Heart Song (36 page)

I started to scream, “Get off of me,” but it came out like, “
Ge
oufmi
.”

Then his voice entered my mind.
Relena, love.
It's me. Why are you fighting me?

Only then, did I realize I had been crying very loudly. Only then did I realize that Marren had me pinned to the ground. He was petting my head and shushing softly into my ears. My body shook violently with the sobs that racked my body so completely. 

***

It took me nearly the rest of the morning to calm down. When I did, it was only because exhaustion had taken me. I woke with a sight all too familiar. The balcony to my room with Marren staring out over the dense trees before the towering Peaks of Domar. The sky had darkened to a deep blue at the peaks and lightened gradually towards our home. It was sunset. I had slept the entire day.

“Marren?”

He turned. Worry had creased his forehead and saddened his eyes. His lips pulled down at the corners. He was human. I had forgotten that night and day held no bearing on our appearance on the immortal realm only. Here, on the mortal realm, we were human during the day. He sat on the side of my bed and gripped my hand into his. The warmth of his skin seeped into me and brought with it a slew of memories from a time that seemed so long ago.

He smiled.

“You look... beautiful,” I breathed the last word.

“You look even more so.”

I reached up a hand to touch my face. I had forgotten how my face felt as a human. Smooth subtle skin in place of the skin of a werewolf—strong and hard.

“Naloud?”
I asked, sitting up.

Marren nodded towards the direction of where the sitting area used to be. Now, only remnants of the furniture we had were seen there. Tucked into a corner and held in place by a pillow was Naloud, bouncing her hands and kicking her feet. A loud coo filled the room. We laughed.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I will tell you later. First, you need to see what happened to our home.” Marren's voice cracked on the last word. His face became solemn and worn. It was the first time I’d seen any age on his face. It shocked me and made my heart dip a little lower in my chest. Of course, that could have been Marren's feelings, but it still hurt to feel it nonetheless.

“What about Naloud?”

“She'll be fine. She's quite entertained,” he assured.

Hesitantly, I stood with him and let him escort me—hand in hand—to the hall.

I was glad that Marren told me not to worry about Naloud. I nearly fell to my knees to see how much destruction was done to our beautiful home. The enchanted carvings were cut and removed from the door. The wooden posts in the stair railing were completely missing. Only remnants of what they once were remained. The wolf embedded into the floor of the foyer was broken apart into pieces.

Everything that was beautiful in our home was destroyed. Not one thing was left untouched, unmarred, or intact. The library inside Marren's study was destroyed. Many of his family’s priceless heirlooms were gone, burned by a fire that was held in the middle of the room. Blood covered everything, staining the once brilliant white marble.

While he gave me the tour, he told me of how he found the Cyrs that were following us. He and Enid had broken their necks before they had a chance to react and alert the others of their coming. Every room, except for ours, had bodies of dead girls in them.
Mauled and barely recognizable as having once been human.
Marren thought they were so that the blame could be placed on us.
An attempt to expose us for what we were and create such an enormous fear that we would be hunted.
He and Enid had killed most of the Cyrs that were there. The rest ran back to where they came from. Whether their plan would still work or not would remain to be seen.

We walked outside so that I could see the damage done to the garden. I had been so consumed by my
emotions,
I didn't pay attention to anything but the mounds of dead bodies burning. Lives lost so needlessly. I was saddened, but not surprised to see that the statue of the woman, who once looked as though she was at a perfect peace was now reduced to mere pieces of rubble.

My beautiful home, in pieces.

“Why didn't you come back to get us?”
I asked as soon as I was able to find my voice.

“Because we were clearing out as much of the mess as possible.
You loved this place, if not more than I, and I knew how much it would've affected you.”  I listened as he explained and formed his apologies. I smacked tears from my cheeks as the last light of day faded beyond the horizon. “I'm so sorry I made you worry and you had to find this.” He gestured to everything around us.

I nodded, realizing that night had fallen, I hadn't changed and Marren was still human. “Why hadn't we changed?”

“Dark night.
No moon, no werewolf.”

“I don't think I'll ever know enough about this,” I said.

He chuckled. “Trust me, you will…Someday.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Now we take things a day at a time.”

“What about Jiren?” I knew it would only be a short span of time before he would start to worry about him again. Even I had thought of looking over my shoulder after every turn just to make sure that shadow in the corner of my eye wasn't him.

“We follow the plan,” he replied.

Nodding, I turned and walked into our sad and debilitated home and straight to Naloud, who was still playing on the stone bench. I knew Marren was behind me. “Why did they leave our room alone?”

“It's hard to say, but I know the doors won't let anyone who’s out to do harm through them. It's very likely they couldn't scrape enough of the carvings off to be allowed in.”

“Like that night it wouldn't let me through. I hit it because it wouldn't open. I was angry and willing to fight if necessary.”

“Very likely,” he mused.

The cry of a lonely wolf, seeking his mate, filled the air. The hairs on the back of my neck would have risen if I
were still human. “Home sweet home,” I murmured.

Five very short years
passed without a sign or word of Jiren. For months, Marren and I were antsy, jumping at the sound of a slightest creak. Slowly but surely we relaxed into a steady rhythm. Enid and Raden took turns traveling across the country to find other immortal races and to see what they’d heard of Jiren and if they knew how to kill him.

