Midnight Sun, page 18
part #1 of Mortal Heat Series
“Lucy…” His voice was rough and low.
My lips parted involuntarily, my tongue slipping across them in anticipation of the kiss I was sure was coming. My eyes were still locked helplessly in Mick’s hypnotic gaze, marveling at the movement in his irises I was still too afraid to ask about.
When his mouth was inches from mine Mick paused, then his forehead pressed against my head and his eyes closed, breaking the connection again. His hand fell from my face, leaving the skin of my cheek cold from its absence. After a deep breath, he lifted his head and pressed his cheek to mine, recreating the gesture of farewell his family had given me and making air kisses on each side of my face.
Rejection washed over me in an abrupt wave of hurt. The anticipation I’d been feeling a moment earlier dribbled away, leaving a cold, sour sensation in my stomach. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. Maybe I’d gotten too caught up in our pretend relationship, but I was certain there was more to it than that.
Mick backed away, opening the door for me and setting the bedroom walls alight with the movement. “Sleep well, Lucy.” The smile that played on his lips was small, his expression sad. “Hopefully tonight everything will turn out well for our friends.”
“Yes, hopefully,” I responded softly. “Goodnight, Mick.”
“Goodnight, Lucy.”
***
As I lay in bed waiting for the walls to dim, I sorted through the frenzy of emotions darting through my chest. Of course, I was worried about Emily, and by extension Todd. The sudden change in location to Europe and expansion of my knowledge of the world, let alone the universe, was dizzying in its intensity. Surely, these were plenty of reasons for me to feel confused and conflicted.
So why, with everything going on, was my mind occupied with Mick?
THE RECORDS
THE SOFT KNOCKING sound emanating from the door dragged me from a deep sleep. My eyelids peeled back slowly, and I waited in the velvet dark for my vision to return, only to realize the lights wouldn’t come on until I sat up. My groggy mind struggled to grasp this simple concept and motivate me to move.
“Lucy, are you awake?” Mick’s voice called through the door.
I sat up immediately. “Yep, I’m up!” I answered with false brightness as the walls lightened. There was no doubt about it, they were brighter now than they had been when I went to bed. It must be intentional, some sort of timed preset? I made a mental note to ask Mick about it.
“Can I come in?” Mick’s request sent my heart hammering as I attempted to smooth the frizz ball that was my hair.
“Um, sure…” I replied, fluffing my pillow and leaning back as if I’d just been lounging in bed. “Come in!”
Mick swung the door open and crossed immediately to the bed. “Todd and Emily are here, and she’s not doing well. My mother and sister are prepared to assist us with The Records. How soon can you be ready?”
I threw the covers back and hopped out of bed, too preoccupied to be self-conscious of the ancient tank top and boxer shorts I slept in. “Give me ten minutes,” I directed, heading straight for my suitcase and pulling out a pair of skinny jeans.
Mick left without a word and shut the door behind him. After dressing quickly I pulled a brush through my hair and darted out of my room, setting the walls alight as I raced down the hallway. Mick was waiting in the living room, holding my coat. I slipped my arms into it and he gestured to the door silently.
My stomach performed sickening flip-flops as we navigated the elevator, secret passageway, and salt palace below. When we reached the narrow hallway, we continued past the room where we’d met Mick’s family the night before. After several twists and turns, the hallway opened up to a cavernous room, even bigger than the elaborately decorated one we’d just passed through. This one was not decorated, however. It was enormous, with rough-cut salt walls and a ceiling so high it disappeared into the darkness above. I could see many doorways leading off of the main room. The light appeared to be radiating from an opaque, smooth-sided crystal that occupied the vastness of the room.
