Made to Love (9 page)

As though to agree with me,
a clap of thunder burst overhead.

I shivered, but tried not
to worry.  He was a professional.

Yeah, right.

I distracted myself by
pulling out my book binding paraphernalia.  I didn’t want to
make an entire new poetry book yet – I liked to wait until I had
about a hundred new poems – but I could at least make them look
nice while I continued to write.

Preparing the string and
covers, I continued to throw occasional glances to my working
dad.  He was still on the roof.

“
What an idiot,” I
muttered, wrapping the covers in recycled paper I had made
myself.  I had already put holes in the cardboard underneath,
just waiting for the pink yarn to thread through them.

My dad started to climb
down the roof and slipped.

I dropped my book, staring
out the window.  He hung from the roof by one hand. 
“Crap,” I hissed.  “He’s going to kill himself.”

I ran down the stairs and
out my bedroom door, hoping I could get there in time to save my
father’s life.

Chapter
Twenty-One

My parents' room was still
much like mine, but with more stuff.  That made it easy to run
up the steps of the tower and stick my head out the window: no
wasted time figuring out where things were.  Although it would
have served certain reckless jerks right if I had.

Dad was hanging just out of
reach, trying to grab the storm drain with his other hand.  It
wasn't going so well.

“
Dad!”

“
Calliope!”  It was a
measure of how much he did stupid stuff that he didn't fall
completely when he heard my voice.

“
What are you doing?” I
screamed over the roar of the storm.

He scowled.  “I told
you--”

His free hand slipped, and
he swung dramatically.  He cried out, and I gave a
high-pitched scream.

“
I'm
fine
,” Dad
yelled back.  “Just...give me a hand?”

I reached out, but he was
still too distant to grab from just the window. 
Perfect.

“
If I die doing this,” I
said, shaking my head.  “I am
so
haunting
you!”

With a shudder, I swung
onto the ledge outside the window.  It was stone, and
slippery, so my foot lost traction almost immediately, and I ended
up doing the near-splits outside of the window.  My lady
business didn't appreciate this.

I threw out a few choice
words that I hoped were eaten by the wind and righted myself. 
My dad was patiently hanging there.

“
Ready?” he
asked.

“
For what?” I shouted
back.

I soon found
out.

He swung dramatically in my
direction, but on purpose this time.  I could see his fingers
were starting to slip, and my heart raced.

I waved my hands. 
“No, no!”

But he flew through the air
toward me.  I squeezed my eyes shut and contemplated – for
less than a second – about ducking back inside.

What I actually did was
take the impact of his midair flight and turn toward the
window.  We both crashed inside, my dad on the floor and me
against the glass, across the room, and down half of the stairs in
the tower.

I lay twisted on the stairs
in a pool of my own blood.  I didn't know how serious it was,
since I wasn't in much pain, but I wondered if I was going to
die.

That could be
interesting.

The world faded to black as
my dad screamed my name.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

I entered a realm of light
and beauty.  And not alone.

Under my legs was the most
beautiful golden creature I had ever seen.  It made me wonder
why unicorns were usually depicted as white; the yellow color of
the one I was riding was one of the most glorious colors I had ever
seen. 

He nickered, and I caressed
his mane. 

“
You pretty thing,” I told
him.

He bared square
teeth.  I slid off his back and fed him an apple from a tree;
it looked like we were in my apple orchard, which had brilliant
sunlight making it glow.  The sort of sunlight Oregon rarely
got, of course, but if this was the afterlife, then it was going to
be how I wanted it.

As if on cue, a shadow
appeared at the end of the orchard.  Octavius.  He was as
beautiful as ever, even more beautiful in contrast to the pure gold
around him.  It was as if his imperfect perfection was made
more perfect being surrounded by traditional perfection.  He
walked forward, and the leaves from the apple trees showered around
him, making a carpet of white for him to tread upon.

“
Hello,” he sang. 
“Who's your friend?”

I pat the unicorn's
neck.  “I don't know, but isn't he pretty?”

Octavius grinned. 
“He's nothing next to you.”

I flushed.  I didn't
agree, of course, but even I felt somewhat improved by the
surroundings.

This had to be
Heaven.  There was no other explanation.

There was a crunch behind
me, and I spun.  The white dress I wore spun with me, almost
in slow motion.

A boy my age stood on the
other side of the unicorn.  He was familiar, but different,
and I realized: Byron.  But not as I had seen him, tortured
and nearly naked; he was whole, and his skin was pink and glowing,
as if this was how he was meant to be the whole time.

“
Calliope,” he said. 
His voice wasn't as musical as Octavius's, but it was pleasant all
the same, when he wasn't wracked with agony.

“
Byron,” I
said.

He smiled, and warmth
spread within me.

I had never been happier in
my life, surrounded by all the men I loved.

Which meant, of course,
that it couldn't last.

I fell into darkness once
more, and with it came pain and the feeling of being ripped, like I
would never be whole if I was away from the golden
place.

Death was my home.  I
knew that now.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

My eyes opened, and an
angry black sky stared down at me.

I was moving away from
it.  It took me a minute to recognize the sucking, rushing
sensation in my stomach as the sensation of falling.

The world moved in slow
motion.

I flung my hand out. 
There was a window just beyond my grasp, my father reaching for me,
his mouth opened in a silent scream.  All I could hear was the
roaring of thunder that could have just as easily been my thudding
heart.

