The Celestial Kiss (25 page)

              I’d never seen anything quite so spectacular.  The lights in the bushes illuminated the moon rose so that they glowed a soft and creamy white.  The shadows cast on the ground around us were like stars, dancing on the concrete as the candles shifted.  “Yes,” I said, looking around in awe.  “Answers are more than enough.”

              We sat together on the blanket, which was covered in pillows, and looked up at the stars.  I kicked off my boots.  The hedges blockaded the wind almost entirely, so that when we positioned our bodies just so, we were both perfectly warm in spite of the chill.  All that could be seen of the wind was the way that the candles swung gently in their jars above us.  

By the time we were situated, I was beginning to feel drowsy with the downy sense of warmth he gave me, so much so that when he asked what I wanted to know, I simply told him “Tell me everything.”

              My request must have seemed strange to him, if the way his lips curled in amusement was any indication.  “Have you ever heard the phrase ‘sealed with a kiss’?”  I nodded and made some sound of acknowledgement.  “It originated from a sacred line of oaths, the kind which demand a physical seal.”

              I stared at him for a moment, and when he turned to look at me finally I couldn’t help but laugh.  “I don’t understand.”

              “Words are beautiful, majestic, even, but they simply don’t bear the weight of promise.  Thus in all unearthly promises, the ones that are meant to transcend time, physical seals must be utilized.  The seal bearing our devotion to the Creator comes in the form of the celestial kiss, or as we so eloquently call it these days, the bite.  When a werewolf bites another, those people are swearing to spend eternity in devotion to each other.”

              “Forever is a long time.”  It was an errant thought, but it slipped past my lips. 

“Yes,” James agreed, “But for some people, forever is not enough.  The sentiment behind the kiss is quite interesting.”

“Tell me?”  I begged.

“Long before women had dowries or were considered their father’s property, people used to swear their love to one another before God himself.  It wasn’t a big affair, just two suitors who went to pledge themselves to each other with God as their witness.  Though it was a simple gesture, the weight of that promise meant a lot, and the Lord asked that if two people were so certain of themselves as to take the vow, that they never ask for it to be broken.  And so it was for a time, until one of the couples who’d pledged themselves asked for the vow to be broken.  You see, when they’d come to him to profess their love, the Creator had feared that pride would be the downfall of their relationship.  The woman was the most sought after in all her village and the man was rumored to have procured interest in more than a few ladies.  But God granted their request, only for them to return months later.  The man had been bitten while away on business, and his wife could no longer stand the sight of him, a monster in her mind.  He might have been able to live like that if it weren’t for the love of another to remind him that he deserved more than what he got from his wife.

“They went to God and begged for him to absolve them of their responsibilities to one another, but the Creator was disappointed.  He refused to grant the request unless he could prove that his new love truly would stay at his side.  He demanded a seal…He said that if She would stay with him, she must become what he was.  If they wanted to be together, she had to be turned into a werewolf so that she would understand her husband completely.  The happy couple obliged, and the mother of werewolves Celeste was born.  Their devotion to one another only seemed to grow over this shared condition.  Their love became a beacon, something to which all other’s aspired.  They called it the Celestial Kiss.”

“But wasn’t the point that if their love was true, they’d make sacrifices for one another?”

“It is.”  James nodded.  “Celeste’s sacrifice was her humanity.  Her husband’s was that he must break another oath…to never hurt a human.”

“It sounds like Celeste got the worst of it.”  I muttered.

James shrugged.  “I imagine it wasn’t easy to put the woman he cared for through that ordeal, particularly soon after living it himself.  Celeste suffered physically, but watching her, knowing that her agony was at his hand, couldn’t have been anything less than torture.”

I considered those words, how he’d just told me that he’d avoided me because he couldn’t bare to admit that he’d put me in this position.  James seemed to know exactly how Celeste’s husband had felt.

“And what happened to his old wife?”  I wondered.  “She broke the oath too, by refusing to love him after he’d been bitten.”

“She did.  And so she was punished accordingly.  She became incapable of loving or being loved ever after.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” I muttered. 

A rain drop loosed itself from the sky, landing on my forehead; I wiped it away and another took it’s place.  The evening sky had gone from blue to black in a matter of minutes.  The sky would very soon split into two and pour out it’s tears.

              James didn’t seem bothered by that.  He stopped and faced me.  “Our ancestors believed that your soul lived in the air you breathed.  It explained what happened when you quit breathing, after all.  It’s why when people shared a kiss at their wedding, their souls, previously two halves,”  He held his hands up inches apart by way of illustration, before pressing them together “became one again.”