The last few times had taken longer and longer for them to come home with word that more and more of our kind were disappearing. With no trace or word to follow, they would come home. This last time they left together, finding it safer to travel as a pair than alone.

If our kind were disappearing, it meant that Jiren was either killing us or they crossed back over. Believing the first to be the more realistic of the two, we knew our time was rapidly running out. We had to find a way to bind Jiren to something or kill him. Needless to say the disappearance of the immortal races was something that put us all back on edge.

Naloud had grown up stronger than Marren and with more attitude than me.
Strong, stubborn, and beautiful.
She was trained by the best fighter I know. The human age of five, she was actually the size and intelligence of a young adult. With no word from the rest of the therianthropes, her ceremony for changing never happened. Instead, she had the company of me and her father.
A private affair in the woods, near the cave where she was conceived.

She begged for us to let her travel with Raden and Enid. But I wouldn't have it. She sulked for weeks. I was almost willing to give in until she turned around. She would leave every morning to pick fruit, berries, and nuts. She seemed so excited to leave that she couldn't be bothered to take her basket the last two times. Every evening, she'd come home, dragging her feet with the biggest smile on her face.

“Marren, our child is up to something,” I said over dinner.

“She's just enjoying the taste of freedom. She's ready to be on her own... find a mate, have some kids.”

I smacked him on his arm. He pulled me into him, squeezing me with his strong arms. “Don't you dare say
that.
She may be ready, but I'm not.”

“I don't think we have a choice.”

“You say that as if she's already found someone.”

He stiffened and became very silent. It was the slightest of movements, almost escaping my notice. I looked up into his eyes. He avoided my gaze. He usually did that when he gave into our daughter’s wishes after my explicit demands otherwise. He couldn't hide anything from me, no matter how hard he tried.

I sighed. “Who is he? Have we met him before?”

“I promised I wouldn't say anything about him. But I did say that I would talk to you about meeting him tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

He nodded.

“When?”
I felt my heart beats quicken and my palms started to feel moist. I wanted to find Naloud and wrap her in my arms and prevent anyone from taking her from me forever.

“Over lunch.”
He smiled.

“You know who he is, don't you?”

“No.” he said it so assuredly
,
I believed him.

“Okay.” I let my head rest on his chest.
But something doesn't feel right about this.
The timing of it all.
It could be Jiren.

Jiren wouldn't do something like that. He doesn't have the patience.

I hope you're right.
I lifted up on my toes and pressed my lips to his.

I
am
,
uwoduhi
. His arms tightened around my waist as he lifted me up and carried me upstairs and to the bed.

***

Morning came with the break of dawn along the horizon. I knew it meant I had very little time to get up and try to stop Naloud from making a big mistake. Marren was sleeping still, which meant my time to go had arrived.

“Now or never,” I told myself.

I slipped my clothes from the previous night back on and went to the room that used to be Marren's study, now remodeled and made into Naloud's room. I knocked on the door. It pushed opened at the force of my subtle hits. Her room was still dark. The sunlight usually hits her room around the mid-day point. Even in the lack of light I knew she wasn't there. Panic struck me. I was too late.

I turned to Enid's door, wishing he were there to help with some fatherly wisdom. But he was out trying to find what he could. Even Marren spent most of his days with the few books he had salvaged from our return. He would pour over them, searching for clues that would hint to him the way to end the one and only threat in the way of rejoining the two realms. Whereas I spent my days practicing with my sword, tending to the garden, or working with Raden's tools in his forge. He had taught me a few tricks of the trade over the years.

I gave up, deciding bed with Marren was better than standing around and waiting for time to slowly trickle into afternoon so that I could meet this boy that dared to take my daughter from me.

I entered the room as my eyes caught Marren in the same position I had left him in. I smiled to myself and walked gingerly to the bed and climbed in even more so. I scooted up close to him, then propped myself up on my elbow. It had been so long since I just looked at him.
His golden bronze skin, his long, dark, and slightly wavy hair.
The arch of his eyebrows, the shape of his lips and how they tilted slightly to the left.
I remember once thinking he wasn't perfect. What he lacked in symmetry, he made up for in passion and desire—tenfold. So, for all intents and purposes, he really was perfect.
Especially lying in front of me so calm and so peaceful.
I decided to let him sleep and find something to eat for our “guest of honor”.

***

For the umpteenth time, I found myself pacing the length of the dining hall. Marren left to meet Naloud and her beau. I waited patiently for them to come, but I swore it was taking them longer than it should have. Then I heard the sound of familiar steps padding against the floor. Only one set. But that was okay.

Marren stepped into the room and found me wringing my hands. His eyes fell onto them as I dropped them to my side and gripped the ends of my shirt. “You're not going to believe who it is. You won't even recognize him. He's grown so much!”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry, have you been waiting long?”

I eyed the food that had been growing cold and drying out. “You could say that.”

“I haven't been gone that long.” He approached me with his arms around me and pressed his lips to my forehead. “You will be happy about this. I promise.”

I nodded and let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding. “Alright, let's get this over with.”

Marren walked through the foyer. I listened as his steps went out towards the garden. I stepped closer to the doors. Inching closer at a pace slower than my human self ever moved. By the time I heard footsteps again, they were accompanied by giggles and whispers.