Chapter 13 #2
Pearson had a way about him. Yes, his face was pleasing, and the cut of his uniform was flattering, but it was more than simple aesthetics.
He had a commanding presence. When he spoke, a person listened.
When he made a request, it seemed like the most logical course of action.
Even when she disagreed with him—which was often—she felt compelled to do as he asked.
Perhaps her mother was right, and he did turn her head.
Nina had encountered many a person who did not enjoy being given orders by a woman. Some were even her fellow deputies. If she had a modicum of authority, they questioned her capabilities and called her bossy. She was never described as decisive, she was impulsive . It was infuriating.
Pearson never questioned her capabilities. Her reasoning and the choices she made, yes. Never once did she get the impression that he considered her less because she was a woman. He treated her as a colleague and she liked that.
Sometimes she even liked him.
Then he usually opened his mouth and spouted a bit of arrogant drivel and any budding admiration vanished.
As if she summoned him with her brooding, she sensed him approaching. He moved through the currents of the Nexus energies, navigating the waters, so to speak. He slipped in and out of the stream, creating the smallest of ripples.
“It’s rude to sneak up on a person,” Nina said, keeping her gaze on the river.
“It’s rude to cheat at cards.” Pearson joined her at the railing.
“I never.” She absolutely did. The sleight of hand necessary to successfully cheat had many useful applications, and she liked to keep in practice. “And if I did, it makes the game livelier, not that you could prove it one way or another.”
“I see you take a very flexible approach to rules,” he said, speaking in an extraordinarily inflexible tone.
“You know that is untrue. I hold everyone accountable to the law. No exceptions.” Which was exactly why she agreed to this impulsive quest. There. She had an answer. Her head had not been turned by a handsome face. She was doing this to hold troublemaking soldiers accountable.
“Wherever did you learn to play like that?” he asked.
“My mother enjoys a good game of cards.”
“I find it difficult to believe you learned to cheat so effectively from your mother.”
Nina said nothing incriminating. Her mother was from a village in the South Isles, whose largest industry was, apparently, fleecing travelers intent on enjoying the sun and warm weather.
The climate was also the only place on Nexus suitable for growing coffee and other tropical fruits, but agricultural work did not appeal to Arianna.
A lady with questionable scruples and an aversion to sun exposure had to generate funds somehow.
“I never gamble, so I can’t see that it matters much,” Nina said.
“All is forgiven then,” he said, his tone sarcastic.
All was not forgiven. Pearson’s life had dramatically changed—cure or no cure —and the stress of his new circumstances put him in a foul mood.
A mood that he shared liberally with her.
She had deliberately provoked him with the card game, but the feelings of resentment and anger had been increasing until they were impossible to ignore.
She needed an argument to clear the air enough to breathe again, which is why her next words were ill advised.
“I do not believe there is a cure and you’ve sent us on a fool’s errand,” she said.
“There is a cure,” he said, his tone certain.
No mention of the fool’s errand. Interesting.
Still leaning on the railing, Nina angled her body to face him. “How can you be sure?”
“My cousin Madeline,” he said, then rubbed his chin as if considering his answer more carefully. “When I was young, she fell ill. I remember a physician came to the house and then she disappeared. I’ve always assumed she went away for treatment. No one discussed it.”
“Now you think otherwise,” she said, filling in the gap.
“Obviously.”
“Not obviously. How was she ill? Was she like you? Or was it a fever and she recovered? Pregnancy? There are many fates that a young woman can suffer and no one will discuss.” The lack of credible information frustrated her.
“I was a child. No one informed me of the details, but in retrospect, I believe we share a common malady. He held up a hand, spreading his to display the webbing between.”
That was a leap of logic but she agreed. “Have you seen or spoken to her since then?”
“No. Not for many years, but that is not unusual. I have little contact with my family. The only one I correspond with is Roderick, Madeline’s brother. He claims that she returned to Saltwick.”
“Does he claim that she is cured?” Continuing to poke at Pearson’s belief in a cure did not give her any pleasure but it was necessary. She needed to know what kind of reception to expect from the Pearson family.
“She returned.”
A laughing couple sauntered along the balcony. Nina gave what she hoped was a friendly smile and said good evening as they passed.
