Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) (21 page)

30

Doing Right by You

Tuesday, February 14th

PATRICK

I
opened my eyes and then almost wished I hadn’t. Everything hurt. There wasn’t a part of me, it seemed, that
didn’t
hurt.

I turned my head to look around. Where was I? Then I saw Nualla lying nearby. Her eyes closed, her arms covered in bandages.

“Nualla.” I reached my hand out to touch her and stopped, something white was covering it. I looked down at the white form covering my right forearm.

A cast?

Then I remembered the bus crash; the screaming, the broken glass, Nualla falling away from me. In a panic I tried to sit up, but it felt like I had been hit by a truck. Then I remembered we basically
were
.

I reached out my arm again as far as I could reach and was just able to brush her shoulder with the tips of my fingers. “Nualla! Nualla
please
wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, and she looked out at me. “
Patrick
?”

“You’re not supposed to close your eyes remember? You may have a concussion.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but she didn’t get her chance. I heard a commotion outside, and a second later Nualla’s parents burst into the room. They both had every right to be frantic, but this was the first time I had seen Alex angry.

“Nualla!” Loraly rushed to her daughter’s side blocking my view of her.

“
Mom
?” Nualla said in a startled voice.

“Honey, are you okay?” Loraly asked in a barely contained voice.

“I’m fine Mom, really. I’m just a little banged up,” Nualla answered, sounding a little exasperated.

Loraly finally noticed me, her expression looking even more horrified. “Oh gods, Patrick!”

Just how bad do I look?

“Nualla what were you
thinking
riding public transit!” Alex shouted. The three of us looked over at him; he didn’t look concerned, he looked furious.

“Dad I—”

“Your blood could have mixed with theirs,” he said angrily, gesturing to the outside. And then, with a sickening reality, I finally understood. They didn’t ride in town cars and taxis because they were too proud to take the bus. They did it to protect the humans.

“It was my fault,” I admitted in the clearest voice I could manage. It really
was
my fault, and I couldn’t stand the thought of Nualla being blamed for this.

Alex turned. “
What
?”

“I—I made her take the bus. Nualla said she had never been—I just wanted to show her—” I took a deep breath; an extremely painful breath. “I’m sorry I—I didn’t think. Was anyone—” I was about to say
infected
, but that sounded way too much like an insult—even in my current groggy state. So I said the next word that came to mind. “—changed?”

Alex’s expression softened, and he put his head in his hand. “Thankfully no, but a lot of them didn’t make it.” He looked back up at me. “You are really lucky to be alive, Patrick.”

“What about Nualla?” I asked, looking over her bandaged form.

Alex looked over at his daughter. “She’ll be completely healed in a few days, but will have to continue to wear
those
for much longer to keep up appearances.”

“You’re
joking
, right?” I asked in disbelief. That was just too unbelievable to be true.

“Our bodies heal incredibly fast; the pain I have heard is less as well,” Alex answered, looking back in my direction.

“Oh, I am
so
looking forward to that,” I said, closing my eyes in pain.

“Patrick, you shouldn’t close your eyes—” Nualla said anxiously.

“I know, I know; I might have a concussion,” I said, forcing my eyes open again.

Loraly moved closer to me and asked in a motherly voice “Patrick, should I—should I call your parents, they might be worried?”

I shook my head. Hell, I would probably have this cast off by the time I had a decent conversation with them. “No, they’re out of town on business.”

She looked really concerned now. “So there will be no one at your home?”

“There never is. It’s usually just me there, alone for weeks.” I was in too much pain at the moment to not be self-deprecatingly honest.

“Then it’s settled, you’re coming home with us tonight,” Loraly said in a voice that allowed no arguments. I don’t know if it was sad or comforting that someone
else’s
parents cared more about my well being than my own did.

The door opened again, and an older-looking guy walked in wearing a medical coat and carrying a tablet. He was short with dark short hair. He looked up from his tablet at us. “Ah, you’re both awake, excellent.” Then he seemed to notice Alex and Loraly. “Chancellarius Galathea, Cellarius Loraly.”

After recovering from the shock of finding the
chancellarius
and his wife in his medical room, Dr. LaCosta had given us a final medical examination. However, I got the distinct impression he was only doing it for show.

“Well, everything seems to be in order,” Dr. LaCosta said, looking at the tablet in his hands. He pointed a stylus at Nualla without looking up. “Arius Nualla, stay out of public bodies of water for a few days to prevent accidental contamination.” Nualla nodded and then Dr. LaCosta looked over at me. “
That
—” he said pointing at my cast, “should stay on for—” he looked at his tablet again, “—about six weeks. Then you can come back and I will remove it.”

I looked at him dubiously, somehow I got the feeling he wasn’t used to treating human patients.

“Thank you, doctor,” Alex said as they all started moving toward the door.

I swung my legs slowly around to stand, but just that small movement was so painful, I nearly passed out from the pain. “
Wait
!” I called out and they all turned to look at me. “Um…I know you guys are super strong and stuff, but I’m kinda still a mere mortal. So could I please,
please
get some stronger painkillers?”

Nualla and her parents turned to look at Dr. LaCosta, who looked at his tablet. “Oh yes, painkillers, humans typically need a lot of those, don’t they. I’ll get right on that, you just sit tight,” he stated before turning on his heel and quickly walking out the door. He wasn’t exactly inspiring confidence with his lack of knowledge about humans.

“Patrick, are you really in a lot of pain?” Nualla asked, looking like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine. I just currently feel as though I lost a fight with a Buick,” I answered with a smile that came out more like a grimace.

