11. Aurora

11

AURORA

C hez L’ronge was the fanciest restaurant I had ever been to. It was at the very top of the skyscraper, so we had to take a vertical lift to get there. Once we reached it, I saw that the dining area was located in a vast rotating disk with clear windows on every side.

A male in a suite almost as expensive as Slade’s seated us at a small table next to one of the curving windows. I looked down and saw lights twinkling everywhere.

“ Oh —you can see the whole city from up here!” I remarked.

One corner of Slade’s mouth turned up in a half-grin.

“ Yes , that’s kind of the point. This is the tallest building in the entire downtown area,” he remarked.

“ It’s a lot bigger than I’m used to,” I admitted. Indeed , the biggest city we had in L’Crist was the capital where our palace was located. But the vast urban sprawl I could see from the rotating restaurant made it look like a small, rural town in comparison.

“ Everything here is so big and bright,” I said, looking around me. “ And so…so sophisticated.”

I suppose Slade could have said something about my backwards little planetoid but he didn’t.

“ Do you like it?” he asked instead, raising an eyebrow, like he really cared. “ Are you enjoying your first trip away from L’Crist ?”

“ It’s …different,” I said at last. “ Nothing like what I’m used to.”

“ But you could grow to like it,” he suggested. “ I know the city seems loud and crazy and fast, but there are quiet parts too. And there are other perks of living in the city you might like. Access to libraries and museums and lots of different restaurants…”

“ I like seeing new fashions,” I offered, looking at the other people dining around us.

I was already wishing I had something else to wear. I felt like a country bumpkin in my Court gown next to all the beautifully dressed women I saw all around me.

I had to admit though, most of them had on dresses that would be considered scandalous on L’Crist . They were worn tight across the hips and breasts and had plunging necklines that showed plenty of cleavage. Not only that, the skirts were so short I could see their legs! Not just their calves, either—some of the dresses I saw barely made it to mid-thigh. A woman would be branded a whore if she dressed that way on my home world but here it seemed perfectly acceptable.

“ We’ll go shopping later, if you want to,” Slade offered. “ You can buy anything that catches your eye.”

“ That sounds nice,” I said cautiously. I was wary of accepting too many gifts from my new husband. The Goddess alone knew what I might have to do to pay for them.

Just then a server in a black and white uniform came to our table and bowed discretely.

“ Sir , Madam ,” he said, nodding to Slade and me. “ Allow me to welcome you to Chez L’ronge . We are so very pleased to have you here. May I tell you what Chef Hilish has prepared for your gustatory pleasure tonight?”

“ Please do.” Slade nodded.

“ Very well,” the server said and then began reeling off a list of dishes—none of which I had ever heard of before.

“ For a starter Chef Hilish has a gobian foam reduction with pinga gel pearls. Then , a frothian soup served with crispy twiddle sticks to dip into it. After that, we have a main course of giant hatcha claws steamed with compound bursa butter. And for dessert, a floating island tart studded with rare poodla berries.”

Slade listened patiently to all this and then nodded.

“ Excellent .”

“ Very good, I am so glad that Sir is pleased,” the server said. “ May I recommend a Yarmoth wine to go with it? We have some very fine bottles we just brought up from our cellars.”

Slade looked at me.

“ Do you want wine?” he asked.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I hated to admit that other than the “ Holy Wine ” we had just drunk during the Binding Ceremony , I had never had any kind of alcohol before. It made me feel unsophisticated.

“ Wine sounds delicious,” I said, nodding.

“ Very good.” The server nodded. “ I will fetch a bottle for Sir and Madam at once.”

He bustled off and I went back to looking at everything around me. The dining tables were located all around the edges of the rotating restaurant and then, further in, there was a circular dance floor where a few couples were swaying to soft music. In the very center of the restaurant was a round counter with a lot of colored bottles and a man who was serving drinks.

