A Little Rhine Must Fall (26 page)

“Give him a break,” I scolded her. “He’s taking this rather well,
I
think. We’ve kind of sprung this on him all at once.”

Mark was thinking hard. “If I assume that I am not crazy, or hallucinating, or drugged, and that this cat is indeed
talking
, does that mean that the rest is true too?”

Crap. Now we were back around to me again. I liked it much better when his focus was on the other supernatural goings on and not on his lying wife.

“Piper is a Rhine Maiden,” Cecily announced. “She has a great gift and she has done a lot of good with it.”

“Well,” I demurred. “Not really, I saved my daughters, but any mother would have done that.”

“You’ve also kept the entire human race from being killed off,” she pointed out. Oh yeah. That too.

Mark quickly put two and two together, “So, Piper joined your thingy and her membership protected humans. So, what changed? Why is she kicked out, and why are vampires and werewolves and zombies popping up all over the globe?”

“Zombies?” Bastet asked.

“The WAND tried to use them to attack the White House,” Cecily informed her.

“Nice,” Bastet said. “Did it work?”

“At last report the Secret Service called in a napalm strike and burned them to a crisp.”

Bastet nodded thoughtfully, “Fire or fragmentation rounds to the brain usually do the trick.”

“But
why
?” Mark stressed. “Why now? Why stop hiding?”

“I told you,” I explained again. “Aliens.”

He looked at me for several breaths, trying to gauge my seriousness. “Really? Aliens.”

“Are vampires and werewolves any more surprising?” I shot back.

“For the record,” he answered, “I have seen one talking cat, and read a couple of news stories on the web. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to buy into this entire fantasy.”

Cecily snarled at him. She allowed the whites of her eyes to completely disappear, while her canines elongated. Have I mentioned before how much I
hate
it when she does that?
I
know that she’s not going to hurt me, but my instincts tell me to run away and scream as loud as I can.

I might have inadvertently let out a yelp but it was overpowered by Mark’s cry of terror.
My
instincts tell me to run and hide,
his
told him to grab his wife (me) and throw her (still me) across the room while trying to keep his body between his loved one and the danger. I might have been flattered if I hadn’t been too busy trying to pick myself off the floor and checking for broken bones.

“Thanks, Cecily,” I said snidely. “Thanks a heap. I think—,” I made a big show of checking my skin, “Yup, that was the last piece of skin that
wasn’t
bruised by your dropping me down the stairs earlier.”

Mark was half crouched in front of me, arms held wide as if trying to block a basketball opponent. “Piper?” he asked harshly. “What is this thing?”

Cecily smiled like a great-white shark and leaned coolly against the kitchen table. “Can’t you guess, slurpee?”

I was finally on my feet and I pushed by Mark and punched Cecily as hard as I could in the shoulder. She hadn’t been expecting that, so I managed to get the full force of my weight behind it. Annoyingly, it didn’t even rock her back, but it did surprise her. “Cut it out, Cecily!” I growled. “This is not the time to play big, mean, vampire.”

I stared her down until her eyes turned normal and teeth shrunk. She hung her head but there was still a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

“Is she a vampire?” Mark asked.

“Give the man a golden sta—”

I hit her again and she shut up.

“Can we all sit down and talk like adults?” I asked plaintively.

Bastet leapt gracefully to the floor and strolled past me on her way to the living room couch. She twined around Mark’s legs and he reached down to rub her ears.

“Oh, sorry!” he exclaimed. “I wasn’t thinking. Was that too forward?”

She purred a bit more and arched her back. “You can pet us anytime you want, big boy.”

I glared at her and fumed a bit. “Stay away from my husband, cat.”

She curled her lips back at me and gave a little hiss. “Make me, Rhine Maiden.”

I started to use the Voice and stopped. This was stupid. I was reacting to taunts like a third-grader. I was bigger than that. Besides, she was a
cat
. I couldn’t really feel that my marriage was being threatened by a cat.

I settled for giving Cecily a look that said “get your butt into the living room and behave yourself.”

She rolled her eyes and muttered, “You’re no fun,” under her breath.

