Entanglements (17 page)

"So you've never disobeyed your father? Complete obedience to anybody would be impossible for me," I tried to joke.

"Performance of duty has always been of preeminence to me even when I questioned the correctness."

"I'm certain if there was a choice between what's right and your duty, you'd do what's right." My gaze locked with his.

He glanced away. "Why do I deserve such faith?" he whispered.

"I don't know. I just believe in you." A laugh burst from me. "Sorry. That sounded stupid."

"Not stupid. Naive," he said. "In my world any disobedience to the head of the family may be disciplined as he sees fit even unto death. So you see I am not free to do right.”

“You mean your father could legally kill you if he chose?”

“Accord. And he would do so with ease if I dishonored him by disobedience to duty.” Rom’s jaw tightened and his eyes drifted to the ceiling as if considering this possible fate.

“What about your mother? You said she's a doctor, a medico. Surely, she wouldn't allow your father to hurt you.”

Rom shrugged. “Mother has devotion for her children but reverence for her husband is preeminent.” Rom’s eyes clouded as if the thought of his mother’s failure to protect him would hurt more than his father killing him.

“Well,” I said shaking him a little. “Don’t feel bad. Fathers kill their children in this world too. Mine tried to kill me and Adam the day I first saw you.”

“But this killing is not sanctioned by your laws,” Rom observed.

“No.”

“Why did he do this thing? Had you dishonored him?”

“I don’t know why he did it,” I said. “I wonder if I ever will.”

Rom pulled me closer into his arms and I rested my cheek against his chest. The scent of sandalwood and male acted as a narcotic. And the steady beating of his heart calmed me.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sleep like this?
I thought. But staying awake was a priority.

“You said your scientists had discovered other dimensions. Does that mean you’ve traveled to other worlds before now?” I asked.

“No. It is strictly forbidden by edict,” Rom said. “When the sciencia discovered these matters fifty years ago, the government began testing of children at the time of their first vaccinations. My mother as medico shielded our results. If others discovered my brother and I are Clavis we would face execution.”

“It must have been very dangerous for all of you when I arrived with Adam.”

“Accord. Although we successfully returned you to your world, the oracle soon prophesied the world of the Dorcha would be opened by you with consequences most dire. My father decided I must try to prevent this.”

Pulling from his hold, I leaned over him, propped on my elbow. For a moment I considered asking him more about Adam, but I couldn't bring myself to.

“So you came here and found me?”

“I journeyed to this world and found you,” he said. “And I found you most distracting.”

“And delightful,” I joked.

“Truth.” Rom's gaze was intent. He pulled me down to rest on his chest. “I find you have become more to me than my duty should allow.”

“What does that even mean?” Oops, I said that out loud.

“The meaning is this.” Tilting my face to his with a light touch on my jaw, Rom leaned up and captured my top lip between his in a kiss. His lips moved gently, sipping on mine. After some seconds, he pulled back.

“And this.” His mouth returned.

This time his tongue licked at the seam of my lips enticing me to open to him. When I did, his tongue slid into my mouth and tangled with mine, warm and delicious. This must be the French kissing Petra talked so much about. When she recommended it, her description hadn't been that enticing. I’d have to apologize to Petra at the earliest opportunity.

My hand crept up his arm tracing the lean but strong muscles before moving on to Rom’s shoulder, feeling its strength through his t-shirt. My caress moved to his head where I sifted through his silky hair. I pressed his head toward me, not wanting him to move away again. He didn’t. Instead, he deepened the kiss and I felt his hand wander tantalizingly from my hip up my side, over my rib cage toward my breast. My heart pounded in anticipation.

A knock sounded on the door and I jerked back, panting.

“Kizzy, are you asleep?” Mom would open the door any second.

I waved to the closet. Rom scrambled from under me and off the bed as I answered. “Just a minute.” When he was hidden and I had hurried under the covers to hide my street clothes, I called for her to come in.

Mom opened the door and walked in. She glanced at the computer, which Rom had bumped on the way to his hiding place, and the screen displayed the image of Prince Leopold.

“Still up surfing the net?” Mom eyebrows arched.

I laughed. “You caught me. I thought I could jump into bed and you’d never know.”

Mom sat on the side of bed and her eyes grew serious. “Your father’s court hearing is tomorrow. I wish you didn’t have to testify but—”

“I know. It’s all right,” I said. “I’ll be there.”
Maybe
, I thought.

“I’ll pick you up from school about a half hour before.”

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

My comment met with a mutinous expression from Mom and I could tell she would insist on going even though seeing my father would ravage her emotions all over again. Mom had been trying since Adam, but she still hadn't returned to her normal self.

