Hurricane (The Charmed) (9 page)

“Lyla, will you give me your left hand?”

She held out her hand, Mr. M put a large slice in the palm of it. Chase held out his right, Mr. M did the same to Chase. He spoke a few binding words and tied their hands together with a blessed white scarf.

“Turn to each other please.” Mr. M motioned for them to face each other. “Lyla, do you take Chase as a life-mate forever?”

Lyla looked into Chase’s eyes, he smiled. “I will.”

“Chase, do you take Lyla as a life-mate forever?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation or doubt from Chase.

“By the power of the high and mother earth, I send out into the world a blessing for these two may they be forever in harmony. Jaden, the rings.”

Jaden brought forth a set of intricately woven rings not unlike the markings on Chase and Lyla’s arms.

“These rings have been forged for you specifically, when you place them on each other’s finger, they will absorb into your skin and be a permanent mark of your love.”

Chase looked confused. “How did you know, Mr. M?”

“I prepared for this just in case. Like I told Lyla, it’s not an accident you’re here. The minute I knew about Lyla, I had the rings made. Lyla, pick Chase’s ring up, please.”

She picked the bigger of the two rings up. “Repeat after me. I, Lyla Bleu, take Chase as my spiritual partner and ask that the union be blessed.”

Lyla repeated the words and slipped the ring onto Chase’s left ring finger.

Chase repeated the steps but put the ring on the right hand, a Charmed tradition. Chase picked her hand up and kissed it. Lyla smiled back at him.

“You may kiss your bride, Chase.”

Chase leaned down and enveloped Lyla in his arms, their bound hands held between their bodies. Mr. M and Jaden made quick haste collecting the tools. Mr. M came over to the two and untied them, collecting the scarf. He looked at his watch. “Okay, now it’s the hard part, believe it or not. We are going to leave you two here today. You only have half an hour to consummate the marriage I undid the spell you received at birth.” They both looked at him shocked. “Some can do it. I started looking into the mechanics of it a few years ago. I’ll call you tonight and let you know how I handled both your parents. You’re not to leave here until I come get you, you understand? Order food in, but don’t set one foot past the room.”

“What will happen?” Chase wondered.

“The spell will break. I’ll be back, about seven a.m. tomorrow to undo it.”

They both left hurriedly leaving Lyla and Chase alone. An uncomfortable silence filled the air.

“Talk about pressure.” Lyla sat on the bed.

Chase walked to the window and looked out. “I can’t say I haven’t thought about doing this with you. I just didn’t think the timeframe of…” Chase looked at his watch. “Twenty-five minutes would be over our heads.” Chase ran a hand through his hair and looked at Lyla sitting on the bed. She looked nervous but they would have to get over it if they had any intention of living. Chase walked over to Lyla and pulled her up off the bed. He bent down and kissed her. Gentle at first but as the time clicked by the tension worked its way out of each of their bodies. The kiss deepened while Chase moved his hands up her back and fisted it in her hair. They were both so wrapped up in the moment that they fell onto the bed, pulling clothes off. Chase moved his mouth to her neck while Lyla tore his shirt off. Their clothes lay in a heap on the floor and the bed.

Once they got into it, neither was as scared as they thought they would be. Passion overtook the brain and in twenty four minutes, the marriage was consummated. The stress of the past twenty-four hours overtook them and they fell asleep wrapped up in each other’s arms.

Chase woke first. Lyla was curled up in his arms. He looked down at her beautiful face. Her skin smooth, her long lashes fanned out on her cheeks. Chase smoothed out her long blonde hair away from her face. He would never get tired of those pouty red lips of hers. He was so in love with her. He might not have married in high school but he definitely would have married her. As he watched her sleep he realized the danger they were in and cursed it. Why did their life have to be this way? Why couldn’t they have been normal? Would he have noticed her if she hadn’t been cloaking? The answer was yes, of course, how could you not notice her? Now he had to figure out how to protect her. The easy part was being with her, the hard part, predicting what would happen in the weeks and months to come. Chase thought about his parents who had no idea their son just about died. That he just slept with a girl they never met and he was now married. College applications seemed pretty simple after that.

