Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (31 page)

Jett

29

The Next Day

There was nothing I would have loved more than to see her again. Hear her soft angelic voice, and feel her soft skin against mine. What happened yesterday was all my fault.

I spent the moments after the fire watching the firefighters extinguish the flame from a distance. Her cousin’s husband, George, was on the phone. His eyes equally as red as my own. The moon was high and Martin had returned to the cabin to inform the others. It was getting late.

I entered the cabin and was greeted by silence. Nothing dared to make even the quietest of sounds all throughout the structure. It was the kind of silence that could drive a person insane.

I caught sight of the others, sitting or standing around the granite topped kitchen island, their heads low. In the center, a small cake frosted with purple icing laid propped up on a small stand. Written across the top, in front of the number “1” and “9” candles, were the words
Happy Birthday, Rini!
scribbled in an even darker purple. My own spiteful words, “…
today is not your fucking special day!
” echoed in my head. She was right, I was a
monster
, or at least I’d acted like one.

I caught Del’s gaze first, her eyes were running, and her skin was red around her eyebrows and cheeks. After a few seconds of her shaking her head slowly with her mouth pursed, she broke the gaze and lowered her head again. Ray’s face was confused, like someone thinking of an answer to a hard question. Sure he had given her a hard time and threatened to kill her a time or two, but I knew he would have never done a thing. Rini knew our secret, and still acted as she did before, once she’d let it soak in her mind for a while. Martin and Mark were too busy trying to clean the counters with sponges and towels, but as they walked under the lights, there were moist, shiny glimmers in their eyes. I continued into the darkened hallway, turning the bedroom light on as I passed the door.

And that’s where I spotted it. A small box with a silky bow sat on my bed.
Who could it be from?
On top of the gray colored box was a small envelope with a note tucked inside. I turned it over and read it.

Happy Pre-Birthday!

Here’s to being all I could’ve ever asked for in a boyfriend, and more. A LOT more! Just kidding! I heard you had a thing for something like this back then, try not to let Ray tear it this time. -Love, Rini

I unfolded the tissue paper and was immediately struck with a heart sinking feeling. A jacket, much like the one I had during the time they were popular, was neatly folded and tucked inside. Del must have told her about it. I was speechless. I had lost everything I had ever wanted. A girlfriend. Love. Someone that loved me, and let me love them in return. All of it—gone, in one person. The person I’d hurt and sent away. I placed the jacket and box aside, and climbed under the sheets. Really, there was nothing I felt like doing but sleeping after that. Hoping to see her again, in my dreams.

...

The next morning, I didn’t bother getting out of bed. I grabbed for my phone that I’d set in my nightstand last night after diner. A small icon on the bottom of the main screen indicated a voice message once I’d booted it up. I entered the code and heard it play.

“Hey Jett, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for annoying you. I just really wanted to know if you’re safe. And I guess, hearing that you took another girl to eat sorta made me a tad bit jealous. I hope you won’t be too mad at me. Crap!—I have to go, Sarah’s calling me. Anyway, uh—I love you...Bye.”

Beep!

Love.
There it was, wedged in between its other infamous partners
I
and
You.
I replayed the message several times to hear those words again—in her voice.

“...I love you...”
Her soft voice said again. It was full of innocence. Undisturbed by the things I would do and say to her later that day.

“I love you too, Rini,” I whispered after replaying it one last time. I shut my phone and left it sitting on the empty pillow in front of me. It formed a small grove underneath it. I closed my eyes, recalling of when she had dug her face into my chest on the day she was training. Her sweet watermelon lips, inches away from my snout, taunting me. Her gorgeous golden-emerald colored hazel eyes, glowing in the glimmering light of the sunset. How I longed to see them staring back at me, eyes full of adoration. Enough to make me melt and never want to let go. The only time they pierced me in the heart after that, was when she had resurfaced after I had dropped her in the lake. Except, instead of adoration, she had a look of confusion engraved into them. The kind of look a child might have after being punished by its parents for the first time.

Through the walls, I overheard a conversation in the living room.

“Well, where is he?” Del’s voice was low and still cold. She was still upset with me.
I
was still upset with me. Screw it—I was
furious
at myself!

“He hasn’t gotten out of bed,” Max said.

“Del, just let him sleep,” Mark added.