"It would be easier to face the hearing if you weren’t there.” I pulled out the only excuse that would work.

“How will you get there?”

“Rom will drive me.” As I said the words, the fact I could rely on him comforted me. The strength of my attachment to Rom after less than three days' acquaintance amazed me. How had that happened when I’d promised myself I wouldn’t count on, let alone care about, anyone else ever again?

“Okay.” Mom rose from the bed and turning out the bedside table light. She seemed relieved. “Goodnight, Kizzy.”

“Night.”

Mom walked out the door casting one last glance over her shoulder at me before closing it behind her.

After waiting a few seconds for her to move away from the door, I threw back the covers and leaped from the bed.

“Let’s go hunt monsters.”

* * * * *

In the back of Zen's cargo van about a half hour later, the group of us finalized our plan for the monsters.

“Can we trust him?” Zen said from the driver’s seat as he pointed to Billy standing outside the van on the sidewalk. “I haven’t had a chance to check him out.”

I shrugged, watching Billy fidgeting and pacing from my vantage point in the passenger seat. Hopefully, he wouldn’t just bolt.

“You can trust Billy as much as anyone can be trusted, I suppose.”

“Thanks a lot." Petra pouted as she leaned up from the cargo area. “Like I’m to be lumped in with that creep?”

“Sorry,” I said. “You know I didn’t mean anybody in the van.”

Under the dim illumination of the van's dome light, I saw Rom, also in the back, grimace. But he said nothing.

“Billy says he and Quinn tracked the monsters to a shipping container near the port,” I stated. “Quinn is supposedly watching the container now. So if we want to find these things, I guess we have to trust him.”

“I’m not so sure we should find these things,” Chase murmured from next to Petra.

“Don’t be a dick.” Senji punched Chase in the arm.

“You’re a dick.”

“You’re a dick to the tenth power.”

“Shush it,” I yelled. “We don’t have time for juvenile antics right now. If you don’t want to come after the monsters with us then just leave. But do it now.”

“I didn’t say I want to leave.” Chase hung his head but not before a visible red seeped into his cheeks

“His point is premiere.” Rom nodded toward Chase. “What shall be done with the Dorcha when found?”

“What were you going to do with them when you first asked me about them?” In my impatience, his question irritated me.

“Probably sacrifice my life force to battling them.”

That shut me up.

“I’ve done some research on monsters,” Zen inserted.

Even though I wondered why, I didn’t ask. Zen wasn’t the kind of person to open up about his personal history.

Zen continued. “And based upon the description and the way they killed their four victims—”

“Four victims?” I interrupted. “I thought they'd only killed two.”

“From the police radio monitor, two more were found earlier this evening,” Zen said. “Probably killed last night though.”

We all fell silent for a few moments. I don’t know what the others felt but I know my emotions spanned from sorrow for the victims to fear for my friends and myself.

“Anyway, from the way they are killing, I think I know what kind of creatures they are,” Zen added.

“Rom said they were dorks,” Senji commented.

“Yes, but Dorcha is their dimension," I said to Senji and then turned to Zen. "What kinds of beings are they? They aren’t human.”

“The big one’s strength overwhelmed us,” Rom noted. “But he was slow.”

“Ogre,” Zen stated. “ A nocturnal large humanoid. Hairy, strong body and a voracious appetite for eating human flesh.”

“So not the green cartoony variety.” Petra's joke failed to produce a laugh from anyone.

“How about the other one?” I swallowed down the bile that had risen in my throat. “He didn’t seem any stronger than the average human man but he definitely had sharp claws.”

“And teeth.” Rom pointed to his bandaged forearm.

“Ghoul,” Zen said.

“What’s that?” Chase asked.

“Some mythology theorizes a ghoul can be created from a human.”

“Who would create something like that?” Senji asked.

“A vampire,” Zen replied. “Ghouls can come out in the day but they prefer darkness. Like vampires, ghouls drink human blood and they also eat human flesh.”

“Great,” I said. “Another flesh eater.”

Zen's mouth twisted as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. “They have normal strength but they are agile and fast where the ogre is strong but slow and clumsy.”

"Can they be killed with bullets?" I asked.

"Silver ones," Zen said. "But average bullets will slow them down."

Outside the van, Billy reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. He flipped it open and spoke into it. Then he listened intently for a few moments and snapped it shut before stomping over to my window. He knocked rapidly on the glass and I lowered it.

“Quinn called,” Billy informed us. “He said the monsters are out of the container. They’re on the hunt.”

“Okay,” I said. “We know what they are. Apparently, we know where they are. Now how do we get them?”