Chapter 23 #2
Settling the popcorn and candy at my feet, I take his hand and press a kiss to his clawed tips, to his palm, to his wrist. He purrs softly, and his head droops toward mine.
“Want to try some of the snacks?” I ask him.
He nods, and I pick up the popcorn, looking over in time to see Everest trying to get Rathyn to take a bite of what he ordered. Rathyn bares his fangs and shakes his head, looking like our little possum when she’s disgruntled.
“Come on,” Everest wheedles. “One bite.”
“I will not ingest your poisonous treats,” Rathyn growls.
Cielo quickly stiffens and rips the popcorn out of my hands. “No.”
I groan. “Baby, no. It’s not actually poison. It’s just, you know, not super healthy to have all the time. But I promise it’s fine. It’s delicious…or at least I think so.”
Cielo glowers down at the popcorn as though it’s trying to actively kill me, so I reach into the bucket and take a handful, throwing it into my mouth before he can stop me.
He watches with wide eyes as I chew and swallow, chasing it down with a thick swallow of Diet Coke.
“Crispy,” I say, a little breathless from the bubbles.
I think about offering him some pop, but I don’t think he’ll like the carbonation.
“Anyway, look. I’m fine.” I lean over toward Rathyn when Cielo seems unmoved. “Please tell him it’s not actually poison.”
He doesn’t move until Everest elbows him, and then he sighs and says something in their language. Cielo stiffens, then relaxes and relinquishes the popcorn bucket back to me.
“Baby, I promise I would never feed you poison,” I vow, then hold up a popped kernel to his lips.
He sniffs it, and then the tip of his forked tongue darts out, licking it before making a face and quickly shaking his head. “That is not of the earth,” he tells me in my head.
I burst into laughter. “I mean, technically it’s a plant, but yeah. It’s pretty processed. I think—”
“Are you going to be talking for the entire movie? Seriously, this is so fucking dumb,” a guy in front of us says loudly, twisting around to look at us. He’s big, thick, and muscled. Looks a lot like the bullies I had in high school.
I flick a kernel near him. “Hey, calm down, alright? It’s just the previews.”
The guy stares at me, then looks over at Everest, and then his gaze fixes on Rathyn. He scoffs, “Whatever. I guess I can’t expect manners from monster-fuckers.”
Everest immediately goes red. “Uh, fuck you, dude. What is wrong with you? Or is your mind mush from the brain worm you’ve got up there.” Everest taps his temple. “Hard to think straight when it’s eating all those coherent thoughts, huh?”
The guy goes even redder and stands up, leaning over his seat. “You wanna take this outside?”
Everest grins. “Fuck yeah, I do…”
He stops when Rathyn stands, his massive height looming over the man. “You wish to take my Everest outside?”
The guy swallows, but I can tell he isn’t going back down. He has that crazed look of the over-inflated ego held by mediocre men. Maybe Everest is onto something. Maybe he does have a brain worm.
“Yeah, I do. I’m going to fuck him up.”
“You wish…to fuck my Everest?” Rathyn demands, his voice booming. Heads turn, and I slink down in my seat, the popcorn bucket at my chin, shoveling bits into my mouth as a chew.
This is even better than the movie.
“What? Hell no, you piece of shit monster—”
Rathyn begins to growl low in his chest. “Good, because I would never allow that. You are disgusting. You smell of human piss and disease. You are like the public toilets that are uncleaned.”
The guy’s eyes go wide as he assesses Rathyn, and it’s only a split second when I see it. He’s going to take a swing, but not at the Vyastil that pissed him off. At Everest.
I open my mouth just as the guy cocks his arm back, but before I can make a sound, Rathyn catches him by the curled fist and squeezes. Hard.
Not enough to break bones, but I can tell it’s close. The guy makes a whimpering sound, and two of his friends, who were oddly quiet, immediately stand up and race down the aisle, disappearing around the corner as Rathyn brings the guy to his knees.
“You will not commit violence against my human.”
“You c-can’t do this,” the guy gasps.
Everest glances at me, his eyes panicked, then he lays a hand on Rathyn’s arm. “Sweetheart, let him go.”
“No. I wish to rip his arm off. It is weak and would be quite easy.”
“Rath,” Everest says, pleading now. “It’s fine. He won’t do anything stupid. He’s learned his lesson. You’re going to let him go, and we’re going to sit quietly and watch the movie. Right?” He looks at me. “Right?”
“Right,” I say quickly, biting back a grin. I nudge Cielo, who nods, and it’s then that I can feel a slight thread of anxiety coming off of him. He hates conflict, and I think there’s a part of him that’s still a little afraid of Rathyn.
