Maison Plaisir (8 page)

Hervé cursed and propelled towards him. Armand welcomed him halfway. They met in mid-air, with hands clamped on each other’s necks, a stalemate. Their powers were equal.

“Back off. Belle’s mine.” Armand tightened his grip.

Hervé gasped. He choked Armand harder in return. “Never.”

Armand gurgled and let go his chokehold. “Don’t you think you’re being selfish? I saw her first.”

Hervé coughed. “Selfish? You’re the one who’s being selfish, cousin. You didn’t let me compete for her fairly. I let you win Minette before. Now it’s my turn.”

“You fuck a new girl every week. She’s not one of your easy-to-get games. Go find somebody else.”

“I fell in love with her!” Hervé glimpsed at the balcony. “Shit.”

Armand saw Belle had been watching their fight in disbelief. She was clad only in a bed sheet. Her face paled. “Oh, fuck.” Armand descended to the ground. Belle had caught them red-handed.

Hervé followed suit. “You ruin everything. Happy now?”

Armand brushed past his cousin and walked to the mansion. Hervé’s staff had pooled by the terrace. It seemed they’d been watching their fight the whole time.

“Armand!”

He ignored Hervé’s call. Armand wanted to straighten everything with Belle. Just as he entered the drawing room, he saw her running towards the front door. Her dress was half-zipped and she was only wearing one shoe. The other was in her hand.

“Back off!” she shrieked when Armand was about to come to her.

“Belle…”

Belle was totally freaked out. “Stay where you are. Don’t come any closer.”

Hervé materialised next to Armand. “Belle…”

She screamed, watching his cousin come out of nowhere. “Leave me alone!” She yanked the front door open and fled.

“Belle!” Armand wanted to run after her, but Hervé halted him.

“It’s no use. Give her time to cool off. You’ll scare her even more if you chase her right now.”

Armand paused. His cousin was right. Humans weren’t accustomed to seeing supernatural beings like them out in the open. Belle needed some time to sort things out. He whirled around and jabbed a finger in Hervé’s chest. “This is all your fault!”

Chapter Five

As soon as she had bounded from the taxi and stormed into her apartment, Belle locked her front door in haste. Her hands trembled. She bolted to her bedroom and locked that door as well. She slumped by the foot of her bed. A cold chill numbed her.

God. Who are Armand and Hervé? Ordinary people don’t just levitate and wreak havoc at whim.
She’d been awakened by a loud boom and crashes and men shouting. She’d thought it was an earthquake when her bed shook violently. When she took a peek at the balcony, she saw Hervé and Armand fighting, trying to kill each other with their psychic power.

She couldn’t really discern what she saw. Psychic- that was the best way to describe it. People didn’t just hover in mid-air and make things fly with simple hand gestures.

God. What had she got herself into? She’d slept with men who clearly weren’t ordinary humans.

Human
.

Belle blinked. It occurred to her Madame Chabert had called her human the first time she saw her. Hervé said something about smelling human scent when he found her in Maison Plaisir.

Human. She was human. They weren’t

What the hell were they?

Belle had been a logical person her entire life. She hadn’t believed in the tooth fairy, elves, and even Santa Claus when she was little. But what she’d witnessed couldn’t be explained with any science she knew.

Belle pinched herself until her skin turned blue. Hurt like hell too. No. She wasn’t dreaming. Everything was real.

Groggily, she hoisted herself onto the bed and curled up, until exhausted from thinking, she dozed off. When she woke up, it had turned dark outside. She pulled herself together and took a long shower to clear her mind. Still, everything didn’t make sense. Belle made a sandwich and was about to eat it when her doorbell rang.

She peered through the peek hole. Her heart raced. Armand and Hervé stood by her front door.

“Belle.” Armand’s voice seeped through the door. “We know you’re in there. We just want to talk.”

Belle inhaled a sharp breath.

“We mean you no harm, love,” Hervé’s voice called this time. “You know, we could easily pop into your apartment. I thought we could settle this misunderstanding civilly. Please, open the door.”

Damn. He was right. She couldn’t avoid them forever. Sooner or later, she must face them.