As I contemplated an enormous facet of the crystal Shanii appeared in it, walking toward us, and I realized it wasn’t a crystal at all. It was the ship Mick had told me about, the one in which they had traveled to Earth. I was facing what appeared to be the front of the ship, with a narrow angle that culminated in a sharp point several stories above my head. There were no apparent feet or landing gear, the craft simply sat on the ground. I leaned to the side to get a better perspective on the size of the ship, but it appeared to go on for as far as I could see. It appeared to be one solid crystal, lighting the entire cavern with its inner glow.
By this time Shanii had reached us, and her expression was tense. She offered no greeting, just said, “Lucy, Mick, please, this way,” and gestured back toward the crystalline ship. Mick waited for me to follow Shanii and he brought up the rear. Before we crossed the crystal threshold, he leaned forward and whispered in my ear.
“I should have warned you sooner, but most of my people that reside on this ship do not take human forms. I hope it will not be too frightening for you.”
Grateful for the warning, I refrained from staring at the first Vimpiri I spotted upon entering the ship. At first I thought it was Todd, but then I saw several more and I realized they couldn’t all be him. To my untrained eyes, they all looked the same: Similarly short stature; hard, shell-like heads with slits for noses and over-large, glowing eyes; large, thick hands with short stubby fingers. They wore loose, draping robes that appeared similar to Greek togas. Most appeared to be observing me curiously, politely attempting not to stare in much the same manner I was observing them. I turned my attention to the interior of the ship, trying to determine how they had crafted it. I didn’t notice any welds or joints that looked unnatural; It appeared as if the crystal had just grown in the exact shape they needed it to be, and as we continued down the hallway, the multitude of perfect crystalline doorways reinforced that impression. Here, at least, there was evidence of craftsmanship. The doors appeared to be fabricated from some kind of metal that slid easily into the crystal walls.
We passed through one such door and found ourselves in a large, circular room. A raised platform dominated the space, glowing with a brilliant, golden light. The ceiling was roughly fifteen feet high and mirrored the floor with a matching protrusion that glowed, creating a column of light between the two. The floor surrounding the platform was dark crystal, smooth. To the right of the doorway was a small group of people, and that is where I spotted Emily on the ground. She was deathly pale, her eyes closed.
“Em!” I shouted, running over and pushing bodies out of my way to reach her. Kneeling next to her, I felt the panic rising in my chest, stifling my lungs and making it difficult for me to draw air.
Her skin had a distinctly green hue, and her scarf did nothing to conceal the wounds on her neck. Blackish blood was pooling under her head, a steady drip-drip-drip from the soaked cloth. Limp, brassy hair stuck to her forehead, caught in the cold sweat that coated her face. There was no way around it, she looked barely alive. If she was alive at all.
“Em? Emily? Can you hear me?” The panic in my voice was sharp and close to hysteria. Gripping her wrist I attempted to feel for a pulse. It was faint, but I felt a light throb against my fingertips.
A muffled sob behind me caught my attention. “You!” I turned, the wrath replacing my concern for Emily as I stared Todd down. “Are you happy now? Look at her!”
Todd sat on the ground clutching his elbow, his face crumpled in despair. I must have pushed him over in my attempt to reach Emily, for which I was perversely pleased. I hoped it hurt. A lot.
“I love her,” he sobbed. “She said this was what she wanted. She kept insisting she was right, that it would work out if we believed. Emily is my mate, I can’t live without her.” A woman crouched down to comfort him, and he sobbed into her shoulder. I assumed it was his mother, but I didn’t have time for introductions right now.
Turning, I took stock of the rest of the group. Besides Mick and Shanii, there was a man I didn’t recognize—I assumed Todd’s father—and Shaline. Meeting her gaze, I asked, “Okay, so what now?”
Shaline didn’t answer me directly. Instead, she turned to Shanii, who met her eyes and nodded. Together they approached the raised, glowing platform and Shanii stopped at the edge while Shaline strode to the center. Facing each other, they began a low chant, eyes closed as they concentrated. The light of the platform changed from gold to a rosy hue, and the column appeared to waiver as if clouds were passing through the beams of light.