              I smiled in spite of myself, trying to think of what could possibly follow up such a beautiful ideology.  A clap of thunder, seemingly just overhead, caused me to jump toward James, who grinned and stood, pulling me up with him.  “Come on.” 

              We ran hand in hand for the front door, the rain picking up by the second.  Sloshing through the mud until we were covered in it, breathless and drenched, we shut the door behind us.  Just in time, it seemed, as the sound of the rain increased, drumming raucously on the roof.  For a few seconds I entertained the idea of going back to his room and engaging in whatever may follow, but he turned past the staircase, pulling me into the library after him instead.  We stood together in the darkness for a few moments, breathing in the intoxicating smell of paper and leather and each other, until he turned and flicked on a light.  Sconces on the walls flickered to life, bathing everything in a soft glow.  I pulled away from him enough to look around.  It was more romantic than it had been when he’d first brought me here, probably because I no longer hated him.  Watching the rain roll down the windows, being in the center of the storm without being in it, certainly didn’t hurt.

              “What are we doing here?”  I whispered, lest my voice break whatever spell this was. 

              “Magic,” He smiled in spite of my dubious look.  “What, you don’t believe?”

              “There’s no such thing.”  But he was making me smile now, too.

              “I disagree.”  He brushed a strand of rain-soaked hair from my face.  “Humans think there’s no such thing as you or me, but here we are.”

              “Standing inexplicably in a library…”

              “I think there is magic all around us, all the time.  But particularly right now, in the way the rain is streaming down the window, in the way you made me go from terrified to thrilled with one little touch, and especially in the way you’re looking at me right now.”

              Nothing I could say would hold any water after that, so I contented myself with a smile.  “Ok.  And what act of magic are we performing today?”

“All of them.”  James whispered it against my lips, but his eyes stayed on mine.  We stood locked in time.  Perhaps this was the magic, being enchanted by each other as such.  I ached for him to kiss me, to close that gap like he had yesterday, but he stayed still.  My lips twitched in anticipation. 
Breathe in
, I reminded myself. 
Breathe out
.

              It felt like years had passed before he finally kissed me, and when he did, it didn’t last; He pulled away much too soon.  I wanted more, but I was grateful for the fire he lit instead.

James sank onto the massive couch, a hand outstretched as an offer to join him.  I did so gladly, filling in the spot under his arm so that our bodies pressed together.  I laid my head against his chest. 

We watched the fire flicker before us, and within moments, the rhythm of his heartbeat had lulled me half asleep.  “Tonight, our greatest act of magic is just going to be that we are alive.  And that’s enough.  Tomorrow, we’ll start the real work.”

              “Which is what?”  I yawned, suddenly tired from the warmth and the crackling flames, the steady rain and the comfortable weight of his arm around me. 

              His breath tickled my ear when he whispered, “Saving your life.”

When James set another book before me, I groaned.  Not because I meant to—it was supposed to be one of those inward sort of things—but because we’d been in the library almost exclusively since yesterday.  I didn’t count the morning’s sojourn for breakfast, which hadn’t been more than the ten minutes we needed to gorge ourselves on pancakes and fresh fruit.  I loved reading, the smell of books, the feel of ink etched into paper, but I’d had enough.  The print was blurring together and I’d reread the same paragraph of the last book about fifty times.

              “Don’t sound so grateful,” Janna licked a finger before turning the page in her own book.  “We’re only trying to keep you alive.”  I caught a glimpse of the grin on her face venturing towards a smirk.

“Come on, Janna, this is stupid and you know it.”  I stood up, tossing the book onto the table next to the plush leather chair I’d been sitting in.  I’d been there so long, there was an indent perfectly contoured to my body.  My back ached and my eyes were burning.

“You think that this is
stupid
?”  Janna’s voice was incredulous.  As much as she wanted to help save me, she was getting tired of too.  But she hadn’t slept here last night on a small couch in wet, sticky clothes, so my sympathy for her was menial.  “You think that
life
is stupid?”

“I think that we aren’t going to find answers buried in these books.”  I gestured towards the floor to ceiling shelves.  It made me feel small and inconsequential.  “
If
there is a solution and
if
it’s here, there are so many books…even with three of us, it would take a month to read them all.”

“Don’t give up yet,” James said softly, looking up from the book he’d been immersed in.  The idea seemed to cause him actual pain.  Or maybe he, too, was more tired than he let on.  “Have some patience.”

“I regret to inform you that ‘patience’ is not in my vocabulary.  I can’t sit still.”

