Mersallee: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Agh. Can you help me with this cape?” Tristan begged Lily.

“Sure, sure. Stand still.” Lily clasped the jewels on Tristan’s cape and stood back to inspect her work. “Perfect. You look just like a creature of the night.”

“Ahh, lovely. Maybe some vixen will let me suck her blood,” Tristan drawled as he raised his ‘claws’ over Lily’s head.

Lily feigned a scream and backed away from him although she couldn’t go far in the confines of her tiny room. “Please Mr. Vampire, leave me be.”

Tristan laughed, then became serious. “Why won’t you go?”

“We’ve been through this Tris. I don’t want to go.”

“But it’s the best dance of the year. Halloween is my favorite holiday.” He stuck his bottom lip out in a pout.

Tristan had been begging Lily since she woke up from her brush with Rafe two weeks earlier. When Lily opened her eyes in the infirmary, the first face she saw was Tristan’s. However, something about his features had been off. A spark of something dark lurked behind his eyes for a split second before he realized Lily was awake and became his normal jovial self. That spark had frightened Lily, but over time she had managed to convince herself that it was just an after affect of the potion Healer Clary had forced upon her.

Lily shook her head a little to clear the dark memory from her mind . “Tris, don’t. Please don’t beg,” Lily simpered.

Tristan dropped to his knees, his hands clasped in front of him. Lily looked down into his soft blue eyes and sighed. “Do you really want me to go that bad?”

“Yes.”

“You have a date.”

“So?”

His look was so sincere and earnest that Lily couldn’t help herself. She grinned at him and threw her hands up in the air. “Ok, ok. Fine. Go on down and I’ll get ready.”

“How long?” he implored from the doorway.

“Give me half an hour,” Lily resigned.

“I’ll come find you if you don’t,” Tristan warned.

“I know you will. Now, go. Your date’s waiting,” Lily said as she pushed Tristan out the door.

Once Tristan was gone, Lily changed her clothes quickly, glamoured a little creative makeup on her face, and then let go of the spell that kept her wings in check. Lily hadn’t let her wings go since the episode at the lake nearly two weeks ago. Lily stretched and allowed her wings to carry her around the room a few times. Before she walked out the door, she checked herself in the mirror. “It’s a believable enough costume,” Lily tried to convince herself. She just had to keep her wings still, that was all. There was no reason anyone would believe her wings were real if she could just keep them still. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d even seen her supposed date since he nearly killed her.

As if in response to Lily’s thoughts, her wings gave a light shudder. Lily growled at them and suppressed the urge to force her wings back in before deciding that she looked as good as she was going to.

When Lily walked into the auditorium, she had to blink several times to be sure she was in the right place. The normal rows of chairs had been replaced by long rows of tables, each one decorated with a black tablecloth and three glowing jack-o’-lanterns in the middle. Lily laughed when she realized that each jack-o’-lantern was harassing someone different at each table. As she walked by she could hear one poor young boy’s self-esteem being shredded by the bewitched pumpkin. “Think you could have washed your hair for the occasion at least. That girl’s too pretty for you. Why don’t you come with me darling? I could show you a real good time. At midnight, I turn into a carriage.”

On the dance floor all manner of creatures were milling about. Lily supposed what they were doing could be called dancing, but in most cases it just looked like someone was writhing in pain. A few of her classmates afforded her a nod of approval as she passed and eventually she found Tristan and Leslie, his date, at a table in the corner. Tristan smiled up at her as she approached.

“I was just getting ready to come looking for you. Wow, your costume is amazing,” he mused while Leslie frowned deeply.

“Thanks. I’m going to get a drink. Want anything?” Lily asked quickly in an attempt to stop a dramatic scene between her and Leslie.

“No, we’re good.”

Lily nodded absentmindedly and turned away. As she made her way through the sea of bodies she realized with a pang that she had not seen Rafe. “I can’t believe the bastard went through all of that just to stand me up,” Lily cursed in her mind.

“Didn’t think you were going to make it, Angel,” came a soft whisper in Lily’s ear.

Lily turned sharply, prepared to let Rafe have a piece of her mind, only to realize that Rafe was not there. In fact, Rafe was leaning against the wall across the room, his leg propping him up and his arms folded across his sizeable chest. Lily’s breath caught when she saw the massive wings unfolded behind him. When Rafe caught her gaze, he smiled and winked.

Lily could only stand there in stunned silence while he slowly sauntered across the room to her. When he finally reached her, he slid his arm around her waist, took her hand in his, and pulled her tightly to him. Lily was surprised to find that she only barely came to his chest. “I was beginning to wonder about you, Angel. I thought you were going to stand me up.”

Lily sputtered for a moment before she finally managed an indignant glare. “You thought I was standing you up? You disappeared on me after you damn near killed me.”

He grinned. “Yeah, sorry about that Angel. Had some things to take care of.”

Lily shook her head in disbelief. “Do not call me Angel. Oh, and just so you know, I didn’t come here for you. I came for Tristan.”

Rafe shrugged noncommittally. “That’s ok. I don’t care what you have to tell yourself as long as you show up.”

Lily jerked her hand out of his and, standing on tiptoe, slapped him hard across the face. The resounding crack instilled a deep sense of satisfaction in Lily, as well as a deep sense of fear. Rafe did not seem to be the type to take something like that well.

Rafe stared at her for a long moment, anger creeping around the edges of his perfect mask before he rubbed his now red jaw and smiled. “Yeah, I guess I had that coming.”

Lily shook her head again and turned her face away from him while pulling her body back from his. “Please, just leave me alone, Rafe.”

Rafe watched her for a moment, an expression of perfect calm on his features, before he asked the question she dreaded. “Do you really want that, Lily?”

Lily flinched inwardly. Her voice was a moan when she stated simply, “Don’t ask me that.”

“Answer the question, Lily. Do you really want me to go away and leave you alone forever?”

Lily opened her mouth to lie, but all that came out was a hoarse gasp. She felt almost as if something were blocking her windpipe. Her mouth refused to shape the one simple word that would make him go away—yes. Lily realized that the reason she felt compelled to tell him the truth was because he had cast some type of spell on her so that she physically couldn’t lie.

Lily stared up at him defiantly. Harsh, hot tears of betrayal began trailing down her cheeks. “You asshole. You made it so I can’t lie.”

Rafe’s eyes widened slightly at the sight of her anger. “No. I didn’t.” He reached up to cup her cheek in his hand, but Lily slapped his hand away.

“You know what? I do want you to go away. I don’t care if I ever see you again,” Lily hissed, then turned to leave.

Rafe caught her by the arm and pulled her back against him. “See, now we have a problem because I don’t think I can do that.”