Page 14 of Marked by the Demigod

"He magically married you and now knows wherever you'll be, wherever you go, and whatever you'll do." She says as if she was discussing the weather. "Your life will be longer, it'll be harder for someone to kill you, and it'll be impossible to kill him unless you die first. Anyone even remotely involved with the community can tell someone marked you. But," she stops, looking into Aimes' eyes and facing her. "What he did was very morally ambiguous, and if you tell people what it was you will face heavy scorn."

Aimes blinks, her heart skipping a beat, like a band where the drummer trips and falls.

"Married?"

Katya shrugs, then gestures to a bench. "Sit, it'll be better." When Aimes hesitates, she gestures more emphatically. "Seriously."

Aimes sits, her legs feeling numb, the tops of her thighs shaking against her jeans. Katya sits next to her, despite the fact that her suit will show dust fast. Aimes can't tell the last time someone cleaned the benches in the library.

"Yes, married. It's...it's a relatively obscure ritual that some creatures can do to ensure their loved one does not die easily."

"I just met him at a bar. It wasn't even a nice bar." Aimes says, mouth dry. "I was just looking to hook up with a guy, not..."

"That's the unethical part," Katya says, "When this happens, which is very rare, it's usually after many years of knowing each other, and a lasting relationship. Even then," her lips twist, "even then, most people view it as cowardly. Against the natural order of things."

"So what can I do about it?" Aimes asks, looking at the dusty concrete so she doesn't have to look at the dying garden anymore. "I'm just...I'm tech support for library systems, I'm not anyone's deep and lasting relationship."

Katya lays a hand on her shoulder, and even her fingernails are perfect, with a deep blood red polish. "You are now."

* * *

Katya takesher to an office that was exactly like every government office that Aimes has ever been to, and Aimes has been to a lot.

Aimes reels around, feeling like everything is slightly off-kilter, the world being a smidge too ridiculous.

At the office, a cute little secretary smiles and makes dimples at Aimes as Katya leads her past. The secretary’s hair seems a smidge too perfect, and it crawls up Aimes arms and skin and--

Katya closes a door behind them with a click. "She's a succubus. No, she won't have sex with you. Yes, she very much so wants to." Katya sits behind a desk, leaving Aimes the folding chair on the other side.

Katya starts to type, leaving Aimes to stare.

"I'm pulling up a directory of possible people, so we can get in contact with them." Her fingers hesitate over the keyboard. "Dave said you didn't have a name, do you have a phone number?"

Aimes shakes her head, miserable. "I gave him mine. He said his name was Jake."

"That's probably false. Hair color?"

"Black. Or dark brown, it was dim lights."

"Or he could be a shapeshifter," Katya adds with a tight grin. Because of course shapeshifters exist.

"Then why --"

"It could weed people out. Skin color, eye color, height?"

Aimes hugs the cardigan to herself even more against the chill of the air conditioning. "White, gray I think, and tall?"

"Any accent?"

Aimes shakes her head. "I mean, we were in Kansas City, but he said he was passing through."

“Great." Katya stretches out the word to three syllables. "Any defining physical characteristics?"

"He was thin?" Aimes shrugs.

"I meant tattoos or scars." The room was bare, and Aimes desperately wishes that it was decorated, something, so she could stare at anything else. "Not that I saw."

"And you saw a lot of him, too." Her lipsticked lips twitch.

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