We were all just sitting down and I was going to ask if anyone wanted something to drink (My mother would have been proud of my manners) when there was a knock at the front door.

Mark leaned back on the couch and watched me through half-lidded eyes. “Please tell me that’s not another vampire,” he drawled. “One’s enough for me for one night.”

Cecily primly crossed her ankles and grinned at him. “Maybe it’s a werewolf,” she suggested. “Or it could be a skunk ape.”

Mark choked in laughter. “A skunk ape? That’s funny.”

I stood up to answer the door. “Ummm…”

Mark sat up straight. “What? You really know a skunk ape?”

I headed out of the living room. “You’ve met Annabeth, right?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Yeah, the single mom down the …” he trailed off and blinked. “She’s a skunk ape?”

“Uh-huh.”

He stared at the wall for a moment, mind whirring. “The large animal sightings in our neighborhood?”

Cecily laughed. “That would be Annabeth.”

Mark ran a hand over his face. “Could someone please pinch me? I’ve got to be dreaming all of this.”

Bastet hopped up into his lap and kneaded his leg with her claws.

I ignored my surge of jealously and went to the front door. Since Cecily wasn’t up and waving the Sword of Justice around, I could assume that whoever was knocking on my door at this hour was not a threat to me or my family.

I unlocked the door and opened it.

“Hello,” said my sister Karen. “Can I come in? I do not really have anywhere else to go.”

Mark had gotten up and followed me to the door. “Hey, Karen,” he greeted her. “Where’ve you been? You would not
believe
what’s been going on around here.”

“Umm, Mark?” I held the door half-shut with one hand so that the alien couldn’t enter. “This isn’t … umm, just give me a second, will you?”

He looked at me strangely but headed back into the living room.

I turned on alien/Karen. “What are
you
doing here?”

She looked dejected. “I do not have anywhere to go,” she said sadly.

“Really?” I hissed. “Cry me a river! Because I thought, when you announced that you were taking over the world and making everyone slaves, that people would be lining up to be your BFF!”

“BF What?”

“Never mind.”

“Can I come in?” she looked lonely. As if I cared.

“Isn’t there someone else you can go bother? I’m kind of in the middle of letting my husband know that I’m a freak and a liar and, oh, by the way, the world’s about to end.”

I started to close the door. She stuck her hand out and grabbed the door jam. “I am sorry, Piper! Please may I stay for the night? Please?”

“Why don’t you go up to your precious spaceship?” I snarled. “I’m sure you have a message that you need to send back to the mother-ship.”

She frowned. “I have explained this to you before, Piper. There
is
no mother-ship. I am sending a message all the way back to Endrung.”

I rolled my eyes. “You sound like such a geek.” I sighed. I would love to leave her out in the cold (Figuratively. This
was
Florida after all) but, dang it, she looked like my sister and I couldn’t do that to my sister.

I opened the door wide. “Fine. Come in.”

“Thank you, Piper!” she chirped and joined the others in the living room.

I followed slowly and sat down on the arm of the couch. There was a long awkward silence. Everyone was looking at me, like
I
knew what to say at a moment like this.

I took a deep breath and plunged in. “Mark, this isn’t Karen.” He looked skeptical. “Yeah, I know she
looks
like Karen, but this is an alien from another planet.” I buried my head in my hands. That sounded so ridiculous.

“Hi?” Mark raised a hand in a small wave.

“Hello!” she waved back.

“
Karen
here is the scout sent to see if our planet is the right kind of place to enslave and use as a farm for her people. And, lucky us,” I was being a little sarcastic; “Earth is perfect.” I glared at her. “Yay,” I added in a flat voice.

“Uh, nice to meet you?” Mark asked.

Cecily sniggered.

“So,” Mark continued, “Let me recap, just to make sure I’ve got my facts straight. My wife has a superpower. She
was
a member of a hidden organization of other supernatural creatures, until,” he pointed at Karen, “the aliens arrived and are currently trying to take over the planet. Humans
were
on the protected species list but now that Piper’s not a member, it’s every man for himself.”

“That about sums it up,” Bastet said.

He looked at her. “I’m not quite sure how you play into all of this. Why are you living in my house?”

