Elena
Upon reentering Eevie's room, she gave me a little tour, and we even switched so I could rummage through her closet and change out of the bathrobe into something more appropriate, jump on her plush, king sized bed, and run around in the open space like a child. I knew the day ahead would be a little hectic, and I wanted to be able to enjoy at least one aspect of being in Eevie's home- even if the best thing was her room.
I was reading through the books in Eevie's bookcase when a knock at the door interrupted us. Eevie had told me I could bring whichever ones looked interesting back to the human world, and I was eager to read a few of the titles I found. The door opened after a second knock, and Eevie's mother strolled into the room.
We can switch back. You don't have to face them if you don't want to, Eevie assured me. I could feel her practically pushing for us to switch.
No, it's okay. WE can switch in a moment. Let me at least say hello.
Eevie's mother strolled into the center of the room and stopped short in front of me. She betrayed no emotion other than curiosity upon her face. "You must be the human shackled to my daughter, you poor thing."
I bowed to her slightly, remembering one of my lessons Eevie had breezed over. "Pardon me for saying, ma'am, but I don't feel shackled, as you said, to Eevie. We are, to put it simply, bonded, and it has been quite a life changing experience- for the better," I replied as politely as I could. I spoke slowly and had to really think about what I had wanted to say before each word left my mouth.
Her mother frowned at me, "You haven't been bonded for very long. Being bonded to a noble, especially one like Evelyn won't have many positives. Just wait until the bad start happening. You'll wish you'd never met her."
"I am prepared for the bad, ma'am," I replied, my head held high. I refused to submit to this woman, as intimidating as she was.
"You have no idea what to be prepared for," she sneered down at me.
Don't even reply to that. She's trying to bait you into saying something stupid.
"May I please speak with my daughter now, please?" she asked, and Eevie and I switched. When mother was looking at daughter, her mother moved to wipe some lint off of Eevie's collar, saying, "Thank the maker, I can only handle so much human squabble."
Eevie backed up, brushing her mother's arms away, "Elena can hear you, you know." When it was clear her mother wasn't going to dignify that reply with a response, Eevie asked, "Is father's meeting over?"
"Yes, I came up to retrieve you. He said to meet in the library," her mother started for the door.
"OH yes, we wouldn't want to keep him waiting, now would we?" Eevie stated with sarcasm as she headed
Eevie
I followed my mother into our library where my father sat waiting on the love-seat, documents in front of him. My mother took a seat beside him while I elected to stand on the other side of the coffee table in front of them. I bowed to my father respectfully. I didn't want to start this conversation with how unruly I had gotten.
"I am pleased you decided to pay us a visit," my father said, barely glancing up from his documents to greet me.
"I didn't really have much of a choice, now did I?" my retort was bitter. He knew why I was really here, yet, he wanted to twist it to his own agenda.
"And what reason would that actually be?" he asked bemused.
"You kidnapped Alistair's family and threatened to kill them!" I practically shouted. Just thinking of the ordeal had my blood boiling. I had barely been here an hour and I was already losing my temper. And my father had barely said anything!
"Oh, yes, that."
When my father didn't seem to want to say anything further, I continued, "You can't kidnap my friends every time you want me to come home. Alistiar had nothing to do with my decision to bond with a human. I had barely seen him in six months. This was all on me, so leave everyone else out of it," I demanded.
"With your history, you can't really blame us for taking precautions," my mother chuckled as if kidnapping and torturing innocent people was the same as having afternoon tea.
"Yes!" I cried. "Yes, I can blame you! You had no right. As you have clearly stated, the arranged marriage is still in affect. Me being bonded shouldn't have mattered." When I got flustered, words didn't come as easily as I liked. It was a weakness I was trying to overcome.
"We had every right," my father's voice rose slightly. "You are a flight risk, Evelyn. And how would we be sure you'd even return for the wedding? We have told people you are off at University, but if you don't make periodic visits home, demons would start getting suspicious of what was really going on, and no demon can ever find out what you did. You could have ruined this family. Thankfully, no one seems to know, and the marriage agreement is still in place."
"Because that is all that matters. As long as I please you, everything is fine. Not like I don't want to marry this guy. Nor do I want to be in this house any more than I have to. I would love it if my friends and their families would be free from your wrath every time I don't comply with one of your stupid rules. You get what you want. But what about me. Don't I have a right to be happy?" I asked incredulously.
