Thirty-Eight

“So,” Kellen began the next morning, “I’ve decided what we’re going to do today.” He smiled, remembering a time when that was always a question Darby would ask.

The world was so new to her.

“And what’s that?” Darby asked, not taking her head off his chest.

He stroked her slightly ruffled hair, combing out the tangles with his fingers. “Do you remember the first night you slept over?”

She laughed. “How can I forget?”

That night was a catalyst for this new life.

“The next morning you told me about your brother, Christopher.”

A look of anguish swept across her face. “Yeah.”

“I was thinking that today would be a good day for you to see him.”

She sat up, eyes glowing in anticipation. “Really?”

“Of course. He’s not going to be around forever and I thought you might want to see him before he. . .” Kellen cut off suddenly.

That’s smart, tell her that her brother’s going to die.

“It’s just been awhile,” Kellen finished lamely, “and maybe you could try to meet up with some of your old friends as well.”

Darby looked wistful. “Miele, that’s a sweet idea, but I don’t know. . . the last time I talked to any of them I was nearly killed.”

Stupid humans. And they think we are the monsters.

“You said so yourself, Christopher saved you. He loves you and even if you’re parents don’t see that you’re still Darby, he does. And when you’re friends see Christopher accept you they’ll give you a moment to prove to them that you’re the same you have always been.”

She sighed. “I’ll give it a try. I would really like to see him again.”

“Philip can locate him in under a half hour.”

“Alright. Will you be coming too?”

Kellen paused. “I can, if you want me too.”

“I do. I want Christopher to meet my husband,” Darby gave him a sly smile.

He chuckled. “And suddenly I feel like a teenage boy meeting his girlfriend’s dad for the first time.”

“You’ll be fine! I’m sure Christopher will be impressed.”

He scoffed. “Impressed? I may be a king but I’m not a hero.”

By any stretch of the imagination.

“You’re my hero,” she kissed him. “And you don’t know my friends, they’ll be all over you. You’re mysterious, sexy, dark,” she leaned into him. “I’m going to have to make sure they keep their hands off you, you’re all mine and I have no intend in sharing.”

I love how I’ve become hers now. Possessive on her is sexy.

“Fine by me.”

“Hmm. . .” she rolled her fingers against his collar bone. “Maybe we should go tomorrow. I don’t really want to leave you right now.”

How I wish I could let her comply.

“We have all the time in the world, darling, we should go today. I want you to stay connected to the rest of the world.”

Darby paused. “Oh. . . yeah,” her face clouded over. “We should go now.”

“You got motivated fast,” he commented as she jumped up.

“You’re right. I’ll have forever with you, I need to visit my brother while I can. . . before time gets away from me.”

He pulled his jeans on and stumbled out, “I’ll go talk to Philip.”

I wish family had meant as much to me as it did to her.

Darby picked out a summer dress from the giant wardrobe that Kellen had managed to fit in their room. She thought it was ridiculous the amount of clothes that she owned but Kellen had assured her that “the Dark Queen deserves the best.”

We keep up with that mantra and the Dark Queen is going to make the empire go into debt.

She had stopped putting stock in the weather when it came to what she wore. Something she had learned since she transformed, temperature didn’t matter much to faeries. They didn’t get to hot or to cold. Though, of course, the empire they were on did affect which temperature they liked better but they could handle most weather conditions. 

After braiding her hair back she went out to the living room where Philip was on the phone sending guards to locate Christopher’s exact whereabouts. 

“Good morning, my Queen,” Philip greeted after he hung up.

“Philip,” Darby said firmly, “I demand that you call me Darby, not your highness, or your queen, or Dark Queen. Darby. You never call Kellen your king and I don’t want you to act like I’ve changed. I’m the same person.”

He smiled, “Sorry.”

“Any luck?” Kellen asked, joining the conversation, holding two glasses of mimosas.

“When Aaron returns he’ll give us the information,” Philip told him, accepting a glass.

“Isn’t it a bit early for alcohol?” Darby raised an eyebrow.

“It’s a mimosa, it has orange juice, therefore it’s an acceptable morning drink,” Kellen explained logically.

“Besides,” Philip added, “when you live forever, it’s never to early to drink.”

Kellen nodded in approval and clinked his glass against Philip’s.

“Makes perfect sense,” Darby rolled her eyes.

“You’ll understand someday,” Kellen winked.

Sorus, I hope not.

“I hate to interrupt your highness,” a guard who she guessed to be Aaron interceded, “but I found Christopher.”

“Well, go on,” she nodded encouragingly, smiling broadly.

