Of Fangs And Fury

Chapter Seven

Caderyn

Standing against the closed door to Lara’s bedroom, I am speechless. Overwhelmed to the point I can’t even think of what to think, I just stand, eyes on the ceiling, an unwavering smile on my face. After a long moment, I push off the door and stand tall – the tallest I’ve ever felt, the strongest… simply, the most everything.

I don’t know that I’ve ever known happiness to bring me to tears, yet here I am, walking down the hall about to cry. My lungs feel as light as a feather, my heart floating like a log on a lazy river, and I laugh at the fact that I could skip down this hall and holler in triumph.

Honestly feeling like I’ve had a little too much blood mixed with a little too much alcohol, nothing can bring me down. It’s not just that Lara isn’t afraid of me, oh no, it’s so much better! She actually likes me! Likes- likes me, is enamored, and physically attracted to me.

Overwhelmed, I pray, “Ringrazia gli dei in cielo per questo prezioso dono. Mostrerò la mia dignità, lo giuro per proteggere e servire. Lara è la mia dea che adorerò per l'eternità.”

I cannot wait to rub this in Tahir’s face! Speak of the Devil, as I pass the library, I hear his voice… and Mother’s. Perfect! I can tell them both! I can tell them I’m going to ask if she’d agree to the terms of courtship, (me pursuing her and exclusivity). Hand on the door, though, and I catch the words being spoken.

“Once she agreed to the courtship, I’ve made a point to spend time with her at least once a day. We have a standing date every Quintaday where she becomes familiar with the ground of her future palace. Plus, we discuss politics which is an extremely quick study.”

“As we assumed she would be. One of the top Scholars to ever come from the University, I didn’t think she’d be just a pretty face. No, she will be a Queen with a voice, which is exactly what we need.”

“I’m not afraid of the public’s response to that, but I am still wary of the half-Human aspect.”

“Well,” Mother replies slowly, “the world is a constantly changing place and for those stuck in a certain mindset, it will become more and more difficult. Having her will add much-needed color to our famiglia.”

At this point, I’m livid and I burst in, “What the f**k are you two talking about?”

Mother is sitting in her usual chair, in her usual way. She’s calculated when she looks over at me, trying to keep as diplomatic as possible. Tahir on the other hand jumps up. Then, when he sees me, he rolls his eyes. “Brother, this is none of your business.”

“The horse s**t it is. I know for a fact that Lara only thinks of you as a friend and,” I emphasize “does not want to be courted by you.”

He touches his temple, “Just because you have some boyhood crush on her….”

“Son, I’m not sure you have the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” Mother interjects.

Feeling a tightness in my shoulders, I try to roll them to no avail. “Actually, I do. I have spoken to her, in length about the whole thing. She made herself clear, she doesn’t want -”

But Mother cuts me off by standing, “The girl has no idea what she wants. She’s only a Half-blood. She’s a smart girl… which is why, given the opportunity to wed Tahir, she’ll know better than to pass.”

Tahir waves between Mother and me, “Then it’s settled.”

On their way out, Mother pauses in front of me. Putting a palm to my cheek, she says “Come now, Caderyn, this is what’s best for her…,” her fingers fix the edge of my short, blond bangs, “and you know it.”

Delara

Double-checking my appearance in the mirror, I have to actively ignore that I’m growing tanner, or my insecurity is going to spike. I debated changing, but Cade seemed to really like the dress I’m already wearing. I just… want this to be different.

The servitores that helped build my wardrobe had also taught me some of Her Majesty’s cosmetics tricks, (though I made a point to stay away from anything magikal, leaving me only to use what’s herbal). With tweezers, I was able to clean around my brow, with brown powder I was able to fill it. After rolling a small brush in black, tacky liquid I was able to make my eyelashes more predominate.

The last step… which shouldn’t feel as important as it is, is wearing my hair down. Almost all my life I’ve worn my hair up, either to keep it out of the way or to make myself less feminine. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? With Cade, I want to be feminine. I want to be beautiful and lovely and let myself be soft.

Ready to make an impression, I inhale deeply and exhale slowly one more time before opening my bedroom door.

“Oh!” I jolt back slightly.

Cade is in front of me, hand at the ready-to-knock.

We laugh and he makes room for me to exit. Aware of his stare, I try not to be too nervous. “I thought we were meeting in the greenhouse?”

“You look gorgeous,” his deep voice is soft – intimate. He then takes my hand and starts leading me in a different direction, “I actually have a surprise.”

I slide my hand against his palm and interlace our fingers. He squeezes my hand in response. “I think you’re really going to like it.”

We look at each other at the same time, he smiles, and I blush. I can honestly, earnestly say I’ve never felt like this before. Even with the males I dated in the past, had physical relationships in the past, there was a formality to it, a logic. This, on the other hand, has a spontaneous irrationality I’m quite enjoying.