Lyla’s eyes fluttered open. She looked up at Chase and blushed. Chase leaned down and kissed her long and deep. Lyla responded by wrapping her arms around him. This was definitely not the difficult part of the last twenty-four hours.

Two hours later they were ordering food from room service. Chase couldn’t stop touching Lyla; it was as if the connection was too important. Even sitting with her eating Chinese food overlooking the water at two in the afternoon, he wanted her. The feeling was as natural as breathing. What was odd was how quickly it had happened.

“What are you thinking about?” Lyla was balancing a noodle on a pair of chopsticks.

“You.” Chase stopped eating to stare at her progress.

Lyla set her chopsticks down and blushed over at Chase who clasped her hand in his. “I don’t know what’s going to happen once we get home. Whatever it is, it’s going to be hard.”

Lyla looked down, a shadow going over her face. “I know.”

“I want you to know how much I love you. Well, you can see right here.” He held his marked arm up and smiled. “But no matter what my parents say to you, no matter how evil some of my friends will talk and I’m specifically addressing a little redhead with a temper who doesn’t like change.”

“You mean Harley?”

“Yep, she’s going to be difficult in a bad way. None of that matters. They’ll all come around. We’ve been a circle for so long it’s good to shake it up.” He winked at Lyla and smiled. It was easy for her to smile back.

“How can you be so accepting of all this? It boggles my brain. I’ve never had a boyfriend or friends for that matter. I’ve never been in one place longer than three months and I’m having little bursts of wigging-out. But you….you make it seem easy.”

Chase was humbled. He had friends and family and stability and even a few past girlfriends, no matter how fleeting those relationships were. Here she was, finally in one place longer than a blink and she was married. He walked around the table, picked Lyla up off her chair and sat down on the bed with her draped across him.

“At the risk of being too mushy, you’re everything I ever hoped for. That’s why this is easy. My only fear is losing you.”

That was it, Lyla burst into tears. Chase cradled her in his arms. They sat like that for a while until Lyla calmed down. Chase reached over and grabbed her a tissue.

Lyla dabbed at her eyes and looked up at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cry. My parents don’t really have fun or do much except keep an eye on me. Since I couldn’t have friends and we moved so much I didn’t realize how alone I was until now.”

Chase’s mouth went up at one side. “I don’t think being alone is going to be your problem anymore.” He kissed her then, to erase the pain and start new.

Because they couldn’t leave the room they found themselves snuggled up together most of the day.

“Lyla, when did the marks start for you?”

“Shortly after I kissed you. What about you?”

“Same.” This piqued Chase’s interest. “Do you remember the exact time?”

Lyla thought for a moment. Chase had her wrapped in his arms on the couch opposite a television that was on but wasn’t turned up. “It was a small sting on my shoulder during our phone call, what, eight weeks ago?”

“Was it right after I told you I wanted to kiss you?”

The hair on the back of his neck stood up. Lyla turned to look at him. “Yes.”

Chase’s breathing became shallow. “Same for me.”

Lyla turned back around and stared at the television. “Chase, all this scares me. The whole marriage and stuff, that seems to be the easy part. The timing of the marks, the power you’ll get, people after us, our parents not knowing, it’s all scary.”

“Yeah, it’s a little unsettling for sure, but it’s our lot in life. This is what we get. We can either freak out or embrace it. I got the sweet end of the deal if you ask me.”

Lyla turned around and looked at Chase quizzically.

At the risk of being sentimental he said it. “I got you.”

Tears came to Lyla’s eyes.

Chase reached out and wiped a tear from her face. “Please don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it.” Lyla put her head down on Chase’s shoulder. Chase tightened his hold around her. They sat like that until darkness overcame the room.

A question had been nagging at the back of Lyla’s brain. “What will your parents think? Their son is married to someone they’ve never met.”

Chase laughed. “My parents are really uptight people. It doesn’t matter what they think, really. I might have upset Kayla’s family, though.”

Lyla sat up. “What about Kayla?” Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Chase would have an arranged marriage like they all did. “Kayla?”

“Yeah, I was secretly hoping Jaden would fess up to liking her so I wouldn’t have to go through with it.”

