50. King Whatshisface

Michael

“It’s a perk,” I said. All eyes in the room were on me when I spoke, but I was looking straight at Juliet and talking to her while our gazes locked. F— I was so happy to see her in person. Her eyes pierced me like daggers. The screws were turning. Her jaw was flexed, which was never a good sign. Maybe because I lied to her. “They let us live as long as our dependents are alive on earth. So this guy over here has been Louis’s Watcher for—”

“Two hundred years? And you have been mine for…?” she waited for my answer.

“Since you were born.” That was the first time I could talk to her as myself, the real me. It had been years since the last time… when I had no choice but to lie to her... We have met before.

“You were there with Qadir on full moon… It was you who helped… Why would you let it go so far?” Tears pooled in her eyes.

Why was she upset? Did she not understand. How could she? “We are only to intervene when it’s life or death. Before that… unfortunately, we have to just… watch.”

She scoffed—at me, and it wasn’t a good feeling to know she was somehow already disappointed in me. It was not how I wanted our reunion to go. She was scratching her face from irritation and looked at Marcus, then at Louis, and next was her father; she scoffed at all of us. She picked up the paper and flung it back at Raas.

“What is the point of being surrounded by men,” she looked Raas straight in the eye, “But none of you can do anything. Then, there is a whole world ruled by men who have no idea what’s going on… and they wonder what’s wrong with me?” Raas was beside himself and slammed the table with two hands. Juliet had no idea what it was really like out there or who she was dealing with. He stood and pointed his finger at her. She smirked, “A planetary trait, it seems…. Be careful! One day, someone is going to bite it off.” Juliet’s gaze drifted to Marcus who was the other vampire in her life, usually pointing a finger at her when he was angry.

Marcus, on the other hand, was about to kill someone, his eyes fixed on Raas. Marcus didn’t like anybody else doing it, and I was happy my words had sunk in; he was done letting anyone hurt her. He got up, slamming the table even harder, “Get lost! Now! And come back quickly with the king’s answer.” It was more of an order, and Raas jumped. His head snapped up, teeth gritted in a thin line. It took him only a moment to think about saying anything else. Bowing his head, he remembered who was standing in front of him.

Juliet was right; none of us could give her the freedom she desired by being at the top of the food chain—not even Marcus.

Raas left the room via the teleporter. Once he was gone, the whole room relaxed and took a moment to take it all in. Juliet got up and walked over to the glass windows. The view over Paris with the Eifel Tower in the distance was beautiful. She leaned onto the glass with one hand, and the other rested on her stomach, bracing as a pain assailed her. Louis was in no condition to help her. He didn’t even move, knowing my intentions towards her. I was beside her in an instant, putting my arm around her shoulders and supporting her elbow, “You have to take it easy,” I whispered. “Stress can cause a miscarriage… and you have to stop drinking!” She didn’t even flinch away from me. Juliet grabbed onto my arms and groaned, putting her head on my chest. It felt so good having her in my arms. When I turned to lead her to a chair… there were three pairs of eyes on me. Only one was glaring, “It’s my job.” I was lying. I would do anything to have her, take her away from all this, and let it be only the two of us like it was on the farm.

“Marcus… my painkillers just wore off,” She sat down, falling onto his shoulder, “I’ve never felt like this.”

I fetched some water for her. For those few days at the embassy, the watchers were allowed to be ‘normal’ towards their complaints. I commanded Jack and Kubra into action. Jack approached Louis, taking his vitals with a small device we all carried in our pockets. Kubra had gotten a prenatal kit and placed it on the table. Opening it, I looked at Marcus. He was still staring at me, frowning, calculating who I was to her, “You have to start reading and using that brain of yours. Now is not the time for anything else. Keep her safe first.” Our eyes met for the briefest of seconds. He glanced quickly at the stack, got up, and divided it between the few of us there.

“My attack… already started at the house?” Juliet said softly, pulling on my shirt as I handed her the plastic cup. “Drinking and stress are not what’s going to make my body reject this baby.”

