Can't Fight Time Ch. 11

"What is it?" she asked quietly, barely above a whisper.

"The beginning." The words seemed to slip out before Uri could help himself. Nina watched his eyes harden and his lips pull into a thin straight line, before his expression shuttered and went back to its usual facade of urbane indifference.

The mood shifted suddenly and left a feeling of dread in the pit of Nina's stomach.. Surprises had become normal, a consequence of living in the Underworld. Still, Uri's look didn't exactly leave her with the usual amount of curiosity mixed with shaky anticipation. He didn't look happy, relaxed, or anything like his usual carefree self. And, if that hadn't warned her that something was definitely amiss and that the proverbial the shit was about to hit the fan, Tylend stepping out from the shadows to cut off their path sure did.

The guard bowed formally in that weird way of his. "Your Highness, Ms. Nina."

Nina felt Uri's power flick over her consciousness before he reigned it in. "Tylend."

Tension pulled the air around them taunt, but Nina snapped it immediately with a soft, breezy laugh. "Come on, Len. I told you to just call me Nina. And you don't need to be so formal."

Tylend turned his pale green eyes on her and Nina had to bite back the comment on her lips. The guard really did look like a vampire. Extraordinarily pale skin, shaved head, and eyes that just screamed: "I vant your blood." A chuckle tried to escape her lips but she stuffed it back. Tylend was more or less her shadow, a guard assigned to her by Grim that was their when either Uri or Grim were unavailable. It had become a pastime of Nina's to try and make the ridge reaper smile.

"Of course, ma'am," he responded easily. "You can explain why I should address you so informally in his majesty's sitting room."

Want me gone, huh?As if him blocking her path with his large body wasn't answer enough to that question.

"Nah, I think I'll just head wherever Uri's going." Nina put the brightness of the sun behind her smile. "But thanks, Tylend. I'll take you up on that offer another time."

Uri covered a laugh with a cough beside her, but the guard in front of them never even twitched a muscle. "I must insist... Nina."

Wow, but be really bad if he dropped the miss.

"It'll be fine, Tylend," Uri interjected smoothly, resting a hand on the guard's shoulder. "This day was bound to come."

Tylend eyed the hand like he wanted to cut it off. Uri must have seen that look too, because he removed his appendage immediately. Than Uri turned to Nina and smiled slowly, reassuringly. "Everything's fine, Nina. Isn't that right, Tylend?"

'Fine' in Nina's life was relative to time and place: anywhere her father wasn't trying to kill her was a fine place. Uri's words of reassurance did the exact opposite, and for once in her life, Nina wished she had a weapon, or power. She was a pacifist by nature, by nature wasn't helping save her butt, Grim Reapers were. And those reapers had wicked looking scythes and the power to choke a person with a simple thought.

Tylend hesitated but then stepped aside. "Yes, Highness. Everything is fine."

That, more than anything, freaked Nina out bad. Right then, she would have traded her first born child for a suit of armor and a sword. But, with a brief nod to Tylend, Nina and Uri continued their walk until they came to stand in front of two thick doors with the Bloodspurn insignia carved on the handles.

Her palms were sweaty, and Nina was pretty sure her middle name had just been changed to 'fraidy cat. The only thing that made her feel marginally better was the power coming from behind the doors. She could recognize at least one of the power signatures sliding against her like gentle but firm currents. Grim.

Ever since their first time together, Nina had been able to feel his power. It was like Grim had placed a lojack in her body that went off whenever he was near. She could feel him: under her skin, in her body, he was always there. It was both a comforting and terrifying thought, but one she didn't usually dwell on too long.

Time was still not on her side, and as much as Nina enjoyed her day out with Uri, she'd still rather be with Grim. As much as Nina hated to admit it, she craved Grim; craved him as a mouse craved cheese or a lion craved meat. And that thought alone was enough to convince her to face whatever was on the other side of that door head on.

Nina forced a cocky grin as she summoned up her courage and reached for the handle. "You alright over there, Uri?"

"I'm doing just fine, Nina." Uri's voice didn't hold the usual sauciness that he seemed to have in spades. In fact, he sounded a bit guarded, maybe angry.