I assumed this must be a bar, though I had never seen one. I had read about them though, in a few of the forbidden romance and adventure stories that my maid, Pansy , sometimes smuggled in to me.

Slade saw where I was looking and raised an eyebrow.

“ Would you like a cocktail?”

I started to say no, but then I remembered the enormous 3- D holo ad for liquor that we’d flown through before the ceremony.

“ What about a Kiss ?” I asked him. “ I mean the bright pink liquor, you know?” I added hastily, lest he think I really was asking for a real kiss.

Slade gave me a half-lidded look and I somehow knew he was thinking of the long, delicious kiss we’d shared at the end of our Binding Ceremony . It made me blush the way he looked at me and I felt my nipples getting tight again.

“ Sure , Princess ,” he murmured. “ I’d be happy to give you a kiss. Just wait here.”

He rose from our table and made his way across the restaurant, crossing the dance floor to get to the bar. There was a line and only one bartender, so it looked like he might be waiting for a while. I hoped he didn’t miss any of the food he had ordered for us. I had no idea what any of it was or how to properly eat it, but the restaurant was filled with delicious smells.

I was watching a couple sway sensuously across the dance floor and wondering if I might ask Slade to dance with me like that—after all, it would probably kill some time—when a second server came up to the table.

“ Pardon me, Miss , but this comes to you compliments of the gentleman sitting over there,” he murmured, putting down a fluted glass filled with some bright yellow drink. He nodded across the restaurant and I saw a Brutal male with curving horns painted a metallic red and slitted red eyes. He seemed to be wearing a kind of cloak draped over his shoulders. When he caught my gaze, he nodded at me.

“ Oh , er, thank you but I couldn’t possibly accept,” I began but the server was already rushing off to serve someone else.

I sat there, unsure of what to do. I didn’t want to drink any of the yellow liquid— I had no idea what it was. But more importantly, I had no idea who the man who had sent it was. He appeared to be an Enforcer like Slade , though his eyes and horns were a different color. I didn’t find him attractive at all but even if I had, I was certain it was the height of impropriety to be accepting drinks from strange men—especially since I was here with my husband.

Before I could think of a way to refuse the drink and send it back without being impolite, the Brute who had sent it came over to my table. The cloak he was wearing rustled and I saw that it wasn’t a cloak at all—there was an enormous pair of bat-like wings folded against his back.

“ Well , hello there, pretty lady,” he murmured smoothly, sliding into Slade’s chair. “ You look awfully lonely sitting here by yourself.”

“ Oh , I’m not by myself,” I said quickly, seeing a way to clear up the misunderstanding. “ I’m actually here with my…my husband.” It took a minute to get the words out. It still felt so strange to call Slade my husband.

“ I don’t see anybody here with you.” The Brute gave a casual glance around the circular restaurant.

“ He’s right over there,” I said and pointed at the bar. But to my chagrin, Slade wasn’t there. In fact there was no one at the bar at all now. Where had he gone?

“ Over there, huh? Is he invisible?” The Brute who had sent me the drink chuckled at his own joke. “ Look , why not just admit you’re here on your own and you’re new in town? Let me show you around—we’ll have a lot of fun.”

“ Pardon me, Sir , but I really am here with my husband,” I insisted, falling back on my Court manners to deal with the situation. “ So I’m afraid I can’t accept the drink you so generously offered. I am truly sorry for any misunderstanding but I must ask you to leave.”

This cool little speech would have sent any man from L’Crist packing in under a minute. But the Brute with the metallic red horns and blood-red eyes just sat there, not budging.

“ Say , you’re an Untainted , aren’t you?” he asked, his gaze moving over my body in a way I didn’t much care for. “ Pure human DNA ? No other species mixed in?”

“ That’s right, though I hardly think that’s a topic to bring up in polite conversation,” I said pointedly. “ Please Sir , I must ask you to go. My husband will be back at any moment and I am afraid he won’t be very happy to find you here.”

At last the Brute seemed to give up.

