Made to Love (12 page)

“
But I want to share
everything with you,” he said.

“
We have so much already,”
I whispered.  “Our music, our love.”

He nuzzled my hair. 
“I do love you.  You know that.”

“
Yes, I do.”

We pulled apart and leaned
together.  I knew I could make him ready.  I knew I could
do anything for him that he wanted, if he gave me the chance. 
Certainly, I needed to try.

But I saw a shadow looming
behind him, and I gasped.  “Byron!”

Octavius whirled
around.  Huge wings popped out of his back, and I ducked to
avoid them.  If I hadn't, they probably would have broken my
nose; they looked that powerful.

“
Octavius,
wait!”

But either he ignored me,
or he didn't hear, for he was jumping off the couch and rushing
forward.

I screamed like my soul was
breaking.  For all I knew, it was.  Breaking into tiny,
bitty pieces.

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

“
What are you doing?” I
shrilled, clutching at my hair with my hands.  “Byron! 
Octavius
!”

Byron’s hands clapped down
on Octavius’s shoulders.  His face was contorted with fury, no
longer beautiful, but entirely monstrous.  He jerked Octavius
off the floor and flung him into a wall.

Octavius grunted, his wings
crumpling behind him.

“
No!”  I threw myself
on Byron, grabbing his arm.  I didn’t try to hurt him—I just
didn’t want him going after Octavius again.  “What are you
doing?”

He looked at me, and it was
like he didn’t even recognize me.  His eyes were blank. 
No recognition.  Byron wrenched his arm from my grasp and
leapt upon Octavius, hauling back and striking him square across
the face.

Octavius used his momentum
to roll them until he was on top, and then he snapped his wings
straight out, giving one hard flap to propel himself
backwards.  “Calliope!” he shouted.  “Run!”

“
I’m not leaving
you!”

Byron barreled toward
Octavius, but the siren dodged, ducking under his blow. 
Instead, Byron hit the couch, and I had to jump out of the way to
avoid getting hit.

Octavius twirled, kicking
Byron square in the back.

“
Enemy,” Byron
growled.

“
Don’t fight!” I wailed,
curling up in the corner.  “Please!”

They grappled, rolling
across the living room.  Byron’s tried to grasp Octavius’s
throat, but he dodged, and Byron instead ended up with a fistful of
shirt.  He ripped, and Octavius was shirtless—and
free.

He pulled away from Byron
and dropped by my side, shielding us with his wings.

“
I won’t let him hurt
you,” he said.

“
Don’t be an idiot, he
doesn’t want to hurt me!”  I pushed Octavius off, and as Byron
ran for us again, I got in his way.

It would occur to me later
that, perhaps, it wasn’t a good idea to get in the way of the
sentient zombie equivalent of a raging bull.  But in that
moment, I was absolutely certain Byron would stop in time to keep
from hitting me.

I was wrong.

The world went
black.

Chapter Thirty

I woke up with a raging
headache and two very concerned faces standing over me.  I
groaned, flinging an arm over my eyes to shield them from the
view.  “Did I die?” I asked nobody in particular.

“
I’m so sorry,” Byron
mumbled, and I could feel his huge, hot hands enveloping my
own.  “Calliope, I would never—”

“
If you don’t stop
touching her, we will pick up our fight where we left off,”
Octavius said, venom dripping from the words. 
“Now.”

Byron didn’t move.  “I
thought he was hurting you.”

I dropped my arm and looked
at him.  His eyes had gone serene again.  He was still so
beautiful.  Beside Octavius, he was nowhere near as pristine –
he was a ragged mess, both in his flesh and expression – but there
was something charmingly beautiful about even his tortured
visage.

“
No, Byron,” I said,
squeezing his hands.

Octavius sat on the bed
beside me, placing a possessive hand on my thigh.  “I said—”
he began, but I interrupted him.

“
Byron doesn’t
understand,” I said gently.  “He’s only been alive for a few
months, and he’s never been off this manor’s grounds.  He’s
definitely never seen… a man and a woman. 
Together.”

“
I thought he was hurting
you,” Byron repeated.

“
I know, Byron,” I
said.  “But he wasn’t.”

“
Unlike you, I would
never
hurt her,” Octavius said.  I gazed up at him
adoringly.  Even when he was being a jerk, he was so
perfect.

I shook myself. 
Stay on topic.

“
If you two can’t stop
fighting, you’re both going away.  Byron, back to the
basement.  Octavius, back to… uh… wherever sirens
go.”

“
You would send me away?”
Octavius asked, brushing his fingers down my cheek.  I
practically melted into a puddle, but then I remembered what he
said—“I haven’t been able to… perform.” 
Calm down,
Calliope,
I told myself. 
No need getting excited when
it can’t go anywhere.

“
You know what, Octavius?”
I said.  “I’m kind of hungry.  Do you think you could
make me something to eat?”

He frowned at Byron. 
“I don’t want to leave you alone with this beast.”

“
I think we have to have
The Talk.”  I added special emphasis to the last two
words.

“
Are you sure you’ll be
safe?”

“
Absolutely,” I said
firmly.

Octavius stood and went for
the door.  “If he hurts you…”

Byron growled. 
Octavius left.

As soon as the siren was
gone, Byron calmed.  He squeezed my hand again.  “What do
you mean, the talk?” he asked.

I searched my memory for
the time I had gotten the birds and the bees explained to me by my
own mother.  As I recalled, it had been a horrendously
embarrassing experience.  Of course, she was my mom, and Byron
was just some nice kid who lived in my basement.  No
problem.

“
You know you’re a boy,
right?” I asked, and Byron nodded.

“
Anatomy has been a part
of the meager education your dad has given me,” Byron said. 
“I know that you are a girl, and that it’s not the same thing as
being a boy.”