I chuckled, “I know. I saw.”

After taking a sip, she shakily placed the cup down and dry-heaved; her hand came up to cover her mouth. The water might not have been a good idea. I hurriedly reached for a dustbin lined with a plastic bag. She ran to the corner of the room, hiding. I followed her, leaning over to see what we were dealing with… It was just blood coming out; she was getting worse, and I had to fix it, “Yeah! No! This isn’t working for me. We have to get you food… The last time you ate was almost two weeks ago. Puking your guts out won’t make you feel any better.” I scooped her into my arms with relative ease. She had lost weight if it was at all possible. Her head fell on my chest, and I carried her into the elevator. I glanced back to see if anyone would care. No one was looking at us. I sighed; they trusted me already. Stress always brought up these fits in her… I wished for a second Chris was there and that she wouldn’t keep him out of the loop.

We took the elevator all the way down into the basement. While we were alone, I pushed a vile into her neck, praying for the first time in years. The elevator went down two more floors, even deeper underground. The doors opened into a small room lined with silver metal walls and ceilings, a single menacing fan blowing air into the quiet space, ‘Whirr, Whirr, Whirr.’ Its shadow flickered on the floor as I headed for another door on the other end. Holding Juliet was a feeling I had missed… but not like that. It was my fault for not finding her in time the night she went after the cub. I greeted the guard. He opened the doors for me, kept following me, and frantically helped us through all the barriers to come. He pushed up a wheelchair in front of a glass window. I lowered her in. She didn’t want to let go, groaning, “It’s okay, Juliet,” I whispered, “I’m not going anywhere.”

I flicked on the light behind the glass, and a freakishly weird being at least a meter and a half from the ground hit the glass sucking on it, jumping down, and running on four tentacles. Its razor sharp teeth were white and lined its whole mouth in a scary, huge circle. I nodded to the guy helping. I didn’t know his name and couldn’t speak French. Rambling, he pushed a red button on a panel at the door and fogged the room. You could hear the ‘thud.’ The boy slammed another button, and all the smoke sucked out in seconds. We had to wait for the indicators to clear the space, and I pushed her into the room. Juliet manifested from only a tiny whiff of the thing, jumped out of the chair, bit into one of the tentacles, and sucked her little heart out. Relieved, I sat down in the wheelchair, breathing easy for the first time in a long two months, watching.

About ten minutes later, she fell back like she did at the farm, smiling and laughing. When she sat up, her eyes grew twice the size, actually taking in the creature next to her. She jolted at the prospect and scuttled on her bum away from the beast, “What the… hell did I just do? What is that?”

A chuckle escaped me. Juliet tilted her head at the sound, her black eyes narrowed into slits. “That is a very rare delicacy… but it’s paid for, so don’t worry.” Juliet lifted her hands in front of her face, taking in the slimy substance, gluing her fingers together. She didn’t hesitate and pushed them into her mouth one by one, licking them clean, “Yuck,” I cringed. I had seen it before, but her doing it was gross. She offered me some, and I laughed out loud. I would love to lick off her fingers, but not covered in that. I shook myself, my thoughts taking a wrong turn. Once, it had landed me in trouble.

“What do you mean paid for? By whom?”

“It seems like blood is blood, no matter the species. You at least know that much, don’t you,” I quipped.

“Not on Earth,” she retorted.

I smiled as red trickled down the side of her chin. She wanted to wipe her mouth off with her sleeve, “No… Just wait!” Juliet did it anyway, challenging me… Cleaning her teeth while glaring at me. I sighed, lifting up my hands.

“You think we can get Louis down here? He would feel so much better.”

“Sure,” I felt stupid that I didn’t think to bring him too in the first place. Jack didn’t say anything either; we were not in the habit of actually participating in their lives. I knocked on the glass. The French kid came around the corner and manifested as quickly as she did. Juliet didn’t like it and hissed at him like a serval cat.

