The Lyris

  “Wow,” he says as he studies me.

  “Yes, I am kind of cute in this,” I reply.

  He walks up to me and places his hand on the small of my back; our faces inches apart. I see longing in his eyes. It’s quickly followed by a heavy sigh when he remembers we can’t kiss. I smile knowing I can change his mood.

  “I have a surprise for you,” I tell him.

  “Really?”

  I hold out my hand and in it is a small vile with liquid mixture.

  “What is that?” He asks.

  “Trickk.”

  “Where did you…how did you..?”

  “I did some digging and, well, here you go. By the way, Tony made me promise to inform you that he worked very hard to get the mixture so be nice to him.”

  “Done.”

  I drink the Trickk. It tastes like warm Nyquil. But I don’t care because it means I get to be with him.

  “I think it takes effect immediately,” I inform Marcus.

  “Well, we can’t let all of Tony’s hard work go to waste,” Marcus replies.

  He leans against the wall and gently pulls me into him.

  “We’re supposed to be going to the beach,” I remind him.

  He kisses my jaw line and nuzzles down my neck. He does it over and over again. Each time it sends sparks up and down my body. I close my eyes and start to lose any sense of time.

  The beach can wait…

  Marcus continues to shower me with tender kisses as I run my fingers through his hair. Then without warning he turns me around so that I’m up against the wall. He takes my hands and places them behind me as if he’s about to arrest me. He holds them together so I won’t break free. It’s all happening so fast, I’m confused.

  “So…you think I’m too gentle?” He whispers in my ear.

  Oh my Omnis! He must have come back and over heard my conversation with Ameana andMiku!

  “Marcus, I didn’t—”

  “—Shut. Up.”

  His tone is severe. Serious. Sexy.

  My heart is pounding inside my chest. My hands are cold with anticipation; I crave him now more now than I have ever before.

  I feel him standing behind me. He studies every inch of my body. The heat from his gaze makes me dizzy with longing. Without warning, he bites my neck. Not hard enough to leave a mark but hard enough to make me inhale and bite my lower lip to keep from moaning. Just when I get used to the slight pain, he introduces me to a new sensation with his lips and tongue.

  I’ve never felt this good…

  “Marcus, it feels—”

  “Did I say you could talk?” He scolds.

  Best. Moment. Ever.

  He unties my top and makes circular patterns on my bare back that make my knees weak.

  Omnis, thank you, thank you, thank you for sending Marcus to me.

  He is dedicated to kissing me up and down my back until I’m weak with desire. He palms my breasts in his hands possessively. The he whispers that I belong to him as he caresses my nipples.

  Then he …stops.

  WTF???

  I open my eyes and turn to face him. He’s looking at a message on his cell.

  “I don’t care what it is, we should finish. Marcus we need to finish,” I beg shamelessly.

  “I’m sorry, I gotta go.”

  “Go where? Is it Lucy? Is she—”

  “—It’s not Lucy,” he replies with regret.

  “Then who is it?” I ask.

  “Bianca; she’s not doing very well with her father’s death and she asked to see me.” This can’t be happening.

  “You can’t tell her no?” I ask.

  “Emmy, she just lost her dad. She’s crying; she says she hasn’t eaten in days…and I haven’t checked on her since we’ve been back.”

  “Are you telling me the few moments of free time you have, you’re going to spend it on another girl?”

  “Emmy, calm down.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down. That is fucking ridiculous. How long am I going to come last in your life?”

  “Last? Emmy, you’ve been the first and only thing in my life. I’ve sacrificed and risked—what is it going to take for you to get that I love you and want to be with you?”

  “If you want to be with me, then why are you racing off to be with her?” I shout.

  “You know the situation. I have to go. But don’t get mad because it’s not always gonna be this way. We took care of the Sage and we will take care of Bianca. Until then, please, stop making it so hard.”