But then again, didn’t Everest tell me Cielo protected him from a guy just like this? Maybe it’s bringing back memories.
Rathyn takes a long moment, then eventually he uncurls his fingers, one by one, leaving visible red marks on the man’s fist. When he pulls away completely, the man turns and sags into his seat, and it’s easy to see he doesn’t know if he should get up and run or hold on to what’s left of his pride and stay.
Because shit. We have an audience.
Most heads are still turned our way.
This…is not going well.
Suddenly, a woman across the aisle from me leans forward and winks at me. “Good for him. I’m so sick of bullies. You got good guys there.”
Cielo’s ears flutter, and my chest swells.
“We do.”
She grins and then claps when the man in front of us slinks out of the theater. God, I hope he and his friends just go home. I hope they don’t make a scene.
Cielo sinks down into his seat, but I can see him slowly relax. I continue to eat the popcorn, handing him things to try, when Everest rips open new bags.
He doesn’t like the chocolate, but he does quite like the fruit snacks.
He leans over, and his hands move quickly. ‘These taste like berries from Erethar.’
He is using the sign Luca gave his world, an E extending from a fist in an arch like a rainbow.
‘You like?’
He nods and pops a handful more into his mouth. I watch as he chews, a happy look on his face. As he does, I see someone enter the theater with a flashlight, and I feel a sigh well up within me.
I think they’re coming for us.
‘Want to try this?’ I hand him a sour candy from Everest, who is leaning against Rathyn. He hasn’t ripped the arms off the theater seats yet, but he doesn’t look comfortable either.
I watch as the worker ascends the stairs slowly, his head down.
Fucking hell.
Cielo puts the candy into his mouth, and his eyes widen, a loud trill exiting his throat. It pierces the air and makes people crane their necks, hands over their ears. The worker’s gaze shoots up to us, and I slink down in my chair as they quickly make their way up.
As they approach, I purse my lips in irritation.
“Hello, sir,” the young guy says. I feel slightly bad for him. He has to be just a teenager. “I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you four to leave.”
Rathyn leans forward, his gaze serious. “Why must we leave this loud cave? What crime have we committed?”
“You’re causing a disturbance?” He doesn’t sound so sure about that.
“Did that guy complain? Because he took a swing at my friend here,” I say.
“He did not succeed,” Rathyn adds. “He is lucky he retains his arm.” As he says this, he shifts and the chair creaks, and then suddenly the bit that was digging into his side cracks and splinters.
The worker stares at it, and so does Rathyn. Then Rathyn reaches down, rips it off and tosses it to the floor.
“These chairs were made for weak humans. Not for the strength of the Vyastil.”
Everest sighs, putting more candy into his mouth. “Yep, that’s our cue. Let’s go order food in and make drinks at ours. We can watch a movie there.”
I nod, feeling half-panicked by the whole property destruction thing. I don’t know if we’re going to get out of here without being arrested, and that will really freak Cielo out. “That sounds really nice.”
He grins and then pops up. “Come on, Rath. We’ll leave.”
“I do not know if I want company at our place. You still owe me two more orgasms.”
Everest’s eyes widen, and he lets out a manic laugh. “Oh my god. Stop saying that out loud.”
“It is true. I have only had thirteen today.”
He slaps a hand over his eyes, and his shoulders shake. “Fine, but I’ll give them to you after our date is over. Okay?”
“I accept.”
Rathyn stands up, taking the other arm of the seat with him and creating quite a mess. But Cielo follows me into the aisle, the bag of fruit snacks in his hand.
‘Bring home?’ he asks me.
I nod and then link my arms with his, following the nervous worker toward the exit. As we go, we pass by the asshole who got us kicked out, and Rathyn seems to grow taller. He says something low in Eretharian, and it makes the man pale.
I lean toward Cielo, who is holding the empty bag over his mouth.
“What did he just say?” I ask, and Cielo shrugs, turning toward me and lifting his hands.
‘Just threatened to cut off his testicles and feed them to the hungry thrax.’ The way he signs that, classifiers and all, makes laughter erupt from my mouth as we make our way toward the lobby.
I don’t know if I want to know what a thrax is or why it likes balls, but maybe one day I’ll have the courage to ask.
As we make our way to the exit, the worker stops us. “Hold on. Just…wait here. Please.”
Part of me thinks he’s going to call the cops, but when he returns with free movie tickets, it warms my heart.
“Sorry about that guy. He was an asshole.”
Everest blinks at him. “Even though we ripped up the chair?”
The worker snorts. “That kind of made my night.”
Everest sags in relief. “Uh, thank you.” He pockets the tickets. “You’re pretty fucking cool, dude.”