Suddenly dozens of shapes appeared in the light, shapes that resembled giant ghostly, non-corporeal vimpiri. They glimmered and shifted, settling around the still figure of Shaline like layers of transparent silk, barely distinct from each other. Shaline turned to face us, her form distorted by the layers that enveloped her body in sparkling, rosy light. Eyes still closed, she raised her hands to her shoulders, palms up, in a trance-like state.
When Shaline spoke, her voice was buried in dozens of other voices that all rose simultaneously in different languages. Somehow the chaos was harmonious, and I could focus on her voice which appeared to speak in English for my benefit alone.
“You seek an answer from us. You wish to know if a vimpiri has ever paired successfully with a member from another species. You wish to know if this human will survive the pairing. Is this correct?” The reverberating voices finished this question at different times, the varying languages dictating the speed at which the question was spoken.
I felt compelled to answer. The question had been spoken in my language, after all, so it made sense for me to respond. “Yes,” I answered, only to realize that every person surrounding me answered at the same time. Glancing to the left and right, I saw that Mick, Todd, and both of Todd’s parents were staring glassily at Shaline, and had all answered in tandem to my response. Emily was still asleep, her hand limp in my grasp.
While Shaline stood mutely, the ghostly figures that blanketed her spoke. I couldn’t understand a word, but it sounded as if they were all relaying information to her simultaneously, and she was listening to the cacophony. Suddenly I realized that this is what they meant about ‘consulting The Records’. While I had imagined a vast, dusty library filed with old parchment, their ‘Records’ were beyond my prior capability to understand. The comprehension dawned on me rapidly, pieces clicking into place like a puzzle. These were the vimpiri of the past, if I had to guess former leaders like Shanii and Shaline, who retained all the knowledge of their lifetimes and would serve each new leader for eternity. Mick had to be involved because it was a request for his family. It wasn’t a library where you could just walk in and check out a book; only a current queen could ask and answer questions from them.
As the voices continued, I felt Emily stir. I glanced down to find her dull blue eyes watching me with confusion.
“Lulu? What are you doing here? Where are we?” Her voice was low and whispery, as if the effort to speak was painful. She tried to turn her head and winced, the wounds on her neck releasing a few more drops of blackish blood.
“Shhh, it’s okay Em,” I stroked her damp hair from her forehead. “We’re with Mick and Todd in their ship. They’re finding out how to make you better. It’ll be okay,” I repeated.
“Where’s Todd? Todd!” Her voice rose, a note of panic infusing strength in her tone.
Todd broke from the trance of watching Shaline and rushed around to Emily’s other side, gripping her hand and stroking her face.
“I’m right here, baby,” he crooned. “It’s okay, I’m right here.” His rockstar demeanor gone, Todd looked like any other man worrying about someone he loved. Dark circles under his eyes and the paleness of his skin told me he was suffering, too.
Emily appeared to forget I was there; her eyes were only for Todd. Her clammy hand slid from my grasp and reached up to stroke Todd’s face, comforting him.
A hot tear trailed down my cheek, followed swiftly by another. I felt them splash on my hands that rested, useless, in my lap. It killed me to see Emily like this. My Emily was vibrant, full of life, practically glowing with vitality. People stared at her wherever we went, and she didn’t ask for the attention but she couldn’t help it. Her life force just took up all of the air in the room. Now she was pale, sick, and lifeless, stretched out on a polished crystal floor with her blood slowly dribbling out of her.
I’d never gotten to see my sister Mary after the crash. Even the funeral was closed casket. “Too much damage,” they’d said. My parents had gone to the mortuary to identify her, and the haunted look in my mom’s eyes afterward told me everything I needed to know. I preferred to remember Mary the way she was when she left for the prom: Golden and glowing, brimming with happiness at being alive. In my darkest hours, I’d imagined what she might have looked like pale and still, broken like an abandoned doll in a pretty dress.