  “I’m making it hard? Did I kiss my ex-girlfriend? Did I marry another girl? Because if memory serves, you did those things, Marcus, not me.” I furiously tie my top back on and throw on some jeans. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised. This is how it always goes,” I roar as I zip up.

  “How what always goes?” He asks.

  “You and me. You do some shit and I have to find a way to suck it up and deal with it.”

  “I really don’t want to argue about this,” he replies.

  “Fine, then get the hell out,” I bark.

  “Why are you making a bad situation even worse? Given what we were just about to do, do you really think I’m happy that I have to leave?”

  “Stop saying ‘have to’ like someone has a damn soul chaser at your feet. You are going over to be with Bianca because you want to!”

  “Whatever. Think what you want,” he says as he heads for the door.

  He opens it and slams it shut. I leap off the bed and follow him down the hallway, where I continue shouting. Miku and the rest of the house have front row seats to our argument.

  “Are you gonna sleep with her again?” I scream.

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Habit,” I reply coldly.

  “I’m not doing this with you right now,” he warns me.

  “You act like you hate this, but you don’t. You love this situation. You’re a bastard, Marcus Cane and I hate you!” I shout as I block him from getting to the front door.

  “Fine, move,” he says, like a leader.

  “No, I’m not moving until you admit the truth: you like her. You like fucking her and you’re just pretending you don’t.”

  “Stop cursing for no reason. I am not going to Bianca’s to have sex. I’m just gonna check on her and be back. Damn!”

  “I’m so sick of this. No matter what happens, we can never be together because you always put everything before me.”

  “I’m not the reason we’re in this situation!” He replies.

  “YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY THE REASON!”

  “HOW IS THIS MY FAULT? WHAT THE HELL DID I DO?” Marcus screams.

  “It’s what you didn’t do. You didn’t stand up for us. You should have told Dalce to go screw himself because you wanted me and not that two-faced, poisonous bitch, Bianca.”

  “I needed the army.”

  “And I needed you. But you weren’t there. You’re never there when I need you.” I can actually feel the words traveling across the room and tearing into Marcus’s chest. It shreds him from the inside. He looks like I just spat in his face.

  “Wow, I didn’t know I was such a disappointment to you,” he says.

  His pain is palpable.

  “I’m just saying that you—”

  “—excuse me,” he says trying to get past me and open the door. I don’t move.

  “Look, I just want us to be able to spend—”

  “—excuse me,” he says again, clearly pissed.

  “No, I want us to talk about this,” I insist.

  “Emerson. Move,” he orders.

  His tone isn’t sexy now. It's deadly. And while I know he would never hurt me, a cold chill runs down my spine. Jay studies Marcus’s face carefully, and then whispers softly to me.

  “Baby girl, let him go,” he tells me.

  I step a side and Marcus walks out the door.

  CHAPTER THIRTY:

  FRENZY

  I run into Miku’s arms and b
urst in tears. Jay asks if I’m going to be okay and Miku says she’ll take care of me. From the corner of my tear filled eyes, I can see Jay and Rage exchange an uncomfortable look; the kind that guys get when they are around a girl who is crying.

  Ameana lets the guys off the hook by asking them to help her check the island to make sure it’s Demon free. I know it’s just an excuse to leave me and Miku in the house alone; I’m grateful.

  We go into Miku’s room and she hands me a box of tissues. She then takes me over to the bed and lets me ball my eyes out.

  “I hate him,” I sob.

  She strokes my hair and holds me tightly.

  “I don’t understand any of this. If Omnis won’t let us be together, then why doesn’t he give me the strength to be apart from him?” I ask her.

  “You love him, that makes things…complicated,” she reminds me.

  “It’s not supposed to hurt this much. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t.” I sob so hard my whole body shakes. I swear the sorrow is going to take me under. But this time, I won’t come back to the surface.

  “I tried I really did. I wanted us to get past Bianca. I wanted us to be okay but I don’t know. I don’t know how to make it okay” I cry.