She twisted the knob and gave him a weary smile. "Sure you are." Taking a deep breath, Nina opened the door. "Don't worry, Uri, I'll protect you."

Uri's strained chuckle helped ease some of the tension gripping Nina, but not by much. "I'll hold you to that."

Throwing the door wide, Nina entered first, and took a quick glance around. Luxury didn't begin to describe the place. Everything seemed to be custom made, from the drapes to the marble floor to the gruesome paintings lining the walls. The entire room was straight out of a warlord's castle, with hints of a sophisticated monarchy just hidden underneath. It was barbarism for the 21st Century.

"Uriel!" A voice that sounded like that weird bone whistle snapped loudly, and forced Nina's attention to the four people on the other side of the room. Two were sitting on what looked like stone thrones, surrounded by twinkling glass. Nina didn't really have a chance to look at them, before all four were suddenly in her face, and she was partly behind Uri.

Crap, they move fast! Again, Nina wished humans had some sort of supernatural power. It would have helped her blend in with the reapers crowding her space.

Two looked human, and two didn't. It was still strange for Nina to see a reaper that looked like a human one minute shift into skull and bones in the very next. Grim spared her the gruesome transformation, but she'd seen it in the town a couple times. It was like the skin, well, melted from their bones, sort of like wax figurines that had been put in a microwave. The transformation to a human wasn't much better, their muscle, tissue, and skin seeming to knit over their bones. Both processes took less than a few seconds, but for Nina some seconds felt longer than others.

Turning to the reapers around her, she at least recognized two. The hissing black cloak Nina assumed was the Queen, Grim's mother, and the slightly chilled finger-bones that rubbing against her arm was probably Grim. The other two were a man who looked to be in his late thirties with the lithe body of a swimmer, and a child who looked like a gothic version of Shirley Temple complete with jet-black ringlets, a too-short dark purple dress, and one obnoxiously bright smile.

"Hello, Father, Mother." Uri had been in front of her in an almost protective stance, but moved to Nina's side. For some reason the air in the room was filled to the brim with tension, and Nina was pretty sure her presence had only made it worse.

The thirty-something year old man clapped his hands excitedly, and Nina turned to him, both put off and intrigued by his strange behavior. The situation was laden with tension, the emotions so thick in the room a person could probably swim in them. Yet the man looked unaffected, almost carefree.

Nina turned to Grim, about to ask who the wacko was, when the man suddenly spoke, his words almost lyrical. "See you soon, my son, but now I must run. Because this time is no fun. It's the future. It's the past. Spinning, spinning, crash."

Nina cocked her hand and watched the man's head rotate around, his eyes lit up. He looked like he was on some kind of demented rollercoaster ride, and it creeped her out.

But just as quickly as the craziness started, it stopped, and the man looked right at Nina. It was like he saw inside of her, found all her darkest secrets, ones she knew and ones that she didn't. Never had someone looked at her like that—even Uri and Grim, with their weirdly intense gazes, didn't look at her the way this man was looking. It didn't exactly creep Nina out, but it didn't make her want to strike up a friendship with the guy either.

Flourishing a bow, which looked oddly like it was directed at Nina, the man turned and practically skipped out the door. For a moment, the entire group stared after him, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"Who was that?" Nina whispered, blowing out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

The tension in the room seemed to skyrocket until Nina could almost feel the pressure pushing at her chest. It was suffocating, and all she'd done was ask a simple question.

"My husband." The words were angry, clipped.

Nina turned to the black cloak and shining bones that she knew to be Grim's mother. Her cloak shook as the queen seemed to bristle with indignation, then she raised her hand and a wicked looking scythe shot across the room into her waiting grasp. Nina flinched back at the easy display of power, the elemental grace Grim's mother used when dealing with a weapon that was taller—and in her current form—probably heavier than she was. Nina could only imagine how easy it would be for the queen to let the blade slip from the her hand and cut Nina's throat.

Reflexively, Nina swallowed and touched her neck, making sure her head was still on her body. If skeletons could smile, the queen definitely would have. But the woman just swept her cloak in a wide circle and exited the room without a backwards glance.

Man, Grim's family is weird, Nina thought a second later before she realized how ironic the statement was. Grim was a reaper prince, about to be king, with a reaper princess as his fiancée and a human as his mistress. She mentally snorted. Given everything, I still think I take the weird and crazy trophy.