“It’s almost going to be supper!” Del exclaimed.

“
Ssh!”
a cluster of voices shushed.

I threw the sheets off of me and climbed out of bed. The hall lights were gleaming through the gap in the bottom of the door as I reached for the handle. The door creaked as I opened it and walked into the bathroom with the strong urge to pee. After I finished and washed my hands, I continued toward the floating scent of rice beckoning from the kitchen.

Everyone was quiet as I sat on the stool by the counter. I put my elbows on the table and rested my head on top of my folded arms as I watched Mark pour a red sauce over corn tortillas wrapped around cheese. He was making something called,
Enchiladas
and following a recipe in a book that looked new. Del was beside him slicing a black avocado—the lime green solid inside fell into a bowl. I twitched my nose at the strong smell of spices coming from an open bag in front of me. I was too lazy to move it, but I was beginning to get the urge to sneeze. Mark noticed it and moved the bag to the lower level of the counter. “Sorry,” he said.

Dinner was quiet that night, something that was even rarer than rare, especially when Ray usually kept the table talk going by saying something completely immature or irrelevant. But for once, in quite possibly his whole life, he was quiet as he ate. Just like the others.

Rini

30

“I’m hungry!” I stated from the back seat. We had been traveling for two days already, only stopping for gas. We had to be across several states by now. Bane entered the passenger seat again after having picked up a drink for him and Paul only.
How nice.
I couldn’t tell where I was anymore, but when Paul lowered his window to spit out the shells of a sunflower seed, I could smell saltiness in the air. We were close to an ocean, or so it seemed.

“I’m hungry!” I repeated.

There was no reply from either of the men up front.

“Hello!” I continued, grasping at the bars dividing us again. “I said
I’m hungry!
”

“I heard you,” Bane’s voice was calm, but clearly irritated, as he counted the change in his hand.

“Then give me something to eat!” I demanded.

Bane turned slightly to his side, “Does it look like you’re in a five-star hotel, sweetheart?” he said, “and I do mean
Sweet
heart,” he put a hand against the bars. “Almost
mouth
watering.” His eyes were locked on my chest, bouncing with the car movements as Paul started the ignition. “Now,
I’m
getting hungry,” he licked his lips.

I looked down to my chest and covered the sight with my arms. “Screw you!” I blurted.

“Oh you will,” he grinned. “Let’s not be hasty now shall we? I don’t take to girls that give it away to easily.” He switched his dark, hollow eyes to mine that were full of life and color. “I prefer a challenge.” He gave a small air kiss and wink before turning back in his seat.

“What the hell do you want with me anyway?”

“You’ll know soon enough.” Bane looked at me again, “I’m just winning a game, honey, and I’m going for the highest score possible.”

“Don’t call me, honey! You are
not
my boyfriend!” I spat.

“Ah, and I supposed Jethro is?” he held a finger up. “Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seemed to me that he was no longer interested in you when I picked you up. Right?”

I was silent.

“Poor human,” he continued, sliding his fingers though his short jet-black hair and continuing to count the change. “Being fooled into believing you were almost in love. It almost makes me feel sympathy for you.
Almost
.”

“He did love me!” I countered.

“Did he really? Then tell me sweetheart, why did he choose to side with the other girl instead of you?”

“Stop it!”

“How do you think poor Paul here feels knowing that Jett murdered his nephew then burned the remains? My father will be quite upset to discover that a Mundahlian has been killed by humans. It’ll give him the push he needs to finally start another war of the worlds, and I’m telling you now—humans are
not
going to win this time.”

“But
it
killed a human first, and Jett isn’t a human, he’s a Mundahlian, like you.”

“Yes—well, it’s your word against ours. And I say
you
killed him,
human.
Got it,
sweetheart?
”

“I said not to call me that!”

“And I don’t take orders from those beneath me, so tough luck.”

I slid back into my seat as Paul pulled out of the parking space in front of the store. A young cashier, off from his shift, burst through the doors and made his way across the lot, passing in front of us.

“Oh, dear,” Bane said. “I think I’ve been shortchanged.” Bane pointed to the young man almost to his car and snapped.

In an instant, Paul spun the steering wheel and stomped on the gas. I didn’t know who the young cashier was, but I still felt like a little part of me died as I watched him go under the hood. Even more so when I felt the bump beneath my seat in the back.

