The Last of the Monsters (2 page)

Today they were south of the city in an industrial area. Jo, the production designer, and her team had take an otherwise clean, functional street and made it look derelict and scary.

Today’s shoot included the scene where Padma and Ebon meet again as adults, years after their respective families discovered their young love and separated them. The scene culminated in a kiss.

And that was the problem.

The kiss wasn’t working. It was awkward, forced and uncomfortable. Akta was a good actor, and Henry was the best actor in his Clan but, despite that, they hadn’t been able to overcome the awkward tension that existed between them. In every other scene they had great chemistry, but the kiss…they just couldn’t make it work.

Cali, Akta’s friend and the director of the movie, pulled them aside after a few failed takes. “Henry, what would you do, normally, if you wanted to kiss a woman shorter than you?”

“I’ve never kissed a human woman.”

Akta clenched her teeth at his lie. Then again, maybe he’d forgotten what happened a year ago on her patio. Maybe, unlike her, he didn’t think about it…almost every day.

“Well, you’ve kissed Akta through five takes, so, yes, you have, but that’s not what I’m asking. Surely you’ve kissed someone, something, that’s shorter than you.”

Henry paused, then nodded once.

“Good. How?”

Akta stiffened as Henry turned toward her. He was in his real body, meaning he was a tall blue monster with bat wings, lower legs like a horse but thicker and more muscular, and hands that ended in three fingers and a thumb, each tipped with a large claw.

She’d gotten used to seeing and working with him in his true physical form. And yet, when he took hold of her wrist and pulled her toward him, Akta stiffened. She wanted to jerk away, scream at him that he
had
kissed a human woman before, he’d kissed
her
. The other part of her wanted to throw herself into his arms.

Because, despite everything, Akta still wanted him.

Instead of holding her up with his arms the way he had before, his wing swept around to cradle her. He cupped her ass with one hand and lifted. Her feet left the ground and Akta reached up to grab his shoulders while his wing supported her back.

“Hold there,” Cali said as she circled them, examining the pose.

Akta stared resolutely over Henry’s shoulder.

“This looks good. Thanks, Henry.”

Henry carefully set Akta down. She tugged at the hem of the sweatshirt she’d pulled on over her wardrobe pieces to keep them clean, looking everywhere but at him. He shifted from foot to foot, wings opening and closing slightly in what Akta had determined was a sign of boredom.

“Let me show you something,” Cali said.

They followed her to the editing trailer. Oren, the editor, had an office off-site but also used a mobile editing bay. Filming real monsters had never been done before, so department heads were constantly watching the footage and making adjustments. They’d found that what looked good in the camera monitors while shooting didn’t always translate to HD film.

Akta didn’t like to watch the dailies—that day’s footage. She didn’t want to be distracted by having to watch herself. She’d rather rely on the director to give her feedback. Cali knew this was how she liked to work, so the fact that Cali was taking her to watch the dailies meant the scene seriously wasn’t working.

She could feel Henry at her back. It was hard not to be aware of him when he was almost double her height, with a wingspan longer than a car, but she was doing her best to ignore him.

Cali mounted the steps to the editing trailer and Akta followed her in.

Henry stared at Akta’s back as she disappeared into the trailer. He sighed and pressed the heels of his hands to his forehead.

What a mess.

The movie had been clipping along rather well up until this point. He’d been dreading the romantic scenes, and with good reason.

Time to face the music.

Henry called on the spell that allowed him to change into a human, which their Seer, Maeve, had made. The crack and crunch of bone reforming was never a pleasant sound, but those sounds, and the accompanying pain, were so familiar to him that he barely noticed. Picking up the now too-large pants he’d been wearing, he climbed the steps into the trailer.

“Sorry about that,” Cali said. She turned to Oren, who was sitting in front of a bank of monitors. “Oren, can you key up scene nineteen again?”

“Akta, Henry,” Oren said pleasantly as he swung his chair around and started tapping on a keyboard. Henry, who had only ever acted in theater since his people didn’t have motion picture technology of their own, was fascinated by what Oren did. From what Luke and Michael said, Oren had once been one of the best editors in the business until he got addicted to drugs.

The scene they’d just tried to film popped up on three monitors, each showing a different camera angle. Henry heard Akta sigh as the awkward kiss played on-screen. What showed in this footage was not Ebon meeting up with his long-lost love, but Henry, deeply uncomfortable and awkward as he touched Akta—not the character Padma. It was as if Henry had lost his ability to move outside of himself and become a different person. He should be able to wear the character’s emotion like a suit of armor, but the armor had a chink—no, a gash—in it.

“You both look beautiful,” Cali said, voice soft and encouraging. “The shot is good, but it could be great. What I’m not seeing a lot of is passion.”

Henry nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Akta toy with the hem of her sweatshirt.

“Why don’t we go outside and take a few minutes to get to a different emotional place?”

Henry turned and slipped out of the trailer, glad to leave. He heard Akta’s and Cali’s footsteps behind him. Akta was tiny, nearly a foot shorter than him, even when he was human, and her small, delicate steps were easy for Henry to pick out.

“Let’s go over here,” she said. Henry turned, saw where she was pointing and fell in step behind her. She was leading them to an area between the talent trailers, where they were a protected from the bustle of the set.

“Cali!”

Henry turned to see Seling walking quickly toward Cali. Seling was one of his Clansmen and had joined the project only after Runako and Margo had rescued him from a group of militant humans called Blackwolf.

Thinking about that led to thinking about their “rescue” of Margo, and the party that had followed when they’d returned to LA.

