Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) (6 page)

Why in the name of all reason I had said yes, I will never know. Maybe it was because Nualla was beyond tempting, and I was dying to know her secrets. Or that I was angry with my parents for never being there, and I wanted someone to be close to me. Or that I was really,
really
drunk. But it was probably because, when fate throws you the one thing you have always wanted, you grab hold of it and never let go.

9

Waking Up in Vegas

Saturday, January 14th

NUALLA

I
opened one eye. I was in a hotel room; it was very bright out, and I
really
needed to use the restroom. I threw the covers aside and stumbled ungracefully toward what I hoped was a bathroom. My head felt like it had made friends with a ton of bricks, and I was beyond thirsty.

I found the sink and splashed cold water onto my face. And that’s when I saw it, glittering on my finger. A ring. A really
nice
ring. I took a step back and stared at myself in the mirror. Why the hell was I
naked
?

I just stared at myself in the mirror for a while. Then something caught my attention, a mark between my hip bone and abdomen. I inspected it closer.

Is that a hickey?

“What the
hell
!” It
totally
was.

“
Ughhh
…” groaned someone’s voice from the other room.

I froze. I was in a hotel room—
naked
—and I wasn’t alone. This was bad. This was very,
very
bad.

I edged toward the door of the bathroom and carefully peered out. There was a guy sleeping in the bed.

Oh frak!

I stalked into the room as quietly as I could. In a swift motion I snatched a sheet from the floor that had been kicked off the bed in the night and wrapped it over me like a Grecian goddess. I crept around the bed to stand in front of the still sleeping guy. I peered closer and took a small sigh of relief. It was Patrick.

I ran my teeth nervously over my bottom lip; there was no point in putting this off any longer than I needed too. If I was awake and having to deal with this, he should be too. I reached out a tentative hand and poked him with one finger.

He groaned and opened one eye. “
Nualla
?” It came out in a groggy, slurred voice. Then his eyes went wide, and he sat bolt upright. Apparently, the fact that I was wearing a sheet had chiseled its way through his morning fog. He looked at me, looked around the room, and put his head in his hands. “Oh,
hell
.”

I thrust my left hand at him. “Patrick, never mind everything else, what’s
this
?”

Patrick spread his fingers to peer at the ring glittering on my finger. He dropped his hands, and his eyes went wide. He looked at me then back at the ring then back at me again. “But…I…that was just…a strange
dream
?”

“Want to try that one again, buddy?”

Patrick pulled the blanket tight to him and leapt out of the bed. He tore frantically around the seating room area of the suite in search of something. On the coffee table under a pile random junk he apparently found what he was looking for because he stopped moving. However, from this distance I couldn’t see what it was.

Patrick brought his other hand up to it and the blanket dropped to the ground. “Oh,
fuck
!”

I whipped my eyes away from him lightning fast. “
What
? What is it?” I said to the wall, a blush creeping across my cheeks. He was also apparently
very
naked.

I heard him walk over, and a second later he handed me a leather folder over my shoulder. I flipped it open and stared at it blankly. It was a certificate. I said nothing for a while; just stared at it in disbelief.

Finally Patrick said, “Nualla, say something.”

I whipped around to face him. “We got
married
last night?!”

“Technically, I think it was early this morning, since it’s like three in the afternoon.”

“
What
?!” I yelped, looking toward the windows again.

Before Patrick could answer, I heard a buzzing. I looked over and saw the contents of my purse scattered across the floor. I dashed over and answered my phone without even checking to see who it was. “
Hello
?” I said cautiously into the phone.

“Nualla, where the
hell
are you?” Thankfully, it was Nikki and not one of my parents.

Good question. I looked around the room, but nothing screamed,
You are here, Nualla you idiot!

“I haven’t a clue. You?”

“We’re at the Bellagio.”

“I think we’re at the Venetian,” Patrick said from behind me.