  “Well, there’s no handbook for this, Em. You just do the best you can,” she tells me.

  “Why is this happening to me and Marcus? Why is it so hard for us to get it right? What did we do to turn the whole universe against us?”

  “It’s not against you. It’s just…relationships are hard for everyone.”

  “Sometimes I just want it to stop. Sometimes I pray that Omnis will just make it stop,” I admit.

  “Make what stop, sweetie?”

  “Love; I want to stop being in love.”

  “It’s not that simple, I’m sorry Em.”

  “I know in my mind the Bianca situation is not his fault, but in my heart…it just hurts so much. I don’t want to be in pain anymore. How do I let him go? How do I live without my heart? Please, show me how,” I beg.

  She holds me even tighter but it doesn’t stop the tidal wave of despair, doubt and misery from washing over me.

  Please, please make this hurt go away. Please…

  “I keep turning these questions over in my head. Should I leave Marcus? Does him agreeing to do marry her show how little he loves and respects me? Or does it show how much he loves humanity and would do anything to save it? Is he an asshole or a hero?”

  “I think it depends on who you ask,” she replies.

  “Tell me what to do, Miku. What do I do? Do I hold on and hope it gets better? Or do I let go? Please tell me what to do,” I beg her.

  “Oh sweetie, I can’t tell you what to do. That’s something for you two to figure out.”

  “Our love lives outside of reason and logic. All the times it should have died, it just got stronger. But I think it’s stronger than me, now. I think it’s stronger than us put together.”

  “He’s hurting too, Em. Rio told me when he was flying away with Bianca to the wedding, he thought Marcus was gonna turn back at any moment because his heart was heart breaking so badly.”

  “I try not to picture him and her. But I can’t get it out of my head. I can’t.”

  “Well, that’s what this all comes down to: are you and Marcus stronger than this situation or not?”

  I leave Miku’s room because I know she has her own issues and watching me blubbering isn’t helping. I miss Rio so much, I can only imagine how she must feel. Before I head to my room, I call Jay on his cell; I tell him to come back and be with Miku because I don’t want her to be alone.

  He enters the house and asks how I am.

  “I don’t know, Jay. Everything is falling apart.”

  “Come here, baby girl,” he says.

  His embrace is warm and comfy. I hope he can help Miku. I hope their relationship isn’t cursed, like mine and Marcus’s seems to be.

  “How is Miku doing?” I ask.

  “She’s trying but it’s hard, yo, like... they were tight. I want to make it okay but I don’t know how,” he says sadly.

  “Well if anyone can get her to smile, it’s you. She really loves you.”

  “Yo, how did that even happen?” He jokes.

  I laugh, despite myself. He wipes a tear from my eye.

  “I’ll be fine. Go check on your girl.”

  He kisses me on the cheek and goes upstairs.

  Once in my room, I don’t see the need to turn the light on. Sitting in the dark somehow seems fitting. I check my cell. Marcus hasn’t called me. But then I haven’t called him so…I guess neither of us wants to talk.

  I look out my window and see two figures out on the beach; Rage and Ameana. They are too far away for me to really make out.

  I look inside my watch and there they are. I wonder if they are doing better than Marcus and I.

  Who am I kidding? Right now, Kim Kardashian and Kanye are doing better than Marcus and I.

  I know I shouldn’t look but there’s something fascinating about the two of them. It’s like they see a side of each other none of us really ever get to see. I confess to watching their scene play out on the watch.

  They are sitting on a hammock, slung between two palms trees. Rage looks out at the waves and Ameana stares him. I’m guessing he’s been silent for some time.

  “I can get you some Coy, if you’re thirsty” She offers.

  He shakes his head ‘no.’ She sighs and looks out at the ocean.

  “If being here makes you feel this bad, it’s okay if you want to go,” she offers.

  “I’d be like this no matter where I am,” he replies.