"Your happiness has never been in question. You will learn to adapt. That is the role you chose all those years ago. No sense in complaining. Your sister or brothers would have killed to be in your shoes," my father replied. "Eli would have been a dutiful son. One we could have used politically."
"MAybe you need to get rid of your damned tradition. Then you wouldn't be left with me, which we can all see was a terrible outcome."
"Don't you dare speak ill of the tradition that has been passed down in this family for generations."
"When I am ruler of this land, that fucking tradition won't be the first thing to go." The implication was heavily in the air. I would change everything. My parents saw the changes as weakness, that I would lose what the family had worked so hard to achieve, and here I was ready and willing to throw it all away. MY father would not abide that.
As quick as a whip, my father stood up and slapped me across the face. "Do not think to forget that Alistair isn't the only friend I know of. MY terms are this: you may stay bonded with your human, you will keep up appearances of being away at University, coming home over your human's actual holidays to placate the other noble families. When you come home for winter break, you will at last meet your betrothed. If you fall out of line in any way, we will kill Alistair's sister. And if that doesn't convince you to be complacent. We will find dear Elena's grandmother. Do we have an accord?" my father sat down, crossing his legs. My mother looked on in amusement.
I reeled from the slap, holding my hand up to my cheek. "Yes, I will do as you say," I submitted.
I'm so sorry, Eevie, Elena finally told me. I knew this was a lot to take in and probably pretty terrible to watch.
I ignored her however and turned to leave, "Wait, just a moment, Evelyn, we would like to officially meet your human host."
I got this, Elena assured me and pushed for a switch, which we did effortlessly.
She bowed respectfully to both my parents. "A pleasure to meet you both; my name is Elena."
My father had a scary glint in his eyes as he looked her over, and I sure as hell didn't like that look. My mother was also taking her in. Neither had been this close to a human in centuries.
"How are you and our daughter getting along?" my mother asked, almost fooling me into thinking she was genuinely curious.
"Quite well, thank you. Your daughter is teaching me a lot, and I enjoy the challenge of learning with her," Elena replied elegantly. Her responses and mannerisms were perfect. I was impressed with her.
"Are you quite close, sharing secrets and all that?" My mother was up to something, but I wasn't quite sure what that was, yet.
Elena frowned before answering. "Yes, I would say we are becoming pretty close."
"So she's told you about her siblings and what she's done to them?" my father cut in suddenly.
My heart dropped. No. They were going to tell ELena before I could and my dirty little secret would be out in the open. I had wanted to do it on my terms before all of this, but the timing never seemed right.
Ignore him. I'll tell you the story, just get out of the library, Elena! I ordered her.
But it was too late to leave as my father started speaking, "She had a little sister and two older, much stronger, much more intelligent brothers. She killed them to gain their power to increase her own. It's why she's as powerful as she is. And to sustain that much power, she must feed on the souls of others."
"So tell us, how do the two of you get the souls you need?" my mother asked innocently, as if she hadn't just dropped a bomb onto us that I had to navigate carefully around.
Let me explain, Elena, it's not what you think!
Elena moved towards my parents and leaned in, bowing over the coffee table. "I know what you are doing. And if that did in fact happen, I will listen to Eevie's side of the story, not your half-assed attempt to pit me against her for lying. At our bonding, Eevie told me she would always tell me what I needed to know. And I'm sure she didn't think her own parents would betray her trust. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I would hate you, too."
My mother reached out to slap Elena, but we made a switch and right before my mother could connect with my cheek, I grabbed her wrist and pushed her away from me. "You do not have the right to lay a hand on my human," I warned her. Turning to my father, I continued, "I hear your terms, and here are my negotiations: I will comply to your rules. I will get married, I will do all that you want me to do. However, you kidnap, torture, or kill my friends, Elena's friends or family, and I swear to Satan that I will destroy everything this family has worked to build. And we all know it'd be a little too easy to do right now. Take it or leave it."
MY father hesitated, but he finally nodded. With that, I turned on my heels and left the room, turning to head outside into the gardens. Fresh air always helped clear my head.
Are you really going to tell me what your parents were talking about? Elena asked after a moment.
I sighed, nodding my head. Yes, I will. I just need to figure out what to say. Please don't think less of me because of this. Elena would be the first person I would tell about this. Alistair knew bits and pieces, but he didn't know the story in its entirety. I wanted to get it just right.