I recognize a door to the grounds; I blink a few times when we’re bathed in light. Knowing my way around decently enough, I’m surprised when we don’t turn to the right. As we continue straight, I ask, “Where are we going?”

Sunlight catches his golden eyes, making them shimmer. “It’s a surprise.”

We come to the edge of what I know as the West grounds, greeted by a thin layer of the forest. There’s a semi-cleared, dirt path where I have to follow behind Cade instead of next to him. A few meters in, we make a small curve to the left. The canopy gets thicker, yet the forest floor is more spacious. Cade slows, then stops and turns around. With one hand holding mine, he lifts the other for me to take, too. “Close your eyes.”

I do.

He slowly, carefully leads me forward, the warmth of his hands comforting. I hear his rapid heartbeat, but also the steady pace of his breathing. I hear the Spring breeze rustling the leaves overhead and birds chirping in the distance. I hear our steps crunching through the underbrush and little animals scurrying around. The smell of new life is glorious, the fresh air and wildflowers, and Cade’s skin a mix of teakwood and sage soap. But as we move along, I smell something more familiar too.

“Okay, open your eyes.”

Under a full canopy of emerald leaves, surrounded by towering trees, lay a tiny clearing. Short blades of grass sway with the breeze, little flowers clustering of their own accord. At the base of the closest trunks is a wide, thick blanket with a picnic basket. The food I’d smelled before is waiting for us, as is bottled lemonade.

My hands go to my chest, “Oh, Cade!” There’s a question in his eyes, a part of his ‘did I do well’ expression. I nod quickly and hug him tightly, “I love it!”

I’ve never felt so special…

Never felt so much like a female falling in love.

Caderyn

Lara and I lay flat on the blanket, our hands interlocked between us. As we watch the leaves flicker and sway overhead, I’m enjoying the stolen moment of peace. Far away from the palace, far away from my famiglia, far away from my mutation, far away from her being a Half-blood.

“I used to come here almost every day,” I continue explaining. “Whenever I needed a moment to myself. Sure, the palace is huge and there are plenty of rooms but….”

Her thumb brushes my skin, “But it’s a terrible thing to feel locked away.” She speaks with her heart – the heart of a half-Human, the heart of a female Scholar.

It fills me with a sort of pride that she feels so comfortable with me that she can be herself. I hope that she understands just how much the same thing means from me. “I thought this might be a nice change from the greenhouse.” This is more or less true, but at the same time, I wanted to keep her away from Tahir and Mother until I can figure out what to do.

Suddenly, Lara lifts onto her elbows. When I glance over, she’s lifting my arm. She lays her head against my chest, curling along my body, moving her knee over my thigh. “Let’s just stay here a while.”

I gently run my fingers through her hair until her breathing slows. Soon enough, it seems she’s fallen asleep. And I think this is paradise.

Delara

Walking back to the palace grounds hand-in-hand, the afternoon Sun is far gone, leaving us at the beginning of twilight. Once we step through the break in the trees, the last of the Sun’s light envelopes us in golden hour. Blinking, I face Cade.

His shorter in the back, longer in the front hair is a vibrant blonde, his bangs fluttering as we walk. His skin has a glow to it, his face and forearms the same color as the scales that peek around the back of his collar. And when I catch his eye, the color is intensified, like looking at swirled liquid gold and amber.

His smirk turns into a smile, “What?”

My brows come together, and I squeeze his hand, “You are so beautiful… that’s all.”

His chuckle is soft as he looks away and it’s okay if he doesn’t believe me. I see it, I know it. He deserves so much. He deserves to be King, to have a Queen, to have younglings. He deserves everything everyone has said he can’t have. All because of a stupid, f*****g mutation… I shake my head.

Jasper finds us a little too quickly when we get back inside telling Cade his mother requires his presence immediately. Then, Jasper helps me find my rooms. And as fast as I can change into a soft blouse and pants, there’s a knock on the study door. Stepping in front of the adjoined bathroom, I twist my hair into its usual bun and call “Come in.”

Not at all surprised to see Tahir, I nod, “Hi.”

“We missed you at luncheon,” he comments lightly. There’s something in the way he looks around though that expresses suspiciousness.

Having some notes based on childhood stories, I walk over to my desk. “I was with Cade.”

“Oh? Have you two made any progress?”

How thoughtful, commenting on his brother’s love life, hoping for the best, what a good brother. “Yes! Indeed, all very positive moving forward.”

He finally smiles without pretense, “Well good! That’s wonderful to hear.”

After a moment, I look up at him, pressing the journal to my chest. “Is there something you needed?”