Henry gritted his teeth as he thought about The Kiss.

Cali stopped to talk to Seling, leaving Henry alone with Akta. For one cowardly moment Henry considered veering off to his own trailer—a converted refrigerated big rig that he fit in even when he was in his real body.

But Henry knew hiding would only prolong the problem. He stepped behind a rolling box of equipment and changed back into his monster form.

He only hoped that, no matter what was said in the next few minutes, his secret would be safe.

Akta heard him coming and took some deep breaths. They needed to have a very serious conversation about what was going on between them, and what had happened a year ago. They’d managed to stay friendly, neither one of them bringing it up, until they’d started filming.

Composed, with her feelings bottled up tight inside her, Akta turned to face Henry. He had his wings folded around himself, which made it look like he was wearing a long, leathery blue cloak.

They stared at each other in silence.

“We have a problem.” Akta took the bull by the horns and just said it. There was no point in talking around it.

“I agree.”

“What do you want to do about it?”

Henry’s wings rustled and he looked to the side as if considering. “We should put aside our feelings and act as professionals.”

“You’re right, but I’m assuming you’ve already tried that. I have.”

He nodded slowly. “It’s complicated.”

Complicated? She actually thought it was pretty simple.

“So what do we do?” she asked.

He said nothing.

“Henry, will you at least look at me?” It tore at Akta that he wouldn’t look at her when the script didn’t call for it. How wrong she’d been a year ago when she thought those long looks were desire. Henry barely tolerated her—at least, that was how it seemed, and yet there were times when Akta got the impression that there was still something there. His mixed signals were making her crazy.

He looked at her. “I’m sorry.”

“Is this because of what happened a year ago?”

“What happened a year ago?”

Anger burned in her belly. “It’s one thing if you want to lie to Cali and say you never kissed a human before, but we
did
kiss.”

For a brief moment his gaze met hers and there was fire in his eyes. “I remember.”

“So you just want to lie about it?”

“That’s not what I…” He trailed off, and though she waited, he didn’t finish the sentence.

Silence fell between them again.

“Oh, I know why you don’t want to admit to it. I’ve heard what you say. You don’t think humans and monsters should be together.”

He nodded, but hesitantly. “I do not think monsters and humans should mate.”

“So what was that? Why did you kiss me?”

“You kissed me.”

“No.” Akta shook her head, her hair thumping against her back. “I’ve thought about it, and you initiated that kiss. You started it.”

“Maybe. It was a mistake.”

“Thanks, just what every girl wants to hear.”

“My reasons are my own.”

“And that excuses you? You’re entitled to your opinion, but you have no right to make me feel like there’s something wrong with me.”

As she said it, Akta realized it was not just anger and confusion that she harbored. She felt guilty about the way she’d reacted when he changed in front of her, and felt that she’d done something wrong by kissing him when he didn’t believe in human-monster relationships. She hadn’t known that at the time of the kiss. Henry hadn’t said it until months later. He should have been up front with her.

“So what is it? Do you only pretend to like humans and secretly you hate us? Or is it that you think humans are nice, but not good enough to be with?”

“That’s what you think I feel?”

“Am I wrong?”

Henry’s jaw clenched.

“So what is it? And why did you kiss me if you didn’t want me?”

She waited, hoping she would finally have the answers she needed. She wanted to understand what had happened, wanted to finally hate him enough to kill the feelings she still had for him.

But Henry didn’t respond. Akta felt tears pricking the back of her eyes. She didn’t want him to see her cry. Spinning on a heel, she turned and ran. She didn’t want him to see her like this. Tears filled her eyes, one finally spilling down her cheek.

She passed Cali on her way to the makeup trailer. She’d have the girls fix her makeup before anyone noticed she was crying.

Chapter Two

Henry paced the set, wondering how he’d managed to fuck everything up so royally. He knew—well, he figured—that Akta had been upset after he freaked out and left midkiss all those months ago. He couldn’t believe it had been a year. But in all the times they’d hung out together since then, she’d been nothing but kind. He assumed that she was no longer angry…and secretly hoped that she still wanted him.

There were nights when he’d catch her looking at him, or she’d take a seat next to him when she could have sat anywhere else in the room.

The thought that she wanted him, that she might want to kiss him again, thrilled and terrified him.

Henry scrubbed his claws through his short hair. A girl ran up to him, lips pursed.

“Mr. Henry, please don’t do that.”

“Sorry.” He bent down so the wardrobe girl could fix his hair, checking it against a picture she had of him in the last shot.

“Causing trouble?” Tokaki, paint cans in each hand, stopped to look at Henry.

“Apparently,” Henry said, closing his eyes as his head was coated in hairspray. “What are you doing?”

“The set looks too clean.”

“Too clean?” Henry smiled.

“Don’t touch it.” The makeup artist gave him the evil eye before leaving.

“Can’t even touch my damned head,” Henry muttered.

“Want to help me?” Tokaki raised the cans.

“You enjoying that? It’s not exactly fighting.”

Tokaki was arguably the greatest living fighter among the monsters. Unlike the rest of them, he wasn’t part of the Great Clan that lived in the Rocky Mountains. His Clan was still in their native China. Henry had gone to them requesting Tokaki’s help in translating the monsters’ fighting style into something that would work in film. No one had expected that Tokaki would fall for Joanna, their production designer, who’d been recruited to the project about the same time. Now that the battle scenes had been choreographed, Tokaki had nothing to do on set unless they were filming one of the fights.