“She didn’t tell me much at all—she was pretty upset if you want to know the truth,” Iyanna said frankly. “But maybe if you talk to me a little, we can clear this up. What do you say?”
“Well…” T’zaren hesitated. Should he speak of his most private relationship with a female he barely knew? It seemed wrong. But Iyanna had a kind face and he knew that Dra’vik would not have chosen her as a mate if she wasn’t a good female with excellent personal qualities.
“Come on…” She motioned to the inside of her domicile. “Come inside and let’s have some tea or coffee or whatever you want to drink and we can work this thing out. Maybe I can act as a kind of intermediary between you and Lucy.”
The idea that one of Lucille’s best friends still thought him worth talking to—and that she might possibly be able to speak to hisS’renthaon his behalf—decided T’zaren.
“All right,” he said, nodding. “Thank you for your invitation. Though I fear it is a hopeless case. There’s not much a male can do when he has been discarded by hisS’rentha.”
“Discarded?”Iyanna exclaimed. “Okay, youreallyneed to get in here.” And she motioned him into her domicile.
T’zaren followed her, though he doubted it would do any good. It was clear that Lucille had no more interest in him and never wanted to see him again.
FIFTY-THREE
LUCY
“Lucy, honey, for the last timewhat’s wrong?”Aunt Delilah put a hand on her ample hip and shook her head. “I haven’t seen you this upset in ages! What happened up in that Monstrum Mother Ship to make you so blue?”
“Oh, well…” Lucy sighed as she spread out the stretchy cotton fibers of the “spider webs” in one corner of the shop.
Her aunt’s rock and gem store was located in an old Victorian mansion in a residential neighborhood and it was a favorite place for local kids on Halloween. Aunt Delilah always decorated the whole shop to the hilt, though it was already magical looking because of the displays of crystals that hug everywhere, catching the light and throwing rainbow shadows on the floor and ceiling.
She led tours and the children got to reach into the “bubbling cauldron” (which was actually just a big pot with some dry ice under a screen at the bottom,) and pull out some “magic candy.” People came from miles around to bring their kids and they were always enchanted with the decorations.
Lucy normally loved this time of year—as did Aunt Delilah. As a practicing Wiccan, she was at her peak at Halloween—or Samhain as Wiccans called it. But this year everything felt flat and stale and pointless. Even the chunk ofdimrielwhich was hanging enticingly in a display over the front door of the shop couldn’t lift her mood.
She had given the rare crystal to her aunt as a souvenir. The Monstrum Mother Ship hadn’t needed it, since T’zaren had brought a much bigger piece to Commander Rarev. It cast spooky, blood-red shadows when the light hit it and looked wonderfully mysterious, but it only served to remind Lucy of her time with T’zaren and how she would probably never see the big Monstrum again.
“Come on honey—what is it? What’s wrong?” her aunt urged, breaking into her train of thought. “You know you can tell me.”
No I can’t, I really can’t,Lucy thought to herself. Since her parents had died so young and Aunt Delilah had raised her, she was more like a mom than an aunt to Lucy. And there was no way she could tell her what had happened on her mission for the Monstrum Mother Ship.
After all, what was she going to say?Sorry, Aunt Delilah—I’m just feeling down because I thought I met the perfect guy but then we went on a dangerous mission together and he let me fuck him and then he got all butt-hurt about it—no pun intended—and we haven’t talked since because he hasn’t called me.
No—there was no way she was going to say all of that—oranyof it—to her aunt. So she just shook her head and sighed.
“Sorry, Aunt Delilah. I guess I’m just not feeling Halloween this year.”
“Well that’s too bad, since you’re on your own with the trick-or-treaters this year,” her aunt said briskly.
“What? But Aunt Delilah, I can’t stay tonight! I only came to help you decorate and then I have to get home,” Lucy protested.
Her aunt arched an eyebrow at her.
“And why is that? What are you rushing home to do? Grade papers? And let me guess—then you’ll order Thai food and watch The Hallmark Channel all night all by yourself. Right?”
Lucy sighed. Her aunt knew her too well.
“Actually, I was going to order Vietnamese tonight,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster.
“Thai food…Vietnamese food—it doesn’t matter. You always do the same thing when you’re in a funk,” Aunt Delilah said as she rearranged the laughing skeleton behind the door.
“I’mnotin afunk,”Lucy protested. “I’m just not feeling it this year, that’s all. And anyway, where are you going to be?”
“With my coven, of course. There’s a rare triple blood moon scheduled for tonight—it’s a very powerful time for Wiccans and I need to partake in the ceremony.”
“But Aunt Delilah, Ireallydon’t know if I can take all those little kids in costumes tonight,” Lucy protested. “It’s just going to remind me of how I don’t have any kids of my own!”