“He’s living in a small house in Eugene. As far as we could see he lives alone but two women around eighteen were spotted with him.”

Kellen’s eyes widened. “Damn. . .”

“They didn’t seem to be romantically involved with him,” Aaron finished.

“Thank you, Aaron,” she kissed his cheek, “I appreciate your hard work.”

Aaron turned beet red. “It’s nothing, my queen, anything for you.”

As he left Kellen muttered, “They never say that for me.”

“You didn’t kiss them on the cheek,” Philip pointed out.

“You think they’d say that to me if I gave them a kiss?”

Darby sat down on his lap. “You’ve slept with most of your empire, if they aren’t saying that to you than I don’t think a kiss is going to make it happen.”

Philip laughed. “And then again, maybe it’s just a trick Darby has.”

She beamed at her husband. “I think our advisor has a point.”

“Hey, didn’t we have somewhere we needed to go today?” Kellen grumbled.

“Right!” Darby leaped up, taking him by the hand, “Lets go.”

Kellen knocked on the pale green door. Darby stood a little behind him, rubbing her thumb over his hand.

“Darling, everything will be fine,” Kellen comforted, nuzzling her. 

But just in case, lets hope he doesn’t have a gun.

The door opened and a man whom Kellen remembered from the funeral stood there. He looked like he needed to shave, a layer of stubble rested across his jaw and his blond hair was unkempt.

“Can I help you?” He asked, his blue eyes guarded but when he saw Darby he froze.

“Hi Christopher,” she smiled shyly.

Christopher didn’t need anything else, he wrapped his arms around her and Kellen could hear her laugh in his chest.

“I’ve missed you so much, Sorella piccola,” he mumbled then realizing the danger posed of her being seen he ushered them inside. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” he said as he closed the door behind them, locking it to be safe.

She sat down comfortably on the couch allowing her glamour to fade and her wings to dissolve through her dress. 

Christopher eyes widened when he saw her full faerie form but he didn’t comment.

Probably doesn’t know what to say, she’s changed from the last time he saw her.

Kellen wasn’t sure exactly where to put himself, so he stood by the couch, close enough to be in reach of Darby but not enough to be centered directly in the room. After a moment of debating, he too released his glamour and revealed who he really was.

“Well,” Christopher began, handing them both a soda, “you can start off by telling me who your friend is,” he eyed Kellen carefully.

Friend? Looks like Christopher will be a challenge. . .

“This is Kellen. He’s the Dark King and my husband,” she beamed as she spoke those words and it gave him a warm unexplainable feeling. 

Christopher grinned at her. “Married? That means. . . you’re a queen!”

She laughed. “Well, yeah, that duty kind of came along with him.”

And that was when the story came out, Kellen answered most of Christopher’s questions but let Darby be the one to tell him the story. Kellen was a bit surprised how little she censored. She left out the romantic encounters and the fact that she got shot, her story telling abilities were impressive; he had no problem going along with it. But she told him exactly what he was and what happened between him, Seth, and her.

Thanks Darby, way to make him hate me.

“Wow,” Christopher leaned back against the cushions, “and I thought it was cool that I got my own place, Dark Queen. . . wow.”

“It’s been a long year,” she agreed, taking Kellen’s hand, “but it all worked out in the end. My only regret was not being able to see you. . . I missed you a lot.”

“Same here, Darby,” he smiled, “it’s been difficult since you left. . . Mom and Dad are a mess, they’ve joined this church that’s all anti-faerie and really hard core. They even forced me to go to some of their meetings. It’s. . . weird. Half the stuff I can’t tell if it’s real or if their just making s**t up. And it’s not like they have an actual faerie to help them out.  

“And now they’re teaching the history and the world of the fey at the high school in Elmira because of you Darby. Before they didn’t, the teaching of it was controversial because of the issues with the parents not wanting their kids to know more about it and no one was sure if the information was correct. I don’t know, it’s always been like this, but now. . . ever since word of a Dark Queen has spread, thing’s have gotten worse. But I think the government is trying to get everyone riled up so we can go to war with them.”

I knew this was coming.

“War?!” Darby gasped, staring at Kellen in horror, “We can’t handle that!”

“It was bound to happen sometime,” he responded evenly, “but with both empires working together we’ll be able to take them.”

Christopher closed his eyes. “The war would destroy so much and bring so many innocent deaths. It’ll be devastating.”

There was a moment of silence until a buzzer in the kitchen went off. 

“Oh, sorry about that,” Christopher stood up, “I was making dinner before you got here. I’ll be right back.”

“Actually,” Darby also got up, “why don’t you stay and talk with Kellen, I’ll take care of it.”