Belle gathered her courage and unlocked her door. She thought she was going to faint when she opened it. Two men who had been her lovers in the past couple of days stood by her threshold, staring at her with great dismay. “Who are you?” she asked sharply.

“Well, love, I’m Hervé and this asshole is my cousin, Armand.”

“I know what your names are,” she snapped. “I mean, what are you?”

“May we come in? Please, Belle? We need to talk,” Armand pleaded.

Belle gulped. “What are you?” Ghosts? Demons? Mutants? After what she’d witnessed today, she wasn’t sure about anything anymore. She started to question her sanity. Everything looked so…surreal. Belle jabbed a finger on Armand’s arm. He was solid. Not just a figment of her imagination. Just to make sure, Belle pinched Armand’s arm as hard as she could.

Armand flinched. “That hurts, you know?”

He was real. And Hervé must be too. She immediately ruled out the ghost theory.

“Answer my question! What the hell are you?”

“We’re fae from Seventh Realm,” Hervé answered.

It took her a long second to digest what Hervé had said. What the hell was fae? “You mean fairy? Shouldn’t you be five inches tall, living in a big tree and baking cookies?”

Both men looked offended.

“That’s an elf, and not even the real elves look like that. You watch too many commercials,” Hervé said. “Please, love, we just want to talk. Give us a chance to explain everything.”

Belle shook her head. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“It’s only fair, Belle. Please?” Armand pleaded.

“No. I need some time alone.”

“Belle,” Hervé protested.

“Please. Just go. I need to think.” Belle slammed the door and collapsed. Her heart was pounding so hard, she thought she’d have a heart attack any second. She waited to see if either Armand or Hervé would barge in uninvited. They didn’t.

“Very well, love.” Hervé’s voice was muffled by the door. “We’ll talk when you’re ready.”

Then, silence. A minute passed. Belle continued waiting. They were really gone.

Thank God.

Belle dragged herself from the door and into the kitchen. Her gaze drifted to the sandwich on the counter. She didn’t feel hungry anymore. She threw it to the trash can and padded to the bathroom.

I need a long bath. Maybe I’ll feel better afterwards.

* * * *

Hervé peered outside his window through the sheer blinds. The construction crew had begun cleaning the damage in the backyard. Yesterday’s fight with Armand had provoked enquiry from his neighbours and the police. Luckily his staff were able to ward off everyone’s inquisitiveness with a simple spell and send them on their way.

“Do you realise my house insurance rate will go up because of this?” he scolded his cousin, who was nursing a glass of bourbon near the fireplace.

“Sue me,” Armand answered testily. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t stolen her from me.”

“And I wouldn’t have stolen her from you if you’d let me compete against you fairly.”

Armand snorted. “Why her?”

“Like I told you, I fell in love with her. She’s special.”

“I need a wife, Hervé. The Crown has been pressuring me for the last couple of years. Especially your mother. It would be nice to get her off my back.”

“But do you love her? Or did you just want a quick fix for your situation?”

“I do love her.”

“And so do I.”

“You change bed-mates like you change your bed sheets. Just this one. Let me have her. You’re one of the Crown’s heirs. I don’t think your mother would approve of you taking a human mate.”

Hervé ground his teeth. “Fat chance. I. Want. Her.”

Armand stiffened. The glass in his hand exploded, sending shards of tiny crystal and alcohol to the floor.

“Are we going to fight again? You know it’s useless.”

He knew Armand like the back of his hand. They’d been born at the same hour, the same second in Chantrarae Palace. But the duchess died right after she gave birth to his cousin, and Duke Shah, unable to recover from his loss, abandoned Armand and his fief to live a hermitic life in the freezing mountains of Elangour. Her mother, the Queen, then raised Armand as one of her own.

They’d gone to the same training when they were young. Same school. Same teacher. They shared everything and were best friends. Except when they were being competitive. Since they were much alike, they began to take an interest in the same girls. That was when their friendship had started to crumble to the point they could barely tolerate each other. Their relationship deteriorated when they entered into a rite of
Vraelda
that marked the end of their youth and the beginning of their adulthood. The Council Elders had dropped them in the middle of the Elangour wildness, where they had to use their fighting skills and magic to obtain The Queen of the Night, a rare night-blooming flower that only blossomed at a specific time in Seventh Realm, as the trophy of their success.