“
Okay,” I said, warming to
the subject.  “Did he teach you anything else?  Read any
books to you?”

“
He taught me to read on a
few books.”  He smiled.  “I really liked
Shakespeare.”

“
Great!  You remember
in, um,
Romeo and Juliet
?  No, wait, that’s no
good.  You remember
Much Ado About Nothing
? Claudio and
Hero were getting married.”  I sat up, and Byron helped me
prop the pillows up.  “Did my dad explain marriage?”  He
shook his head.  “It’s when a boy and a girl like each other a
lot and decide they want to be friends for their entire
lives.  Octavius and I are friends.”

Byron looked wounded. 
“Friends don’t hurt each other.”

I took a deep breath. 
Oh boy.  “We were just kissing.  That’s what friends like
we do when we really like each other.  It’s part of… well, if
we decided to get married, that would be part of how we would
reproduce.  That was part of your anatomy class,
right?”

His eyes widened. 
“You would make a new life?”

“
Not like you.  But
yeah, we could have a baby.”

“
I think there’s more to
it than that,” Byron said slowly.  “There’s much about love in
Shakespeare.”

“
Yes.”  I flushed,
thinking about Octavius.  “There really is.”

Byron thought to himself,
gazing out the window.  He really was very, very
handsome.  I wondered if the stitches hurt.  “Are we
friends?”

“
Yes,” I said, “of
course.”

“
Then…”

He leaned over the bed, and
before I could realize what he was doing, he kissed me.  His
lips were hot like the rest of him, and soft, but a line ran down
the middle of the right side.  A stitch.  He tasted like
iron and musk, like wine.

It was a chaste kiss, and
when he pulled back, I touched my own lips.  Wow. 
That was… kind of nice.

No.  No it
wasn’t.  Octavius.  Right.

“
Uh,” I said, searching
for words.  “Um.  We’re not friends like that,
Byron.”

“
But did you like it?” he
asked, smiling.  Cocky jerk.

I didn’t want to lie to
him, so I said, “It was unexpected.”

“
Marriage is exclusive,”
Byron said.  “Don John was in love with Claudio, but once she
married, he couldn’t be with her.  Are you married to
Octavius?”

“
No,” I
admitted.

His smile turned into a
grin.  Byron stood.  “I am reading books too.  Maybe
I can help assemble myself.  But my education is lacking, and
I still have so much to learn.  Will you teach me?”

“
I’m not really much of a
teacher,” I said.

He took my hand and helped
me out of bed.  I had to crane my neck to look up at
him.  “You know very much.  I am eager to learn.” 
Byron lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. 
Where he had learned that, I had no idea, but I swooned.  “I
am going to go study.  Will you come to me tonight and teach
me?”

“
Sure,” I said, struggling
to catch my breath.  “Why not?”

And then he was gone,
disappearing up the stairs, and Octavius entered the room not
moments later.

“
I have food for you,” he
said, holding a tray awkwardly.  “You like peanut butter and
jelly, right?”

Chapter
Thirty-One

“
You know,” I said as I
walked toward the lab after my dinner.  “You don't have to
stay.  It's just going to be a lot of science.”

Octavius growled.  “I
won't leave you alone with him.”

“
But I've been alone with
him a lot!”

“
It isn't the
same
,” he said.  “I love you.  I must protect
you.”

Great.  There was no
way he was going to leave me now.  I could see myself having
to leave a chair in the corner of my room so he could watch me all
night and make sure I wasn't assaulted by Byron.  I'd never
sleep another wink.

And if my dad found out
about all this...

I shook my head as we
entered the lab.  The whirring of the machines was almost
soothing, in its own way.  It was deceptive, alluring. 
If I kept this up, I'd be studying chemistry willingly and ignoring
my poetry, heaven forbid.

Byron stood in the back by
the books.  His back – which I had never looked at before now
– was gorgeous: muscular and dimpled.  It was like he took the
best of four or five different very attractive, ripped men.  I
certainly wasn't complaining.

Octavius grumbled, and I
leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek.  “Seriously, you
can go,” I said.

“
No,” Octavius said. 
He sat on Byron's usual gurney, crossed his arms and legs, and
scowled in our direction.  I had a feeling he'd be like that
for a while. 

Oh well.

I crossed the room and ran
a hand down Byron's back.  I felt the seams with my palm; they
were almost softer than the rest of his skin.  He shivered
under my touch.

“
Calliope!”  Octavius
shouted.

“
What?” I asked, turning
toward him.

“
Be careful.  The
creature doesn't think as we do.”

It was Byron's turn to
scowl.  I sensed that things would become ugly if I didn't
intervene, so I stepped in the gap between them and held up my
hands.  “Look.  We have a lot of work to do, and I don't
need any interruptions, okay?  My parents are going to be
around tomorrow, and I need to take advantage of this now. 
Truce?”

Neither looked particularly
inclined to do so.  I stomped on the floor.  “If you guys
don't cool it, Octavius is going to leave, and I'm going up to my
room to do more homework.”

“
But--” Byron looked
hurt.

“
Calliope--” Octavius
said.

I held up my hand
again.  “You both be nice, or this is over now.  Got
it?”

Byron nodded
immediately.  Octavius eyed him suspiciously, but he
reluctantly nodded as well.

“
Good.” I walked up to
Byron.  “What book do you have?”

He held it up.  The
title was embossed in gold on the green cover:
Powering
Independent Biological Tissue
.  It looked like the volume
we needed.  I nodded with pleasure.

“
This should give us some
hints,” I said, flipping open the front.  I skimmed the table
of contents, found a promising chapter, and turned to the page in
question.  There was a fairly complex diagram of a motor, but
I didn't find it difficult to follow.  My dad would have been
pleased...if he wasn't busy murdering Octavius.