Authors: DL Kopp
Tags: #vampires, #urban fantasy, #paranormal romance, #fantasy, #paranormal, #dark fantasy, #werewolves, #fairy, #fairies, #faerie, #unicorns, #sirens, #twilight, #pnr
“
Calliope, please, wake
up.”
Hands pushed at my
shoulders, and I thrashed against them. I couldn't bear to
have them on me, not when everything hurt so much.
“
Calliope, it's
me!”
I cracked an eye.
“Octavius?”
It was Octavius. He
sighed with relief as I opened both of my eyes. “You were
scaring me for a while.”
“
What happened?” My
throat hurt like crazy.
He sat back on the ground
and sighed. I noticed I was out in the back of the school,
where Octavius usually kept his motorcycle. It was quiet and
dark, and I had no idea how long I had been out for. I
listened, and I heard thumping. The dance was not only not
over, but it hadn't stopped.
And I remembered, in a
rush, what happened. “Byron?”
Octavius nodded toward the
building. Rich and Byron were talking with their backs turned
to us, and I relaxed.
“
I think I've had enough
shocks for one year,” I said. “My heart won't take it if you
guys keep scaring me like this.”
“
I'm sorry he hurt
you.”
“
No, I'm fine.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Your throat has bruises all over it.”
I opened my mouth to
answer, but before I could, Byron met my gaze, and he rushed
forward. To my utter shock, it sounded like he was weeping,
although I knew for a fact he didn't have tear ducts. He was
upset enough to cry without tears. My heart broke.
“
Calliope, are you all
right?” he asked through his gasps. “Please, please tell me
you're okay.”
I touched his face.
“I'm fine.”
He continued to sob without
tears. “I could have killed you!”
“
But you didn't,” I
said. “What happened?”
“
I don't know! I was
just...in the lab, and I lost track of time, and when I awakened,
you were on the ground, not breathing.”
“
Not breathing?” I
repeated, looking at Octavius.
“
Rich and I sensed it
immediately,” he replied. “We can tell when things go
badly. We ran out of the cafeteria and came out
here. You were screaming, and you stopped
breathing.”
“
Geez,” I said, clutching
at my throat. “No wonder it hurts to talk. No one else
heard?”
“
Too loud,” Rich
said. “What did you see?”
“
Byron attacked
me.”
Rich and Octavius exchanged
a look, and I quickly amended my statement. “Byron's body
attacked me. He wasn't in there.”
“
That's what we thought
you meant,” Octavius said. “But that means we can't risk
having him around you.”
“
What?” I cried, jumping
to my feet. “No! No, no, no--”
“
Yes,” Rich agreed
grimly. “You're too important. What we have is too
important.”
Byron smiled softly.
“It's for the best, Calliope. I'd rather die than hurt
you.”
“
But you already hurt me,”
I blurted. “I'm not fragile!”
“
I don't know what
happened,” Byron said. “It could happen again.”
I shook my head. This
couldn't be happening. The conflict was over; it had to
be!
That's when it hit
me.
“
You came back to yourself
when I was screaming,” I said. “I was dreaming. I
dreamt about the Radiant Lands of Myth and Faerie, and that you
were dead. I must have stopped it with my power!”
“
Calliope,” Rich said,
“you just want something false to be true too badly.”
“
But I don't! It
must have been Dr. Muzhchyna, it's the only
explanation!”
Octavius frowned. “We
took care of him.”
“
Father's doing better,”
Byron said. “This is my doing.”
“
Don't you think he could
have installed a failsafe? If something went wrong with his
plan? Maybe he forgot.”
As if on cue, my cell phone
rang. Octavius was holding my purse, and he unzipped the main
pocket. He pulled out the phone and answered it.
“
Hello?
Yes.”
He looked up,
shocked. “Dr. Muzhchyna. Yes. Yes, she's
alive.”
As he pulled the phone away
from his mouth, we all exchanged looks. They alternated
between surprise and horror.
“
He wants to know if
you're hurt,” Octavius whispered.
I took the phone from
him. “Doctor?”
“
Calliope, I am so
relieved!” he cried. “I had forgotten, in the
scramble...anyway, I had a timer set in Byron, to take over if my
plans fell through. It was vengeful, and evil, and I'm so, so
sorry that I did it.”
I nodded in triumph, but
tears sprang to my eyes. “You don't know what a relief this
is,” I told him.
“
Relief? He nearly
killed you!” He paused. “He
should
have killed
you. He is back to himself?”
“
Yes, he is.” I
smiled tearily in his direction.
“
That...how did you
accomplish it?”
“
I don't know what you
mean,” I said, even though I kind of did.
“
He should have been a
mindless automaton. The failsafe was a personality wipe, and
he should have been lost forever.”
It made me even more
touched that his concern first turned to me instead of Byron.
I just would have been dead, but the very essence of Byron would
have been destroyed. What a harrowing thought.
“
The power I wield is more
than just show,” I said. “He was made to love me, and I was
made to save him.”
Epilogue
Everything became much
easier from there.
I graduated from high
school with honors, and both Octavius and Rich walked with me on
either side, each with one of my hands. I looked ridiculous
in my cap and gown, but Octavius looked amazing, as usual.
Rich hadn’t bothered to wear his cap at all and carried it
instead. He confided in me that he always had the horn of his
unicorn form and found hats uncomfortable, which was
cute.
Byron cheered us from the
audience, and I waved to him.
My kings.
I split the night into
quarters: a fancy dinner with my parents in Coos Bay's finest
restaurant, a stop at Rich's family's party, and a walk on the
beach with Byron.
The last part of the night,
I met Byron, Rich, and Octavius at the warehouse where the band
played. It was two in the morning, the moon was bright, and
the warehouse was no normal rehearsal space: it housed the biggest
and most raucous party I had ever seen. A lot of familiar
Coos Bay faces lined the room, but there were more
strangers.
Octavius, with a grin,
jumped on the stage immediately with his band and tore the place
up. The crowd was wild, and I stood with Rich and Byron
backstage, clapping along in appreciation.
At the end of the show, as
the sun began to rise, Octavius pulled me out to join him. We
sang the song that we'd come up with at our first rehearsal, and
with him behind me, I wasn't scared. Heck, it didn't even
feel like we had a crowd in front of us, or a band
behind.
All I knew were the men
that had saved me: Octavius, from the octopus, and myself; Rich,
from my flight; and Byron, with the rest, saved both me and the
world from destruction.
They loved
me.
It was all I would ever
need.
The End
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