Page 63 of Glass Wings
“She’s incredible,” Amis answered simply. “I have never come across such balance in the blood. I think you have found the one we have been waiting for. We have finally found the Kinnari’s missing blood daughter. I don’t sense magic or power, but her body, her womb, is exactly what you’ve hoped for, what you predicted.”
“Good,” Sheng said, nodding casually. “Bring in the priest.”
Hadley watched Amis motion towards Saul, who nodded and left the room. A moment later, he returned with an elderly man dressed in white robes. A gold cross on a long chain hung from his neck. He carried a Bible and shuffled his feet on the carpet as he moved into the circle of black hooded cloaks.
“Help me, Father,” Hadley blurted out, her hands covering herself to the best of her ability while her arms were still held tightly to prevent her escape. “Please, show me kindness.”
The priest looked down at his feet, avoiding the nudity that was presented before him. He opened the Bible, read through passages, and frowned before flipping through more pages. He gave up, closed the book, and sighed.
“Ready?” He motioned to Sheng, keeping his eyes locked on the floor.
“Please proceed.” Sheng took Hadley’s hands in his as they formally faced each other. He gazed into her tear-filled eyes, at firstseeming concerned until the right corner of his mouth lifted, and he took in the view of her body before him.
“I know, I know that in my line of work, there is a level of weirdness expected,” Hadley sobbed, “but please, Sheng, let me go home. I’m scared. I’m sorry. I won’t say anything to anyone. I will forget your name, your face, and your friends here. I promise.”
“I need a different kind of promise from you,” Sheng murmured. “Please proceed, Father.”
The priest took in a large inhale and projected his voice. “In this ominous assembly, we witness a union not born of love but entangled in the coils of compulsion. The bride, her destiny foretold by whispers of dark omens.
In this unhallowed space, marriage is a macabre dance, vows extracted under shadows of secrecy. Today, we recognize the union of a demon and, quite literally, an angel.
Sheng, do you accept this woman, Hadley, as your lawful wife, as your personal property under the law of your creator?”
“I do,” Sheng said as Hadley stood there in horror upon hearing her true name on the priest’s lips. Sheng had known who she was all along. The entire room had. But how? And what did the priest mean by personal property? Surely, she would be given a chance to object. Marriage was not permanent. If anything, the soaring divorce rates made it seem more like a trend to jump on.
A plan had formed now as Hadley could imagine less of a guard around her if she was compliant. If she went through with this irrational and meaningless ceremony, then she would create an opportunity for herself to run out the front door. Hadley swallowed her pride, feeling more confident than moments ago when she was no more than a sobbing mess. She was pissed now, her grief quickly morphing into an insatiable hate.
How dare they do this to me?
“I now pronounce you married under the eye of the creator. You may now . . . kiss . . . your bride,” the priest continued before bowing his head down before them.
“I didn’t get to interject,” Hadley said, her plan on being compliant going right out the window. “I don’t accept. ”
Sheng pulled Hadley into him so fast that her neck snapped back. Her body had enveloped his as the entire room gazed upon them. Sheng waited for Hadley’s head to catch up to her body before making eye contact and grinning like a goofy schoolboy before his eyes glowed red.
Hadley couldn’t breathe. She stared into those eyes for as long as she could before Sheng opened his jaw. She watched it expand unnaturally as his beautiful white teeth grew long and pointed. With a ferocious speed, without any warning, Sheng plunged those teeth into Hadley’s left side, parallel to her belly button.
She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t move. Hadley just existed now. The pain slowly began to register once the shock wore off, while Sheng continued to hunch slightly below her, fangs inserted into her skin and audibly gulping.
Her body was being drained of blood, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. She looked up, finally able to move, and saw the circle of bodies that surrounded them. They had all sunk down to their knees, their heads bowed, giving Sheng his privacy.
Ten seconds had passed, and then she realized that, oddly, she felt relaxed. Though her mind still shouted at her to get out, her body was planted in its spot. She could fall asleep like she had taken some kind of drug that made her feel warm and comfortable. Maybe this was dying. Maybe she liked it.
Right as Hadley began to let her eyes flutter closed, Sheng ripped his teeth out of her and held her back upright as if they were dancers performing a dramatic dip. His red eyes met hers, blood dripping down his lips, his chin, his chest. He smiled at her with an expression she didn’t quite understand. He looked full-heartedly in love with her. The thought made her skin crawl, but her body . . . her body yearned to be pressed closer to his.
“Do you feel it yet?” Sheng whispered to her, only her, ignoring the rest of the room. “Do you yearn for me?”
“I . . . don’t know,” Hadley whimpered.
She felt it.
Her joints, her muscles, and her heart throbbed for him. She needed him to touch her, to throb inside of her. She needed his arms wrapped around her tighter, so tight that she should struggle to breathe.
If her body was connected to him, her brain was not. She looked at Sheng, and a war of conflict raged through her, wanting to both worship him and kill him at the same time.
“What . . . what did you do to me?” was all she could say. His smile faltered, but when he went to bite his lips, Hadley instinctually bit hers as well. That made his muscles tense against her. He was pleased.
“My kind doesn’t often leave anyone alive. You might be the first. The chemicals I released into your blood bind us together. I suppose that makes me your master of sorts.”