I spoke to the boy. He could luckily understand me and hurried upstairs. A few moments later, Louis was doing the exact same thing, just with a little more vigor and tearing. I shudder at the ‘chomp’ and ‘crunch’ sounds that echoed through the room. Juliet sat against the wall, watching me. Seeing her from the corner of my eye… I kept my eyes down at the ground as she stared at me. I was sure she remembered me, and although she said nothing, I was scared she would. I cleared my throat. She didn’t stop. I could feel her on me and got up to walk out. She made me uncomfortable. There was no budge in her, and Like Louis said, she wasn’t going to take the lies anymore, but the whole place was bugged. She was a clever girl, and I hoped she left it on purpose. I pretended to go and fetch them both something to wash it down with. She got up, taking the water from me, “Thanks… Michael.”

I snickered nervously. Louis eventually got past the euphoria; those alien beasts they just sucked on had an effect on vampires much like human blood, I guessed. Different in some way. “Juliet, baby, you sure you wouldn’t want to go be my slave for one of these every day on that… mother planet.”

She wasn’t really impressed… “He says it’s expensive, so I don’t think you will be able to afford it.”

I had mental images of their ‘mother planet.’ They flashed through me and the nightmares I sometimes had of only seeing it once. Louis glanced over at me, and our eyes met. He jumped up and gathered her into his arms, holding her tightly, “Let’s go help them with those papers instead. I take it back. Let’s not leave Earth… Ever.”

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“What did you see?” she asked.

He shook his head, “I told you… I won’t scare you. When you need to go, I will prepare you properly… But until then, you can do whatever you want. I won’t say.” He pointed two fingers in the air for us to move out, taking her hand.

She looked back at me as I averted my gaze, “Go get Chris. I want him… He needs to know what’s going on and that we’re fine.” I nodded, glad she had asked. With Chris there, the situation would be more—diplomatic.

***

Juliet

Could my life be more complicated? All three of us took the elevator upstairs again. Louis wanted to take my hand to leave on the top floor, but I told him to give Michael and me a minute. He regarded us, keeping his hand on the door. He stood awhile… reading us. I smiled. It still didn’t bother me… having him in my head. Michael was humming, staring at the ground, trying not to think about anything, I supposed… Keeping his thoughts in check. I only had to think and didn’t need to say a word… I told him I loved him. We couldn’t talk there, and Michael would help if he could. Louis stepped back and let the doors close. I pressed the button for the floor we had just come from. The elevator moved, “Will phones work?”

“No.”

“Those papers are a smokescreen. Their tech is so advanced, and they need to hand us a mountain of documents… I don’t buy it. Don’t I get a lawyer?”

He laughed and wiped his nose with his thumb and index finger as I watched him in the mirror in front of me. Michael was still studying his boots, scuffing at the floor, “Keep going… I’m sure you will get it.”

“Nowhere we can talk?”

“Other than in here, no.”

“Can we go back and forth home?”

“No! Colder,” he was getting frustrated. I rubbed my sweaty hands together and wiped them on my jeans. The guy in the mirror was taller than me and was a bulky mass of uncut muscles. Covered in tattoos. He didn’t have so many when I first saw him. Dressed in a white t-shirt that complimented his dark-tanned skin. You knew he was tanned because his face and arms were brown. The tattoos from below his ears to the tips of his fingers stood out because of it. As if he was outside all day on a construction site. Caucasian male with dirty blond hair, shoulder-length, tied in a messy male pony at the base of his neck. Thick silver hoop earrings in both ears and a thinner one in his nose… His neck was so wide I wouldn’t be able to wrap my hands around it… I sighed, thinking about Michael for a minute and the fact that he had watched me from the day I was born. He had been there from the beginning of my life. My thoughts darted to Uncle Sam’s farm, where we met, “I need my uncle!”

“Yes! Good girl.”

I spun around, “Don’t do that.”

His mouth arched unhappily, “You do need your uncle! Would you like Marcus to invite him to come?” I nodded. “You have to say it. For the record.”

“All this red tape is going to give me a headache.”