His eyes linger on my face, then my notebook. “I should let you get back to your work, no? See you tomorrow?”

Maybe he can tell me stories from Cade’s childhood as well. “Yes, of course.”

Caderyn

After the glass shatters against the stone wall, I finally turn back to Mother. I’ve lost all mobility in my neck and I’m starting to lose it in my shoulders. In addition, this kind of fury is blinding and I’m afraid to almost lose all awareness and black out.

“Non riesco a credere alle parole che dici. La difesa di un contratto logico invece dell'amore per le anime. Padre sarebbe così deluso da te!” my chest left heaving.

“Are you finished?” she asks after a silent moment.

That irks me even more, throwing my memory to having a tantrum as a child. “You are being absolutely ridiculous.”

“Am I?” She finally stands, but smartly keeps her distance. “You gave up your right to the throne when Tahir came of age. That is a choice you made. Now, the responsibility is his. He is to be King. He, in all reality,” she gestures outs, “gets to act as firstborn.

“Which…” she tilts her head, “in this case, means he has first claim to whichever female he sees fit to court… who we see fit to be Queen.”

Forgetting my own self, I’ve become hyper-focused on Lara’s protection, in defense of her I argue, “That’s not fair to her. That’s not what she wants.”

“And you know what she wants? You think she wants you?” Uncharacteristically, Mother laughs and shakes her head. “My dear Caderyn… I know your interaction with females has been limited to mixed breeds and w***e houses, but I really did think you more intelligent than this.”

Coming closer to me now, embodying everything it means to by my mother and my Queen, she asks, “But here you are, thinking for some reason I cannot fathom, that she would rather be with you than Tahir. Why… why in the world would she possibly want you?”

Really, really, truly, wholeheartedly wanting to rip my mother’s throat out, I don’t move.

“And even if she did? Even if this poor, sheltered, half-Human female has a small, weird crush on you? Do you think you can give her the life she wants? Can you accompany her to the market? Can take her to festivals? Will she be able to procreate with you? Do you want to give her cursed offspring?

“Think about this Caderyn. Think about this long and hard. If you truly care about her, you will do what’s right.”

She then waltzes by me without another word.

Delara

“Thank you.”

Jasper nods and I close the door. As much as I’ve enjoyed my conversation with Tahir and I absolutely love my time with Cade, between the two of them I haven’t gotten much work done. I still haven’t even compared the Pure-blood sample to the mutated sample to really find the significant difference. Having this time to myself, without interruption, is much needed.

Testing their blood against different chemicals, different medicines, different herbal remedies, I’m able to see where they act similarly and act differently. There’s almost an over-cautiousness to Cade’s blood, it overreacting to things that only mildly bothered Tahir’s. But, when I mix the mutated blood with pure, the mutation does not dominate. In fact, the samples almost push apart…. Which, at the very least proves that Cade can’t ‘contaminate’ someone.

Caderyn

A whole week later and Jasper informs me that Lara has lifted the ban on visitors. Jumping out of my chair, I toss my book onto my bed and rush out of my room. I need to see her; I just need to see her….

In all this time apart, my mind has become all twisted. Without seeing her beautiful face, without hearing her musical voice, without smelling her natural perfume… without her, Mother and Tahir are winning. Without her, all I see are their disappointed faces and all I hear are their terrible words. Without her, I’m losing grip on what I know to be true. Il drago dentro mi sta divorando il cuore.

Knocking on her study door, I’m surprised to see her head poke out of her bedroom. “Cade?”

I finally feel the weight on my chest lift, the constriction around my throat loosens, and the pain in my head fade. “Lara….”

When we meet, she instigates a hug, melding into me. “Hi.”

I wrap my arms around her tightly, careful of her long hair that’s loosely down to her waist. Resting my cheek on her head, I reply, “Hi.”

We stand so long our breathing becomes one. Then she lifts, “Can we go to the clearing? I could use some time out of here,” and she gestures behind her.

From the open windows in her room, I smell the oncoming rain. “I think it’s going to storm. What about the library?”

She makes a face, “I was in there too.”

“What about the greenhouse?”

She nods, “Yes, that would be nice. We can go up on the second floor… if it does rain, I’m sure it would sound lovely.”

It’s cute to me… how even though she swears by logic and science, a lot of her emotion is tied to things that could be considered magikal. “That’s what we’ll do then.”

As we walk hand-in-hand, she leans her body into my arm. “I’ve made some progress,” she comments quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Well, technically, having definite data is progress. It’s helping me get from point a to point b to point c and so on…. Honestly, I’m debating contacting other Scholars for another pair of eyes.”

“Would that be helpful?”

“Perhaps.”

She rubs her hand up and down my arm gently. “Anyway, what about you? How have you been?”

