“I can’t do this,” my brother hissed, lingering in the dining room archway.
Kelly looked at him in sympathy, but right now, that was a luxury we couldn’t afford.
“Get your ass in there, smile, eat something, and then make your excuses,” I ordered him. “We always knew this day would come and now that it has, we can’t take it back.”
He looked at me with panicked eyes. “How can you say that?”
I grabbed his arm, jerking him backwards, praying the hubbub of our guests’ excited chatter at the unexpected turn of events would prevent them from overhearing us.
“Tell me!” he pleaded. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way! We had another hundred years!”
“It wasn’t, no, but we have to believe it has for a reason, one we’ll be made privy to once we are officially crowned. You know Our Scions wouldn’t do this without permission, or being directed to. We have to hold onto that, put it in a box, and lock it up to deal with later. Right now we have a meal to get through and cases to solve.”
His eyes darted to Kelly, who held up both hands in surrender. “Hey, inside, I’m freaking out as bad as you are, but he’s right. Done is done and all we can do is move forward. Right now, that means eating the food your dads provided for this supper, thanking our guests, expressing our own surprise, deflecting them from the topic by talking about little things like where we got our clothes, how delicious the food is, all that. Then tomorrow, get back onto our cases once we get that report on the city back and decide where to go from there. Hopefully we’ll have good news from forensics too, something physical to help tie all this together.”
Miljack licked his lips, his tongue lingering on his top left fangs, worrying it in the same way he always had since he was a child when something bothered him. He closed his eyes, then nodded.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll eat just a little and then say I promised to take your munts back to the stables because you didn’t want your finery to smell of beast. You’ll have to walk or take a flitter to wherever you're going.”
“That’s actually a good idea,” I agreed.
“Okay then, let’s eat. I’m a stress eater and we slept in past first meal,” Kelly said.
“Oh, there’s plenty in there to fill your belly.”
Returning to the dining room, we took our places of honor, a chair hastily provided for Miljack as well. Somehow we got through it, Kelly emptying three plates of food before Miljack decided he’d had enough. He made his excuses and we followed suit, with cheerful teasing from friends about consummating our Bonding. We all managed to make our escape without our families managing to stop us and ask questions, of which I knew there had to be many. We had nothing more we could say, though. We had been as unprepared for the events that unfolded as they were. The Hand was there still, anyway. Let him field their questions. It was my Bonding day and I was not going to let anyone or anything ruin it.
“How far is it?” Kelly asked me as I led him down the drive, away from the house.
“Far enough that I’ll comm us a flitter,” I told him. “It would take us quite a while to walk and I want us rested enough to be able to enjoy ourselves once we arrive.”
“Sounds good. That was some crazy shit back there.”
“Can we just put it aside, like I told Miljack?” I begged.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “You’re right. Okay, locking it in the box. We’ve got ten days before we have to deal with it anyway.” Kelly reached up into the air, pretending to pluck something out of it, then placed it in the middle of his palm. Then he mimed closing a lid and locking it with a key, before tossing it over his shoulder. I laughed at his silliness.
“There’s it’s gone for now.” He leaned in and pecked me on the lips. “Come on, we got an Experience to have. Then when we get done, I want to make love to you. I was so fucking hard for you up there, I was afraid the whole world would see what kind of horndog I’ve become.”
I gave him another kiss. “I was hard enough to pulverize stone myself, scenting both your blood and arousal.”
“Don’t say that,” he groaned. “I’m getting hard again. Let’s get going. Soonest away from here, the fastest we get to have fun, just the two of us.”
“We could skip the Experience and return to our rooms.”
“Nope,” he replied sternly. “I was promised a date and I won’t be a cheap date. You fed me dinner, now I want at least a vid.”
I laughed again. He really did have a keen sense of humor.
“Okay. Just let me call a flitter,” I said as we reached the end of the drive and stood along the main road. Like everything else so far, it didn’t take long to arrive and whisk us away.