2. Chapter 2
Marduk
“What’s she doing now?” Danzig asked. I was sitting on my motorcycle with my helmet on, parked down the street from Bec’s car.
I had a Bluetooth device attached to my helmet that was connected to my phone, allowing me to talk to my twin while being ready to follow Bec the moment she started to move.
“She got back into her car and is just sitting there,” I said, trying hard not to snap at my brother.
He was as worried about our mate as I was, but he was being annoying.
I know he wasn’t happy about being out of town to finish our current contract.
Once he was back, we could focus on protecting and seducing Bec.
“Why would she do that?” he asked.
“How would I know?” I snapped.
If I had to work right now, I’d probably be as annoying as he was by constantly demanding updates. Sympathy kept me on the phone, annoyance made me snippy.
“But why is she even there in the first place?” he asked.
“I. Don’t. Know.”
Danzig made a frustrated sound. I felt the same way. “This isn’t what she normally does.”
“I know,” I grunted.
For the last few weeks, her schedule had been wonderfully predictable and boring.
She spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at home studying for the bar exam.
At most, she’d take a break in the middle of the day for a caffeine pick-me-up at a nearby cafe.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, she worked for Masel Investigations, sitting safely behind a desk, answering phones and doing paperwork.
After work, she’d pick up food for her and her roommate, then drive home.
What was different about today was that she’d decided to drive into this shitty neighborhood, knock on a random door, talk to a stranger, then sit in her car.
“She’s following me on PixUs,” Danzig said.
It took me a moment to figure out what that meant. “That social media thing you like so much?”
“You’d like it too, if you gave it a chance,” he countered. “But I already have the handle GreenScales1520 so you’ll have to pick something else. Anyway, I sent her a few pictures.”
“Please tell me you didn’t send dick pics,” I begged. I might not know much about dating, but I knew that was a big no-no.
Danzig snorted. “Of course not. I sent her some pictures from here in Peru.”
“That might be worse,” I said. “Your travel photos are always out of focus or look like you took the picture while hanging upside down.”
“Well she liked them,” he said with a huff. “We talked a little. When I asked her out on a date she said maybe.”
“Maybe doesn’t sound very good,” I said.
“Maybe is better than what we’ve gotten so far. You should download the app,” he insisted. “Her username is TheNewMe888.”
If Danzig had managed to get Bec to interact with him on PixUs, then I needed to try also.
I downloaded the app and he listened to me bitch and complain as I went through setting up my account.
It took me way too long to finally pick a user name, which Danzig insisted couldn’t be my actual name. I chose MotoSerpent1520.
“Good one,” Danzig complimented.
After that I answered a few questions and verified my email, but when it asked me to post, I almost stopped.
“You have to make at least one post to make your account active,” Danzig explained. “Come on Marduk, it’s the last step.”
I went through the photos on my phone, but almost all of them were of bridges, roads, or plans for bridges or roads. They weren’t even artistic images, they showed structure and functionality. Bec wouldn’t like any of them.
I finally came across one of a brilliant purple and yellow caterpillar I’d found while working on location a few years ago. The exposure was good, the caterpillar was in focus, and the lush dark green foliage around it made the colorful creature seem even more bright.
I posted that one with a minimal caption. “Done, now how do I find Bec?”
“I’m tagging her in your post,” Danzig said and a comment appeared under my post.
GreenScales1520
I might take a lot of good pictures, @TheNewMe888, but Marduk takes one really good one.
Bec’s response was startlingly quick.
TheNewMe888
Omg, that’s beautiful! You take amazing photos.
MotoSerpent1520
Thank you.
I wasn’t sure what to say next, but this small interaction made a massive grin unfurl across my face, hidden from any passerby by my full-face helmet.
“Show me how to follow, or whatever,” I demanded.
Danzig took me through the process of a friend request, and then how to access the direct message part of the app.
When Bec accepted my request, I felt triumphant. She was talking to us! True, it was through the veil of this app, but it counted as progress.
“Send that picture of the camel you took when we were in Australia,” Danzig told me.
This was working so I didn’t question Danzig’s order. However it took me forever to find the damn picture, it was from over ten years ago! I didn’t realize I had pictures on this phone going back that far.
I sent the camel photo, even though the lighting was a little overexposed, and a short explanation of why a camel was indoors.