“ Ah , well—you can’t blame a male for trying,” he said, shrugging. “ Tell you what though—just take a sip of that lassie-banger and tell me if you like it.” He gestured at the bright yellow drink. “ I hate to send a pretty lady a cocktail without at least getting to see her try it.”

Again I wasn’t certain what was the proper thing to do here. This kind of situation didn’t come up in the Court of L’Crist . Everyone there was polite and proper to a fault. A gentleman would never have insisted that a lady accept a drink from him even if she had tried to refuse it.

Well , maybe taking a sip would make him go away. I didn’t like to think of Slade’s reaction if the Brute was still sitting at the table when he got back from wherever he had gone. The way his eyes had gone pitch-black when the parking attendant got too close to me made me think it was better not to risk it.

“ Very well— I’ll try it. Thank you,” I said. I lifted the fluted glass to my lips, noticing as I did that the liquid inside had a sharp, citrusy scent. I took a small sip and it was like drinking acid. I gasped as it burned my tongue and reached hurriedly for my water glass.

“ Too strong for you, huh?” the Brute asked, grinning a little as he watched me gulping water.

“ You could have warned me that it burned!” I exclaimed, too irritated to be polite anymore. “ I don’t want this drink and I don’t want you at my table—please leave before my hush…my hushband…”

I trailed off. Why were my words suddenly slurring? And why was I seeing two of the Brute who had sent me the drink?

I tried to sit up straighter and focus but my sudden movement made me fall out of my chair.

“ Oh !” I gasped breathlessly as I fell with a thump to the floor. Other diners around me gave me surreptitious looks—some amused and some disgusted.

“ Drunk ,” I heard one woman mutter to her date.

The Brute was suddenly out of his seat and kneeling over me.

“ Hey there, you look a little unsteady,” he said, loudly enough for the people around us to hear. “ Maybe we ought to get you home.”

“ But I don’t live with you!” I tried to protest. But my words came out garbled. “ I don’ liv w’ you…”

“ Come on now—you know how you get when you’ve had too many.” The Brute’s red, slitted eyes were all I could see as he pulled me to my feet and put his arm around my waist. Spreading his large, leathery wings, he wrapped them around both of us to form a kind of shield. I couldn’t see out and nobody else around us could see in. Then he started dragging me away from my table and presumably toward the restaurant exit—though again, I couldn’t see to be sure.

“ Hey !” I cried weakly. “ Hey , stop!” But it came out as a garbled whisper —“ Hey -shtop.”

Before I knew it, I was out of Chez L’ronge and going back down the vertical lift. A few blurred minutes after that we were back in the parking area and I could hear the echoing sounds of ships landing and taking off and parking attendants talking.

By now whatever he had given me was beginning to wear off a tiny bit. Whatever was in the drink must have been fast-acting but not very long lasting.

“ Hey , le’ me go!” I demanded and my voice came out sounding stronger and less slurred. I began to struggle against my kidnapper, twisting in his grip, but he only tightened his hold on me.

“ Shut the fuck up, he growled, gripping my wrist. “ And settle the fuck down—you’re coming with me.”

“ Where are you taking me?” I demanded, still trying to get away. “ Leave me alone!”

“ I don’t think so. Lots of demand for Untainted DNA —you’re gonna make me a lot of money, sweetheart,” he snarled. His grip tightened again until I could feel the tiny bones in my wrist grinding together.

By now the drug he’d put in the drink had almost completely worn off. I might be caught in his grip, but I could still be loud, I told myself.

“ Help !” I screamed as loudly as I could. “ Somebody help me! Help me!”

“ Shut the fuck up, bitch!” my attacker snapped. “ Shut up or I’ll shut you up! I don’t need you alive to cut you up into little pieces to make clones, you know.”

His words chilled me to the bone but I wasn’t about to give up. Raising my voice I shouted again.

“ Help — HELP !”

Surely someone must hear me—what about the parking attendants? What about…?

