Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) (11 page)

“Very well.” I could tell by her expression that she was dying to ask me about it, but protocol prohibited her from doing so. She flipped through pages for a few more moments in silence before looking up at me. “Did the Chancellarius make it clear that your husband must become a daemon within one year’s time or face execution?”

“Painfully clear,” I said with a grimace. Mrs. Murray nodded as she closed the book and went back to typing. As time passed, I sank lower and lower in my chair. I could not wait for this to be over.

Finally, Mrs. Murray stopped typing and reached over to pull a small blue electronic card from the inscriber. To a human they looked just like a piece of translucent blue plastic or glass because they couldn’t see the information printed on them. “Here is the Blue Card for your husband. When he does become a daemon you must relinquish this pass.”

“Understood,” I said as I took the pass from her and stood.

“Wait, Arius Nualla, we are not finished.”

I just looked at her. What else could I
possibly
have to do; this day had been embarrassing enough as it was.

“You must come back on Sunday and speak before the Grand Council.”

Apparently, there
was
something that could make it worse. “
What
? But the laws didn’t say anything about that!”

“Yes, well, those are general laws. They do not take into account that you, as a Galathea, are one of the acknowledged heirs to the
chancellariuship
. Whom you marry
is
their concern. Those who came before you had to do the very same thing regardless of whom they married.” And by
whom
she meant
what
I married. They would never say it out loud, but the fact that Patrick was a human probably mattered far more to them than what type of person he was. As accepting as our world was, it was not devoid of prejudice.

16

The Secrets behind Your Eyes

Friday, January 20th

PATRICK

D
ating Nualla was great; I mean what guy
wouldn’t
want a completely gorgeous girl on his arm. I just should have left well enough alone—
should
have, but didn’t.

Nualla was hiding a lot of secrets behind her eyes; it was plain to me now. She had said she would tell me, but she hadn’t said
when
. So like an idiot, instead of waiting for her to tell me, I had decided to seek out the truth myself. Now I wished I hadn’t. The things I had found were unbelievable at best; downright insane at worst. I kept telling myself that it couldn’t
possibly
be true; that there had to be a perfectly rational explanation I was overlooking. But I couldn’t believe it because something in the back of my mind told me I had found the truth.

I raced through all that I had uncovered while I stood on the street waiting for Nualla to pick me up.

“Hello Patrick,” Mrs. Thompson said in a friendly voice.

I looked up at her startled. I had been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t seen her coming up the block. She was returning from her daily evening walk with her dachshund, Arthur.

“Hi Mrs. Thompson,” I said as I stooped down to pet Arthur.

Mrs. Thompson was awesome, like how I imagined a grandmother would be if mine had still been alive. She always asked about my day and dropped off delicious baked treats. Truthfully, I probably had more conversations with her than my own parents.

“What are you up to this evening?” she asked kindly.

“I’m not sure yet exactly,” I replied, looking up with a smile. “My girlfriend is coming to pick me up and—”

Our conversation was abruptly cut short when Nualla pulled up in her electric blue Vanquish and opened the passenger door with a smile. I stood up and looked at Mrs. Thompson who was eyeing me with raised eyebrows. “My girlfriend,” I said nervously as I gestured toward Nualla’s car.

I got into the car unsteadily, and Nualla gave me a questioning look but didn’t say anything.

“So where are we going?” I asked as we pulled away from the curb.

“A club,” she answered with a slightly mischievous smile.

“You go to those a lot don’t you?” I asked as I looked over at her. The dress she was wearing was black, flowy, and
extremely
short. Her legs were bare except for the black boots that were even taller than the ones she normally wore to school. How she could even drive with boots like that in the first place was beyond me.

“Every Friday,” she answered with a smile as she turned her music up.

I had no idea how to bring up what I was dying to ask her, so I just sat there in silence as we drove through the city.

NUALLA

I
t was just barely eight when we arrived at Club Lunaris, but already there was a line around the corner and down the block. Patrick took a step in the direction of the line, but I grabbed his hand gently and led him past the line of clubbers toward the front entrance.

We had left the car in a
way
-overpriced overnight parking garage a few blocks away since we wouldn’t be driving later, not if tonight went anywhere close to last Friday. Most of the time Nikki, Shawn, and I just took a taxi to the club, but I had wanted to pick up Patrick in the Vanq because he always made the funniest face when he saw it.

