This vignette fits into the Guild Hunter series after Archangel's Heart.
Elena's School of Horror
By Nalini Singh
Elena put the large bowl of hot buttered popcorn between herself and Aodhan, then placed her feet up on the coffee table in front of them.
"What's this?" Aodhan picked up a single popped kernel.
Already chewing on half a handful, Elena raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You've somehow escaped eating popcorn your hundreds of years of life?"
Not answering, Aodhan threw the kernel into his mouth and chewed with care. Then he took a large handful and settled back, his astonishingly beautiful wings draping to the floor courtesy of the wing slits on this specially-built couch.
Each filament of each feather appeared coated in diamonds, and even though Elena had turned off the lights in her and Raphael's Tower lounge, Aodhan glimmered brighter than the lights of Manhattan beyond the large glass doors to their right.
His slightly overlong hair was fractures of light, his skin warm marble, and his eyes a shattered green-blue. It didn't matter that he was--for the first time since she'd known him--wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt. He was inhuman in his beauty.
"What's with the jeans and tee?" Aodhan usually wore the leathers of a warrior, or tunics and pants.
"I am in character," he answered before taking another handful of popcorn. "Horror movies are not an angelic thing."
Lips curving, Elena shook her head. "You don't know the right angels." She settled back into the sofa, her own wings sweeping to the floor beside Aodhan's, each of their backs supported by a central column.
When her wing slightly overlapped the edge of his, she went to move it away but he said, "It's okay, Ellie," and she left her wing where it was.
Illium remained the only person Aodhan would permit truly physically close, but these small touches that he allowed Elena, they made her hope he was healing on the innermost level.
As she watched, he put his feet on the coffee table too. They were bare, with strong bones, and bluntly square-cut nails... that held a slight shimmer.
"Show me your hands," she demanded, having somehow missed the fact his nails weren't like everyone else's.
"It's just the toes," he said, the edge of a scowl in his voice. "I painted them black once after the other kids in school started making fun of me."
"What happened?"
"Illium got in trouble for putting mud down their backs and the black paint started to glitter."
He sounded so disgruntled that Elena couldn't help it; she burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, Sparkle," she said through her tears. "I'm surprised you never shaved off your hair."
"I did. Illium helped me with the back."
Of course he had. "I bet your parents were delighted."
"I told them I wanted to be dangerous, not pretty." More popcorn. "Enough of my schoolyard tales. Which movie did you choose?"
Picking up the remote, Elena said, "I felt a lot of pressure. It's a big deal to introduce someone to horror movies." She'd promised him a viewing, and it had been a light promise at the time. But tonight, as they sat here, she needed the respite as much as he did.
To say that things had been intense lately would be a huge understatement. Her history had literally come to life, and suddenly, she had two new living family members--people whose loyalty was fiercely and unequivocally hers. It was wonderful, but it also made her remember too much and with the memories came soul-piercing pain.
"Elena-mine," Raphael had said this morning as he held her in his arms, his wing a warm, welcome weight on her naked body, and the searing, astonishing blue of his eyes locked with hers. "Your memories haunt you, but do not forget that the present is a joy."
Yes, it was. And it included friends like Aodhan. "I mean," she continued, "do I start you with a classic? Or do we start with low B-grade horror and work our way up? Everything after the best might be a disappointment. But you might not enjoy horror if I start you on a bad one."
Aodhan rarely smiled, but there was an amused warmth in his face when he glanced at her. "I'm here for the popcorn."
Elena pointed a finger at him. "I see Raphael's new sense of humor is catching. I'll have to talk to him about that." In truth, Aodhan had startled her; he tended to be reserved more often than not and jokes? She wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't been sitting right there.
It made her wonder who he'd be when he emerged fully from his shell.
"As I was saying," she said pointedly when he continued to mow through the popcorn. At this rate, she'd have to pop another bowl in five minutes. "I decided to start at the high end. For all I know, this might be the only horror flick you ever watch, so let's make it memorable."
She switched on the television. "I give you...Psycho."
Aodhan's popcorn eating came to a jagged halt when the iconic ee-ee-ee music sounded before the shower scene. His eyes widened. He sucked in a breath.
"Why did his mother do that?" he asked Elena not long afterward.
Elena shrugged. "The movie is called Psycho, so...." She fought to keep her lips from twitching as she threw him the red herring.
"That woman needs to be locked up," he muttered halfway through.
By the time the private investigator walked up the stairs of the Bates motel, he was leaning forward and saying, "Don't do it. Don't do it."
He jerked at the sudden burst of the creepy, screeching music that denoted impending murder, but didn't move from his position. Elena loved this movie, but right now, she was having far more fun watching Aodhan.
She'd second-guessed herself on the horror movie thing a lot before tonight. She knew something awful had happened to Aodhan in the past, bad enough that he'd shut himself away from the world for two hundred years. She didn't know the details and would never hurt him by prying and asking. But aware Raphael knew everything, she'd run the plot of every possible movie choice past him--because causing Aodhan pain was not on the agenda. Of her five original choices, Raphael had nixed four.
Elena hadn't been able to figure out the common denominator and hadn't worked hard at attempting to do so; and, maybe there was no common denominator. Maybe each of those movies just had an element that would've hurt Aodhan.
Psycho, on the other hand, had him so spellbound that she had the popcorn to herself.
When the heroine decided to go into the cellar, he said, "You're going to die," and winced in sympathy. The chair scene that followed had him swearing in languages Elena didn't recognize--but she knew he was swearing.
Afterward, the credits rolling, he went into the kitchenette and hunted around. When he returned, it was with a large bottle of whiskey. Opening it, he drank straight from the bottle, then put his feet back on the coffee table, and said, "Elena, why did I enjoy having my heart attempt to jump out of my chest?"
"It's a thrill?" she said with a grin.
He drank more of the whiskey, though it would only give him a slight buzz at the most. Lowering the now half-empty bottle, he reached for the remaining popcorn. "When do we watch the next one?"
Elena laughed and picked up the remote. "Elena's School of Horror, class number two, is now in session."
(c) Copyright 2018 by Nalini Singh
Nalini Singh, Elena's School of Horror
(Series: Guild Hunter # 9.20)
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