Uri spoke first, relieving the awkward tension that had descended after Grim's parent's abrupt departures. "Our father suffers from, uh, old age. Living too long has caused him to lose his mind. And mother... She's always been like that." The gothic Shirley Temple lookalike murmured in understanding.

Nina sort of understood what Uri meant. His mother was, well, his mother. And Grim had lived through the Roman and Hittite empires, so she could only imagine how old his father was.

"Well!" The girl standing next to Uri clapped her hands excitedly, her crimson lips turning up in the fakest smile Nina had ever seen.

Apprehension raced down Nina's back and infused her blood. Instinctively, she took a step closer to Grim, simultaneously relying on his strength and staking her claim. In that moment, she totally understood territorial animals.

It was irrational that Nina would have such mistrust, anger, and ever loathing for a girl that she'd never met before. It was even stranger that she felt so protective of Grim; no doubt her reaper beau could protect the both of them a million times over before Nina even saved him once.

Still, there was just something about the girl in front of her that rubbed Nina the wrong way. Thinking on it, she decided it might be that mysterious sixth sense people had, the one that told them something was wrong before their brain could process it.

Whatever it was, it was ringing warning bells in Nina's brain that she'd be an idiot to ignore.

"Felicia Anvi'ras Castoff, Princess to the Castoff Kingdom, and fiancée to the Heir Apparent of the Bloodspurn Kingdom. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, human," the gothic girl introduced herself with a curtsey that looked cute and deadly all at once.

Nina's lips twitched as she mimicked the motion, her tone was just as uppity and obnoxious as the girl's across from her. "Nina Marie Strathmore, full time college student, coffee-holic, and driver of the struggle bus. And the pleasure is all mine, reaper."

So this is Grim's fiancée? She raked the child in front of her with an assessing look. Her waist was maybe as wide as Nina's hand, and the girl was only a few inches shorter than her. Most of her height was just smooth legs encased in shimmery black nylons. Felicia's make-up was also done to a tee; while not overly dramatic, it made her cerulean eyes sparkle, her snow-white skin shimmer, her cheeks flush a delicate peach, and her lips glossy and kissable.

Biting her bottom lip, Nina tried not to look down at herself and critically examine her body and choice of wardrobe. She'd never been upset that she was a few pounds heavier, or that her skin was dark with slight imperfections. That was what being human meant, anyway. Not Felicia's airbrushed perfection, but hair that wasn't always manageable and an occasional zit or two.

Felicia's smile dimmed a bit, but did nothing to diminish her beauty. "It is strange how you clutch onto my fiancee; are you not Prince Uriel's pet?"

"I am no one's pet."

The princess laughed softly, the sound more delicate than falling snow. "Yes, you are. " Her eyes widened in naive curiosity. "That is, at least, what everyone calls you."

"Oh?" Nina's voice was saccharine sweet as she tapped her chin and smiled wide. " Then you must be a pedophile's wet dream. From your outfit, I can only assume that's what everyone calls you."

If steam could have shot out of the princess's ears, it would have. But then reapers didn't have steam—they had power. Felicia's power exploded from every pore in her body and began to fill the room. Nina felt it aimed at her, as if the power was going to take her and drown her. But Felicia's power was different from anything else she'd felt, because while it felt dense and very nearly tangible, it held the taint of something else, something dark. Though that could've just been Nina's overactive imagination coupled with paranoia telling her that.

A part of Nina, that she'd thought she'd buried, slowly began to leak to the surface of her consciousness. One that, at ten years old, she'd shoved deep and banished. It was the part that had taken over and beaten a girl within an inch of her life; the other girl had had to recuperate in a hospital for nearly three months with internal bleeding, several broken bones, and a serious concussion. It had been a bad time in her childhood, when she'd been extremely violent, uncontrollable, and had nearly been sent to a juvenile detention. Fun times. Fun times.

"Beautiful and lovely princess, are you really going to fight with a human?" Uri interjected, smoothly stepping in front of Nina as Grim pulled her back and into his arms.