For seven nights and days, they tore through many obstacles and headed to the peak of Elangour. When they finally reached there, at the verge of exhaustion, there was only one Queen of the Night for them to claim. There was supposed to be two. Hervé and Armand raced to it and touched their trophy at the same time.

The Council Elders thought it was fate. They were convinced Hervé and Armand were born from one soul. However, their Gods had a plan for them, and instead, they were born through two different women. It was no surprise they always thought alike and desired the same things. And since they held the same trophy, it was impossible for them to harm each other.

Hervé thought this whole thing was a joke. For decades, he tried to be different from his cousin. But he ended up crossing paths with Armand again and again. Especially regarding their love life.

He’d fallen in love with a fae princess before, Minette Kasim from the Fifth Realm. But Armand had also loved her. Hervé surrendered his claim because he wanted his cousin to be happy. Besides, Armand had an obligation to take over the dukedom, and without a wife, Armand could never officially be allowed his title according to Seventh Realm’s law.

Minette died before Armand could marry her. His cousin had been heartbroken. They became close friends again until their daily routines had made them drift apart once more. They collided on their paths the night they saw Belle in Maison Plaisir.

 
Armand paced around the drawing room. “What do you propose to our problem?”

“I’d say we should let her choose.”

His cousin gave him a hard stare.

“We compete fair and square. Whoever she chooses wins.”

Armand fell into silence. “What dirty tricks are you planning this time?”

“None. It’ll be my personal triumph if I can win her fair and square from you.”

“You wish.”

“Let’s see about that, shall we?”

* * * *

It had been three days since she found Armand and Hervé playing the Incredible Hulk at each other, and she still couldn’t get over how unnerving her shock had been. Belle jumped each time she heard somebody knock at the door, or when her phone rang. At the office, she could control her jumpiness by drowning herself in work. But when she was alone in her apartment, the thought she had slept with men who weren’t exactly human made her nerves hang on tenterhooks. She was scared, curious, flattered, and angry. She didn’t know what to feel anymore.

She was scared because her lovers weren’t human. Curious because the otherworldly beings really existed. Flattered because Hervé and Armand had fought over her. And angry because the two of them had acted childishly, playing pranks against one another and lying to her. She had a pretty good idea of what had happened while she watched their fight. Their voices had been loud enough to wake the dead from their coffins.

 
Were Armand and Hervé attracted to her because she was human? She couldn’t think of any other reason they’d wanted her in the first place. She didn’t exactly stand out in a crowd. Over the years, she’d made a habit of disappearing into the background in any social gathering. She knew she’d clean up nicely if she invested in nice clothes and makeup, but she liked her semi-hermitic life and wasn’t looking for any potential mate. Her friend Lisa had always complained about her icy demeanour towards the opposite sex, but that was the point. After Trent, she’d sworn off men.

Until she met Armand and Hervé.

Human or not, the carnal game they’d introduced her to left her wanting more.

Belle crossed her arms around her chest, hugging herself.
What the hell is wrong with me? Just because I’ve had some cookies, now I feel like I’ve got to get some more. This is nuts.

The bell rang and she almost fell off of the couch. Her heart froze in her chest. Who could possibly come at this late hour? It was already nine and she was ready for bed. Could it be Hervé or Armand?

A dizzying vertigo slammed into her cranial.

She wasn’t ready to face them. Yet. She still hadn’t figured out what she wanted. She knew she couldn’t avoid them forever, but now wasn’t the right time.

Dreadfully, she forced herself to her door and peeked through the peephole. To her surprise, her guest was neither Armand nor Hervé. It was her sisters, Clara and Sarah.

What could they possibly want?

Belle unlocked her door and opened it.

“Isabelle!” Her sisters’ yell was loud enough to cause her neighbours to make a valid disturbance complaint to the cops.