Christopher shrugged. “Whatever,” and plopped back down. He looked up at Kellen. “You can sit down you know.”

He nodded and sat stiffly on the couch.

“So,” Christopher leaned in and said in a low voice.

Here it comes.

“As Darby’s older brother, I want to make sure that you aren’t playing a game. I need to know that you really love her and will keep her safe.”

“Darby left something out of her story,” Kellen leveled his gaze on Christopher, “she has no idea just how much it hurt me to not love her, and I’m okay with that, I don’t want her to feel that amount pain and hopelessness. But I want you to know that in my entire two hundred and eighteen years, I’ve never been happier than when I was finally able to tell Darby I loved her. And for you to suggest to me that I’m playing a game is quite insulting, although I know you didn’t intend for it to be. So, when I tell you that I love your sister more than anything in this entire world I mean it.”

Christopher, after a moment of thought, nodded. And with a sly smile said, “Welcome to la famiglia.”

Kellen grinned. “Thank you.”

Christopher laughed and shook his head in disbelief, “Two hundred and eighteen?”

“Yeah, I transformed in the 1800s. I don’t look a day over a hundred, do I?” Kellen winked.

Christopher snickered. “Well, it’s no wonder that you seem a bit old fashioned.”

“True, yet I’ve changed along with the years. The King has to be able to evolve with the world he lives in or else he loses those who belong to the new world. An old King in a new system isn’t going to work well.”

“What isn’t going to work well?” Darby questioned, coming back into the room with a TV dinner in hand.

Christopher took the plate as Kellen replied, “Just telling him about my age and it’s affect on the empire.”

Darby sat down beside him and curled against him. “You never did tell me exactly how old you were.”

“You never asked,” he smirked, “how old do you think I am?”

She shrugged. “Old?”

Kellen rolled his eyes. “Nice generalization, love.”

“How old?”

“Two hundred years older than you,” he tapped her on the nose.

“Hmm. . .” she giggled, “I’ve never been much attracted to older men, have I, Christopher?”

“Not at all,” Christopher said.

Lucky me.

“How strange,” Darby smiled, kissing Kellen’s cheek.

“Well, they say men mature with age.”

“They must not have been including faerie men in that equation.”

Kellen laughed as a sudden knock sounded at the door.

“Crap!” Christopher shot up, “I forgot, I invited some people over earlier. I didn’t realize that you two would be coming.”

“Not a problem, we should’ve called first,” Kellen told him.

Darby looked at her brother curiously. “Who?”

“Mackenzie and Carrie,” Christopher admitted.

“Oh?” Kellen raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Darby elbowed him.

“It’s not like that,” Christopher explained hurriedly, “It’s been a year today since you transformed, Darby. They wanted to come over to talk, like I said, rough year for all of us.”

And not even her parents came to mourn their daughter. Probably off doing it at the church, getting consolation from the preacher is better than being with their son.

The pounding continued.

“Should we leave?” Darby rose.

“No,” Christopher said quickly, “please stay, it’ll be good for them and I don’t want you to leave yet,” he rushed to the door.

Kellen helped her back down and she tensed in his arms as the door opened.

“Your brother will explain it to them, and if they won’t listen we leave,” Kellen planned out calmly, “we’ll visit again tomorrow.”

Both of the girls that Christopher lead in froze when they saw them.

“Christopher!” One gaped. Kellen vaguely remembered her from the funeral.

Mackenzie.

“What the hell kind of joke is this?!” She demanded.

Darby got up and offered a shaking hand in peace. “We need to explain some things to you.”

“No!” Mackenzie jumped back and looked in confusion to Christopher, “Why are these things here?! Did they curse you or something?!”

“Mackenzie, listen to me, yes Darby is a faerie. But she’s not going to hurt us,” Christopher explained in a gentle voice.

“She’s dead. This demon is just controlling her body,” Mackenzie backed up toward the door, “you’re just to hurt to understand.”

“That’s what they’ve been teaching?” Kellen couldn’t help but laugh, “mortals know so little,” he released some darkness as he spoke, not intentionally, the darkness reacted to his words. It dimmed the gleam of the lights and had the shadows close in around them.

“Stop it,” Darby commanded, and then winced as she realized the sting in her voice probably wasn’t helping matters either, “they’ll never believe us if you’re scaring them.”

The other girl, Kellen assumed her to be Carrie, who was quiet during the exchange spoke up. “Christopher, I believe you.”

Christopher sighed in relief. “Thank you, Carrie.”

“How can you believe them!” Mackenzie stared at her friend in disgust.

“Kenz, they would have killed us by now if they wanted us dead. And isn’t it typical for Darby to never give up on us?” Carrie rationalized.

