Page 119 of Love Bleeds
Chapter Forty-One
It took a few days of rest for Luke to fully recover from their little adventure down in the basement of the law firm. Aside from their visit with Silas, he and Crimson spent that time mostly confined to Luke's room, cuddling up in his bed together or watching movies on his laptop, if only to take their minds off everything else that was going on.
WAFFER wanted to talk to Luke, to get a statement, but Luke's family was good at blocking them off. At the moment, it was a bit of a catch-22 situation. If Luke were a witch, he would be tried for his breach of the Paranormal Peace Treaty, but since dhampir-descendants weren't recognized as paranormals yet, he remained outside of the high court's jurisdiction. If he was retroactively assigned witch-status, though, the coven could also be held liable for 'hostile actions' against other paranormals.
Thinking about it all too much made Crimson's head buzz. You would have thought that supernatural creatures would come up with a more efficient political system to govern them, but apparently not. It was still all bureaucracy and red tape. Nothing much magical about that.
"I'd like to go out," Luke said, a couple of days after everything had gone down, when they were just done watching a rerun of the originalStargatemovie. He was leaning against the headboard of the bed, his head resting on Crimson's shoulder, his laptop sitting on top of the covers between them.
"Are you sure about that?"
"I feel fine. There's just something I gotta do."
"What's that?"
"Do you remember that Lego Millennium Falcon that we built together?"
Crimson took a second to search his mind. While his memories were all there, he still sometimes had to think to access them. It was a little like finding your way around a new filing system that someone else had set up without leaving instructions. The Lego project Luke was talking about came back to him in flashes of images when he found the right folder. Luke and him, the day after Christmas, sitting on the floor in his room with Lego pieces all around them. "I remember."
"I, um... I threw it out the window. But I think, maybe, if it's not all broken..."
"You want to put it back together?"
"If it's not too damaged." Luke stared at his wrist, obviously looking for the wristband he used to toy with when he was nervous, but he wasn't wearing one anymore. There was little point now that he was an enemy of the state. The vampire-state, anyway. Pictures of him had likely spread already.
"It's not safe to go outside," Crimson reminded Luke.
"What the alternative?" Luke asked. "We can't spend our whole lives cooped up inside, even if we're nerds." His gaze drifted to the window, even though it was dark outside and there wasn't much for him to see. "We'll be careful. I can protect us, and there's that whole political thing that has the other covens scrambling right now."
There was that.
One good thing that had come out of the whole catch-22 situation. The system had been forced into action--at least, to a certain degree. For now, everyone was advised not to harm dhampirs and their descendants as long as their status was 'pending investigation.' Not everyone might abide by those rules, but they had to fear retribution if they didn't. Most paranormals did not want to return to the times of inter-species wars.
They'd asked Puck how long he thought the 'investigation' was going to take, but the witch had just shrugged and said that politics weren't his field of expertise, but to consider how long it took humans to work through issues like this even though their lives were much shorter.
"I doubt politics are going to protect us," Luke said. "At least not from the people who are mad we blew up their friends, but it's a start."
"In the long run, we'll have to figure out something else."
Luke nodded. "We can't count on the witches or anyone. I think the rest of my family is starting to see that too. We have to take this into our own hands." Even as he said that, though, he didn't sound at all upset. More like he'd made a decision he knew he was going to follow through on. Before Crimson could comment, he swung his legs out of bed and got up. "C'mon. We've stayed in for long enough."
Crimson followed, if only because there wasno wayhe was going to let Luke go off on his own. Something about his hesitation must have registered with Luke, though, because he stopped in the door to turn back and give him a smile. "You were going to travel the stars. Don't tell me you're afraid to travel your own city now."
He looked so confident as he stood there, waiting for Crimson to cast his own fears aside. Crimson had rarely ever seen him like that, not even in his recovered memories. The Luke he used to know had always seemed a little bit awkward, as if his own body was a size too tall for him and he wasn't sure how to handle it. He'd been adorable like that, no doubt about it, but seeing him like this? Finally comfortable in his own skin? Crimson liked that sight even better.
"I'll go anywhere with you," he said.
Luke grinned and offered his hand to him. Crimson took it.
* * *
They found the pieces of the Millennium Falcon scattered across the backyard of Luke's childhood home. "I can't believe you threw it out of the window," Crimson commented, cradling a miniature satellite dish in his hands. Slowly the memories of how much effort had gone into putting this thing together in the first place were coming back to him.
"I was taking out my anger on it." Luke paced the yard, searching for pieces of Lego carried away by the wind or critters. The middle part of the spaceship had survived the impact mostly intact. The nose had broken off though, as well as parts of the cannons and most peripheral pieces. Everything they found they gathered in a box. Crimson put the satellite dish back and examined some of the other pieces for dents and scratches.
"I saw this when I was here with Vlad," he said. "The Lego looked familiar but I couldn't place it."
Luke's gaze cut to him. "That's all over now," he said before wrapping up his search and coming back to him. "We should take it up to my room and see what we got."