“Oh, never mind,” said Bane, digging in his pocket. “It was in here the whole time.” He lowered the window and flung the coins out onto the street and let out a menacing laugh.

“You know they have security cameras,” I said blankly, coming out of my shock. They just ran over someone!

“Really?” he sounded amused. “You know, I couldn’t care less.”

About a few hours later, the car came to an abrupt stop—causing me to slam face-first into the bars. I immediately awoke on the floor of the SUV, feeling my tender forehead that was dripping with blood from the blow to the head. The lights inside of the vehicle turned on as the front two doors opened. Both men stepped out. I got to my feet waiting for Bane to open the door, and when he did, lunged out, pummeling him to the ground. He hit the floor hard, with a loud
Thunk!
I entwined my hands together as if they were gripped around an imaginary bat, and swung them across his face. My nails scraped across the skin of his cheeks. I jumped off him and ran for the street in the distance. They had turned onto a dirt area beside the moonlit ocean where a lone rickety dock stood.

I had almost made it to the asphalt when I felt the tightening of a large tubular muscle wrap around my torso, keeping me in place and constricting me like the creature I feared it was—a snake. A giant one. A skin-crawling hiss, like that of a water hose, sounded. My hands touched the massive scaly and leathery muscle that was keeping me from escaping.

“
What
do we have here?” a girl’s voice hissed. The torso of a bare young woman came around me and she whisked her hair behind her shoulders to reveal her nightmarish face to me. Her features were both human and serpent-like. Small beady yellow eyes with vertical pitch black slits that one could slip and fall into—and only two dark holes, the size of a pea, in place of a nose. She grinned devilishly and exposed four two-inch long porcelain fangs, that looked sharp enough to bite through steel. Where her legs should be—the scaly muscle wrapped around me—was a slithering, tan and dark-brown diamond patterned tail, reminiscent of a rattlesnake, that clenched even tighter around me with each passing second. Crushing my abdomen, and restricting the air I gasped for so desperately. She inhaled my scent. Bringing her pale harrowing face close to mine. “
Ss
she
s
smells
ss
delicious
ss
!” she shrilled with excitement and turned her gaze to Bane, standing behind me and watching me turn blue from the lack of oxygen. “May I eat her?” she asked in a pleasant giddy voice as though I were a treat being given to a dog.

“No you may not, Willa. She is
mine,
” he said. My body was now shutting down, going numb from the feet and slowly traveling up to my head. My brain boiled. I felt like a tube of toothpaste, ready to burst from the cap with the intense pressure. Bane came around me. Eyeing me up with a drop of blood sliding from his nose that he wiped away with a hand.

“
Tsssk, tsssk, tsssk”
Willa turned back to me, “
Ss
such a
s
shame.” She lifted me a few feet in the air to lean in closer, and sniffed my neck again. I was going to die. Not because I was deathly afraid of snakes, but because I could feel my lungs beginning to shrink. Withering away to nothing more than two shriveled up raisins. “What I would do for just
one
taste.” A thin black forked tongue slithered out of her mouth as she licked the side of my face. My skin crawled, ready to make a break for it and leave my bones and tissue behind to deal with this.

“Release her,” Bane ordered. “We need her alive.”

Willa made a voice of discontent, “Can’t I play with her for ju
sss
t a little longer.”

Play with her?
I thought.
What am I a doll?

“I’m afraid not. Now, release her!” Bane ordered again, this time threatening.

Willa shrieked and reverted to her nude human form, “You never let me have any fun with them! Daddy would have let me!” I fell from the few feet I was elevated, and was immediately apprehended by Paul who tied my hands together in front of me. He left a good distance of rope and handed it to Bane as though it were a leash.

His attention was still on Willa. “Then you may bring that up with him when the next human arrives. I have plans for this one, now show us to the ferry.”

Willa looked to me again, then back to Bane. Her long dark hair flowed over her breasts keeping them unexposed. “This way.” She pointed to a grand white ferry, lit with small white lights all around, floating by the unsteady and damaged dock. Her hissing voice was now normal since she was human. Good. Those emphasized
S
sounds creeped me the hell out.

“Come along,” Bane tugged. I stood still—trying to free myself from rope. He tugged harder and I jerked forward. “That’s it, good girl.”

“I’m not your pet!” I screamed.

“You are now.”