“Go! Give your brother cover!”
He raced off, also exploding in mid-air. The tower I’d scaled was suddenly becoming very crowded. Alexandria was on her feet, although limping, and had gotten her sword in hand again. Her mother was uttering spells while ducking in and out of cover—I was grateful she hadn’t realized I was out of my anti-monster juice—while Mr. Parracida was still shouting curses and orders from where he was hiding behind a linen chest.
As for Sergio, he was still standing between us and his parents, occasionally throwing vials from his belt just like Luther had during the funeral fight.
At least now I know where they got those particular supplies from!
But I couldn’t just stand back and watch the festivities, so I rushed over to my final target and sawed at Jackson’s bonds.
“Save the best for last, huh?” he cracked, and as much as it wasn’t really the best time for it, it was good to see that he still had his sparkling personality. With everything that hadhappened, I wouldn’t blame him if he went a little dark and broody.
“Sure, you tell yourself that.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
As I sawed through the bonds, I looked around me. The human woman pulled Luther fully into her arms, not caring about the rather monstrous figure he had become. Between the boils and blisters from my super soaker, his torn-off limb, and his roughly hewn hair, he was far from the dashing man I’d seen in the pictures at his funeral. But it was like she didn’t even see all that, and my heart squeezed as she sobbed.
“Come back to me, Luther! Come back!” With a shaking hand, she wiped his foamy drool away. “I know you can find yourself. I know you would never leave me alone. I love you, Luther, and you love me. Come back to me and hold me just like you always have!”
Nothing happened.
At least nothing good. Luther continued to struggle in his lover’s arms, steam and smoke noxiously wafting up from him. Mrs. Parracida had come out of hiding. Lightning crackled from her one hand and fractal rays came from the other in short bursts. Chris was trying to get to her, with Sergio still standing as defense between them and his parents while Penelope was doing her best with Alexandria. That woman must have had a whole lot of fencing lessons in her youth because sheknewhow to work that sword.
Luther surged to his knees, his lover rising with him, still begging, still pleading with him to come back to her, and I panicked, wondering if I was wrong.
“You have to break the spell!” I cried, realizing I’d never actually told her my full thought, assuming she’d just be doing it naturally.
“I don’t know how! I’m just a dental hygienist!”
“Yes, you do!” I finished freeing Jackson with a grunt, and he leapt forward, exploding into his own wolf to help Chris take down Sergio before he threw any more volatile spell bottles into the fight. “It’s true love’s kiss!”
“What?” Paul blurted. It was the first time he’d paused to question me, which was wild considering I’d showed up to save the day with a children’s water gun. “Cherry, that’s not real!”
“Yes, it is. It’s gotta be!” I argued before looking back at the woman. “And if I’m wrong, don’t you want to kiss him one more time?”
That seemed to convince her, and the woman looked into Luther’s unfocused, bloodshot eyes. Her love for him radiated out of her and filled the entire tower.
I watched, more than a bit gobsmacked, as it bloomed into soft shades, all mixing together and expanding on each other in a beautiful orchestra of emotion. Now, I understood the tempest I had been pulled into when I’d laid hands on Luther at the funeral had only been the slightest taste of what they felt for each other.
Pink clouds rained down prismatic glitter, gentle winds of periwinkle sent bubbles of winking gold drifting through the air. Gentle blue waves of trust, little petals of phthalo firmness surged between them.
It was beautiful, so beautiful I could find no words that would do it justice.
This is what true love looks like!
That was the last thought I had before a blast issued from the two and everyone in the room was knocked off their feet.
With all the fight-or-flight chemicals pumping through my system, I was surprised my heart didn’t pop from the whiplash. I was sure we had just been attacked, but when I rolled onto my side and looked for a threat, I saw we were all frozen. Well, all of us except for Luther and his lover, who were stillkissing. However, something had indeed changed. Instead of her clinging desperately to him, fighting to keep him in her arms, the giant alpha hadherwrapped up inhisembrace!
“Holy shit! That actually worked!” Paul cried as he got to his feet.
I wasn’t even offended. “It did! It actually did!”
Despite everything that had happened, despite all the pain, all the torment, despite the fact that I was sure I was missing a tooth and my face was covered in deep purple bruises, joy rushed through me, then a sense of triumph that I didn’t think was possible. The Parracidas had tried to twist a beautiful love into something awful and wicked, but even with an ancient pact with a powerful, otherworldly entity, some things couldn’t be defeated.
But, of course, they couldn’t just admit defeat. No, that would be far too simple.
The matriarch let out a truly ear-piercing shriek as she picked herself up off the floor and saw Luther clinging to his rescued lover like the lifeline that she was. She and her husband were definitely two of a kind, because her pasty visage turned downright burgundy.