The doors opened at the top. Louis was waiting for us. Louis is beautiful in a suave way. He wore a grey T-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a navy blue jacket. Leather straps around his wrists and a ring on one of his fingers. His hair was getting long, but he still styled it backward… It suited him, and I had to take a moment to appreciate his masculine, solid features. Images of us in the bed… popped into my mind. I felt better after that alien, and the way he rocked my world the first night in between the sheets was one memory I liked to dwell on. I yearned to be back at the house… Regardless of my pent-up energy, I felt tired and wanted to stare out at the mountains after we— “Soon, okay!” he assured me, pulling me out of the elevator and into his arms.

“Why do you think they are doing this?” I asked him as he put his arm around my shoulder. “I can’t be the first?”

“They’re scared. They want us to go back… Or they don’t… We have to figure it out.”

I walked quickly over to Marcus’s chair and told him what I wanted him to do. He got up and asked. Michael promptly showed Kubra and Jack what to do. They stepped into the corner where I came from and disappeared. Teleporting was suddenly a thing. Marcus, Louis, and I watched them as they disappeared. Michael walked over to the corner, eyes cast down. He was avoiding me, probably because he lied to me. I snorted. That got me a smile, “I’ll go get Chris.”

***

Chris

We had just parked the car back at the house when another car pulled in behind us. It was Cindy. Strangely, from deciding to never leave Juliet again, my life had family, friends, and purpose. We hugged, and I was happy to see her. Charlene and Carl also came to receive warm welcomes. We couldn’t find Juliet or Marcus going into the house. His room was a mess; wet clothes and towels everywhere. The bathroom reeked of blood and vomit. “She had another spell,” Cindy said softly. There was another knock at the door. Worriedly, we all glanced at each other.

It was two men I had never seen before. One dressed in a white T-shirt and white jeans, brown shoes, and a matching belt. The other wore a three-piece suit, also white, with matching brown accessories; the clothes were weird. They both stuck out their hands towards me one by one, “Who are you?”

“I’m Michael… this is Warden.”

“What do you want?”

He rubbed his hands over his hair. Michael’s eyes nervously cast down to the floor. Cindy came around the door, “Michael! Warden… Where is Juliet? Why are you not with her? Is she okay?”

He’s Juliet’s watcher. I groaned inwardly. OH NO! This guy?! What the hell?! If it isn’t stylish Louis or Mysterious Marcus, it’s plain old Chris. I realized the other guy must be my watcher… Warden smiled as if reading my thoughts while I tried to process everything. “She’s fine, but she had a spell… Louis woke up. So they are at the meeting.” Michael’s seen-it-all eyes met mine, “She needs you... asked for you.” All my jealousy dissipated with his genuine manner and the way he spoke about her. My mind was trying to wrap around how much he knew about all of us. But Juliet came first, and she was sick.

I turned away from the door back into the house, happy and excited that she wanted me. Asked for me to come. I had no right to be there… but if she gave consent… Marcus was okay with it, and Louis gave permission. I wasn’t naïve about where I was on the food chain.

I greeted Cindy, glad the kids had someone to look after them. I hurried back to the door, shoes in hand, and pulled them on my feet, grabbing my jersey. I seemed so tiny next to Michael, forgetting that I could turn into a creature twice his size and kill him in an instant. The pain I had felt with those prongs stabbing through my bones made me wither; the tech they had to subdue me or one little shot with a dart and I was useless… Unless I just ate him… I smirked. We were scrutinizing each other as we walked down the road for a bit. Michael held a device in his hand and told me to stand in front of him and wait. It took only a few seconds of being where you started… to get to where you wanted to go... No deforming, to regenerate again somewhere else. It suited me just fine. Used to teleporting, I was relieved the technical side of it wasn’t much different.