“But you didn’t look like you were dating.”

“Nope, we weren’t. I couldn’t bring myself to even try. She’s like a sister to me. I found the whole arrangement disturbing.”

Lyla relaxed. “When was it going to be?”

“Oh probably after college. They wouldn’t tell me.”

Lyla stood up and began pacing the room. She put a hand to her stomach. “Oh god, I’ve really upset a lot of plans here. Just me being here upset everything. Mr. M and Jaden having to get us out of town; my cloaking, your arranged marriage. Oh god Kayla, your parents, my parents.” Lyla’s voice was rising. She began to panic. She sat down and placed her head between her knees trying to catch her breath.

Chase knelt on the ground in front of her. He placed his hands on either side of her face. “Lyla my sweet, please, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can’t image a life without you. All you did by coming here is shake-up an order that wasn’t meant to be.” He kissed her before she could respond. He moved her onto the floor, lying on top of her. They stayed that way for a long time, until it lead to other things.

Seven in the morning came too quickly. Lyla and Chase were showered and ready. They didn’t sleep at all. If they weren’t talking they were making out or more. The newness of being married was thrilling and scary all at the same time. They had no idea what they were up against once they left the room.

A faint knock sounded at the door.

Chase looked through the eye hole and opened the door.

“You’re both still alive, good.” Mr. M and Jaden came into the room. They went straight to the table and lay out tools.

“Now for the difficult part. Chase, Lyla I’m going to tell you bluntly what we’re up against.”

Chase noticed how haggard the two looked. It appeared they didn’t sleep at all or if they did, it was in their clothes. Never mind the wild hair.

Mr. M leaned against the table arms and ankles crossed. Jaden sat on the couch, head in his hands.

“I thought I had read everything that had to do with Occlusion. Come to find out, I hadn’t.” He pulled out a stack of papers from a bag on the table. “You both need to read these. Today.”

Chase walked over and picked the stack up. It was two inches thick. “What’s wrong?”

“Nobody has ever survived a month.” There, it was said, Mr. M thought. “We saved you just to find out the power is too strong. According to the text there, every single last person went stark raving mad.”

“Dad.” Jaden looked up, dark circles under his eyes.

“Sorry.” That was all he could say. His son’s best friend, someone who was a brother to him was going to go crazy.

“If that does happen, what happens to Lyla?” Chase was still holding the stack of papers, not bothering to look at them.

“She’ll follow. No more than a month after. All men end up committing suicide.”

Chase stopped and turned toward Mr. M. “Men?”

“It’s strange all instances had the male giving power to the female. This is a first where the female, being Lyla, gave a male, being you, power. I’m hoping it gives us an edge, some different dent in the armor, so to speak.”

Chase sat down next to Lyla on the couch and began to read. When he was done with a page he handed it to her to read. They sat in silence for two hours while the words embedded themselves. Words like; imminent death, power, hunger, war, insanity, suicide were all over the pages. When Chase was done he handed the last paper to Lyla and stood up.

“The documents don’t mean anything.”

“Excuse me?” Mr. M turned from the deck.

“They don’t mean anything.” Chase repeated. “Everything I read was a different scenario than we are dealing with here. Plus, it’s not just the male, female thing we have different.” Chase gathered the papers from Lyla and placed them in Mr. M’s hands.

“What else?” Jaden looked up from the floor where he had been leaning his head against the table sleeping.

“In every instance recorded the marks started between two days and two weeks apart.”

Mr. M grabbed Chase’s arm. “What are you telling us?”

“Lyla and I had our marks start at the exact same moment. I bet our marks are different from the others as well.”

Mr. M put the papers down and scanned the pages. He brought a page up with the picture of the last two. Their marks were on the same arms, both left. Mr. M looked at Lyla and chase. “Lyla, stand please. Chase, go stand next to Lyla’s right side.”

Chase did as he was told.

Mr. M walked over. “Hold her hand, Chase.”

The minute Chase grasped Lyla’s hand their marks matched, where one mark stopped, the other began. They were two halves of one whole. Mr. M looked at all the pictures, drawn, painted and photographed. Every couple had the same arm, even if they stood in front to back, the lines didn’t match.