Felicia's power slowly dissipated from the room, and the red haze of violence once again buried itself deep inside of Nina. Never had she felt such bloodlust and rage against another person. It had felt so encompassing, like she could do anything and be anyone. Her rage had felt right and good, and Nina realized that that was its purpose. It felt good to be angry, to feel the endorphins and testosterone flooding her system. Otherwise, why would there be so much violence in the world? It was fun, it was dangerous, and most importantly, it was power.

Laughter greeted Uri's words, as the princess sighed softly. "Of course you are right, Your Highness." Felicia plucked at a curl and delicately scratched at her collar. "I cannot believe I was almost sucked into its irrational behavior."

Anger arched through Nina with the "it" comment. It was only Grim's cool hand at her waist that kept her from launching herself at Felicia and ripping the girl in half.

In the back of her mind, Nina realized that Felicia was trying to antagonize her, goad her into doing or saying something she'd regret. A part of her realized that, and Nina thanked her lucky stars that that part of her had enough common sense to keep her silent and still.

Calmly drawing in a breath, Nina turned and looked at Grim, momentarily forgetting that he was in the cloak and bones get up. She was so used to Grim that no matter what form he took, she still felt safe with him. He was her rock, her anchor.

"I want to leave, Grim."

Starting something with the princess of a neighboring kingdom whom Grim was going to marry would be many things, not appropriate being one of them. And even if Grim might consider her his ex-fiancée, it was quite obvious that the princess didn't consider their business finished until a ring was on her finger with a marriage certificate in her hand.

"Give me a second, Amica," Grim's voice was once again that whistling bone sound, but it didn't bother Nina nearly as much as it had before. "Felicia."

Felicia turned to him and clasped her hands to her breasts, giving him a wide smile. "Yes, my future king."

"You seem to have forgotten the conversation from a few moments ago." Grim's voice was deadly calm. "I will not marry you. I am no longer your fiancée."

The girl's smile turned into a moue. "I thought you were joking, Grim. You cannot break off our engagement only weeks before the date. I have plans."

"I will compensate your kingdom, but my decision is final." Ice would have taken notes from Grim's tone. "Uriel will escort you to your room. Stay as long as you like, but understand that you are a guest—nothing more."

Felicia seemed oddly unfazed by the statement. She just smiled and flipped her hair back, fingers scratching against the high collar of her dress. "I will stay for as long as I must, Grim."

Nina didn't get to hear any more as Grim wrapped her in his cloak and pulled her into the shelter of his body, er, bones. She felt the smoothness of his ribs under her fingertips seconds before they were flying from the room.

The feeling of resting against Grim's bones should have frightened Nina and freaked her out worse than any horror film, but it didn't. Nothing about Grim scared her anymore, but she hadn't exactly been frightened at the beginning either. Nina felt was an overwhelming feeling of trust, security, and maybe something else, something almost... peaceful.

Closing her eyes as the world rushed by around them, Nina tried to think of something else. Affection was good and well, but anything deeper could destroy her. Humanity was the crutch that reapers saw, but that she appreciated. From what Nina had seen of the Underworld, eternity was plenty of time to either turn completely nuts, or into a complete jackass.

Nina could only count five reapers who didn't fit that category, and she'd had interactions with over a hundred reapers to date. Even though human lives were short, and perhaps wasted on a few, they were still crammed full of, well, life. It was because humans knew that, at any given point, they could die. Reapers didn't have that same sense of urgency, because they were... infinite.

"What are you thinking about, Amica?" Grim whispered low into her ear, and strangely enough it sounded erotic.

How could ivory bones and a black cloak look hot as hell? Nina wondered as she mentally shook her head and chastised herself. Somehow Grim pulled everything off, while Nina was just rocking the flesh suit. Not that he'd complained, but still, it made more sense for him to be with Felicia.

Even as Nina wanted to stab her brain for even thinking about that gothic Lolita bitch, she knew it had to be done. Time was running out, and in a few weeks she'd be facing Grim's wedding, her death, and an eternity of whatever was on the other side.

As much as she hated to admit it, letting Grim marry Felicia would be for the best. She didn't doubt for a second that it was an arranged marriage for some kind of political power. She might have been brainwashed with princes and happily-ever-afters when she was a kid, but as a jaded college student Nina knew better. People didn't really marry for love, they married for security and companionship. She didn't think reapers were much different.