Once the couple was out of earshot, she said, “If there were a cure, it’d be widely known by now.”
“There has to be a cure. I can’t be… be like this!” He grabbed a chunk of his hair and pulled it back to dramatically reveal his fin-tipped ears.
Nina reached out and brushed a finger over the ear. “Hardly noticeable.”
He huffed.
“And what is unacceptable with how you are, Pearson? You have a condition that conveniently has a schedule. It’s perfectly manageable,” she said. “The first transition is the most difficult and we’re beyond that now.”
“It’s not how I’m meant to be. This is an abomination.”
“Abomination,” she repeated. “That is a very strong word. I dislike it. Do not speak of yourself in such a manner.”
“Are you honestly trying to convince me that existing as a monster is acceptable? Your family made their fortune hunting monsters.”
“ Dangerous monsters,” she said. “But you, Major Anthony Pearson? You identified what was happening to you and immediately sought assistance to be sequestered. Is that not the military’s protocol? Isn’t that exactly what you are meant to do?”
He huffed again. “The NPF soldiers are expected to report to the facility on base for confinement, not to run off and hide.”
“You reported to a qualified professional. I hardly see the concern. Unless you wish to claim that the accommodations I provided were amateurish?”
“You have a dungeon. I believe that is the hallmark of a professional monster hunter,” he conceded.
“Well then, you did exactly as you should have, thus not dangerous, and thus able to pursue life, liberty, and whatever pleases you.”
“You think I can just slip back undetected into my life? Looking like this?” He held up an ungloved hand. Between the moonlight and the boat’s lanterns, the webbing between his fingers was unmistakable.
“Undetected? No. Your change is undeniable, but I fail to see the concern. Children will not cry in the street when they see you.”
He scoffed. “That is your measure of an acceptable existence?”
“Honestly, your preoccupation with your appearance sounds like vanity.”
“This is not vanity . What happens when I’m caught in the rain? When I shift back into a monster?” he asked, repeating the question he asked in her kitchen.
She shrugged her shoulders. “You’re not made of sugar.”
“No, I am made of fish.”
Silence fell between them.
“Did you make a joke?” she asked, stunned.
He shrugged his shoulders in the most disrespectful manner.
“How dare you keep a sense of humor from me?” She closed the distance between them, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. “I’ve been cooped up with nothing but your grumpy self for conversation and you’ve been secretly witty and amusing?”
He grabbed her finger, wrapping his hand around hers. She reached for the dagger at her side, bringing it up to his neck. The edge glowed faintly violet.
How dare he make her feel so angry, so frustrated, and so sympathetic all at once. It was unfair to have to regard him in a new manner when he had been stodgy Major Pearson, her nemesis, for so long.
How dare he claim to be hideous when he was still, even after his transformation, objectively beautiful.
How dare he make her feel this way. She had to do something about this. She had to make him feel as confused, frustrated, and excited as she felt. It was intolerable.
She pushed up onto her toes and slammed her mouth into his.
Anthony
The kiss was unexpected, not unappreciated. He appreciated it immensely.
His arms found their way around her, holding her tight. This is where she belonged. The monster inside him bubbled with pleasure.
She pulled away, breaking contact, but not escaping his embrace. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“The devil you say.” He pulled her back, lowering his lips to hers.
He hesitated for a moment, allowing her time to protest or pull away. She did neither. Instead, she said, “Hurry up and kiss me again, Pearson.”
He obliged.
The kiss was hurried and energized, hungry and taking far too much with a voracious appetite. It was a tangle of tongues fighting for dominance. He growled with the pleasure of it.
He had wanted this for some time. Admiration began as a trickle. This was more than the bond. This was a torrent of desire that started possibly the first moment he saw her.
No. The first time she laid into him and gave him a piece of her mind. Yes, that was the moment that captured his heart, long before the bite. Now he had her in his arms, trembling from anger or passion, he knew not but he knew he never wanted to let her go. He belonged to her.
Nina pulled away, lips parted and panting. Her fingers gripped the lapel of his coat.
“We should have done that years ago,” he said.
“I would have stabbed you.”
He loved this woman.
“Why haven’t you married?” he asked, just before all hell broke loose.