I tried to scream, “No!”
but there was no breath for it.

Something jerked my
leg.  Flipped me over.  And still I fell.

The ceiling of my family’s
manor rushed toward me.

Another jerk, and my hip
popped as though it was going to get ripped from the socket. 
My ankle screamed.

I threw my hands in front
of my face the instant before I hit the roof—but something kept me
from hitting it.

That same something
slithered up my leg and wrapped around my waist, beginning to drag
me down the house’s roof even as I tried to grab the tiles with my
slipping fingers.  I finally looked down, and what I saw
nearly made me pass out again.

A black mass of tentacles,
endless and vast, was emerging from the ocean.  And it was
dragging me toward it.

I shrieked, but no matter
how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to find a handhold.  The
tentacle jerked again, and it ripped me free from the roof
entirely.

Freefall.

Another tentacle caught me,
wrapped around my chest.  A third enveloped my knees and
traced up my back to cover my mouth even as I tried to keep
screaming.

The tentacles wrenched me
down the cliff face to the beach, smacking me against the
sand.

Water streamed into my
eyes, and the thunder roared its fury above.  A thick, slimy
covered in squid-like suckers fastened to my cheek, and white fluid
slapped across my face.  Digestive fluid?

I tried to kick the
tentacles off of me, but I had no space to get leverage.  And
when I saw the gaping, yawning black mouth – filled with thousands
of rows of razor-sharp teeth – I lost the will to fight
entirely.

A purple tongue thrashed in
its mouth, stretching for me like its hundreds of other
tentacles.  Now that it had me on the beach, it was receding
back into the water, and my legs were pulled into the ocean
first.  The water was freezing in contrast to the hot
tentacles.

I was about to be
eaten.  It seemed appropriate, in a way.

Please, God… make it
quick
.

“
Get your slimy suckers
off of her!”

I knew that
voice.

Twisting in the monster’s
grip, I saw what looked like a giant bird come swooping off the
cliff.  But it wasn’t an eagle—it was a man with broad wings,
inky black like a raven’s.  His body was lean and
muscular.  I vaguely remembered that body pressing against
me.

Octavius
?

His battle cry as he
plummeted toward the beast was a vicious song, brutal and
piercing.  He wielded a mighty blade as long as he was tall,
and as he turned and dove, he slashed at one of the tentacles with
it.

The tentacle tore from its
body, splattering to the beach with gushing white fluid.  The
appendage wrapped around my chest went slack.

He flapped hard, gaining
altitude, and then came back down with a dark scream of
glory.

Another slash.  A
spurt.

The beast shrieked and
wailed, thrashing in the water.  Huge waves swept up on the
beach, engulfing me in water.  I came up sputtering, salt
water streaming from my nose and mouth—but the tentacle was
gone.

“
Die!” Octavius howled,
and then he plunged into the writhing mass of tentacles… and
disappeared.

“
Octavius!” I cried,
struggling to stand in the surf.

The monster began thrashing
even harder, sending the water rising into the air in thick
plumes.

And then it
exploded.

I shielded my head,
dropping to my knees as black pieces of the tentacles rained around
me.  Thick white discharge, like whipping cream, splattered on
the sand and onto me.

With a final groan, the
monster sank into the water, and the ocean swallowed it
whole.

I stared, my hands
trembling.  “Octavius?” I whispered to the sky, but there was
no sign of him.

Had he died saving
me?

The waves swept up on the
beach around me, and I began to cry.  I was so cold in my
night gown, out on the lonely beach, and the one man I knew I loved
– for all that our relationship was confusing, the feeling in my
heart had to be love – might have just died.

Another wave crashed around
me, and a form washed onto the beach not ten feet away.

I scrambled to it on my
knees, and found Octavius curled into a ball, his wings wrapped
around him like a protective shell.
Wings
.  I was
stunningly unsurprised.  They fit his perfection.

Rolling him over gently,
making sure to stretch his wings out so they wouldn’t crumple under
him, I smoothed his black hair off his forehead.  His face was
slack as though he was asleep.  Maybe I should do CPR. 
Did I know how to do CPR?  Well, I had seen a lot of
movies.

I bent down, touching my
lips to his.

He moved, his hands coming
up to grip my arms.  I opened my eyes, startled, but his lips
were so soft and gentle.  He was kissing me.

He’s alive!

The thought was such a
relief that I kissed him back, tangling my hands in his hair. 
Octavius pulled my over his body, rolling so that he was atop me,
and I continued to kiss him eagerly, like the first breath of air
after suffocating for too long.

When he pulled back, I
gazed up at him, breathless.  His wings sheltered us from the
rain, leaving us in a dark, private cubby on the beach.  I was
still soaking wet, with both salt water and the monster’s fluids,
but I couldn’t have been happier.

“
Thank you,” I breathed,
and he winked at me.

So
in
love.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

My dad was standing in the
front door when Octavius and I walked up.  He had his arms
crossed and a glare on his face.

“
He
saved
me,” I
spat before he could say anything.  “And I wouldn't have been
in danger in the first place if someone hadn't been climbing on the
roof.”

That didn't soften his
expression in the slightest.  “I won't kick him off the
property.”

“
Good.”  I shifted
Octavius's arm on my shoulders.  I wasn't sure if I was
supporting him, or if he was supporting me.  It was probably
both.