“Do you think they’ll let me in?” Patrick asked nervously.

“Of course they’ll let you in. You’re with me, remember?” I said as I flashed him a smile. He looked back at me dubiously and shoved his free hand into the pocket of his hoodie. I hadn’t told him what kind of club this was, so all he knew was we were two minors about to just
walk
into an exclusive nightclub.

Some of the people in line shot us dirty looks, but I paid them no mind and held my head high. Just before I reached the blue velvet rope, a very large hand shot in front of me. I looked up into the eyes of Viggo, the club’s head bouncer. Viggo at one point had been a big Russian guy until he had become the mate of a daemon. And even though he was now a Neodaemon he stilled looked about as graceful as a brick wall.

“Come on Viggo, what gives?” I asked, slightly irritated; Viggo had never stopped me before.

He said nothing, but eyed Patrick, who did his best not to cower under Viggo’s gaze—a lesser man probably
would
have.

I sighed and fished the Blue Card out of my coat pocket. Since I hadn’t explained to Patrick what we were yet, I couldn’t very well ask him to wear it. He’d think I was crazy. Well, crazier than he probably
already
did at least.

Viggo looked at the Blue Card and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he lifted the rope. I smiled at him silently thanking him for
not
saying anything.

As we walked past him into the club I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but just before we had gotten out of earshot Viggo spoke, his voice rising above the music. “Your friends are already here.”

I cringed slightly. How was I going to explain everything to Patrick
now
?

Ethereal vocal trance music caressed our ears as we walked further into the club; the low entrance ceiling giving way to a massive vaulted ceiling. Patrick stopped dead, and I looked over at him. His face was struck with awe, and I looked from him out at the club too. Though I had been here many times, I had to admit it was still breathtaking.

The entrance opened into a circular dance floor with tables raised on a crescent moon dais beyond that. Past the crescent dais was a massive bar lit up with blue lights. The side of the club was lined with plush velvet booths, curving in sweeping crescents from the restrooms near the bar nearly to the door. Lighting fixtures about the booths spun, lightly showering the whole club in what looked like thousands of stars. Electric blue, purple, and periwinkle lights flashed and swayed around the room.

I pulled Patrick through the throngs of people toward one of the corner booths farthest from the door. No sooner had we sat than a buxom girl appeared in front of us. Her midnight blue slinky dress left nothing to the imagination as far as her shape was concerned. The dress was splattered with luminescent paint, so she looked like the embodiment of the night sky. The girl eyed Patrick with wide eyes but turned her attention to me. I had no doubt that by now everyone that worked at the club knew
exactly
who me, Nikki, Shawn, and Travis were.

Patrick looked out at the other girls flitting about from table to booth with lit up tablets, taking drink orders. I might have been upset if I wasn’t sure he was in total shock by now.

I turned my attention back to the drink girl who on closer examination turned out to be Shelby. “Hey Shelby.”

“Drinks tonight, Nualla?” she asked, tapping the screen on her tablet.

“I’ll have an Eclipsed Dream,” I said before turning to Patrick. “Patrick?”

He turned his attention back to me and then to Shelby. “Do you have soda?” he asked her in a dazed voice.

Before Shelby could answer, I jumped in. “He’ll have a Hypnotic Blue.” I turned to him again. “You’ll need it—
trust
me.”

He looked at me curiously for a moment before he let his eyes drift back to stare up at one of the most impressive things about Club Lunaris, the massive circular glass skylight cut into the ceiling above the dance floor. But unlike most skylights this one was filled with undulating water and swimming fish. Lights streamed through it creating interesting shapes of light and shadow on the dancers below.

As Shelby left, I watched Patrick watching the ceiling. He looked like a child watching fish at an aquarium. I wondered how our world must look to someone on the outside—to him.

A few minutes later our drinks arrived, and I downed mine quickly, slamming it back down on the table.

“What was
that
?” Patrick asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Liquid courage. Now drink yours.”

“Do I have—” My look must have said everything, because he didn’t finish talking and instead downed the drink.

Shelby was still standing there eyeing Patrick questioningly. “Hey Shelbs, two Blue Midnight Margaritas, okay?” I said, holding up two fingers.

