and a queen.
"No chairs?" Obviously a rhetorical question on my part.
"It really helps with your posture." Kendrick told me with a smile as he threw himself down on a couple of pillows. He gathered them up and rearranged them around his long frame. Yeah I could tell how good his posture was.
I tried to mimic Sassy and Tam's way of sitting, but I could not achieve that straight of a back when sitting cross legged. Sassy immediately had pulled out a file of papers and was quickly reading through them.
"I say you stop reading that crap and instead we just massacre the entire lot and start over." Kendrick suggested, his voice was muffled by the arm he had thrown across his face. He looked ready to take a nap, I was starting to see the merit in his plan, while the room was not hot it was still warmer than I was used to.
"The walls are white." Tam pointed out. "You would never get the bloodstains out."
"Good point, I always hate getting the blood out," Kendrick's voice sounded serious, almost like he had a great deal of experience with removing stains.
There was sound of a curtain being moved as two people in blue sashes appeared. One set down a small folding table at the top of the stairs while the other placed the tray she had been carrying on top. There were four small bowls and small towels. They placed them in front of us before bowing and leaving again.
"To wash your hands," Tam explained as she dipped her hands in the citrus scented water. The water was a perfect temperature, not too hot and not too cold. I wondered if this took a lot of training, making sure the temperature was just right, or if they had just put it in the alien version of a microwave for a minute and hoped for the best.
A few minutes later they returned and replaced our bowls of water with plates of fresh fruit and bread. Kendrick actually sat up for this one, I noticed that they gave him far more food than the rest of us.
He must have seen me eyeing his plate. "Death squad, remember."
I nodded at him, understanding what he meant, Tiffany had taught me all about the eating habits of a death squad member.
The rest of the courses came out in the same way, the old plates would be removed followed by the new ones. Sassy spent the entire time with half an eye on the papers she was reading, and the other part of the time catching up with Tam about family affairs.
"Speaking of family, tell me Sassy how is your mate?" Tam looked over at Sassy.
Sassy had a mate? I wondered who would be able to attract the attention of this serious woman? But she had the spirit so she would not really have that much of a choice in the matter.
"He was doing quite well the last time I looked in on him." Sassy looked up from her paperwork, a small smile broke through her serious face.
"I am surprised you left him unguarded." Tam continued her questioning. I was surprised as well, from my understanding they tended to watch over their mates with great dedication. Phil had gone to a great deal of trouble to make sure I was safe.
"That is because she went psycho." Kendrick interrupted his eating to share this tidbit about his partner. "She tagged him with a GPS and heart monitor. Anything funky happens and she gets a warning."
"It is not psycho, it is just being cautions." She paused for a moment hesitating for the first time. I could see her holding back whatever she wanted to say.
Tam all of a sudden became extremely interested in one of the tapestries hanging in the far corner. Kendrick visibly flinched, the smile fell off his face. It was then that I remembered why he had all those tattoos, his mate had died. For a moment there was an awkward silence.
"So what brought you visiting today?" Kendrick asked as he scooped food into his mouth, his momentary bad humor seemingly gone. This course consisted of some sort of spicy grain and vegetable mix. I had finally noticed that there was no meat served, I wondered if the people on this planet were vegetarians as well. I did not think it would be polite to ask about it.
"Phil is gone for the week, he has gone hunting for infected ones." I told him not really knowing what I was talking about.
Kendrick sat up a little more, this seemed to grab his attention. "Where is the problem?"
"Stef and Myles ran across something, but it was somewhat of a mess, there are a lot of old ones there so they called in back-up." Tam answered for me. This was new information for me as well.
She never had fully explained about the infected ones, I had finally got over the fact that I was around royalty and was ready to find out more about what Phil was fighting. I asked Tam to clarify what she had meant about the infected ones. Instead of Tam it was Kendrick who explained it to me.
Anyone could be infected, it did not really matter if you were human or an experiment. If these bugs got into your bloodstream they would attach themselves to your nerves, then you would eventually become a puppet. You would be stuck inside of a body that was controlled by someone else, your mind would be the only thing that remained yours.
"We don't know who controls the strings of these puppets, sometimes it seems like there is a larger plan but other times the only goal they have is to infect another person." Kendrick had sat up and was now gesturing with his hands, as if to mimic the puppeteer that was pulling the strings.
I could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to be stuck in a body I could not control. "I would go insane."
"This is why we need to have the ability to read minds, because you could be walking down the street and you pass a man reading a newspaper acting completely normal. But when you read their thoughts they are screaming for help." Tam jumped into the story.
"Can the infection be removed?" That seemed like the best solution.
"Some of the earlier versions we could rarely break the bonds with the puppeteer, but somehow it got upgraded and now we cannot seem to find a way to separate them out. So the only think we can do is to kill the infected. Sometimes the hardest part is knowing who is and who isn't infected. Occasionally we get a big infestation and find an entire town with nothing but those things." Kendrick had lost his smile, frown lines appeared on his forehead.
"So you just kill them? Even if they do nothing wrong?" I could understand killing someone who had broken a law, but it sounded like these people had done nothing wrong but been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I know it sounds cruel and wrong, but if you would only hear the thoughts going through these people's minds. They welcome death, and plead for it." Sassy had joined in on the conversation.
"So these are just normal humans? No special powers?" This was an important point, Phil could handle a group of humans.
"They are essentially human." Tam made a funny face. "Every type of human can be infected and they seem to get stronger and faster as the infection progresses. Plus sometimes it can be hard to tell who is and isn't infected, it is when we get surprised that we get hurt." Tam's voice became more quiet, almost like she was lost in a memory.