“Well, patience is a noun, meaning the capacity to overcome or endure without growing frustrated.”  Janna looked serious, and yet she had to know I wasn’t. 

“I know what patience is, Merriam-Webster.  Are you reading a dictionary over there or trying to figure out how to stop me from tearing myself limb from limb?”  My voice didn’t have quite the teasing edge I’d intended, but I couldn’t keep back my frustration.  Maybe I really did need to work on that whole patience thing.  I sighed.  “This isn’t working.”

James shut his own book, the page carefully marked, and came to my side.  Janna ducked behind the cover of her book as her brother placed his hands gently around me, but then peeked above the edge, curious.  His touch alone sent a spark through my heart, but the way his eyes held mine…the intensity…

“Trust me.”  He said.  “I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but please try.”

I didn’t realize I’d been biting my lip until I flicked my tongue over it and tasted blood.  This wasn’t helping.  Nearly twelve hours we’d been in their father’s study, poring over books of all sort: large and small, typed and handwritten, bound in leather or printed on loose paper.  And all we’d come across that was even remotely helpful was an account of a werewolf who’d been bitten by a vampire and was never seen again.  There was no mention of what happened to a vampire bitten by a werewolf, nor was there even a single word (as I had suspected) about a half-human half-vampire creature.  Once again, I slipped through the cracks.  The only difference was that this time I was dragging James and Janna down with me.  I couldn’t bring myself to tell James all of that, though.

“For what it’s worth I agree with the girl.”  Janna said, inclining her head toward me.  “Really, James.  We might have better luck elsewhere.”

“Like
where
?”  His voice cracked under the weight of his desperation.  His infinite patience seemed geared towards me, because I needed it; with his sister, I could tell just how wary and exhausted he truly was.  Here he was trying to be strong, to hold out hope, and I was undermining him at every chance.  I couldn’t change how I felt, but I could change how I reacted.  I resolved to attempt positivity, but my resolve wavered the minute Janna opened her mouth.

“I know you guys aren’t going to like this, but I say we start with Olias.”

James’ nose wrinkled in disdain. 

“Olias?”  I almost laughed.

Janna shrugged, not offended by my doubt.  “Jocelyn died because she was bitten.  And then he just disappeared for the next two years.  Don’t you think he would have tried to figure out if he could have stopped it?”

“No.”  James said shortly.  “She’s dead, and Olias knows that.  Nothing can bring her back.”

“Have you forgotten just how thick headed he is?  Do you really think that he just accepted it?”  Janna’s mouth tweaked into a small, sad-looking smile, and she shook her head in response to her own question. “He still hasn’t given up hope.”  She looked at me knowingly.  “I heard about your little run-in with him the other day?”

James looked between us.  “What run-in?”

“It was nothing.  Besides, he wouldn’t help us even if he could.”

“Yes, he would,” Janna’s voice was one of quiet determination, but she hesitated just a second before continuing.  “For the right price.”

“Forget it, Janna.”  James’ voice was lofty.  He almost sounded like a father warning a child not to try and steal a cookie from the jar.  “He can’t help us.”

“You won’t know until you try,” Janna countered.  “Cost-benefit analysis, James.  What would you do?”

James looked resigned, but I thought I saw a flicker of agreement in his dark eyes.  He was about to speak when the door burst open. 

“There’s a vampire in the foyer,” She said, looking at James without any doubt that he could fix it.  “Come quick!”

I exchanged a glance with James and then, abandoning our conversation, practically ran out the door.

Xian had the audacity to walk in the house this time.  He stood in the hall being watched by a crowd of people.  Young children stared at him in horror, mothers moved to protect them, and men braced for attack.  He didn’t seem too concerned, though, leaning against the door with his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket.  When he saw me, his face lifted from it’s nonchalant observation into a large, poisonous smile.  “Lilith.”  He held his arms out in a sweeping gesture, as if he were
trying
to draw everyone’s attention to me.

“What are you doing here?” I’d intended to ask that, but the words congealed in my throat.  James had been hot on my heels, and he beat me to it.  It was a guttural threat, one that even gave me chills.  I’d seen him angry, but this was a shade darker.   The jury was out on whether the humans responsible for his father’s murder had been working on Xian’s behalf.

“I’ve come to bring Lilith home, of course.  I told you I wouldn’t give up on you.”  Xian winked at me, daring me to remember that moment in my father’s house.

“Lilith isn’t going anywhere with you.”  Janna said.  The fury was evident in her sharp voice.