I came out the other end with my back to the room. Juliet’s arms reached around my waist before I could even turn around. I sighed; Michael forgotten. I pulled her close to me, and we hugged like we always did, her arms around my neck. We were in each other hair… nestling. She slid her cheek over mine and found my lips. The taste and smell made me manifest with her in my arms. “What the hell did you eat? What is that?” She laughed, glancing over her shoulder at the room. I noticed the table surrounded by men. I turned back to human. Marcus peeked up quickly but kept reading… whatever he was reading. Louis and Liam came over. I shook Liam’s hand first. Louis pulled me in for a hug and I let him. The last time we saw each other was when I put her in his arms. “Thank You for coming,” he whispered. I slapped his back as we embraced. He was as close to me as a brother from there on out. Probably even more…

I took Juliet’s face in my hands, “Are you okay? He said you had a spell.” Guiltily, she averted her gaze and fixed on someplace on my shirt. “You lied to me. You wanted me out of the house so I wouldn’t see.”

Tears pooled in her eyes as they met mine. I pulled her to me, “You’re scared… What’s going on?” I tried to keep it together but kept manifesting, going back and forth, unable to control myself. Juliet giggled. Michael walked past us, “I can take him downstairs. We have one, especially for him.”

Juliet scrutinized Michael, processing that information. She bobbed her head, “So, he paid for dinner.”

Michael ignored her and glimpsed at me. Why was he so awkward around her? But I wasn’t going to help him, “What do you mean? I paid for dinner.”

Michael walked off towards the elevator, ignoring both of us, “Follow me. You’ll never be able to control yourself if you don’t eat. The last time you ate was poor Ashleigh.”

My head snapped at him, “Who is Ashleigh?” Juliet asked with a curious note in her voice.

Luckily and thankfully, Warden, my guy, hit Michael behind the head, “No one. The first human he ate is all.”

Juliet repressed a laugh, “I wish I was there.”

I picked her up and carried her, “I wish you were there too… I’m not going alone.” The floor shook, and my head almost touched the roof. Everybody protested and grumbled at the papers moving on the table and the loud noises.

Juliet told me to put her down, “I’m going to read. Take Marcus with you, will you? If we’re all full, we will think better. Marcus needs to be at his best for this.”

Marcus told me everything he could and that we were waiting for Samuel. We got through the documents quickly, with all of us reading. We were comparing notes afterward for a long time, and Juliet kept pacing the length of the room, stretching her legs after sitting for hours. I wondered how long it would take Samuel to get there. Will he even come? Was he even at home? She bit the cuticles on her thumb nervously. Everyone was debating and throwing ideas around. It was all conjecture. Michael was sitting in the corner, his elbows resting on his knees and his head hanging low. It was late. The moon was high in the sky, and it had already been a long day. Getting up, I walked over to her. She was driving us all crazy. I held her in front of me so that she faced me and kissed her properly. She closed her eyes, leaning into me, “Sleep time. You have to think of the baby.”

“Yeah, okay, if you ask so nicely.”

I sat down on the ground with her in my lap. Juliet rested her head on my chest as I stroked her hair; she didn’t struggle to fall asleep quickly. She never fought me. Juliet would complain or even argue when someone else told her to do something; when I asked… or even told her to do something, she would give in. I had noticed. Everybody else had seen it, too, and said as much at the house. I didn’t know how I felt about it. If something happened to me, what would she do? The time Juliet and I have had the last couple of weeks made up for everything I felt I lost or missed out on in life. Even if she did spend a few minutes with Marcus every day, Juliet was with me most of the time. We talked for hours, catching up and creating a new relationship. Testing the waters as to how we would be as a couple. It didn’t take much; we were so comfortable with one another, and she couldn’t keep her hands off me. I was not used to it, but I reciprocated every time, again making up for how lonely I was only a month ago.

The others soon followed my example. Michael seemed relieved, so he leaned back onto the wall and closed his eyes. Warden did the same, and Jack soon followed after Louis rested his arms on the table. All the watchers were seated in a neat row along the wall. Marcus kept reading, and Liam decided to join him. For a second, I took it all in. We were all in one room… I was okay with it; we all were. This new life of mine.