Mackenzie wasn’t convinced. “No! I’m not staying here, you go right ahead and if they kill you then it’s not my problem,” she spun around and walked out.

Darby fell back weakly into Kellen’s arms and he sat her down, a frown on his face.

It’s sad how deep the hate for us is rooted into them.

Carrie sat down on the carpet, as if nothing had happened and stared directly at Darby. “So, what happened since you transformed? Who’s your boy-toy? You have a lot of explaining to do.”

Darby blinked. “Umm. . .”

Kellen took it upon himself to convey her confusion. “Carrie, forgive Darby, she’s been through quite a night. But I believe it would help her if you explained your sudden acceptance of her.”

Darby nodded wordlessly.

Carrie smiled. “Darby, I never really believed you were gone. And Christopher strengthened that belief every time he talked about you. Seeing you again just proved what I knew all along.”

Darby’s face lit up considerably and she explained to Carrie what had happened, although, this time, she kept out much more than she had with Christopher. And he was partly thankful that she didn’t show what he was like before.

Even though Darby was more joking when she explained me to Christopher, I could tell that it hurt. I won’t ever allow her to feel that way again.

After she had finished Carrie exploded in comments, “I can’t believe you’re a queen! More importantly I can’t believe you married him!”

Kellen grinned.

“Way to go,” Darby laughed, “you gave him an even bigger head. Do you know how long it’s going to take to get him back to normal?”

Once it grew to a silence Carrie suddenly apologized, “I’m sorry for the way Kenzie acted. I think she took your absence the hardest, you two were close and she couldn’t believe that you weren’t a monster. . . we at least knew. She hasn’t exactly ever been the same since you visited her that night.”

Darby nodded. “I couldn’t expect anything different. I mean, if this didn’t happen to me, I don’t know if I’d believe it either.”

I hate that that’s probably true. 

Carrie sighed. “I just wish Heather was here to see you.”

“Carrie,” Christopher warned.

“What happened to Heather?” Darby’s voice got thick with concern.

After Christopher and Carrie shared a look she said softly, “There was a fight a while ago. Travis came up to Mackenzie, Heather, and I one night. And was shouting about how he saw you with Kellen and he started to talk s**t about you and faeries and it really got on Heather’s nerves. She was always sticking up for you. And well Travis was drunk. . . really drunk. When she yelled at him he got really angry and punched her.  And you know Heather, she wasn’t going to take that, but he wouldn’t stop and we couldn’t get him too. We called the police but before they got her he had already beaten her to death.”

Darby was just staring, not comprehending.

Kellen took her hand, pushing down the rage.

I would’ve done anything I could’ve to stop it, just so I wouldn’t have to see her devastated expression.

“When was her funeral?” She finally choked out.

“The next week. Travis was charged with first degree man slaughter and is in jail.”

Not for long, soon he’ll be rotting in hell.

Christopher got out a wine bottle and four glasses. After handing them out, he raised his glass. “For Heather,” he toasted.

“For Heather,” they repeated.

“When will I see you again?” Christopher asked Darby as he hugged her fiercely.

They were getting ready to leave, even though Darby wished she could stay longer in her brother’s embrace. But it was four in the morning, even if Kellen and her didn’t need sleep, she had a feeling Christopher would be exhausted the rest of the day. 

“Soon,” she promised, kissing his stubbled cheek.

I hope he’s taking care of himself.

“I missed you so much. I had no idea if you were okay and no way to contact you. . .”

“I am, and I’ll continue to be okay,” she assured him, “and I owe it all to you. If you weren’t home I wouldn’t have made it out of that house.”

“I relive that dream most nights,” he shook his head, “sometimes I don’t get there in time.”

“Let’s hope those nightmares end now,” she told him firmly, “you need to take care of yourself over worrying about me.”

Christopher gave her a sly smile. “I’ll do my best.”

“Good,” she laughed.

“You better do the same.”

“I will,” she promised.

“Don’t let Kellen push you around.”

“I never do,” she winked.

He grinned. “I still can’t believe you’re married. . . I’m happy you found him.”

“Me too, I love him so much.”

“I believe that.” He sighed. “You aren’t my baby sister anymore, now you’re a Dark Queen. Please don’t let this be the last time I see you when I’m alive.”

“How did you-”

“I know you’re immortal. And I don’t want you to forget me, okay?” he chuckled.

She nodded. “I won’t. You have my word as the Dark Queen.”

He chuckled. “That’s great and all, but I’d rather have it from my sister.”

Darby smiled. “Then you have my word as your Sorella piccola.”