"The family fights these guys?" So if I were to join the family I would be expected to do this.
"Don't worry Phil will be back relatively unscathed." Tam did not answer my question, but then I already knew the answer.
"What do you mean relatively?" I picked up on that quickly. I had learned some of their tricks, in fact I had started using some of them, they would tell the truth but not the whole truth.
"Maybe a few broken ribs, but other than that he should be fine." Tam clarified for me. She did not seem too worried, for a moment I wondered if she just did not care about her son's safety. But that was wrong, the family was very protective of its members. She cared about him but she also knew his capabilities better than I did.
There was a lull in the conversation as we concentrated on finishing the last few courses. We did not stay long after that despite the fact that Sassy generously offered us a room for the night. Tam thanked her but said she needed to get some things done on the island. Instead we walked back to the walled in garden and jumped back to the island. The walk back was faster, since we did not go through the market.
Once on the island I walked home without paying attention to where Tam was going, I had not slept well the night before and I needed a long shower to wash off the dust and sweat from the little trip.
I still could not sleep, even with a psychic telling me he would be fine I still worried about Phil. What if he was surprised by one of these things? How bad would his broken ribs be? Could those things not puncture a lung or something? And what was this about Phil being related to royalty, how would a girl like me be good enough for him?
"No Leah, stop thinking like that, he already told you he loved you." It was bad enough that I was talking to myself out loud, but now I had started arguing. I wished I could ask my mother for advice, but that was one of the consequences of being with Phil. I would have to keep his family's secret forever, no matter what happened my mother would never know the truth about Phil. If I chose to fully join the family, she would never fully know the truth about me either. I would have to lie to my mother for the rest of her life, I loved my mother very much and it would hurt me to cut her out of my life like that, to constantly keep her at a distance. But there really seemed to be no choice.
I spent the next few days running around in wolf form, without Phil I could actually go further. I found several family member houses but I did not approach their doors, even had I wanted to it would have been hard with paws. Instead I enjoyed the pristine, undisturbed beauty of the island, and thought about my future.
As much as I enjoyed my relationship with Phil we were kind of in limbo, it looked like I had three choices. I could either learn to live with the fact that Phil would go off into danger and there was nothing I could do about it, I could break off our relationship, or I could go through whatever scientific mumbo jumbo they would do to make me a full member of the family.
The option of never seeing Phil again was not acceptable, just the thought of it nearly brought me to my knees. It would hurt me immensely to leave him, and I cannot even begin to imagine what it would do to him. He had spent the past two thousand years looking for me, he did not deserve the cruelty of being abandoned by me. So that left only two options, living in this limbo or going through the change.
I needed to know more about what actually happened, and I probably could have gone to talk to Tam. But for some reason I wanted Phil to be the one to explain it to me, since it would be by his side that I would spend eternity. Decision made I finally did not have trouble falling asleep.
I don't know what happened but all of a sudden I was startled awake; everythign seemed perfectly normal except for a strange noise. I sat up in bed trying to figure out what it was when I saw the lump beside me.
"Phil." I whispered, but he did not answer. He was fast asleep and the noise I had heard was his snoring.
I looked quickly looked him over to make sure he was all right, lifting the sheet up to get a good look. It was startling to see several large bruises covering both his legs and arms, but there was no broken skin as far as I could see. His chest was wrapped in an ace bandage and his breathing was a little more shallow than usual. Tam had been right about the broken ribs. Should he be sleeping with a broken rib, or was that only with a concussion that you were not supposed to let them sleep.
I quickly covered him up again, not wanting to wake him. I had never really seen him this deeply asleep, usually he went to sleep after I did and was awake before me. Now there were dark circles under his eyes; he looked absolutely exhausted. My poor battered warrior, I wanted to pick him up and squeeze him, but that might hurt his ribs and he looked like he really needed to rest.
I spend a long time sitting cross legged just looking at him wondering how I was going to be able to let him go out again. He looked so vulnerable and almost innocent in his sleep.
If you had asked me a month ago I would have sworn that I was going to stay with Phil, why else would I have thrown my body into the mix; but now in retrospect I realized I had been holding something back. He had promised me eternal love and then had set out to prove that day after day, showing me in deeds what he did not always say in words. I had told him I loved him but I had not given him my everything, not my total commitment. I had told everyone around me, including myself that I was over my breakup with Sam but I had held back some part of myself, trying to protect that small bit of my heart just in case.
Brushing a small strand of hair out of his eyes I whispered my promise and gave that final small portion over to this man. "I will be by your side forever and always."
That was when I was hit by what felt like a bowling ball, I lost my breath in a sudden gasp. All of a sudden it no longer mattered how my mother would react, the ties that bound me to her had weakened to the point of almost breaking. The concern for my brother and my pack all were showed aside as well. All that was important was staying next to this man, listening to him breathe and making sure that he would be safe. It finally happened, I had imprinted on my mate.
A/N: All right so that was somewhat of a behemoth chapter. What do you guys think? Sorry if there are typos, I should have re-read it again but I have to go and it is a choice of posting now or sometime tomorrow morning, I figured sooner would be better.
Domino88: There Phil is back, and he relatively unscathed. Leah's happiness is still safe :D. Glad you liked the chapter.
Ms Animegoddess: Glad you liked the last fluff, did Tam live up to your expectations?
Connect2tjb: Glad you liked, getting closer to the end now.
Jaime2772: Glad you liked the chapter, sorry that you no get Phil. Kendrick so far looks available :D.
Twilighter: Um about jailbait, yeah got a little distracted though I did work on it some. Glad you liked the lemon zest. :D