Page 12 of Horns & Heart
Chapter6
No one had ever really wanted me.Not Eli at the end of elementary school or Mark in middle school.Both had been fancy private schools, and relatively small, so when most of us went to the equally fancy high school, I’d asked Aaron out just to prove to everyone that I was over Mark, even though I hadn’t been.But then I had liked Ashton, who’d always gotten every lead he’d ever auditioned for.
I’d always been rejected, but in this moment, I was sure that I wouldn’t be rejected if I asked Inkiri to…
About three dozen alarms blared in my mind.No ravishing, no monsters, no monsters ravishing me.I needed to leave.And finish that plate.I snoozed most of those alarms.
Inkiri didn’t move from his spot, and before long, we were in the hallway where I could no longer see him.Lissir led me by the arm into a room down the hallway, but not one of the rooms I’d seen in my earlier escape attempt.This place was big and would’ve made a really luxurious home if it had even been completed; the kind of place you needed a map for.I should’ve felt right at home.
The doorway was a normal height, but even Lissir had to duck his head so as not to ram his horns into it.I realized then that the open-plan concept of the house meant that—for the most part—these five monsters could walk around it without having to do that all the time.
This room had a door, and carpets had been moved into it just like in the improvised living room, but there was no furniture apart from what might’ve been bedding folded away in one corner and a backpack that had clearly seen some use next to it.
Lissir sat on the carpet and drew me down next to him.With a click, the door closed behind us, then Vergis joined us on the floor, this time stretching his legs out, crossing them at the ankle, and leaning back on his arms.It gave me a nice view of his feet, rounder than my own, like cats’ paws.The shoes he wore were designed in such a way that the claws I could see could protrude outward.That had to give him some nice traction—and of course, I wouldn’t want him to kick me with those clawed feet.
Lissir focused on Vergis, and he didn’t look happy.“I don’t understand why this is difficult, and you are not helping.Youshouldbe helping.You know you should be helping, and yet you leave Inkiri to struggle with his mate.”
Vergis snorted, or almost.It wasn’t quite a human sound, but much closer than the others came to one.“I’m not Raikenga like you, and I can do as I wish.”He stole a chip from my plate while I wondered what that word meant.“And that out there was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen since Donna explained to you all what the difference between gender and sex is.”
Lissir made a clicking sound.“Oh, not that again.It already gave me a headache the first time around.”He motioned toward me.“Explain to him.”
“About gender and sex?”Vergis turned to me.“Well, let’s see?—”
Lissir hissed something in the other language.He was cussing at Vergis, I could tell.I had to give it to Lissir, he had big drama queen energy.No one would ever cast this guy as second tree from the left or tell him his essay writing was so bad he needed to give his all to acting.
Vergis rolled his eyes and turned to me.“Sweet ancestors, fine.Rory, was it?”
I nodded.“Yeah.”
“Well, Rory.For reasons we don’t entirely understand, some of our kind feel a mate call from this world, and Inkiri feels it from you.So congratulations and welcome to the family.May all your nights and days be blessed.Be happy together.”He looked back at Lissir.“There, how was that?”
My jaw dropped, and I started shaking again.There was a buzzing in my head.His accent sounded definitely more Canadian, not that that random observation mattered.It had happened.I was monster-married.At least it wasn’t my fault.
At a loss as to what to do, I picked up the damn sandwich—why the fudge waste food over this?—and bit into it.There was apple on it, and the bread was proper bread, like heavy, dark artisan bread that had been baked in an oven not too long ago.I tasted pickled vegetables, something like radish and ginger, and something even sweeter than the apple but also tart at the same time.And there were herbs in there as well; maybe just a hint of sage and peppermint.All in all, it was supremely edible, but it wasn’t what you’d expect from a regular sandwich.It was monster fusion cuisine.I loved it.I’d have moaned at the taste if not for the mate thing.
Instead I declared, after two full bites and with my mouth full, “I want a divorce.”
Lissir, who had been smiling wider and wider as I chewed, turned to Vergis.“What’s that?What does he want?”
Vergis explained in the other language, and Lissir’s face fell.Out of nowhere, he jumped at Vergis and grabbed his right horn, very nearly rolling both of them, but instead getting all up in Vergis’s face.Vergis hissed, but that was the extent of it.He stopped moving, still half on his back.
I was glad there was no punching so far.Hunger made me continue with the sandwich, and something else made me watch these two, even though I was quite possibly in the splatter zone.I might as well get a few calories out of the disaster that was my life post-apocalypse.
“You will explainproperly, Vergis, because that is why you are here.And I am not letting you leave this room before you explained it correctly.Either of you.”
In a very human-like way, Vergis rolled his eyes yet again and groaned.“Fine.I’ll play your cultural ambassador.Will you get off me now?”
Lissir showed his teeth, but then pulled away and sat down next to me, looking as if nothing much had happened.He tilted his head slightly, fiery eyes on Vergis.
Vergis looked at me.“You can’t get a divorce.He’s trying to be nice though.Inkiri, I mean.Of course it seems creepy to a human, since everything that’s not like your kind scares your kind.You know, he’s doing the equivalent of buying you flowers and taking you out on a really fancy date.And he’s taking you to meet his family, minus me.”Lissir mumbled something in the other language, but Vergis ignored him.“You know, you should just let him date you.”
“He was way too interested in my uterus.The one I don’t have.”I looked back and forth between Vergis and Lissir.“All of you are too damn fixated on uteri.I mean, why the heck?You’re not white enough to be republicans.”
Vergis burst out laughing, and Lissir looked confused, then said, “Our governmental system is different from yours, but that doesn’t mean it’s worse.”
“Sweet fuck.”Vergis was still chuckling.“Bagua are binary in terms of sex, and the words for what you’d think of as ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are lack-uterus and uterus, respectively.When I brought these guys here, I thought they had a pretty good grip on how that translates into human, but then of course we ran into Donna, and Donna has a fucking opinion on every fucking thing, and she never wouldn’t give it, and the next thing I know, she tries explainingnonbinaryto this bunch.”
“Donna is a badass bitch,” Lissir said solemnly.