“Apparently we’re at the Venetian,” I related back to Nikki.

“How did you get
there
? I thought you two were just going out for air?” Nikki practically yelled into the phone.

“Well we were but…um…it’s a long story.”

“With you, they are
always
long stories,” Nikki said, and I could swear I almost heard her eyes rolling through the phone. “Can you just give me the Twitter version?”

“Look can I call you back after I find my clothes?”

“Your
what
?!” Nikki shouted on the other end of the phone, and I had to pull it away from my head.

“I’ll call you back in five, ‘kay?” I said quickly before I hung up the phone.

“I found your clothes,” Patrick said apologetically from behind me. I looked where he was pointing; a trail of clothes lead from the door to the bed.

“Oh,
frak
me!” My hands went automatically to my face and the sheet hit the floor. Patrick put his hand over his eyes lightning fast, a deep blush spreading across his cheeks.

I rushed over and gathered up my clothes and held them in front of me as I backed toward the bathroom. I threw the clothes down and slammed the door shut. Then I wrenched the door back open and poked my head out. “Get dressed we’re going downstairs in like five minutes.”

“No complaints here,” Patrick said, his hand still covering his eyes.

“Good, because I’m in no mood to hear any.”

PATRICK

M
y head felt like a two-ton truck had hit it.

Nualla was still pacing back and forth waving her hands frantically and talking into her cell in a language I couldn’t understand. Though she was speaking quickly, the words flowed over her lips like a beautiful waterfall. It sounded vaguely Elvish, like it was Gaelic or something. What did Gaelic sound like anyways?

She seemed upset. I mean
sure
she’d woken up to find herself married to me. But there was something else. Something she wasn’t saying out loud, but I could see it in her eyes. Fear. Something was wrong—
very
wrong.

I mulled over the various possibilities in my head. Maybe she had crazy parents that would disown her or something. Or maybe she had some incurable disease. The more I thought about it the more it gnawed at my insides. I leaned my head back to stare at the fake sky while rather convincing clouds floated across it. It was like being at Disneyland; a Disneyland for adults.

I wasn’t sure where exactly I had gone wrong last night. Wait, that was a lie; it was around the time I took that first drink. And even with how fucked this morning was turning out to be, I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have done exactly the same thing again given the option.

This morning had been so far out of my norm I had just followed Nualla down here without saying another word. I mean what was I supposed to say? “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to marry you. I was drunk and convinced I was dreaming the whole thing up.” Somehow saying any of that didn’t strike me as a very good idea.

I heard a sound and looked up just as Nikki and Shawn were about to reach my table. Nikki had just enough time to get out a “Hi Patrick—” before Nualla dragged her off. Shawn seemed oblivious to the whole exchange and went straight to get some coffee. Their love of coffee was starting to border on obsessive, but really, was
I
any less weird?

I went back to staring at the fake sky, letting my mind go blank. Which worked for all of five seconds before the doubts and fears started creeping in again.

I heard the scraping of metal on stone as Shawn pulled up a chair to sit with me. He leaned back in the chair so that the front feet came off the ground and stared up at the fake sky, sipping his coffee slowly. After a few more minutes of silence, Shawn finally asked, “So…how was
your
night?”

“I think we got married.”

Shawn spit out the coffee and cursed something in a language I didn’t know as his chair slammed back down on the ground. He looked at me, eyes wide. “
Excuse me
?”

I held last night’s incriminating evidence in front of him.

Shawn ran his hand through his hair as he looked down at the wedding band. “Well,
shit
.” He sipped his coffee then stared at it before turning to the barista. “Um miss, can I get the largest espresso you have with a double shot—on second thought make that a triple.”

NUALLA

I
was running scared, dragging Nikki through the Venetian. I was losing it, and somehow I had convinced myself if I kept moving I wouldn’t have to admit this mess was real.

When we reached the gondolas she pulled me to a stop. “Nualla, wait! What’s going on?”