“Oh my
gods
!” We all turned to see Nikki and Shawn standing in the doorway with Skye right behind them dressed in one of her sultry clubbing dresses. Valentine’s Day had to be one of her biggest nights at the club and yet, even she was here.

“Are you
okay
?” Skye asked, putting a hand on my arm.

I couldn’t help wincing as I answered, “Never been better.”

Shawn strolled closer, his hands in his pockets as usual. “Dude, you have had one shitty birthday haven’t you?” he said with a snort.

“Well, it wasn’t
all
bad,” I answered as I smiled over at Nualla. Her ring was no longer caked in blood and sparkled in the harsh lights. I looked back up and caught sight of Alex’s expression. He was glaring at me; he looked pissed. And that’s when I realized that he had just done the math. But being the gentleman he was he hadn’t said anything about it.

Yet.

“Wait today’s your
birthday
? On Valentine’s Day?” Skye asked, looking at me.

“Yeah,” I replied with a grimace.

“Oh that’s so cute!”

“Yeah, cute like a brick to the head,” I mumbled. Alex was apparently done waiting, because he opened his mouth to speak. I quickly jumped in. “Um…I have something I need to tell you all.”
There is really no good way to say this and you will probably all hate me now.
“I’ve been deceiving you all, and I’m sorry.” From the looks they were all giving me, my choice of words were apparently the worst possible thing that could have come out of my mouth. “Uh…”

Nualla sighed and looked at her family. “We’re not
actually
married.”

“
What
?!” came the collective response.

“Patrick was only seventeen when we got married in Vegas; so yeah, not
exactly
legal.”

“Oooh, so
that’s
why you were so mad earlier,” Nikki said, turning to look at Nualla.

“Hell, I’d be mad too,” Shawn said, folding his arms. He now looked about as pissed as Alex had.

I looked quickly over at Alex, he was still staring daggers at me, arms folded across his chest. He looked more than pissed now. And that’s when something occurred to me. I jumped up and waved my hand frantically. “Wait, wait, I
am
going to marry her, I
promise
! See.” I held up Nualla’s hand showing off the ring. “So
please
don’t kill me, okay?”

“Why didn’t you say something
before
, I almost just decked you myself,” Shawn said as he punched me good-naturedly in the arm.

I dropped to the floor like a rock. “Ow!”

“Shawn, would you please refrain from injuring my fiancé any more than he
already
is,” Nualla said, crouching down next to me.

“Oh right, bus accident—sorry,” Shawn said as he leaned down too. He gripped me as gently as he could and pulled me back up onto my feet.

“So you see we, could get married right now, no problem,” Nualla stated, looking at her dad.

“No,” I said, wincing.

“Wait, what is it
now
?” Nualla snapped, rounding on me like a viper.

She looked about to throttle me so I put up my hands. “Wait, just hear me out okay!” I took another painful breath and continued. “Since I have the option now, I want to do this right.”

“Patrick…” Nualla looked as tame as a kitten again. I hoped to
hell
these were just some of those daemon hormones they had been telling me about and that I wouldn’t get myself killed out of stupidity sometime soon.

I took her hand and smiled through the pain. “You deserve a big beautiful wedding in a—
wait
, what exactly do you guys do for weddings anyways?”

At that they all bust up laughing, even Alex.

“We have a ceremony similar to the ones you humans have, but in one of our temples. For example, the one here at The Embassy,” Alex answered with a slight smile. Apparently, he no longer felt like killing me.

I turned back to Nualla. “And besides, you said the daemonification process takes a week or so, right?”

“Yeah…”

“So wouldn’t people notice if I was gone for a while?”

“Good point,” Nualla replied, running her teeth over her bottom lip. “So…Spring Break?”

“How about we wait until after graduation?” I asked, pulling her a little closer.

“
What
?” Nualla asked, glaring at me slightly.

“That’s actually a really smart idea, Patrick,” Alex said approvingly as he moved closer.

“Maybe that way, I could even invite my friends,” I said with a hopeful smile.

“Patrick…” Nualla said in a sad voice. Something in her expression told me there was something she wasn’t telling me. “That’s not really a—”

“We could make that work,” Alex stated.

The two of us turned to face him. “
Really
?”

“We could set up an illusion system that would only show them what we wanted them to see. You could invite whoever you wanted, really.”

“That would be awesome!” I said with a smile, even though it was painful.

“I’ll get Travis on it right away,” Alex said as he pulled a phone from his pocket.

Okay, less awesome.
“Um…about that?” I said, attempting to run my hand through my hair, but my cast made that nearly impossible now.

“Hmm?” Alex said, arching an eyebrow.

“I’m pretty sure he hates me.”

“When did you meet Travis?” Alex asked, more than a little confused.

“Um—”

“It’s a
really
long story, let’s just go,” Nualla interrupted as she nearly pushed her family out the door.

“Aww, come on, the long ones are the best!” Nikki whined in playful protest.

“I’m not telling you, so move it!” Nualla said, actually pushing Nikki this time.

“I want to hear the story,” Skye said with a grin.

“No one’s hearing the story!” Nualla shouted back into the room.

The rest of her family started following them out as I stood there. “If anyone cares, I’m still waiting for painkillers over here,” I called out, leaning toward the door.

As we walked through the halls of The Embassy on our way out, I let the others get ahead of us. The halls were still busy even at this hour. “So your dad gets upset about you taking buses but not planes?” I asked, looking at Nualla.

She shrugged. “If the plane’s going down no one’s living anyways.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” We walked a few more feet in silence. “You live a very protected life, don’t you?”