Suddenly the bat-like wings that were covering my face were ripped open and Slade was standing there.

“ Slade !” I gasped. “ Help me!”

And then I saw something that nearly stopped my heart.

Slade changed again—this time completely. His eyes went pure black and he got bigger again but then something else happened. He opened his mouth and breathed out what looked like a black mist. The mist swirled around him, enveloping his body in darkness, making him even huger as he doubled and then tripled in size.

“ Let go of MY WIFE !” the enormous creature Slade had become demanded in an inhumanly deep voice. “ Or you’re going to fucking DIE !”

“ Fuck !” I heard the Brute who had grabbed me mutter. Then he dropped my wrist and stepped back. “ Look , this is a misunderstanding! I didn’t know she was yours,” he protested, backing away with his hands up in a “don’t shoot” gesture.

Slade didn’t answer, he just rushed forward, sweeping like a monster of darkness towards the hapless Brute . In the swirling black mist-figure he had become I saw knife-like teeth, long and white and lethal.

Oh my Goddess —he’s going to bite him in half! I thought faintly.

My attacker must have thought the same thing. He didn’t stay to fight. Instead he spread his wings and launched himself at the wide opening in the side of the building where ships were flying in and out of the parking area.

Slade lunged after him but the other Brute had already taken flight. He jumped out of the side of the building, his bat-like wings spread wide to cup the air. With a few strong flaps he was soaring through the night sky and out of reach.

I was sure the thing Slade had become was going to go after him, but it didn’t. Instead , it turned to face me.

Terror washed over me as I saw the enormous figure with the long, dagger-like teeth moving towards me. Goddess , it was going to eat me—to kill me— I was sure of it!

Turning , I stumbled away from it. I still wasn’t as steady on my feet as I would have liked but I did my best, willing my legs to move faster, faster! I had to get away! I had to?—

Suddenly I stumbled over a crack in the pavement and fell. I reached out my hands to catch myself and felt the sharp sting as the dirty asphalt erased the skin from my palms.

There was another pain too—a sharp stabbing in one of my knees. But I didn’t have time to pay attention to that. I started scrambling to get up, trying desperately to keep running, to get away from the monster behind me…

“ Aurora ? Princess ? Wait —it’s me!” I heard a familiar voice saying.

Then , just as I finally got back on my feet, long, strong arms were wrapped around me as someone hugged me from behind.

“ No !” I shrieked, kicking my legs and struggling wildly. “ No , don’t touch me— leave me alone!”

“ I’m telling you, it’s me. It’s Slade !” the deep voice in my ear insisted. Then he turned me around and I was looking up at his face again—his regular face. There was no menacing black mist or strange eyes or knife-like teeth. There was just Slade —my new husband—and his golden eyes looked worried.

Not the monster. Not the monster, I told myself over and over. But by now I was so upset and overwhelmed, it was difficult to calm down.

So much had happened today. I had found out my brother had gambled away the tribute money, sold myself to my enemy to save my people, had a bewildering Binding Ceremony that tied me to a male I knew I was supposed to hate, and just now I had been nearly kidnapped and then confronted by a terrifying monster that apparently lived inside my new husband’s body.

It was all just too much.

I felt a sob tear itself from my throat and then tears were running down my face as I collapsed in Slade’s arms.

“ Hey , it’s all right Aurora —it’s all right, baby. You’re safe now—safe,” he rumbled. Picking me up, he cradled me to his broad chest. “ Safe ,” he murmured again and I felt him drop a gentle kiss on the top of my head.

I wanted to stop crying— I really did. But it took some time for the tears to slow down as Slade carried me through the parking area.

“ Wh -where are we g-going?” I finally managed to get out.

“ Away ,” he said shortly. “ I think you’ve had enough of Sin World for now.”

“ B -but the restaurant…” I began.

“ We’ll get room service if you’re hungry,” he told me. “ But I think we both need some peace and quiet. Just relax, Princess — I’m taking you home.”