Now, having the experience repeated with Emily, I knew it was much, much worse than I had imagined. My heart throbbed painfully to see her stripped of the inner radiance she always exuded. The muscles in my throat clenched, making it difficult for me to breathe. I fought the instinct to turn away and allow my face to crumple. Ugly crying was not in the cards right now, not while Emily was still with us.
She wasn’t watching me. She was gazing at Todd adoringly, cupping his cheek, his hand pressing hers against his face. And even with silent tears running down his cheeks, Todd was smiling at Emily with a depth of love I couldn’t fathom. They seemed to be having a silent conversation, their eyes only for each other.
I wanted to scream at her to fight, to not give up her life for a man, but the angry words died in my throat. There was no denying the emotion: love and contentment and, despite it all, happiness, that they radiated from every inch of their bodies. Sick, pale, and broken, Emily was still the happiest I had ever seen her.
On some inner level, this broke me. I imagined, I suppose, that I completed her in the same way she completed me. The way she took care of me, the way we had been joined at the hip since freshman year, told me she needed me as much as I needed her.
This moment was the turning point. I understood now that as close as Emily and I are, were, or had been, Todd completed her in a way I never could. She would rather die than be without him.
Abruptly the cacophony of voices died out, and the chamber became eerily silent in the aftermath. I glanced to my left and saw that aside from Todd, everyone was still staring, entranced, at Shaline. I followed their gaze and watched Shaline as well, still coated in layers of sparkling light that vaguely formed the ghosts of vimpiri queens of the past.
This time, when Shaline spoke, all the voices spoke with her. Her eyes flew open, and she stared directly at me, addressing me along with all the voices of her ancestors. They spoke in unison, in English and other languages again, layering the force of their statement in a variety of textures and tones that resembled the harmony of an orchestral arrangement.
“The pairing of vimpiri with other species is inevitable. Vimpiri are, and have always been, adaptable, fluid in nature, able to change as needed to survive.
This vimpiri and this human are not paired. I can offer no guarantee that the pairing will be successful. I can only offer advice:
For vimpiri, pairing is a complete surrender of ‘self’. Both parties must commit themselves, body, mind, and spirit, to the pairing, or it cannot hope to succeed. If either holds back, neither will survive.”
As the echoing voices receded, the shimmering figures that shrouded Shaline faded until she was once again in a simple column of golden light. She blinked several times, seeming to recover herself, then tread slowly to the edge of the platform and allowed Shanii to assist her in stepping down.
The spell broken, everyone turned to each other and began whispering rapidly. Mick knelt beside me.
“What did you hear?” He asked cautiously.
I looked at him, confused. “You were right here… about the pairing and body, mind, spirit part…” I trailed off as his head shook slowly. “That’s not what you heard?”
“When The Records speak, they speak to each of us individually. Everyone here heard something different, what they needed to know for the part they have to play.”
“What did you hear?”
“I… I’ll tell you later.” His voice dropped. “Did they tell you if Emily would survive?”
I leaned closer to Mick, not wanting to say it loudly where Emily could overhear. “They said Todd and Emily haven’t completed the pairing,” I whispered. “That they have to both commit themselves body, mind, and spirit, or neither would survive. They said they couldn’t guarantee that it will be successful.” The worry that crept into my voice fought with confusion and sadness. Hadn’t Emily already given up everything for Todd?
“Lulu?” Emily’s whispery voice called me out of my musing. When I looked back to her prone figure, I saw her hand reaching to me and I took it, grasping her fingers tightly.
“I’m here, Em. Do you need something?”
“No, I have it now.” She sighed, content. “I missed you, Lulu. I love Todd with my whole heart, but I felt like something was missing without you. Please don’t leave me.”
“Of course I won’t leave you, Em. Never.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I understood: The pairing was incomplete because some part of Emily was holding back. Despite running away with Todd, despite her willingness to die to be with him, she had never given up on me. Somewhere deep in her heart she still needed me.