Not well, if I’m honest. But I don’t want to worry her. “Oh, you know how it is…. It seems like every day, there’s a new problem to fix.”

When we enter the greenhouse, we can already hear the rain on the glass. She looks up and smiles. “Did I ever tell you how much I love rain?”

“No... I don’t think so.”

After climbing to the second level, we make our way to the back, to our little spot. The last time we came up here, we brought pillows and I’m pleased to find them still there. Sliding one behind me, I sit with my legs out. She puts hers by my leg, though, and then lays on it, her head in my lap. As she looks up to the rain, I comb her hair with my fingers and start massaging her scalp.

“I think it’s mostly because I love petrichor. Now if that’s a scent I could bottle, I would. But it’s more than that… it seems others misinterpret the word petrichor as the smell of rain. But rain is just water. The smell is earth and flora opening for the coming rain… it’s living things ready to grow. It’s cleansing, you know…?”

Her eyes close for a while and I wonder if she’s going to fall asleep. But then after a long exhale, she asks, “How far away is the Midsommar Festival, anyway? Just down at the base of Palace Of Emerald? In the Emerald Expanse.”

“Mm… I think about a two-day journey, why?”

She looks up at me, “Do you think we might be able to go?”

Not wanting to lie but also not wanting to argue, I lift a shoulder, “It’s possible.”

Her eyes are closed at this point, and I keep playing with her hair. She smiles, “That feels nice.”

I vaguely remember when she’d brushed her fingers up my scales to my hair, again and again… I could have easily fallen asleep to that. “Good,” I murmur.

Even after she dozes, I keep doing it. Though I don’t mind her falling asleep, it does seem a little odd. I try to smell if maybe she’s sick and then I realize, she’s smelling too Human. She smells too salty; like she’d spent too much time in the Sun, skin too dry and muscles too strained. Her blood smells stale, as well, still and overly circulated. Knowing her, she probably forgot to drink blood this week. Whenever she wakes, I’ll take her to bed and tell Jasper she’ll need blood first thing.

But for now, it’s my privilege to let her rest where she is comfortable. To let her rest where she feels safe. To let her rest where she is loved.

When the rain stops and the night sky appears, Lara finally stirs. She’d curled towards me in her sleep and now nuzzles my torso. When her eyes finally open, I murmur, “Hey sleepy head.”

She lays on her back and smiles up at me. “That was a very good nap.”

“Yeah? Sleep all right?”

She yawns, “Best sleep in a while….”

Taking the compliment, I brush a thumb across her cheek. “Well, that’s good. It’s late though… how about we get you to bed?”

She sits up and rubs her face, “That’s probably a good idea.”

I try to help her stand, but she leans into me. I help her carefully down the stairs and she makes it all the way to the hall just outside the greenhouse before she stops and leans against the wall. “Gods, I am so tired….

I kiss her forehead, “How about I carry you then?”

She nods, “Please?”

I scoop her up without a problem. Her left arm reaches to the back of my head, petting my hair slowly, the other reaches up to my neck, slipping under the collar of my shirt. Her fingers brush against scale and skin, and for the first time I don’t care where one ends and the other begins.

Too soon we’re at her bedroom. Luckily the door was left open, and I could easily slide us in. A servitore had left her bedside lamp on as well so it was easy enough for me to navigate the room. Laying her gently on the bed, I brush stray hair away from her face.

“You get some sleep, okay?”

She frowns, “You should stay here.”

Oh, Gods, I want to. But she deserves to be treated like a Princess, to be properly courted. “Not tonight.”

She peeks up at me. “Okay…. But breakfast tomorrow?”

I smile at her like the precious thing she is before lifting off the edge of the bed. “Of course.”

She reaches to turn off her lamp, “Good night, Cade.”

“Good night, Lara,” and I close the door.

Only to be assaulted with a “What the f**k are you doing?” Tahir invading my space, fists practically tearing my shirt away from me, “What the f**k did you do?”

Knowing I am right, I do not react. Knowing he is wrong, I let him feel whatever it is he needs to feel. Once he’s calm, we will talk. Once he’s calm, he will see his mistake. I do not want to give him any weapons to throw back in my face.

Voice even, diplomatic, I don’t even show expression, “She fell asleep, I put her to bed.”

He can already see the mistake he’s making. He can already realize how un-princely he’s being. He can tell he’s acting like me – or else, how I used to be. He lets go of my shirt but doesn’t move back. “You know I have claim.”

I step back. “She is not property to be taken without regard, she is her own female that deserves our utmost respect.”

Hands still in fists, he snarls at me, fangs bare.

I give a small twitch of my mouth, I subtle smile. “Maybe you should get some sleep, brother, you seem a little irritated.”