Xian fixed his eyes on her and something in his expression shifted…maybe even softened.  It was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, and a smile made itself at home on his pale lips.  When his eyes flashed to James, it slipped entirely.  “I’ve sweetened the deal since before.  I have it on good authority that the vampires will entirely relocate in exchange for her return.”  He held his hands out all around him.  “You let her leave here with me right now, and I can guarantee you that you’ll never see either of us again.”

“You’re not negotiating over me.”  I said, just loudly enough to draw Xian’s attention.  All too aware of the several eyes on us, I straightened, holding my head higher.

“Hush, darling, and let the big kids handle this.”  He winked and turned from me in the same smooth instant.  “What do you say, comrade?  It’s what you wanted…better even.”

“Leave here.”  James managed to command through a clenched jaw.  “And do not
ever
return.”   His words were clipped and terse; his face was red.  I couldn’t let him lose his composure…not with an audience of innocent bystanders.

“That offer has expired.”  I stepped up next to James. 

“So soon?”  Xian asked.  “But he was there just last week, trying to trade you for anything he could get.  Now the offer’s expired?”  His eyes shifted from me to James, suspicion souring on his face.  “What’s changed?”

“Nothing.” I said, at the same time that James said “Everything.” 

Xian smirked as the realization settled over him.  “Oh.  Do you think you love her?”  He snorted, but I didn’t miss the way his eyes hardened when James grabbed my hand. “You do!”  He laughed.  “No wonder you were so desperate to get rid of her.  Such a mighty fall for you.  The king…in love with a lowly vampire.”

His voice cast a chill around the room.  I just barely lifted my eyes to see some of the faces that I’d come to recognize... Cat and Iz, leaning together a few feet away, Desmond standing at the ready should James give a command. Through the crowd, I saw somebody step forward, moving toward Xian without any hesitation.  Julius.  “If you value your life or your legs you’ll walk away while you still can.”  He warned. 

“No, I don’t think I will.  In fact, I’ll have a bourbon while your brother reconsiders.”

Julius was at his throat in an instant, his thick hands around Xian’s much less-muscled neck.  A woman’s startled scream cut through the tension.  “Stay away from us.”  Julius growled. 

“There’s nothing to consider.”  James said calmly.  He didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that Julius looked on the verge of murder. 

“Let him go!”  Janna commanded her brother, a current of hysteria running through her voice like electricity.

Xian eyed Julius in distaste; His expensive Italian leather shoes just barely skimmed the floor.  He tried to speak but it came out a strangled sound.

“Julius!”  Janna screamed.  Around us, everyone was watching in intrigued horror.  I couldn’t decide whether James allowing them to witness this was detrimental to his reign.

“James,” I elbowed him in the side.  “Do something!” 

James’ eyes lingered on mine a long moment, and then he turned back to Julius with a resigned sort of sigh.  “Let him down.”

Julius moved so slowly that I didn’t think he was going to listen, but eventually Xian’s feet touched the ground again and he spluttered, tugging at his tie in order to straighten it.  He was fighting to look collected and dignified, smoothing his light hair back into place, all the same while trying to catch his breath.  His normally bone-white skin was the color of a fire, a fine complement to the anger searing in his eyes. Any pretense of cool and care-free was gone.

“Why don’t you take your leave now?”  James suggested calmly.

“You don’t want to make an enemy of me.”  Xian hissed, pointing a finger in warning.

“I think it’s too late for that.”  James was walking toward him, and Xian was moving accordingly toward the door.  Once he was over the threshold, he spoke again, empowered by his movement as if James wouldn’t step into the brisk evening and give chase to him.

“No, see I’m a man of reason.  I’ll give you one more chance.  Drop Lilith off at the house tomorrow by noon and I’ll forget that any of this ever happened.”

“And when I don’t?”  James was the one smirking now, obviously not worried by Xian’s threats.  At least, not visibly.

“You’ll regret it.”

James let the door slam into place, and turned back towards everyone with a blank expression.  “Don’t let the words of a fool frighten you.”  He said it so smoothly, so serenely it couldn’t be anything but placating.  “You have nothing to fear from him.”

The crowd seemed reassured by his sentiments, and they broke up, dismissing themselves.  When I looked up, it was to see the Queen standing at the top of the steps, her cold eyes fixated on me.  Maybe my nerves had strengthened, or maybe she had accepted the fact that James wanted me here, but she seemed less hateful than the last time I’d seen her at James’ coronation. 

I wondered whether she couldn’t read my thoughts because she nodded, an almost imperceptible movement, and then turned away.  I stared up at the spot she’d been until James put a gentle hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention away. 

I wanted to believe James. I truly did.  But I had known Xian long enough to know that he did not break his threats.  Only promises.