MotoSerpent1520
This camel liked people so much he’d follow them around like a dog. He even followed me into the house I was renting and I had to get the property owner to come over and get him out.
The little glowing bubble that indicated someone was typing popped up, then came Bec’s response. It was a series of laughing emoji’s and then words.
TheNewMe888
He’s going to get along really well with Danzig’s llama!
“Has she responded? What did she say?” Danzig asked.
“Something about your llama getting along with my camel,” I answered. “Please tell me this isn’t some weird sexual thing?”
Danzig burst out laughing. I heard his phone sound in the background. He must be DMing with her also.
“Ask her about her favorite foods or desserts,” Danzig said. “I’m asking about hobbies she wants to try. If all she’s doing is sitting in her car, then now is a good time to message her.”
MotoSerpent1520
Have you ever had gelato?
TheNewMe888
Yes, there’s a place not far from the condo. It’s so good that I had to limit how many times a week I let myself go there.
I asked about her favorite flavors and if she’d ever tried tiramisu. That’s when I found out that her friend Mila was a pastry chef. That led us to talk a little about her life back in South Dakota. I was learning more right now than I had in the last few months.
“This is fantastic," I said. Danzig and I were still on a call, chatting as we messaged back and forth with Bec. “I’m going to need to find all my photos from when we were building in China and post them.”
“That was the height of your photography obsession so that’s a good idea. Bec is telling me she might like to try photography out as a hobby so maybe you two could bond over that.”
“I got rid of all my gear a while back, but I could buy us both new cameras and lenses,” I said.
I was so focused on finding just the right words to respond to Bec’s question about my favorite place to travel, that I didn't realize that Danzig had gone silent.
I actually forgot we were on a phone call until Danzig blurted out something shocking. “I talked to Mom.”
“No!” I breathed, almost hitting send on a half-finished sentence. “Tell me you didn’t tell her about Bec.”
Our mom was a typical female J?rmungandr: strong, loud, commanding, and protective.
For someone who wasn’t used to the world serpent culture, Mom would seem overbearing and probably overwhelming. We were a long-lived species and children were rare. Not only had Mom managed to lay and protect an egg for a hundred years of incubation, but then the two of us popped out of one egg.
No one had ever heard of that happening before. A J?rmungandr who attended our Beginnings Celebration said we were cursed with only half a soul each. Mom beheaded him and tossed his body into the ocean. No one dared say anything negative about us or to us after that.
Our mom was a fearsome J?rmungandr and the oldest alive right now. Her “back in my day” stories include munching on woolly mammoths!
It wasn’t that we were afraid that she’d do anything to Bec, she’d never hurt our mate. In fact, she’d be absolutely delighted and want Bec to start calling her mom right away.
We were terrified that Mom would scare Bec off with her over-the-top enthusiasm.
It was uncommon for either of us to get angry with the other. Mom had done an amazing job of raising us to see each other as best friends instead of competitors, so we rarely squabbled.
Bec changed that. She’d caused us to fight often in the last few months. Case in point, if Danzig had been in front of me, I might’ve punched him right in the face.
“We had an agreement!” I growled. “We weren’t going to tell Mom until after the mating bite!”
“I didn’t mean to,” Danzig said. “Mom knew I was keeping something from her and kept asking questions.”
I had to admit that our mother wasn’t an easy one to lie to. Still, Danzig should’ve come up with an excuse to hang up.
“You’re pathetic," I grumbled.
“Hey, that was mean,” Danzig said.
“Or was it accurate?”
Danzig let out a long sigh. “Only when it comes to Mom. She started talking about the time I wandered into an Odontotyrannos nest, and she got badly bitten getting me out. I felt so guilty I couldn’t help but confess everything.”
“That happened almost 500 hundred years ago,” I reminded him. “You have to stop feeling bad about that. We were young, of course we were going to get in trouble.”
“I know, I know,” Danzig said. “I’m trying. It’s just that she gets that tone in her voice, and it melts my will.”
“I need to call her,” I said. “She can’t visit yet.”
“She’s already on her way,” Danzig said. “But she promised she’d be well-behaved.”
“It’s good that we’re not going to be taking any more contracts,” I said, already picturing all the effort it was going to take to keep Mom and Bec apart. “The sooner you’re home, the easier this will all be.”