Chapter Eighteen
I was on my feet, and pacing, allowing my mind to work through what I’d been told.
“Okay, okay. Your mom turned Petros into a satyr, for what, cheating on her?”
She laughed. It was the involuntary laugh a person makes when they’ve just heard something ridiculous.
“What?” I asked.
“You know the truth, Joshua. I know you do, and yet your mind won’t allow you accept it. Petros is what becomes of a soulmate once they consummate their love.”
“By consummate, you mean sex, right?”
She nodded, her eyes darting away.
“So if we never have sex, then our love is never consummated. If our love is never consummated, we can be together forever.”
She laughed again.
Her laughter was starting to infuriate me. “What!?”
Her eyes warmed, and she came to me. “We love each other. We’ve loved each other all our lives, even though neither of us knew, even though we’d never met. But the love song knew, and it was always playing, drawing us to one another.”
“That’s why it sounded so familiar. It was always there.”
“Yes,” she replied, and she moved into my arms.
“It was always there, background noise, like the sound of your own heartbeat. And then we met.” She planted a soft kiss on my lower lip, and the love song in my head grew to a crescendo. “For your sake, I cannot take the chance. One day we might slip and allow our desires for one another to get the best of us. We are young and passionate. Our passions will rise, and one day we will slip.”
“I’m willing take that chance.”
“But I cannot!” Her words were firm. She stiffened in my arms for a moment, and then… she melted into me. “You’re a sweet, sweet boy. If I stay away from you, you can go on and have a life. You can graduate high school, go to college, have children.”
“What good are those things without you… my soulmate?” My own words were now tortured.
“A week ago, you weren’t even thinking of me. If I stay away long enough, you will forget. Most people never wind up with their soulmate.”
Her statement caused an ache in my chest. “We’re not most people!”
“You will forget me, Joshua. You must. And even if you don’t, you will go on and have a life—a good life. If we stay together, you will become my slave. That’s how it is with the Nereid. We’re like some kind of black widow spider, or some other nasty creature out of the insect world. Our mates become our slaves, there to serve and protect us until we die. Most Nereid mate just to have a protector.”
At that moment I thought of Alan.
“Do Nereid enchant men, boys, to fall in love with them so they can become their slaves?”
“Our species is all female and quite vulnerable. We must have men to protect us, but I want to save you from that.”
“What if I don’t want to be saved?”
My lips found hers, and I kissed her before she could reply.
She kissed me back.
Our passions rose, just as she had predicted. The kissing grew in intensity. We fell onto the bed. I knew I should stop, but I couldn’t. She felt so soft, so good in my arms. She smelled wonderful: her hair, her body.
My shirt came off.
I don’t know if I took it off, or she took it off. It was off, and she was planting sweet, sultry kisses all over my bare chest.
“Oh, Josh,” she murmured. “We can’t.”
“We won’t,” I said, again finding her lips. I groped at her top, and the moment I did, she was up and off the bed, slipping out of my arms like Houdini out of a straightjacket.
“No!” she breathed as she stood over me, panting heavily.
“We won’t,” I reassured. “We’re just kissing.”
I was lying. In that moment I wanted her, and didn’t care about consequences.
“Joshua, I didn’t come here for this. I came to warn you not to battle the Lycorian. There is more to it than the Duprees are telling you. If you battle the creature, you and Alan will most surely die.”
I ignored her warning. “Come,” I said, reaching for her, trying to coax her into joining me back on the bed.
She was gone. A soft breeze ruffled my hair. My bedroom door was open, and she was no longer there.
I rushed over to the window, and threw it open.
“Come back! Tell me about the Lycorian,” I screamed into the night, hoping to lure her back.
“You need to stop talking to yourself.”
I spun around. Troy was standing in my doorway smirking at me. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I, umm… yeah,” I repeated. “What’s for dessert?”
That’s when I noticed the book lying on my pillow. I recognized it as the book Lara was reading when I found her in the gazebo.
Later, after dessert, I came back to my room, closed the door, and lowered the lights. I opened the tiny leather bound book, and read.
The sun was peeking over the horizon by the time Dad and I finished loading up the truck the next morning. It was another gorgeous day in Southern California. We could see all the way to the San Gabriel Mountains. Southern California can be beautiful when we allow ourselves the time to get off our hamster wheels and take a moment to appreciate it.
Setting up the Applegate security system was going to be a big job, and Dad wanted to get started bright and early. So we mounted our hamster wheel, and rode out.
Dad was still in a great mood, talking up a storm as we drove across Beverly Drive and up into Benedict Canyon. I was not in a great mood.
The music teasing at the recesses of my thoughts served only to darken my spirits. The music reminded me that I had found my soulmate, but the price for being with her was too high.
Stay near me—do not take flight!
A little longer stay in sight.
Much converse do I find in thee
Historian of my infancy.
When I read those words in the leather bound book Lara had left on my bed, my heart immediately shuddered with remorse over a relationship that was never to be. Yet now, in the light of day, I was beginning to see things differently.
Screw love, I thought. What has love ever gotten anyone aside from heartache? Lara was right about us, and in the light of day, I could see that. We’d just met. We didn’t owe each other anything. I certainly didn’t owe her my life.
“There’s something going on with you and your lady friend, isn’t there?” my father said, drawing me out of my funk.
“Yeah,” I said in one long, raspy breath.
He laughed inwardly. “Me and your mom had our share of lover’s quarrels before we finally figured it out. It’s all part of the deal, son. Things will work out. You’ll see.” He patted my leg.
If only that were true.
“Thanks, Dad,” was about all I could manage. It was a far better response than: It will never work out unless your son wants to become Lara’s satyr slave.
We drove through the wrought iron gates onto the Applegate property, and the sad music in my head swelled. That was another thing. The song had turned sad to warn my soulmate that my life was in danger. And for what? I didn’t need to take on the creature in Alan’s pool. If the Duprees moved back to the Applegate fortress, the creature would eventually go back to where it came from. The creature was no danger to humans. We had no beef with the creature, no reason to fight it.
Too risky.
We began unloading the truck, and a horrible feeling came over me. Shame. It started as a ripple in my belly and mushroomed into my chest. I was ashamed of the way I’d been thinking.
“This is some bull,” I mumbled under my breath. Why should I feel ashamed? I didn’t owe Lara or Alexia anything, and neither did Alan. We were having a fine summer, a fine life until they came along.
Shame, shame, go away.
“You sure you’re all right. You’re talk
ing to yourself over there,” my father called, as he pulled down a large roll of cable.
“I’m fine. Say, Dad, would it bother you if the Applegates didn’t become family?
“Heck no,” he said with warm chuckle that brought a smile to my face. “You’re fifteen, Josh. Very few young men meet the girl of their dreams at fifteen. If you’re anything like your old man, you’ve got a lot more dating in you. Trust me.”
Just when I thought his words were going to cheer me up, he reminded me that I’d already met the girl of my dreams, my soulmate. I swear, I did not see that one coming.
Dad told me to start positioning the sensors on the front door while he went around to the rear of the house.
The front door was left unlocked so we could come and go. I pushed it open, fired up the drill and went to work, punching in the first hole at the top of the door. Once the hole went clear through, I began stringing wire.
“Good morning,” a voice called out, startling me. I turned around. Petros was standing just behind me. How could I have not heard him coming?
In broad daylight, I could see how incredibly fit he was. His forearms bulged, his six pack had a six pack. I also noticed what a good looking guy he was… or what a good looking guy he used to be.
“Oh, hey,” I said. I started to turn around and get back to work. Looking at him standing there was creeping me out.
“Allow me to help.”