CHAPTER 3 -- ABANDON DECORUM
His eyelids weighed a ton, yet he stared distantly in the dark. Shy was restless after Tabor had woken him up and then nearly blasted him—and quite possibly the entire apartment building—into nuclear ash. Nothing could distract his mind from the stress headache that throbbed in his temples, neither the big elephant-in-the-room wedding nor the Internet searches for hideouts in Helsinki. Only the haunting image of Tabor's veins alight with blue electricity, illuminating their dark bedroom, was etched upon his mind. This terrifying knowledge was his uninvited bedfellow, and he couldn't shake it. He closed his eyes, rolling as much tension out of his shoulders as he could, and listened to the quiet tapping of his laptop keys in the living room.
Shy ran his fingers through his hair and unconsciously reached for Tabor's still-warm side of the bed, as he had many times in the night when he felt burdened. His fingers glided over her nightmare-haunted, sweat-drenched pillow and felt it sting his heart. He quickly abandoned that coping idea and instead massaged the contours of his eyes, withdrawing to his mind's situation table for a solution. If she were to find out about that the Institute was still a very present problem, how would she handle it with her past still volatile in her present? How could he continue down a path with her? Was it a cruel charade of having a future together?
My God, what was she really capable of doing?
Shy trembled.
It was becoming clear to him that Ilsino was right; he didn't know enough about power auras. However, he knew that a fiend like Ilsino would not be the best trainer for Tabor. Shy chewed on his nails as he weighed his options, a habit he'd picked up during the Roaring 20s. He considered another trip to the Horn of Africa, to search the ancient vampire texts. No, he quickly nixed that thought; it was an opening to getting sidetracked, which he could not afford. He had too much business with the wolves, Ilsino, Genevieve, and the always-haunting ticking Helsinki bomb that would rock their world.
Eventually, the sun brightened the room, and Shy surrendered to the state of wakefulness and crawled out of bed to survey the damage of last night's war.
The birds chipped, the wind was still, and this sunny fall morning was the epitome of perfection. His living room shared space with a small kitchenette, accented by two large bay windows that brightened and heated the room. Amidst this picture of tranquility, Tabor was curled in a ball and sleeping, her face etched with worry. His computer lay on the floor next to the couch, its screen still on. He picked it up, expecting to find that she was trying to hack into his history. Instead, he rolled his eyes and huffed "hypocrite" under his breath. She had been reading romance stories online all night. He tried to steady any jealous feelings and resigned himself to the fact that she had only been trying to forget whatever dream she'd had.
Shy rolled his eyes as he turned off the computer and tucked it away under his coffee table. He didn't want to wake her, so he quietly made breakfast and brewed tea for her. He turned on the TV and watched with subtitles; his admitted guilty pleasure—morning talk shows with cooks for hosts. After last night's thoughts about massacring his neighbors and his lover nearly destroying him, he was spooked to the core. At times he could only stand at his kitchen counter, hands tightly gripping the edges, not daring to move, further trapping himself in a daze, his eyes clouded over with fear. Neither cooking nor TV could pull his mood away from the dirge to which his heart beat. He was awash in desperation; he wanted to cling to Tabor, yet knew it to be futile.
Tabor's phone buzzed in the bedroom, and then his own phone rang. Shy swore as he rushed to his grey military pea coat on the couch, to fetch the phone before it woke Tabor.
Before looking at his phone he already knew who it was. Tabor's mother had developed a habit of calling Tabor; when Tabor didn't answer by the second ring, her mother would immediately call him.
"Is she there?" The actress on the other end of the line asked the moment he pressed the talk button. Shy squeezed the bridge of his nose; it would have been a simple enough question if it hadn't had such a horrific history.
"She's sleeping." His voice was gravely from lack of moisture.
"Ah." Her mother immediately calmed, and Shy knew she would now talk to him for hours if she could.
"I don't want to wake her. She had a rough night."
"Dreams, huh? Well anyways, don't talk; just listen. I've been wondering about you two. Are you getting on well? I only ask because you've been through a lot; with some couples that can bring you closer, and with others further apart. You two were still in the early days of your relationship when you first met, so this may be a strain on your relationship's potential. I know Salome seems like a dramatic girl, disappearing and being..."
Tabor's mom always got choked up with certain parts she refused to forget, even though Shy's spell allowed her the peace of forgetting the torrid details of what happened to her daughter.
"Kidnapped. But she really isn't a handful. She's low-maintenance, more down-to-earth than any other child who has grown up in Hollywood, if you ask me. If anything, Salome is probably pulling back right now, not letting you in. She's like that, like a dying dog leaving its owner to spare its feelings.
Salome really loved Declan. She loved that guy with her whole soul. Salome loves with her whole being. She's like that woman, the one that went to the ends of the earth for love - I forget the story - but she's like that."
Yes, she was. Shy was comforted remembering how beautiful her soul was when his vampire nature touched it, and the immensity of her love for him. No matter how he was to talk to the actress initially, she really did have a way t of making him feel better.
"She's a good girl. Shy, I know you mean the best for her, but what are you doing?
Shy grunted, his voice dry from not speaking.
"Don't answer that." Tabor's mom corrected herself. "And don't wake her, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Shy, you seem...."
She was searching for the right word that wouldn't insult him.
"You're a man of the modern world. I don't want my daughter to be one of those women who never marries, even though they wait and want to marry, but they settle for less just to have these... men in their lives in this charade of sorts, of what they truly have dreamt of. I don't know if I am making myself clear." The actress's summery voice frosted over. "Simply put, Shy: I know how much she was dedicated to Declan, but I will not put up with that mess again.
"Salome deserves someone who will return her love equally, and I will not tolerate anyone giving her less again. He nearly destroyed her before she was even kidnapped and tortured by those crazy people."
Shy could hear her rubbing the stress from her face to try to calm the fury, which he shared on this topic.
"Salome has dreams of getting married, having children, and growing old with the one she loves. She's been planning her wedding, like most little girls, forever."
Shy smiled and shook his head. He knew that the actress had plans for an extravagant wedding, not Salome. But then he did paused with the thought that Salome Tabor did want to marry him, and was very clear on her desires for a traditional union. The idea of marrying after hundreds of years, after so many women and chances for true love, just seemed like he was asking for all the goddesses to punish him more than the famed house of Atreus.
"Anyways, she may have a funny way of showing it, but she really trusts you. She loves you so much. I've had a successful marriage in Hollywood. The key was to have no secrets and have absolute trust, even when we were afraid of how the other would react. Whatever it is that's keeping you two in limbo is better dealt with together. My daughter is strong, I know, but she will always be my baby. Just don't underestimate her."
"Shy... Shy? Are you still there?"
"Yeah," he replied, rocks in his throat.
"Listen, I've got to go, darling. I love you both. I am really looking forward to spending more time with you. Also, please remind my lovely daughter about the Gala at the museum this week. If she gives you any grumpy gruff, remind her that we've talked about this in emails for over a week.
"Also Shy, please get her to the dressmaker on Madison Avenue, she already missed her appointment three days ago. So I will see you Thursday. Love you, Shy. Tell Salome I love her too."
Shy couldn't help but chuckle about Tabor's mother. He liked her a lot. He couldn't imagine the woman as a Power Aura with her temperament, but even though she seemed easily fooled she was a spitfire.