I reached into my purse and pulled out the marriage certificate, thrusting it into her hands. “
This
!”

Nikki looked at it in confusion, but as she began to read her eyes got wider. “Is this some kind of joke?” she asked, looking up.

“I
wish
it was,” I answered before I began to pace back and forth in front of her.

“Okay, calm down. Maybe no one will find out, and you can forget the whole thing. We can just go down there and have them shred it. I mean isn’t this city’s slogan ‘What happens here stays here’ or something?”

“No, that won’t work. I called the Embassy here, they
already
know.”

“Well
shit
, then you have about oh I’d say a day or two until our Embassy finds out. A.K.A. your
dad
.”

“I
know
, Nikki. But that’s not even the worst part,” I said, avoiding her eyes.

“Wait, how could this be—wait, you didn’t
sleep
with him did you?” Nikki asked in a startled voice.

“Well yes, I mean no, I mean—oh hell I don’t know.” I sat down on the bottom railing of the bridge and put my head in my hands.

“Well its simple really, is he currently rolling on the floor in agonizing pain?”

I looked up. “Well no.”

“Has he complained of his veins feeling like they’re on fire?”

“Well no, I mean he didn’t
mention
anything—”

“Has he complained of any pain at
all
?” Nikki asked, a little exasperated.

“Well just his head.”

“I’m sure
that’s
just a hangover,” Nikki said as she rolled her eyes.

“Oh what does it matter anyways? I’m still screwed.” I put my head back in my hands.

“Well
yeah
, but at least this way we don’t have to worry about renting a private plane to transport him home.”

“You always look at the bright side, don’t you?” I said sarcastically.

“There’s plenty of fucked up in this situation, but look, at least you’re stuck with someone who’s cute, smart, funny, and well, worships the ground you walk on,” Nikki pointed out as she ticked off Patrick’s attributes on her fingers. “I mean hell; you could have accidentally married some jerk like Michael.”

“Nikki,
anyone’s
better than Michael,” I said flatly.

“Well you do have a point there.”

PATRICK

N
ualla came and sat down at the table with impossible grace. “So the good news is, I’m almost one hundred percent sure we didn’t sleep together last night. Well, I mean we slept together we just didn’t
sleep
together,” she said nervously.

“And that’s a
good
thing?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean why the hell
else
do you drag a random stranger to Vegas?”

Nualla ran her teeth over her bottom lip and looked very unsure of herself. It was in that moment I realized that she might
actually
like me, and I had just basically called her a slut.

“Um, well I mean—that didn’t come out right did it?”

She cocked her head to one side and smirked at me. “Yeah—
not
exactly. Want to try that again?”

“Yes please,” I answered, looking up at her sheepishly. She nodded as if to say,
well go ahead then
.

I looked at the wedding band on my finger. I had been infatuated with Nualla since the very moment I had first seen her. But until this week, she had never seemed to notice I even existed. Somehow she possessed an all-consuming power over me, and I braced myself as I asked the next question. “So…why
did
you drag me to Vegas?”

“Because I wanted to get out of town, and it was the first flight leaving,” she answered matter-of-factly.

“No I mean why did you ask
me
to come?” I asked in an unsteady voice as I stared at my coffee.

“
Oh
—because of all the boys in school I like you the best.”

I looked up; she was looking at me, chin resting on her hand. Her wedding ring glittered in the light and a broad smile crossed her face. I just looked at her. I had never thought in a thousand years that I would be here—or for that matter,
anywhere
with her—but here she was smiling at me, and I was
married
to her.

I cleared my throat and continued on with our conversation, I really couldn’t just go on staring at her like an idiot. “So…us not sleeping together is a
good
thing?”

“Trust me, in
this
case it’s a good thing,” she said, looking away nervously.

“Explain.”

“I—I can’t.” She rolled her eyes down to the right, running her teeth over her bottom lip. “It’s—complicated.”