She purred. “You wife is going to save the world. We just wanted to be around to see her do it.”

“Oh,” Mark clearly didn’t have a good reply to that. “Okay.”

Cecily took over. “The point is, humans are no longer safe, and Piper has made some very powerful enemies. You and your family are going to be a target. We need a way to keep all of you safe and alive.”

“At least until the aliens arrive and kill us all,” I muttered.

“What do you suggest?” Mark asked Cecily.

“I’ve got some ideas,” she answered. “I’ll watch the house tonight. But if things are spiraling out of control so quickly, then we need a plan, and fast. That group of students on the news was holding a rally in support of vampires. The fact that the vampires were comfortable enough to drain them all means that the gloves are truly off. The different species are going to start dividing up the plunder and fighting over the spoils. The humans are going to fight back and it’s going to get really ugly. We need to be hunkered down before that happens.”

Mark snorted. “If you had told me this morning that I would be sitting in my living room listening to a vampire say the words ‘hunker down’ I would have said you were crazy.”

I yawned. “This is all really cozy and whatnot, but it’s late. I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”

“May I sleep in the den tonight?” Alien/Karen asked.

“Sure, why not, master,” I said ungraciously.

Cecily stood and held out a hand to Mark. “I’m sorry I scared you.” It would have sounded more sincere if she wasn’t grinning when she said it.

Mark shook her hand and grinned right back. “You are really freaky. But it’s okay. Piper obviously likes you, so, you know, any friend of hers …”

Cecily blinked. “Thanks, Mark,” she was surprised. “You’re taking this much better than I would have guessed.”

“I don’t really have a choice do I?” he asked.

She thought about that for a second. “No,” she agreed. “If you want to survive this, your learning curve is going to have to be pretty steep.”

I yawned again and made a big stretch; the classic signs for “you’ve all overstayed your welcome. Please go away now.”

Cecily nodded. “Bastet and I will be on guard tonight. We’ll talk in the morning.”

I showed them out the front door and waited until the alien had gone into the den and closed the door.

Mark was still standing in the middle of the living room. His face was serious.

“Mark?” I twisted my hands.

“
We
still need to talk,” he said.

Chapter Twenty-Six:

Choices

How do you get over a spouse’s betrayal?
Can
you ever get past it? If it
is
possible to work through and forgive six years worth of lies, one night is definitely not enough time to accomplish it in.

We stayed up to the wee hours of the morning, fighting, yelling, crying, accusing, apologizing, and talking, talking, talking. It was a lot for Mark to take in. At the end, I was emotionally drained, a little dehydrated from crying, and my eyes felt like someone had stuffed sand behind the lids.

We agreed to talk more in the morning, which was only a few hours away, and finally turned out the light to sleep. For one horrible, heart-stopping moment, I was afraid that he was going to lie on his side of the bed, his back to me, and go to sleep. I knew that what I had done was inexcusable, that many men would have walked out the door and never looked back. But I needed some form of physical forgiveness. A touch, a foot brush, a kiss on the cheek,
something
to let me know that even though we were not okay, we were still okay.

He wrapped me in a hug and kissed my ear. The vise gripping my heart eased up a bit and I could breathe again. “I love you,” I whispered.

“I still love you, too,” he answered.

We would get through my betrayal. The rest of it? I wasn’t so sure of.

I let him sleep in the next morning, more from fear of restarting the conversation than from any altruistic feelings. I got a shower as quietly as I could and slipped out to get the girls up before they started to get too loud.

Dressed, pottied, and diaper changed, I got them to the table and started to make breakfast. Breakfast bars and yogurt were always a hit. My eyelids still had lead weights attached to them so I made myself a cup of coffee as well.

“Mommy, what’s a zombie?” Megan asked.

“A make believe creature,” I answered evasively. Where had she heard that word? Had she overheard any of our conversations last night?

“What’s Fizbee?” Cassidy asked.

How that segued from zombies I wasn’t sure, but I was much more comfortable with this type of question. “A Frisbee is like a plastic plate that you throw through the air.” I turned to put a cup in the dishwasher and missed her obvious conclusion.