  “Thomas, talk to me.”

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “Whatever, your…feelings.”

  “That’s an Angel thing, feelings.”

  She lowers her head to her knees and wraps her arms around herself.

  “I never told you to love me back,” he says.

  “What?”

  “You’re upset because I don’t want to play pretend therapist session. And you’re mad at me, but it’s on you. You fell for a Demon. Now you regret it.”

  “I never said I regret it.”

  “No, but you do.”

  “No, I don’t,” she counters.

  “Bullshit.”

  “What is wrong with you?”

  “I LET HER DIE!!!”

  Ameana is taken aback by the outburst.

  “She was…so little. She didn’t deserve to…”

  Ameana reaches out for his hand but he pulls away.

  “Why won’t you let me get close to you? What’s wrong with letting someone in? Damn it, Thomas, what do I have to do?”

  “It’s not you, okay. I just think maybe you’d be better with someone else. Maybe that Wolf guy.”

  “You don’t love me anymore? If that’s the case then just—” Ameana begins.

  “—I can’t let people start to matter to me. When it’s time for them to…there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me,” she assures him.

  “Nothing was supposed to happen to Mouse. We had an eye on her every moment and she still ended up…Ameana, her neck was split open…she looked so shocked…so small.”

  “It’s okay to mourn her.”

  “No, I don’t want to. I just need to figure out how to…forget about her. That way it doesn’t feel this fucking bad.”

  “She’s always going to be with you; you loved her.” Ameana replies.

  “Then I was right about love; waste of time.”

  “Love doesn’t always end badly.”

  “Your mother murdered you and you still think that? Man you Angels are so…delusional,” Rage counters.

  “So that’s your plan, Thomas, to stop loving me so when I’m gone, it doesn’t hurt?”

  “I don’t know,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.

  “There are millions of Baileys out there and you helpe
d save them,” she pleads.

  “I DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MILLIONS; I ONLY CARED ABOUT HER. AND THAT OMNIS BASTARD TOOK HER AWAY!”

  She looks at him and says nothing.

  “But then again, what did I expect? Omnis didn’t give a damn about me when I was human, why would he care now? I just thought maybe he’d spare Mouse. She was so…”

  “Mouse dying wasn’t a punishment, Thomas. There was a war; we lost people and evil lost people,” Ameana counters.

  “Yeah well, if I didn’t care about her, I wouldn’t feel like shit. So, I’m thinking this whole loving and caring thing isn’t for me,” Rage barks.

  “Are you breaking up with me?” She asks plainly.

  “We can’t; I don’t remember what it's like to be without you.” He pulls her over to him and kisses her feverishly. His actions are passionate, frenzied, and reckless. He tears off her blouse and her bra in a swiftly graceful movement. He’s aching to touch as much of her as he can in as short a time as possible.

  He’s possessive, eager and seeking. He pulls on her hair. She bites her lower lip and moans. He grabs her by her throat and sucks on her bottom lip until it’s bruised and raw. He groans and she closes her eyes, leans her head back and sighs.

  She opens her eyes and studies him as he kisses down her bare, perfect breasts. There’s something about the frenzy of his pace that she finds odd, judging by her expression. Rage doesn’t look like a an Akon who is having sex. He looks like a guy who’s looking for an escape.

  The fury in his movements as he explores her body reminds me of someone whose desperately in search of something valuable he lost. Rage searches for it in Ameana’s thighs, her breasts and her lips. He can’t find it. She takes his head in her hands and stops him.

  “What is it?” he ask breathlessly, making eye contact for the first time.

  “I don’t want to do it like this,” she replies.

  “But we always—”

  “—I know. But tonight I want to do something different,” she says.

  “What do you wanna do?”

  “I want to show you why love why isn’t worthless.”

  He’s about to say something but she stops him by placing her finger on his lips. She takes him by the hands and walks him over to the palm tree. She leans him against it. He studies her not sure what’s coming next.