“Sure thing sweetie,” she said before disappearing back into the sea of dancing lights.

“Don’t they care about getting in trouble for serving minors here?” Patrick asked, looking out at the bar suspiciously.

“Believe me, serving minors is the
least
of their worries here,” I replied with a snort.

“Wait,
what
?” Patrick said, looking back at me.

I sat there trying to think of how to reveal to Patrick all the secrets I was currently keeping from him. Hell, I had spent most of the week trying to figure it out. I opened my mouth to speak, but when I saw Nikki bounding up to us with Shawn just a few steps behind, I clamped it shut again.

“Hey guys! Didn’t think I’d see
you
here. I mean Nualla sure, but
you
, Patrick?” Nikki said before she flopped down on the booth seat. Then she said a little more quietly to me “How’d you get past Viggo with
him
?”

“It’s called a Blue Card; it’s like a pass to get away with anything.” I answered jokingly as I twirled the Blue Card around on my finger. And that was when fate decided to smite me for my assumptions.

Nikki’s eyes got real big, and she sunk a little lower in the booth. “Nualla, heads up, my mom looks to be on a warpath, and she’s coming this way.”

“It there time to bolt?” I asked quickly.

“Nope,” Nikki answered, grimacing. “She’ll be here in three…two…”

“Nualla, can I speak with you—
now
?” Skye asked through clenched teeth as she dragged me out from the booth before I could protest.

Nikki’s mom, my Aunt Skye, looked exactly like I would have, if someone had doused me in blond. Well, if I were a few years older too, of course. Skye had the same face, same eyes, same spiraling wavy curls as me and my dad. She was generally the sweetest, most fun loving person you could ever meet. That is, unless she was pissed, then she was hell incarnate. And this looked to be one of those moments. So I just let her drag me through the club, because trust me, it was safer.

When we had finally made it to her office she closed the door and turned on me, eyes full of fire. “Nualla, what on
earth
is a human boy doing with you in my club?”

I had never seen Skye this angry—
ever
. “Well…”

“Nualla, this is crazy even for you. What were you thinking?!”

“I can explain!”

“You’d better, because those clubbers out there are about to tear him apart.”

Had I not noticed the angry faces with malice in their eyes? Or was Skye just being melodramatic as usual? I couldn’t dwell on this long though, because Skye looked about to throttle me.

I looked down at my boots; Skye had picked one hell of a weekend to be out of town in London launching one of her newest clubs. In our world, Skye’s Kalodaemon-exclusive clubs were the places to be and be seen. And because she was always traveling between the clubs, she and Nikki had always lived with us at the family estate in San Francisco. So when I had had the conversation with my family last Saturday, she hadn’t been there to hear it, and apparently no one had bothered or remembered to call her up and tell her about it this past week.

“It’s a really long story,” I said uneasily, running my teeth over my bottom lip.

“I’ve got time, now spill it,” Skye said as she folded her arms under her chest and leaned back against the door. And that’s when I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was getting out of this room without telling her.

When I was done Skye sat there in silence for several minutes before she spoke. “Nualla, can I ask a favor? Next time warn me
before
you bring a human here; there’s only so much I can do, you know.”

“I got him a Blue Card; I just didn’t give it to him to wear yet.”

“Oh, well
that
changes everything. I’ll just make an announcement to my patrons, and that should calm things down,” Skye said as she stopped leaning against the door that led back to the club.

“What
exactly
are you going to say?” I asked, immediately suspicious.

“Oh, what any proud aunt would do,” Skye replied with a mischievous smile as she opened the door.

“You’re going to punish me with embarrassment, aren’t you?” I said flatly, glaring at her.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Skye answered dismissively. “Now
out
.”

I trudged over to the table in defeat. Why was my family bound and determined to embarrass the hell out of me for this? Hadn’t I already suffered enough? It was just one stupid little thing. Okay, it was a very
big
thing. Yeah, I probably deserved this.

Skye and I reached the booth, and Patrick, Nikki, and Shawn looked up at me questioningly as I dropped back down onto the seat. A least our drinks had arrived while I was gone.

Skye reached out her hand to me. I didn’t even look up as I slapped the Blue Card into her palm. “I’ll be back in a second, dears. I just need to take care of one small thing,” Skye said with a broad smile.